Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 295. Embracing Self: Peloton's Camila Ramón Talks Body Positivity & Setting Healthy Boundaries

Transcript

295. Embracing Self: Peloton's Camila Ramón Talks Body Positivity & Setting Healthy Boundaries · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The only thing that you can do is start interviewing people.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Start the podcast starts putting yourselves in situations where you
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: feel so uncomfortable until one day you don't.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Hello, Hello, Emily Abodi. Here you are listening to episode
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: two hundred and ninety five of Hurdle, a wellness focused
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: podcast where I talk to inspirational people about everything from
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: their highest ties and toughest moments to essential tips on
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: how to live a healthier, happier, more motivated life. We
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: all go through our fair share of hurdles. My goal
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: through these discussions is to empower you to better navigate
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: yours and move with intention so that you can stride
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: towards your own big potential and of course have some
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: fun along the way. For episode two ninety five and
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: bring you my lovely discussion with Camila Ramon. She is
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: a Peloton instructor and this combo has been so so
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: long in the making.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: I love it for so many.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Reasons, but mostly because we have such a beautiful dialogue
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: about embracing the body that we have and appreciating it
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: for all that it can do, regardless of what it
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: looks like. If your thighs touched, if there's jiggle, if
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: there's wiggle, if you feel strong, if you don't feel strong,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: all of these things, there can still be so much
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: appreciation for the body that we have. Kamila gets so
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: open and honest about her journey with embracing her body,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: complete with highs and lows, and shares a lot about
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: the winding road that brought her to Peloton. She speaks
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: on falling into the comparison traps, something that we can
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: all relate to, and gives really beautiful advice for anyone
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: at the beginning of a journey of their own. Make sure,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: if you're not yet doing so, you're following along with
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Hurdle over on social It's.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: Over at Hurdle Podcast.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: I am over at Emily a Body and if you
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: are here because you are a fan of all things Peloton,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: We've got a slew of other instructor episodes in the feed.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: I'll make sure to link a bunch of them in
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: the show notes. With that, let's get to it. Let's
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: get to hurdling.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Today.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: I am sitting down with Camilla Ramon. She is a
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Peloton instructor. How are you doing today, girl.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: I'm fabulous. It's been a beautiful day already. So I'm
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: excited to be here.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: I'm excited to have you here, and I'm excited that
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: this weather is finally kicking in here in New York.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: I'm like traveling so much right now so to be
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: able to come home and it is kind I'm like,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: please stay this way.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: It is fifty five degrees and I feel like it's
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: summertime right now. And for somebody that grew up in Miami,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: that's saying a lot like I feel like I'm very
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: quickly turning into a New Yorker and I cannot be
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: happier about the sun right now.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: We love it, We absolutely love it.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: So I was doing some research before our chat today.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: I know that's always like a scary thing, but really
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: the research was just into our messaging history. And you
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: first messaged me in twenty nineteen when you were living
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: in Los Angeles teaching at another Spin studio that will
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: not be named. And aside from the fact now that
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: you're living in New York and you reach a much
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: wider audience, what would you say is the biggest difference
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: in your life now?
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Honestly, I feel like I'm living a dream. All the
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: things that I could have even imagined to be doing
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: what in twenty nineteen or when I DMD you or
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: message you. So I'm currently doing and that's really mind
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: blowing to me. The other day, I was actually looking
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: at like, you know, your phone always shows you like
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: recaps of your year, like what I was doing, like
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: you know, like everyone else four years ago, five years ago,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: and I was like, wow, we have come a long way.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: And I have been listening to hurdles since then.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: Okay, one of the og hurdlers, which is why I
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: literally waiting to get you on here. Well, then I've
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: got to ask you, in listening to the show, like
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: what has kept you coming back?
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: I just feel like you have such genuine conversation with people,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: and I think that the topics that you talk about,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: whether it be you know, fitness related, mental health related,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: self love related, they are all things that you know
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: I am interested in or have struggled with, or like
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: insight and support on. And I love the layout of
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: the podcasts, so oh wow.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: I mean, I wasn't trying to get you to compliment
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: me right after that, but the sentiments are draft.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: If it's true, well it's.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: So, it's so appreciated, So I mean kicking it off
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: on that note. Really, Then you said yourself having some struggles.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: I know you and I both speak a bit about
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: body confidence, So I want to kick this off there
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: and really begin our discussion on when you first realized
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: that you were, let's say, aware of your body. Talk
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: to me about that.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I was always kind of aware of
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: my body. I grew up in Miami, but I was
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: born in Argentina, and I would go back to Argentina
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: for two months at a time, and every time that
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: I would go back, I would always receive comments on
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: my body. I would compare my body to my cousin's
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: body because my cousin's body looked very different from mine.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: I would.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Hear remarks like from family members when I was leaner,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: and I guess I didn't really register it at the time,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: but that's when I was honestly, like, very aware of
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: my body from a very young age. As a matter
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: of fact, when I was in middle I joined the
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: cross country team because I wanted to be flaka like
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: I wanted to be skinny. And then moving forward, you know,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: I ended up going into dance, which I loved as
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: a form of self expression, but naturally in the dance space,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: especially in Miami. You know, you stand in the mirror,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: you look at your body next to thirty two other girls,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: and you're like, why am I hips shaped this way?
