The fire in me is ignited by learning, being of service and the growth of mind, body and soul.
Aloha! My name is Mequasah Simpson, pronounced Mec-Wa-Sa.
I grew up on a very very rural home called Flower Song Farm in Eastern Oregon. We had a working farm, milked cows, fed and sold hogs, and gathered eggs from our chicke
MY LIFELONG JOURNEY TO HEALING AND SELF-ACCEPTANCE.
Aloha! My name is Mequasah Simpson, pronounced Mec-Wa-Sa.
I grew up on a very very rural home called Flower Song Farm in Eastern Oregon. We had a working farm, milked cows, fed and sold hogs, and gathered eggs from our chickens. We also had an orchard with apples, blueberry bushes, cherries, and plums. My mother still makes the BEST cherry pies. We grew up planting all sorts in the earth, picking off potato bugs and weeding in the summer, and harvesting in the fall. My mother still is a prolific gardener.
We ate with the seasons. She always made our three squares a day from scratch. All organic and with a ton of vitamin L (LOVE). We stored apples and potatoes in a root cellar. Canned fruit and veggies and aged homemade cheese wrapped in cheesecloth. And lots of spiders down there, I still get the heeby Jeeby’s when I go down there.
I was born on the kitchen floor.
Healthy food and a healthy lifestyle was our life, the crazy thing is, my mother never thought to teach me how to cook. We have since discussed this and she admits; she just wanted us (my brother and I) out of the way! She was busy making every meal, baking bread, and whipping up mayonnaise from scratch. Gardening from spring to fall, caning everything under the sun in the fall. She was never still.
Nor was my dad. An avid hunter, he butchered and packaged our wild game, and caught and smoked our fish. I think you get the picture.
My point is that even though we ate almost all organic and from our own property I WAS NEVER TAUGHT HOW TO COOK!
I have no idea what I ate in college, Cup O Noodles and marshmallow fluff maybe? Oh and Boons Farm...
After college, I moved to “The Big City” (Portland OR). I was at loose ends and a bit lonely and my mother suggested I join a gym. “You will feel better when you move your body and meet a quality of people with similar standards.” she said. This one suggestion has turned out to be one of those life paths that has been pivotal for the rest of my life.
I LOVED how the gym made me feel, I met amazing people and became passionate about fitness.
I moved to Kauai HI in 1999, I knew no one there but knew I needed a change and did not like the path some of my close friends were going down. Once again my mom: “Find a gym.” So I did and after speaking with the owner who mentioned that the boat company next door was hiring I got a job For a girl who had never been out on the ocean it was quite a remove from what I was used to but boy did I fall in love! I spent a year working on sail/motor catamarans with mostly happy tourists. I fell in love with the ocean and became a certified scuba diver and met some of the most amazing people. Definitely my tribe. Wow, what a job, rainbows in the mornings, the Napali coast, and spinner dolphins galore. I was there when the Twin towers fell and decided to go back to the mainland while the world was in so much turmoil while I worked on getting my passport. I never had an official birth certificate and it ended up taking years to get all of the paperwork. This kept me from moving to Australia to work on a liveaboard as I was planning and as the fates would have it I met the love of my life. In a very short period upon coming back to Portland I fell in love and became a Personal Trainer at a chain gym.
I started my own business after a year or so, Mequasah’s Functional Fitness. In my training courses, I learned not just about the physical body, but also about food prepping, calorie counting, and calories in versus calories out.
The most valuable thing I learned from my role as a trainer was the feeling I got by supporting and watching individuals meet their training goals. Of their many improvements, they gained muscle mass, improved stability, gained confidence, slept better, lose weight, the list literally can go on and on. I was so proud of them. It was a gift to myself.
Of course, when you are immersed in health you usually live it yourself and I certainly did.
But, I also wonder if this is the beginning of my disordered eating.
Through my 20s and 30’s, I would read labels, be aware of calories, say no to pizza and eat virtually the same thing every day five days a week then go off the rails (think entire pizza and tub of ice cream) a couple of days a week. That seemed to work for me at the time but I wish I’d known then what I know now.
What havoc calorie restriction and bingeing can cause to your system in the long run. How limiting calories, when I was working out so hard, was so much harder on my body than it would have been if I’d fed myself properly with the right whole foods. Not just living off of cottage cheese and red potatoes.
Exercise was NEVER an issue. There was rarely an exercise program or fitness idea I did not like. “Spartan race? I’M IN!!” “Pole fitness, yep.” “Kettlebells, oh yes!” Trapeze and aerial silks, hiking, snowboarding, and so on. From the jump, I loved how exercise made me feel! How good it felt in my body.
