The (F)Empower Project Presents: The Champ is Here

Meet Theodora Pistiolis, mother of two, hairdresser by day, Professional Muay Thai fighter by night. One of the nicest and funniest ladies you'll ever encounter, she shares her (F)empower Story and motivation for training in today's post! 

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I’m a mom of two girls ages 8 and 3 and run two full time businesses.  Owner and professional fighter at Hook Up Muay Thai and hairstylist in my personal hair studio.  It’s an odd combination but I love both.

"When I first started training, it was all about weight and size..."

When I first started training it was all about weight and size but after all these years and now raising two girls it’s so much more to me than that, and to be honest “size” seems to be the furthest in my mind.  Feeling healthy and strong is what drives me.  Setting an example for my kids so they stay active is most important to me, and...

hearing my 8 year old tell her friends"My mom is athletic" is priceless.   

I started Muay Thai 18 years ago.  I was out of shape, bored and needed motivation.  I took a class for fun with a girlfriend and was hooked instantly.  I began training for my first fight a few years later and the addiction was apparent.  I haven’t looked back since.

I train 5 days a week which consists of bag and pad work along with specific sports related strength training.    A professional Muay Thai/K1 bout consists of 5x 3min rounds.  My goal and focus during training is to deliver power and speed for more than the required time without “gassing out”.   

"Long term, keeping my body fit and strong through basic strength training, cardiovascular workouts along with healthy eating habits will allow me to keep punching and kicking for at least the next 20 years."

Being as busy as I am, it’s a priority to get my training done as early as possible during the day.  I keep it consistent throughout the year and increase the intensity leading up to a competition.  The strength training is usually heavier weights when I’m not in a competition stage and once we get closer to an event it becomes sports specific with an intense anaerobic component.

When I have a fight scheduled motivation is never a factor.  Bottom line…stepping into the ring to fight is just that.  I stay fit and work hard to be safe and win.  The rest of the time has become a routine.  I exercise because it’s a necessity, like food, and I love to eat.  If there’s a day I’m not motivated I will head into the gym anyways and once I start I’m usually ok.  If I have an off day and I still can’t get going I shut it down and move on.  

I’m convinced that exercise helps me mentally and emotionally especially in my sport.  There’s nothing better that hitting a bag to let off steam or clearing my mind.

Being a female fighter has never been an issue for me.  I do have to prove myself every now and again but I understand that fighting isn’t a typical sport for women.  Finding women to spar with has always been difficult so I spar with men.         

One of the issues I encounter sparring with guys is that at first, they are hesitant to hit me; once I explain that they’re not doing me any favours it usually changes or I’d hit them hard enough to show them that I’m serious.  

My daughter has been kickboxing since she was 4 and she has never backed down.  She wears pink boxing gloves and pink head gear when she spars and she regularly trains with boys. She is equal that that's the empowering message I want her to hear 

 

"She is equal and that’s the empowering message I want her to hear."   

 

" I feel that exercise and strength gives women/girls independence.   Life is full of things you have no control over but you absolutely do have control over your body, what you do with it and what you chose to put in it."

BE THE BEST VERSION OF YOU. 

Theodora Pistiolis  

The (F)Empower Project: Meet DJ FeelGood Smalls!

If you come to my NTC classes, you already know this amazing lady really well - I use her mixes in pretty well every one of my classes...and almost every time, a participant asks me where they can get her music! She is unbelievably friendly, talented, and inspiring. She has defined a new niche for Djs in Toronto, mixing for Nike Running and NTC events on the regular! Check out her amazing story below... If she can do it, so can you! #noexcuses #betterforit

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My name is FeelGoodSmalls and I am a DJ currently based out of Toronto, Ontario.  

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"Fitness and I have a funny relationship... "

we have our ups and down — You could call it a love hate relationship. 

Some days I love it and other days it doesn't even exist.  

Don’t get me wrong, growing up I was very active, but I didn’t realize being active was fitness. I was a competitive gymnast, snowboarded every winter and ended up on a Varsity Cheerleading team throughout University.  I was always training, but in a way that was fun and a normal part of my life.  

