Welcome to Aligned by Amelie: Why I’m Building a Life That Feels Good (And Hoping to Help Others Do The Same)

One of the first times I can remember ever feeling good in my body, like really good, wasn’t after stepping on the scale or after fitting into something smaller… it was after a spin class in middle school. My friend Hannah and I tried it out just to see what all the hype was about. We didn’t go to change our bodies or burn calories, we went simply because it sounded fun. We walked out of that dark spin room drenched in sweat and high on something. At the time, we joked they must’ve pumped something in the vents that day. It was the first time I moved my body just to feel good. And I never forgot that feeling.

But somewhere along the way, I stopped chasing it.

When I was in third grade, I went on a school trip to an indoor water park called Great Wolf Lodge. As we all stepped off the bus, a girl in my class looked me up and down and said to her friend, “Only fat bitches wear tankinis.” I was eight years old. I didn’t even fully understand what she meant. I mean, I wasn’t fat. Was I? I was kickass at dodgeball and could fly across the monkey bars faster than most on the playground. I didn’t even know what ‘fat’ meant in that context, but I knew I wasn’t supposed to feel good in my own skin. That little comment that I’m sure has been long forgotten by that girl is one that I still remember clearly. That moment stuck with me for years.

By middle school, I was drinking green tea obsessively and doing sit-ups secretly in my room, convinced that maybe this would finally be the thing that changed my body. In high school, my relationship with food became even more complicated. I was cheering competitively six days a week, three hours a day– performing complex routines that included tumbling, dancing, jumping, and stunting. I needed fuel. Sometimes, I ate like I had no idea what a calorie was. Because I didn’t! I’d finish a full cafeteria lunch and then crush a Chipwich ice cream sandwich because I wanted something sweet. My friends and I made regular trips to our town’s 7/11 for snacks between classes, and during senior year, we’d head to a local diner known for its over-the-top menu: think deep-fried wraps and milkshakes topped with full slices of cake.

The best part? I felt free enough to enjoy it.

And while I struggled with body image from time to time, I still had a pretty normal relationship with food. That started to shift in college, when I began to look at food less like fuel and more like a calculation.

During the pandemic, that calculation became an obsession. I spiraled into a routine of daily Chloe Ting workouts, cardio, HIIT classes, and dangerously low-calorie intake. I tracked everything. I went from crushing boxes of Annie’s mac and cheese to carefully counting calories in an app I never let myself delete. Somewhere between childhood and college, I lost touch with what wellness really was. I thought that if I could just control enough, I’d finally feel okay. In my body and in the world, which felt so beyond chaotic at the time. I’d go out and binge drink with friends on weekends, then wake up feeling awful inside and out. I look back at photos from that time and remember how hard I was on myself, even when I was barely hanging on. And the worst part? I thought it was discipline.

Even earlier than that, I get flashbacks looking at photos from childhood summer vacations and sleepaway camp. In a lot of them, I’m hiding my arms behind my back. The pose looks cute, but I can remember doing it out of insecurity. After a Nutcracker performance in elementary school, as a literal child, I remember feeling so deeply insecure in the way my tummy looked in my leotard. And now, when I look back at those photos, I want to cry. I was just a little girl. I didn’t deserve to feel that way at all.

I’m doing this for her.

For every version of me that hid, obsessed, restricted, pushed, punished, or felt like she wasn’t enough. For the version of me who just wanted to feel good in her body, but didn’t know how.

My pivot into health communication, my love of listening to hours of health podcasts and reading research, the obsession I have with trying to unlearn the noise and learn what’s actually true... it’s all because I care. Because I want to know better and do better. Because I believe that wellness is about so much more than what we’ve been sold.

The purpose behind Aligned By Amelie isn’t about aesthetic perfection. In a world where health and wellness has become so elitist and commodified, I truly believe that going back to basics is what matters most. You don’t need the newest supplement on the market or the $3,000 cold plunge tub. True wellness is about listening, Learning. Moving because it feels good. Nourishing because you deserve to be fueled. Resting without guilt. Asking better questions, and feeling both informed and empowered about your health. Celebrating all that our amazing bodies do for us instead of what they look like.

This site is for the girl I was and the woman I’m becoming. I’m not an expert, nowhere near that yet. And I don’t know exactly where this journey will take me. But I do know this: I want to build a life that feels good. And I want to build a career out of helping others do the same.

Xoxo,

Amélie