At the same time, I’ve never met an active person who has not suffered injuries and setbacks I can say with 100 percent certainty that these setbacks (in hindsight) have been some of the most valuable growth factors in my life. I have learned humility and patience and compassion.
I loved to run but after growing up horseback riding my kneecaps had developed off center of their running bones by 11 degrees so I could no longer run after I hit 20.
The first major pivot, what could I do without irritating them. Already at 20, I could not run out to my car to avoid rain without them getting inflamed and full of fluid. “What about zombies!?”
Luckily with my background in functional fitness, I was able to figure out what worked for me.
In February of 2007, I spiral fractured my Fibula and Tibia while snowboarding. It was so shattered that we had to wait months before they were able to insert a rod and screws. I was unable to walk unassisted for 9 months. Having your husband carry your bucket of urine downstairs for you is pretty humbling. I learned that sometimes my house was just not going to be as clean as I wanted. I gained so much compassion during this immensely valuable time. Even though I am still (many years later) dealing with the ramifications of that injury I will always be grateful for what life has sent me. During this time my mom got me a few Rodney Yee yoga videos and a stability ball video (Liz Gilles) that once again changed the flow of my life. I couldn’t drive to the gym so I would do what I could at home.
As soon as I had clearance I found a yoga studio. I played with Bikram and vinyasa… got pregnant and did a lot of walking. I gained over 60 lbs during my pregnancy. I refused to be concerned I was active every day but man was I hungry! Luckily at this point, I had learned more about healthy eating and I cooked tons of healthy good food for my hubby and myself.
After giving birth (via a C-section, all those natural birthing classes down the drain) to our very large, very healthy daughter I got moving again with Kettle Bells and Hot yoga. The weight fell off.
But disordered eating really kicked in. I’d make an entire tray of rice crispy treats with peanut butter and couldn’t stop eating. I’d have to throw them in the trash and then pour dish soap on them. If I’m honest it was the boredom. Don't get me wrong I LOVED my girl and Loved being a mom but I was BORED. I had grown up in a home where my mother was home with the kids and my husband was raised the same way and even though we never said that this is what had to be, it was in our DNA. Not until my daughter was 7 did I (with a LOT of pushing from friends and family) take time for me to go thru my first 200hr yoga teacher training. Another life-changing decision.
I can no longer imagine my life without yoga in it, without that balance that has instilled itself in my very being. I was able to study the philosophy of yoga and the Bhagavad Gita, meditation, breath work, ayurveda, and yes the asana practice itself. This of course did not all come in the first 200 hours but over the next 500 hours of yogic training and courses, and 8 years of practice and teaching.
As I have aged the body continues to change and morph. Double knee release surgery (to rectify that issue with my knees) in 2020 along with a 20 lbs weight gain rocked my world.
My husband lost his mother, we moved away from my family and because of the pandemic, were suddenly told to lockdown in our home in order to save lives. We drank wine and ate pizza, and did all the unhealthy things we had never done in our lives. We homeschooled our daughter, learned line dancing from youtube, and spiraled down a rabbit hole that we never even saw coming. 2021 saw our relationship in a place it had never been before, and my body and self-esteem were at rock bottom. I KNEW I needed to get OUT OF MY RUT.
First I had to realize I was in a rut, which I finally had done but then I had NO IDEA what to do. I knew I was not living my mental and spiritual potential. I always loved helping others to grow and thrive, but I didn’t know where to start. I hadn’t found my yoga community in my new home and was no longer teaching yoga very often. Plus with the whole pandemic deal, it was so complicated. To NOT be able to touch a student to make adjustments and those all-important physical touch connections, no longer served me.
A dear friend got me hooked on Dr. Mark Hyman’s DR’s Farmacy podcasts and I’d listen to those as I hiked. Somewhere in there my spark got lit, then turned into a flame, I felt like I had the physical stuff down, I’d spent my 20’s and 30’s learning the physical and I was craving more wisdom. Did I need to go back to college and finish my degree to become a Naturopath, something I’d been interested in becoming for the last 10 years? I hated the idea of having to learn crap I would never use! I started the process of enrolling in our local college just the same, just “got the ball rolling” and had faith that what was meant to be would be and come naturally. A belief that I have carried with me my entire life. Within a few weeks, I’d dropped my classes (thank god) and enrolled in The institute for Integrative Nutrition. I started the next HUGE life-changing path.
The Institute for Integrative Nutrition reiterated all of those amazing things I had learned throughout my life and then opened my eyes to so much more. I am still in shock and so grateful that I was able to find that perfect program and that felt so right in my heart and soul.
