Working from home

I am 36 years old. I was born in small town New Liskeard, Ontario. I am the youngest of seven children. We didn’t have much growing up, but my parents always made sure we had food in our bellies.

My mother started a bakery from our home. Every day was baking breads, bagels, pies, cakes, and other desserts. We were constantly surrounded by unhealthy food.

One day, I decided I didn’t want to put all that sugar and fat into my body. At around 12 years of age, I began to read and learn about health. I researched all I could on diet and exercise.

I began preparing healthier meals and snacks for our family, my mother and I started going for evening walks together, we both lost weight. I lost too much, and restricted calories too much, to the point of anorexia, which lasted for a few years. At the age of 16, I started to increase my calories, and add exercise into my daily schedule. I looked better and had more energy.

I was married at 18 years old, and had our first baby at 22. I started an online consignment shop at 25 years old, and had three daughters by the time I was 28. We chose to homeschool our three daughters, a lot of work, but so worth it.

Life was very busy, I tried to prepare healthy meals, but convenience seemed to come ahead of health. I was exercising most days, using a treadmill or workout DVDs. At 29 years of age, my husband bought me a one month membership to a local gym.

I was hooked my first night. The music, the endorphins, and the friends I was meeting. It wasn’t easy to afford the gym payment, but I wasn’t about to give up my new found love for fitness. So with our three girls in tow, we began to collect empty beer cans, and bottles to return for money. I was able to pay my gym membership, without taking away from our grocery, gas or mortgage money. I very rarely missed a day at the gym.

One day the owner of the gym approached me and suggested I get certified and begin teaching at her gym. I had very little confidence to do this, but I went ahead and followed her advice.

At 29, I was certified in Zumba, Spin, Bounce Fit, and many other areas of fitness, after that came my Personal Training Specialist certificate with canfitpro, then Exercise Nutrition, Kango Jumps Silver License, etc.

Sadly, the gym I loved working at closed in 2013. There was no way I was going to stop now. So with the immense support of my husband, we opened our own home studio in Alliston, Ontario in 2013. We purchased enough equipment for our 8 clients, and began three classes per week. Some classes, there were only one or two participants, But I never cancelled a class.

Eight clients, turned into 15, 20, 25 and so on. We began to add more classes and purchase more equipment. Before a family vacation, I decided to take a couple videos and post them for my clients to do while I was away.

I came home from vacation, to endless friend requests on social media, more notifications and messages, than I could count. But I began to respond to each and every one, and didn’t stop until I answered them all.

Our classes began to get fuller. Parking became an issue, we were running out of space, but we never turned anyone away. A few neighbors in our subdivision complained about the traffic on our small street.

We were then contacted by the town and told to shut down our business, as we were not in the proper zoning. We were going to apply for rezoning, but were told we would not be granted this request.

So, we decided to put our home up for sale. We started to rebuild a new home/fitness studio only four minutes away. Again, we never cancelled a class. We were living out of a hotel, while our home was getting built, and taught classes outdoor during this time.

We opened up from our new studio the Babe Cave. We enlarged our parking and studio space. But now even more people began to attend.

One of our popular offerings is classes with Kangoo Jumps, special shoes that reduce impact up to 80% from knees and other joints. Heavier than running shoes, they help to burn up to 25% more calories. Our Kangoo Jump class videos have taken off.

The Social Media pages were growing as well. More notifications and messages were flowing in. I responded to everyone. People asking for help with exercise ideas, meal plans, weight loss tips, etc.I would send them complimentary advice.

In January 2017, I received an email from Ms. Health & Fitness 2017, asking me to enter their International Competition. I read through it, and assumed I wouldn’t be accepted, so I deleted the email. The next day, I received a second email from them. This time, I filled it out and sent it in.

Five days later I was accepted into their competition! There were over 1,000 women from all over the world accepted. And so it began on February 7th. Facebook votes were needed to win. Every week there was another cut, it went from over 1000, to 700. Then 700 to 300, 300 to 30, 30 to 20, 20 to 10, 10 to five, and then the Top 3!

Well, all those wonderful people to whom I had responded to over the years, and sent complimentary advice, tips, meal plans etc., they began to vote, share, comment, and like. Thanks to their votes, I placed in the Top 3! I couldn’t believe it.

I received $1,000 and an upcoming feature in a magazine! Those eight clients have now turned into almost 1,000! Social Media grows daily, I have added additional trainers, and classes to our schedule.

Our oldest daughter is now getting trained to lead classes. I still homeschool, I still manage and operate our consignment shop. I still teach four to six hours of fitness per day. I still respond to every single message. I do not have a nanny, cleaning lady or assistant. I do it all, with the help of my husband, our three daughters and beautiful team in our fitness studio.
Life is amazing. I truly believe you get out of life what you put into it.

For more on Becky’s fitness journey, follow her via her Facebook or Instagram.