Nordine Zouareg is an internationally acclaimed high-performance coach and wellness expert, bestselling author and speaker. He draws on three decades of diverse experience in the fitness and wellness fields, including 10 years leading the revolutionary fitness program at Miraval Resort, the world-class destination spa in Tucson, Arizona, where he led over 8,000 individual coaching sessions with some of the world’s most influential people.
Nordine has worked with top CEOs, celebrities, national politicians, business executives, and entrepreneurs. His unique, holistic teaching methods allow his clients to live fuller, happier lives. Nordine is the best-selling author of Mind Over Body, and creator of Executive InnerFitnessTM. Additionally, he is a world-champion athlete, formerly holding the Mr. Universe (1986 and 1988), Mr. World, Mr. Europe, and Mr. France bodybuilding titles.
Nordine’s own remarkable life story highlights how he has encountered and overcome almost insurmountable obstacles and challenges with great success. From sickly third world child to world-champion athlete, to fitness authority to the stars, few have begun with so little and gone so far. While your life situation is different, the means to overcome your challenges and achieve your dreams are yours with his guidance.
Nordine is committed to integrating the very best wellness practices into all aspects of life – body, mind, and heart. His patient, insightful teaching style is designed to reduce stress instead of adding complication. Nordine’s gifts of compassion and intuition allow him to know your true needs, and to keep you on the right path through your entire journey towards optimum wellness. He shares his unique mental and fitness secrets with celebrities, business magnates, and entrepreneurs all over the world. And now he shares his insights with The Mental Health Foundation to raise awareness for the greater good.
Nordine’s personal passions are his children, his spirituality, exercise, reading, cooking, travel, and helping people around the world understand how to incorporate the mental, emotional, physical and spiritual aspects of being to create a successfully balanced and fulfilling life.
We had the wonderful opportunity to interview Nordine. Check out the interview below.
Hi, Nordine! Thank you for granting the interview. It is a pleasure to speak with you about your career.” Tell us what inspired you to become a coach and wellness expert?
Thank you for granting me this interview. After ending a twelve-year career as a professional athlete, I wanted to transition into something that would help me grow and complement the skills I’d learned through professional bodybuilding. Wellness coaching was still in its infancy and seemed to be a natural flow. I also liked that the idea of creating profound and positive results in others committed to change. Having spent years in the physical, competitive and obsessive world of traditional fitness, I wanted to learn about the fitness of life, and work with individuals in all aspects of their being.
Tell us about the revolutionary fitness program at Miraval Resort, at the world-class destination spa in Tucson, Arizona.
Yes, absolutely! Back in 1999 when I first started working as the fitness and wellness director, I was asked to help develop and lead a non-threatening, non-intimidating, non-obsessive fitness & wellness program. Something that would help guests to recharge, re-energize and refocus while using mindfulness. During a sixty-day period, I observed the entire staff in their day-to-day activities and studied the guests’ needs, limitations and preferences. I discovered something astonishing, it wasn’t so much about exercises or eating habits but about balancing all the different areas of one’s life; emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual. Thus I embarked on a mission to create something that would cater to Miraval’s guests. Within the next three months, my staff and I developed and started implementing our new and revolutionary fitness program, eight months later Miraval became the #1 Resort Spa in the World.
You’re the best-selling author of “Mind Over Body” and creator of Executive InnerFitness®. Tell us about the book.
Yes, Mind Over Body is about reclaiming your true core desires. I wrote the book to help people focus inward and reassess their lives, goals, and dreams. Although it focuses on weight loss, they can adopt the approach to any area of one’s life. Knowing things doesn’t mean doing them and Mind Over Body addresses this old and erroneous belief. It is more relevant now in an increasingly saturated technological world than when it was first published by Springboard press/Warner Books in 2007.
You have overcome challenges to be where you’re at. How were you able to beat the odds?
I guess it’s about being resilient as most would say. But dealing with a war-torn country, illness, bullies, poverty and extreme racism requires much more than emotional or mental strength. It takes a kind of power that’s only found within the heart. For years I’ve suffered in silence, locked in the prison of my mind and guarded by fear. My savior was my ability to retrieve to a place of peace when anger, anxiety, doubt, and panic showed their ugly faces. At the young age of about 7 or 8 years old I developed a crying ritual, which later morphed into meditation practice and inner inquiry. It allowed me to escape a cruel world and regain inner peace. It helped me connect to my sense of self-worth and emerge victorious each time. When you seek inner fitness, inner chaos vanishes. It’s a belief I share with thousands around the world through my speaking engagements, coaching, and writing.
What has been your biggest takeaway in coaching, thus far?
People often seek the magic pill and believe it or not, they don’t want to change until they experience tragedy or trauma. That’s unnecessary! I learned through experience that the answer to my client’s issues, challenges or dilemma lies within them and if I listen long enough, I’ll be able to capture the solutions. The key is to be available as a whole being and to work with them using a system that enables me to connect at all levels, emotional, mental, physical and spiritual. I call this coaching system Executive InnerFitness®.
How can someone create success in their career?
It all depends on how you perceive success to be. Success means waking up in the morning and feeling energized, motivated and inspired to pursue your passion. Success also means you have achieved optimum health, happiness, and unconditional love. If you have a successful financial life but you’re emotionally mentally and physically exhausted, you cannot enjoy your life. To be truly successful, you need to create and sustain a balance between your work and personal life. I have worked with many so-called successful individuals who came to realize that they were only partially successful despite all the money and material possessions. Mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well-being is paramount to health and happiness.
If you could choose a topic to write about, what would it be and why?
That’s a loaded question but I like it. I would write about (after extensive research) what the Buddha, Jesus, and Mohamed would talk about if they were meeting to contemplate our current state of the world and humanity. I’m not, per se, religious but I think these prophets would have a blast assessing what’s happening.
Thus far, what has been the best experience working in the industry?
My best experience is by far the ten years I spent at Miraval working with amazing people. They were actors, singers, politicians, judges, physicians and all kinds of other brilliant people. They taught me more than I could ever teach them. We shared the laughs, the cries and everything in between and that made my life that much happier.
Do you have any upcoming projects that we haven’t mentioned?
Yes, I have several. I finished a book/manual called Recharge: The Executive Guide to InnerFitness® which is for now, only for private and corporate clients, global distribution is in negotiation. I’m writing a new book on self-worth, fear, doubt, and anxiety. I’m set to go on a speaking tour around the US and we also just launched a corporate retreat and a Getaway Wellness retreat.
Complete this sentence, if I had an opportunity to do anything I want, I would do ___________.
I would spend more time with my folks.
Connect with Nordine:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nordinezouareg
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nordinezouaregofficial
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nordine_zouareg
Web: https://www.executiveinnerfitness.com
About Author
