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Q: What’s the story behind you two and Mind Body Strong?
Maeve began teaching fitness classes and personal training at 20 during college after transferring schools and opting not to continue playing soccer on a collegiate level. To sustain a healthy body, she quickly realized she needed to add yoga to her life and after a few years, found herself in a teacher training and is now in her 18th year of teaching yoga.
Christine also began teaching classes in college after no longer participating in team sports. She went into fitness competitions post college and then naturally fell in personal training & teaching group classes. She has competed in in several triathlons and strongly believes in cross training for the fittest physique. Christine has been teaching for almost 30 years now! Her focus is on motivating people over 40 to continue to be healthy, fit & strong. Helping people especially women be the best they can be any age is her priority. She has experience teaching everything from old school step aerobes to Pilates, Spinning, Yoga & strength Training. She also is a Certified Holistic Health Coach.
Maeve: We have done a couple retreats together and wanted to brand our business in a way that reflected our approach to wellness. We are both life-long athletes and lovers of movement. With over 40 years of combined coaching experience, we know that fads and diets don’t work. You have to choose a lifestyle of wellness and to sustain your high level of performance, you have to approach wellness from all directions. We believe in a balance of nutrition, exercise, yoga and mediation are necessary so that you are strong mentally and physically. You cannot separate the two… Mind, Body, Strong.
Despite living in and loving sunny SoCal, we are both from the east coast (Maeve from New England, Christine from New York) and we bring a little bit of that Northeast to our teaching. You can decipher that however you want! We coach professional athletes, celebrities, our peers, business leaders, full-time moms, etc. from 18 – 80 and of all levels. Bring it!
Q: What keeps you inspired and gives you bliss?
Maeve: Our students/clients are inspirational. Everyone has a story, and if we can impact them in any way to find their voice, their authentic self, their peak performance, we are infinitely inspired. Finding this same path in ourselves!
Bliss is a beach! A cup of coffee or glass of wine with a beautiful view (balance!), profound moments of friendship and seeing the world.
Christine: My students give me inspiration everyday. To see their progress & how strong they are keeps me doing this every year (even though every year I swear I’m going to retire!). I also look to women older than I am to see what it is that makes them so beautiful, fit, happy & healthy at their age. I like to take those elements and share them with myself and others — kind of like the best kept secrets for health!
Bliss for me is honestly being outside, working out, doing yoga, running on the beach & being with my son, the love of my life!
Q: What do you hope to share with your customers (an experience, high quality, etc)? How will your retreat benefit guests (what sets you apart)?
Maeve: We hope anyone joining us on a MBS retreat leaves inspired, physically and mentally. We will challenge you, we will laugh with you, if you need to cry we will support you there too! You will leave with real life tools you can integrate into your life. We have had couples rekindle romance, people find the strength and courage to make a change in their life, and some just come to have fun! Of course, we choose the most beautiful locations and exclusive resorts, making it a unique, high-end experience. We will do our very best to create a memory you will have for life.
Q: Do you have a favorite travel and/or retreat memory? What was it?
Maeve: When I was 20 I was touring the Bahamas on a yacht with someone I really didn’t enjoy spending time with, which is such a bizarre dichotomy — on a YACHT, in one of the most beautiful locations, but not with the people I’d want to be! We had a stop over at Harbour Island (wow). All of the Bahamas is beautiful, so it wasn’t the scenery that took me, it was the people. They were so happy, warm and kind! We danced all night at an outdoor club and so many of the islanders came over to introduce themselves, invite me into their homes (literally) and just make sure I was having fun. I was so sad when we left there but I was also inspired. I decided I wanted to experience that level of happiness, more. I wanted to be as warm and kind as the islanders were, and make other people feel the way they made me feel. During this trip I was studying for my first group fitness certification and I didn’t know it at the time, but I would apply part of how they made me feel into my teaching. I might not have done it immediately, but sometime during the last 24 years (I hope closer to the beginning than later!) I decided I want everyone to feel welcome when they walk into my class. I want them to feel safe and that I am looking out for them. I want them to feel happiness. I decided for the remainder of that trip to choose happiness. Maybe I wasn’t with my best friends and the people I would have wanted to share that experience with, but I could still create my own happiness and I could be kind. It was a really beautiful moment as I was becoming an adult, one for which I’m forever grateful.
Christine: My favorite retreat story is very simple. I signed up for a yoga retreat in Mexico 10 years ago, late in life. I was going through a divorce, I didn’t know anyone and all I did was cry the whole time… but the retreat and group experience was so supportive and healing. There is just a sense of family, of taking care of one another in the retreat setting, of being able to feel anything you want to feel in a safe environment. I also loved that the day was about working out, meditating, getting to know new people & doing all that in an obscenely beautiful place. Some of those people are still my friends today and now we laugh about how I cried the entire time.
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We’ve fallen in love with these two and know that you will too. Experience their magical dynamic for 6 days in paradise at Montage Kapalua Bay from October 2 – 7!
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