I've spent nearly 30 years in health and wellness. But about five years ago, everything I believed about where wellness begins changed.
The story behind The Balanced Life Method — and why Lori now starts on the inside, then moves out.
The Balanced Life Method: The 7-Pillar Blueprint
Health was part of my life long before it became my work.
My grandmother grew her own food. My mom read labels before reading labels was something everyone did.
I was the kid who wasn't allowed much sugar—and when my mom handed me those little red boxes of raisins and called them candy, I believed her.
At the time, it was simply how we lived.
Looking back, I can see the foundation being laid.
But I haven't always gotten it right. I had the college years filled with cheap food, ramen noodles, and Burger King too. Eventually, in my twenties, I found my way back—and health became something I wanted to understand, not just something I had grown up around.
Curiosity became a career.
I became a personal trainer. Then I wanted to understand nutrition more deeply. That curiosity eventually carried me through fitness, health coaching, functional wellness, and my own practice.
But even early in my career, something bothered me. I worked with women who were exercising, making changes, and doing what they had been told to do. And still, something wasn't clicking.
I remember looking at women who are the age I am now and thinking: There has to be more to this than fitness.
Then God asked me to look back.
About five years ago, I felt God asking me to rewind the previous decades of my work. Where had we been putting our attention?
The answer was obvious:
The body.
What are you eating? How are you exercising? How does your body look and feel? All important questions. But I began to realize we were leaving an entire part of the person out of the conversation.
The spirit. The soul. The thoughts, emotions, behaviors, experiences, and patterns a person carries.
And I felt God showing me something that changed the direction of my work:
Start on the inside. Then move out.
That was the turning point.
I began seeing the whole person.
Not simply a physical body that needed better inputs. But a spirit, with a soul, living in a body. Suddenly, so much of what I had observed over the years made sense.
I became less interested in only asking:
"What are you doing?"
And more interested in understanding:
"What is happening underneath it?"
That shift became the foundation of the work I do today.
I also had to live through the seasons myself.
When I first entered this field, I was working with women moving through seasons I hadn't experienced yet. Now I have.
Changes in the body, priorities, strength, and the way you think about what truly matters. Today, I jokingly call myself the "seasoned end." And I'm grateful for it.
Because my definition of wellness has changed too. I care far less about perfection. I care much more about helping women remain strong, capable, purposeful, and fully engaged in their lives.
Looking back, I can see the thread.
- The grandmother who taught me about food from the garden.
- The mother who taught me to pay attention to what I put into my body.
- The years spent learning fitness, nutrition, and wellness.
- The women who showed me that physical health alone couldn't explain everything I was seeing.
- And finally, the moment God challenged me to look at all of it differently.
What once felt like separate chapters now looks like preparation. This work isn't simply about helping women manage their health. It's about helping them see themselves more fully.
Personal. Whole. Rooted in faith. Responsive to the season they are actually living.
After nearly three decades in this work, the conviction at the center of what I do is simple:
We have to see the whole person.
That is the work I feel called to do now.
Experience behind the philosophy.
Lori's approach is shaped by nearly three decades of work across fitness, health coaching, functional wellness, teaching, and personalized client support.
Her experience includes:
- Nearly 30 years in health and wellness
- Board Certified by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners
- Author of The Balanced Life Method: The Seven-Pillar Blueprint to Lasting Health and Wellness
- Co-author of the #1 bestselling Kingdom LeadHERship: Stepping Joyfully into God's Calling
- Published author and speaker
- Personal training, health coaching, and functional wellness experience
- One-on-one coaching, group workshops, and corporate wellness programs
- Advisory Board member for the Association of Christian Business Women
- Active involvement in women's ministry
But Lori's greatest qualification isn't simply the number of years she has worked in wellness. It's what those years taught her.
She has seen wellness trends come and go, worked with women across different seasons of life, and experienced those seasons herself. That perspective is what ultimately shaped The Balanced Life Method—and her conviction that lasting wellness requires seeing the whole person, not simply managing the body.
Credentials
Lori Nolan is a certified health coach (Institute for Integrative Nutrition), Board Certified by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners, and a trained fitness instructor with more than 20 years of experience across fitness, functional medicine, and coaching.
Author of The Balanced Life Method: The 7-Pillar Blueprint (ebook, paperback, workbook, audiobook).
Come as you are. We'll build from there.
If her story resonates with yours, the next step is simple. Choose the level of support that feels right for this season.