DeKALB – Kimberly Zepeda, 41, said her life “completely changed” two years ago when someone asked her a simple question about how much weight she wanted to lose.
Now, she’s sitting on top of the world, opening her own business, Wired Nutrition, 830 W. Lincoln Highway in the Junction Shopping Center, next to Fushi Yami, and in the best shape of her life.
“I was struggling with myself, with my weight, and I had sleep apnea,” Zepeda said Monday as she prepared for the store’s soft opening. “I decided I needed to do something. I was almost 40 years old and wasn’t even living my life.”
Zepeda got in touch with a mentor over Facebook who introduced her to FitHub in Rochelle and HerbaLife, a global company that offers nutrition, weight-loss coaching and supplements such as shakes, teas and smoothies.
Since her own journey to health and happiness was so successful, Zepeda was inspired to spread the knowledge with her own business in DeKalb.
“It’s not too far away from home, and we come to DeKalb all the time anyway,” Zepeda said. She worked for a time as a secretary at Oak Crest in DeKalb. She named her business Wired Nutrition because of DeKalb’s claim to fame: barbed wire.
“My motto is also ‘get wired,’” she said.
Zepeda and her husband, Jose, live in Rochelle with their two daughters, 20-year-old Alexis and 16-year-old Isella. Alexis will be working with her mom at the shop, and even helped her find the 2,300-square-foot space to set up the business.
Wired Nutrition will offer an assortment of made-to-order smoothies, teas and fitness shakes, and drinks with aloe vera. Each drink ranges from 150 to 200 calories, Zepeda said. The shakes contain 17 grams of protein and are meant to be meal replacements.
The Booster Teas are so named because they contain metabolism-boosting ingredients, which Zepeda calls LiftOffs.
“If you were to have a Red Bull, there’s a lot of sugar in those,” Zepeda said. “Ours is not filled with tons of sugar, so it’s not going to give you that big high or low, but it has as much caffeine.”
Drink flavors range from fruity favorites such as peach, mango, cranberry and mandarin orange to combination flavors that taste like Twix candy bars, brownie batter, blueberry cheesecake or wedding cake.
“We have something for everybody, basically,” Zepeda said.
Patrons even can get in on free cardio drumming classes, which Zepeda will teach Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
“A lot of people don’t know what [cardio drumming] is, but it’s so fun,” Zepeda said. “Basically, you get a big bucket and one of those giant yoga balls, and you use drum sticks and work out to songs and different music. It’s a lot of fun, and some people think they’re not going to get a big workout from it.”
Zepeda said her classes are geared to any level of fitness, and she even encourages children to come and participate.
“Anybody can come in and do it,” she said. “You go at your own pace. The harder you work out, the better workout you’re going to get, but everything is modifiable, we just want you to keep moving. If we’re all doing jumping jacks and you can’t do one, that’s OK.”
Once Zepeda is able to expand her customer base and hire more help, she plans to offer Saturday cardio drumming classes, too. She’s hoping to mimic FitHub in Rochelle, where she began her fitness journey.
“My husband said, ‘Kim, you’re the happiest when you’re there,’” Zepeda said. “I want other people to know – who felt like I did, kind of hopeless – what is out there and what can help.”
[“source=.daily-chronicle”]
