Heidi Patja understands the emotional, hormonal and physical changes that motherhood throws at us. It can feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to keep up with family life, take care of the household, juggle our professional lives and catch up with friends – not to mention finding time for a fitness regime and remembering to eat healthily. It can be easy to lose ourselves a little bit and it’s only natural to put our family’s needs before our own. Heidi is here to show you that you can feel healthy, radiant and fit again. Through RadiantFit, she guides and encourages you to look and feel fit, take care of yourself, and prepare healthy meals for you and your family, all with the support and encouragement of a likeminded community of women. Here she talks to The Natural Parent Magazine about the inspiration behind what she does, the biggest breakthrough for her business, and her hopes and dreams for the future.
What is RadiantFit and why is it exciting?
It is a 6-week wellness program delivered with an app designed for moms. What does it actually mean that the programme is created for moms? Well, the workouts and educational/motivational content are scheduled Monday- Friday, so that your weekends remain free for the family. I think it’s important that moms can go ahead and eat out or plan day trips, without stressing about deviating from the programme. I know we need those weekends to switch off – well switch off as much as you can as a mom. All the workouts and videos are also on demand, so that you can do them whenever it works for you and for your family. You can pick the recipes that you want to cook for your family from the library of 1000 recipes, and the meal plans will be built for each mom personally, around her lifestyle.
The motivational/educational videos are designed to help change how you approach daily life and your views on healthy living. I give information and actionable tips on how you can live a more positive life and find more time for yourself. I have interviewed a lot of moms to understand what you are struggling with and the areas you need assistance with the most to make these videos as useful as possible to your everyday life. Additionally, there will be a chat function to contact your coach anytime to ask any questions or just get some extra motivation.
Sounds great already, right? You will be doing this 6-week program with a group of moms, so you can connect with likeminded people and all be each other’s cheerleaders and and new mom besties. You will meet with these moms daily inside a private Facebook group and in group coaching calls. To top it all, each mom will also have private 1-2-1 Coaching calls with your coach to make sure that you are making progress safely and feeling supported every step of the way.
That is not all, the best part is coming! You are busy right? This will all be done in less than 40 minutes per day, so that you can still be there fully for your kid(s) and have time for all other things that you want to stay on top of. This program is for you to help you find you again, outside the role of a mom or partner, so that you can truly enjoy motherhood.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
Moms are the matriarchs of our families and when we feel good, everyone else around us feels better. I don’t think I could handle all the craziness that the mom life currently throws at me if I weren’t mentally and physically in a great shape. I want to help as many moms as possible to feel at their best, so that they can give the best possible part of them to the rest of the world. Motherhood is a rollercoaster like no other and at the same time, it goes by so quickly. Can you really afford to not feel at your best to experience it all and enjoy it to the fullest? I mean take a million photos smiling with your kids, not hiding behind your kids, because you don’t like how your tummy looks. Not running after your kids on the playground, but instead trying all the playground activities yourself (yes – I am that mom). Not taking many photos with your kid(s) because you feel so uncomfortable in your body. For me, that was not an option and I don’t think any mom should have these struggles whilst juggling life.
Motherhood is challenging enough when you feel confident and good; we don’t need it to feel even more overwhelming. I firmly believe that when you feel radiant, your entire family shines. I feel that so many moms lose their selves when they enter motherhood and forget the fact that taking care of themselves is essential for your child’s happiness. Happy mama – Happy family.
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
I have been doing 1-2-1 wellness coaching for women for the past 15 years, but over the past 3-4 years, I took more interest in providing my coaching clients a more all-round solution, not just exercise and nutrition. I believe that wellness is so much more than being active and eating healthy, and if we don’t do work on the mindset, a lasting lifestyle change won’t be achieved. Your plan needs to be sustainable and you really need to experience how much difference feeling good and energetic can bring to your life and anybody around you.
I truly found my passion for helping moms after my pregnancy. I found myself in a situation 40kg heavier than before my pregnancy, feeling pretty down, and my pelvic floor was a mess. I didn’t have many mom friends and all of the sudden, I had this little person to take care of, so the overwhelm was real. I tried a couple of mom programmes, since even as a personal trainer I had no idea how to deal with this new situation. What I noticed about all the programmes was that none of them seemed to have everything I was looking for. Some of the programmes had nutrition plans for breastfeeding moms and training programmes to help with the pelvic and general rehab, and even community, but these programmes didn’t have any face-to-face time with the coach. Weekly mom groups had a sense of community and lovely training sessions, but no real programme that would lead to results I was looking for. Let’s be totally honest – training once or twice a week without looking at your nutrition is not going to bring you the results you seek. Most of all, none of the programmes had the mindset coaching aspect, not explaining how to manage your weekly struggles and show that what you are feeling, so many other moms are also struggling with.
We often forget what a huge impact your mind has on the way you live your life, and it should be included into any coaching programmes where the goal is to improve overall wellness. Do you know what kind of impact stress has on our bodies? Well let me tell you. It is not good! This made me wonder why there wasn’t a programme that also heavily concentrates on the mindset aspect behind your wellness goals. All the programmes were also held on so many different platforms – I mean there were programmes in your email and workouts on paper and the videos how to perform the moves on a website, and you also needed a separate timer on your phone! You know what this leads to: procrastination. This is because getting started often took as long as doing the workout itself. This is how RadiantFit Mama and the RadiantFit App were born!
