The New Year is the perfect time to get started on that body you’ve always wanted, but in all the chaos of life, it can be hard to get (and stay) motivated. We know that you’re busy, so we sat down with Fitness Guru Bella Falconi for a mini-interview that is chalk full of fit-spiration for the New Year and New You.
é: Tell us more about yourself. How did you begin your career into the fitness world? Were you born in Brazil? Did you start there and then move to the USA?
Falconi: I didn’t choose the fitness career, the fitness career chose me. I moved to the USA at 21-years-old and back then I couldn’t even imagine that one day I’d fall in love with the lifestyle I follow nowadays. I used to work at a bank, and I was a very sedentary person. I’d never watched my diet and didn’t even worry about training. My main priority back then was my job, not my health. I had kidney stones about five times, and felt the most miserable pain of my life. My cholesterol was always high – blame it on my mom’s genes and, of course, on my bad eating habits. So I decided to put an end to that and become a healthier person and through that, I started inspiring people to do the same. I created an account on Instagram just for fun back in 2010, and started using it to post my training pictures and my progress. People started following me and my following base organically grew to be what it is today. I am currently pursuing my Bachelors in nutrition (I have one more year to go) and got my personal training certificate; and even though I don’t officially work as PT for right now, I really think it was important for me to educate myself about it. I really love to inspire others!
é: I always say the hardest part for me is just getting to the gym. What motivates you?
Falconi: I’m motivated by my goals. I try not to compare myself to anyone, but to the very best I can become. Wishing I was someone else is very frustrating and the opposite of motivational. To me, getting to the gym is easy: it only takes one or two hours of our days. The hardest part is to watch what we eat during the rest of the day. I’ve always found resisting temptations very challenging, but I’ve learned (thanks to the fitness world) that it is absolutely possible to live with balance. If you do everything right 70% of the time, the remaining 30% won’t hurt you. There’s nothing wrong with eating chocolate, French fries, and hamburgers, as long as those are not part of your main nutrition sources, and you only choose them once in a while. We are not robots and shouldn’t treat ourselves like one. It is impossible to live a mentally healthy life by cutting all pleasures it offers completely. And food is definitely is a great part of life’s pleasures.
é: You have your own company and have become successful … Was this a dream of yours or did it take you by surprise?
Falconi: I do, and this is still hard to believe for me. Sometimes I catch myself getting emotional when thinking about everything I was able to achieve, because I came from zero, literally from nothing. I grew up in a humble family and my parents divorced when I was only eleven-years-old. I started working at thirteen, and at seventeen I was already taking care of myself and helping my mother pay the bills. I’ve always dreamt of being successful; who hasn’t? Everyone wishes to be successful, but not everyone is willing to work hard for it. I worked my a** off and I’ve never taken negative advice from anyone and never allowed my mind to convince me that I wouldn’t be anyone in life. If other people can, why can’t I? It was by sticking to those kinds of thoughts that I was able to never stop chasing my dreams. I learned English all by myself, started law school at seventeen, and did many challenging things in my life, so starting a business didn’t scare me much. I invested all my coins and took the risk. And that’s what I tell people: without risk there are no results. Nothing else in the world can guide you better than your own spirit. It already has all the answers we are looking for, so it never fails.
é: Do you have a favorite junk food?
Falconi: I love pizza and cheesecake. Can’t go too many days without eating one (or both) of them, lol.
é: Thank you so much! I know I’m going to make some resolutions now!
