Meet Me

Welcome! I am Lisa Hewitt. I am a certified health coach through Institute of Integrative Nutrition and 200 hour Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT 200). For the past three years, I have worked as a swim instructor and coach working with all ages…from 2 year olds to 75 year olds! I am excited to bring these skills to yoga and health coaching.

Fun Facts

1. I never raised my hand in class until high school.

2. I love watching Bay Area sports.

3. As a child, I modeled as a boy. I was known for my boyish good looks :)

4. I met one of my best friends on a family vacation to Hawaii at the age of 9.

5. My Italian Greyhound has an Instagram account (@renzotheiggy). I am not ashamed of it.

My Story

I began my wellness journey at age eleven when I fell severely ill. I didn’t know it then, but chronic illness were starting to take hold of my body. Over the next few years, I saw more doctors and specialists than I count. I took test upon test upon test. And then I took those same tests again. There were ER visits and procedures scattered in between. When I got to thirty pills a day, I knew I needed to stop. I was only sixteen, and my body was beginning to feel toxic. Both my mind and body were exhausted of traditional doctors and I was developing severe anxiety and depression stemming from my illness. I was feeling a need for a radical change.

As I started to wean off of many of my medications (which came with plenty of ups and downs!), I started to look for another form of healing to fill that space. I had a yoga teacher that had been coming to my house since my sickest days. She would come every week and sit with me while I was in restorative yoga poses. She not only taught me yoga, but breathing, meditation, and even bits about nutrition. That one day of week became a day of healing for me, and over time, I fell in love with yoga. I started to use certain yoga poses to help with nausea and pain, and on the days when moving felt like too much, I would do some breathing and meditation. Over time, as my health improved, I started to do slow vinyasa yoga. This was the first real movement I had introduced my body to in years. It felt amazing. Terrifying but amazing.

I graduated high school in December, six months after all of my peers. After I had completed that last class, I was unsure of where to go next. I was not ready to commit to college, hello illness and anxiety, but I also had other passions. My health was still rocky, and I knew that I needed more time to allow myself to heal. Since I had become sick, my number one priority was finishing school. I had put myself on a timeline to finish high school because I did not want to be to far behind my peers, and I definitely did not want my younger sister (two years behind me) to graduate first.

When I graduated, I knew what I really needed was to dedicate time to my health. That meant I was not going to rush off to college, but I still wanted to learn. I signed up for a yoga teacher training that was starting in seven months and in the meantime began at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. With a multitude of gut issues, the idea of learning more about nutrition was very appealing. I was yearning to self-heal and understanding nutrition was a step toward health for me. I adopted a philosophy that it was all about 1% gains, but thankfully for me, both nutrition and yoga turned out to be more than a 1% gain for me.

Having a chronic illness changed my life significantly.  I went from being an active eleven year old, who loved to go on adventures, participate in swim team, and hang out with friends, to a sixteen year old who could only go to school for four hours a week and could not participate in activities. Even seeing friends was a stretch. I have improved significantly since sixteen, but still struggle daily with the rollercoaster that comes with chronic illness. I hope to use my journey to help empower others to search for those 1% health gains.