One of my favourite aspects of working with clients is that I learn something every day. I am always grateful for the opportunity to interact daily with our inspiring and motivating clientele.
Sometimes, if I’m lucky enough, in the midst of helping others with their health and wellness I stumble across someone who gives me as much insight as I hope I give in service to them.
Sylvia Walker is one of those people. Here is what health and wellness means to her, in her own words.
1) For those members of our community who are not familiar with you, please give us the elevator pitch on who is Sylvia Walker.
I am a wife and a mom to 3 beautiful kids. I have 2 business degrees and I worked for years in Marketing & Public Relations in the technology sector. After my third baby was born, I started a wellness business with Arbonne – it allowed me to make the transition to leave the corporate world while having a business I could focus on but still be present to my kids who were all under the age of five at that time. Most recently I have become a founding teacher at Well & Tight.
I am passionate about community, discovering more about yourself, living your best life and being in service to others.
2) What does health and wellness mean to you and how do you incorporate it in your daily life?
Health to me is all encompassing – while it includes not getting sick, it’s not limited to that. I believe we need to look after all of our systems – bones, organs, blood, muscles and I look too experts in those areas to do that. I try to keep appointments with therapists on the regular so that I’m constantly maintaining versus waiting for a crisis.
Wellness is about my happiness, my emotional balance, stress reduction and my quality of life. To me, that has to do with the energy system that flows through our bodies. I use journaling, meditation, breath work and exercise to tap into and take care of it.
3) Above all else, what is the one aspect of your health you are most passionate and consistent about and why?
Fitness is my passion. I’ve been active for as long as I can remember. I participated on high school teams – even if I wasn’t that good at the sport, I would go for it and learn what I could. That transitioned into becoming a runner. I ran shorter distances to stay in shape at first and then that quickly moved to half and full marathons; I loved the idea of a goal and an end result. After having kids, I didn’t have the significant amount of time to train so that transitioned to belonging to a gym and taking that love into teaching mindful movement with Well & Tight.
Movement keeps my body in shape but of late what I have recognized is that it allows me to clear my head and tune in to what my body is saying. I love workouts that tap into changing my thoughts, my energy and in the end, discovering new strengths.
4) What do you find most challenging about maintaining a healthy lifestyle and what is your work-around?
Without a doubt, food. There is nothing I love more than a fridge filled with delicious, healthy snacks and the ingredients for clean and balanced eating. As a busy mom and entrepreneur, it’s the one thing that goes by the wayside once Monday mornings start – if it’s not prepped or planned, it does not spark ANY joy for me to race around creating it at the end of the day.
The best work-around to this is weekend meal prep. Setting the menu, grocery shopping, and getting as much prepared as possible. My kids are of an age that they want to help so I get them involved as much as possible. I’ve found that kids love to eat whatever they are preparing, so it’s a good way to introduce variety and healthy eating. It’s also a great way to combat one of my other challenges which is making lunches…healthy dinner leftovers are a go to in this house!
5) Who or what is really inspiring you right now (it can be a person, a book, a podcast, an organization.. really anything)?
I am very inspired by the podcast “the drive” with Peter Attia – he talks about health, longevity and pursuing excellence.
I also keep a few books on my bedside table – right now they are Letting Go (David Hawkins) and Super Attractor (Gabrielle Bernstein).
6) If you had to give one piece of advice to your kids or even your younger self, what would it be?
To trust their inner voice, to shine the light of their true selves and to know that they are enough just as they are…I want them to be confident.
7) Is there anything you are working on right now that you would love to share with our community?
I am very proud of the work we do as a community at Well & Tight. We have our upcoming 12 days of JOY that starts December 1st – a beautiful free resource to help you re-connect with joy and build your resiliency as we enter the busiest season of the year https://www.wellandtight.com/joy.
That culminates with our annual merry&bright 75 minute workout for our community to raise money for a local charity. This year we are supporting Team Unbreakable and their efforts to create movement-based programs to help youth manage and heal from mental health obstacles.
+Melanie Stevens Sutherland, Clinic Director & Senior Orthopaedic and Pelvic Floor Physiotherapist
Melanie is a graduate of McMaster University and brings 20+ years of experience as a senior physiotherapist to Body Co. She has enjoyed a long tenure working with active populations at prestigious sport medicine clinics. Past clients include Provincial, National and Olympic level athletes as well as members of the National Football League, the Canadian Football League, the Ontario Hockey League, the American Hockey League, the National Lacrosse League and Major League Soccer.
Following the birth of her own children, Melanie developed a strong interest in women’s health. She has taken specialized courses in pelvic floor physiotherapy and women’s nutrition. She is passionate about helping women find strength and confidence in their post-natal bodies following pregnancy and delivery.
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