Blogilates

Hey POPsters!

Hope you’re all having a fantastic weekend. I loved seeing all of your Cheap Clean Crepes! It’s so cool to put up a vid and see your variations of the recipe! Look, here’s one from POPster @allaboutami who did peanut butter and banana!

And here’s another from POPster @peanutbutterdancer – look at the professionalism! Nom nom nom!!

If you wanna see your food featured, just use the hashtag #cheapcleaneats and #blogilates and I will find you! Next week, we are making some savory items. I posted this on Instagram last week as I was experimenting and looks like y’all really wanna know how I made a healthy quesadilla dontcha?

It’s flourless and nope, there are no bananas and oats in this one. Guess you’ll just have to wait til Thursday to find out!

NOWWWWWWW. Listen up. Look at this pic. LOOK AT THIS PIC!

It’s Jillian Michaels! OMG. This happened. This just happened. I was at a SHAPE Magazine event that I bought tix to a while back. It was only $5 to take Jillian’s class live, so clearly I gobbled that up! It was located at Hermosa Beach and the weather was perfect!

She commanded us through her Hard Body workout and I liked it very much. It was a HIIT routine much like my POP HIITs. We did burpees, elbow pushups, knee crazies, and all sorts of side planks. It was kinda hard to see with everyone in front of me – but that didn’t matter! I obviously worked out hard and had a lot of fun. I actually met some POPsters at the event which made the whole experience even sweeter. At the end, I was fortunate enough to meet Jillian for a brief moment. She’s very nice and I really liked her energy. Though small in stature, she has big influence. I first learned of Jillian when I was in college. She was on Biggest Loser being all crazy – yelling at contestants – but what she brought to the fitness industry was some new flavor. She caught people’s attention, she scared them, and they listened. Though my style and hers are completely different (I talk about my nails and what I ate for breakfast while I kill you), we both know what it takes to make you work and to take control of your own life. So happy to have met her…I hope to see Jillian again!

Finally, for all the Daddios out there….

Here’s a silly pic me and the parentals took after the UCLA meet up a few months ago! I just wanted to say this about my dad. We went through some hard times and had major disagreements about my career path and my passions. His wishes and mine were completely different and as a 20 year old, it was really hard to deal with. I cried a lot in college (LIKE A LOT) not knowing how to please my heart and my parents’. Though I studied Biology and respected the subject, it was not in my blood to become a medical doctor. Some of you may be thinking, big deal just follow your heart! But in the stereotypical Asian culture, “if you’re not a doctor or a lawyer, then it doesn’t matter.” So after college, I moved far far away to the East Coast to leave things behind and let my more creative side flourish. Lots happened out there in Boston…my first job was def not my dream job, in fact I got the worst review of my life from my boss! It was humiliating…but life is so funny…because at the same time, one of my oGorgeous yoga bags (I started a yoga bag company in college when I started teaching) somehow creeped it’s way into SHAPE Magazine and I was like WHAT. I remember crying on the floor of TARGET when I opened the magazine and saw my bag. This was my sign. My sign to get out. Follow my heart.

I dedicated the next several unemployed months (my parents didn’t even know) to designing and development. Meanwhile to entertain myself (had so much more free time), I started blogging and YouTubing more. And to pay rent, I started teaching Pilates up to 12 times a week. It was really exhausting. But I also credit this time period to making me a better instructor.

Meanwhile…my parents tried to get me to go to grad school or get some job in the medical field! My dad was like any type of doctor please? Optometrist, Pharmacist, or Naturopath!? I didn’t like taking calls from my dad because it always made me sad that he didn’t believe in me. So we didn’t talk that much.

It was a time period of open-mindedness on both sides that helped us regain our relationship again. I never wanted to disappoint my parents. I always wanted to make them proud. So when I couldn’t fulfill their wishes when I was in college, I had no choice but to believe in myself and just go. I’m happy to say that today…Blogilates has brought us together again. Today both my mom and dad are big supporters of Blogilates and they love you guys. They read all of your comments and they call me daily to tell me about new ideas they have for y’all :)

So today, I wanna give a shout out to my dad for his open-mindedness and his unconditional love for me and our family. We’ve been through rough times but all that matters is that today we are happy. Thank you for being a cool dad and wearing a neon green headband ;)

Happy Father’s Day!

Go tell your dad you love him!

<3 Cassey