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: And theirs aren't, Like why do I look this way?
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: And they don't, and continuing in that space, you know,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: I loved running for sure because it helped me with
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: my anxiety. And I'm a person who suffers a lot
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: from anxiety that I've learned to manage a little, like
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: definitely a lot more now. But even with running, like
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: I would do it just because I wanted to be
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: skinnier or look a certain way rather than the way
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: that I rather than how I wanted to feel, and
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: even later, like throughout my dance career, it was never
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: really like positive in terms of my physicality. It was
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: more so like that feeling of self expression that I
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: and I stayed with, you know, I stayed in what
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: I considered to be a toxic community for a very
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: long time because of how much I love expressing myself
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: in that.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: Way within the dance community.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: You mean, yeah, yeah, And it's understandable that you are
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: chasing a feeling at home in your body or feeling comfortable,
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: And it makes my heart sad that you leaned into
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: running at that time anyway as simply a tool for
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: weight loss, which is definitely something that I can relate
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: to because that's how I got started with running as well.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: And you didn't even just dabble in running. You mentioned
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: cross country. I know you also have a couple of
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: marathons under your belt.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: So what was that relationship like for you with running
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: when you really did need to commit to.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: A training plan and incorporate it very regularly into your life. Yeah.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: I feel like I'm a very competitive person, so naturally
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: running turned very competitive for me very quickly. I think
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: the reasons why I started running were because I wanted
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: to look a stain way. But once I discovered all
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: the things that were happening to me for me in
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: my brain, I was like, oh, this is wild and
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: I need to do this for the rest of my life.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: I guess when I was in high school, I would
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: have like panic attacks and more so like anxiety attacks,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: I guess, and running would always help me like figure
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: out my brain and my thoughts and be like chill girl,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: like it's really you're freaking out about things that you
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: should not be freaking out about right now. And it
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: really like when I fell in love with running was
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: in high school. When I was running competitively, I didn't
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: have to run everything in my like high school days
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: said I shouldn't be running as a matter of fact,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Like my dance teacher demoted me from being like an
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: officer in the dance team because I was not allowed
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: to be a part of another club. But I had
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: like qualified to states and then had I requested a
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: meeting with the sistant principle and I was like, you
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: need to let me run and dance because if not,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: I will die, Okay. And I always put a lot
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: of pressure on myself, which is also where like you
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: know the anxieties them from as well. But running was
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: a place for me when I was feeling like there
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: were so many things that I couldn't control. There was
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: like that one place where I felt like I was
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: at home where my thoughts started to make sense for me,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: where I could run through feelings, where I could run
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: through emotions. And then as an adult, the same thing happened.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: I think there was a time in my life which
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: we can get into, where I did have a negative
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: relationship with running when I started to train again after
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: taking a break from movement. But other than that, it
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: has been a very positive experience for me because I
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: tend to run on my own terms.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: Okay, so let's do that.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about the time when you leaned out of
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: fitness and then leaned back in. That is something I
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: don't know about you, but so many messages about getting
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: back on the horse starting again.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: How do I meet myself without judgment?
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: Tell us a little bit about your experience to start
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: us off, and then I'd love to kind of circle
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: back on some themes there.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I made the decision too. I thought I
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: wanted to dance professionally like my whole life, and I
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: made the decision to opt out of dancing professionally because
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: I had negative experiences in the industry that were very
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: like esthetic based naturally, you know, it is the entertainment industry.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: But I realized that, you know, people were treating me
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: differently when I looked a certain way, and in hindsight,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: now that I reflect on that, that was really happening
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: more often than not, Like when I was leaner, they
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: would be nicer to me, they would put me in
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: the front, they would talk to me more when I wasn't.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: I was just like, you know, like a girl on
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: the side in the back, you know. And my talent
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: didn't necessarily change. It was more so like my physicality,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: which was extremely frustrating for me and amongst other things.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: So I decided I did not want to dance professionally,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: and I graduated from college. So I got a big
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: girl job and I was working in an international public
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: relations firm representing global businesses throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: And I really don't like headfirst into that because I
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: love working with the Latino community, and I was just
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: learning as much as possible, you know, practicing writing and
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Spanish because I was born in Adgandina, But you know,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: you forget, like I don't write like officially or professionally
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: in Spanish every day. So it was a really really
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: fun time until it wasn't because I was like working
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: so much and I was like, I'm at a desk job.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: I'm a girl that likes to move, like I love
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: moving my body, and I realized that for the three
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: years that I had been working there, I like completely
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: stopped training, like I wasn't weightlifting. I wasn't really running anymore.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: And I also weightlifted like after high school and gotten
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: to like a kind of like bodybuilding stint. But when
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: I got back into training, or when I was like, okay, girl,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: like you need to start moving again for your mental
