by Linda Sechrist

In August 2001, Melody Nagy stood near her business partner, Kate Hall. The two women had big smiles on their faces at the grand opening of Wholistic Fitness, a women’s wellness center located in North Wales. Since then, the success of their center, dedicated to helping women develop life long health and happiness, has been all the proof that Nagy needed to believe that there was more than an ounce of truth in Marsha Sinetar’s book, Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow.

“I struggled for a long time, wanting to envision that these kinds of dreams were possible but I had a difficult time giving myself permission to dream,” says Nagy, who had previously used her good instinct for business to successfully dabble in other investments. “I can’t sing, dance, paint or draw, so for me, Wholistic Fitness is my creative outlet,” quips Nagy, who advises that looking for commercial sites for the center was originally to fulfill the intention of finding Hall a space for her personal training and boot camp business. “The idea for a women’s wellness center grew organically out of conversations that Kate and I had while looking at properties,” notes Nagy.

After Nagy and Hall decided on the 3,500-square-foot unfinished space, they looked around at all the empty walls and started imagining how great it would be to fill it with a massage therapist, thermographer, acupuncturist, alternative medicine doctor, nutritionist, psychologist and lots of room for personal training group fitness classes. “We got out a roll of blue tape and started measuring and marking off what we felt were spacious rooms for all the aspects that what we wanted to include,” advises Nagy, who notes that it was a very natural step to focus the business on women’s wellness because the decision was in alignment with her longtime interest in women’s issues and nutrition. “My passion for these interests goes back to my college days which I seem to have shelved while I worked in distribution and manufacturing sales for the last 10 years,” she explains.

Nagy considers the center as a creative outlet that is positive, dynamic and fun. When inquisitive people inquire about why a center “just” for women, she quips, “Why not? The kinds of gender disparities engrained in our societies don’t disappear overnight. You can’t focus on women’s issues in isolation so when we focus on women, the picture is really much larger. We know that healthy empowered women help to close the gender gap and that when women flourish, their families and friends flourish with them. Kate and I wanted to help empower, which will have a rippling effect in our community and benefit all of us,” explains Nagy.

Excited to be giving back to their community, Nagy and Hall are feeling the personal satisfaction from creating new jobs, giving women a positive outlet for stress and helping them find true sustained health through natural means. They’ve also had the opportunity to work with the Methacton School District on their wellness initiative programs, helping educate their community about health and nutrition and by providing exercise classes and a variety of seminars that are held at their schools.

The uniqueness of Nagy’s pursuit is that she has made room in her life for a variety of important pursuits and careers that not only makes her heart sing but also gives her the chance to leave behind a lasting legacy that benefits many more people than just herself.

“I work full time in manufacturing sales and when I’ve had a bad day, I don’t go home and have a glass of wine, I go to the center where I know I can enjoy myself and laugh with the girls. It’s a really good feeling to know that you can do what you love.

Wholistic Fitness, 217 Church Rd., N.Wales, 267-613-8246. Visit WholisticFitnessOnline.com, December 2012

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