Meet Dr. Ryan & Annie DeNome

Some love stories begin over candlelight. Ours began over a Sunday brunch on the Loveland Bike Trail.

Ryan and Annie met through mutual friends at Franciscan University of Steubenville — a place where conversations about saints and sacraments are as common as coffee runs. Their first date was a quiet Sunday afternoon: brunch and a picnic along the trail, talking about faith, family, and what they wanted their lives to look like. It was easy. It was natural. It felt like the beginning of something.

Their second date made sure of it.

Annie — a lifelong swimmer and triathlete — suggested a century ride: 100 miles from Wards Corner in Loveland to Xenia, Ohio and back. What she did not anticipate was spending the majority of those miles waiting for Ryan to catch up. Somewhere between mile markers and mounting frustration, something clicked. Here was a man who would show up, push through, and never quit — even if he could not quite keep her pace. She knew then that he would work just as hard to become a saint as he would to finish that ride. And she knew he was a keeper.

From bike trails to wedding bells to building a life together, Ryan and Annie have always shared a conviction that faith is not something you set on a shelf — it shapes how you eat, how you move, how you heal, and how you raise your family. Health in the Spirit is the natural extension of everything they believe: that caring for the body God gave you is not optional. It is an act of love.

Annie DeNome is an Owensboro, Kentucky native who has never been content to sit still — in body, mind, or spirit.

A competitive swimmer and triathlete her entire life, Annie learned early that discipline, endurance, and grit are not just athletic virtues. They are spiritual ones. That conviction led her, straight out of high school, to take a gap year with NET Ministries — the National Evangelization Teams — where she traveled across the United States putting on retreats for middle and high school students, bringing the Gospel to young people in gymnasiums, parish halls, and everywhere in between.

From there, Annie enrolled at Franciscan University of Steubenville, where she double-majored in Theology and Psychology — a combination that reflects everything she is: deeply thoughtful about the interior life, rigorously trained in the intellectual tradition of the Church, and endlessly curious about what makes people flourish.

Today, Annie works at Cross Catholic Outreach, where she brings integral human development to communities experiencing poverty around the world. Her work sits at the intersection of Catholic Social Teaching and real, tangible impact — helping families access clean water, nutrition, education, and the dignity that every human being deserves.

When she is not working to change the world, you will never catch Annie indoors on a sunny day. Her favorite place is anywhere near the water with her son, Joachim Giorgio — whether that is a beach, a pool, or a creek bed with good rocks for throwing. She brings that same energy to Health in the Spirit: practical, joyful, grounded in faith, and always ready to dive in.