[inaudible].
Hello everybody and welcome to today’s episode of the fit to fat to fit experience podcast. I’m your host, drew Manning, and I’m your cohost Lynn Manning. Thank you guys for joining us today. We have an awesome episode with the amazing Cassey ho from blog [inaudible] dot com
I love,
we all love her. She’s a, she’s amazing. This is such an awesome episode. We kind of talk about her body shaming video that went viral on YouTube. We talk to her about how she became like blog [inaudible] and her brand and also a bit of background on her entrepreneurial career and how she’s become so successful. We even talk about her boyfriend, which this is the first time ever she’s ever revealed to anybody who her boyfriend is and what he does and she says she’s never talked about him publicly before. We’ve met him a couple of times. He’s so nice. He’s an awesome guy and of course we talk about health and fitness on this podcast. We talk about health and fitness from a very unique perspective. Me having done my fit to fat to fit journey and Len being a women’s fitness specialist and also a, what’s that word?
So it’s with an F foodie F-word on podcasts. Yeah, but that’s what we feel makes us so unique is we have, we bring a unique combination of of me and my fit tight fit experience and lens. You know, not your typical women’s fitness specialist, but anyways, we want to get into today’s sponsorship, which is quest nutrition.com we love those guys over at quest. Everybody knows who quest is in the quest bars because they taste like dessert. They really do. They taste delicious. You know that you have flavors like smores and chocolate chip cookie dough and mint chocolate and almost anything you can think of. Apple, cinnamon berries, peanut butter and jelly, coconut cashew. The list goes on and on and it was, we’re a huge fan of of their bars.
I always recommend my clients keep something like that, like a quest bar in their purse and their car at the office. I know for me, running around with kids, errands, work, things like that. The biggest way to fall into a trap and become unhealthy is to not have healthy food on hand. Um, so the great thing about quest bars, because you know, they, they, they’re fine sitting in a car, they’re fine set in your purse, they’re not going to go bad. It’s a great snack to have on hand no matter where you’re going. Healthy and delicious.
Exactly. And that’s the best thing is they are a convenient way to get in some good nutritious food. And you can take it on the plane when you travel and your pocket and your purse in your car. And it definitely helps you as far as convenience goes in. It tastes amazing. So check them out. Quest, nutrition.com and let’s go hang out with Cassie. You guys welcome Cassie to the show. We’re so grateful to have you on to the fit FET fit experience. How are you?
I’m doing good and jealous of you guys.
Uh, it’s it. Don’t be jealous. It’s hot. It’s humid.
Ugly. Yeah.
Yeah. Hey, you’re in. You’re in LA, so it’s not too bad either. You know
turtles.
That’s true. It is. It is beautiful out here, but we’re so grateful you’re able to join us on the podcast. For those of you who don’t know who Cassius, I’m just going to kinda introduce, you know, I’m sure everyone knows who you are, but there’s probably 0.1% of people out there that don’t have a, you don’t watch, you know YouTube. So Cassie is a social media fitness entrepreneur with a YouTube channel. And correct me if I’m wrong Cassie, but you have over 2.5 million subscribers. Is that correct? That is awesome. Congratulations. That’s pretty much, that’s pretty much all I need to say about Cassie. Cause that says so much about you. The fact that you have 2.5 million subscribers on, on YouTube, you’re, you’re an author, you’re applaud these instructor. What, what aren’t you Cassie?
What am I not?
Yeah, what are you not,
I am not a slacker,
that’s for sure. Yeah. So you have, you have a couple brands. You on your YouTube channel called blog a lot A’s. You also have, Oh gorgeous. Can you tell us about what old gorgeous is?
Yeah, of gorgeous Sikh is our eCommerce, a clothing line of fitness accessories and a in gym bags and yoga bags and all sorts of stuff and yoga mats and that is alone its own business. So like, you know, obviously I have um, you know, the campaign deals and everything I do with social media as a part of my brand as Cassey ho in person. But then there’s the HomeBridge and dicing aspect just really awesome cause I get to design and to graphics knowledge and stuff. We do the modeling, the shooting and everything for that. Well this is, that alone is its own beast.
Exactly. And you actually have some past experience before all this, you have some past experience as a a designer, is that correct?
Yeah, well, you know, I learned all my design skills basically from trial and error and Google and I just not go to design school. But I always had a passion for it. And I did a small internship one summer where I learned, you know, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe illustrator and it was only like a couple months from that I everything else I needed to learn as far as, you know, as using programs or how to do fits or grading or how to do sketches like that. It was all learned on my own and asking people.
Yeah, that’s, that’s awesome. And you, you are actually just recently voted as one of the top 100 fitness influence influencers in the world. Is that right?
Yeah. Now top 25.
Oh wow. Okay. I’m sorry, I was 25. Yes.
Do you feel like that’s a lot of pressure, top 25 in the world, fitness influencers? Do you feel like that kind of fields a lot of pressure on you?
Really? I feel, I think it’s just a title. So it is what it is. As long as I keep doing what I do and I need it to the best of my potential, it doesn’t really matter.
Yeah. Amazing. That is so cool. Um, so I kind of want to start off the show Cassy. Talking a little bit about our experience, how we first met each other and you know, how we’ve come to know you cause I feel so I was blown away. First of all, let me kind of give you guys a backstory. When I first met Cassie quest nutrition, who’s one of the sponsors of the podcast, uh, flew me out to their headquarters in LA to do kind of a YouTube series where Cassie was the host, what was it called again?
It was called cooking clean with quest
cooking clean with quest. Yeah. Cassie was the, and I knew who you were and I was just so amazed at how open and down to earth you were. You were like here talking to me and so nice to me and talking to me the whole time. I was like blown away. Cause I mean obviously everyone knows who you are.
I was, I wouldn’t say I’m a huge fan of you. So when I saw you I was like, Oh my goodness is, I remember when I first started blogging, you were all over, uh, every like morning show and every news like outlet. And I was like, Whoa, this guy, I can’t believe he like did that to his body and came back and you like blew my mind. So I just wanted you to know the feeling was mutual.