Normal, until I was in a nearly fatal car accident when vacationing in Costa Rica (I went down to learn how surf).  I was flown home with a broken hip, pelvis and a shattered elbow which required emergency surgery.  I was hospitalized for over two weeks before I could head home and recover with 12 weeks of bed rest.  

It was like I was starting all over again, literally, I could not walk let alone run, cheer, snowboard or even dance.  This was a very difficult thing for me to grasp, the things that shaped my life I would no longer be able to do - maybe for the rest of my life. 

I knew I couldn’t lay around for the rest of my life feeling sorry for myself, so I started with the basics — walking, I would throw on my iPod and walk as far as I could each day of my recovery. I would use music as my motivation and to clear my mind. Over time my walks turned into light jogging and eventually into running.

Running allowed me to feel motivated again especially as someone who used to be very active

I would put on my favourite mixes and run at my own pace and for myself. Now I run 2-3 times a week and it is a integral part of my life.  

The motivation behind my recovery was music; it allowed me to focus on my health in a way that made me feel happy.  As a Dj myself I realized that I could share this with others in hopes that it would get them more active.  

It’s been three years since my accident, and I have had to adapt to my new life, fitness goals and regime. Now, my fitness is based around running and exercise classes that are total body, and recently yoga which is a game changer for my frail body. I try to incorporate one or all in my weekly schedule.  Clearly with my crazy schedule as a DJ (late nights), I have to plan my exercise weekly with what works best for me that week.  This is when running becomes so clutch, because it really can be done at any time and anywhere. Some weeks I am on the ball and other weeks I am just scrambling to catch up on sleep let alone exercise. 

Music keeps me motivated and being a DJ I feel I have the opportunity to share this with everyone.  I have started curating mixes for runners and people looking to stay motivated during their work outs.  I am also a DJ with Nike and I make mixes for their NTC work outs and live classes. This has taught me hands on experience of the types of music people like to work out to and what keeps people moving. To download my mixes check outmy SoundCloud Page https://soundcloud.com/feelgoodsmalls

I never want to feel guilty for missing a work out or not doing one every day, I live a very crazy life and I have to understand that this is the path I chose.  I try and use exercise as an outlet to my life or a break, and in doing so I am slowly changing my love hate relationship to a more loving one :)

The (F)Empower Project: Meet Mel!

I’m a television host and producer for a Canadian music television show I co-created called BRBR. I’m also the founder, content creator & creative director for MELSAYS.COM, a website I started a few years ago. My goal was to share my passions for travel, wellness, food, fashion and surf with everyone. This website has taught me so much about myself, it’s been such a wonderful journey thus far.

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For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been playing sports and been active. Growing up, I was the kid that belonged to every sports team and had an activity every night after school. I grew up doing every sport imaginable and as I got older I started focusing my energies more particularly on dancing.

When I moved to Toronto six years ago, I decided to stop dancing. After more than 22 years of dancing, teaching and performing, I felt like I had had enough. That said, being in a new city, I wanted to remain active and with my crazy schedule, the thing that I was drawn to the most was running.

Last summer, I also started doing NTC and working with Nike and it completely reignited my passion for being outdoors and living an active lifestyle. Working in the music industry and having an irregular schedule had thrown off my training game a bit so I was so excited to see that I still had that fire inside of me.

Through training, I also met some amazing new people that really opened my eyes to how amazing living an active life can be.

Being fit and leading a healthy and active lifestyle can mean so many different things to so many people. To me, it’s taking time for myself several times a week to get out and be active. I’ve realized that the more I’m active, the better I can sleep and the less stressed and anxious I feel. It has also made me feel a lot more confident about myself and a lot stronger mentally.

"Being active...has also made me Feel a lot more confident about myself, and a lot stronger mentally."

Photo credit: Mymediaphoto

Though my training regimen tends to change quite often due to the amount of time I spend traveling, I always make it a point to train at least 3x a week, no matter where I am and what I’m doing. Ideally, when I’m home, I run 3x a week and also do 1-2 NTC classes. I also ride my bike every day and on weekends will spend time outdoors. I love surfing, wakeboarding, snowboarding, hiking, swimming, yoga, etc.