I shouldn’t be surprised because that is in all of us. That deep knowledge of what we need to do next. We know in our gut, we just have to be open, listen and ask the right questions. Sometimes we think, “oh it's just this 20 pounds that I can’t get rid of”. Or if I could just get better sleep, or find a more fulfilling job.
At IIN they put into words what I already knew. That what we put in our mouth is really our secondary food and that the people we love, the home where we live, and the people with whom we surround ourselves is the primary food with which we feed ourselves. We feed our Souls.
As I Peeled back the layers and years of my own health journey I learned to let go of this idea of perfection. Of the idea that if I could lose these last 10 pounds, my life would somehow be better. I learned more self-love and compassion, that I do not need to be in control of everything, and if I mess up that is OK. I do not need to know all of the answers, I simply need to be present with all of the abundant love that I hold. I have found a beautiful balance between what I put in my mouth and what I feed my family. It will of course go off balance and I will course correct again and again.
I’ve found the compassion that I give out to others so freely and share it with myself as well. I am without a doubt the healthiest I have ever been in my life.
I cook 98% of my meals at home and teach my daughter home cooking and nutrition. I am very open and answer any questions she has about anything and I listen.
My skin issues are healing and are rarely present now. My sleep is deep and easy and on nights it is not, I usually know why and I can make that decision to have wine before bed or not. I will not beat myself up about that decision in the morning. I have learned to accept that there will be days where I am just exhausted and for seemingly no reason and that I can pivot, maybe take a nap instead of food prepping, or do yoga instead of a weight training day. My body is not the same body I had in my 20’s and 30s. But neither is my mind and that is amazing.
I used to be so regimented and if I didn’t do it all and do it great I was somehow lacking. I’ve learned to give myself grace on days that I have less patience with my husband or daughter and I am setting boundaries (and self-care) so that I can charge myself in order to be there for them. And so so so much more.
My life is surrounded by love. I have been honored to have spent the last 20 years with my gorgeous loving husband, my best friend. We have a vivacious loving and artistic soon-to-be 14-year-old daughter. I live with two, four-legged terrorists, a cat, and Boston Terrier. I love my chickens, my laying hens as well as over 30 wild chickens that keep me jumping. We have 4 acres where we are able to cultivate the land and play in the sun. My husband is a fantastic gardener and grows most of our veggies and is working on fruit trees.
I have a wonderful community both here and back on the mainland. I am looking forward to meeting many new people through my work, helping to transform, and being transformed by.
I am excited to listen with my open heart and ask questions with my wealth of knowledge to help anyone ready to change their lives forever.
ns. We also had an orchard with apples, blueberry bushes, cherries, and plums. My mother still makes the BEST cherry pies. We grew up planting all sorts in the earth, picking off potato bugs and weeding in the summer, and harvesting in the fall. My mother still is a prolific gardener.
We ate with the seasons. She always made our three squares a day from scratch. All organic and with a ton of vitamin L (LOVE). We stored apples and potatoes in a root cellar. Canned fruit and veggies and aged homemade cheese wrapped in cheesecloth. And lots of spiders down there, I still get the heeby Jeeby’s when I go down there.
I was born on the kitchen floor.
Healthy food and a healthy lifestyle was our life, the crazy thing is, my mother never thought to teach me how to cook. We have since discussed this and she admits; she just wanted us (my brother and I) out of the way! She was busy making every meal, baking bread, and whipping up mayonnaise from scratch. Gardening from spring to fall, caning everything under the sun in the fall. She was never still.
Nor was my dad. An avid hunter, he butchered and packaged our wild game, and caught and smoked our fish. I think you get the picture.
My point is that even though we ate almost all organic and from our own property I WAS NEVER TAUGHT HOW TO COOK!
I have no idea what I ate in college, Cup O Noodles and marshmallow fluff maybe? Oh and Boons Farm...
After college, I moved to “The Big City” (Portland OR). I was at loose ends and a bit lonely and my mother suggested I join a gym. “You will feel better when you move your body and meet a quality of people with similar standards.” she said. This one suggestion has turned out to be one of those life paths that has been pivotal for the rest of my life.
I LOVED how the gym made me feel, I met amazing people and became passionate about fitness.
