This work began as a question
I didn’t always have the language for what I now teach.
But my body did.
It knew when fitness felt more like punishment than care.
It knew when I was being asked to override myself in the name of “discipline.”
And it knew — long before I could explain it — that this wasn’t the way I wanted to live, nor the relationship I wanted to pass on.
The question: How do we learn to live inside our bodies with safety, trust, and self-value — while still being allowed to want change?
Not just intellectually.
But practically.
Daily.
Like many women, I entered modern fitness spaces that asked me to relate to my body through control, urgency, and self-override. I learned the rules. I followed them. I even succeeded by their standards.
But something was missing, something was off.
Becoming a mother made the question unavoidable.
When I became a mother, the question deepened.
It was no longer just, How do I feel in my body?
It became, What am I teaching through the way I live in it?
My daughter will not learn self-value from what I say. She will learn it from what I embody.
From how I move.
How I rest.
How I speak to myself.
How I pursue change — or don’t.
That realization reshaped everything.
Fitness was no longer about achieving a body.
It became about modeling a relationship.
I’m Nelao
I am a postpartum weight loss coach and body-centered guide. But more than that, my work is about how we hold ourselves through change.
I support mothers who want to lose weight without disconnecting from their bodies — and who understand that how they pursue change matters as much as the outcome itself.
I work slowly.
With care.
With close attention to safety, nervous system regulation, and the lived realities of motherhood.
I don’t believe in forcing consistency.
I believe in devotion — the kind that grows naturally when the body feels safe enough to stay.
I don’t believe the body needs fixing.
I believe it needs to be listened to.
And I don’t believe self-value is something we think our way into. I believe it’s something we live into — and pass on.
This work is not loud.
It doesn’t rush.
It doesn’t promise quick transformation.
But it is deep.
And it lasts.
Frequently Asked Questions
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My work is grounded in both lived experience and professional education.
I am:
a certified personal trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine
a certified health coach through the American Council of Exercise
a certified Pilates instructor through the Fitness Formula Clubs of Chicago Apprenticeship Program
Certified Online Trainer through The Online Trainer Academy by Johnathan Goodman
a certified Pre- and Postnatal Fitness Coach through the Girls Gone Strong Academy (currently in progress)
But credentials alone don’t create safety.
What matters is how that knowledge is held and applied, with restraint, humility, and care for the woman in front of me.
I don’t use my training to push bodies. I use it to protect them.
My work in fitness and body-centered care spans more than a decade.
I began my career in 2014, after earning my certification as a personal trainer, working as a fitness specialist at Fitness Formula Clubs in Chicago — a luxury gym known for its high standards and emphasis on quality care.
After returning to Namibia, I founded Power Poise Wellness, a private fitness studio where I worked 1:1 with women, led small group training, and facilitated corporate wellness programs for organizations including Deloitte Namibia, PUMA Energy, the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation, the University of Namibia, NamPower, and other leading institutions.
I closed my studio just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and transitioned my work online, where I began training women internationally as a self-love–focused personal trainer, integrating fitness, embodiment, and self-value.
In 2022, I became pregnant and entered a postpartum sabbatical — a period that deeply reshaped both my personal life and the lens through which I now practice.
This work is not new to me, but it has evolved with experience, motherhood, and time. If you’d like to see my previous work and other places I’ve been featured, you can have a look at my 2021 bio.