FOUNDER
Hi! Thank you for visiting Self-Love and Fitness™.
I am Karisa Karmali, Founder of Self-Love and Fitness™, ISSA Certified Personal Trainer/Online Coach and ISSA Certified Nutritionist 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 and a full weekly "crash day" to catch-up on sleep regardless of whether or not I love what I do, ADHD is very physiological for me).
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 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 as replenishment should be expected).
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 at the expense of quality control, health, and focus”: that’s not how passion is measured when you can leverage innovation and tools (like correctly organized businesses where chaos comes from natural, rather than contrived sources).
Work not feeling like work or business not feeling like business... does not change the biological imperative of mental and physical rest. ✨
Don't let hustle culture trick you into thinking that you earn rest, it's a biological and neurological imperative (regardless of loving your craft) and anyone who expects you to function without or at the expense of your basic coping mechanisms does not mean you any good.
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 -is what respects this need).
If your body and brain cannot recover on a daily basis from simply existing and daily stressors, you shouldn't be expected to function.
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.
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 needle-moving and high-leverage tasks/things, not on just anything or being all things. Having a clear vision and clear scope enables purposeful hustle with heart and clear limits (scope) to preserve wellness and long-term consistency.
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.
Biggest lesson so far from almost not having been able to continue working:
Burning yourself out for supposedly fast growth when you end up not being able to play the long game is very futile. You being passionate or "it not feeling like work" does not change the biological/neurological imperative to have guaranteed amounts of rest (or more) per day.
What could be more important than preserving the conditions to your mental wellness (resting outside your immediate household and obligations) and ability to put food on your table, disability or not? Certainly not those who get in the way of oxygen masks and expect people to function without time carved out for recharging, which is delusional/unboundaried with or without a disability.
Exercise is my mind-clearing and quiet meditative headspace and when my energy is aligned, the right (not just any) inspired action happens easily. Taking action outside of energetic alignment brings about lesser quality results.
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 driven/busy people 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 (yes, fitness is mental-first), that is why I love high athletic goals.
Physical exercise gives us more energy than it takes and there is healing in movement. I think stillness is for the rest and recovery part and every hustle season needs a "recharge" season, but forward movement keeps the body and mind alive. We're meant to move and evolve mentally. 🏆
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 (purpose).
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)
Karisa Karmali, Founder of Self-Love and Fitness™ (Thrive Insider)
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