I moved to Kauai HI in 1999, I knew no one there but knew I needed a change and did not like the path some of my close friends were going down. Once again my mom: “Find a gym.” So I did and after speaking with the owner who mentioned that the boat company next door was hiring I got a job For a girl who had never been out on the ocean it was quite a remove from what I was used to but boy did I fall in love! I spent a year working on sail/motor catamarans with mostly happy tourists. I fell in love with the ocean and became a certified scuba diver and met some of the most amazing people. Definitely my tribe. Wow, what a job, rainbows in the mornings, the Napali coast, and spinner dolphins galore. I was there when the Twin towers fell and decided to go back to the mainland while the world was in so much turmoil while I worked on getting my passport. I never had an official birth certificate and it ended up taking years to get all of the paperwork. This kept me from moving to Australia to work on a liveaboard as I was planning and as the fates would have it I met the love of my life. In a very short period upon coming back to Portland I fell in love and became a Personal Trainer at a chain gym.
I started my own business after a year or so, Mequasah’s Functional Fitness. In my training courses, I learned not just about the physical body, but also about food prepping, calorie counting, and calories in versus calories out.
The most valuable thing I learned from my role as a trainer was the feeling I got by supporting and watching individuals meet their training goals. Of their many improvements, they gained muscle mass, improved stability, gained confidence, slept better, lose weight, the list literally can go on and on. I was so proud of them. It was a gift to myself.
Of course, when you are immersed in health you usually live it yourself and I certainly did.
But, I also wonder if this is the beginning of my disordered eating.
Through my 20s and 30’s, I would read labels, be aware of calories, say no to pizza and eat virtually the same thing every day five days a week then go off the rails (think entire pizza and tub of ice cream) a couple of days a week. That seemed to work for me at the time but I wish I’d known then what I know now.
What havoc calorie restriction and bingeing can cause to your system in the long run. How limiting calories, when I was working out so hard, was so much harder on my body than it would have been if I’d fed myself properly with the right whole foods. Not just living off of cottage cheese and red potatoes.
Exercise was NEVER an issue. There was rarely an exercise program or fitness idea I did not like. “Spartan race? I’M IN!!” “Pole fitness, yep.” “Kettlebells, oh yes!” Trapeze and aerial silks, hiking, snowboarding, and so on. From the jump, I loved how exercise made me feel! How good it felt in my body.
At the same time, I’ve never met an active person who has not suffered injuries and setbacks I can say with 100 percent certainty that these setbacks (in hindsight) have been some of the most valuable growth factors in my life. I have learned humility and patience and compassion.
I loved to run but after growing up horseback riding my kneecaps had developed off center of their running bones by 11 degrees so I could no longer run after I hit 20.
The first major pivot, what could I do without irritating them. Already at 20, I could not run out to my car to avoid rain without them getting inflamed and full of fluid. “What about zombies!?”
Luckily with my background in functional fitness, I was able to figure out what worked for me.
In February of 2007, I spiral fractured my Fibula and Tibia while snowboarding. It was so shattered that we had to wait months before they were able to insert a rod and screws. I was unable to walk unassisted for 9 months. Having your husband carry your bucket of urine downstairs for you is pretty humbling. I learned that sometimes my house was just not going to be as clean as I wanted. I gained so much compassion during this immensely valuable time. Even though I am still (many years later) dealing with the ramifications of that injury I will always be grateful for what life has sent me. During this time my mom got me a few Rodney Yee yoga videos and a stability ball video (Liz Gilles) that once again changed the flow of my life. I couldn’t drive to the gym so I would do what I could at home.
As soon as I had clearance I found a yoga studio. I played with Bikram and vinyasa… got pregnant and did a lot of walking. I gained over 60 lbs during my pregnancy. I refused to be concerned I was active every day but man was I hungry! Luckily at this point, I had learned more about healthy eating and I cooked tons of healthy good food for my hubby and myself.
After giving birth (via a C-section, all those natural birthing classes down the drain) to our very large, very healthy daughter I got moving again with Kettle Bells and Hot yoga. The weight fell off.
But disordered eating really kicked in. I’d make an entire tray of rice crispy treats with peanut butter and couldn’t stop eating. I’d have to throw them in the trash and then pour dish soap on them. If I’m honest it was the boredom. Don't get me wrong I LOVED my girl and Loved being a mom but I was BORED. I had grown up in a home where my mother was home with the kids and my husband was raised the same way and even though we never said that this is what had to be, it was in our DNA. Not until my daughter was 7 did I (with a LOT of pushing from friends and family) take time for me to go thru my first 200hr yoga teacher training. Another life-changing decision.
I can no longer imagine my life without yoga in it, without that balance that has instilled itself in my very being. I was able to study the philosophy of yoga and the Bhagavad Gita, meditation, breath work, ayurveda, and yes the asana practice itself. This of course did not all come in the first 200 hours but over the next 500 hours of yogic training and courses, and 8 years of practice and teaching.
