Six Weeks To Fitness

In this episode of Six Weeks to Fitness, I am joined by Antoine Bhutan, out of Atlanta, Georgia.  Antoine is the creator of Veganbando, “a source of inspiration for better lifestyle choices.” Veganbando was created in 2017, to document Antoine’s plant-based journey. Antoine had been advised to eliminate dairy from his diet to help alleviate his severe seasonal allergy symptoms and this recommendation proved very effective. After witnessing the power of holistic healing, the quest for a healthier, more-proactive lifestyle began.

Over the years, Veganbando has grown into a unique space where health-conscious, high-vibrational individuals celebrate good vibes and spiritual abundance to the sounds of high-vibrational music of the diaspora.

Antoine grew up in New York City but would spend most of his summers either in Trinidad or Barbados, but it was in Trinidad where most of his family would grow their own vegetables and that is where he picked up most of his healthy lifestyle habits.

During the interview, Antoine will share his story on the positive impact the vegan lifestyle has had on his life.  The vegan meals displayed on Antoine’s @veganbando Instagram page are meals of his own creation and most impressive.

If you ever thought about trying the vegan lifestyle, just visit Antoine’s Instagram page, listen to this interview, and you will be hooked.

Direct download: Episode_184_-_Antoine_Bhutan.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:15am EDT

In this episode of Six Weeks to Fitness, I am joined by Antoine Bhutan, out of Atlanta, Georgia.  Antoine is the creator of Veganbando, “a source of inspiration for better lifestyle choices.” Veganbando was created in 2017, to document Antoine’s plant-based journey. Antoine had been advised to eliminate dairy from his diet to help alleviate his severe seasonal allergy symptoms and this recommendation proved very effective. After witnessing the power of holistic healing, the quest for a healthier, more-proactive lifestyle began.

Over the years, Veganbando has grown into a unique space where health-conscious, high-vibrational individuals celebrate good vibes and spiritual abundance to the sounds of high-vibrational music of the diaspora.

Antoine grew up in New York City but would spend most of his summers either in Trinidad or Barbados, but it was in Trinidad where most of his family would grow their own vegetables and that is where he picked up most of his healthy lifestyle habits.

During the interview, Antoine will share his story on the positive impact the vegan lifestyle has had on his life.  The vegan meals displayed on Antoine’s @veganbando Instagram page are meals of his own creation and most impressive.

If you ever thought about trying the vegan lifestyle, just visit Antoine’s Instagram page, listen to this interview, and you will be hooked.

Direct download: Episode_184_-_Antoine_Bhutan.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:15am EDT

In this episode of Six Weeks to Fitness, I am joined by Danielle Gray, a multi-passionate entrepreneur Wilhelmina fitness model, speaker, professional athlete, and the founder of Train Like a Gymnast. She's also a certified personal trainer specializing in bodyweight training, nutrition, women's fitness, youth exercise, kettlebells, and pre and postnatal exercise. She was also a former junior Olympic gymnast judge and coach.  During this interview, Danielle will share her fitness journey and how you can train like a gymnast in the comfort of your own home.

Vince Ferguson

Danielle, where did you grow up and what was your childhood like?

Danielle Gray:

I grew up in Manhattan Beach, California. So right next to LAX, it's called the South Bay and I'm an only child and then I was raised by a single mom and we were like best friends, you know? we still are, but it's just that kind of tight-knit community, the family was very important and everything, and then I started gymnastics when I was 4 and I dabbled in like ball sports, soccer and basketball, not that level of coordination, which is weird. People think, oh, you're a gymnast. Like you can tumble on a beam, but it's very different when there's like the external thing to manage as well.

Danielle Gray:

My childhood was great. I also realized I just naturally was entrepreneurial as a child. So meaning when I was in elementary school during recess, I would host little gymnastics classes for my friends down on the playground. Hey, if you want to like take a gymnastic class, I'll teach you like bars and we use like a curve on the edge of the playground for like beam. And I don't know if I was spotting kids. They probably should have said something or if I was just kind of showing off. But you know kids playing around. I was pretty crafty, thanks to my mom too and I would make like little Victoria Secrets bags and people would cut out magazine stuff of like what they wanted and I would like almost paper mache, but just like masking tape around it. And I would sell it for 20 bucks. I was always kind of entrepreneurial throughout my childhood, but I never thought that I would end up as an entrepreneur I don't think because I knew I always had a problem with authority.

Danielle Gray:

But I always pictured for myself like, oh, I'll have a job in like PR or something and I'll have you know steady desk job and I'll have the typical American dream, the house and the kids by this age and married by this age, life is completely the opposite.

Vincent Ferguson:

Yes, it is.

