Q: Tell us about yourself and your story.
I am originally from Brazil. I lived in Brazil until I was 18, and then I came to the U.S. to play tennis on a scholarship. I graduated and started working at a corporate job. I stayed in that same company for four years, and alongside my corporate job and college career, I was also involved in a relationship. I then went through a divorce and started realizing that I was not on the right path in my life. I had to re-establish myself. I had to move to another place.
I decided to quit my job, so then I had to completely reshape the identity I had created for so long. That gave me a completely different structure of life. I started realizing that one of the main things I wanted to do differently was to take care of my mental and physical health in a completely different way.
Q: Can you talk about what holistic health coaching is and how you started doing it?
I started to invest my time into studying [and] getting certifications in psychology, nutrition and exercising, and I created the company I have now. It’s called B-FIT, which stands for Focus, Intention, Tough. It’s the mindset that starts changing for us to achieve the high level of body awareness that we need.
I am a holistic health coach, and it’s been two years now since I started the company. I started realizing I am more than just a fitness trainer. In the beginning, a lot of people associated my brand with just fitness, but in reality, I help people really transform the way they think, feel and look for themselves.
Q: We all have our own definitions of health and wellness. What do they mean to you?
Heath equals energy. The symbol for B-FIT is an atom, the smallest quantitative way of measuring energy, and the higher we can bring that energy, the happier we are going to be, the more positive emotions we can feel and the healthier we are going to be overall. Everything that comes from a place of love is real health. Everything that comes from a place of fear, we are taking life away from us.
My idea is to shift people from thinking that health is just the body type or the scale and shifting to have a positive mindset about their body, mind and what they truly want in life. It’s not only about the way we physically look and how we exercise, but how we think about ourselves, how we shape our lives, how we have more spiritual connection — the holistic way.
Q: What drew you to coach other people? Do you have a particular coaching client that touched your heart? Share some highlights/accomplishments you’re proud of.
Because I went through a divorce and I know how painful it is, I started realizing that that’s my go-to — people who are going through something traumatic in their lives and trying to recover from it.
Personally, I just did a wellness retreat where I brought seven women who had been going through a lot on their own journeys. They all brought some baggage to the retreat, and we uncovered a lot of those things. People started gaining more confidence and understanding different perspectives from a place of love, switching from a place of darkness to a place of light. Now I am obsessed with the idea of doing retreats because, apart from doing my business online, I realized that personal touch just adds so much more value and so much more depth for the coaching I try to do.
It’s not only about the way we physically look and how we exercise, but how we think about ourselves, how we shape our lives, how we have more spiritual connection — the holistic way.
Bela Castro
Q: You also have an app for B-FIT! Tell us about that and what inspired you to create it.
The app is a monthly membership where clients get a morning workout routine and nutrition plan. Once a month, we do a mindset call where I send daily messages to keep people in a positive mindset. It is an easier way for me to reach the highest amount of people around the world. It doesn’t limit me from getting clients anywhere. I’m from Brazil, so I want to get clients from Brazil, Europe, anywhere.
It gives me an easy path to coach people from an app perspective. Not only do I provide the mindset coaching, the nutrition guidance and the exercises, but I also have the ability to check if people are doing the workouts and if they are following up with the program. I can be a much better source of guidance and accountability that way versus providing a PDF and not really knowing if people are doing the classes.
Q: Can you tell me about the other roles that occupy your life when you’re not coaching?
I am also helping companies with safety. I used to be a safety manager in my corporate job and I saw that people were getting burnt out. I go to companies and tell them, “You need to better your procedures to make sure people are hydrated, making sure people are eating well and are able to do certain kinds of jobs.” This all goes with the same goal of helping people with their mind, body and soul connection.
I am also working on writing a book! I want to get it finalized by December. It is a book that talks about how we can bring the light from within, transforming all the hate we have towards each other into love. At the end of the day, you never hate other people — you are just a reflection of them. Whenever you say you hate somebody, it is because there’s something about that person that you don’t like about yourself. The more we have love for each other, the healthier we are going to be. I’m trying to help people understand that they can live in love every single day.
Q: What obstacles have you faced and how did you overcome them?
It all started in 2020. I started transitioning from a very dark place, where I was having panic attacks and crying everyday, to a much better place. The only way I could do it was by walking in nature, eating healthier and changing some habits. I completely started shifting because I was tired of feeling that way. In the midst of COVID-19 in 2020, I realized this might be the time for me to start studying what I truly want because my corporate job was not fulfilling what I really wanted. In January 2021, I launched my first 30-day fitness challenge. At that time, I literally just reached out to my best friends and two people that I knew. I ended up getting thirty people signed up who were paying $120 for that challenge, and I was like, “Wow! I can make this happen!”
I made videos of myself in my living room and posted them on YouTube and created a whole nutrition plan based on what I studied. Each day I would create a daily group message to send to them, and that was very powerful. After that challenge, people started asking me what was next. I started doing challenge after challenge, and in that year, I did four challenges. The hardship that I had was reaching out to people and getting people to sign up. For me, a learning lesson was that not everyone is ready to receive what I have to give, and it’s OK. That was the biggest lesson. It’s challenging because now I’m traveling all over the world, and I just have to adapt to this new lifestyle that I chose.
Q: What are your long-term goals?
I am working towards getting B-FIT to have over 1,000 subscribers. That is my five-year projection. This year, I am working on having 100 consistent subscribers. I also want to do recurring retreats.
What advice would you give to other women based on your experiences?
See fear and embrace it. A lot of people see fear and run away from it. There are waves of problems and fear coming your way, but you just have to go and jump on top of that fear instead of trying to run away from it. At the end of the day, perfection is just a fear of not being enough. We’re never going to be perfect — even B-FIT right now is not perfect — but if I tried to make it perfect and fix all the cracks, I would have never been able to start. It was important for me to have an idea, execute it and then along my journey, adapt and change.
To learn more about Bela’s holistic fitness programs, check out Bela’s Instagram and YouTube channel.
