ABOUT ME

Hi, I’m

Maya!

I can’t wait to help you achieve an empowered fitness routine

The Pursuit of Thinness Wrecked Me

I am pretty sure I came out of the womb dancing. I started dance at age 2 in the cute tutu tapping my foot on the ground and was so excited to go en pointe (the hard ballet shoes that allow you to stand on your tip toes). What I wasn't prepared for, was the incredibly disordered patterns I would be exposed to and try on size for myself.

As early as middle school, I was seeing how long I could go without eating in the summer. I remember being asked how much I weighed in dance class. Growing up with 2000s diet culture watching Biggest Loser at the end of the day wasn't exactly helping either.

I’d like to tell you a story. It’s about WHY I do what I do, and why I’d like to help YOU achieve fierce body confidence and discover joy in movement.

I love dance and I love exercise, but I wasn't not prepared for how toxic and disordered they both have the potential to be. I've put my body through two intense weight loss cycles that only backfired in the end (because diets fail 95% of the time). I was encouraged in my efforts of eating the caloric intake of a toddler, exercising multiple times per day, and encouraged by a doctor to exercise more when I was already active six days per week. When I got to my lowest weight, my hair was falling out, I couldn't eat my favorite foods, my thoughts circled around food and my body, and I didn't feel like myself.

The worst part was, the only way I could maintain my "results" was by continuing my three workouts per day and counting every calorie.

The reason I wanted to share my story with you is because I want you to know me. And I want you to know that I can help you, too. I was once stuck in the never-ending cycle of diet culture.

I knew there had to be a better way. A way in which we don't merely focus on exercise as a means to change the body. We gain fierce body confidence, gain community, learn to respect our bodies, and build strong and healthy bodies through the process. That's why I created Barre Empowered. To remind you that you are so much more than a body.

History

Barre Empowered was birthed from a pilot study in Maya's Master of Public Health project which implemented a Barre program for undergraduate women to study the effect on mental health and body image satisfaction.

The results of this study showed that women had significant improvements in their body image satisfaction and modest gains made in their mental health independent of their weight.

Barre Empowered therefore focuses on overall health promotion. Not diets as they fail 95% of the time, or even exercise as a means to change the body. Moving your body can and should be a joyful experience and a celebration of what your body can do. Not a punishment of what you ate, look, or feel.

Mission and Values

At the core of Barre Empowered, we focus on health promoting behaviors. These include actions like getting 7-8 hours of sleep, eating an abundance of different nutrients, limiting alcohol consumption, not smoking, and exercising regularly. We know that independent of weight, these are the behaviors that determine our health.