Danielle Gray:

But that's kind of like just my personal background that shaped me into who I am and of course, the gymnastics translates into so many different areas of my life with perfectionism and being a recovering perfectionist and having integrity and taking pride in my work and just my dedication and commitment to anything I set my mind to.

Vincent Ferguson:

Anything you set your mind to, to do it. Awesome. But now how far did you go with gymnastics?

Danielle Gray:

Not as far as a lot of people think. So I got to level eight, which is two levels before like collegiate, what you see and above collegiate is Elite, which is what you see in the Olympics. So I didn't make it like crazy incredibly far. People are like, oh, did you go to school for. No, I didn't, but I still was involved and I loved the sport and I had more passion for the sport before I burnt out from it. But I always identified as a gymnast, like Danielle, the gymnast. And then when I retired, I had this crisis of like, am I still a gymnast? What, well, I'm not doing it. So what am I now? And like, what do I do to fill all this free time? And there was a little bit of a crisis there and I got to experiment with different things, but it was, yeah.

Danielle Gray:

I wish I had gone further, but one, I had problems with authority, two, wasn't in the right environment with my coaches or my teammates, and then, three, I think that this needed to happen. I needed to not go super far because my goals were kind of left open like I didn't reach where I wanted to. So there was always this kind of like, I wish I wanted to do more. I like gymnastics. I was just in the wrong environment and that's what made me start coaching and judging and working for UCLA gymnastics and ultimately open my own company to help people train like a gymnast.

Vincent Ferguson:

Right. Right. But between that time, I understand you stopped training as a gymnast at the age of 15, right?

Danielle Gray:

Yes.

Vincent Ferguson:

Is that correct? Am I telling you to tell me.

Danielle Gray:

I know. I think it's 15. Okay. 2007. So I had just turned 15. Yeah.

Vincent Ferguson:

So what did you do between the time that you quit gymnastics and you started your business? What did you do in between all that time?

Danielle Gray:

Okay. So 2007 through 2016, let's say, wow, 10 years. Pretty much. Okay. So I immediately went into like musical theater, acting, dance, like tap dance, jazz, lyrical, and all that kind of stuff, because I wanted to do acting, but as I got into it and stuff, it was fun. It was good to learn a lot about myself. It was good to have all these different angles to who I am, but when I started auditioning for stuff and I had an agent for acting, I'm an agent for modeling now, that's totally different, I was like, Hmm, I'm not feeling as passionate about acting as other people are.

Danielle Gray:

And so I almost felt guilty if I were to get a part that someone else really, really wanted.

Vincent Ferguson:

Yeah.

Danielle Gray:

And I was like, I'm doing this because it's like fun and I'm just doing it, but some people this is what they want, this is all they want. I started to feel guilty and I was like, okay, this isn't my passion. Let's start to leave this behind as I focused on college and I always did a PE class every semester just to stay in shape and active, because I hadn't done PE since sixth grade because we could write out of it for gymnastics.

Vincent Ferguson:

Ah, okay.

Danielle Gray:

So I was just like yoga, weight training, stress management, self-defense. There were so many other things that I did in college and then my friend, Sennon, she was taking a lyra class, which is like the aerial hoop.

Vincent Ferguson:

Okay.

Danielle Gray:

She said I want to try pole, would you come with me? And so I went with her, she didn't like it. I loved it. So I ended up starting to train consistently in pole right over there and I ended up competing at a regional and a national level in placing. So I'm technically a professional division pole dancer. I don't compete anymore, but I still train, it's fun. It was a good natural way to kind of use my gymnastics background in a different way for like aerial and circus stuff.

Vincent Ferguson:

Yeah.

Danielle Gray:

And then the kind of idea for Train Like a Gymnast came from me having a desk job in online marketing, an online desk job. And I was still gymnastics coaching part-time and then I got my personal trainer certification and I kept forgetting to pick up my checks at the gym and I kept forgetting that I got paid to train people.

Vincent Ferguson:

Really?

Danielle Gray:

Yeah.

Vincent Ferguson:

Why? Because it became like fun. You didn't think about being paid for?

Danielle Gray:

Right. I was just like, Hmm, well you're forgetting that you make money from this. So this is probably your passion. So you should follow it. It was just, you know, when you forget that you are working for pay, it doesn't feel like work anymore. You know, so that was a realization I had and when they offered me a promotion at my full-time job, I was like, I don't want to lead you on, that this is the direction I want to go. I think I want to follow this passion because at the time I was 24, I think, 23 or 24 and I would rather try going into fitness and falling flat on my face than staying in a steady stable career for 20, 40 years and looking back and being like, what would my life be if I had just tried?

Vincent Ferguson:

Wow, beautiful.

Danielle Gray:

I know I can always sell myself. I know I can always make more money. I know I can always get a desk job.

