Devina remembers how hard it is to figure out who you are as a teenager in a class of over a thousand students. A core part of her identity was being a cross-country athlete, so she built a community around it. The girls she trained with became some of her closest friends, and her coach served as an invested mentor who showed up for her while encouraging her to show up for herself.
Establishing a new routine with movement and nutrition was an unexpected challenge. She was no longer training intensively every day with a long run or a strength building session at the gym, and her caloric intake and expenditure went out of balance.
Devina eventually created a new regimen of running three days a week and practicing intuitive eating with regular meals, which has served her well to this day.
While running is the one sport that Devina is dedicated to over the years, she adds variety to her workouts by exploring other forms of exercise on a seasonal basis. Devina is a certified yoga instructor and just wrapped up a kickboxing membership. She has her eyes set on dancing as the next frontier.
She draws inspiration from the training program that she herself went through in high school to help her students become better runners. Running holds a sacred place in Devina’s life because that’s when she gets into her flow state of being incredibly present. Her thoughts and worries melt away; all she thinks about is her breathing and her form; and her senses are alive and soaking in the sights and sounds around her.
