Hi there, and thanks for visiting my page!

My name is Nathalia Melo, and here are the most important things you’ll need to know about me: I’m a working mom of two young and energetic kids, I’m crazy about health and fitness, and my passion is to empower women to feel good in their own skin.

Want to get to know me better? Here are some quick fun facts!

  • I love chocolate everything. My favourite dessert is warm brownie with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.
  • My kids are only 14 months apart, which means I fell pregnant with my daughter when my son was only 4 and half months.
  • I have a dog called Nacho (Nacho is a legend).

Of course, I’m sure you’re also here to learn about my background in fitness…and I have to say that the fitness bug first bit me when I was just a kid.

From a young age, I was involved in all kinds of sports. I was passionate about the team environment, and I always made sure to do everything I could to be the best I could be. I first started going to the gym way back at age 14, saving for a month and a half to pay for one month’s membership with my own allowance! (Gyms in Brazil were, and still are, very, very expensive, so my mom wouldn’t pay for a membership.)

My main interests apart from health and fitness (obviously J) are travelling and spending time with my family.

I know how challenging it is to keep up with your fitness goals when you’re a mother juggling mommy, wife, and life duties alongside personal health and fitness.

How Health and Fitness Became My Passion

So how did I get into the fitness industry? The answer is that I almost didn’t!

“There’s no career in fitness,” people kept telling me—and it sounded pretty convincing. Ultimately, I found myself taking them at their word, ignoring my dream to study health and fitness to pursue a degree in Law instead.

And maybe you’ve heard, but Law school is pretty time-consuming. By the time I moved to the US at the end of 2004, halfway through law school, I’d gotten caught up in a sedentary and unhealthy lifestyle, and the numbers on the scale had started going up. It wasn’t until five years later that I had a reality check, deciding to find my focus and challenging myself to sign up for my first IFBB bikini competition.

I’m not going to lie: it took a lot of determination and discipline to get there. But in the end, I managed to take the first place trophy home. The competition was a proud day for me—I’d finally managed to achieve and smash a massive goal I had set for myself!

Developing My Background in Fitness

Since my first competition, things have really taken off:

  • In 2012, I won the  Bikini Olympia, the most prestigious fitness competitions in the world, and became the first Brazilian to take the highest spot.
  • I have travelled to over 26 countries to provide seminars on topics like health and fitness as well as training during pregnancy.
  • I’ve been featured as a cover girl in magazines such as Fitness RXfor Women Magazine (twice), as well as Shape Magazine Germany, and I was also elected as number five in Flex Magazine as an all-time fitness model.
  • While I was pregnant, I was featured in Cosmopolitan Magazine, The Daily Mail, and The Express to share advice on training and staying fit during pregnancy.
  • I have also been featured in several mainstream fitness magazines worldwide, such as Muscular Development, Muscle and Fitness, Flex, Muscle and Fitness Hers, Fitness RX, and many others.
  • I was invited several times to compete at the Arnold Sports Festival (promoted by Arnold Schwarzenegger, this is one of the biggest competitions in the world), where I was never out of the top five.

Get started with a FREE Full Body Pregnancy Workout and a List of 10 Exercises to Avoid During Pregnancy

Here’s How I’ll Guide You Toward Your Fitness Goals

Exercising can be a form of therapy for anyone. It certainly has been for me. Over the years, I’­­­ve developed dozens of creative and fun workout routines to keep myself motivated day in and day out, and I hope to share these with you here. The trick is that as soon as it starts to feel boring and repetitive, it’s best to change things up! To stick to what you’re doing, you have to enjoy it—that’s my mojo!

My goal is to guide you and share all my tips on how to feel good about yourself, achieve optimal health and fitness levels through diet and exercise, all while maintaining a balanced lifestyle and ensuring that your family is healthy and happy too.

 I know what it’s like to exercise on a hectic schedule, so I’ll share my best advice for fitting healthy eating and exercising into your busy lifestyle. I’ve been there and done it all—and now so can you!

Here, I’ll also share my experiences with unhealthy habits and weight gain in the past, including overcoming my weight loss struggles, getting back to my dream body in order to win my first IFBB Competition, and most importantly getting back to a body I was happy and comfortable with after having my kids.

 

I firmly believe that you can achieve your goals if you make a commitment and turn that commitment into a habit.

Remember, nothing good ever comes out of a comfort zone, so the challenge is to step out of your comfort zone to achieve great things.

Being healthy and strong is not just for a month or a year, it’s a lifetime and a lifestyle choice for a better and happier you! My hope is that my readers can use my tips and tricks to achieve their best, health, body and life!

I’ll leave you with this, my two greatest passions in life:

  1. My love for fitness and health
  2. My determination to help others reach their goals and become a better, happier, stronger version of themselves!

Keep checking my website and schedule for details of appearances and seminars that I do worldwide. I love personally connecting with all of you!

Love, Nathalia