My Core
About Me :)
Hi, I'm Ashley Lekas — founder of The Buff Baker, a wrestler, and follower of Jesus with a deep passion for living a balanced, healthy lifestyle that nourishes the body while still making room to enjoy high quality sweet treats when I want to.
How it all started...
Early Years
My story starts in a pair of ballet shoes. I began dancing at just four years old — a bubbly, carefree girl who didn't think twice about calories or clothes sizes. But everything began to change around the age of 8. A dance instructor made comments about my weight and the size of my costume, and from there, the message was loud and clear: thinner was better. I quickly internalized ideas of restriction and control - counting calories, fearing food, chasing a standard of "skinny" that almost cost me my life. What followed were years of battling eating disorders and trying to find worth in numbers on a scale. I reached my lowest point when my hair started falling out. Still, I couldn't give myself permission to recover. I feared the word "healthy" because I thought it meant gaining weight - I thought it meant failure.
Food Became a Prison
The Downward Spiral
Eventually, I swung to the other extreme—stuck in a cycle of shame, loss of control, and neglecting both my body and my spirit. I didn’t know what balance looked like. But in the middle of that brokenness, God met me. I didn't have to clean myself up first and have it all figured out before I came to him. With my timid "yes" as I called upon him, he stepped into my mess with sufficient grace and began to rebuild what I thought was beyond repair.
Sometimes, I wish I could go back and sit with my younger self to gently remind her that this pain wasn’t permanent. I’d tell her that freedom was coming, that joy was still possible in the midst of healing. I would remind her that every tear, every struggle, would become part of a testimony that could one day help others find their way, too.
New Eyes + a Renewed Mind
Healing
Through grappling with the lies I'd believed about my body and my worth, I found healing. Jesus gave me new eyes — to see myself not as something to fix, but as someone to love and it was this love that still renews me day after day. I learned that food Isn't the enemy, and health isn't about punishment. It's about honoring the body I've been gifted with, moving it with gratitude, and nourishing It with grace. It’s about becoming a good and faithful steward of all the gifts and blessings that God has given me. This is what led me to start a company that would promote health and honoring one's body with wholesome food but also striking down the stigma and condemnation that follows food focused obsession in order to live abundant and present lives in the midst of life's most precious moments.
Finding my purpose
Healthy Body and Mind
Today, I'm finishing college, serving the Lord full-time, and continuing my wrestling journey- as a State Champion, 2x NAIA National Champion, U23 National Champion, and International Silver Medalist. But more than all the medals or matches, my greatest hope is to inspire others to break free from what keeps them from living an abundant life, see themselves rightly as the uniquely beautiful person they are, and embrace the gift of food and movement, with joy and thanksgiving.
If my journey can reach even one person or encourage one heart - then The Buff Baker is already a success.
With love and gratitude,
Ashley Lekas
Founder, The Buff Baker
A Piece of My Story <3