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: health so that you can feel good. I started running,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: and I was speaking to myself from like such a
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: negative place, like I was like, if you can't make
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: it to the gym, like you're a piece of shit,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Like you want to look a certain way, so you
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: have to do this, this and this, and I would
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: be like on a run and this is something that
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: I say every single interview. But essentially, the moment where
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: I realized that something was really wrong with me and
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: that something that had once been so positive for me
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: had become so detrimental to my mental health was after
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: I had finished like a five mile five to six
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: mile run I don't remember the exact distance in Miami
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: after work. I was running the keep Askine Bridge, which
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: is a huge bridge. It's very hard to run over.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: I had run it over it once already. I was
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: coming all my way back. On my way back, I
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: was speaking so negatively to myself like you are not enough,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Like why can't you achieve these simple things that you
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: want to achieve. I got to the top, I like
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: broke down crying, and it was like such a beautiful day,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: like boats were in the water, they could have been
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: dolphins jumping out the water as well. And then I
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: was there like being so miserable after my body had
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: just something so special for me running five miles six miles.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: So at that moment where I was just like sitting
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: there in my frustration, I made the decision to like
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: change that relationship that I had with movement because it
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: it was something that particularly running, like I told you,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: was something that had brought me so much joy for
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: so long and so much clarity, and now it was
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: hurting me. It was making me feel bad mentally. So
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: I removed all expectations. I decided I'm just going to
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: have fun and I'm actually not going to run for
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: a while until I feel like I'm okay to do
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: so and speak positively to myself while doing so. So
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: I just called up a friend and I was like, Hey,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: can you just like do this with me? I really
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: just want to walk every day after work for thirty
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: minutes and we can just like talk shit or like
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: she's like, you spill the tea. I spilled the tea.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: It's a vibe. So I just went walking with a
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: friend for like it was honestly probably like several weeks
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: that we were just walking and talking about things that
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: were interesting about you know, chief made the tea, and
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: it was so fun for me. And then once I
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: started like incorporating consistency into my lifestyle, like consistency with movement,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: I started incorporating you know, different goals. I said, Okay, well,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: now that I've been walking and I feel good, like
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: I want to start taking dance classes again, I want
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: to go to plates, I want to go to bar classes,
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: I want to start lifting weights again. And then I
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: started running again, but running was more so to feel good,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: and I started to realize that I started developing once
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: again a positive relationship to movement, to running to the
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: exercise that I was doing. And then as I started
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: to feel better, I started to incorporate you know, mileage
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: and more performance based goals. And all of my goals
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: were performance based, none of them were aesthetic. And I
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: hit that like aha moment where I was like, I
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: feel really amazing right now. And that's when I realized
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: and I made the decision and that A I wanted
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: to teach fitness full time and that's what I wanted
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: to do as a career, and B that I wanted
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: to be that point person inspiration, I guess or coach
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: for Latinas that I did not have growing up, because
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: as a Latina in the space there are very few people,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: and particularly during that time that we're speaking about exercise
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: to feel a certain way mentally and physically rather than
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: look a certain way. For sure.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks so much for sharing all of that. It's
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: understandable that you were a product of your environment, right.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: You weren't raised somewhere that spoke about movement as a
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: tool to manage or deal with mental health or to
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: feel good. It was only about those aesthetics, so you
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: had to carve out that path for yourself. So interesting
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: the perspective that you had almost from the get go,
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: after this large hurdle moment that you wanted to lean
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: into movement to feel better in your body. How did
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: it go from I want this to know I'm gonna
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: do this because I think that turning point, that tipping
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: point is where a lot of people get stuck. It's like, yes,
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: like I want to feel better in my body, Yes,
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: I want to move more, But you really made it happen.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, honestly, for me, I was just like
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: so fed up with myself. Honestly it kind of came
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: from a place of despair because I said, I am
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: tired of feeling this way. I want to have a
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: good experience in my life and in my body. And
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: I thought to myself, I said, how long, well I
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: have to wait until I start to feel happy in
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: my body? Like when am I going to make the
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: decision to say, hey, girl, like you can have fun?
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: Because looking back at my life, I have realized, and
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: I realized even back then too, like it absolutely had
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with how skinny or how muscular, or
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: how ripped or or xyz I felt during that time
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: because when I was at my leanest, I was at
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: my unhappiest. When I was like doing all of these
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: things that you know, bodybuilders in Miami were doing at
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: that time because that was kind of the trend in fitness.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: I felt my worst, I felt my weakest, I felt
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: mentally unstable. I was not well. I was I did
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: not have good relationships. So for me, you know, I
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: had already had all of that experience of being unhappy
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: in so many different spaces in my life, and also
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: seeing other people feel confident in their bodies really made
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: me think, like, I want that to be me. Why
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: can't it be me? It's my turn to feel good?