Oh, well thank you so much. Yeah. And I had such a good time on that show. It was really fun, you know, working with you, I think, well we made a, was it banana cream pie? I remember that Len remembers and you’re just so fun and funny and down to earth and that’s what I loved about you. And then we kind of, you know, developed a natural friendship from there. Right. It wasn’t like, Hey, you know, follow me on social media. See you’re out. It was like, you know, started texting and you got to know Lynn really well and we met up with, with you and Sam and got to know you on a very personal level. And we felt, we feel, we still feel very fortunate where we can text you and you’ll text us back. And it’s really cool to have that relationship with, with someone like you.
Well, the thing that I love about Cassie is she really cares. Like I, you know, you meet people in this industry and a lot of times, at least my experience, unfortunately a lot of times you meet people and they’re unrelatable, you know, they’re, they’re not down to earth and they have an experienced life and they don’t seem to struggle with the same things I do, especially as a woman, you know, talking about body issues or body positivity or [inaudible] body shaming or different things that we deal with. And sometimes there’s just that disconnect with trainers and with females in the industry depending on their background. And Cassie is so not like that. You know, you’re so down to earth, you’re so genuine. You’re so loving and caring and body positive. It’s refreshing. It’s so refreshing to have you in the industry. And to me because of that, it’s no surprise that you are a top influencer because I think that’s what we need more of in the world, especially right now. So thank
you. And I feel like the reason why we connected is because you guys are genuinely really good people. And drew when I met you, I remember telling you I was in a weight loss plateau. I just couldn’t like, like body was just not changing no matter what age or what I did. And so for jury’s listeners like drew put me on this plan where I wasn’t eating any grains, um, dairy or added sugars for 30 days. He also had this like really simple fitness routine. It was like 30 minutes long, like toss with 30 point minutes and like, I actually like lost weight. Good. To me it was, it was so crazy. It was probably only like five pounds so crazy because I hadn’t lost weight and eat really, really, really, really, really long time. And it sucks when you work your butt off and nothing happens. And so when uh, drew and Lynn came out to visit in LA, it was so funny because, uh, we were at this, what do you call it, this cafe and I, I just started bawling and they were like, what is your, you like saved me like you changed my life. And like I literally could not stop crying for like 15 minutes. It was so weird. It was not weird.
Yeah. Like I felt so honored that you would be, you know, that open to opening up to to us, you know, and, and I’m like, wow. Like she’s showing her emotions, she’s not afraid of being vulnerable even though we, like we hadn’t known each other for years. I think I thought that was really cool of you to be open and vulnerable cause I think there’s strength in that.
Oh yeah. No, I did not think it was weird at all. I was like, Oh my gosh, like a woman who is honest and genuine and authentic and vulnerable. And then, then like, honestly, I just loved you. I was like, yes. Like this is the type of person I would want in my life. Like, you know, none of the fake crap there, you know, there’s enough of that.
You don’t like to make stuff.
Yeah. Um, thank you for sharing that experience cast. That was really cool. You just, for all the listeners out there, you know, we did have a, a really cool, um, backstory to all this. So, uh, the first question I want to ask you, Cassie is, is who were you before blog a lot. He’s like, I think a lot of people want to know like the type of person you were, like your habits and hobbies back then before you became this blog. A lot of these, you know, superstar.
Yeah. So back in school I was always the girl who always raised my hand and maybe some people thought it was annoying. I’m all, I worked really hard to make sure I’ve got my straight A’s as an all honors and AP classes. I was like one of those kids. Um, but I also was captain of the tennis team on varsity for four years and just like all of that, you know, that whole well-rounded thing, like I’m all about that. Um, but life was really stressful and tough and I think like I didn’t really have a group of like really core friends. Like growing up I had some but not like what I have surrounded around me today. Um, but in middle school and high school I actually started a cookies and candies business, which is really funny. And I’ll spend through taster and there’s a very small percentage of the nation or the world actually knows a super taster.
So what that means is I can taste the bitterness in chocolate, whether it’s they’ll chocolate or whatever and I can’t eat chocolates, taste medicine. Wow. Okay. So I have to do though is I loved Halloween. I would still go trick or treating ended with these bags full of chocolate. I wouldn’t know what to do. So what I did was I ended up melting them down and caramelly milk or whatever and turning them into like little tiny balls. Um, and then I would make it for my sister because my friends and I started noticing that the friends at school like really liked them and they wanted more. So I was like, well, if you try it and you like it, then maybe you’ll buy it. And started buying it. And I was like, okay, that’s cool. This. So then I started adding up a variety. So then we had our top seller, which was this butter cream cookie sandwich and it was like two like luscious chocolate chip cookies with buttercream feeling inside.
And people call them CAS, these crack cookies. So they had to have one every single day. And it was when I got into high school, uh, I had five employees working with me, selling crack. He’s all over the campus and it actually has need for complex cookies. And eventually that story when the Fulbright scholarship into college where I studied biology because my parents wanted me to be a doctor, I was like, you can see that I’m hearing, gosh preneurial like naturally very creative, that sort of thing. Um, and when I decided not to pursue medicine D like my periods were like what my, I told them I wanted to do fashion and design and be creative and my dad looked me in the eye. He told me, you will not be successful, you will not make money and worst of all, you’re not going to have any friends.
And I started crying. You know, he thought the troops are crushed up. But eventually what happened was the last class he needed to take the end cap was we’re getting chemistry. So not really rebellious person. I maybe now a little bit more, but not so much. Um, so I’m felt like the only way to get out of this Sydney area was a sabotage myself. And so I dropped out of organic chemistry so I couldn’t take that. And when I did that, my dad didn’t wants slipped out and I ended up still graduated with the honors and bio, but I moved to the East coast to pursue my dreams of, you know, fashion and things like that. I got to imagine fashion merchandising, but for a good few years my parents and I, we weren’t talking and we lost that relationship because they really thought I had to dishonoring the family and all of that kind of stuff. I’d be pour pouring like all that kind of stuff and have no Fridays and terrible days. But, uh, the Kirsten that I was before I am now is very much the same person. It’s just that I had different opportunities, so always been a very true thin and uh, willing to give up everything to follow my dreams.
