HOW MY FITNESS JOURNEY BEGAN…
As a child, I was never the most social or outgoing person. I was actually a very strange girl. I spent most of my time at home reading comic books and playing video games. I was also not a very active person either. I did not do any sports growing up and always kept to myself.
My nationality is Vietnamese and Italian. Growing up, My parents were never ‘really’ together; My mom raised my sister and i. We saw our dad every other weekend, but because of distance, eventually stopped with that routine once I turned 13 years old.
due to my up-bringing, i became a very conserved, depressed, INSECURE, unsocial, inactive child. i personally did not like the way that i was, but i could not bring myself out of it no matter how hard i tried.
During my freshman year in high school, i made the decision to change. I wanted to get out of my shell. I enrolled in drama and choir, which were the two things that i knew would make me socially uncomfortable. I wanted to be different.
When college came about, I chose to be a major of Engineering. I was very inspired by my father, being that he is an Aerospace and Electrical Engineer. I also chose this major because I felt that this was a very ‘wanted’ major in the working industry. I wanted to make good money to help my mom financially so that we didn’t have to worry about having poor finances. I worked two part-time jobs, and attended college full time. I tried to support my mom as much as I could, while also trying to maintain my grades… and my sanity. It was very hard for me during these times, as my relationship with my mom was very complicated. We did not have the best or loving relationship. We fought a lot. I had a lot of mixed emotions as a child, was always in a very negative mind space, and was depressed often. I felt sorry for myself with the way things were with my life. I never felt like I was doing well enough in her eyes… or mine. I constantly had to motivate myself to keep working hard and get good grades, because I didn’t feel like i was getting much emotional support from anywhere else, unfortunately.
I discovered my passion for fitness during my freshmen year of college. I had made friends from my class who invited me to workout with them. I started lifting weights. It was a social thing, and then it eventually became a daily thing. it was so addicting because I LOVED the way I started to look and feel. I gained more self-confidence. I gained strength, physically and mentally. I learned how to push my limits. I learned discipline. As I continued to lift weights, I eventually started being on social media more to show my journey and try to positively inspire others to be their best self. more so, to inspire and motivate myself. I felt that social media was a platform for me to see the progress that i’ve made and to keep me alfloat.
I continued to body build and meal plan religiously for the five years that I attended college. At the age of 22, I graduated college with an Engineering degree, moved out from home, and got a full-time job. although i did not have a lot of money in my pocket, i moved because i was not happy where i was and wanted to get away.
When I moved, I met a community that introduced me to the yoga, parkour, calisthenics, and acrobatic communities. I was so intrigued by the different fitness lifestyles that I had no idea about. I made going to freerunning gyms, gymnastics gyms, and social fitness gatherings a priority alongside working my full-time job. For my full-time job, I was that person that had to drive an hour to get to work, work a full 8-10 hours, and drive an hour back. After I would get home from work, I would go to the gym and get my routine workout in. It was a very consistent cycle for myself. I wanted to keep myself accountable.
at work, I faced many challenges working my full-time job. I dealt with unfair and abusive management, stress, and a sense of unfulfillment. Being a woman Engineer, I had management that would talk down to me. I would have to put up with the unfairness and harsh words that were said to me. I barely slept, and my self care was down the drain. I felt that I HAD to put up with it because I had no one else that would support me. i felt that I needed the money to stay afloat..
After two years, left my job and moved to Los Angeles. i literally said “f*** it and decided to pursue my passion as a Personal Trainer and Fitness Model. I had no idea HOW to do it or if it would even work, but I decided to just take a leap of faith. Going from being an Engineer to a Personal Trainer/Model was a huge 180 degree career flip. Rather than being in a technical and clerical atmosphere, I had to learn sales, social media marketing, how to psychologically understand people and their behaviors, how to professionally model, etc…
I’ve had the opportunity to work with many clients and have modeled for numerous major brands. I hope that as I continue to work and improve my self-growth, that I am able to have the opportunity to work with many more companies & brands in the near future.
I am always learning and growing. One thing that I’ve learned during this career change is that ‘good things take time’ as long as you take consistent action. Life is way too short to live an unfulfilled and unhappy life every single day. Do what makes you happy. I want people to feel inspired to be their best self and learn to be authentically HAPPY.
