From a makeup artist to a yoga instructor

Thao is the person, which has a fantastic energy and very harmonious body. She made her way from physical beauty to inner one in the true sense of the word.

I met her in “California Club” fitness club in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. She is an instructor of Satyananda yoga. Thao impressed me at first sight and at first class of yoga. Her body is a very athletic and well shaped. It is not typical for Asian girls; usually they are slim but not athletic. Thao’s energy is the best for yoga. Her training methods are intensive and soft at the same time and she pays the same attention to every student. In Thao I found a balance for my yoga practice, which I had been long looking for. After the class we talked and I realized that she had been doing many kinds of sports. This is just my opinion, that it’s impossible to have such a well-shaped body if you practice yoga only. We often talked after the classes about the health, fitness and diet.

Today we finally met and shared our experience in a café with the cup of coffee for me and strawberry smoothie for Thao. I should mention Thao ordered sugar-free smoothie, which is also not typical for the Vietnamese people. Most of them like sweet smoothies and ice juices.

Thao has always been an active person but never did sports regularly. She started to do it when she was 30. Her friend asked her to go to the gym with her. It’s been six years and Thao still goes there. Her friend stopped after two months.

She found enjoyment in exercises, got “addicted” to them. She started to go to the gym every day. She practiced everything: TRX, body pump, body balance, step aerobics, weightlifting, yoga... Thao never thought that she would become a yoga instructor but two years ago she became one. She has finished 200-hours class for yoga instructors and passed international exams. Now yoga is her occupation.

Today she is 36; her height is 166 cm, weight – 55 kg. Her son is 11 years old. She wakes up at 4:30 – 5:00 AM and having breakfast at 6:00. It usually contains quinoa, eggs or fruits. As most sportsmen she eats about six times a day. Dinnertime depends on yoga classes schedule but it is not later than 7:00 PM. She goes to bed at 9:30 – 10:00 PM.

As opposed to most Vietnamese people she doesn’t eat white rice and prefers brown. Thao prefers not to mix carbohydrates and proteins but once a week she can eat, for example, some fish with brown rice. Usually she eats proteins with vegetables but if there is enough time she eats them separated – vegetables first and then chicken, meat or fish 30 minutes later. Two years ago she was a vegetarian but it was not good for the health (she felt dizzy all the time) and doctor told her to eat animal protein again. So six months ago she started to eat fish again, sometimes she eats chicken and meat. She eats sweets very seldom just because she doesn’t like it.

I asked Thao to give some advice to people who want to build the body. She said: “Go to the gym, do exercises! You will be enjoying it after some time. But exercises must be combined with a healthy diet; otherwise you won’t have enough energy to do it”.

By the end of my first Thao’s class I realized that I wanted to be her student. She is doing some magical procedure while you’re resting lying on your back with your eyes closed. She comes to you, carefully stretches your legs and hands, then gently stretches your head and finally massages your head. I don’t know where she has learnt to do this but it feels amazing and I want to be her student only because of this :)

This is my first sports story. I hope there will be more soon because I meet interesting people almost every day. After the Vietnamese story I’m going to post Japanese, Russian, American and many other stories, because there are people from the entire world here in Saigon. Plus I travel a lot :) Get inspired by other people’s experience and let it lead you to positive results!