Yeah. And actually kind of want to ask you about that. Like how much your culture played a factor into, uh, you know, like your parents wanting you to go down a certain road. Cause I feel like, you know, for me, you know, my parents might are kind of old fashioned, older generation and kind of think the same way like, Hey, do this, this is the route you should go, this is the best way to do it. Um, how does it take your parents to finally come over and realize, wow, like my daughter is amazing and she’s successful and like now we can support her versus like kind of being disappointed or in you,
um, probably only the last few years actually it comes to this. Yeah. Because I had to do everything that I did. Prove to them that you can be happy and successful doing what you love instead of doing traditional things. Which is real funny because a lot of times parents think that you have to be a doctor or a lawyer because it’s secure, it’s safe, it’s financially stable. The thing is, and the truth is you can get laid off and fired at any time based on someone else’s decision. So you actually don’t have as much as really as you think you do. Whereas now I can stay on or when based on how hard I work. You know what I mean?
Yeah, I agree. 100 [inaudible]
yeah. And I also feel like when you’re doing something you’re really passionate about, you can be successful in any field. It really matters. Like if you’re putting your heart into things and you are passionate about that. I’ve seen people have the craziest careers I didn’t even know existed and it’s because they took their passion and they’re like, this is what I want to do. And they’ve made it happen and they’re driven. And like you said, you’re a hardworking, driven person that has ambition and focus for this specific cause and industry. And because of that, it’s easy to be successful or easier to be successful in that field. So,
yeah, and I think part of that comes from the culture, right? Like, you know, you’re of Asian descent and you know, it’s part of the culture. And my dad has Chinese blood as well. And I think maybe that’s just part of the culture as well. Yeah. You didn’t know that.
No, I’m scared. What’s your heritage?
So my dad is part Chinese, Portuguese, Hawaiian, uh, my mom’s, you know, Caucasian and white. Yeah. My last name would have been Lum lung. Um, had my great, great grandmother not remarried an Englishman after her husband died, uh, with the last name Manning ma, you would have been talking to drew Lum lung. This would be Lynn Lum lung
over here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know you can’t tell by looking at me, but yeah, I do have some Chinese blood. She’s like, yeah, I can’t tell it.
She didn’t remarry an English man with a last name Manning. I would’ve carried on the Lum lung theme. So really weird. But anyways, yeah, I think a lot of it is in that culture, right? A lot of it’s in the culture and passed on and, but it’s really cool to see them, you know, come around and support you. And I think I remember you telling me, didn’t they kinda start helping you with your business at some point? Like, you know, supporting you,
that’s a point. You know, your parents always want to help out and see what you need. The silhouette, originally we ran the merchandising business, uh, out of their garage and now we have a warehouse. I’m in Northern California and a creative job, creative office down in LA. But you need to come and visit.
I know we do.
Yeah, we’ve grown and I’m, I’m glad, you know, the parents were happy and willing to help because that relationship is important. You know, you’re, it’s, it’s nice to have your parents in your life, but also at the same time when we were talking for those few years was also really good. Freshing because he gave me a chance to find myself and follow my passions without anyone else telling me what to do or how to do it or what’s good for me. So
yeah, I’d love that. I’m Cassie. Like, what am I favorite things that I want to talk to you and ask you about is one of my favorite things about you is your emphasis on body love. Okay. And one of the big things that you did recently that got spread around everywhere. What I love too is people kept sending it to me like, Hey, I don’t know if you know this girl Cassie, but she put out this video and it totally made me think of you and you’ll love her. And I just had to laugh because I’m like, Oh I know her and I’ve seen this a dozen times but I watched it dozens of times cause it really hit me. And it was that post that you did about, you know, body image and about body shaming and about, you know, Photoshop and all of that. I wanted to, to get your, take a little bit on why this is such an important and critical topic to you and why you made that video.
Yeah. So the reason why I made that video was because, well, for myself, I get a lot of criticism on my body because I made a fitness instructor. And if you don’t look the the perfect way or a certain way, then you can get criticized for it. If your boobs aren’t big enough for your buddies, do flat. If your waist isn’t skinny enough, like literally everything you’d be torn apart. And social media has just gotten a little bit crazy. It always has been, but it’s been getting worse. And so all those comments started to truly bother me. And I’ve been on YouTube for, I don’t know, five, six years now, and I’ve grown a thicker skin. But just during that time, I think it was around March or April, there were more comments saying things that hurt me as a business woman in M and a in, uh, in my career.
So there was like a comment that said, Oh, if you really cared about career, you would lose some weight. Like my skin. Like if you just said you look fat, like, okay, I haven’t heard that one before, you know, but like to attack my business skills and stuff like that, like based on my body, like that one really enraged. And so I was having a really tough week attorney in business. There’s lots of stuff about lots of shoots and video shoots and eat this time of stress. I had this epiphany and this epiphany, it was like, Cassie need to create a video of you taking out these comments that are hurting you and sculpting yourself to what people want you to look like. And immediately when I thought of that, I knew this was going to be a big video for my community. I didn’t know what was going to be big for everyone else.
So I called up, I um, my friend James, Ted directors were getting smashed on students at the time. I told him this concept and he was like, Oh my goodness, we need to do it right away. So literally from the time of idea conception, the time we filled it was two weeks. Like we built it in a day. And then, uh, probably two weeks after that the video was out. So it was like fast, fast, fast, and they spent hundreds of hours Photoshopping every single frame so that you can see me, Morphe, my boobs. So that they were really a part of my class. It looked like [inaudible] but you know, all these sorts of things and I’m so grateful that they were so onboard with the idea because I could have done it without them. Like I don’t know how to do that kind of stuff. I don’t know how to edit videos, you know, through the glyphs outfit is that I’m that little, I had no clue.
