A journey to self care

What we hope for.

We know that self-care nourishes, restores, and strengthens your health and well-being; mind, body and spirit. It provides us with quality of life. But we also know that life’s challenges and experiences leave us with obstacles - very real challenges that can be difficult to overcome in order to feel better.

CanPrev Women exists to inspire and ignite real conversations about your health so that at all of life’s stages and ages, you can feel good about yourselves, your health, and your journey.

Developing a self care plan.

We decided the best way to inspire more conversations surrounding self-care is to actually have one. So that’s what we did - we had one big open conversation! We hope it inspires you to start your own conversations.

Below you will meet the incredible women we asked to join us for this day of talking about self-care and related topics. To start, we asked each woman to fill out a short questionnaire relating to their current self-care routine as well as thoughts surrounding their mental, physical, and emotional health.

Create awareness.

What is a negative thought or feelings that you have had about yourself lately?
Take a minute to think about a woman you care about. What is a positive thought or feeling that you wish for them right now?
Describe in as few words as possible - a health struggle you have encountered.
What are some obstacles that you face when it comes to offering yourself better care: mentally, physically and emotionally?
When would you like to start overcoming these challenges?

What is

Real Self-Care?

Conversations about real self-care

Acknowledging it's okay to put myself first "

Conversations with Cynthia

Cynthia is a 62-year-old mother of three amazing human beings. You know after speaking with her that she is family-oriented and that her young grandchildren are the bright flames in her heart. We learned that she recently retired after having worked for twenty-nine years coordinating medical education. She is now looking forward to doing more of these activities: “cooking, hiking, dancing, swimming, working out, and outdoor activities, especially gardening”. Learning to play the piano ("I Wish You Love" is a melody that has currently captured the attention of my fingers). She enjoys helping her friends and neighbours who live alone or who are in need of help with domestic tasks. In this chapter of her life, she aims to focus more on caring for herself and doing daily activities that bring her joy.

"Breaking the stigma,"

Conversations with Jill

Jill Bunny is an advocate for total body health with her extensive background in Functional Nutrition, Psychology and Body Composition Training. Jill's road to understanding health and fitness on a deeper level began with her own health crisis. At the age of 30, she went from being the highest ranked IFBB Competitor (with two Arnold & Olympian Titles) in the world and internationally renowned cover model to an MS and Cancer fighter. Her journey through MS and Cancer has taught her that we are all unique when it comes to our health and fitness. What makes one body sing, might make another sick. Jill believes in looking at the whole person; including feelings, thoughts and behaviours for optimal health and happiness.

"An experience that reminded me -"

Conversations with Aisha

As a young professional Aisha has felt the challenges of burning the candle at both ends. Her interest in nutrition and self-care stemmed from this. She now holds a certification in Holistic Nutrition while building out her professional career as a specialist in Data Systems Management. Her approach to building better self-care, even now, she admits is a work in progress and she hopes it stays that way - so she continues to grow and become the very best version of herself. A professional leader she reminds herself and encourages others to always aim to ‘refill your (physical, emotional and spiritual) cup’ as needed and as is best for you.

"This experience reminded me"

Conversations with Kim

Kim has been teaching in the fitness world for over 15 years. She is Pre and Postnatal Fitness Certified, Pelvic Floor & Diastasis for Fitness Professionals certified, a lover of Pilates, bootcamp and proud mama to one sensational little girl. Kim started her passion for movement through dance. Her incredible talent led her to a professional career as a dancer and actor. After spending years in environments that focused on how one looks rather than how one feels, Kim was inspired to create a space for women to feel good from the inside out. A space where transformation both internally and externally could help women feel beautiful. This inspired Kim to create The Body Boutique, an environment where women can work on their health and fitness goals from a place of empowerment, knowledge, support, balance, and fun! Dynamic, compassionate, challenging, smart programming and fun classes are her thing!

"I left this experience with an urge"

Conversations with Ashley

Ashley is a Holistic Nutritionist, mother, animal lover and fashionista. When we spoke with her she mentioned how much she loves cooking and stumbling across new food items in the grocery store - after speaking with her for a short time you quickly see her passion for nutrition shine through. She mentioned that struggling with skin issues and adult acne while aiming to rebalance hormones after being on the birth control pill for so long, and learning to curb a pretty aggressive sugar addiction, was a learning experience. It challenged her both mentally and emotionally but is now glad she made the time to get to the root of her issues. A self confessed sneakerhead, this woman prefers comics over novels and loves to play recreational volleyball.

"A positive and diverse experience "

Conversations with Anita

Anita S. is an entrepreneur, wife, and mother of two. After working corporate in senior level media sales roles, she decided to follow her entrepreneurial spirit to launch Devya Indian Gourmet, the first certified organic south asian food line. Anita is also the founder of Candy Crate Events, a Toronto company that offers gluten-free, dye-free, organic, vegan hand-spun candy floss. Looking for an opportunity to bring together two of her greatest passions - culture and events - and to utilize her vast network in the event management field, she founded Culture Market Co. and launched her first market. The Diwali Market took place in Square One from October 17 to 20, 2019. Anita has a degree in Information Technology Management with a minor in Marketing from Ryerson University and a post-graduate certificate in Event Management.

"I was reminded that everyone"

Conversations with Samantha

Samantha is a Toronto-based Holistic Nutritionist and mom of two teenage girls. She holds a BA from Carleton University and graduated with First Class Honours from The Institute of Holistic Nutrition. As a Certified Nutritional Practitioner (CNP), Samantha develops personalized wellness programs for her clients that incorporate whole, nutrient dense foods, beneficial lifestyle modifications and supplements to improve their physical, mental and spiritual well-being. At CanPrev, Samantha works in both the Customer Service and Regulatory/Quality Assurance departments and in her spare time, can often be found attending an early morning spin class at her favourite midtown studio, shopping for inspiration at the local Farmers’ Market or meal prepping in her kitchen while singing and dancing to her ever-expanding and eclectic Spotify playlist.

"The mutual desire to"

Conversations with Tanya

Tanya Salituro founded CanPrev in 2005 to share the passion she developed for natural health during her 3 separate journeys with breast cancer. With a deep desire to provide more safe, therapeutic and effective options in naturopathic medicine, she founded CanPrev with the expertise of Canadian Naturopathic Doctors. Tanya is a busy mother of 4 who loves organic gardening, foraging for edibles and keeping active especially with nature walks and snowshoeing.

Learn more about Tanya

Finding stepping stones.

The stepping stones to better health takes work, guidance and sometimes just a reminder that you are worth it. We hope these pillars present starting points for you to dive deeper into your health journey.