Nicole Almeida,

ISFTA Director of Training, Fitness Pro/Educator

ActivewearUSA.com Ambassador

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."

Passionate, ambitious, witty, fun and most importantly, a heartfelt desire to motivate others; those are a few of the attributes that Nicole would use to describe herself.

Physical fitness has been a part of her life since she was a little girl. Nicole began dance lessons at just two years old and by the age of nine, was competing at both local and national levels. During her senior year of high school, Nicole was crowned Miss Hartford County and became a top ten finalist in the 1994 Miss Connecticut Pageant. While preparing for the pageant, she joined her very first gym and needless to say, fell hook, line and sinker for working out. In her own words, "I became a fitness fanatic!" She quickly realized that the ideal profession for her would incorporate her profound love of fitness with her sincere desire to inspire others. Armed with fervent will, her mission to become a motivator, role model and life coach of fitness began. She entered college in the fall of 1994 with an undergraduate focus on Exercise Science and Nutrition. While working toward her degree, she made the decision to become a personal trainer. She earned local and national certifications as both a trainer and group fitness instructor. Her education, commitment to helping others, training principles and her own personal enthusiasm for fitness propelled her to the top of the industry as her success as a trainer grew. In addition to her studies, she was training ten to fifteen clients per day and found her work to be extremely rewarding. "I suppose that is the beauty of it all, when you partake in something that you are truly passionate about, it is almost like second nature and makes it easy to excel."

Nicole spent a number of years working as a fitness counselor in all types of settings with clients from all fitness levels. She also worked for two incredibly talented Sports Medicine doctors in Boston where she was blessed with the opportunity to learn "hands on" about the human body and how it functions.

While being a fitness and life-style coach to thousands of clients had surpassed any career expectations that Nicole could have dreamed of, she made the decision to take on an even bigger role; that of a mom. After giving birth to her first child in October of 2001, Nicole immediately began transitioning to web-based clientele services, to accommodate the demanding schedule of motherhood. She put her efforts into creating an online virtual trainer and nutritional consultation business that has grown and evolved throughout the years as Nicole continually seeks to add products and services that she believes are beneficial to her client's success.

Today, Nicole is a proud mother of six beautiful children and an inspiration to family, friends and new acquaintances alike. She has managed to remain a fitness role model even throughout her six pregnancies. She has a sincere desire to motivate and inspire every individual she meets who wants to reach their personal goals, both physically and psychologically.

In addition to her personal training business and being a full time mom, Nicole is a member of the corporate board for International Sports & Fitness Trainers Association, serving as the Director of Training. As ISFTA continues to foster relationships with local, national and international health clubs, Nicole is instrumental in facilitating these relationships by enlisting facilities as ISFTA Certified Fitness Education Centers. In an effort to make ISFTA courses available to all those who might benefit from the knowledge, ideas, resources and motivation that we provide to prospective fitness trainers, she also actively recruits, trains, and mentors other ISFTA Course Instructors to assist with teaching certification courses worldwide.

Recently, Nicole was honored to become part of another corporate team as a direct result of her success with ISFTA. Joining Mission Sports as the Program Coordinator has provided Nicole not only an amazing opportunity for professional growth, but also a means to develop an exclusive leadership circle committed to the fight for the prevention, control and cure of childhood obesity. Nicole heads Wellness Advocates for Youth, a project of Mission Sports that focuses on mobilizing fitness professionals as community leaders in the fight against this horrible epidemic.

Along with working out, Nicole enjoys spending time with her family and friends, watching her children play sports, going to the beach, volunteering, teaching and scrap booking. She has also begun training for her very first fitness competition and is excited about getting back into competing. Nicole resides with her husband and six children.

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."