And so I’m really grateful for smash cause for them to really support that idea. And when the video came out, what I did to promote the video was almost as maybe even all of a sudden successful videos. The video now has about 7 million views on YouTube. But in order for me to let my Instagram fans know about the YouTube video, what I did was I took a selfie of myself in a mirror wearing sports bra and booty shorts, which giant always, you know, I usually do that except this time I went into Photoshop and I literally brought my waist in in a national amount, oops out. And it looked kind of awkward. So this is really interesting because when I posted it, I put go to youtube.com/polis to see how I got inspired. So I didn’t say whether I had Photoshop to where I had worked for it to super ambiguous.
And the first six comments like literally scared me because they said, Oh my goodness, he looks so good. How did she lose weight? You look amazing. And I was like, uh, should I have Photoshop war? And then after those first six comments, people were saying, still too fat, still ugly, like not gonna knuckle this weight. And we’ll literally, the society all in that common thread. And it’s funny it, well it’s funny, not funny because the reason why people think this way is because we don’t even know what’s real, what’s not anymore. People Instagram on Instagram, they Photoshop their own Instagram photos would you, which is supposed to be real, but now Instagram is still like portfolio leg. It’s only your best. So you, I feel like you’ll get a sense of people on your Snapchat or Periscope or something like that. Um, but so anyways, that picture was shared on almost every news outlet and save the videos on good morning America and got to talk about that.
And the reason why I think this is important is because people just have to know that no matter what you look like it, it doesn’t, you can’t judge a book by its cover because it has nothing to do with light. And inside doesn’t make me a better or worse fitness tracker. And how dare you say that I, I shouldn’t be doing what I do because of the way. Look, it’s just like really stupid and I’m really glad that that video went beyond just my community as a statement and became like a worldwide statement, which I didn’t expect. But I think a lot of people needed to hear that. So quiet.
Yeah. For me, I love that that went viral. I saw actually that’s the first time I saw it. I saw it right away cause they follow you on Instagram of course. And I saw that photo of you and then I actually went and started reading some of the comments to see what people were saying and I to get this glimpse of how unhealthy these comments are ranging from you look. So I wish I could be that skinny when clearly the photo was, if that were a real photo would have been very unhealthy to still body shaming. And it was like I’m reading these comments and I’m blown away. I’m floored. But just like you, you know, I’ve gotten comments as well, you know, I don’t have a six pack, you know, and I eat pizza or I’ll have chocolate. And a lot of times it hurts being in this industry because people can come out because they’re behind their computers and they don’t know you.
And we see this far too often nowadays and you know, I feel like this generation of girls, you know, in middle school and high school, this is where all of these, you know, sad body images are coming from because of social media. People sitting behind a computer and sitting there and feeling like they can say whatever they want and just judge people and put people down and be like, your body isn’t good enough or you’re not good enough. And so your message to me was one of the most like the best YouTube videos I had seen all year. I was like, you know what? It ranked so true to meme. If you haven’t seen it, if you’re listening to this and you haven’t seen it, go check it out. We’ll, we’ll put it in the show notes. But it’s such a good video and it just reminds us several things.
Like you said, one is how our body reflects, does not show who we are. You know, whether you’re skinnier or a little bit overweight or whether you have a pear shape or you’re thin or you have big boobs or small boobs or a big BA or a small, but you know, none of that shows who you are. And it also doesn’t show if you’re healthy or not. Everybody’s body is different. And what I love about your message is embracing, being healthy and loving your body and that’s really all that we can do to improve our health and our mental and emotional wellbeing.
No, I think it was a, I’m kind of curious Kasey, do you feel like most of the, the negative comments come from female followers or is it 50, 50 men and women?
Mostly female because most audiences, female. Um, I don’t think definitely my audience wasn’t the one making those comments. Maybe it’s kind of like 0.01%, but sometimes just haters from somewhere else coming in to say stuff. Cause um, but just like Lynn said, they’re behind a computer screen. They feel like they can say all this. Then you click on their profile and it’s like private and there’s like zero followers. It’s like are you even a real person? Would you come up to me and say this to my face? Cause I don’t think so ever caused me to say to my face. So it’s like invalid to me. And you know what I do with the crazy heater cops cause I understand there’s two kind of, it’s kinds of negative comments. There is the kind of comments that constructive criticism, which I will read and see and look at myself and see what I can change to be better.
Cause I always have accepting to feedback and there’s Thomas it just add like pull ways into your community and those people do not belong there because they started affecting your real and it’s the real cancer. I think almost you’re wrong. Like Oh maybe, maybe this isn’t good. And they start like getting brainwashed a little bit. So I make sure that those people are, and it comes through, it deleted their, uh, their profile is blocked because if you’re not adding positivity into this world and [inaudible] you don’t belong here. And I need the same thing in real life, but I don’t hang out with people that they feel bad and I don’t know, hung out with people that say nasty things to me. So same thing online.
Yeah. Well the reason I ask is cause I don’t, I feel like for man, I don’t receive those types of comments as much as say women do. Like I don’t think they’re as prevalent online and, and, and the social media world. Whereas I think it’s, it’s mostly women, unfortunately.
I feel like it’s just, I feel like maybe that part of that is just the sad vicious cycle where they grew up, you know, being belittled, belittled or berated for their body or their image or just bullying. And then they kind of turned to hate, hate and jealousy and envy. And then they start to make those comments to other people. And it’s not that it’s right regardless of the reason why they’re doing it. But a lot of times what’s helped me when I get negative comments now, and like Cassie said, sometimes I do delete it depending on what it is. And I really don’t want that in my community. Um, but most of the time what I try to do is sit back and reflect and realize they must be hurting so much in order to say these hateful things. You know? And it’s, it’s sad. It’s, it’s really sad. One of my other questions kind of going along with this, because I’m a woman’s fitness specialist and I can tell with your community, even though you don’t specifically only work with women, you have obviously a large target of women that follow you. If you could pick out, you know, one or if you can’t narrow it down to one, I understand two major tips that you would give, like your most important tips to give to a female client that starting her health and wellness journey. What would it,
so my in general in general overall tip is to find the joy in working out. And that’s really big. So I’m going to go into this because I don’t want people to feel like their workout is a chore and they’re not looking forward to it and they hit this. What’s going to happen is that it’s not coming from lifestyle. So you need to experiment and try all types of workout until we’re guys, until you find the one that you wake up like dying to do. And I know like a few years ago when I was weightlifting, like when I woke up this other guy, I can’t wait to go to the gym and we’d love to get and like get super sore. And now I’m like back to a DMC and I love dancing for cardio because it’s so fun. It really relaxes me and makes me feel really good. And that is going to change every year or two. I don’t know about you guys, but I have to keep, didn’t speak. Um, so I feel like if people can just experiment a little bit and find a workout that they truly love, that everything’s gonna fall into place. Not only will your stress levels go down, but also your body will start changing the way you want it to go.
