Hello! So nice to meet you! I’m Mona Sabrina Al-Haddad of TeamMona, an ACE- and Pilates-certified personal trainer and group fitness instructor with the best job in the world: helping my clients and classmembers become leaner, stronger, more stable, and happier with who they are.
There’s more than one way to achieve a fitness goal. I’ve taught step, kickbox, and Zumba, plus athletic conditioning classes. I love indoor and outdoor cycling, playing soccer, kettlebells, and the TRX. I’ve been called “relentlessly positive,” and of course, I take that as a compliment.
I haven’t always appreciated the joy of movement outside of a ballet studio. When I was younger I believed the old adage that “dancers don’t sweat, they glow.” I loved ballet and took dance through sophomore year in college, but would not do anything that caused me to visibly perspire. Then life caught up with me: no more dance, a full-time job, and two children later I found myself obese with knees that were about to give out and a metabolism heading down the road toward diabetes.
It wasn’t easy turning my life around. I still work at it every single day! And let me tell you, being post-menopausal is making me have to work even harder. So! If you are just starting out or are on a plateau or are hitting some roadblock, boy, do I ever understand where you are! Take a breath, and look me in the eyes now: you can do it. You CAN keep going, upward, and better. You can appreciate the body you have right now, and love what it is capable of doing. And we can do it, together, one day at a time, celebrating body positivity at all shapes, ages, and stages… and we can even enjoy getting sweaty. 😉
