Meet the Trainer: Alaina Farley

Meet the Trainer:

Alaina shares about her life and passion for movement

My name is Alaina Farley and it is my great pleasure to lead workouts for this organization Wednesday and Friday mornings at 0700.  I am a certified Personal Trainer, Group Fitness Instructor, ACE Nutrition Specialist, and Les Mills National Trainer, Presenter, and Assessor.  I have had lots of experience working in large and small groups to help create mindset change through movement and exercise. 

I come from a very large international family who all believe in the power of hard work and determination to shape the future of this world.  My father started a solar business in Virginia Beach when I was very young and taught me the value of money, perseverance, and professionalism.  My mother was a high school math teacher and instilled in me appreciation for all people of all walks of life, kindness, and unconditional support.  I believe I represent them equally as an adult, working full time as a government contractor and part time in fitness and health. 

From a young age, my life as always included movement as a part of daily life.  We would frequently take long walks in the evening with our family dog, ride bikes together, play at the park, and spend weekends gardening or doing outside chores.  When I reached school age, I quickly fell in love with a variety of group activities from cheerleading, dance, choir and theater to soccer, volleyball and cross country running.  I did as many after school activities as I could without driving my parents insane and always wanted more.  In college, I lost my way and turned to parties and alcohol as a replacement for the fullness my life held in grade school.  No longer did I participate in group sports or belong to various clubs.  I found myself skipping classes and drinking far too much, while eating far too little to the point of having disordered eating.  I was putting on weight from anorexic habits and drinking too much, becoming mentally unstable, and was very depressed. Knowing that idle hands are the devil’s playground, by the end of my freshmen year things needed to change, academically and physically.  Not only had I lost my scholarship but I had disappointed my parents and done some irreparable damage to my body. 

I returned home from school and immediately got a trainer at the local YMCA.  I wanted accountability and purpose over the summer – to do things the right way.  I began mending my relationship with my parents and my body.  I had extreme body dysmorphia, unable to see the positive shifts I was making and completely distraught by what I saw in the mirror.  I no longer saw a healthy and capable young woman who was recovering from a challenging first year away from her family.  I saw every flaw and ounce of weight that was still clinging to my body.  I stopped working with the trainer and started running again.  Though it didn’t solve my problems (that would come later in counseling), it was a step forward.  My problems were rooted in control and OCD so I needed to start regaining control in a way that I could control, not at the hands of someone else.

Enter my husband.  We met while working together at TGIFriday’s.  We were friends immediately, sharing lots of common interests in sports, music, and laughing.  He struggled with weight and a sedentary lifestyle and as our friendship turned into a romance, we committed to a healthier lifestyle.  In our 16 years together, we have yo-yo-ed in size and fitness levels, using every program and shake available to achieve our goals.  We were Beachbody coaches, we unsuccessfully joined gyms (memberships that sat idle and collected dust for years), we drank the most disgusting things to “cleanse’ our insides.  The thing that kept us moving forward together was the ultimate goal of a healthy and sustainable lifestyle that would allow us to move our bodies in ways that felt good.  We found Les Mills in late 2011 and became certified as group fitness instructors in early 2013.  

Passion for helping others fall in love with movement was at the root of our success as instructors and to this day, we still look forward to every class, knowing we have the opportunity to change someone’s life with the power of exercise.  Since 2013, I have dedicated most of my free time to increasing my knowledge, advancing my passion of fitness, learning how to use nutrition as a supplement to movement for lifelong sustainability, and getting as many certifications as possible to entrench myself fully in what can only be referred to as my passion project.  Since having our daughter, Layla in 2017, we have continued our lifestyle and found a healthy balance between working, parenting, and still committing time to our fitness.  Every day we find something to do as a family, whether biking or running or skating or something else entirely, that will hopefully instill in her the joy of movement.  For no purpose other than to enjoy movement. 

My goal in working with BTG is share with you my passion and love of movement and to help each of you see how something as simple as walking or starting the day with a good sweat can drastically improve and change the course of each day.  And every day that is started with good intentions has far more possibility than one started with no intention.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to be with you 2 mornings per week and I hope you find some value in our time together.  I appreciate individual effort and applaud your hard work.  Thank you for trusting me with your time!