Hey ya’ll. Though this is my page where I’ll be selling health and wellness products, it’s also a place where I plan to be honest about my own journey towards living a balanced life. In many aspects, that means I’m still healing too. Today, I’m going to talk about movement and how it’s helped me get through the toughest of times. I’ll also share some of the tips that work for me in terms of motivation and staying in good shape.
I was blessed with parents who have encouraged me to be physically fit and active since childhood. Not only did I grow up in a suburban, borderline rural area in Tennessee where I could play outside from dawn until dusk in the good weather months, but I was also enrolled in plenty of movement activities such as dance class, soccer, and track and field.
Dance 👯♀️
Though I’m so grateful now that Mom put me in ballet and jazz from the time I was about 5 well into adolescence, I hated dance class because I was never very good. I remember once in the car when I was about 7 years old, I made my Mom cry because I refused to go in to class. Back then I didn’t understand how hard she and Dad worked to give me opportunities like that. I’m sure those dance classes were costing them a pretty penny, not to mention Mom had to drive 30 minutes to take me to class multiple times per week. After a long exhausting day of teaching, I’m sure the last thing she needed was to drive me half an hour to class, only to have me brooding the whole way there over how embarrassing the class was going to be and to subsequently refuse to enter once we arrived. That must have been so deeply frustrating to her. It’s what all the other moms had their daughters doing, but I was clumsy and poorly coordinated. It always took me longer to get the routine down than everybody else, and for whatever reason, I was deeply insecure from a young age. In fact, that may have been one of the main reasons why I struggled so much. I was too busy caring about what everyone thought of me.
Now, in adulthood, I still experience that fear of taking dance classes, but when I let loose and just dance at a party or lately, pole dancing has become an interest of mine, all that insecurity melts away and I just feel free and happy. With pole dance in particular, all of those ballet classes Mom took me to have really come in handy. I follow Ariel Xenia’s beginner pole course, and as a former ballerina, she teaches us to be graceful and poised, even on the pole. I’ve taken a break from pole for a while, namely because I couldn’t put my old pole up in my new apartment, so now I’m focusing on building strength and flexibility, and later I’ll definitely buy another pole. I hope to practice well into old age. Though many would associate pole dancing with the strip club, pole athletes know it’s so much more than that. It is truly a challenging sport that requires strength, flexibility, balance and grace. I love how it makes me feel feminine and beautiful. If you’ve thought about giving pole dancing a try but you’re a total beginner like me, I highly recommend Ariel Xenia’s beginner pole course. You can find her on Instagram as @redrubygogo. She has now rebranded herself as a feminine movement coach, however I highly recommend her services for that too! She’s got an inspiring vibe, for sure.
Me while taking Ariel Xenia’s beginner pole course about 2 years ago.
Looking back at some of my pole videos from 2022, I can see how weak I was at that time. My grip strength was poor and I hadn’t had any real strength building training. I had also been a vegetarian for almost 8 years at that point in time. I’ll discuss food in another post, but overall, I would say I’m much stronger now and would have greater success with doing some more advanced moves when I give it another go. Right around the time I stopped pole in 2022, I started training with some talented personal trainers here in Ho Chi Minh City. It was the first time I had any personal training. I’ve never been interested in gyms, especially not those with loads of equipment. I much prefer more natural forms of exercise, like running, pole dance, and yoga. Luckily, the trainers I found here were more into that type of movement too, but I’ll get to that later.
Running 🏃🏼
Now I want to talk about how important running has been to me for pretty much my entire life. My Dad taught me how to run. I did competitive track and field throughout childhood, and eventually, long-distance running became my favorite form of exercise. Dad played soccer with local adult teams well into his 40s, and he was also a runner. I started doing long-distance running with him when I was very young, probably about 8. I guess what I loved and still love about running is that there is no pressure to be competitive or even good at it. I can always run at my own pace, and running has often been my go-to to make stress melt away. Literally when I’m running, especially 5km or more, I’m so tired all I can think about is “Come on, you can do this. Just one more kilometer.” or “Ok I’m gonna count how many breaths I take from here to there.” or “MUST.....KEEP.....GOING!” After a certain amount of kilometers, especially if it’s hot outside, I can’t even care about my worries anymore because I have to stay focused on running! I can also pretty much do it anywhere, whether in the country or in the city. I’ve been a runner all over the world at this point. From hundreds of runs in the countryside of Tennessee, to all the runs I did in the parks of New York City (mostly Riverside Park along the Hudson and Astoria Park in Queens), to countless runs stretching along the Malecón from Barranco to Miraflores in Lima, Peru, to lap after lap around the school I taught at in Myanmar, and now on the streets of Saigon in Vietnam.
Running is great exercise. If you haven’t run in a long time, you’ll notice that you feel sore all over your body after the first run in a while. That’s because we are using so many muscles while we run. Sometimes, if I run really far, my abs and my back even get sore! I try to make sure I do some stretching before and after a run, and I breathe the way my Dad taught me, two breaths in and one breath out, preferably through the nose, in a rhythm with my stride. This ensures I don’t get side cramps. There are many apps to help you track your runs, but I’ve been using the Nike Run Club app for probably a decade or more. It’s just really easy to track my running activity there.