I’ve realized there are many things that keep me motivated to keep training and exercising. The first, is being the daughter of a cancer survivor, I want to put all the chances on my side and lead the healthiest life possible to avoid as many health issues as I can. Second, working out makes me feel good, it makes me feel happy and more relaxed. Even if I sometimes don’t feel like going out or working out initially, the feeling I get afterwards is always worth it. Third, the amazing group of people I’ve met through training, running and partaking in races is a huge motivation. I used to run and train mostly on my own but meeting these incredible people have kept me on my toes and kept me wanting to keep up with all of them.

It makes me so happy to see and be able to work out with so many incredible women. I feel privileged to live somewhere where women come together to work out and stay fit. Through doing so, we also develop incredible friendships and are able to share so many important moments together.

I find that people’s attitudes towards women and fitness are changing. I see the standard of beauty in society also changing. It wasn’t too long ago that really skinny and unhealthy looking women were gracing the covers of magazines. Today, we are finding more and more healthy and fit women on these same covers, on runways and in press in general. It’s nice to see people slowly waking up and realizing that healthy is better than skinny. I hope that attitudes will keep changing and people will embrace a healthier lifestyle above and beyond everything else.

"I think being fit and being a woman is the best thing." 

I feel I’m the best version of myself when I’m leading an active lifestyle and being fit. I love being able to workout, getting down and dirty, getting a good sweat but then also being feminine and enjoying this healthy body.

This past year was definitely an important year because it’s the year I felt the strongest and the healthiest. It was the first year I really set some fitness goals and attained them. I ran my first 10k race, then ran a 15k race, a Spartan Race, etc. The more I did, the more I wanted to do. My next fitness goal is to run my first ever half marathon in 2016 and sign up for more races like the Spartan Race. I love the combination of running and also having an obstacle course. I want to keep being active and in turn be happy!

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Want to read more from Mel? Check out her website at: http://melsays.com

The (F)Empower Project: Meet Saribel!

My name is Saribel Deslauriers. I'm a 31 year old stay at home mother of three. I love being a mother and a wife and my life revolves around my family.

Since I was little, I have always been involved in sports and track and field. I played Handball for over 10 years and being active was always a big part of my life until I moved to Canada, got married and decided to have a family. When I had my first daughter everything changed. Sports and exercise were the least of my worries since I didn't see big changes in my body and I went right back to my regular weight. I never worried or had the time to think about exercise. Being with my daughter and husband trying to experience motherhood was my main priority. 

I had two more beautiful daughters. After my third baby, I started to look in the mirror and didn't like seeing that I was different in body and mind. I didn't do anything to change it, and lacked the drive to do anything about it. It was just easier to be at home, only going out when necessary. One day, I was sitting on the couch snacking on junk food and my oldest daughter came and said "when I grow up, I want to be like you!" That's when it hit me that I wasn't being a good example to my kids. I was lazy, eating junk food constantly and they were seeing that. It was that moment where I decided that I needed to lead by example and started to look for things to do to be active, something that would fit in our family schedule.

I started with zumba at the community centre while my daughters were in Karate, so it was a win-win. I started feeling better, not necessarily seeing any results physically but mentally it did wonders for me. One day, I saw the NTC (Nike Training Club) live classes on a CP24 segment and it looked great. It is high intensity training for a period of no more than 45 mins. At the time, they  had 3 classes during the week at Academy of Lions, including one on Saturday at 12pm. Now the trick was to find a spot... and one day I did! It was the first day of the rest of my fitness life. The NTC trainers understood my limitations and helped me push past them, coaching and guiding me through the challenges of getting back into the active lifestyle. Not only are they great fitness coaches but they're also awesome individuals.

