Kate Rinake

When I started working out with Corie, almost a year ago I had one goal: to get into a smaller clothing size. I was fixated on an unhealthy measurement that I related directly to my self-worth, which I think we have social media and society to thank for that one. After coming off a year that was riddled with more challenges that I can even explain, the best way to describe the way I felt physically and mentally, was just broken. After learning about Pure Joy Training through Corie, I reached out to set up a meeting in hopes of just learning what I could do to lose weight for a couple of months. I thought I could train with her for a short period of time and then have all the knowledge and habits to do it myself. Boy was I wrong. What I didn’t realize at the time was how much of a lifestyle change this was going to be; both physically and mentally. 

The first night I trained with Corie, I was a nervous wreck. I planned my outfit three days in advance and didn’t eat anything for 4 hours before in anticipation that I might literally die from the workout. However, when I got there, I was met with nothing but love, acceptance, hope, and pure joy. Corie exudes passion for what she does, which in return makes it impossible for you to not see the importance of and investment you are putting into yourself. I was instantly hooked on the sense of peace and accomplishment that Corie and Pure Joy Training brought into my life in more aspects than just training. In the year I have been working with Corie, I have gained so much knowledge and confidence in my nutrition and have finally broken my life-long struggle with binge-eating. There is no doubt in my mind that I would not have been able to do this without Corie and her expertise and true passion for helping people navigate their life-style journey. 

Fast forward to almost a year later…my husband joined in on the fun about six months ago and has been hooked and a part of the party ever since. We are so truly blessed and grateful for the impact that Pure Joy Training and Corie have had on our lives and will continue to see the lasting impressions of the inner peace we’ve both gained from training with her, long into the future. Even though, I inherently started this journey to ‘get back to my skinny weight’ or to ‘get into those jeans from college’, I can now say that working with Corie has completely changed all my goals. While I won’t lie and say that having a bad ass body full of muscles isn’t amazing, I will also say that this experience has changed my mental health for the better, as well. 

If you’re on the edge of not knowing whether to reach out for help in your journey or not, lean towards Pure Joy Training and Corie. She will not disappoint, and no matter how long you spend training with her, you won’t regret one minute of it. What are my goals now, you may ask?: To be as strong mentally and physically than ever before, and to experience pure joy every single day. Thanks to Corie and Pure Joy Training for giving my husband and I the push and hope we both needed, we love you!!!! 

Rachael Simmons

DISCLAIMER **She may not be able to count reps well, but I don’t mind doing a few more, because I know somewhere along the line I was shortchanged a few as well :)

This year I celebrated three years working out with Pure Joy Training. Together, we fight a lot of bears of life. I have self-proclaimed this space the “Girl Gym” and in there we have tackled so much more than fitness. We deal with teenagers, special needs kids, drama queen daughters and grand-babies. There is no obstacle that we cannot climb together as a team.

Spending the amount of time we do together in her gym, as you can imagine, we have seen each other at some of our low points, as well as high points. We help each other with our walk in faith, strength, physical and mental, we make it fun for each other most of the time, even whenever she puts exercises in the work out that she knows I do not like to do … we do the hard things anyway.

We have learned a lot together as a team in her gym. She calls is it Pure Joy Training, and while it is joyful in that place, it is the Bear Fighting Girl Gym for me and I LOVE it. I am so thankful to have found this gem/gym.

I started this journey lifting body weight of course and I quickly progressed to the house beginner weights we refer to as the ‘Quinny Weight’. It is 2.5 lbs. I can now lift weights that I never thought I would be able to. I have already crushed a goal that I set for myself for this year of hip thrusting 200+lbs and am well on my way to being able to squat 130lbs!

I love you Corie, thank you for being you, all of you! I never want to do life without you.

Ruthie Cody

I have been struggling silently for months with more than just my weight. I was emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and physically in pretty bad shape. For the most part we brushed it off as a result of quarantine and just a circumstantial situation, but it just wouldn’t go away. I casually reached out to Corie; her and I used to work together about 8 years ago. I was expecting she would tell me to drink more water or give me some sort of diet plan that I couldn’t actually stick with that would ultimately add one more layer of stress to my already overwhelming life. But I was truly desperate. 

