beep. beep. beep. At 5:30 a.m., Danielle Rocha’s aggressive alarm sounds to welcome her new day. Her mornings start the same way every day of the year, with her 5:30 alarm.Busy mom and owner daniels fitness The Sonoma native uses early starts as a way to set up her day to make the most of her time.
She gets up and works out until 7 a.m., then wakes her daughter. The two eat breakfast and head to the nursery school. After dropping off her 3-year-old daughter, 35-year-old Rocha leaves to begin her day job as her personal trainer.
It was 8:30 a.m. and her shift officially began. A typical day for her consists of meeting clients, answering emails and phone calls, business meetings, and sometimes covering personal training sessions. Sessions for employees.
“I’m a personal trainer, but I also run a business,” Rocha said of wearing multiple hats throughout the day. “On top of that, I’m a mother and a wife.”
By 5pm, Rocha finishes work. She picks up her daughter from daycare and returns to her home. By 5:30 p.m., she’s ready for dinner. Her family’s favorite is feijoada. A traditional Brazilian pork or beef and bean stew. Focus on your family.
Rocha says that as a Brazilian, “it’s a sin to eat beans from a can,” so the beans are always made from scratch.
6:30pm, 3 family members After eating and dinner, Rocha and her husband begin a bedtime routine for their daughter. And by 8 pm the little one goes to bed.
After a 15-hour day on her feet, running her business, meeting clients, cooking dinner, and socializing with her family, you might think it’s time to relax or sleep, but Rocha’s mind isn’t ready for rest yet. has not been completed. She reads books and watches movies with her husband while checking her email because as a business owner her work never stops.
Finally, around 9:30 p.m., Rocha goes to bed and starts recharging for the night. Because in eight hours, another mission-filled day awaits you.
Leaving Brazil for Sonoma
Originally from southeastern Brazil, Rocha grew up in Vitoria, the capital of the state of Espirito Santo. In Vitoria, she lived by the sea, and at that time all her life was devoted to sports and the sea. She played volleyball, soccer, surfed, and was also a lifeguard.
In 2009, she immigrated to the United States at the age of 21 to work as an au pair for a family in Sonoma. During that time, she spoke no English, only Portuguese. The plan was to become an au pair in Spain, but Sonoma County turned out to be more affordable than Europe.
Rocha’s mother knew she needed to learn English right away and paid for English lessons when she settled in Sonoma. On top of learning a new language, Rocha was alone in a new country.
“I didn’t know anyone. At first, it felt like an adventure to leave my country, family, and friends and come to a country where I barely spoke the language,” she said at the time. “I cried almost every day after that. I was out of my comfort zone, but after a few months, I met her two best friends, her husband and a Brazilian friend.”
When she first arrived in Sonoma, she worked 40 hours a week as an au pair and lived with a host family. She also worked as a dishwasher at a local restaurant to earn money to travel and explore Northern California.
catalyst for change
Later, I gained 45 pounds from eating too much fast food.
“When I came in 2009, I met my first best friend, McDonald’s,” she said.
Rocha realized how much her body had changed and wanted to do something about it. Looking back at that time in his life, Rocha said he was depressed because he missed his girlfriend’s family, and he began filling that emotional void with food, she said.
“I tried everything everyone does to lose weight. I tried diet pills and diet books, food addict anonymous,” she said.
One day, she was watching a female WWE wrestler and thought, “Why don’t I look like that?”
It was after that segment that she started learning about health. She learned about nutrition, weight lifting, and how to recalibrate her mind. Here she realized that before starting her physical journey to lose weight, she needed to be in good mental condition.
“That day I finally decided to lose weight. I started training myself and really started to understand the concept of weight loss,” she said.
Rocha believed that starting going to the gym, adopting a healthier diet and learning to cook were the main factors in her weight loss. All of this combined with a positive mindset, and over time, she finally started to see her progress on her weight loss journey.
