Joanne arrived in the USA with a backpack full of nothing but hopes and dreams. She was only 27 years old but had already accomplished some major life goals. Female bodybuilding was a very new and somewhat strange sport in the 1980's, Joanne first hit the stage at 17 years of age and by the age of 26 she had won the World, European and the coveted British Championship. With pro card and an honors degree in business in hand, Joanne left her English home and moved first to Australia and then to Venice Beach CA where for the next 24 years she became one of the most recognized and successful personal trainers in the Mecca of fitness, Golds Gym, Venice. She competed at the highest level of the sport competing in Ms Olympia twice before retiring at the grand old age of 30 after 13 years of continuous competition and dieting. The nature of the sport required expertise in mastering body composition and Joannes study of nutrition set her apart from all but the elite amongst personal trainers. Joanne became known as the trainer to get clients stage and screen ready with clients ranging from Demi Lovato, Chelsea Handler, Shawn Wayans, Rodney and Joan Dangerfield, soap icon, Stephen Nichols, Oscar winner John Ridley, Ms Olympia Monic Brant and many many more. Joannes has personally gained 50lb of muscle, reduced her body fat to single digits multiple times and mastered the midlife mayhem that her own age brought her. Her experience does not stop there, working so closely with people Joanne has herself or via clients dealt with all of life's dramas, marriage, divorce, pregnancy, post-pregnancy, anxiety, depression, menopause/mano-pause, injury, disease, business and home stress. Dealing with life and trying to shift the physical body brought decades of study and so this book was borne. On a comical note, the majority of this book was written in a silver Cadillac in the front parking lot of Golds Gym Venice. If you were a member and ever wondered what Joanne was doing in her car all those years - this is it.
