Women In Wellness: Gabrielle Mazar Of Destination Fitcations on The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Make most of your meals at home. Cooking at home doesn’t have to be complicated. Eating out, fast food, or pre-packaged meals are full of excess calories and junk. Cooking at home and keeping your meals simple will help you to know what and how much you are eating. Finding recipes and trying new things can also be lots of fun.
As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Gabrielle (Gabi) Mazar.
Fitness Trainer, Travel Guide, Host of FitMinute Podcast & the Founder of Destination Fitcations, Gabrielle (Gabi) Mazar is a rare breed of a trainer who truly cares about each and every one of her clients. Gabi’s passion is helping people live their best possible lives. Watching her clients flourish in life beyond their physical health is an especially personal and professional fulfilling satisfaction Gabi gets to enjoy regularly.
With over 15 years in the fitness industry, Gabi’s journey is one of entrepreneurship, dedication and triumph — from her early years interning back in 2007, to becoming an active trainer, and opening up a gym in 2012 — Health Body Works in Tempe, AZ — Gabi was able to build up a loyal client base tripling her business. With business booming, she purchased another gym, Pilates Tempe in 2019 and, started yet another company which combined her love for both fitness and travel in the same year. The new venture, Destination Fitcations.
Destination Fitcations is a company that offers vacations to some of the most beautiful and exquisite locations around the world. They do this by designing remarkable trips which combine health, wellness, fitness and travel, all the while providing tourists an opportunity for a relaxing getaway that is worry-free & guilt-free.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
As a child, I was always in a ton of sports, dance, and extracurriculars. My parents always encouraged us to be active. My father coached basketball, so I was always around sports, in the gym, it was just a part of life. I didn’t know that I would make it a career. I was actually a business major and was really interested in journalism in college. All through college, I worked 2–3 jobs, I bought a house and would work to pay my next semester’s tuition. Overwhelmed and not sure what I wanted to do, I took a semester off to focus on me and what direction I wanted to take my life. I found myself working out more, reading magazines and books on nutrition and exercise, and I just fell in love. I went back and changed my major to Interdisciplinary Studies with concentration in Small Business and Exercise and Wellness. Since then, I have become NASM, FST, TRX, and PMA certified, worked with a mentor and worked in multiple gyms, built 3 businesses and purchased Pilates Tempe.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
The most interesting story is my own health journey. The idea that it won’t happen to you. When I was a young trainer, I of course had the idea that you eat right, exercise and life is good. I think all young trainers do. We are full of life, energy, excitement to help people, but what we aren’t full of is knowledge that life isn’t always that easy. Before I turned 30, I got really sick, gained a bunch of weight quickly, had extreme fatigue, couldn’t stay awake sleeping sometimes 16–17 hours a day, had extreme blood sugar drops, I was very ill. In and out of the doctor, I was finally diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. It has taken me years to get my disease under control and it is a constant struggle, but my journey completely changed the way I see others and how I train and run my business. I understand more the struggle that people go through. There is a certain finesse to meeting people where they are at and understanding where they want to be. My biggest lesson is we are all human, we are all different, and each of us has a story or reason as to why we are where we are. My job is to help you achieve your goals to the best of my ability by meeting you where you are at, not where I think you should be.
Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
My biggest mistake was not having faith in myself. If you truly believe in what you are doing people will follow. I was too afraid to take the leap and trust myself. My first business, I started with partners; it was definitely a learning experience. I left that partnership burned, out of money, and afraid that I couldn’t do it on my own. It took me 3 years to go all in on myself, 5 years to grow enough confidence in myself again to believe that I could make things happen and 7 years to grow enough business to need to expand. My point is, I wish I had believed in myself and never doubted my abilities. What I learned is, don’t be afraid to take risks. We grow in what makes us uncomfortable. That goes for our health too. Our bad habits are comfortable. Push out of your comfort zone and there you will find results.
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
I hope that my work is helping people realize that there are other people out there that share similar stories. Although I believe we are all different, we all have experiences that others can learn from. Having trained hundreds of clients, I feel that many people feel like they are alone in their journey. My goal in creating my podcast was to tell people’s stories that other people can relate to. We all have some sort of trauma, every person, whether it is a childhood memory of abuse, alcoholism, abandonment, or are we dealing with fear, anxiety, depression. I hope that I can teach people to live a little healthier, love themselves and forgive themselves, treat others compassionately, and be the best they can be all around.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.
My TOP FIVE lifestyle tweaks are:
1. Start walking. Walking is the most underrated form of exercise. Yes, I want you to lift weights and all that jazz, but walking can reduce your risk of death by over 30%.
2. Meditation. You don’t have to be the Dalai Lama. It’s proven that just 5 minutes a day of quiet makes a huge impact on your health.
3. Quit the soda or sugary drinks and opt for H2O. Soda has been linked to increased risk of Alzheimer’s or other types of dementia. Quitting has positive effects on the heart, teeth, bladder, bones, kidneys, and more.
4. Find a positive hobby. I began gardening. Not only does it provide me food but gives me a productive/ active thing to do. It is a huge stress reliever as well.
5. Make most of your meals at home. Cooking at home doesn’t have to be complicated. Eating out, fast food, or pre-packaged meals are full of excess calories and junk. Cooking at home and keeping your meals simple will help you to know what and how much you are eating. Finding recipes and trying new things can also be lots of fun.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I believe that living an all-around healthy lifestyle is what leads us to total wellbeing. If I could start a movement, it would be completely holistic and focus on all areas of health starting with mental well-being, to food, to exercise. We cannot improve ourselves in one area and neglect another and expect to be our best. We cannot do one form of exercise and expect to be a peak performer. My movement would be to encourage people to start where they are and take one step at a time to become the best they can be!
Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you only continued success!
Women In Wellness: Gabrielle Mazar Of Destination Fitcations on The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.