Passions: Erica Willick, HBA ’04

I first came to Ivey through a scholarship program for a summer position when I was 15. I worked at Ivey every summer after that. A couple of months before I started the HBA Program, my mother was killed in a car accident. My two years at Ivey were the hardest in my life. Professor Mary Gillett took me under her wing and helped me get through it. After Ivey I went into accounting. I met my husband through my Ivey roommate, so that’s yet another wonderful thing Ivey brought into my life.

After I had my son in 2010, I had trouble dealing with the changes in my body. But I knew that my beautiful little boy needed me to be happy and healthy and to love myself. I decided that if I was really going to get into shape, I needed a deadline, so I decided to do a fitness competition six months later. And I did!

I have really good nutrition and I work out with weights for 30 to 40 minutes, five times a week. I love the discipline and structure, and I love how I feel. I live a really packed life, and this is the only way I can keep up with it all.

Walking on stage in a bikini and heels pushes you to develop a new level of confidence. Last year I won a professional North American championship — I was the only mother and the only woman over 30 in the competition. I’ve modelled in every issue of Oxygen magazine this year, and in August I was on the cover of a fitness magazine in the U.K.

But the thing that gives me the most pleasure is talking to women through my blog, making friends across North America. I have 10,000 followers. GORGO, the fitness magazine I launched with a partner in November, is named for the Queen of Sparta, because Spartan women were encouraged to exercise and train alongside the men. The magazine is for the everyday warrior who is building a strong self and a healthy world. After all, women really are the link to the health of the world.

gorgomag.com

Photo: Nation Wong
Art Direction: Greg Salmela, Aegis