Corry Matthews

Corry Matthews is an expert in all things fitness. Today Corry knows what it means to live a healthy life but it hasn’t always been that way. She sat down with us to share her long fitness journey which includes struggling with an eating disorder fueled by a fitness competition world and low self-esteem which ultimately has led her to have a new mindset today about what living a healthy life actually means. She uses her past struggles and experience to inspire her clients and teach them through science and psychology that women don’t have to feel embarrassed, shamed or anxious about getting healthy, staying fit and living their best life, whatever that looks like.

Corry Matthews has always had a passion for fitness and learning the science behind the movement of the body. It began in high school with an advanced science class combined with her love of dance that opened the door to a life centered around fitness. After getting her Bachelor’s Degree in Kinesiology from the University of Colorado, she moved to Japan with her husband who was in the military. During this time she worked on getting her Master’s Degree in Sports Medicine from the United States Sports Academy and directed group fitness programs across the island of Okinawa.

When the couple returned to the United States, she discovered a way to immerse herself even more in the fitness world and that was when she discovered that fitness competitions offered her an opportunity to work out and get back to her dance roots. While competing, she was always up and down with her weight. Corry knew what she needed to do to stay fit and lean, but explained it felt like a chore, and the yo-yo diets started. Corry admits that she has always secretly struggled with the balance between eating healthy and way overindulging in what she called at the time “cheat meals on the weekends”. She was determined to succeed in this new world of competing and after much perseverance, she got her Pro Card which qualified her as a professional athlete. and had a feature in Flex magazine. She had achieved her goal.

In 2008, Corry retired from competing to start a family. She was no longer competing but now with her business partner and friend, Stacia, she was putting on her own NPC (National Physique Committee which is the largest amateur bodybuilding organization in the United States) shows and promoting them. Soon after having her second child and struggling to lose the weight, anxiety and insecurity took over which negatively affected her relationship with her husband and she admits, “I was miserable to be around”.

Corry and her family moved to Rancho Palos Verdes in 2017. Moving cross-country and leaving all her friends and connections in the business world, she realized she was no longer able to rest on her past status as a professional athlete and nutritionist as she had before moving to a new place. She moved to a community that was taking her at face value. She was now hiding in her house, insecure about being 20 pounds over-weight and trying to sell herself as a fitness and nutrition expert. She knew she wasn’t at her best and realized she needed for herself what she was doing for her clients: Corry wanted to fix her “broken self”. She reconnected with a few mentors and after listening to Mel Robbins audible book Kick Ass she realized she was a hypocrite. Mel says in her book, “You can’t be a coach without being an example”. It was time for Corry to stop letting her excuses dictate her life and make a big change. Two years ago, Corry and Stacia worked on resetting their own hormones (not just estrogen, but insulin, cortisol, leptin and thyroid). It was a huge success. They both got healthy, lost weight and regained their own confidence as coaches. The skills, knowledge and education was always there, but the right mindset wasn’t. All of their clients started getting better results too. Today Corry is the CEO of Strength and Grace Fitness and helps women reset their habits and mindset to no longer feel stuck with their current weight and to finally lose weight and regain their own confidence, on their own terms.

Learn more about Corry and what she does to help women: https://strengthandgracefitness.com