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Like this is so messed up that this my entire life.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: I have been fed this narrative of how I'm supposed
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: to feel insecure in my body in this space and
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: help people react to my body when when it looks
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: a certain way. Why don't I get to dictate that
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: storyline for myself and choose the narratives that I choose
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: to entertain. And it led me there, And I think
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: one of the most important things because people always ask me, like,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: what's like some of the things that you did to
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: like feel good in your body? I guess. And one
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: was really curating my social media feed, particularly at that time,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: on following anybody who made me feel a certain way,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: and I know that it wasn't their fault, you know,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: it has nothing to do with them, It has to
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: do with me. And two, for me, it was looking
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: at myself in the mirror after a tough workout and thinking,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: you know, my little bound seatou which is like means
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: like little belly, like like I love you girl, Like
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: we're in this together. You're a part of me. You're
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: so beautiful, my legs, my lungs, my heart, And I
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: get emotional, you know, talking about it because I remember, like,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: and I can put myself there in those moments in
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: my life where like little Camilla was so upset with
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: herself and then picture like how I feel now and
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: how I felt throughout the process and the emotions that
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: I went through, and that like last time that I
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: looked at myself and I looked at my stomach, and
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: I looked at my body and I looked at my
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: hips and I said I love you, and I remember
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: actually meaning it, yeah, And it was so beautiful.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: It's so beautiful, and you have such a beautiful heart
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: to share all of this and to be vulnerable. I
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: think this vulnerability and this honesty is what empowers other
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: individuals to follow a similar path right one where they
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: can understand that it's possible to love yourself. You might
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: not wake up every day and be like man, I
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: look good, but you can wake up in the morning
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: and be like, I have such a deep and beautiful
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: appreciation for everything that my body empowers me and enables
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: me to do.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, one hundred percent. And that's also part of the
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: conversation that we have all the time. It's like, you know,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: people ask me like, like, what do you do on
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: the days where you like don't feel as confident, And
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I have those days today, Like I wake
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: up sometimes and I'm like, I don't feel confident, like
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: I have my period, or I pizza, I just feel bloated,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: or it's just a day that I'm not, you know,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: doing my best, and I just you know, I remind
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: myself of who I am, what I'm here to do,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: and I think for me, it's more so like coming
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: back to that simple storyline of thanking my body and
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: looking at it and saying like I love you, like
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: I have a right to feel good in you today
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: if I'm talking to myself in the mirror, and it
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: helps me so much.
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, it really does. It really does.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: Having love not even not only in the good moments,
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: but also in the turbulent ones as well.
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: You also highlighted so many awesome.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: Things that you did throughout your journey that helped you
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: along the way. Although in the moment it might have
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: felt small, but looking back, really big steps things like accountability,
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: reaching out to your friend and saying something simple like hey,
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: I could really use your help with this. This is
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: important to me. That step within itself can be so
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: difficult for so many people. Also, setting a realistic expectation,
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: you were like, I'm going to walk every day. I'm
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: not going to run five miles a day. I'm going
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: to walk every day. So in that starting slow, which
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: is what I really loved that you highlighted there. Something
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: you also mentioned is that as you felt more comfortable
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: in your body from working through the physical stuff, you
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: began to see payoffs in other areas of your life.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: Talk to me a little bit about that.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: Once you started moving more and getting more physically active,
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: how did you see those endorphins play out in other
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: aspects of your life.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that for me, training has a lot
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: to do with confidence. So when I feel like I
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: achieved something physically, then it helps me to realize like
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: I can do the same thing like mentally you know,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: or or environment or in any sort of feat I
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: may I may be faced with in life. Confidence is
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: huge and it doesn't come from you know, physical confidence
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: or like aesthetic confidence. It comes from like mental and
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: internal confidence. That was super big for me. In addition
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: to that, setting boundaries with family members about things that
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: I would and wouldn't tolerate, like, uh, the work that
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: I'm doing internally in my mind, I have so clear
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: and the way what I will accept and will not
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: accept in my internal dialogue had become so clear that
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: I could sense it as projections from other people when
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: they were to be around me. And in that way,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: I could set boundaries with those loved ones, friends, or
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: acquaintances as to like what it is that I will
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: and will not tolerate, or remove myself from spaces that
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: I know will make me feel worse or make me
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: feel like I'm not aligned with what it is that
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to do for myself.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: Talk to me about that in execution, because that's another
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: thing that some people are like, Wow, I would love
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: to set a boundary, but I don't want to hurt
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: this person's feelings or I don't want to be the
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: only person that doesn't do X. How does that work
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: in practice? So that you can be taking care of
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: your mental health.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: It depends on how close your loved ones are and
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: what your relationship with that person might be. For me,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: I think it was very easy for the people that
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: I have close by that love me to understand what
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: my boundaries were because they would say something and I'd
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: be like, hey, you know when you say this, it
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: makes me feel this, And then a lot of times,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: particularly in the Latin space, women and people, but particularly women,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: have had this narrative ingrained in their culture and in
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: their families for so long that it's very hard to
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: get rid of something that is just it's like in
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: your body, like it's just like a regurgitated thing that
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: you've listened to your entire life. So for me, it
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: was very healing to be able to remove the judgment
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: of other people that maybe I hold in a high
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: regard or I held in a high regard and they
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: would say things that were damaging to me, but being
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: able to forgive them because I realized that it's not
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: just their fault, but it's also like a cultural, a
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: generational thing that's been happening for so long. It made
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: it much easier for me to grasp, you know, everything
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: that was happening and deal with my thoughts and my
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: emotions internally. In terms of other people, I think also
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: silence goes a long way if somebody tells me something
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: that I don't agree with today and they expect for
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: me to know agree with them back or say something
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: and I disagree with them, particularly if it's something that
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: relates to me and I don't know them well enough
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: to be able to be like, hey, like, I do
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: not like that you said that, even though I will
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: still do that if I feel like I need to,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: I'll just take wuiet hmmm hm and they get it.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: Then you think it's so true, especially with people that
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: you don't know. If we're going to like reference this
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: to social media, you know, it's like, why am I
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: going to give this person this negative energy if that's
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: not what I want to receive in return? Right, Energy attracts,
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: Like energy boundaries in real life are basically just the
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: opportunity to unfollow people, so to speak.
