Roni Davis
Author, Coach, Speaker
Coach, speaker and author Roni Davis is on a mission to rid the world of diet culture and the mental health issues, weight and food obsessions that accompany it.
She is the founder of Flourish Magazine (launching September 2019) - a Cape Breton born women's magazine created by women, for women, dedicated to driving a new era in magazine messaging for women.
She's also combined her mindfulness and cognitive coaching skills with her over 12 years of personal and professional knowledge, skills and experience as a former bulimic, champion athlete, award winning personal trainer and nutrition/wellness coach to create Cognitive Eating; a revolutionary approach to healing weight, food & body image issues.
A difficult childhood and lack of any measurable self-worth created the perfect storm of suffering for Roni for much of her life. She spent 2 decades struggling with her weight and by the time she was in her early 30's she was bulimic, struggling with chronic, crippling depression, anxiety disorder, frequent panic attacks and a paralyzing fear of being seen. At her worst, she often felt like she was trying to eat herself to death and isolated so badly she couldn't leave the house or even talk to people for days or weeks at a time.
She knew she had two choices, live like that forever or bust her butt to change so she could build the life that, somewhere deep inside, she knew she deserved. She chose the latter and more than anything, she wanted to make her pain have a purpose.
A far cry from the person who couldn't leave her house a few years ago, now she hosts workshops, gives keynote speeches, creates online courses, is founding a magazine, writing a (2nd) book and works tirelessly to kill diet culture.
She's on a mission to create a world in which our daughters can grow up not knowing the destruction and dysfunction of diet culture – a world in which they’re just kind to themselves.
She dreams of a world in which they sit around eating without shame; where rather than talking about “being good”, 'cheat days", thigh gaps, hip dips, bat wings, stretch marks, belly rolls, and love handles, they are discussing their courage, their hearts, their brilliance, the impact they’ll leave on the world, their dreams, and all the ways they’ll surpass them.
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What are you most proud of professionally? And who or why?
I'm most proud of my decision to quit being a personal trainer and begin speaking. Quitting what I knew to do something as terrifying as public speaking felt like jumping off a cliff without a parachute but everything in me told me it was the leap I needed to take. So, despite the fear, I jumped.
What was your greatest stage of growth? What made it a shift for you?
My greatest stage of growth has most definitely been the 6 years since my last figure competition. Realizing that my weight, food and body image issues had nothing to do with weight, food or my body and everything to do with my relationship with myself was the catalyst for massive change and what ultimately lead to freedom.
What’s your favourite or most read book or podcast? Now or at each of your greatest stages of growth?
It's been around so long that it's probably cliche at this point but Louise Hay, You Can Heal Your Life was the book that helped me start the process of understanding how and why I had become my own worst enemy so I could start changing it. I've read a ton of really great books since but that's still one of my favorites.
What’s your deepest learning from this past year? How did/will you apply it?
Everything we want comes to us when we're ready to receive it. I work on applying that knowledge daily by continuing to grow and being patient.
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Mom (one daughter & one dog), Professional Introvert