#ThisIsMyEpiphany
"This is my story. Fitness saved my life.
My teens were rocked by a multitude of insecurities from being in an all-girls high school and being a dancer, growing up in a small town in the prairies of Canada. All I ever wanted to be was skinny, like my tiny friends were. I hated my thighs, my stomach and the fact that I didn’t look like anyone else.
After all, I was ½ South African and ½ Filipina – and I couldn’t really relate to anyone. I found fitness and the gym when I was 18. I had moved out to Toronto and broken up with a longtime boyfriend. It was then I found the weights and the fact that being strong gave me control and something to hold onto through all my insecurities. A cardio bunny no longer… eventually, the feeling of lifting heavier and being stronger every week became much more desirable than the hold of the eating disorder that I had developed in my teens.
Eventually I decided to compete: in Fitness (because of my dance background) and Bikini. It was through competing and fitness that I met my now husband, clients and a network of supportive people who inspire me every day. My mandate as a coach and trainer is that my focus is on women and helping them to feel beautiful.
Sometimes we feel like we are simply meant to take the cards that we are dealt and we just have to deal with that. What Fitness did for me was show me that we do have control over our fate and our destiny – if you just work hard and push yourself! Creation of a tribe, a sisterhood and a family to make the most of the time we have in this world has always been at the forefront.
After all, we only have one body to live this life out in. We owe it to ourselves to take care of it"