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: So you have the opportunity to.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: Decide who you want to quote unquote unfollow in real
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: life and then move forward as.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: You please exactly. And I think also if your loved
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: ones are understanding or like, let's say, for example, like
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: if I have a cousin and my cousin knows that
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: this is how I feel about my life and this
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: is my journey and this is the space that I'm
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: going into when I go to my cousin's family member's home,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: for example, or like my thea or whatever, and they
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: hear something like that, like they're more likely to also
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: step in in a position where like they maybe feel
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: more comfortab or or my husband or you know, anybody
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: a friend. I think it's also like having your your
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: close circle close to you and being able to speak
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: for you in places that they might feel comfortable with
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: but would be uncomfortable for you is also a great
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: strategy to you know, implement for sure.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: Taking a break from today's episode to talk to you
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: about Bandit running. Today's sponsor, Banded has quietly been putting
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: together the most value packed membership in running, all aimed
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: at providing resources at every step of.
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: Your running journey.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: They're adding partner benefits left and right, including twenty percent
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: off all A six footwear and very body Reset, fifteen
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: percent off of Citizen m hotels, and Auto Camp, which
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: has forty plus locations near starting lines around the Globe
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: and so much more. Not to mention, you get a
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: ten percent standing at discount on all of their amazing
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: performance running apparel and sor ease free shipping on every
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: bandit order, a fifty dollars digital gift card, and two
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: pairs of member exclusive socks. Head on over to bandit
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: running dot com. That's b A N D, T R U,
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: N NI n G dot com and use code Hurdler
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: fifteen for fifteen percent off the membership, making it just
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: one hundred bucks.
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: For the entire year.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: So many perks at such a great value. Again, that
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: code is Hurdler one five for fifteen percent off the membership,
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: and you can also use the code hurdler one five
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: for fifteen percent off your first order at bandit running
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: dot com now.
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: Through April sixteen.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: You said that you then knew you wanted to go
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: full time into teaching fitness, coaching fitness, specifically being a
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: guiding light for other Latin women. What happens in practice?
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: Where do you begin with that?
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: In Miami, there was another studio that taught cycling classes
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: and bar classes, and coming from dance, I immediately said like, hey,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: I want to try bar and it was BAR is
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: so hard, so hard, It's so hard.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: I'm like, die, my abs are quivering just thinking of BAR.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: I know, I'm shaking right now. I started training for
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: BAR and it was like such a long process. It
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: was like four months that I was training for BAR,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: and I didn't have the means to quit my job
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: and just start a full time fitness career with absolutely
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: no income while I was just training, so I was
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: training on the side. Took definitely longer. I was working,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: you know, a part time as a contractor at the
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: communications firm that I was working at, and I was
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: about to like launch or like graduate from my BAR
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: train and my husband, who was in the military at
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: the time, he's like, we're getting stationed in LA and
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: I was like yay, but oh my god, no, I
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: have to start again. So then I moved to LA
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: and the same like gym they also had BAR classes,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: and I was like, Hey, I want to be a
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: barn structor. I want to be a barnstruct I want
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: to be a barn strector. Though like, we have no availability,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: we're not looking for anybody. They were like, are you
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: interested in auditioning for a cycling and structure position, and
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: I was like, I've never taught cycling before, but I
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: do like running, and I like how I feel when
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: I do cardiovascular exercise, so I feel like this would
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: be great. Plus the beats. And I always took like
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: spin classes at the local gym because I really loved it.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: So I was like, okay, let me audition. They're like, great,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: can you come tomorrow? I said, I don't know how
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: to clip into a bike yet, ma'am, how am I
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: supposed to teach? I was like, I have to first
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: go take a class. So I went and I took
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: a class. I sat in the back row. They came
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: they like set up my bike for me because it
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: was all wrong, and I was like, oh my god,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: keeping how embarrassing. And then I went back and I auditioned.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: I auditioned to mister Bombastic and this is like in
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: Larchemont in LA, and they hired me somehow, and I
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: started teaching cycling classes in LA, which was really incredible
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: and really great.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: How long was it from when you got hired to
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: when you taught your first in studio class?
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: Oh, I have no idea.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: Girl, You went through like their training program after you
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: got hired. Yeah, okay, Okay.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: I don't even remember how long it is, though.
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: I think it's important to like make sure that we
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: established that as the record and that it wasn't like.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Because I was like, I don't know how to clip
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: into a bike. I taught mister Bombastic. I was like
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: doing isolations to mister Lovalova and then they're like, yeah,
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: you're got You're on tomorrow. I was like, damn, must
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: be good. No. I trained for a couple of months.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: I learned quickly. I do learn quickly, though.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: And in the learning did you start to enjoy the
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: cycling process more?
