New Member Highlight Body by Belen at the Waialua Sugar Mill

By Sherry Heiser

For Belen Romeo, the opening of her pilates studio Body by Belen at the Waialua Sugar Mill on Sept. 27 is the culmination of achieving the American dream.

Her journey from Argentina to the U.S. in 2001 was rocky. Her country plunged into crisis and political turmoil the day before she left. Only a few months after she joined family in Miami, her father died of cancer.

“He never got to live the America dream, but he persuaded us to stay and work in a country where hard work pays off, and dreams really do come true,” Belen says.

In spite of setbacks, her spirit was unbroken. She soon found a good job at a major bank. With a passion for sports and fitness, she earned a personal training certificate in 2006. A few years later while she was on a surf trip in California, she met her future husband. Both avid surfers, they decided to move to San Diego in 2009 where Belen was able to transfer with her bank job. Seven years after that while “looking for better waves” and now with a two-year-old son, they moved to Pupukea on the North Shore. Here, Belen wanted to find work and still be able to care for her son.

Since she was a teenager in Argentina, she had been hooked on pilates. She used to watch Madonna on MTV performing her workout routines on an apparatus know as a reformer. Belen learned this was a device used in pilates, a physical and mental conditioning program developed by Joe Pilates in the 20th century.

After a year and a half of intense training with Pilates O Ka La in Honolulu, Belen earned full pilates certification and opened a studio in Pupukea in 2019. She finally had equipment like Madonna’s that she had dreamed of years before. Then, last month she moved her business into a former ballet
studio at 106 Kealohanui Street next to Pyzel at the Waialua Sugar Mill.

According to Belen, pilates can improve physical strength, flexibility, and coordination as well as reduce stress and improve mental focus for a person of any age.

Private, semi-private, and group classes range in price from $35 to $60 per hour. She may be contacted at 305-815-0641; or email bodybybelen@gmail. com.