Kelly Von Schleis, a certified personal trainer and health coach in Los Angeles, has turned her attention to personal health and wellness, addressing an industry-wide gap in structured workout regimens with the release of a brand new wellness platform.
Schleis, a regular contributor with Oxygen Magazine and Status Fitness, is also the creator of LUXEFIT, a luxury body transformation app that provides a ‘health coach in your pocket’ to help individuals looking and feeling their ultimate best.
The app primarily targets women ages 25 to 45. While the app is due for release on July 22, it will provide subscribers with unlimited access to LUXEFit workouts, yoga, meditations, recipes, skin care lessons, and exclusive discounts on health and fitness products.
So, how did Schleis come up with the idea for the app?
“I feel that there’s an abundance of apps for fitness, meal planning, mediation, intermittent fasting, sleep, etc. – but people are hopping around into so many different apps, searching for guidance, and there’s a huge lack of apps that include structured programs that take into consideration the importance of overall mind/body wellness to look and feel your best,” she told True Hollywood Talk.
She believes that individuals get the best results when they “stick to a structured program that ensures results and holds them accountable.”
Schleis, an ACE Certified Personal Trainer who also has experience teaching pilates, HIIT, and boxing, also writes regularly for Oxygen Magazine and Status Fitness Magazine, where she shares her perspectives on healthy cooking and dieting.
From healthcare IT consulting to self-discovery
For over a decade, Schleis pursued a career traveling as an IT healthcare consultant for hospitals, customizing software that helped save millions of additional lives per year. After doing a deep self-discovery following a very difficult and stressful period in her life, she felt a strong calling to uncover what it felt to finally look and feel her best.
Finding her passion as an elite celebrity personal trainer, Schleis experienced first hand how clients required more structured support than personalized workouts in order to reach their health and fitness goals.
“Society often associates being thin with being ‘healthy’, but this isn’t necessarily the case,” she explained. “Overall health and happiness, in addition to a sexy body, requires an overall fit lifestyle, and I want to help as many women and men as possible to look and feel their ultimate best.”
The LUXEFit creator told True Hollywood Talk that she’s in the process of building custom programming to auto produce customized transformation plans for LUXEFit members based on their age, lifestyle, goals, and preferences.
While Schleis still works a full-time job in healthcare IT as a Lead IT Programmer & Project Manager, she has continued to build her brand, wearing the hat of the creative and business owner, which requires her to address branding, advertising, promotion, filming, and partnership negotiations.
Currently, LUXEFit has been entirely self-funded, which Schleis says she is currently in the process of seeking investor support which will help improve the production quality and resources that serve as the foundation for LUXEFit.
We asked Schleis for a sneak peak into the app, to which she revealed that it features health and fitness experts, including celebrity trainers and instructors, meditation specialists, nutritionist approved meal planning and recipes, skin care lessons by an aesthetician for Hollywood stars, and a doctor who specializes in natural weight loss and overcoming overeating.
“Filming for the app also includes luxurious nature scenery for workouts and meditations, while incorporating engaging high quality footage. The quality of the videos will blow you away! The brand’s vision is aesthetically pleasing, leaving you feeling aware of your senses, invigorated, and blissful!”
Changing perspectives
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the world on its knees, changing our perceptions of food and nutrition. “We now have unprecedented access to research-based information to better understand the connection between nutrition and wellness, which has led to greater personalization of diets,” Schleis told True Hollywood Talk.
However, two years later, the health sector continues to face the challenge of consumers wanting everything to come to them, rather than taking the initiative to find new trends for themselves.
According to Schleis, most millennials and Gen-Zers are missing out on this space today. “While Gen-Zers may be the most health conscious, taking on a more holistic view of health, they also have the highest rates of mental health issues,” she said.
“There is a strong correlation with valuing themselves via social media, living on their phones, and always being in a rush to succeed. They are missing out on the personal connections and communication and emotional skills that the Gen X and Boomers developed.”
Debunking dieting myths
- The less calories you eat, the better you are during weight loss
One of the biggest misnomers is the belief that the less calories an individual eats, the better they are during their weight loss journey.
Schleis says that’s the worst advice you should follow.
“When you significantly slash your calories below your resting metabolic rate (RMR), and put your body in a severe caloric deficit, you cause high alarm concerns for the body, including a lack of essential nutrients, stressing the body too much, and causing substantial decreases in metabolic rates.”
She added that when an individual ages, their metabolism already faces a decline, so engaging in a yo-yo diet will force you to stay stuck in “the slowest metabolism of all time.”
- With keto, you can eat any amount of fat on low-carb diets
If people do the keto diet, low-carb diets often have individuals believing they can eat a significant amount of any type of fat – however, according to Schleis, this is not an accurate conception of a healthy diet.
Schleis, who follows a low glycemic diet free of refined sugars and starchy carbohydrates, says there is little general knowledge informing people on these diets – specifically the extreme differences between healthy fats, known as monounsaturated, polyunsaturated fats, and omega-3 fatty acids – such as avocado and coconut oil, and the majority of all of the other fats which are unhealthy fats (saturated and trans).
Less than 1 percent of your diet should come from trans fats and nearly everyone who does a ketogenic diet is consuming significantly higher percentages of trans fat.
Try these healthy recipes
Schleis has recipes of her own, which she designs and shares with her community. She graciously shared them with True Hollywood Talk.
“I’m very passionate about my healthy, guilt-free recipes! I love recipe ingredient swaps that allow me to eat my favorite foods and still feel satisfied and never deprived – while watching my waistline!”
Here are some of the swaps Schleis recommends to readers:
- Exchange coconut cream or evaporated skim milk when recipes call for “heavy cream” or “half & half.”
- When you need to scratch the pasta itch, explore low glycemic pasta options such as chickpea, red or green lentil, black bean, quinoa, and/or almond flour spaghetti. For low carb/low calorie options, also look at Hearts of Palm linguine, lasagna, edamame spaghetti, cauliflower pasta, kelp noodles, spiralized vegetables, or shirataki noodles.
- For rice lovers, replace “white rice” with brown rice, or black rice. If you’re ditching carbs, cauliflower rice is a great option.
- For salad dressings, choose products made with coconut or avocado oil.