Vincent Ferguson:

Yes.

Danielle Gray:

But there are certain things that you have a little window, like fitness modeling, personal training while your body's healthy, whatever it may be.

Vincent Ferguson:

Yes.

Danielle Gray:

And at first, I was like, Hmm, okay. Am I going to be homeless? How do I get clients? What is my strategy? I had no strategy. I ended up working at Equinox and I learned through like paid education to just how do you run a business? How do you manage a gym if I ever wanted to have a brick and mortar, all those kinds of things, and I became a much better trainer and I realized I was training people the way I used to train. I was training them like a gymnast, right.

Vincent Ferguson:

Right good.

Danielle Gray:

So I was working on their balance, their proprioception, their strength and stability, and doing specific core stuff instead of like, oh, when you do this, you're also working your core. Like I would dedicate and I would make them stretch at the end. It was a whole process and so I kind of came up with this, just a layout of how I always trained my clients. And originally it started as an e-book back in the day.

Vincent Ferguson:

Oh really.

Danielle Gray:

A three-month e-book that was it. In 2016, that was like what everyone was doing. And then 2018, it turned into like an app based program with a 28-day challenge. So we'd get people in, they'd see results and then they would continue into a VIP ongoing program. So now we have an app, but it's just a different format. It's super user-friendly and super amazing. I'm just putting like everything we've ever created in there with nutritional guidelines, recipe booklet, like short workouts, long workouts, Instagram replays, and certain like pull up, pistol squat, beginner programs. And I'm super excited.

Vincent Ferguson:

And that's where you are today.

Danielle Gray:

Yeah.

Vincent Ferguson:

Wow. Are these classes virtual and in-house?

Danielle Gray:

Yeah the app is all virtual. So this can be anybody, anywhere in the world. You can download the app and train. Right. And you can cast it to your computer. You can cast it to your TV. But we also through Train Like a Gymnast host retreats and workshops.

Vincent Ferguson:

Oh really?

Danielle Gray:

So if somebody is working on this stuff at home and they're getting stronger, but they want to learn a back walk over a back handspring or a back tuck and they maybe aren't near a gym where they can get a spot. They can come work with us in person. And we do personal development. We do like different excursions with the group that comes with us. Then we rent out a gymnastics gym. We all stay at house where we sort of stay together and five days, four nights, incredible experience.

Vincent Ferguson:

Really, really.

Danielle Gray:

Yeah. Yeah.

Vincent Ferguson:

Where are these events located?

Danielle Gray:

So we did one in Hawaii last year. We did one in Lake Tahoe. And then this year we did Park City. Next year, I'm thinking I want to do one in a warmer location. So I want to get something to the East Coast, but it's hard to find tropical warm locations that also have gyms, that also have insurance for adults. So I can't be like a yoga retreat that's like, oh let's go to like Tulum or Bali because it's a gymnastics retreat. So I need to have a gym with safe equipment that potentially hit cause for me spotting adults is just, there are different things and a lot of times gyms only insure up to the age of 22 because that's when most people stop.

Vincent Ferguson:

Is that right? Up until the age of 22. That I did not know.

Danielle Gray:

Really frustrating. So a lot of gyms in this area will like to have classes for kids and there are no adult classes or adults can't train there because their insurance doesn't allow it. So I even have a hard time with insurance. I have to get around in certain ways and double overlap all of our policies and waivers.

Vincent Ferguson:

Really. I did not know that, but talking more about those classes. Are these geared more towards women and if so what age group?

Danielle Gray:

That's who typically ended up being our demographic, but I taught a 6 feet, 4 inches, formal former football player, a back tuck on grass without equipment in and out. And he got it by himself at the end of the day. Yeah.

Vincent Ferguson:

A former pro football player.

Danielle Gray:

I'm 5 feet, 4 inches, and he's 6 feet 4 inches and I spotted him on the grass in Hawaii in 2019 and he got it by himself. A couple of them got it by themselves later in the day. It was incredible. So that's kind of what started my one-day workshop thing because people were seeing, oh, I can do this in one day.

Vincent Ferguson:

Right.

Danielle Gray:

And then started doing retreats for the longer form stuff. But our demographic is typically women between 25 and 40. That's the demographic that really seems to resonate with this because either they didn't get as far as they wanted to in their gymnastics careers or they always wanted to try gymnastics and they didn't know that this existed or a way to get strong and flexible without having a gym membership. Right. All of the stuff that I film on the app is in my house.

Vincent Ferguson:

It's in your house? So we can do this at home.

Danielle Gray:

Yes absolutely.

Vincent Ferguson:

That's what I'm talking about.

Danielle Gray:

Yes.

Vincent Ferguson:

I'm ready.

