ABOUT ME

I’m Mae, a high school student in the Northeast, a competitive swimmer, and the founder of Wellness With Mae. I love music (hit me up with your favorite playlists!), and some of my traits include being motivated, curious, logical, competitive, and introvertive (I’m definitely a math person, too, but I love to write). My goal with this platform is to help others lead a balanced, healthy lifestyle.

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Let’s backtrack to the first quarantine, which began in March 2020…

For starters, we were hit with a pandemic, which no one is ever really prepared for. It began with announcements, such as a lockdown, a quarantine, and a rush to get masks.

While the world was experiencing unrest, I was also experiencing some anxiety at home. You see, both my parents are workers in the healthcare industry and because of that, we all stayed in different rooms, quarantining from one another every day. As a competitive swimmer, I was missing my normal training routine in a public pool, and I knew nothing about at-home fitness, so I put off daily exercise. With the extra time due from lockdown, my mom started cooking a lot of new, diverse foods, which we were fortunate to have. After about two weeks, I stepped on the scale (just out of curiosity), and I noticed I had weighed much more than I thought. I looked in the mirror, confused, and began to investigate. I was disappointed by what I saw. I was not toned, knew for a fact I was not strong, had some love handles on the sides (which I was not used to seeing), was insecure about my broad shoulders (they weren’t even broad), and had quite an appetite. What I didn’t realize was that I had to give myself credit: we were adjusting to living during a pandemic and I was at a healthy weight for my height and age.

Instead of loathing in my insecurities, I went into a workout-obsessed mode. I worked out seven days a week, every week, for ten months straight, following Youtube videos that promised “abs in ten days” or “burn 500 calories in 30 minutes.” After every workout video, my “rest” would consist of me running to the scale to see if that workout (whether it was two, ten, or twenty minutes) had helped me lose weight. I restricted myself from certain foods, which only led to me bingeing on those same foods later on. By January 2021, I had downloaded a calorie counting app. I constantly checked Apple's Health app to check how many calories I had burnt. If I had burned enough, I gave myself permission to eat. My Instagram feed went from Percy Jackon and the Olympians and funny posts to models and fitness influencers.

By April 2021, I came across an influencer who posted real, authentic posts about body image, lifestyle, and social media.

My mindset shifted. I realized that I should accept myself for who I was and the healthy body I had. I learned valuable lessons, and slowly, my Instagram feed changed. First, it was models and fitness influencers, then wellness influencers. It continually shifted and soon became about well-being, a positive mindset, journaling, and most importantly, balance.

By June 2021, confidence returned. I was so inspired by the wellness community that I decided to start my own account, @wellnesswith_mae. It gave me an outlet to show my newfound passion for health and wellness to others. 

This journey has been a struggle but also has helped me grow, and for that, I am grateful. Without it, I would have never discovered this health and wellness community. As an introvert, I have always had trouble relating to others, but now I know how to be more understanding.

​I aim to help others lead a balanced, healthy lifestyle, no matter who they are or where they come from. I aim to give people of all backgrounds and demographics the opportunity to transform their life into one they envision for themselves. I aim to help anyone struggling with a toxic mindset of comparing yourself to others’ successes.

If your goals are to find inspiration, a safe space, new recipes, productive routines, helpful advice, and to lead a balanced lifestyle, you’ve come to the right place. I am so happy you’re here.