Yeah. No, I think that’s perfect cause that kind of goes in line with what I preach is, is making it a lifestyle change instead of a 60 day diet. Right. Where you kind of hate going to the gym, you hate eating the food and you’re like, Oh, only 10 more days of this. You know? But that, that’s the problem with so many people. They have this diet mentality where, um, they, they, they don’t have a passion for it. They don’t know how to make it a lifestyle change and different things work for different people. For me, I’m not a big Zoomba guy. You know, like I, I, I think it’s cool, but I like more of the CrossFit world or, you know, but for me, that, that works, you know? But since we’ve come here to Hawaii, honestly, I love body surfing and it’s a great workout. Yeah, I do that every morning at five 30, I’ll go to the beach and do some body surfing. And so for me, I look forward to it every day. Um, and it’s something that’s active. It’s fun. And I just have a uh, a connection to the beach. I love the beach.
Yeah. I completely agree with Cassie though. I know for me, I have never been the type of person that gets super excited or craves specific workouts. But kind of going along with it, you said, I do go through stages where I enjoy something a lot more. So sometimes that might be, that might be going for walks, it might be going hiking, it might be I get into a phase where I like to swim more or bike more or take a spin class or do a weightlifting class and I change what I do for, for exercise often because of that. Cause you’re right, if it’s not something that’s intriguing me at the moment, I’m not going to do it. So it might be, you know, sometimes I go through a lot of at home workouts and other times I’m outside a lot. So I think that’s such a valuable tip to try a bunch of new things. I’ll tell people from the get go, my program is not the only great program out there. Try a ton of different things. And come back and, and go forth and find what your passion is. Cause like you said, it’s going to help you kind of stay on track and, and, and find what works for you. So I love that.
Um, so shifting gears here a little bit, Kasey, uh, kind of want to ask you this. What’s the first 60 to 90 minutes of your day look like? Do you have a normal routine where, you know, Monday through Friday or every single day you have a certain routine you go through for the, on the first 60, 90 minutes of your day
for 69 minutes in a day. So every day it’s a little bit different. Um, but for example, like this morning I woke up and I checked a Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and uh, my email, I brush my teeth, then I slightly, I put my hair up into it, but I put on a workout top and a bottom and then it went into my other room and I did a workout at home because right now I don’t have time to go to the gym. Actually yesterday was labor day and I went to the jam and Sam and I did a really awesome arm and, and leg workout. And I’m so [inaudible]
yeah,
I liked that she did the leg press. I was walking down the stairs and my Pfizer starts sassy, can you cut that all over? Her body couldn’t walk. So today I was like, okay, I can stay home. I need to do like a total body workout. So I did this bottom workout bag by, it’s like, um, you know, burgers and things with my favorite bloodies workouts. You’re really doing total body Tony. So I did that and then I went to set up my iPhone cause I was already in my workout clothes and I filmed a mini Instagram video. So I just set it up on a little phone stand on the side of the room and then I, you know, frame up and then I filmed the Instagram video that I take a shower, do my hair and makeup and then I head to the office. So that’s kind of, that’s like a good day.
[inaudible]
he’s either until 12 in the morning.
No, that’s totally fine. What’s a typical breakfast look like for you? What’s your typical breakfast?
Um, typical breakfast. Um, I sometimes, it depends on what my mood is. Sometimes I’m in a savory mood, so I’ll just do, you know, omelette with salsa savory or in a non savory. Oh, awesome. What’s really good is an egg on top of steel cut oats with Serratia all over the top. Have you guys had that?
No. Are you serious?
I think that’s just me. It’s a thing I saw on Pinterest the other day, but I, this is way back when sweet. It might be like a fruit smoothie or maybe it’s like a banana pancakes, which is my payload pancakes, two eggs and one banana. You mix it up, you blend it, put out on the pan and bam.
Okay,
I’m hungry now I’m hungry. You know, the thing that’s funny is like I love oats, I love eggs and I love freaking love Serrato sauce. I mean that, that’s like, I can put that probably on anything, but I have never thought of doing those together. And initially I’m not going to lie. It makes me kind of cringe like that sounds gross. So now challenge accepted. I’m going to make an effort. I’m gonna make that for breakfast sometime this week and I will post it on my Instagram feed and I will tag it, giving you all the credits for making me try it. So
you know what all, it’s a mentality thing. If you just think of the oatmeal as rice and you’re like, Oh, eggs and rice, like obviously yes.
Oh yeah, I didn’t even think of that.
Okay, so another question, because a lot of people don’t see what goes on behind the scenes, right? They see your YouTube videos, your Instagram, there’s always somebody that’s taking the videos or taking the photos. I kind of want to talk about Sam, introduce everybody to Sam because he’s a, he’s a shy guy, he’s quiet, he doesn’t like the attention. He doesn’t like to be in the photos. He’s always like, let me take the photo. I don’t want to be in the photo. Can you tell us everything Sam does and who he is and a little bit about him and his role in your guys’ relationship together. Can you guys talk? Can you talk about that? Can I introduce him to everybody to let him know that he exists, to let people know? He goes,
absolutely. So, uh, I haven’t really ever openly publicly talked about Sam yet. Not because they, well, the fans are very curious. So, uh, I guess this is the first time.
