I am a married 45 year old mother to 3 children, a daughter, 9, and two sons, 13 and 15. Together with my husband and I run a very busy construction company. My husband and I are vegan, our children are vegetarian. We live on a 10 acre hobby farm with horses, donkeys, potbelly pigs, chickens, ducks, rabbits, dogs, and cats. I volunteer weekly at my children’s school as the Chair of Parent Council, running fundraisers and the lunch programs. For the last two years I have taught a clean eating vegan cooking class every month with the children in the Learning Centre, where I teach them about sustainable eating and how to make great snacks and meals using only plant based ingredients.
IF I HAD TO PICK ONE WORD TO DESCRIBE BABECAVE IT WOULD BE CAMARADERIE.
Occupation details:
I was a law clerk/office manager for 10 years when my father in law passed away suddenly and I was thrown into helping my husband start up a new excavation company to follow in his father’s footsteps. My legal background and admin skills came in to play to get us up and running and over the last 15 years I have taken numerous courses to become certified in our field of construction. I now run the office admin and design branch of our company but also may help out on site as labor when shorthanded.
Relationship status:
Married 20 years to my high school sweetheart – we met and started dating at 16 My husband, Mike, comes with me to all of the strength classes at the Babecave, as does my 9-year-old daughter
Fitness Goals:
When I first started at Babecave it was simply to lose weight and get my endurance back but now it is so much bigger than that. I am now striving every day to build more muscle and definition.
Training Plan:
2-3 hours per day 5-6 days a week – some days are more kangoo and some days are strength training – switching up muscle groups. I also will go for 6k walk/runs and sometimes use machines at the local gym when I can.
Thoughts on HIIt, Power lifting, TRX, Yoga, bodybuilding, other:
I love HIIT and TRX – those are two of my favorites. I also enjoy the Tabata style workout using a bootcamp HIIT like format. The older I get I am finding I cannot lift the really heavy weights anymore – but I find I can push myself to go heavier than I think I can.
I AM NOW STRIVING EVERY DAY TO BUILD MORE MUSCLE AND DEFINITION.
Nutritional & Supplements:
I use a lot of Vega products – their meal bars and protein shakes – because they are formulated for a Vegan diet they have the vitamin and mineral complex my body needs. I use Progressive and CLEAN vegan friendly BCAAs workout powder in my water during workouts. Because of my Crohn’s and poor vitamin and muscle absorption I also supplement with a Vegan multi, Iron B complex, D and curcumin. I am also in to Essential Oils and use many of Young Living’s Essential Oils – my favorite go to pre-workout is peppermint on my feet and Sacred Frankincense on my scalp. I swear I feel the energy difference when I forget.
How did you use Magnum products during your shoot prep?
I am vegan and with my Crohn’s unfortunately I cannot utilize all of the Magnum supplements that I would like to but I did use the Drip Dry before the photoshoot – I had to buy vegan capsules and I just pulled apart the gelatin capsules and transferred the powder into the veg friendly ones. I do feel like this product made a difference – I can tell looking at the pictures that my muscles look different – more streamlined.
What are your thoughts about Magnum and which products do you use from them?
Markus Kalius is such an inspiring and energetic person that you can’t help but feel drawn to his products. I cannot use most of them because of my diet and medical conditions but who knows maybe one day they will introduce a Vegan friendly line up.
WARREN HAS SUCH A WAY ABOUT RELAXING AND CAPTURING THE REAL SPIRIT OF HIS SUBJECTS.
Special skills?
I am a really good cook and can adapt anything to a vegan version. Its kind of a challenge to me to recreate classic recipes into vegan friendly.
What do your parents mean to you? What did they teach you?
My parents are great people who have always supported me with whatever I do. I could not have asked for better parents to raise me. To always do my best, to be kind to others and offer help to those in need. My mom, who says she is shy, is the most outgoing talkative person in the room. She always talks to people everywhere she goes and she always talks about her kids and grandkids and how wonderful they are. She is our biggest fan for sure.
What separates Status from other fitness magazines?
Status is different – there is so much diversity in the content. I feel like you are equally representing the new amateur athlete and the hard-core professionals and providing each with valuable tips and insights into the world of fitness.
What would it mean to you to become the next Status Fitness Cover-model?
It would be surreal but I am not sure I am ready for that yet. I feel like I have so much more work to do to get to that point.
MY NUMBER ONE INSPIRATION IS MY HUSBAND, MIKE; HE IS SO DRIVEN, HE HAS A WORK ETHIC LIKE NO OTHER AND HE DOES IT ALL FOR US, HIS FAMILY.
If you could ask Status Editor-In-Chief, Rodney Jang one question what would that be?
What is your passion – what compels you to be your best every day and to give it your all?
What was it like working with Warren from Healthy Vision Photography?
I have to admit I was extremely nervous before meeting Warren, but he was so down to earth and chill that it made the time fly by. He has such a way about relaxing you and capturing the real spirit of his subjects. (I can only speak of the women at the Babe Cave that I watched him shoot – it was amazing to watch them all flourish and come alive under his direction).
