Let's Be Real!

It can be so hard these days to figure out what to eat, what not to eat, what to eat some of, what to eat a lot of, what to smell, what not to smell, what to put on your skin, what not to put on your skin—and these articles we see all over online change and flip-flop so often it can be so stressful to keep track of everything on top of just trying to get through your day.

But some people, like Brianna Campigotto, have an interest in how the body reacts to what we ingest and how to help people manage what they eat, put on their skin, and even smell, which is why she started BRealFit.

However, it wasn’t always like this for Brianna. Like most people, it all started at the end of high school when young students are pressured to decide what they want to do for the rest of their life—college, university, programs, etc… It’s all quite stressful and Brianna wasn’t quite sure where she wanted to go in life at that point.

“I remember wondering what I would do in university and how I’d choose what I wanted my whole life to be at that point,” she said. “So my dad helped me make a pros and cons list and my love of old literature got me down the path of getting an English degree.”

So off to Ottawa University she went to pursue her path in writing, not quite sure what the next step would be, but at the urging of teachers—saying her writing was like that of a journalist and that was a career path she should look into.

“A friend of a friend of mine was working for the paper at Ottawa University and so I started out there as a volunteer writing a few articles a month—mostly in sports,” Brianna said. “I would write about the fitness and health side of things, which I was really interested in, but the more I wrote for them, the more they wanted interview-style articles instead of the more column-like ones I would write. I didn’t really like that and it turned writing into something that I hated. It became so much more of a chore.”

And while she found out what path she didn’t want, the whole process opened up another.

Brianna had discovered she really enjoyed teaching people able health and how to manage nutrition for the betterment of mind, body, and soul.

“After that, I thought, ‘well, what’s my life plan now,” she said. “I got certified as a personal trainer to make a bit of money on the side while I tried to figure things out. I started getting my yoga certification, went back to school for nutrition and the more I did it, the more I enjoyed it.”

And while on a daily basis we face articles shared on social media, claiming to hold the secrets to good health, Brianna learned there was far more to it than that and strived to help people in a field she was passionate about.

“I used to call food fuel and I learned about the mechanics of food,” she said. “I got to understand behind the scenes and learned to help people who struggle with the ‘why’ of certain foods and products as well as the people who are extreme with foods. I can help people understand there is balance and guide them through their own journey.”

And from there she created BRealFit, a holistic practice that offers mind, body, and spirit services, using yoga, nutrition, and cosmetics to help people find balance in the community.

The cosmetic component came around when Brianna learned we ingested products we used on our skin and even smelled, like candles. We absorb things around and on us and Brianna wanted to create products that were real and honest in what we used on our skin, what our body absorbed and what affected our health.

“I started bringing them to my yoga classes and people liked them a lot,” Brianna said about her products. “I started with a moisturizer, bath salt, and lip balm, but people kept asking for more things so I would research them and make my own new products.”

However, the journey has had challenges, Brianna explained, mostly in people taking her services seriously as a professional.

“The biggest challenge is people’s perception of me,” she said. “When I started at the farmers market that’s how people were exposed to me and people kept asking where my store was.”

She figured if she had a place to sell online it would be a place for people in the community to go.

“Our community doesn’t really see entrepreneurs as entrepreneurs until they have a place of business with a big sign outside and nine to five hours,” she said. Brianna would eventually come to create the Artisans Way—which started over the last summer—featuring her wares as well as other vendors in town—to great success.

Brianna’s services can now be found on the MindBody app and her own BRealFit app is set to launch at the end of the month.