What if the moment you feared most became the fuel for everything you’d become? Destiny’s story starts with instability—homelessness with her mom, hunger that never quit, and an early slide into alcohol and pills. It runs headlong through five DUIs, a felony sentence, and the brutal reality of women’s prison. And then something simple but seismic happens: she starts running laps, reading anatomy and business books, and building a daily plan that reconnects her with discipline, faith, and a future.
We talk about the small, unglamorous choices that actually change a life. How to use movement to stabilize mood. How to replace shame with service. How to show up without a smartphone to be fully present for your kid, and why biking 35 miles in the rain to keep your promise can reset identity faster than any pep talk. She shares practical tools for sobriety in social settings, the danger of today’s fentanyl-tainted pills, and how a gratitude list can shut down a craving in seconds. You’ll hear why perspective is your passport or your prison, and how switching “I wish” to “when I do” can turn opportunity into action.
The story crescendos with purpose. Asked to help a failing “fat camp,” she rewrote the playbook: real nutrition, individualized plans, dignity first. Parents noticed, schools called, and Camp Shape was born—a residential program teaching teens discipline, social-emotional skills, healthy eating, and entrepreneurship. Her for-profit, Shape Your Destiny, now delivers the same curriculum across Southern California schools, especially for kids who need structure and belief the most. It’s prevention at its best: give young people the tools she needed at eleven, before crisis hits.
If you’ve ever wondered how to rebuild after rock bottom—or how to help someone you love—this conversation is a field guide. Listen, share with a friend who needs hope, and if it resonates, subscribe and leave a review so more people can find stories that move them forward.