I grew up playing sports. Even into adulthood, I’m in beer-drinking sports rec leagues. I’ve worked in and around gyms for nearly a decade (mostly aquatics), usually in positions of leadership, training, and coaching.
I have a lifetime of experience that says exercise has never made me lose weight. It has never changed the size or shape of my body. It didn’t matter how many hours a week I sweated my ass off, or how many months I went without exercising at all, my body just WAS the size that it was.
I’ve also had a lifetime of experience that says movement:
and that’s just the start!
Wanting to make the glory, power, & goodness of fitness accessible to folks who are so often excluded and ignored by the fitness industry, I became a NASM Certified Personal Trainer in 2021 and started Deanna Beaton Intuitive Fitness as a way to help women & enby folks discover how fitness truly can fit for them.
Picture it. Sicily. 1912. (No, wait, that’s Sophia Petrillo’s story. Not mine.)
Picture it. Chicago. April 2020.
I had been locked down in my 1 bedroom apartment for 3 weeks:
It was a terrible time. Maybe you remember it? (A mere 3.5 years ago. Or was it 72 years ago? Who’s to say?!)
Something had to give. Like, yesterday.
I stopped doom scrolling Twitter and trying to collect ALL THE INFORMATION. (Yes, being informed and knowledgeable helps my anxiety… to a degree. THIS was not doing that.)
And instead, I filled that time trying to find exercises I could do…
…
…
…
Key word: TRYING.
Everything I found was… just not it.
Then, if I found anything close to what I needed, it was dripping with diet culture and body shaming.
And I knew from a lifetime of lived experience that moving my body could help–even just a little–with my current problems. But NOT if I was going to be blamed & shamed through all of it!
I realized that if I just kept looking to regular fitness advice, I would keep getting judged, and taught that it has to be a whole event and done perfectly, and I’d keep finding myself stuck in the on/off cycle of going hard, and then burning out.
My epiphany? If I wanted to make movement a feasible part of my life for the rest of my life, I couldn’t keep playing by regular fitness advice. I’d have to deviate.
In that moment, I said, “FUCK IT! I’LL DO IT MYSELF!”
So that’s what I did.
Are you ready to say, FUCK IT, YOU’LL DO IT YOURSELF?!
“Within the workout, I can sense and feel your gentleness and encouragement to do what I want to do. And for me, it makes me realize that I like to move my body and I feel really good to be in a place when I can be out of judgement and into noticing.
Deanna is supportive. She understands “No” and she understands how to really celebrate a person. And talk about gentleness! She’s a super safe person to be a human with. She’s also just so cool.”
-Amy
“[Before working with Deanna, my life was] chaotic, hectic, prioritizing myself very little.
I realized I needed something more & different to prioritize my needs and take better care of myself.
The coaching has changed my life, extending beyond fitness. The personal training is accessible & meets you where you are. I cannot recommend Deanna’s program enough.”
-Sam
“I originally began searching for trainers…but I knew just losing weight wouldn’t give me the sustained self-love I needed. I had lost plenty of weight before and I remembered still frowning when I looked in the mirror.
Then I researched nutritionists, and not only could I not afford them, but I felt like that was not getting to the deeper root of this self-loathing feelings.
Finally, I found you! I saw the program as a chance to reflect on how I could appreciate myself at any size all while incorporating learning about my relationship with food and movement.
Deanna helped me love myself deeper, eat without shame, and move my body with more compassion. The work you do with Intuit is no yo-yo diet—it’s a lifelong shift in perspective that will motivate you to be appreciate yourself through every season of your life.“
-Rhea
“Through [Deanna’s] methods of coaching and communication before we even worked out, I was able to actually figure out what felt good.
Instead of trying to sweat, hit a certain loss of calories, or work out because of shame, I was finally working out to feel good. To feel relaxed even, which was really weird for me at first…
I can truly say that my relationship with fitness and my body has changed significantly for the better since working with Deanna.”
-Chelsea May
Let’s discover what your next step is to have your best relationship with your body, health, fitness, & food!