Tara MacDonald

President, Tara MacDonald Fit Club | Personal Trainer

Tara is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (trained through Coaches Training Institute), Reiki Practitioner and Certified Personal Trainer as well as a Fitness Instructor. The day that she founded NS FIT 4 U in 2004 everything changed while she was a business student at Mount Saint Vincent University. She is curvy, has fun being healthy and is part of a worldwide community that empowers us to change our lives. She is also now a certified Walk 15 instructor, Functional Ageing Specialist, Fitness Kickboxing Instructor and TRX Instructor combining movement with coaching to her clients. She co-authored Succeeding Through Doubt, Fear & Crisis a non-fiction book published by eWomenNetwork and is a co-author with Dan Ritchie on Start with Love: To Make Real Change and Transformation Happen also non-fiction published by Niche Press Works.  She also has self-published two short stories in fiction in 2014.  She loves her dogs and makes sure her fitness club gives back to the local community.

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I remember in gym class in the 80s, I was never good enough. I was always the last person gasping for breath around the gym test for the Canada Fitness tests. Luckily it only happened once a year, but it established my relationship with health and wellness as being really hard.

Gym glass at Armbrae Academy was dreaded but I still played on the volleyball team and went to volleyball camp at Mount Allison University in junior high.

I would later be diagnosed with exercise-induced asthma when I was at Trent University. I kept going through the Dartmouth Senior High School years with skiing, rugby, mountain biking, swimming, Tae Kwon Do at McKenna’s and working out at the Sportsplex.
Mind over matter, right?

The mind is a beautiful thing.

After experiencing hormonal issues related to my thyroid, pituitary gland, prolactin levels and cortisol, I realize my relationships with health and wellness will constantly evolve. It’s not static.

My relationship with food is even trickier – I lived with a smoker (my Mom) and the belief that calories in equaled calories out and that’s all you had to deal with (my Dad). I rarely ate a breakfast and if I did it was a bagel or toast and cheese.

Guess who turned out to be Celiac? Nowadays I trick my starvation thinking into eating breakfast with a protein shake and green juice with my one cup of coffee and the rest of the day falls into place.

As of January 2018, I am a Certified Personal Trainer! It’s a lifetime achievement for me.
Thanks to staff, family and friends for the belief.

What are you most proud of professionally? And who or why?

I’m proud of being a plus-sized personal trainer and showing Atlantic Canada that fitness can be inclusive. You don’t have to be a bikini competitor.

What's your vision for Atlantic Canada in 10 years? What’s our biggest opportunity now?

My vision - get everyone moving and our biggest opportunity is to create space for change in people’s lives with their permission.

What was your greatest stage of growth? 

The greatest stage of growth was training from the Coaches Training Institute, as it taught me abundance while my business degree teaches competition.

What's your favourite or most read book or podcast?

Anything from eWomenNetwork now and for future re podcasts.

What's your deepest learning from this past year? How did/will you apply it?

My deepest learning was patience and I applied it to becoming a personal trainer.

Who's inspired you, directly or indirectly?

Stacy Chesnutt, Jen Estabrooks, Louise Green, Krista Smith, Seema Sodha, Andrea Thatcher and Janice Forand

 What would you have done differently?

Started this business earlier in my life - I love what I do!

What were your priorities and how did they help you overcome some of the struggles you've faced?

My priority was to grow and learn how I was not served by my first business (in the film industry) and take steps to educate myself in my current business. It is ongoing. Principles I live by - it doesn’t have to hurt to work (for my clients) and integrity/honesty/compassion.

How have you recovered from fractured professional relationships? 

I’ve learned that when you get the first idea with someone to fire them you need to act on it. Hanging on only deepens the problem and won’t let anyone move on.

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Dog lover, Entrepreneur, Writer