Welcome to Kalina’s Fitness! My name is Jorge and I am the President and Founder. My wife, Kalina, is the Program Director and she has over 20 years of experience working with kids and teens. The name “Kalina” is not only my wife’s name but it is also an aboriginal name that means “to love” and in Greek it means “beautiful.” It is the perfect name for us because we love our kids and families and we are all beautifully created by God in his own image. We started our first teen weight loss center in 2003 because we saw a great need to help kids develop healthy habits and improve their quality of life.
Our journey is a story filled with challenges, perseverance, hope, and lots of faith. It all began back in 2002 as we ventured into entrepreneurship to follow our passion and start a fitness and weight loss center for women that we named Ladies Inshape. As our business grew, we realized that that while there were many fitness centers for adults there were no programs out there to help teens lose weight and develop healthy habits. To fill this need we developed the Lean Teen Program as a complete solution to weight loss that included nutritional counseling, group support, and exercise classes.
Our mission was to give kids and teens (ages 8-18) all the tools they needed to transform their lives and get fit. From the beginning, our Lean Teen Program became popular among teens and was even featured in the Miami Herald Newspaper and on the Channel 7 Prime Time News with Marilyn Mitzel.
Our kids were finally getting help losing weight and gaining the strength, confidence, and self-esteem they needed to realize their full potential. As the Lean Teen Program became a big part of our life, my wife and I also faced our own personal struggles. We had a strong desire to have children of our own but we couldn’t have any. After lots of prayer for guidance, we decided that our best option to have children was to move to Charlotte. We sold our business in 2005 to take on the challenge of infertility.
It was a difficult struggle and after 8 years of trying to have children we realized that God had different plans for us. God wants us to have lots of children! Our Lean Teens will be our children and it is our calling to share our love of nutrition and exercise with them. At the same time we realized that no one was going to rebuild our teen program but us. So in 2014, we used our experience to perfect our program and open our second teen weight loss center. Since then we have helped hundreds of kids and teens build healthy habits and achieve their goals (watch this news video of our Lean Teens).
However, we still have a big problem. You see childhood obesity has become the #1 health concern for parents today. And even though 1 out of 3 kids and teens in our country is considered overweight or obese there are still no fitness centers out there for them to build healthy habits and lose weight.
That is why we are on a mission to build the first teen fitness and weight loss brand – Kalina’s Fitness. By partnering with parents, teens, doctors, and our community, we are transforming lives and training kids how to build healthy habits that last a lifetime. Together we will get America back into shape!
Teach Your Kids Healthy Habits Early
Habits are actions and behaviors that we perform subconsciously and they are very difficult to break. Studies show that the habits that we develop early and are formed in childhood related to eating and exercise carry over into adulthood. And once poor health habits emerge they tend to be long lasting.
For example, research has indicated that 97% of people who lose weight regain it again within 5 years. Yes, our health habits are really that hard to change! That is why if you want to help your child develop good habits that are associated with a longer and healthier life you have to start at a very early age.
At Kalina’s Fitness, we combine nutrition, group support, and exercise classes to empower kids with the tools they need to achieve their fitness goals. Our program is the only year-round, affordable fitness and weight loss program designed especially for kids and teens between the ages of 8 to 18.
We are driven by a strong belief that all children deserve the opportunity to realize their full potential. Let us help your child become an amazing version of themselves and schedule your free class today. We look forward to serving you and your family with excellence. Thank you for visiting us!