From Fitness Pro To Empowering Moms – Exclusive Interview With Belinda Kiriakou
- Brainz Magazine
- Oct 20, 2023
- 6 min read
Belinda Kiriakou, an IFBB Pro and International cover model and Miss Universe Canada’s “Best Body” & “Audience Favorite” – is a well-known fitness professional and marketing consultant in Canada with 20 years of experience in health and fitness and most recently within hospitality and the entertainment sector. From competing as a professional fitness model to co-owning a personal training business, Belinda penetrated the hospitality industry working as a corporate fitness executive for leading companies in hospitality in Mexico & the Caribbean. While overcoming her own health challenges as a new mom, she was inspired to create her coaching business and “Hii5 Fit” – a fitness app for women, especially moms.
Belinda Kiriakou, Health Coach & Marketing Entrepreneur
Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.
Hi! My name is Belinda Kiriakou, mom to one beautiful and energetic 3-year-old girl and wife of over 11 years to my best friend.
I may be known most for my title as an IFBB Pro, to where I competed professionally as a fitness model; an international cover model and health coach with over 20+ years in the business.
A few years prior to becoming a mother, I was living in Cancún, Mexico working as a Corporate Fitness Director for some of the leading hotels and resorts in Mexico and throughout the Caribbean – Iberostar Resorts and Blue Diamond Resorts, which included Royalton Resorts and Planet Hollywood. Many don’t realize that although, working hospitality may be a very rewarding career path, the rigorous travel scheduling and launching of a new pillar with numerous hotel openings brought a lot of stress and unfortunately, during this time I suffered a miscarriage in between hotel openings. At the time, I chose to continue with my work and manage the internal pain and loss between my husband and myself for years. With time, we (my husband and I) made the bold decision to step away from hospitality and take some time off, with the mindset of choosing “a different path for ourselves” to better our mental and physical health.
During this time, I became pregnant, and my life changed forever. Fast forward to today, I choose to create a lifestyle where my health and family comes first; My focus is to create a lifestyle that allows me to fulfill my creativity and passion to coach women in their health and wellness while still being my best self in my role as “mom”.
Can you provide an overview of your fitness and wellness website/business and its core mission or purpose?
My mission is to continue to create simple yet effective fitness and wellness-based solutions for busy women – specifically mothers, so that maintaining optimal energy, strength and self-fulfillment never becomes less of a priority than their family and work. And to ensure that time, finances and a lack of resources is never an impeding reason not to be able to put their health first – hence, the reason why I created Hii5 Fit – an online fitness app that incorporates workouts fit for beginners and all fitness levels. Workouts that include yoga, hiit, strength training and hybrid workouts whether performed at-home or in the gym. I also provide 1:1 coaching online and in-person to selective clients. What inspired you to start a fitness and wellness-related venture, and how has it evolved over time?
From a young age, I was very athletic, and playing sports was my outlet in managing personal stress and fostering inner joy while helping me build a strong sense of identity as a “strong girl”. After being diagnosed with a herniated disc and experiencing much physical discomfort during my university years, I started taking up yoga and although initially I was not drawn to it, I gradually fell in love with it after meeting different yoga instructors who were passionate about the practice and made the practice of yoga exciting and invigorating. Once I experienced first-hand the amazing physical changes to my spine and overall symmetry and flexibility, I became inspired to teach and therefore studied further and became a certified personal trainer and yoga instructor while completing my last year of university. In between these years, I co-owned a personal training business with my husband and that’s when we ended up going on our honeymoon to Mexico and eventually our trips became business and that’s how we started working for the largest hotels and resorts in Mexico and the Caribbean in creating modernized gyms; creating innovative fitness and wellness programming for hotel guests while hiring and developing fitness professionals to lead these classes. We set a new standard when it came to a professional fitness team and state-of-the-arts fitness facilities for vacationers. Who is your target audience for fitness and wellness services, and what unique value do you aim to offer them?
My target audience is women – specifically mothers with young kids. Although, I coached numerous amounts of mothers back in the day, going through early motherhood first-hand made me realize the many challenges and emotional rollercoasters we go through if there is not the right amount of support. And how difficulty it can be to have any energy to do anything else than “mother”. So that’s why I returned back to coaching – to provide insight and support to help anyone who may need that right person to guide them and be their “source of light” to better health and happiness. What types of fitness programs, services, or content does your website/business offer, and how do they benefit users?
1:1 coaching – personalized fitness and nutritional guidance fit for the individual's lifestyle and goals.
Hii5 Fit App – online fitness app for simple, easy-to-follow home and gym workouts that don’t require weights or a gym and follow this system:
Enjoy a 3-day free trial, followed by a monthly subscription of $24.99 CDN per month (approximately 81 cents per day),
or choose the annual option and save 50% for only $149.99 CDN.
You can cancel at any time with no hassle
What measures do you have in place to ensure the safety and effectiveness of your fitness programs or services?
I’ve completed these workouts myself and on clients. Any modifications in movement pr weights, I will always note. Or with direct clients, this is always discussed prior and ongoing in our sessions. There is always an open mindset between clients and myself when it comes to flexibility of exercise for the safety and long-term health benefit of my clients. What are your future plans or goals for your fitness and wellness website/business?
I appreciate working remote – as it gives me the flexibility in my schedule as a mother. That’s why I created Hii5 Fit – I would like to continue to scale this app with an in-depth library of material not just with workouts but nutritional tips with quick recipes, podcast and live fitness classes. The goal is to continue to reach a larger community of women and further provide my services in motivational podcasts and guest speaking seminars. Tell us about your greatest career achievement so far.
As a fitness entrepreneur and penetrating the hospitality industry was a game-changer for me – combining my two passions of health and travel was an incredible experience I will always be grateful for.
And most recently, transitioning from a stay-at-home mom for a year-and/half to returning back to the corporate world as a sales & marketing consultant for Umusic Hotels – this was a pivotal moment for me to rediscover myself as a new marketing professional while fighting my way to balancing my roles as a mom and working-from-home mom. This was the push and confidence I needed to pull me out of my harder days and to current, creating the life that is fulfilling and meaningful, without distracting me from motherhood. If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why?
Fitness Industry – If I could change one thing about the fitness industry, it would be to promote a more balanced and sustainable approach to health and fitness, focusing on overall well-being rather than just aesthetics or extreme workout routines. Especially when it comes to mothers who may not have the right amount of support, we need to be kind yet strong focused on how we approach scheduling, strict routines and energy levels and space to know that with having kids – there’s always something that may come up!
Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.
It’s a combination of personal and family illnesses and injuries; my miscarriage; and the blessings of motherhood. I believe that we all have choices and we can choose to play victim or victor in our own story, I always choose the latter. If there’s a will, there’s a way. And my faith has never steered me wrong – so I am grateful to God for all of my blessings and life lessons. Life is a marathon, not a race.