Wow. Thank you so much. Wow.
A cm is my boyfriend and we did together for like seven years now. We met in college. He was my finance tutor. What happened was I got a B minus on a finance test. I was completely devastated. And so I was like, Oh, I have to go to the tutor now. And so I went to the tutor and it was Sam and help me with my homework and get to know each other. We started going out. So that was seven years ago in may. And then, uh, he did get to help me with my old gorgeous yoga bags and then some [inaudible] our first sale. And we were like at his house and this woman from New York like bought one of our bags for like $125. I was like, Oh my God, someone actually like believes in this product when we actually did some kind of branding or something.
And he was here for that moment. And now he’s actually, you know, in our office, he’s sitting across the table from me, honestly, the desk and he does all the analytical stuff, all my brand negotiations and he’s really like the strategist behind it, the business and obviously amazing photographer and videographer. These are skills that we both learned over the past six years. We used to shoot this little GTM, this a, you know, those like little Canon things. And then, uh, and we didn’t have microphones, we didn’t have lights, we didn’t know how to do any of this stuff. And now we’re shooting on these like huge DSLRs with amazing lenses. We know how to work with the lights. And it was all a very gradual progress process and progression that we learned together. And now he knows how to shoot me. He knows how to make me look good and what’s kinda like snake cause I’ll be like, um, yeah when you do that again like 11 more times.
Cool. I know. And that’s the thing is like, and he’s a super patient guy and obviously he has to be to be able to do the social media cause you know just working with Lynn and I, we have to have patience with each other like Hey can you do this again? It’s like no.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Drew will be like, can you shoot this again from another angle and like really like again right now because
the, I’m a little bit more of the girl in that one.
I do like one, I do like one shoot and he’ll bake. You had stuff on your face. I’m like, it’s fine. People will totally relate to this. It’s totally fine.
Yeah. No, but I just, I just want Sam to get some credit cause I mean he does so much but he doesn’t want the recognition. But you know, for everybody that knows Sam is amazing and I can only imagine all this stuff that he really does behind the scenes. And I just kinda, it’s cool that you finally opened up to the public about, you know, who Sam is and are we going to see are we going to see pictures of you guys together ever?
Gosh, she was like totally harassing you now publicly.
Um, but beyond just like the business aspect of it, Sam really helps me be a better person. And I’m sure you can say the same about you guys together. Like when you find a partner who not only you know was there to support you but brings out the best in you. I feel like he’s really sound like someone really, really special. And when I first met him he taught me how to have fun. And like before that you heard my swim beginning, I was very much like, Oh, excuse me, I have another question. Or I’m like, you did this, this and this and like crazy, like captain of everything. Like, and then when I met him he taught me how to slow down. Enjoy life and can basically live it and the last, so really, and I really do enjoy it not only being business partners together, but also I really enjoy hanging out with him. Like he’s really fun to hang out with. He makes me feel relaxed and for me I’m always like, Oh, I have not realized, but I’m very much like Google. Like what can we do more of how he made us and how do we make this better and all that kind of stuff. And so you need someone to bounce in that aspect. He’s like my rock.
Yeah. And I have to say, you know, a lot of times people don’t realize why people keep their private life private when someone’s as big and well known as Cassie. And I must say in a way I completely understood and respected the fact that she didn’t publicize her in Sam because a lot of times when you put your private life out there, people do criticize and scrutinize you on that person. And I know a lot of that was probably out of respect for Sam too. Not to have people maybe make comments that could be, you know, offensive or rude or criticize your relationship or anything like that. So I completely understand why sometimes we keep those things private. But I am glad that you opened up. Sam is such an amazing guy, so I’m glad we talked about, talked about him. I’m sure he’s embarrassed. He’s probably sitting across from you right now. Like
he’s a cross with the table now and we know people are looking at his face and he just waved and he has a smile on it.
[inaudible] gonna start Googling Sam and castle Hill to see if they can find a mystery posting a picture of one after a while people will be like, what? That’s awesome. No. Okay. So obviously Cassie, this is called the fit fed to fit experience a podcast. And one of the things I try and implement in the show is bringing my Fitbit to fit experience and some lessons that I learned from it. And so one of the questions I always ask people is about their own fit to fat to fit experience. Can you, in your bio, it talks about you growing up, quote unquote chubby and I kind of was, was wonder if you could dive into that a little bit and maybe what you learned from that period of your life and how it helped shape you to who you are today. I mean, obviously you’re not overweight and you’re very fit, but I kind of want to talk about your, your, your bio kind of talks about that, that past and how it shaped you.
Yeah, so I grew up chubby. I’m like at my segregate, excited grade. What do you call it? Your book picture? I’m like tilting my head like this and there was like a double chin. It was chubby growing up. Um, and I, because I was always the, you know, what do you call it? You know, like the smart kid or whatever. And I always raise my hands and all kind of stuff like it, people kind of bullied me for being sad and raising my hand too much. And also at this time, um, I think I was around six, like sixth grade and my mom wouldn’t let me shave my legs. I’m not sure why. So I also had hear it, but like my last name is ho. So there’s a lot of things.
Oh,
bad ties and, and fact that I didn’t even know what a home was. So I was like, are you, do you mean the gardening tool? Like I don’t understand. I love you so much. Growing up Chucky and there was a very, I remember this very fine period at this one moment in my life that really changed everything. It was terrible. I was at this family party and I was just, you know, eating and I hadn’t really thought about being chubby. Like I didn’t, it didn’t occur to me that I looked any different than anyone else. And this girl just like literally points her finger at my face cause like, why are you so fat? And, and I immediately dropped my fork. I stopped chewing and I ran into, you know, this random bathroom and I just started crying like uncontrollably or ever and my mom couldn’t get me out of the bathroom and it was just really, really terrible.