We set up a FaceTime call and chatted for about an hour about my goals. She said she would help but she didn’t have a quick easy one size fits all fix for me... like I had expected. She said it would take time, but she would walk with me every step of the way. I said ok let’s give it a try, At this point I really had nothing to lose ... well except the 20 pounds that I’ve been dreadfully lugging around. 

We started off slow,  I shared my habits, lifestyle, food choices, preferences, allergies etc. I expected to spend the bulk of time learning about diet options, but what I was actually doing is learning about myself and what I needed.  She offered one subtle change at a time. The first thing for me was to add more protein in to my diet, because being raised vegetarian by  an amazing chef mom it was difficult for me to prepare my own meals that had enough nutrients to satisfy my protein intake. I started adding smoothies, more protein, and making small conscious choices on what I was eating. 

Corie put together a specific plan for me based on my eating habits, preferences, and lifestyle. 

I sent pictures of my food every day and she would encourage me to find ways to make better choices.

I was dealing with a lot more than just my weight. I was stressed out, overwhelmed, anxious, and  borderline depressed. This whole global pandemic quarantine situation provoked a very unhealthy lifestyle for me with a lot of drinking, eating out, and not exercising. My heart was willing but my mind was not prepared to tackle my unhealthy lifestyle. Before calling Corie I tried to do some research. I felt like one article would talk about how amazing oatmeal was and the very next article I read would tell me oatmeal is the worst thing to eat, same thing with Greek yogurt or keto verses the whole 30 diet it was absolutely exhausting frustrating and overwhelming.

I definitely came into this situation lacking a lot of knowledge, but not the desire and willpower to overcome it.

Next Corie taught me about portion control and planning ahead for my next meal. She encouraged me when I made poor choices and would say don’t let that one meal at ruin your entire day, pick it up again on your next snack or meal. 

Once I learned about protein and portion control we tackled sleep, self-care, and supplements.

About three weeks in I sent her a picture of a friend who posted something about how easy it was to lose weight on some pill she started taking and how quickly she drop the pounds, how great she felt, and on and on she posted a before and after picture with amazing results in only 26 days. Are you kidding me, ugh and then I spent the afternoon with another friend I hadn’t seen in about three months who literally dropped 20 pounds by eating keto. It was torture. She told me she basically ate a bar of cream cheese and bacon and had margaritas if she wanted to and still lost all this weight… I couldn’t believe it. All of a sudden I was under attack and I kept seeing all of these people with these amazing results on some easy plan and I was feeling extremely discouraged.

On days like that when I wasn’t feeling my best I would text Corie and she always asked how I was feeling, asked about my relationship with food, and how certain foods made me feel. She was intentional about including my emotional health as well as my physical body and she always had an encouraging word.

this is one of my favorite but a very common reminder she would share with me “God has you right where he needs you to be - he loves to refine us not magically fix us .... you need to change your mindset and love yourself where you are in the body you have right now ...”

I wanted the results more than the journey. We live in a country full of instant gratification with social media platforms, showing immediate weight loss, a quick and easy fix to being happy, a miracle diet or pills yet none of these offers ever worked for me. 

Corie took the time to learn about me! She didn’t offer a miracle or quick fix she offered me a plan with support, encouragement and guidance. She has help me order off many restaurant menus, helped me plan ahead, reminded me to stop eating foods I didn’t enJOY just because I thought it was healthy, she found ways to make sure I was getting all the nutrients my body needed, she listened she cared and she never gave up on me. She is helping me change my life.... not offering a diet that would cause me to drop weight fast and then gain it all back, what she did was far more obtainable even though at the time I couldn’t see it. 

I have no idea where this journey will take me. I know that I’ve learned to make better choices and desire to implement true change and a healthy lifestyle not just a quick fix or some swanky diet, I am choosing joy in this journey and I could not have done any of this without the loving support of a certified health professional who loves what she does and had a desire to support people like me. She gave me the ability to make choices for myself, the ability to know the difference between what is good or bad for my specific body. She gave me a sustainable lifestyle and even when I go off track at least I know where the track is and how to get back. Corie has literally changed my life and I am eternally grateful!