“God Planted Me Here”

HER LIFESTYLE

Alyssa Gawboy is a successful business owner with a knack for helping others on their health journeys. She learned first-hand that real wellness takes a balance of good physical, mental and spiritual health. While others were struggling through the shutdown, she started a company called Limitlyss Wellness, a holistic health coaching company. But the road to her success had a few bumps, U-turns and pitstops.

She went to school to be a registered dietician and exercise physiologist and got her master’s degree in Nashville.

“I always had a passion for helping people, but I knew I didn’t want to work in a clinical setting like a hospital. I wanted to work with people who were being proactive about their health and not with people who were already in the hospital,” Alyssa said.

Left: Taylor Wallisch (left), Dani Sutin and Alyssa Gawboy make up the Limitlyss Wellness team. They take a look at the whole person and design programs around your spiritual, mental and physical health.

She landed a job at one of the big gyms in the Twin Cities and then one in Brainerd that required the Menomonie, Wisconsin, native to travel north about four years ago.

Then, two years ago, Alyssa was on vacation celebrating her birthday and got a call that she had been let go from her job. “It was pretty traumatic,” she said. “I hadn’t been let go from a job before.”

When she lost her job, she had no idea what she wanted to do next. She says long hours had left her burnt out and had taken a toll on her own physical and mental health. She had recently gotten out of a bad relationship.

“Those were some dark, dark days for me,” she said. “God took everything away from me. My job, relationship and friends, but truly He was rebuilding the foundation.”

Alyssa was unemployed for six months and lived in her car for a while. Her family won dered why she didn’t just move back to her hometown in Menomonie.

“I didn’t have a job here. I didn’t have a support system,” she said. “But still I felt like God wanted me here. On that part of my journey, I was buried. I had three dollars in my checking account. I had blind faith. Nothing is tangible when you are living out of your car.”

Alyssa Gawboy freely shares everything she has been through and because of it, her clients relate easily to her.

Alyssa put her energy into volunteering at church. “I had all the time in the world to volunteer. I looked at my relationship with God. He got rid of so many things and pulled my focus more toward Him and started walking the true path He put me on. I got involved with the worship team and volunteered in children’s ministry. I started working with the youth on Wednesday nights. I really took care of myself. I started taking care of my spirit. I started nurturing and nourishing my soul,” she said.

She landed a part-time job working at Essentia in mental health while doing other side jobs like babysitting and working at a boutique.

Combining her physical training with what she was learning about mental health, Alyssa realized how closely the two were connected. “I had just come through some dark, dark times. Many times, I wanted to take my own life. I was at the bottom, and I didn’t see how things could work out.”

Alyssa Gawboy appreciates everything she went through and knows God was planting her right where she needed to be.

Then COVID hit. And the gyms closed and Alyssa had former clients contacting her again. “They asked if I would train them online, they’d say, they were gaining weight, or in a bad spot. I was working in mental health and I was happy. I didn’t want to go back to an industry that had completely burned me out. I didn’t want to coach anymore. I didn’t want to tell people what to eat anymore.”

Bored at home with COVID, she says she talked to God and asked what she should do. She decided to take a few clients on the side. “I let them know it would be a completely different thing than when they worked with me in the past. “‘I’m not only going to tell you what to eat and how to exercise,’ I told them, ‘I will be asking about your emotional health, your spiritual health, and your mental health because that is just as important, if not more important, than what you put in your mouth.’”

Then I started developing the programming we use and it started to get a lot bigger. People started getting results and more people wanted to join. Alyssa realized she could help people again, but do it online and in a different way.

She freely shares everything she has been through and because of it, her clients relate easily to her. “When I lost my job, I promised myself I would start being more authentic with people. I would never take back that dark period of my life, the hills and the valleys. I came up with this entire program. It took time. It’s not Weight Watchers. It’s not Keto or Noom,” said Alyssa.

Dani Sutin (left), Alyssa Gawboy and Taylor Wallisch take a holistic approach to lifestyle coaching.

Alyssa says with realistic expectations she gives clients a workout plan they can manage.

“If you work out at home and only have dumbbells, we can work with that and we know most people won’t follow a meal plan their entire life.” Today she has clients from California, Australia and Wyoming and has hired two additional coaches. Alyssa says a lot of her clients come from referrals, which means they’re happy.

She appreciates everything she went through. “I know, now, God was planting me,” she said with confidence.

Sheila Helmberger lives in the Brainerd area and is a frequent contributor to Her Voice.