“I want to inspire and change people’s lives”
Sarah Bidnyk has always believed that you are what you eat and that everything is connected when it comes to health and healing. Those same beliefs led this nutritionist and fitness coach to save her own daughter’s life from a life-threatening tumor, stunning even the medical professionals.
At age nine, her relationship between food and her body already fine-tuned, Sarah was a national Olympic-level gymnast. At age 10, after her mom almost died of cancer, the elite athlete started reading books on health. Ever since, her passion gravitated around fitness, health and nutrition. Through a selfexperimental approach, she found her balance through her fitness and a plant-based diet, allowing herself the occasional animal product.
« You don’t know until you’ve experienced it »
Four years ago, Sarah and her husband, Adam, moved to Bourget from the Burlington area, with three children, ages 4, 2 and 1.
Just before their eldest, Brooklyn, was supposed to start school, she was diagnosed with histiocytosis, a cancer-like condition. The tumor ate a four-centimeter hole in her skull and threatened to penetrate her brain.
“They basically said chemotherapy was the treatment option and we said no,” Bidnyk said. “Adam and I, we walked out, looked at each other and said it wasn’t an option.”
Instead, they reached out to find various forms of natural healers.
They were referred to a Toronto-based traditional Chinese medicine consultant named Jeanette Wayne. With simple energy, a strict organic diet and topical herbs applied to her head, they started seeing the tumor shrink. Wayne offered the Bidnyks one year of free treatments every two weeks.
“I had always treated myself naturally and couldn’t figure it out myself,” Bidnyk added. “I needed guidance and Jeanette, she kind of brought me back to my belief in food and in the human body.”
During the last hospital examination, little Brooklyn was declared to be in complete remission though the doctor could not explain why.
“I think Brooklyn’s body just got confused,” she continued. “Chances are she hit her head and the local white blood cells went to help heal and never stopped. So, we treated her lymphatic system and it worked. Then, we had to regrow the bone, so we did that with plant-based calcium and vitamin D.”
“The medical professionals are absolutely incredible when it comes to trauma care and putting people back together. I have the upmost respect for them in that way,” she clarified. “But when it comes to healing illness and chronic disease recovery, it seems like they don’t do it. They know nothing about nutrition.”
Bidnyk’s business vision was birthed out of this experience.
Her main focus is now whole health and empowerment. She thrives to help people realize the vibration of true health through her fitness and nutrition services.
Her fitness program consists of small group training where she is still able to provide a personal one-on-one feel, without the price tag of personal training.
She is also planning to start boot camps this spring, in Rockland, at the ClarenceRockland Arena, as people have been asking for them.
“Right now, I am doing basic strength training with equipment. In the summer, I do larger groups, like outdoor boot camps, with no equipment, like cardio, flipping tractor tires, pushing the jeep and hill sprints.”
She also teaches a plant-based diet for health recovery and to help people learn from experience.
“All the chronic illnesses that lead to heart disease can be easily reversed on a plantbased diet, provided you know what to eat,” Bidnyk said.
The nutrition aspect of her business also includes three staple challenges, which have predetermined durations and are designed for the promotion and restoration of health.
Through adapted seminars and online coaching - she insists there are no one-sizefits-all programs- her challenges and recipes are believed to offer a quick boost and mental clarity.
With the upcoming opening of her new venue, located just beside her residence, she plans of fulfilling her end-goal vision: having a healing facility with a fully-equipped gym and a wide array of healers and professionals.
“I enjoy working with people, I enjoy the psychology of it”, she admitted. “To motivate, inspire and understand what makes my clients tick, that’s a big part of the art. I think that’s the power that I have in this business, and I plan to use it for good.”