Our Purpose
We are the generation that stays.We are dismantling what destroys families and rebuilding a foundation that cannot break. In family life, we choose to Live TUFF – rooted in Trust, Unity, Fidelity, and Family preservation. In state, we want TUFF reform – Transparency, Unbiased Laws, Fair Terms, & Future Security.
Our Mission
Mission One – Break the Cycle of Unprepared Marriages
We give couples the blueprint they never received. Live TUFF aligns partners mentally, emotionally, financially, spiritually, and operationally before conflict becomes crisis. We replace confusion with clarity, winging it with strategy, and second-hand truths with real education. Live TUFF strengthens the foundation of modern partnership.
Mission Two – No More Blind Signatures
Live TUFF is confronting a national problem no one talks about: In America, couples enter one of the most life-altering legal contracts of their lives without ever seeing the terms. A marriage license begins as a simple permission slip, but once signed and filed, it becomes a binding legal contract immediately triggering shared property rights, debt exposure, spousal support rules, inheritance and tax consequences, financial entanglements, and strict divorce laws. These terms are predetermined by the government, not negotiated by the couple, and never disclosed before signing. Live TUFF exists to bring transparency, education, and accountability to this hidden system -because couples deserve clarity before commitment, not consequences for unknowns.
Live TUFF is pushing for nationwide reform: renewable terms • transparency around financial risks• mandatory disclosures• clear contract language • balanced protections • accountability standards • child support adjustments at tax filing • education.
We are fighting for upfront transparency in all matters related to the marriage contract and calling for implementation of The Marriage Contract Transparency Act.
What Live TUFF Is Not
Live TUFF is not therapy. It is a blueprint – a strategic framework that helps couples design their life plan together. We do not focus on repairing the past; we focus on building thefuture by empowering partners before and during their journey to create alignment, clarity, and lasting connection.
How the Live TUFF Roadmap Works
The Live TUFF Movement delivers a strategic, no-nonsense blueprint that compels couples to confront the tough questions early – starting with the end in mind. At its core is The Backward Truth, a framework that identifies, aligns, and strengthens the pillars of Trust, Unity, Fidelity, and Family Preservation, turning good intentions into decisive, actionable plans.
The Backward Truth strategic framework gives couples a clear, realistic understanding of what marriage demands. By facing the truth early and designing their relationship from the future backward, partners prepare for real-life challenges long before they appear. Instead of being blindsided, they enter marriage equipped with prebuilt solutions—practical, honest, and resilient strategies that guide them through adversity together.
But Live TUFF is more than strategy. It is a global community of couples who share these values. Through podcasts, live discussions, listener call-ins, and shared experiences, Live TUFF creates a space where real people shape the movement together. Live TUFF is for the people—built from real wins, real failures, and a collective commitment to stand against the normalization of broken homes.
LIVE TUFF is a rebellion against complacency.
THE LIVE TUFF MANIFESTO
We Don’t Fold — We Stand Bold!
We are the generation that stays – we will not settle for temporary.
In a world that walks away, we hold the line.
We don’t fear the fight — we plow through it.
Love isn’t disposable.
We are done with normalizing families fracturing.
Commitment isn’t outdated — it’s revolutionary.
We ask the hard questions first.
We plan with purpose and build with intention – we build legacy.
Because strength isn’t found in leaving – it’s forged in staying.
The Live TUFF Movement is not therapy – it’s strategy.
A roadmap for truth, loyalty, and alignment.
A blueprint for unbreakable connections and families that last.
We are rewriting the story of commitment.
We are restoring the foundation of family.
We don’t fold.
We stand bold.
We Live TUFF.
Who Is Marcela Cristina?
Founder & CEO, The Live TUFF Movement
Marcela entered life with every odd stacked against her. Malnourished, abandoned, and surrounded by poverty, the survival skills she developed as a child did more than carry her through hardship – they became part of her identity, forging the resilience that now anchors the Live TUFF Movement.
Born into poverty in Costa Rica, orphaned as an infant, and later recruited into an oppressive religion, Marcela found herself once again homeless and hungry on the streets of Chicago. Forced into independence long before any child should be, she learned to navigate life in survival mode. Instinct became her shield, creativity, her lifeline, and resourcefulness, her earliest superpower.
Yet even more painful than the gnawing hunger in her stomach was the deeper ache — the hunger for parental love, for belonging, for a whole family. What was designed to break her, built strength, passion, and an unshakable determination to protect others from the systems that failed her.
From a childhood of abandonment, oppression, and rebellion emerged a woman who refuses to let the next generation inherit the same pain – a leader who now stands TUFF, so others do not have to stand alone.
“I am not a product of what happened to me. I am a product of pain transformed.”
— Marcela C. Sherwin, Founder and CEO of The Live TUFF Movement