I have been going to NTC three times a week for over a year now and train at home with the NTC app. I have seen improvements in my body where most of the baby fat is gone and I look toned! I honestly have not changed my diet. I eat whatever I want in moderation and also make sure that my portions are not extreme. I have not done any special diets or anything. I believe that you should be able to eat what you want, without feeling guilty or bad, because we only have one life and we should live it the way we want. Everything in moderation is key to me. 

Being a mother is something that has changed me for the better. My kids are my motivation and my husband pushes me to be better too. When I feel like I don't want to go exercise, he reminds me how far I've come and asks me if my excuse for not exercising is good enough? It's hard sometimes to keep myself motivated either because I feel tired, I'm too stressed or it's that time of the month. But when I start exercising I feel better, more energized, and at peace.

Training with NTC has changed me, I regained the confidence I once had. I believe that being active and fit has given me the chance to prove to myself one very important thing:

"If I put my mind to it, there's nothing I can't do."

There's so much that goes with being healthy and portraying yourself the way you want to be seen and not the way society tells you; you don't have to be skinny to be healthy, same as you don't need big muscles to be strong.

So from one mother to another: get up, it can be done! It will be hard sometimes but it will always be worth it in the end. Trust me you will not regret it and baby steps will get you there.

Now, when my daughters say to me "When I grow up, I want to be like you" I feel proud that they see a woman who's trying to be the best mother she can be, who teaches great core values, and builds motivaton and self-esteem by taking care of her mental and physical health.

Pilates and Pregnancy: Michelle J

I would highly recommend Pilates to anyone, but it’s particularly important leading up to, during, and after pregnancy for the following reasons:

1) Less pain and discomfort because skeletal imbalances. Pilates emphasizes working your body in the correct align meant, or working towards bringing you into alignment. This definitely helps prevent common pregnancy aches and pains. I was constantly conscious of trying to work against the lordosis that usually occurs in the lower back during my pregnancy and engage my core to bring myself back to a more neutral alignment.

2) Less chance of diastasis recti because of the focus on strengthening transversus abdominis. This is a common side effect of pregnancy when the two halves of the rectus abdominis separate as a result of over stretching. When this deepest layer of your core (like an internal corset)  is strong and you are mentally connected to how it works, you are better protected from having diastasis recti because you know how to move and use these muscles properly.

3) Pelvic floor, pelvic floor, pelvic floor!  These muscles are SO important during pregnancy, labour, and recovery.  Pilates teaches you how to use these muscles, and they are important in two ways during this time. You need strong pelvic floor muscles to support the growing weight of your baby during pregnancy. Equally important is the ability to relax these muscles during delivery ….trust me! Pilates teaches you an awareness of the pelvic floor that is invaluable.

- Special considerations for the pregnant client:

Again, strengthening and awareness of the pelvic floor muscles and transversus is key. By the time the client reaches the 5th or 6th month, it’s important to avoid exercises that put too much emphasis on flexion or where the torso or specifically abdominals have to work against gravity to prevent diastasis recti. So - traditional ab crunches or roll ups, or rollbacks are out, as are planks and regular push-ups. Push ups can be modified to be done against a wall or slightly elevated. Another concern is the possibility of supine hypotensive syndrome in some pregnant women - where the weight of the baby can compress the inferior vena cava when the mother is lying on her back. This can potentially slow blood flow back to the mother’s heart, which in turn will reduce blood and oxygen flow to the fetus. Because this is potentially dangerous, it is best to avoid working in a supine position by the end of the second trimester. But in both cases, it does depend on the individual.

- Other resources (websites)/best studios in Toronto to train at:

I did my Pilates teacher training at Stott Pilates and also a specialized Prenatal Reformer workshop there - luckily just before I found out I was pregnant.  I find the Instructor Trainers at Stott to be very knowledgeable when it comes to a variety of specialized cases such as pregnancy or injuries. I teach at Misfit Studio on Queen St. West and the owner, Amber Joliat, is a Pilates and yoga instructor who has a great understanding of movement and anatomy, and she is a wonderful teacher.  We also offer Eccentrics at Misfit Studio and I found that to be a great workout during my pregnancy, as much of it is done standing and provides a great amount of stretch and release for muscles and joints that are a little overburdened during that time.