Meet this week’s Campus Celeb, Taylor Mindrebo! Taylor is a senior Nutrition and Wellness major with a psychology minor, from beautiful Wellfleet, Cape Cod. You may recognize Taylor from the UNH gym as the girl who is smiling while lifting more than most of the guys. Read on to hear about our beautiful and strong campus celeb!
Involvement on Campus: Chi Omega and working with the pease greeters and greeting troops when they are coming home from war or leaving for war
What’s your favorite part about UNH? My favorite part about UNH is that sense of community. I come from a small town on the Cape and it was so important for me to find that sense of community that I’ve found like in my major since it’s so small, my sorority and greek life in general and even all the great people I’ve gotten to know at the gym who share the same passion as me
What motivates your workouts? In high school I had a lot of image and disordered eating problems. I wanted to become the strongest, healthiest and most positive version of myself and to stop criticizing my body constantly and being so negative. So I turned towards the gym and lifting and began working on my health and wellness. Working out makes me so happy and feel good about myself even on my worst days. So I guess I motivate myself everyday with how far I’ve come to even now competing in bikini competitions to show how far I’ve really come in a positive way.
What’s your workout routine like? Every day is different and I switch every other day with lifting and HIIT cardio like sprints and on my rest day I will practice posing for my bikini competitions. My lifts are split into different muscle groups so I’ll lift back and biceps one day, chest and triceps one day, shoulders one day and legs another day. I write down all my weights every week and workouts so each week I try and hit new personal records and lift heavier every week. When I am home I like to incorporate other things not just weight like I’ll flip tires, box with one of the other trainers or use battle ropes just to change things up a little J
Biggest pet peeve at UNH gym: The fact that there is two lifting areas and one is considered the “guys” side and the other is the “girls” side with the light weights. I am usually one of the only girl lifting over on the “guys” side and I wish UNH would just make a larger area with more weights and equipment for lifting so girls don’t feel so uncomfortable on the “guys” side because even sometimes I still get intimidated since it’s such a small area.
Any advice for girls who are looking to get fit/ enter a competition like you did? My advice is to make sure you are getting fit or entering a competition for yourself and only for yourself. You should always be your own inspiration and motivation because we are all different people and we are all beautiful in our own ways! So have some confidence to go over and lift weights with guys and keep your own health and wellness first priority.
If you could pick next week’s campus celeb who would you pick and why?
I would pick Steph Simoulis. She is involved in so many things on campus and is a huge part of student senate and makes a lot of positive changes in the rules for students.