Better Living's Nutrition Counselor, Becca Addison: 'Food is Not the Enemy'

One of the newest members of our staff, Better Living Fitness' Nutrition Counselor Becca Addison, learned the hard way that being a fanatic about food and weight loss is the wrong way to achieve your health and fitness goals.

Becca has been running competitively since the eighth grade. She's so good at running, in fact, that she was invited to the most recent Olympic trials.

“The problem was, I had a calf injury and got hung up on thinking that, after the injury, I had to eat perfectly so I wouldn't gain weight and mess up my times after my calf healed,” she remembers.

“I became so stressed about food that, even though I wasn't under-eating, I threw my body out of whack and my times fell off too much,” which meant that Becca had to miss trying out for the Olympics.

“That experience is why I find the weight loss thing tricky,” she says, “...and it's the reason I want to help people have a positive relationship with food. Being obsessed with food and eating 'right' really affected my life, and I'd like to help my clients avoid the same kinds of mistakes.”

Becca, who has a Master of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics, joined the staff here at Better Living Fitness after doing an internship at the University of Michigan's School of Public Health. She says that she first became interested in nutrition as an undergraduate.

“I was a super-picky eater when I was younger, then when I was in college I was surrounded by all these new foods,” she says. “At the same time, I was a collegiate runner and realized that I needed to start eating well to improve my performance – learning how different foods affected my running performance is what got me into nutrition science.'

Becca, who joined Better Living Fitness in February, says one of the hardest parts of her job is working with clients who are overly concerned about weight loss.

“Too much focus on weight loss makes people fight food and think of food as the enemy,” she says. “I try to encourage people to focus on motivations like how they feel during and after eating and the energy they can get from different foods. That's a better, healthier approach, because it lets you be more adventurous about food and it's a way to liking and respecting your body more.”

“In my background in sports, I've seen obsessions with weight loss turn into eating disorders, especially in younger people. I don't want anyone to think of food as being 'bad,' but to enjoy all foods – just in moderation,” she says.

These days, Becca is working on becoming a certified personal trainer so she can address both exercise and nutrition. At the same time, she's still running regularly.

“I love the people that I train with!” she says, “and I love pushing myself and being competitive with other people. When I finish a race and know I gave it everything I had, that's a huge boost for my self-esteem!”

Becca is also enjoying providing nutrition counseling to Better Living Fitness clients. “I like how everyone who comes to Better Living has different health and fitness goals,” she says. “I like working with people one on one, and getting to know and talk with them as we figure out together how to improve their health.”

If you'd like to learn more about how you can enjoy food and achieve and maintain a healthy weight as part of your health and fitness goals, click here today to set up your appointment with Becca!

The Business of Helping People Thrive Through Personal Training: Better Living Fitness Founder Mark Thiesmeyer

By Better Living Staff Writer Dawn Wolfe

Not quite twenty years ago, Mark Thiesmeyer had the idea that led him to completely change his life and career. Back then, Mark was a business consultant focused on helping corporations contain health care costs.

Now, of course, he's a personal trainer and the owner and founder of both Ann Arbor's Better Living Fitness and the Better Living Fitness Center.

Why the career change?

“As a consultant, I heard too many stories that came down to one thing: too many people were suffering from preventable health issues. At the same time, it was clear back then that health care costs were about to skyrocket.”

“I had a sense back then that effective exercise and appropriate nutrition would keep people healthy. I remember reading an article that showed protein timing could be key to making Parkinson’s medications work. That seemed so cool and made me want to learn more."

With this realization, Mark decided to do something different. First he went back to school, earning two personal training certifications and two Master's degrees – one in the Science of Exercise Physiology, and one in Public Health Nutrition.

He also got to work as a personal trainer. Mark met his first client, Ann Marie Kotre, in 1999. Ann Marie still trains with Mark today.

Mark may have been immersed in the world of health and fitness, but he didn't forget his business training and experience. Eventually, he became successful enough as a personal trainer that he had to turn down prospective clients.

Being a businessman, Mark rose to the challenge by expanding and hiring additional personal trainers.

“That turned out to be a great decision!,” Mark says. “For one thing, by hiring trainers as my employees, I could insure that any client trained by 'my people' would receive the benefit of all of my education and experience. Each of the trainers we hire generally compete against 20 other applicants to get their position. Then we ask Better Living personal trainers to spend months learning the progressions, exercises and stretches that have been effective in helping keep our clients healthy for the past two decades.

“But that's not the only benefit. Working as a personal trainer can be lonely. Once I hired my first associate trainer, I had someone to share stories with and bounce ideas off of. Even today, we have weekly staff meetings to consult with each other about our clients. If a client is having a problem reaching a goal or has a persistent injury, my team and I brainstorm solutions together.”

“Better Living clients may work with one personal trainer, but they also benefit from this team approach.”

Most people would feel pretty settled after changing careers and getting so successfully established in their new occupation. Mark, on the other hand, decided to take things another step by opening the Better Living Fitness Center in January of 2016.

 “I wanted to make personal training more cost-effective for clients,” he says. “Having a fitness center of my own means that I can give clients more options to help their budget as well as their health.”

Today, Mark still works with clients one-on-one. He also trains new Better Living staff members, plays a major role in running the fitness center, and teaches Full-Body Fit sessions.

But he also makes time for his personal life and for his husband, Matt. Mark and Matt have been together for sixteen years, and were married as soon as federal law changed to recognize their relationship.

In addition to tennis and movies, Mark and Matt love to travel – in fact, they take turns planning a surprise anniversary trip for each other every six months.

“It's a way to keep our relationship fresh, and we also see a lot of value in experiencing other cultures. There's a lot to be gained by going to different places and experiencing how other people live and how they feel about their lives.”

So far, the couple has been all over Europe, Australia and Japan. Most recently, it was Mark's turn to plan their trip and he surprised Matt with something different: a vacation in the United Arab Emirates. 

“Matt didn't see Dubai coming, but it was a great time,” Mark says. “We didn't do a lot of the touristy things – instead we visited a couple of mosques, and made a point of talking to all of our cab drivers to get a sense of what life is like there.”