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: Oh? I loved it immediately from when I took my
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: first class at the studio, I was like, I love
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: this and I knew I was going to love it.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: So I started teaching there and I started teaching more,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: and I started teaching more and I loved it. But
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: one thing about me is that I love reggaeton, and
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: where I was teaching in the communities that were going
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: to this gym, I was not receiving the same feedback
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: that I was expecting to receive for the music. So
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: I changed a lot of my music tastes and I
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: would play different music to accommodate for the community that
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: I felt like I had to accommodate for there. And
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: on the side, I was like, now that I'm establishing
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: myself as a fitness figure here, let me see what
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: I can do to build my community of Latinas and
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: start having conversations in Spanish with these lovely ladies. So
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: I started creating like, you know, PDF programs of like
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: strength workouts because I also was like, nas, I'm certified.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: By that point, I started doing personal training, and I
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: started creating these PDF workouts, and I started growing my
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: Spanish speaking community, even though I had a lot of
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: friends in la who did not speak Spanish who would
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: do my programs anyway. And then when the gym closed,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: when the cycling studio closed, I started teaching you know, barbell, kettlebell,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: all that functional training. I got a lot of experience
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: in that, which I also did growing up since high school.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: I lifted weights. And then I started developing my own app.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: So I worked really hard for about a year with
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: a partner to develop an app in Spanish with like
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: five twelve week training programs with you know, community with
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: self love components. It was something really special, and then
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: we were about to launch that program or that project,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: and the person that I was working with at the
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: time said that they no longer wanted to do it
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: as a team, that they want to do it alone.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: And I was like, are you kidding me? And then
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: I later found out that they kept a lot of
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: you know, they kept all the code because I was
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: also naive and thinking because this is a person that
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: I knew. I was very naive and thinking that this
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: person could I could trust this person. So I didn't
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: have anything in writing, which now you know, learn, you
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: live and you learn, and that's the lesson. And that's
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: the lesson. Now people are like, you want to do something,
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: I'm like, yes, sign this, thank you so much. I
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: would love to work together, but sign this, thank you
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: so much.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: You ahead of the curve here answered my question because
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: that's such a big undertaking, right, going through the process
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: of developing and then creating the content for an app.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: Aside from the fact that you now know to get
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: someone to sign on the dotted line, what else would
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: you say was one of the biggest takeaways from that process?
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: Well, the biggest takeaway is that keep going no matter what,
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Keep going no matter what, because at that point I
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: was at a crossroads because I lost all the code.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: The people were trying going to steal you know, my
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: like videos and kind of like anime over them, which
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: is even more messed up. They had all my programming,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: But I was like, what makes me special is not
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: my programming, it's me and the community. So I was
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: at a place where I was like, I'm alone. There
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: were some other like really difficult things that were happening
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: during that time with some family members. Right before the
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: pandemic hit. I was like, should I continue to do this?
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: Like is am I really going to devote an entire
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: year of my life to not doing anything, to having
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: all my friendships be sacrificed because I'm just looking down
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: at code all day and like programming programs and linking
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: videos to the exact movement and sitting on my couch
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: and timing how long it takes to do ten bicep
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: curls or bicep curl to an overhead press for five
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: twelve to twenty four week programs. And the answer was yes,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: because my mission is to help as many women as
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: possible feel strong, feel powerful, and understand that there's so
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: much more to movement than what we've been sold our
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: whole lives. So I kept going, and obviously during the pandemic,
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: we all went digital, so I always started to do
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: a lot more like digital training, Instagram, lives, all that
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: good stuff, and the community began to grow, and then
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: finally October fifth of twenty twenty, I launched my app
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: both for iOS and Android, which was like native code,
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: and it was huge undertaking. And if you're not into
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: app building then you don't know what that means.
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: But such a massive undertaking, and how did that feel
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: for you?
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Oh, it was amazing. It was like it was so
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: beautiful and it was something that, like, you know, I
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: created with so much love, and I saw the community
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: begin to grow and my husband was so supportive the
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: entire time. But during the pandemic, we realized we were like, hey, like,
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: you know, we're really far from our family. We've been
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: here for a while. We don't know like where you're
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: going to get stationed next. And we realized like we
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: wanted to be closer to family, and also we wanted
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: to be geographically flexible. So we made the decision to
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: get out of the military and we moved back to
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: Miami in February of twenty twenty one, and I have
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: always loved Peloton period. I got a Pelton during the
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: pandemic before I even became an instructor, but before then
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: I had I always knew what Palton was doing. I
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: was well aware of what was happening, and I was like,
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: I wish my husband wasn't in the military so I
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: could move to New York and become a Pelaton instructor,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: as if it were that easy. And I was like,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: And then the more that I started like thinking about it,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: I was like, listen, I'm doing something so amazing, but
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: it's people aren't seeing it and the girls like I
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: need to reach the girls. The girls need to know
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: about this. They don't know laf mommies, No, said, they
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: need to know. We need to get the my Mommy's
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: on here. So February the February twenty fifth, we moved
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: back to Mimmy and then like two weeks later, on
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: a Friday, at five in the morning, I wrote an
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: email to Peloton and I said, Hey, I'm here. I
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: have something really amazing that I'm doing, but you guys
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: are absolutely incredible too, and like I would die to
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: be an instructor and scream from the rooftops to the
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: Latino community about you know, the importance of what it
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: is that I'm doing. And I got an email the
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: same day at like nine am, and I was like
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: so confused. I ran to my living room and I
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: screamed at the top of my lungs. And my husband
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: because like, what is happening. He's like Peloton wrote back
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: to me, and the rest is history.
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: I guess the rest is history. What was the email?
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: What was in the email back?
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: The email back was, well, actually wrote an email to
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: the CEO, and it was the CEO forwarded my email
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: to like the casting director, and the casting director was like, hey,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: you know, our CEO got your email. We would love
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: to connect with you. Are you available?
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: You're like, I guess so right, Like I have to
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: check my schedule.
