Meet a Health Hero: Fabiana Ferrarini
» You can vote for Fabiana here September 13th through 19th. Mark your calendar!
Name: Fabiana Ferrarini
Role: Fitness trainer and fit-mom champion, founder of a private Facebook group that encourages and supports mothers on their fitness journeys.
Who or what motivates you to be healthy?
Fitness is my therapy. As a wife, mother of two, and fitness professional, life can sometimes get the best of me. I use fitness as my outlet to destress, re-energize, and feel great! Without it, I am simply not the same woman — physically or mentally. My fitness “therapy” enables me to excel as a wife, mother, and health and wellness professional.
Describe a health or fitness-related turning point in your life.
As a new mom of two and a wife, I found myself looking for an outlet or a way to find myself. My husband owned a successful business which I supported, and of course as a mother I was devoted to the well-being of my children, but I needed a purpose beyond caring for my family. I was overweight and beginning to suffer from depression. Everything looked picture-perfect on the outside, but I was struggling with confidence and sense of purpose on the inside. I started to work for pharmaceutical company (my background is in biology) in hopes of finding more purpose, but it didn’t really click for me. One day a friend invited me to a boot camo and it changed my life! It was somewhere towards the last 10 minutes of my third class: My body was drenched with sweat, my muscles were tight like rubber bands, and I had this overall subsiding sense of pain. It was in that moment I found myself! I found my outlet, my therapy. The pain was not my goal — but it was the indicator that I was changing, and that felt amazing.
What policy would you institute to make Greater Philadelphia a healthier region?
I would significantly change the food offerings and food education in public schools. I believe the most effective way to make Greater Philadelphia a healthier region is to educate and enable children to eat properly. I’ve attended parent/teacher “breakfast” conferences and was blown away at what they were serving our children. Most of the offerings are processed, loaded with sugar, and nutritionally deprived.
What’s the most important part of your health or fitness regimen?
Breakfast. I am a HUGE breakfast gal. If I start right with my breakfast, my entire day will follow suit: I’ll stay on track, hit the gym, and eat clean for rest of the day. It’s a big mental win for me first thing in the morning!
What is your number one piece of health-related advice?
Build your body from the inside-out. Don’t do it for a six-pack or round glutes. Do it for your physical and mental health and wellness. Do it to be strong and feel great. Of course the outside results will come (that’s guaranteed), but make that the benefit of adopting a healthy lifestyle, not the sole motivation!
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