And from that moment on, I, I realize, Oh, like I like isn’t just about, you know, going to school and drawing pictures and having fun, like I actually look a certain way and it matters. And I became really subconscious and body conscious ever since that point on. Um, luckily puberty hit and I got inner naturally and then I was trying to test him so I didn’t really think about working out. But then after, when I started going, when I got to college, you know, Tina’s of all this food that you want to eat, everything. And I, I’ve been on my own fit to fat to fit treaty, but during this college time is when I discovered a teaching place to start doing plus nine 16 and start teaching until I was like 20 or something. And then when I start to apply to start changing my body, like knew that you could really control the way you look by doing things like exercise and exercise that you love.
And I started teaching it. That brought me a lot of happiness. And then, you know, I always fluctuate up and down and I think that was 2012 when I decided that I wanted to do with the key competition just to see how I could push myself. And it was a interesting experience. I lost a ton of weight. I got down with some like almost 110 pounds and I’m like, I’m fine, like five side. So I was like really, really skinny. But I felt no. I thought I looked amazing. I was like, Whoa, look at these muscles, all this kind of stuff. But Sam tells me I was a really terrible person at the time. I was really cranky and it’s happening in carbs like I just like, and I couldn’t, I actually couldn’t. I feel like I couldn’t think straight like, like just neurons were not firing the way should have been.
So as far as like, you know, people were falling, my body translation. So that was great for the blog as far as like actually being productive in other aspects of my life. I was working out literally the whole time cause I hired this bodybuilding coach, a male who had been through tons of, you know, bodybuilding, what do you call them? Contests. And so he trained me the way he treated himself. And I think that was not a good idea because I worked out literally a few hours in the morning and then he would make me go home and do extra cardio, like literally every day have to drink two gallons of water, which is okay, fine. And then you try to up it on other days. And then I couldn’t have any carbs. Like it was like all protein powder, egg whites, a chicken breast and a lettuce leaves with a squeeze of lemon, squeeze of lemon.
And it was so Todd and I lost weight so fast. But afterwards I think back at that and an app, it took a year to get everything back. And during that time I met and I was devastated because I was like, I don’t know what’s going on. Like all I did is go back to eating normal clean, which is like no salads with like if not a drop of lemon juice. But I didn’t feel like I was just gaining weight and I’m eating like I could eat like a little bit of Brown rice and just kept eating away and then I can eat pizza. You can see the amount of weight. He’s like, it didn’t matter what. I was so destroyed. And that’s why when I met you, what I lost those first five pounds, like events, if you will. To me it was like, you know, like a hundred pounds, you know what I mean?
So that, that’s my fit to fat, to fit, it’s dirty. And now I am. What I’ve come to realize is that there are things you have to sacrifice to have a certain type of body and I have to realize is it worth it? And to me what’s worth it is running the business that I have and being able to do the things I love and sometimes even things that I could want and like the body that I have at the same time, for a lot of people that’s different. Like I’m not willing to work out four hours a day just to keep them meeting a certain thing because you know what? My business will stop running. Um, no one’s going to know what to do. Like it’s just like I have sound gallons. And of course with balance you always tried to keep growing and try to get better. So it’s not stagnation, it’s just finding happiness with like growing happiness, you know what I mean?
Yeah. But you, I to know what that’s so much more realistic. Like I, I don’t really know anybody that can contribute that much time to working out and can sustainably eat those type of foods and not have, you know, indulgences here and there or go to a social function. You know, what you show is that you can be healthy and beautiful and fit and still eat good food. You try out all these amazing recipes that you post for your followers. I love when you post your Yolo mills, you only live on smells. You know, like you’re realistic. Like you show that you can be fit and beautiful and healthy and have a good body image in a way that any woman can. And that’s way, you know, something I think more way more people are going to look up to as opposed to, I do have friends that do bikini competitions and stuff and I always admire the hard work that they put in. But that is not sustainable longterm
for most people. And that’s, that’s the thing is the biggest lesson I learned from my Fitbit to fit experience cause I grew up always in shape, playing sports, very active. And that’s why I did my own Fitbit to fit journey on purpose. Let’s cause I felt like I needed to gain a better understanding. I couldn’t go back in time and be, you know, become overweight as a little kid to experience what was like, but I can only imagine the heartache that, that, that, that would be at that time. Kinda like what you went through. Um, but I felt like what I did gave me a better understanding, um, of the mental and emotional journey that people go on and people focus so much on the physical side of weight loss. Like you said, when you’re doing the bikini competition, you know, exercise and working out and the, the meal plans and things like that.
I feel like most people have that knowledge, but people don’t understand the mental and emotional toll it takes on you. Um, when you’re trying to make a transformation, like you said, you might from the outside, you might’ve looked great at one 10 and 10% body fat, but you’re miserable on the inside and you’re a different person, you’re not happy. And so people need to find what that balance is for on a mental and emotional level and a physical level. And it’s not always the 8% you know, six pack abs look, you know, that’s, that’s for some people but for other people they, they want to be able to go out on the weekends with their friends and you know, have a yellow meal every once while instead of beating themselves up if they have too much peanut butter. Yeah, I love that. So yeah. Thank you for sharing that, that, that experience.
So the way we always finish up, cause we’re wrapping up the end of course after like all of this, this really good nuggets of information we always end with pointless information where we are going, we are going to throw out a few really quick questions. The basically your, your job is to answer these as concise and quickly as possible and they are random. Really don’t mean anything. Questions are you, are you ready? Yes. Okay. What’s your favorite Yolo mil. And for people that don’t, that means what’s your favorite treat? Meal or dessert.
Okay. Last night, I got this, it’s called a, I dunno what it’s called, but it’s basically like fried like French toast sticks that are stacked like Jenga and then there’s a scoop of ice cream on top and it just melts down stronger use. It was like heaven.
Oh my gosh. I am like so hungry right now is hearing that link to that place. We really won’t, but that sounds delicious. Okay. The most embarrassing moment.
Most embarrassing moment. Um, uh, Sam can help you with this.
Okay, next one. If you were stranded on a deserted Island with only one flavor of QuestBar, what would it be?
Oh, it would definitely be Apple cinnamon.
Really? Wow. That’s a big surprise. That’s like the least popular flavor.
