By Tim Hauserman ·
Court Leve | Courtesy Jess Moreno ·
For Jess Moreno, her most important decisions have come from her heart. Deep feelings of intuition have led her in the direction of what the next step in her life should be, and almost always for the better, she says. The last time she said that she followed this feeling was when she knew it was time to leave her job as an inflight air medic and become a personal trainer in Truckee.
“The last year has been a rollercoaster, being sure I’m doing my life’s purpose and still freaking out about how I’m going to pay the bills. But then something happens that renews my faith. And I’m good to go again,” said Jess.
She made a momentous move that many of us contemplate making: Letting go of her safety net to live a life without guarantees. Now she works full time as a trainer at The Bar Effect in Truckee.
“I wanted to be involved with people’s wellness and not just reacting to illness or injury. Day to day, I love watching people achieve their goals,” she says.
Jess was born in Newport Beach but moved to Tahoma and lived there from the age of 6 months to 3-years-old. She was unaware that she had lived in Tahoe until her Mom told her once she began living here as an adult, but when she was 5 she recollects cutting out pictures of log cabins with pine trees from magazines and telling her Mom that this is where she wanted to live some day.
In her Southern California life, she rode horses from the age of 7, danced and played music. At the age of 19, she made her first step toward returning to where she now knows she belongs when she started rock climbing. In her early 20s, she was in the mountains of Idyllwild one night marveling at the blanket of stars above her and knew that she needed to be where she could see lots of bright stars every night, she says. So even though she didn’t have a car, she moved to Mammoth.
It wasn’t easy. A friend drove her to Bishop, where she lived in a tent in a campground. She bummed rides to climb until she got a job leading horseback rides into the amazing wilderness around Mammoth. The cowgirl job led her to taking an EMT course to be ready in case anyone fell off the horses.
The next step in Jess’s journey started with a ski trip to Whistler, British Columbia, when she stopped in Tahoe.
“I spent a few days in Tahoe and hiked up Eagle Rock. I thought I’d been here before. It felt like home,” said Jess.
She followed her intuition again and moved to Tahoe, first working at Olympic Bike Shop in Tahoe City and later at Paco’s in Truckee. She took another EMT course in 2007, and in the first class made the decision that she wanted to be a medic.
“It took me a year to get a job, first on a ground ambulance, before I got a full-time job on a fixed wing air ambulance. We took people from small rural hospitals to a higher level of care,” said Jess.
While she was providing an important service transporting medical patients, the hours were long and the stress was high, she said.
Before she took the job, she had become more devoted to physical fitness, so she spent her few hours of downtime working out, but the more important staying fit became to her, the fewer hours she had to focus on making it happen. Then, Michelle Rahlves at The Bar Effect called about working for her.
Eventually, Jess made the momentous decision to give up her stable job and become a trainer full time. Jess teaches up to 12 classes a week, which keeps her busy, but still leaves time to research new exercise programs, and enjoy the Tahoe lifestyle. And, she knows how to enjoy the mountains. Whether it’s skiing, mountain biking, road biking or shooting on the range, she is a non-stop exercise fiend. She is an amazingly strong woman who is hard to keep up with on a bike or a ski hill. I know, I’ve tried and failed.
“I love watching people achieve their goals. Maybe they are recovering from an illness or injury. I give them things that will not hurt them, but instead strengthen the injured part,” said Jess.
To find out about her classes, visit thebareffect.com or call her at (530) 386-3635.
