Melisa Natapraya (also known as Mel to most and MAJOR to many) is an US Active-Duty Army Medical Service Corp Officer, master fitness trainer, certified health coach, leader, behavior change advocate, and mother. Functional Fitness and Health coach focusing on body transformation while taking a holistic approach.

Melisa’s fitness journey started during her high school athletic days. It was a requirement to maintain a certain level of physical fitness during both track and field and basketball season. On average, 25 hours of athletic practice weekly on top of an already heavy academic course curriculum, extracurricular activities, and an afterschool job. In 1992 heading to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, at a lean 127lbs, the focus and discipline for fitness quickly dissipated because of outside distractions and the new challenge of college life. By her sophomore year of college, she was tipping the scale at 170lbs and steadily climbing. Melisa recalls how excited she was at the end of her sophomore year as she packed and plan to go home to visit family for the summer. Getting out of the car, Melisa distinctly remembers the first family member to greet her didn’t have welcoming words but a negative and unkind comment about her appearance …“wow you are fat!” These very words cut like a knife and for the first time in her young adult life Melisa began to struggle with body image issues. Over the next couple of years leading up to graduation, and a few years beyond, she found herself following a vicious cycle of Yo-Yo fad dieting that begin to affect both her physical and mental health.