As I have aged the body continues to change and morph. Double knee release surgery (to rectify that issue with my knees) in 2020 along with a 20 lbs weight gain rocked my world.
My husband lost his mother, we moved away from my family and because of the pandemic, were suddenly told to lockdown in our home in order to save lives. We drank wine and ate pizza, and did all the unhealthy things we had never done in our lives. We homeschooled our daughter, learned line dancing from youtube, and spiraled down a rabbit hole that we never even saw coming. 2021 saw our relationship in a place it had never been before, and my body and self-esteem were at rock bottom. I KNEW I needed to get OUT OF MY RUT.
First I had to realize I was in a rut, which I finally had done but then I had NO IDEA what to do. I knew I was not living my mental and spiritual potential. I always loved helping others to grow and thrive, but I didn’t know where to start. I hadn’t found my yoga community in my new home and was no longer teaching yoga very often. Plus with the whole pandemic deal, it was so complicated. To NOT be able to touch a student to make adjustments and those all-important physical touch connections, no longer served me.
A dear friend got me hooked on Dr. Mark Hyman’s DR’s Farmacy podcasts and I’d listen to those as I hiked. Somewhere in there my spark got lit, then turned into a flame, I felt like I had the physical stuff down, I’d spent my 20’s and 30’s learning the physical and I was craving more wisdom. Did I need to go back to college and finish my degree to become a Naturopath, something I’d been interested in becoming for the last 10 years? I hated the idea of having to learn crap I would never use! I started the process of enrolling in our local college just the same, just “got the ball rolling” and had faith that what was meant to be would be and come naturally. A belief that I have carried with me my entire life. Within a few weeks, I’d dropped my classes (thank god) and enrolled in The institute for Integrative Nutrition. I started the next HUGE life-changing path.
The Institute for Integrative Nutrition reiterated all of those amazing things I had learned throughout my life and then opened my eyes to so much more. I am still in shock and so grateful that I was able to find that perfect program and that felt so right in my heart and soul.
I shouldn’t be surprised because that is in all of us. That deep knowledge of what we need to do next. We know in our gut, we just have to be open, listen and ask the right questions. Sometimes we think, “oh it's just this 20 pounds that I can’t get rid of”. Or if I could just get better sleep, or find a more fulfilling job.
At IIN they put into words what I already knew. That what we put in our mouth is really our secondary food and that the people we love, the home where we live, and the people with whom we surround ourselves is the primary food with which we feed ourselves. We feed our Souls.
As I Peeled back the layers and years of my own health journey I learned to let go of this idea of perfection. Of the idea that if I could lose these last 10 pounds, my life would somehow be better. I learned more self-love and compassion, that I do not need to be in control of everything, and if I mess up that is OK. I do not need to know all of the answers, I simply need to be present with all of the abundant love that I hold. I have found a beautiful balance between what I put in my mouth and what I feed my family. It will of course go off balance and I will course correct again and again.
I’ve found the compassion that I give out to others so freely and share it with myself as well. I am without a doubt the healthiest I have ever been in my life.
I cook 98% of my meals at home and teach my daughter home cooking and nutrition. I am very open and answer any questions she has about anything and I listen.
My skin issues are healing and are rarely present now. My sleep is deep and easy and on nights it is not, I usually know why and I can make that decision to have wine before bed or not. I will not beat myself up about that decision in the morning. I have learned to accept that there will be days where I am just exhausted and for seemingly no reason and that I can pivot, maybe take a nap instead of food prepping, or do yoga instead of a weight training day. My body is not the same body I had in my 20’s and 30s. But neither is my mind and that is amazing.
I used to be so regimented and if I didn’t do it all and do it great I was somehow lacking. I’ve learned to give myself grace on days that I have less patience with my husband or daughter and I am setting boundaries (and self-care) so that I can charge myself in order to be there for them. And so so so much more.
My life is surrounded by love. I have been honored to have spent the last 20 years with my gorgeous loving husband, my best friend. We have a vivacious loving and artistic soon-to-be 14-year-old daughter. I live with two, four-legged terrorists, a cat, and Boston Terrier. I love my chickens, my laying hens as well as over 30 wild chickens that keep me jumping. We have 4 acres where we are able to cultivate the land and play in the sun. My husband is a fantastic gardener and grows most of our veggies and is working on fruit trees.
I have a wonderful community both here and back on the mainland. I am looking forward to meeting many new people through my work, helping to transform, and being transformed by.
I am excited to listen with my open heart and ask questions with my wealth of knowledge to help anyone ready to change their lives forever.