6 things people would not know about you:
I am shy and extremely insecure;
I am adopted;
I hate beer;
I like to plan menus for parties and there is always a theme;
I cannot wear high heels;
I love baths – like crave a warm bath
Who inspires you?
So many people inspire me for different reasons to narrow it down to one person is hard. My number one is my husband, Mike, he is so driven, he has a work ethic like no other and he does it all for us, his family.
I WAS ALSO DIAGNOSED WITH CROHN’S DISEASE. I STARTED MEDICATION FOR BOTH. I JOINED WEIGHT WATCHERS AND SLOWLY BUT SURELY THE WEIGHT STARTED COMING OFF.
Who do you wish to inspire?
My kids, but mostly my daughter. Everything I do, I hope she is watching and learning – I want her to have a healthy outlook on life and to be positive and happy with herself. I want her to want to be her best and to challenge herself.
Transformation story:
I was always active growing up, I did competitive gymnastics, synchronized swimming and rep soccer up until I was 15 years old. For all those years I was very athletic, energetic, competitive and never gave a second thought to diet or my overall fitness health – I was just go go go and did whatever my instructors told me to do. I then quit everything midway through high school and really did not participate in any type of fitness or health regime for a few years. Slowly but surely, my metabolism and poor diet (I ate healthy but I ate everything) caught up with me and by the time I graduated from High School I was into plus size clothing. In my 20’s I yo-yo dieted and went to the local gym here and there – taking different classes such as step and kick boxing but nothing really stuck with me as enjoyable or helped me to lose much weight. I gained about 70 pounds with my first pregnancy at 28 years old and by the time I had my second son two years later I was up to 242 pounds and size 18. When my 2nd son was about one year old a family member came to visit from England and I had my picture taken with him – when I saw the picture once it was printed I was shocked to see myself. I did not realize how heavy I had become until that moment. I had been heavy all through my later high school and college years and I always just accepted it but this defining moment was here and I realized I had to change. I went to my family doctor first because even after having a baby and nursing I had not lost any pregnancy weight, in fact I weighed more. It was discovered then that I had no thyroid function at all as a result of the pregnancy hormones. I was also diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. I started medication for both. I joined Weight Watchers and slowly but surely the weight started coming off. After 6 months and 50 pounds down, I joined Curves which was the only “gym” available in our small town at the time and I became hooked on the “fitness gig”. I went to Curves 6 days a week and lost another 50 pounds for a total of 100 pounds gone in 10 months. I quickly outgrew the Curves workout and started looking for something a little more challenging. A rec center had been built in our town and they offered bootcamps, TRX classes, step and KANGOO. I did them all and loved them. I was hooked on the fitness lifestyle. When my favorite instructor decided to move to Mexico two years ago I fell off the band wagon a bit because they took away the classes – I was only working out two hours a week and the weight started to come back on. This instructor kept telling me to check out Becky Overbeck as they had worked together years ago as Kangoo Instructors. In December of 2017, after months of saying I would go next month, I finally took the plunge. I don’t know why I took so long to go but I am so happy I finally did. 5 months later and I was down 30 pounds and 20 + inches and the strength and stamina gains I have made are unreal – I didn’t think I could get that back at my age – I was feeling so tired all of the time. Because of my autoimmune disorders, I switched to a vegetarian and then vegan diet four years ago and am now medication and symptom free. I feel better than I have felt in years and I have so much energy, I attribute it to the daily high energy workouts. It is a challenge with three kids that play sports and being self-employed with a busy company to make the time to work out but I am fortunate that I have been able to make it work. It means late nights and weekends to get caught up on work in the office, or coordinating hockey drop offs with workout schedules but I think if something is important enough to you, you make it work. Working out makes me healthy, happy and a better wife, mom and employee.
YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO TRY – YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN.
Life goals:
Some days simply survival! Long term, I want to be physically fit and active as long as possible.
5 lessons you have learned:
You always have to try – you never know what will happen;
Being competitive is not a bad thing;
Let it go;
You cannot make a person change – you either accept it or move on;
It is not a bad thing to change the nature of friendships, it doesn’t mean you don’t love that person any more, it just means that you are at different points in your lives that may not jive at that point in time.
Music and artist, you listen while training:
I love Cam right now; her music is so uplifting and has so much heart in it. But generally, anything fast and strong that makes you want to push through.
Favorite actors/ movies:
Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Leah Remini, Ryan Reynolds, Ryan Gosling. All-time favorite movies – Grease and Dirty Dancing
I WANT TO BE PHYSICALLY FIT AND ACTIVE AS LONG AS POSSIBLE.
Favorite books and authors:
I am an avid reader and have read so many books it’s hard to choose a few but I really enjoyed The 5 People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom and any murder mystery
5 most important attributes you see in a person?
Honesty, Loyal, Courageous, Sincere, Enthusiastic
Advice you can give to children who want to start training?
Start now – develop a love for it early while you are young and strong and you will go far
Favorite Quotes:
“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way that you carry it” – Lena Horne
