Do you ever look at pictures of Fitness Models thinking,
“There is no way I could EVER look like that”?
Guess what? So did I, once upon a time. As a teenager during the 80s/90s in a smaller city just outside of Toronto Canada, I stood out as a second generation Italian with traces of Venezuelan running in my blood. I struggled with my confidence, especially when the beauty standard looked nothing like me: rail thin, blonde/blue eye models.
The Instagram curvy beauty standard wasn’t a thing back then. I felt like the misplaced immigrant kid and was often teased for being the “Euro-fat girl” thanks to my genetic predisposition to store more female fat than the culture’s role models.
The world’s media felt loud and clear, “Only tall and skinny fashion models are the only reigning ideal.”
I saw in the mirror an insecure teenage girl struggling to see her own beauty and accept the body she was blessed with. Living in a home and culture that was all about connecting over delicious food, my well-meaning family pressured me in the opposite direction and told me “don’t get too skinny!”. I became obsessed with what I ate and developed an eating disorder that alternated between starvation and binge-eating.
It wasn’t until many years later that I learned how many women struggle with the same thing. Yo-yo dieting, food related anxiety and comfort, negative self-talk after failing to combat your cravings… it all belongs to the same unhealthy pattern that keeps you from being happy, confident and beautiful in your own eyes.
You can hide it from everyone, but not yourself.
I remember when I was at my lowest. I was outwardly confident and always engaged in sports like track, volleyball and cheerleading. No one would have suspected how self-conscious I really was or how I really felt about food, emotions, and now my eating disorder. I became severely depressed at just 20 years old, and my inner bully constantly told me I wasn’t good enough or worthy.
Sometimes what you need is a reminder to believe in yourself.
It’s hard to turn things around when you’re stuck in a loop of negative thinking and detrimental behavior. For me, the turning point was a guy at the gym who challenged me to compete in bodybuilding. Little by little, I started replacing my mental monologue with positive thoughts about myself and my body. With his encouragement and a serious prep protocol, I stepped on stage in 2004 as the strong and confident woman I really was.
Transforming my body brought me closer to my true self because it allowed me to tap into my inner power.
Committing to and achieving a goal, while working with my body instead of against it, filled me with enormous self-respect. It taught me how much I was in fact capable of, once I stopped telling myself that I couldn’t do it or didn’t live up to some illusory ideal.
Ever since that life-changing epiphany, fitness has been my life,
What started as a quest to improve myself, turned into a rewarding and diverse career in the international fitness, media, and modeling industry. I’ve been blessed with far more than the teenage version of me could have even dreamed up, landing major covers for top publications like Oxygen, Muscle & Fitness Hers, and Iron Man Magazine. I’ve also hosted prestigious events including Bodybuilding.com, Olympia, Toronto Pro Supershow and Arnold Sports Festival, where I’ve interviewed high caliber sports celebrities, UFC fighters and legends like Arnold Swartzenegger. I also got a chance to co-host for Living Beautiful Radio, which gave me an amazing opportunity to share a positive, uplifting message that inspired listeners to live beautifully inside and out.
“True joy comes from within, and once you are happy and confident with yourself, everything else in life will fall into place.”
– Nancy Di Nino
Helping other women be and feel their best has become my greatest passion in life, because I know how much that kind of guidance and encouragement meant to me when I needed it.
As a Certified Clinical Weight Loss Practitioner who’s spent over three decades working as a CPF certified personal trainer; I’ve coached thousands of people to optimal health and fitness with personal training and tailored nutrition. Whether I work with a figure competitor or gym novice, my main goal is always the same: that you exceed your own expectations by ending up more attractive, confident and in control than you ever imagined.
I want you to feel like a BOSS BABE, and own it!
Being a lifelong athlete, national level figure athlete, fitness model and former world-class salsa dancer, I get how paramount it is to feel great in your skin. As an individual, it’s important to recognize that you have unique biology and that you need a program that meets your needs.
The good news is that I’ve spent many years tweaking my own plan to overcome these hurdles and stay in top shape year after year. With decades of research and trial and error to perfect my method, I’ve designed a unique fitness system to render genes and age irrelevant to your results.
My programs will successfully combat any genetic disposition and stubborn fat due to hypothyroidism or hormonally impaired metabolism without sacrificing your quality of life, so you can enjoy your best years as a boss woman feeling fit, sexy, independent and utterly excited about the future. Both myself and my amazing client transformations are living proof that you don’t need a ton of money or freak DNA to look like a million bucks at any age—you just need the right plan to uncover your given potential!
I believe that you are the only one with the power to change yourself.
I’m just here to help you find it.
