About the Author

The Younger Years

Growing up in the central part of the state of Maine, like her father before her who was a Maine guide, Lia was an outdoor enthusiast from a young age. As opposed to being in the kitchen or playing with dolls, she could always be found outside in the summer building and running obstacle courses she’d created with her sister’s and neighborhood best friend. She loved riding horseback and three wheelers. Her favorite things were planting flowers, gardening with her mom, doing cartwheels or handstands on the lawn, swimming in her uncle’s pool, or reading somewhere high up in a tree. In the winter, she was an avid skier, figure skater, and loved to go sledding and snowmobiling. However, from a young age, she always said aloud, “Someday when I grow up, I’m going to be a writer.”

The PK (Preacher’s Kid)

After an amazing childhood with her seven siblings, unfortunately, her teen years and choosing the wrong groups to spend time with, led her down the wrong path for over three years. Being the rebellious PK, she learned the hard way, that dating the wrong guy, excessive drinking and partying, never ended well. Having to endure sexual abuse and witnessing physical abuse within her teenage boyfriend’s family, she never wanted to participate in that sort of lifestyle again. However, she gained great insight as to why people struggle with addiction and learned to express her pain through poetry.

Her Testimony

Moving to Hawaii for two years right after graduating high school, then barber school, Lia found the Lord when she first arrived on the islands. She quickly got radically saved and never looked back. Her pastor that baptized her at the time, used to use her as an example in one sermon after the next. “If Lia can get saved, anyone can!” Yeah, she was that bad, and her attitude and foul language reflected that. But once saved, after months of trying to clean up her behavior and speech on her own, her decision to follow Jesus and get baptized, transformed everything about her. She’s never been the same since. Which is a good thing because who knows how her life might have ended up. When she moved back to Maine, she was a different person, and someone very special in her life noticed.

Her Marriage and Family Life

Thankfully, not long after she learned who not to marry, she chose wisely and married that someone special… her Mr. Wonderful. They were blessed with two sons that grew up enjoying the deep woods of Maine and all its activities as much as she and her husband. Hiking, biking, camping, visiting the ocean, and boating on its crystal-clear lakes together; was a pleasure. Many weekends they spent a great deal of time in church helping with the worship team, junior church, and the youth group. Their love of the state will be lifelong.

Moving Her Family to Hawaii

When her sons were young teens, Lia and her husband decided to sell their home in the woods to follow her sister and her family back to Hawaii. Since they were Mr. Wonderful’s best friend and their son’s closest cousins, they left everything to move to Hawaii. Having both lived in a small town their entire lives, they wanted their children to experience new adventures and meet people from all over the globe. Because Lia had moved to Hawaii from the age of eighteen to twenty-one and then back to Maine, she knew that Hawaii was the ideal place to do that.

On the islands, Lia homeschooled her sons and became even more active in her community. Teaching her children at home and personal training her clients at their homes kept her busy. She and her family helped groups that were regularly feeding the homeless on certain evenings. She also enjoyed holding church family gatherings, growing vegetables, and touring the various beaches, yet she was never too busy to explore the beauty of God all around her. It was then that she began writing songs with her eldest son who played on the local worship team and her childhood love for writing developed further.

Speaking Engagements

In Hawaii, when Lia Jaye had a request to speak at a large women’s retreat, her path as a public speaker for churches, women’s groups, and health companies, began. However, after speaking at several events and getting rave reviews, she spoke in front of one of America’s most sought after public speakers and businessmen. It was then that things changed. When he asked her to continue her speaking engagements full time and requested she become his companies’ top spokesperson, she had to take a step back. Since he was a self-made billionaire and co-owner of one of the health industry’s fastest growing global companies she was encouraged, knowing it could be highly lucrative, but decided against it. Wanting to spend more precious time with her children to fulfill her God given role as a wife and mother, she chose to put her family first instead.

Time in Missouri

Six fun years later, Lia and her family moved to Missouri to be a part of a larger church that focused on the power of prayer and worship. She continued to homeschool her youngest son and resumed her career as a health and fitness professional. With a deep passion for helping people who struggled immensely, day after day at her job, she took on the hardest cases. One client she adored had been through eight replacement surgeries and yet, she was able to help him return to a full and active life.

Lia’s ability to instill within her clientele, the strength to face their hardest challenges, changed each of her client’s lives for the better. She found this incredibly rewarding. Being an empath, her biggest challenge was caring more about her client’s health than they did their own, she never gave up on them… even if they drank too much and refused to give up their ice cream.

Since Lia always made sure to shine the light of Jesus upon her world, the staff at her gym and each beautiful soul she encountered on the floor, knew there was something different about her, and said so aloud. Most of her clients grew to love her like family and would invite her to their family gatherings, weddings, and often requested she train or coach their spouses and children. Before long, her physical coaching grew into life coaching, so she could help improve her client’s personal lives as much as she did their physical.

Her deep love for studying and research gained her multiple certifications in her field. She. found that nutrition coaching and focusing on the lessons she had learned in her behavioral change specialist training, combined with her faith, made the most positive impact. This peaked her interest into more of the mental wellness side of “why” her clients made the choices they did, especially when those choices did not align with their stated goals.

Corporate Wellness Coordinator Years

Switching gears to become a wellness coordinator of a large tech corporation, she was able to help hundreds of employees better their lives and overcome the negative effects of a stressful job and too much sitting. At this point, due to having been a health professional for over thirty years, she was able to develop comprehensive testing to guide these employees on an entirely new level. With the ability they gained through her unique tests, to compare themselves from where they were at initial testing, to where they were later, her expertise became invaluable to the company.

Tracking the progress on each employee’s physical training, postural corrections, alignment and balance, behavioral goals, stress management, ability to overcome addictions, mental health, and work-life balance; was a daily occurrence. Never had a career been so rewarding. She gained close relationships with the staff and the company’s owners from which she learned the ins and outs about running a successful business and she will ever praise God for the experience.

Nantucket

On her last vacation before the company sold, after returning from a trip to Nantucket, something happened that radically changed her health and altered her entire path. This led to the fascinating story behind her books. (Read “The Story Behind the Story” to learn more!)

The Rockies

All these years later, Lia has moved with her family to experience the Rocky Mountain life. They all adore camping with the family’s one grandchild (so far) as well as boating and stand-up paddle boarding, visiting the National Forests around the country/the Van Life, as well as off roading. Her husband and sons, fully enjoy mountain biking, as well as hiking with Lia’s daughters-in-law, (including several fourteeners) which means, any mountain over 14,000 ft. (Yes. They are crazy!) The similarities of Maine, Missouri, Hawaii, and the Rockies are not vast, but the beauty these states provided at every turn, has been breathtaking.

Lia’s Current Church Life

Dedicated to the Lord since her teen years, Lia Jaye strives to be His hands and feet by sharing. His love with a world in need. Committed to serving her church, her family, friends, clients, and readers, she is a constant source of light and encouragement. Her ability to overcome many obstacles in this life, with a “never quit” attitude, has made her the strong woman of faith she is today. Although still learning, she has been as an example for us all on how to start and build strong relationships despite moving often, and how to triumph despite trial.

Summary

Lia is an empathetic public speaker, writer, researcher, nutritionist, personal trainer, corporate wellness coordinator, a coach in health, detox, weight loss, and life. As a specialist in corrective exercise and behavioral change, her expertise in the field of wellness has allowed her to help improve many lives daily over the last 30 years. Her books are an inspiration.