Women In Wellness: Yalile Fajer of Zion Health on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Exercise often. I don’t mean gym membership and hardcore weights lifting when I say exercise. It’s good if you do, but I mean a 30-minute walk. Yoga is always good for the body and mind. Take the stairs when possible.
As a part of our series about “5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Dramatically Improve One’s Wellbeing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Yalile Fajer.
Yalile has been at Zion Health since 2020 and is also a Yoga instructor, having gained her certificate in 2018. She is a huge animal lover and enjoys outdoor activities, which was a massive reason she joined Zion Health as she is a proponent of clean beauty products. Yalile practices a plant-based diet 80% of the time and has volunteered for Tap for Humanity, building affordable houses for families in Las Vegas.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the story about how you first got involved in fitness and wellness?
I’ve always been active and enjoyed working out. One day, my left eye was twitching, and it worsened throughout the day. I started worrying since my dear friend just had her face paralyzed due to stress. I started practicing breathing and doing yoga more often until I pursued my teaching certificate. I never imagined I would be teaching, I did it more for myself, but now I can say I genuinely enjoy teaching and providing my knowledge to others.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
When the pandemic started, I kept hearing how stressed people were and how everyone was drinking more and exercising less, so I started teaching yoga online to friends and family. To bring us back together as a community and for at least 60 minutes not paying attention to the outside world. I received so much good feedback and was told by others how helpful it was. Even people who were not into yoga found it a way to distract themselves and became regulars.
Can you share a story with us about the most humorous mistake you made when you were first starting? What lesson or take-away did you learn from that?
I tend to be shy, even though people don’t believe that when I say it. I probably hide it well. But when I started to teach yoga online, I created a page on Facebook and streamed my first class. I thought I was streaming the class to the people on my page, only to find out I streamed it to everyone on my personal Facebook. I was so embarrassed, I don’t know why, but I felt exposed. [laughs] Later, I realized that was the little push I needed to do other things and be more confident with my marketing and yoga skills.
Can you share with our readers a bit about why you are an authority in the fitness and wellness field? In your opinion, what is your unique contribution to the world of wellness?
[laughs] I don’t know if I consider myself an authority, but I think my contribution to the world is teaching what I’ve learned in terms of yoga, clean eating, and now clean products application.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I would say my husband. He is always supporting my crazy dreams. He is not a big yoga fan, but he practiced every time I taught online as a support for a whole year. We never knew if people were going to show up or not, so he said if I’m the only student, then at least you have one person to teach.
Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. We all know that it’s important to eat more vegetables, eat less sugar, exercise more, and get better sleep etc. But while we know it intellectually, it’s often difficult to put it into practice and make it a part of our daily habits. In your opinion what are the 3 main blockages that prevent us from taking the information that we all know, and integrating it into our lives?
- The first one is to accept that it is a lifestyle choice, not a month-long thing.
- Being consistent and persistent. It takes 28 days to create a habit, but it takes even longer to notice the benefits, so my advice is don’t give up within the first 3 months.
- And lastly, be creative while you are on this journey. You need to enjoy it to continue with it.
Can you please share your “5 Non-Intuitive Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Dramatically Improve One’s Wellbeing”? (Please share a story or an example for each, and feel free to share ideas for mental, emotional and physical health.)
- Meditating for 2–5 minutes each day. It is hard, but it calms your mind and helps you focus better. We run run run, and we don’t take the time to slow down and breathe.
- Exercise often. I don’t mean gym membership and hardcore weights lifting when I say exercise. It’s good if you do, but I mean a 30-minute walk. Yoga is always good for the body and mind. Take the stairs when possible.
- Outdoors activity. Being in contact with nature stimulates all your senses, not mentioning the vitamin D level goes up and impacts the brain positively.
- Give yourself “Me Time.” We all need time for ourselves. Schedule a time to do something you enjoy.
- And lastly, see a friend often. The benefits of engaging in a friendly conversation with a friend are endless. We all seem too busy, but we all watch TV for hours, maybe use some of that time to call a friend, heat their voice, get involved in their lives.
As an expert, this might be obvious to you, but I think it would be instructive to articulate this for the public. Aside from weight loss, what are 3 benefits of daily exercise? Can you explain?
- It improves your mood and self-esteem by releasing endorphins. Just ask my husband. [Laughs]
- It combats health conditions like heart disease, stroke, depression, you name it.
- It promotes better sleep. A lot of our chronic diseases are related to this matter as well. Not having a restful night affects your brain, thyroid, testosterone levels, etc.
For someone who is looking to add exercise to their daily routine, which 3 exercises would you recommend that are absolutely critical?
- If this is for someone who has never been active, don’t start with complicated exercises and gym commitments. A walk around the block in the morning or afternoon is a good start.
- Our body is tense all-day. A 5–10 minute stretch is also good.
- And lastly, 10 squats daily help our muscles to continue strong. We stop moving because the older we get, the less strength we have.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story?
The Miracle Morning. It highlights the importance of being consistent in life and understanding what matters to you.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amounts of good to the most amounts of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
That’s a good question. I think something that has been on my mind for several years now is why can’t we see beyond skin color or race? That would be my movement, see beyond the obvious and love people for who they are.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?
“Life is better in pairs” I consider myself family-oriented and enjoy time with my husband and my 3 1/2-year-old. They are my engine, my motivation in life, and I’m happy and thankful every day I have them.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
Michelle Obama, I loved her book, and I think she is funny and intelligent. Having a cup of coffee with her must be delightful.
What is the best way our readers can follow you online?
People can find me on IG as @yogawithyalile or LinkedIn as Yalile Fajer. I like to connect with people and connect them with others.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Women In Wellness: Yalile Fajer of Zion Health on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.