Back in April I made the goal of profiling one local mom or dad entrepreneur, but I am already falling behind! Seriously, May was crazy BUSY! I am back though, with a profile of one of my favourite super moms ever – Kate Laird. I have written about Kate Laird and her awesome fitness classes before as part of my blog on ‘Where Moms Go to Exercise’ but Kate is certainly worth writing about again.

Kate has been in the fitness and yoga industry in Westboro for over 10 years. Her certifications over the years have included Personal Training, Group Fitness, Nutrition and Wellness, Resist-A-Ball, Aquafit, Power Yoga, Tune up and more. I first met Kate when I started attending her Mom and Baby Bootcamp. I appreciated that you could bring along babies and kids of all ages to class, and I loved how hard she made us work!

Kate’s passion is helping people make themselves and their health a priority. She says she loves how taking care of yourself impacts every aspect of your life from your relationships, to your work, to your sleep, your sex life… literally everything is positively impacted from a healthy lifestyle.

“My favourite thing is hearing from my clients about all the positive changes that come after a lifestyle change. Also, we live in a society that has women feeling terrible about their bodies, I teach them to come from a place of self love and it’s wonderful to see their body image and self esteem improve.”

Kate encourages her clients to workout and eat well because they are worthy of making the time to be healthy, trying to move away from the “I’m not good enough and I need to lose weight” mentality.

Kate is great at helping moms navigate their postpartum workouts. No matter what stage you are at, or whether you have had pelvic floor issues, diastasis, a c-section, etc – she is fabulous at tailoring a workout that will work for you. I should know – I started attending Kate’s classes twice a week more than two years ago and she has helped me regain my strength after two pregnancies.

Kate, herself, is a super mom. She is a single mother to two daughters and busts her butt every day to set a fabulous example for them about what it means to be a healthy, hard-working and community involved woman,

I got a chance to ask Kate what she loves most about living in Ottawa with her family:

Kate’s favourite thing about Ottawa:

“I love Ottawa! I love that it’s a little big city, I love how easily you can escape the city, I love our little beaches and bike paths. I especially love my community in westboro (where I grew up) this haven of all things health and fitness!”

Favourite place to take the kids: 

“We’ve had lots of favourite places to go over the years, the Agriculture museum was our favourite for a long time, now that the kids are a little older we really enjoy walking/biking on the paths and hanging at westboro beach.”

Favourite place to eat as a family:

” We love the Wellington diner (they manage our gluten/dairy free needs nicely) and Strawberry Blonde cafe. And of course, picnics at the beach or at a park are always a hit!”

If you are interested in personal training sessions or joining in a mom/dad/family bootcamp, be sure to check out Kate Laird’s website , you won’t regret it!