The fitness guru, who dated Travis Kelce, recalls how therapy helped her through a difficult period after a breakup last summer.
Kayla Nicole is looking back on a "difficult" period in her life and sharing how embracing therapy got her through it.
The former Los Angeles Lakers in-game reporter reflected on her journey to finding balance with her physical fitness and mental health in conversation with People. "I genuinely say this and mean this -- I don't like who I am when I don't work out," Nicole tells the outlet, revealing that she is a "naturally anxious person" and felt like fitness "saved" her life amid "bouts with depression."
Nicole, who was in a relationship with NFL player Travis Kelce on and off from 2017 until May 2022, shares that after a "major breakup, major life change," she sought the help of therapy when she realized her mental health was suffering.
"Just full transparency, I went through this major breakup, major life change, and I had lost a substantial amount of weight within a very short amount of time. I wasn't sleeping, I wasn't eating. I was really abusing melatonin to sleep at night," she says. "It was like I was working out, I was in really great shape, but I felt like s**t and I was sad, and I was having a hard time getting out of bed. It got to the point where I was like, 'Okay, what else can I possibly do?' So, I started to go to therapy."
The fitness influencer recalls how she was still creating fitness content for her social page and receiving "confusing feedback" from her followers. "I'm posting content and people are like, 'You look so good. Tell us your tricks. You look amazing.' And I'm like, 'I'm miserable. I'm miserable. I'm depressed,'" Nicole shares. "My abs were amazing, I had a six-pack. And it was like, 'I had never felt so bad in my life.'"
She shares that she soon began therapy and realized: "It's one thing to be physically fit, but it's another thing to be mentally fit. You could be in the best shape of your life, but mentally, if you are not a healthy person, it's not going to feel good."
The experience led Nicole to incorporate the tools she's learned into her fitness content, which inspired her "new chapter," her brand, Tribe Therepe.
"It's focusing on the mental health component of working out, which is really, really important for me and really resonates with me, and really just encouraging people to mentally take care of themselves," Nicole explains. "I think that when your mind is in a healthy place, your body will follow."
A healthy mindset has become especially important for Nicole since she's become a target of online trolls and negative attention amid a media frenzy surrounding her ex's new relationship with Taylor Swift.
Since the couple's romance has been made public, Swifties have flooded Nicole's Instagram posts with Swift GIFs and rude comments. Nicole responded earlier this month, taking to her Instagram page to speak out about the "embarrassment" and "backlash" that's come her way.
In a four-minute video she posted on Oct. 10, Nicole shared an open letter dubbed "Dear Black Girl." Before reading the letter, Nicole shared that "it's always been really important for me to use my platform not to create division but to elevate and unite women, Black women specifically."
Then, the open letter.
"Dear Black girl, they may call you a traitor for falling in love. You'll hope the ones closest will protect you, but you will quickly find out that people don't protect what they don't value," she says, looking directly into the camera. "They'll say you're too much, too provocative, too boisterous, too outspoken. And in the same breath tell you you're not enough. Not successful enough, not wholesome enough, maybe not even intelligent enough. They'll say you deserve the backlash and embarrassment. Because of your blackness you should have known better. They'll even try to tie your value to your net worth."
She also added, "You don't have to participate in this tumultuous, often one-sided journey. Preserve your heart even when they try to quantify your character and best your boundaries you do not have to engage. You do not have to respond. because there is power in your silence. and you can use that same power to silence the noise and the self-doubt."
While neither Kelce nor Nicole confirmed the reason behind their split in 2022, Kelce adamantly shut down cheating rumors, tweeting, "This is fake news… a lie… and not why Kayla and I broke up… take all your hatred somewhere else please."
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