At Elite Mind+Body while our Founder and lead trainer Marcel has multiple qualifications, certifications and years of experience. All those can be found on our website but today we wanted to give a little more personal insight into what makes us different and why.
I have personal experience living a high stress lifestyle both within a career and personal aspect. For over 12yrs, I've worked in a career that served some of the most complex children and youth in the area. Within that career I had dealt with issues such as violence, aggression, suicidal behaviours, self harm behaviours, psychosis and other mental health disorders. I have been punched, kicked, spit at, called every name in the book and been yelled at by families.
Within that field, not only did I have to cope with those daily challenges, but also the feelings and emotions that come with them. Sometimes there was anger, some times frustration, sometimes guilt and sometimes sadness. The hardest part I found was wanting to help someone in distress, however due to whatever circumstances they were in, the only thing I could do was listen and not fix it.
When you are in a field of that nature, burnout and compassion fatigue tend to happen often, not to mention the constant lack of sleep due to long shifts, overtime and constantly switching from days to nights and back again.
I started my own fitness journey back in my early 20s, where I lost over 100lbs. I believe that my own fitness routines was one of the reasons I could manage the daily stress of that kind of career, though it wasn't until later on that I started to really identify ways to manage the stress both physically and emotionally that kind of work can bring on.
Now let’s add in the life stress. Having two young children is stressful enough, being a father, as great as it is, also comes with a plethora of emotions, especially depending on how you grew up. I found myself constantly worrying about am I good enough, am I around enough, how do I provide for my girls while also being present. I had to figure out ways to deal with what I see at work, leave it there and be home and present with my girls when I’m home. Adding in, that I’m tired from my shifts, maybe I was just spit on that day, maybe I heard some really awful situations, whatever it was, I couldn’t take that home.
Then the pandemic - we will leave that for another day, as we all felt that in our own ways.
Then, let’s add even more stress. My youngest, was born in July 2021, and by November we knew something wasn’t right, she lost a bunch of weight, she was vomiting all the time and we were admitted to hospital for the first time in December 2021 due to cyanosis of her face and failure to thrive.
Over the next year, 6 more admissions, some minor surgeries, a feeding tube through her nose, to a feeding tube in her stomach. She has a rare enough disorder called FPIES as well as some other unidentified issues. She is now oral feeding however, due to her oral aversion and ARFIDs, it’s like pulling teeth every meal time. All that while also trying to figure out all the behind the scenes issues she has as well.
So let’s go back to Winter 2023 - my youngest doesn’t have daycare as she is still being fully tube fed and we cannot find private care. My wife is off full time unpaid as her maternity leave ran out, there is no further paid leave from the govt as we didn’t qualify. I am working 3 jobs plus running a side business. Dealing with the inflation of everything, added medical expenses, and being on one income.
A typical day for me would be working my work from home job, the going to teach a class a the college, then doing an overnight shift, all while training clients in between. At one point I was doing about 70-80hrs in a week. All while trying to find the time to be with the girls, be a good father, manage the health of my youngest, be a good husband AND keep myself in good physical and mental health. Not only am I trying to keep physically healthy, but at the same time break some generational patterns in order to be the best father, husband and man I can be (we will touch on that another time)
Fast forward to Fall 2023 - my wife is back at work, we are paying a premium for private childcare for Ellie (her daycare provider has been amazing and is is worth every penny) and our oldest has started Kindergarten. In terms of financially, things were starting to look up, we had a second income coming in and I could decrease the amount of hours I needed to work. Then, I lost my job, in a fashion that not only took a blow to us financially, but to my reputation and my own ego as a professional. You can imagine the stress this caused, not to mention, Ellie was loosing weight no matter how much we were working on her eating. The stress was justing pilling up and I truly believe that if it wasn't for the practices around my health, fitness and wellness that I started putting in place, I wouldn't have been able to manage.
During the winter, I had put in place some mindfulness and meditation techniques. I started to look at my stress differently, and look into ways to harness it, rather than be afraid of it. I started changing little daily practices that didn't make me less stressed, but I think just made me manage it a little bit better. I started to change my "all or nothing" mentality around my own fitness, while also trying to remind myself that getting into the gym was a "get to do" vs "have to do".
So here we are, Winter 2024 and I've expanded my own business. I've learnt to work more efficiently and with what I am doing now, have more life balance and time for the girls. I try to make the time I have with my wife and the girls more meaningful, which also helps me deal with the day to day stressors of this crazy thing we call life.
I started Elite Mind+Body to help those people that are dealing with similar amount of life stressors (whatever they may be) and need a way to realistically increase their overall health, fitness and wellness.
Us professionals are really good at preaching self-care and how you need to take care of your body, but what if you can’t. What if, you don’t have the ability to just “do self care” what then?
What I try and do is coach those clients on how to alter different parts of their lifestyle in a realistic way that will help them cope with the day to day stress. I’m not magic and cannot fix the stress, make it go away with meditation or other strategies. What I can do, is find little ways to bring further meaning and wellness into my clients lives in order for them to continue to thrive and perform as they need too.
If you got this far, thanks for reading and feel free to reach out. I truly believe that helping people to reach their potential in life is something I was meant to do.
Marcel Lemieux