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: Yes, And you had just made this major move back
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: to Miami. So what a crazy inspirational moment for you
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: to be like, well, I'm just going to go for it.
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: For people that have an idea like this, or or
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: have a thought or an aspiration and they're on the
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: cusp of sending the email, so to speak, what is
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: your advice to get that done?
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: Send the email? Honestly, you just do it, like, because
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: there were so many doors that were closed in my
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: face and so many ideas that I had before I
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: got to the place where I'm at where somebody finally
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: saw value and what I was doing and said yes.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: But the most important thing is that I saw value
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: in myself, and I saw value in what I was doing,
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: and I never quit and I never gave up, even
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: though people that I knew from like high school, would
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: unfollow me because I would post in Spanish and it
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: would make me like sad to see that people weren't
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: following you anymore, or even though like people that I
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: was training with at the time, you know, wanted to
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: pay me pennies to teach individual classes and also asked
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: me to organize events for free, and I was like, no,
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: that's not what I'm valued at, and then they would
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: close the door in my face and I was like okay.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: Or so many pitches that went like that people did
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: not respond to before I finally got one that somebody
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: responded to. And it's just about that. It's about you know,
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: like brick by brick, building the wall like climbing the
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: ladder step by step and taking you know, the little
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: stepping stones, even when I think about it today. When
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: I got my first job out of college, it was
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: in international public relations, and I was like, this is
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: very interesting, and I know that I'm going to use
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: it in the future, but I know that this is
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: not where I want to be. And taking things that
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: you learn from different places and applying it towards your
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: greater goal or your mission is what I personally feel
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: like progress is all about.
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and having that growth mindset right, because it would
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: have been super easy to get into that public relations
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: situation and be like, this isn't what I want to
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: do and have some sort of frustration every day when
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: you showed up and looked at it through a negative lens.
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: But you chose to look at the positives and use
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: those positives then to move forward again. This concept you
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: talk about it all the time on Hurdle, but energy
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: attracts like energy, and you were very cognizant of how
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: you wanted to frame your experiences to work for you
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: rather than against you.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think also something that I tend to
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: do and I think that this has a lot to
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: do with my parents, you know, like my parents. I'm
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: an immag and my parents. I came here with my parents,
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: and my parents have done nothing but work. But the
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: one thing that they taught me is that when you
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: want to do something, you just go little by little
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: and you start. And that's something that I've always been
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: able to, you know, take with me, like, no matter
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: what little idea that I have, Like I don't know,
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: this is completely unrelated, but you want to be a
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: pop star, Like have you taken singing lessons? You know?
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: It's entirely true.
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: Right, you can think big, but you oftentimes to get
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: to that big goal, you've got to start small.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: Right, Like you want to be like a Polston instructor?
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: Have you have you taught fitness classes in public? Have you?
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: Do you have on camera experience? Like things like that
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: like that people we forget and and for me, like
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: I didn't even realize that I had on camera experience
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: until I was like, hey, you know, I was a dancer,
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: Like I do have on camera experience. It translates, you know,
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: and I was like, yeah, like I can do this
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: and with whatever, you know, goal we have in life,
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: like you know, like start the podcast, because the only
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: thing that you can do is start interviewing people. Start
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: the podcast starts putting yourselves in situations where you feel
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: so uncomfortable, so uncomfortable until one day you don't my
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: Palton audition, I thought I was going to pass out.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: I was going so hard. I was so nervous when
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: I stepped foot into the room for the first time,
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: like my first like rehearsal, I was like shaking. I
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: was so unwell. And now I go and I teach class,
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, I live there like it's my house,
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: and I feel amazing and I love welcoming people into
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: that space. But like everybody is scared to do things,
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: Like everybody's scared to do things, especially if you feel
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: like you could look a fool, like and social media
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: is crazy in that way. But for me, like I
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: have publicly embarrassed myself on the platform so many times,
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: but I've learned to laugh at myself. Like the only
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: thing that you can do is have fun in your life,
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: Like when am I going to be worried about Juan
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: one two? Three things about me online and not live
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: my life?
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: How do you get to a place where you feel
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: more accepting or capable of rolling with the punches.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: For me, it was it's all about like levity, I realize,
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: like living in a place of lightness and not taking
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: things so seriously. Obviously there are things that we need
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: to take seriously, Like I my job is extremely important,
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: my family's extremely important, Like I do not take that lightly.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: But the things within that space that I can take lightly,
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: like I do take lightly, Like I say something, I
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: mess up, I look a fool, my hair gets stuck
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: in my eye, whatever it might be, I fall, I slip,
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: or I do something like that I thought was gonna
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: come out cute on camera and I look crazy? Like
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: what else am I going to do? Live my entire
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: life thinking about that moment? No, Like just move on.
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: It's kind of like the same concept, like how long
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: are you going to wait to feel good in the
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: body that you have, in the space that you have? Like?
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: Why am I going to live my entire life being
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: self conscious of everything that I do? When I could
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: just live my life period?
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Why not me? Why not? Now? For you?
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: Over the last three years since joining the Peloton family,
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: what would you say has been one of your greatest
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: proudest moments thus far.
