FOUNDER

Hi! Thank you for visiting Self-Love and Fitness™.

I am Karisa Karmali, Founder of Self-Love and Fitness™, ISSA Certified Personal Trainer, ISSA Certified Online Fitness Coach, and NASM Certified Nutrition Coach with a focus on Sports Nutrition.

I have been featured in Forbes, Thrive Global, and Thrive Insider.

I am currently focusing on fitness equipment sales and online workout plans to help athletic and driven people reach their next level.

This area of focus cuts through the time/logistical/bandwidth limitations of 1-on-1 coaching and allows me to also make time for affiliate marketing, brand deals, sleep, and mental health which isn't an acceptable trade-off for business success especially with my ADHD (which requires intentionality with my focus).

I am finally cured from robotic hustle/workaholic culture and opting for an innovative/creative way to reach my niche market. To me, passion does not forgo sleep. Quality control is also major for me, so trimming down business operations had to happen. 

All that was needed for me to untangle myself from the snare of overwork (the illusion of fast and cheap success which in reality was slowly killing my health) was to be told that if I did not stop, it was either: I can no longer work at all or I die young, Divine Intervention saved me.

You can love what you do and still require a clearly set and guaranteed number of resting hours per day when you have a disability. I don't really owe my business (yes, even my own business) anything outside paid hours and even if I'd love to do more - I can't.

I owe myself health for longevity and that's how we value our craft (by maintaining guaranteed rest because loving something out of passion doesn't change the human condition).

l work on what moves the needle with intensity for a daily maximum of hours across all ventures and I protect my rest. 

We are already starting our day in the minus energy-wise so we have to have "extravagant" seeming rituals to get ourselves back at the normal baseline that most people wake up at without any effort. We can love what we do and still struggle with ADHD.

Hustle culture gave me the illusion of progress when nothing was really happening (it's like exerting your entire soul, yet the ROI is not even partial crumbs, it's exhausting for no good reason). 

When you leverage procedures and proper operations... The "how many hours you put in" has nothing to do with results. It's what you do within those hours. You need a baseline of rest per day regardless of your love for your craft even just physiologically not just mentally. 

The path to destruction is broad, scarcity is fuelled by fear of missing out so it takes on everything and does everything in a mediocre manner.

Focus is narrow, focus is sanity.

Once you know your own "balance benchmarks"... you're attuned to your own signals, which are different from person to person. 

This is not at all about “if you wanted it bad enough, you would do XYZ”: that’s not how passion is measured when you can leverage innovation and tools.

Your expertise is what grows over a span of time and it then costs more money, not pointlessly adding hours instead of basic innovation and efficiency so don't be fooled into thinking you need to overexert yourself and cut into your health time (one thing is at the expense of another).

Guaranteed rest is a ventilator for persons with disabilities (focusing only on what moves the needle - not random scattered distractions -respects this need). 

Biggest life lesson so far:

Never forgo your mental peace and some clutter-free schedule space in the name of "growth" because you can't grow anything from a hospital bed. 

Loving what I do doesn't change the fact that I need a day to recover my insomnia/sleep via a crash day to prevent burnout or need any less hours to manage the disability in general.

There is no correlation between passion levels and needing a baseline of rest in order to survive/your physical/mental rest requirements (which is humanity/wellness).

Recovery doesn't just get cultivated on its own. We have to actively work at it. 

Finite time means working hard on the correct things, not on just anything. Having a clear vision and clear scope enables purposeful hustle with heart and clear limits to preserve wellness, let's collectively end hustle culture and promote hustle with flow and rest, we're worthy.

People who want you to go beyond your human limits or feel inconvenienced by your basic health needing to be managed by you are blatantly telling you that your ongoing survival/life is less important than what they want to take from you, what more do you need to know? Seriously? You are worth more than that. 

Back to the main program: 

I wanted to make space for affiliate marketing because I find that promoting wellness products that I love also inspires others (we can inspire simply by leading by example without needing to be "on" 24/7 because I would not even do that for my own business as I came close to losing my ability to work at all so I just don't go near the red zone any longer).

A baseline of guaranteed time to mentally recharge renders the journey sustainable. 

I needed to make this more scalable and find what could be done at a high quality even as a solo-preneur mainly using software optimizations (with suppliers and contractors as-needed).

If it doesn't fit the segments of your life where you're actually available, it probably means you don't have time for it. 

The brand:

Our specialty? Helping athletes, driven professionals, entrepreneurs, and leaders get back on track or level up through quality equipment, fitness plan solutions, and athletic lifestyle inspiration.

Pushing myself mentally through fitness has helped me in so many ways, that is why I love high athletic goals. 

A bit more about the brand story and my obsession with giving back:

Aside from inspiring highly driven people to level up athletically since a strong body is connected to a strong mind... 

This brand was built as a mechanism for me to channel adversity into something positive. 

Building my own business is also a huge part of ensuring that I can be in a position to give back to the charities I care about, mostly those around Youth in Care because I was one. 

Being a recipient of the Youth Social Entrepreneur Award from Algonquin College for Community and Social Responsibility (2011), I want to continue to inspire others with difficult upbringings or circumstances to take control of their futures.

Aiming for goals is not about chasing material things for the sake of it, it’s about leaving a locked-in legacy (goals with an actual purpose rather than for the sake of it) for charities we care about, and inspiring others as to what is possible by simply leading by example and being ourselves.

Manifesting is about expressing purpose and passion, the tangible things that come along with it are lovely; however, being an inspiration to people who came from similar childhood/challenges and being the highest expression of my aligned self is actually what is behind it.

Legacy does matter, it lasts beyond your own lifetime. Love and light won't raise funds for your causes.

The odds were against me, I grew up in foster homes (since the age of 4); however, I would never call myself a victim. Why? It was just fuel for me.

Fitness helped me and is still helping me build self-trust, which translates into self-love and resilience. I want to share my lifestyle and journey to inspire others. My whole life, I have been told to not trust my gut, intuition, and inklings because of the childhood trauma, I was told I was different (like it was a bad thing, I now embrace it).

The fact that I still figured it out, fended for myself, got phenomenal grades, found good teachers, mentors, and ride or die friends means that I can't be a terrible decision maker.

In essence, reminding ourselves that we get to define ourselves and can trust our inner wisdom is so important. Age is certainly not a marker of wisdom and maturity, life experience matters more.

Fitness continuously reminds me of my mental strength and it is to be prioritized daily for continued resilience.

We can always win in the end if we use adversity to our advantage.

Self-love also fuels self-discipline, which is needed for athletic performance, and to navigate the mental highs and lows of life in general. 

- KARISA KARMALI

Features:

The Best Foods for Muscle Gain, According to Health Experts (Forbes Health)

Rising Through Resilience: Karisa Karmali of Self-Love and Fitness On The Five Things You Can Do To Become More Resilient During Turbulent Times

Karisa Karmali, Founder of Self-Love and Fitness™ (Thrive Insider)

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