Hey, think about it. I can’t eat like 80% of them varies at the sediment and you know.
Okay. Biggest, biggest pet peeve. Ooh,
biggest pet peeve. Um, people that have an ego and feel like they’re on top of else even when they’re not.
Oh, that’s a good one, man. That’s a pet peeve of mine too. Okay. Embarrassing moment. Any embarrassing moment.
Do you not get embarrassed easily?
Is that, why is that? I have no memory. So if there’s something that’s really bad, I just delete out of my brain and it just never happened.
I thought Cassie was more like me and like when people asked me that question, I literally run through all the embarrassing moments and then think which one would I actually tell people.
Yeah. Not that embarrassing, but I say it like it. Um, so one time, Oh, I can. Okay. I can eat a lot. Oh, actually this is an embarrassing moment. Okay. I remember. So my embarrassing moments happened when I overeat and I pass out.
You repeat that?
Um, what do you call it? Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. My sister who went to the, what you guys get, we call it the buffet all in back. It’s really, really good. And you know, we want to get our money’s worth. We ate like a ton and like while we’re walking out, I was like, Jacqueline, I’m Stina just to lay down for a second. And I literally fell asleep with for an hour on this random couch outside of the nights. We were like, Whoa, she’s passed out already. And she’s like, no, it’s not what you say. I literally would just sleeping on a couch in Las Vegas.
Oh my gosh. I can guarantee that since you were in Vegas on a couch passed out, nobody even blinked tonight. They’re like, they’re like that girl started early.
Cassie, you would not have done very well if you had to do a fit fat to fit journey for six months where you had to eat what I ate.
Sleeping 20 bars.
Yeah, that. I know what you mean though. I know that feeling of overeating and all you want to do is just lay down and your body wants to rest cause it’s putting so it’s so exhausted.
But I had this weird infatuation with us food and whenever I see like loads of food, like you know how sometimes they have those accused tacos or this teacher burrito, plain ice. You see you want to challenge someone. Maybe you drew eating contest when I’m not like slow me down for a photo shoot or videos or just think like I literally, I swear I could eat the whole thing.
Are you serious? Okay. I kind of, I kind of feel like me and Cassie should go head to head instead. That’s more of a fair question. And I have been known to eat Epic meal proportions.
There was a, that would be a super popular YouTube video to see two girls stuffing their face in an eating challenge. Cause it’s mostly guys that do that, like furious Pete, you know? But that would be so funny. There’s
this place. Okay. It’s so funny cause I’ve been taught, I’ve been literally telling everyone about this place for seven years. I haven’t even gone yet. Is this like something, I’ll tap my yak in LA and basically it’s a huge burrito. It’s like asides with baby and it’s me. I’m like two huge tortilla rapidly up everything. And if you, if you eat it, you know, you get to be on the wall of fame or whatever. Like they care about that. But I just have always wanted to,
okay, next time I’m in LA, you and I, we’re going out, we’re going there, we’re doing an Epic food challenge, we’re recording it. And I’m not gonna lie. If I win, I am going to brag.
I can do it.
So Cassie, I actually have one last quick question. Um, we did the series of fun quick questions but it’s kind of led to another one. Do you ever feel self conscious eating out in public, in fear of someone will recognize you? I’m just curious about that.
It’s happened all the time. Yesterday I was at an Indian restaurant and a fan walked up to me while I was eating a second year and my, it’s like you, it’s, it’s fine. I eat what I eat and it doesn’t matter to me because I’m not really afraid. In fact, a lot of times when I am going out for my yellow meal, like whether I’m getting a ice cream or whatever, I tend to see a lot of fans at these places. I’m like, yeah, you’re not really thinking the same thing. So it’s okay.
No, I think that’s cool because I think at certain points in time, I used to be that guy where I used to be afraid. Oh, some of them might see me, but this, you know, here Lynn take this really quick.
Oh yeah. All the time he would put anything that’s unhealthy. He’d be like that. That’s Lynn.
That’s the lens. That’s not me.
Oh that’s so good.
No, but anyways, thank you so much Cassie. Where, where can people go to find out more about you? Um, like social media and website.
Yeah, so go to youtube.com/blog of bodies on what you do and then my Instagram a blog a lot. I don’t have a blog blog wise. I can literally just type one ladies to find everything you need.
Yeah. And we’re going to put everything in the show notes. We’ll put her website and her social media handles so that you guys can follow her. She puts out so much great free content. It’s ridiculous.
It is ridiculous. And any big things coming up that you can talk about or announce?
Yeah. So our partnership with 2018 is, and my format [inaudible] is in full force. I’m really excited because 24 hour fitness wants, um, Popeye’s feet official qualities of their duty, which is awesome is because I never thought that when they come by your studio 2009 that this would actually be a real thing that people, guests were invited so that it’s happening. We’re trying to figure out, um, how to get into retail stores with some of our products. So that’s always a new challenge. It’s always a new challenge every day, every week. But it’s exciting because if it were the same every day, I’d be support, I would die, you know?
Yeah. So if people go to 24 hour fitness, they can actually go to that class as like, you know, body pump, like the, those kinds of things. Awesome. I love that. It’s so cool.
Yeah.
Well thank you so much Cassie. We really appreciate you being a part of this podcast and we look forward to having you on again and stay in touch. And we will schedule that, the Epic cheat meal between you and land.
You actually or if you come to Hawaii, come visit me in Hawaii we will have a malasada Throwdown girl. They’re like donuts and they can be stuffed with things like coconut or lava mangoes, like delicious, big donuts stuffed with like they can do Bulverde and cream chocolate or even plain, but
it’s a Portuguese style Donna
it, they’re like heavenly
malasadas and they’re delicious.
Okay. Yeah.
Thanks so much Cassie. We’ll talk to you soon. Okay.
Okay, bye.
Thank you guys so much for joining us on today’s episode with Cassie ho. If you like today’s episode, please go give us a five star rating on iTunes and subscribe.
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Yup. And you can check us out@fittofattofit.com which is my website,
and to fit@home.com which is my web.
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