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: It's kind of hard for me to think about that
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: because my greatest proudest moment was like bringing Spanish language
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: to the bike and like that first class was so
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: impactful for me. Maybe I think one of the first
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: or like second most impactful moment rather than like my
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: like being welcome to the platform in this way and
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: being so well received by the community was like having
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: people in the studio for the first time in Spanish
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: and teaching Spanish language class on camera with Spanish speakers
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: in the studio. That energy is insane in the best way.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: Like it's just such a party, such a vibe and
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: such a beautiful space. And when I get messages from
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: people that are telling me like, hey, you know, I've
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: been taking your classes and I live, you know, in Germany,
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: and I and am a Latina and I feel so
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: connected to my roots. When I take your class to me,
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: that's like so special because also I'm an immigrant, so
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: I know what it feels like to miss your country
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: and to miss your tierra and to miss your land. Also, like,
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: let's not forget that one of my favorite artists came
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: to the studio. His name is Fade and I got
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: to do a class with him, which is insane. Tea
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: Pain also came to the studio. If you haven't done
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: my Tea Paint and Fade rides, Like, what are you
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: waiting for? As a Miami girl? Having Tea Pain be
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: in the studio and me performed with him was like
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: highlight of my career. And then also just just bringing
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: Latin music to like like reggaeton and berreo to the forefront,
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: and teaching classes in English and like throwing in Regaton
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: songs in there and connecting with Latin artists and just
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: educating people on Latin music or introducing them to new
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: artists is something that brings me so much joy.
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: I love how you are seamlessly letting your community know
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: that you see them. But it doesn't need to be
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: strictly Spanish speaking or Spanish influenced ride, right, Like you
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: can bring in your Latin heritage to everything that you
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: do because it's quintessentially and ingrained in who you are.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I'm thinking in Miami too, Yeah, of course.
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: And so it's so fun to like see how radiant
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: and excited you get about this opportunity one that you're
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: clearly grateful for every day. When you think about what
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: excites you right now, what is it.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: I'm excited to see more members in person like I
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: want when I meet people outside. It makes me so
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: happy to like hug people and be like, hey, oh
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: my god, we can do my classes. Oh my god,
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: you're a will that does my classes too, That's crazy.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: Tell ya all, will, I say hi? Like. I love
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: when like people tell me their parents do my classes.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: I think also just like the Latin Latin music is
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: having a huge moment right now, and it has frequently,
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: you know, but I feel like it has like a
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: rise and then maybe sometimes it's a little bit more
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: harsh or a rise. But I feel like this last
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: bit of time where Latin music has really gotten a
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: lot of recognition at a global scale is very exciting.
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: And I have listened to Latin music my entire life,
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: so seeing so many artists being recognized and then also
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: playing their music and seeing people enjoy it so much genuinely,
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: like even if they don't know the words, brings me
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: so much joy And also something that has been like
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: exciting me recently. So I lived in la for a
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: couple of years as we talked about. But I used
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: to do a lot of like hiking, or like a
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: couple times I did some trail running, and I feel
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: like the mountains are calling me. So my cousin and
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: I have been like committing to taking trips and like
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: every time we go somewhere in Argentina. Now I'm like
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: exploring my country a little bit more. So I take
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: her on these like extreme hikes where she almost dies,
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: but I I make sure she doesn't. And that has
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: been really exciting for me because I love like nature
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: and training in that way too, and getting out.
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: There, getting back out there.
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: I love to hear you talked so beautifully before about
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: the journey that you've had to feel comfortable in your
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: own body and appreciate your own body. Right now, if
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: you were to look in the mirror, what is it
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: that you see looking back at you.
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: I see a really strong woman who who is out
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: here in the world trying to make a change and
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: stands for something that's really important. And I see an
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: entire community that stands behind her. And I feel extremely
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: blessed to be where I am and with who I
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: am today.
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: For someone that hears all of this, and you're giving
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: them so much hope to feel better in their body.
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: What advice do you have to offer them if they
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: are in a place of struggle or in a place
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: where they feel like they're never going to get here.
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: It has to be your choice. You have to make
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: the choice to start loving yourself or to start to
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: make small efforts every day to feel better. The only
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: way that you're going to feel better is if you
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: try to make yourself feel better. I want to challenge
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: you to commit to choosing you and to choosing happiness
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: for yourself, because we all deserve happiness.
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: We do, We totally do, Camilla, You have an opportunity
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: to offer yourself a piece of advice. Looking back on
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: that Hurtle moment, down and keep this gain, finishing that run,
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: thinking to myself, I am so tired of feeling this way.
• 50:18
  Speaker 3: Knowing what you know, Now, what do you tell yourself?
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: I would say your struggles and how you react to
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: your struggles are what defines you and your individuality or
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: the things that make you different are going to help
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: so many in the future. Love yourself, care for yourself,
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: and continue to celebrate your culture because you are your superpower.
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: You are your superpower. I'm so happy that we're finally
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: able to do this. For those that don't follow along
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: with you just yet, how do they keep up with you?
• 50:55
  Speaker 3: Give us the deats.
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: I'm Camilla Ramon with three ends at the end. All
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: the other ones were taken on Instagram and TikTok. That's
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: the best place to find me. Or you can hop
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: on the leaderboard. I teach in English and in Spanish,
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: on the bike and on the tread.
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: Wherever you want to go, she's there. She's ready to
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: welcome you with open arms. I'm over at emily a
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: bodi at Hurdle podcast. Another hurdle conquered. Catch you guys
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: next time.