Yoga 🧘🏼♀️
Lately I haven’t been running as much as I used to, maybe once a week or even every two weeks. First of all, running can be tough on your joints, so like everything else, I think it’s best to do it in moderation now. When I moved to Vietnam in 2018, I pretty much stopped running altogether for the first time in my life, because the pollution here was pretty bad. I took up cycling instead and started riding my bike to and from work as much as possible. I also started taking yoga classes at a studio near my house. I didn´t have much experience with yoga prior to moving here. I had done hot yoga a few times in New York City, and in Bali when I visited there, but I had never started practicing yoga regularly. I met some great teachers here from India and Bhutan who really helped me learn to love and value yoga for my physical and mental health. My favorite teacher I ever had was Pema Rinzin from Bhutan and some of his colleagues. I took yoga classes with Pema years ago at Body and Soul Yoga Studio here in Ho Chi Minh City. Pema still sends me videos of great yoga routines that I practice regularly. If you’re interested in learning from him, reach out! He’s a freelancer and I’m sure he can help you in your practice. I loved learning from Pema because he has a very calm, kind energy and he is also very skilled at teaching yoga and meditation. He offers lots of variations for all levels to succeed.
Sometimes, I avoid doing yoga like the plague, especially when I’ve got too much energy stuck in my head and I know yoga will take a lot of mental energy to focus and get through it...kind of like running. But that’s usually a sign that I need it the most. Yoga makes me feel grounded. It also has helped me become more flexible and mobile than I’ve ever been in my life. I’m sure I will be doing yoga until the day I die. Right now I incorporate a little yoga into my regular workout routine and once a week I do a full hour long routine following videos Pema has sent me.
In and Out of the Gym 🤸🏼♀️
I really struggled with strength when I was pole dancing, so after I stopped pole in 2022, I started doing strength training. For the first year or so, I worked out with trainers and then I started going to a movement gym where I learned all sorts of good techniques for calisthenics, strength and mobility exercises, and HIIT workouts. Starting to do these types of exercises made me realize just how weak I was. It takes hard, consistent work to really become strong. After about a year of working out with awesome trainers like Paul Dermody, (who offers great diet plans and online physical training) and at a movement focused gym here called Primal Performance Lab, I decided I was ready to take my training into my own hands. For about 6 months now, I’ve been using this free app called Thenx to help me continue to build strength through calisthenics, which is all body weight exercise. In addition, I’ve been regularly incorporating strength and mobility exercises that I learned from an incredible movement coach - Cezary Wojciechowski, yoga, and running into my routine, since these are all things I have experience with and know they are good for me. Working out on my own as opposed to at a gym is much better for me now, because I can guarantee how consistent I’m being. I’m seeing much better results and feeling much stronger than ever before. My goal is to be able to do five pull-ups and to be able to move into a handstand from the ground up, without kicking up. Not sure when these goals will be achieved, but I’m well on my way. Once I get there, I’ll work on maintaining that strength.
Me doing my first pull-up ever without a band after training with Paul Dermody for 3 months
Why Movement Matters 👯♀️🧘🏼♀️🤸🏼♀️🏃🏼♀️
Being strong, mobile, and flexible has become really important to me for multiple reasons. First, I’m in my late 30s, 37 to be precise and I still haven’t become a mother yet. This is primarily due to financial restraints, and I know, I know...don’t wait to have kids until you have money, but truly, this is what I’m doing and I’ll explain that more in another post. Making sure I stay fit will keep my body healthy for carrying babies later in life, if that is to be part of my journey, not to mention, it will give me more energy to take care of my future babies. Second, osteopenia runs in my family. If I want to be able to stand up straight as an older woman, I have to work on building bone density and muscle strength, from now until then. Third, I believe that the biggest way I can make this world a better place, is to do the work within myself to be a light for all those around me. That inner work is hard. It also takes consistency, practice, patience, acceptance, growth, and most of all, love. A lifetime might not be enough to as Ghandi stated, “be the change you wish to see in the world.” So, the longer my life is, the better. That doesn’t mean I’m waiting until later to be the change. I know it starts right now. I’m doing my best, and I know there is a lot more room to grow.
The last thing I do for movement in my life, is walk...with friends! This is one of my favorite activities to do with friends now, especially since I don’t drink anymore. I’ve been totally sober for about 4 years. This came after a long hard road of heavy drinking, partying, and smoking on and off for almost 15 years. Hence one of the biggest reasons I would say I am in the best shape of my life right now. I’m sober and in shape, but that doesn’t mean I don’t struggle to stay that way. In fact, I’m struggling right now to find a balance with my new work life. I recently went from working out almost every day at the same time, to becoming totally unbalanced with my new online business, that the screen has become more of a priority than my health for the past month.
I’m ready to get back on track! Starting tomorrow, I’m working out in the morning again. Please do hold me accountable. And join me! I would love to hear about how you stay in shape. I’m so inspired right now by all of the “older” women who are putting their fitness journeys on social media. I follow Holly Stevens-Tam - @mauimeatandfitness1961, super fit grandma, Dr. Vonda Wright - @drvondawright, Ortho Surgeon and big promotor of staying fit and mobile to help with bone health, Teresa Burkett, @homebodytrainer, a 64-year old who is way more fit than me! And many more.
Stay fit with me! I’ll do my best to post some fitness inspiration each week. Here’s what my personal fitness schedule looks like for now:
Take care and happy healing ♥️.