Danielle Gray:

You have your body, you have a wall, if you have a chair, a couch, maybe some sliders, like we have a little workout kit that comes in a bag. It has two sliders, five mini bands, and three long bands. So you can do biceps curls, you can do shoulder presses, you can do banded bicycles. You can do mountain climbers with the sliders like there are so many things you can do with just this little kit that barely takes up any space and you can do it on hardwood or on the carpet and that's what we want. Because we want to show people that you can train like a gymnast with very little space because we are not always just doing routines. Right? Like in between our routines, we're lining up, we're on the ground and the coach is like, all right, hollow body rocks, ready? Go for 50. And everyone's just side by side rocking. Like I want to be able to host an event one day where I can rent out a big space or a stadium and people can just come with a yoga mat.

Vincent Ferguson:

Yeah.

Danielle Gray:

And just like a gymnast does some mindfulness work, some goal settings, some attention, visualization, work out and then cool down with a stretch. That is my goal.

Vincent Ferguson:

I can definitely see that. So I know a lot of women who are trying to lose weight and you know the New Year's coming and that's one of their goals. So training like a gymnast helps them to lose weight?

Danielle Gray:

Hundred percent. You got to be consistent though. Right. So if you go really hard for a week and then life happens and you stop training for three weeks and then you come back and you do another hard one, you're not going to notice a difference. That's why the 28-day challenge was so transformational. We had women in that 28 days, we had some women in their fifties lose like 12 pounds in a month.

Vincent Ferguson:

Really, it's excellent really in a month.

Danielle Gray:

And then when they continue into the ongoing program and they just stayed consistent, only talking about like three workouts a week.

Vincent Ferguson:

That's it? Three.

Danielle Gray:

Yeah.

Vincent Ferguson:

Who can't do that, three workouts a week. Come on.

Danielle Gray:

Yeah. Right. And a lot of people are like, oh my gosh, I can't do like 45-minute workouts or 60 minutes. When you go to the gym, think about how long you end up at the gym. You're probably there for like an hour because you get in, you know whatever, but this is a structure. It's accountability, its structure. You just execute. You can schedule it, get a reminder, whatever it is. But when people got into the ongoing stuff we had again women in their 50s losing 20 pounds and keeping it off.

Vincent Ferguson:

Really?

Danielle Gray:

Yeah. Because I do so much holistically. So we work on the mindset, your limiting beliefs. We also help the intermittent fasting. And I don't like to restrict you guys like you can eat what you want, but we're trying to limit and give your body a chance to rest and digest. So intermittent fasting some people like, some people don't like. I try to see it as, okay if you owned a factory and you had a bunch of workers and you made them work all day every day with like no rests or anything, they probably start making mistakes.

Vincent Ferguson:

Definitely.

Danielle Gray:

Where one of them will be like, I'm over this. Let's go on strike. And then they stop working.

Vincent Ferguson:

Exactly.

Danielle Gray:

Think about that as your like digestive enzymes, if you're constantly feeding, they're never getting a break. So the intermittent fasting is more like a break for your body so it can work more efficiently.

Vincent Ferguson:

Yes.

Danielle Gray:

That's ultimately what I'm going for. It's not, oh, don't eat here, stop eating here, limit, restrict. It just has a schedule, work on your time management, work on your willpower.

Vincent Ferguson:

Definitely. Yes.

Danielle Gray:

Well I'm not saying you can't eat a cookie after your dinner, just don't eat the whole bag, but you know, try to stay close to your goal, but you just have a window and it can adjust, if you got a dinner that night then scoot your window earlier. It's totally fine. So a lot of people in the program really succeeded and did well with the intermittent fasting. Some days would fall off, but then you just get back on the wagon, you know, or get back on the beat.

Vincent Ferguson:

Really? Yeah.

Danielle Gray:

Yeah.

Vincent Ferguson:

Do you have testimonials from women who have taken the course and leaving it?

Danielle Gray:

I have over a hundred video testimonials.

Vincent Ferguson:

No, you don't. I mean.

Danielle Gray:

So anybody listening, who's an entrepreneur, business strategy. So that 28-day challenge when we first started, it was a "free challenge." People would put a deposit down. They'd basically bet on themselves. So they had to be 18 right. They'd bet on themselves that they could do everything required in the 28 days. If they did, they would get their money back. If they did not complete all of the workouts and log their food, we would keep that deposit.

Vincent Ferguson:

Really?

Danielle Gray:

So yeah and then if they wanted to continue, the deposit just got credited towards their continuing program. So that is what was really helpful and then at the end, I had an exit interview. It was like after the 28-day challenge, if you want to continue, cool. If you don't want to continue, this is the final step to complete. And so I would just interview them for like 5 to 10 minutes be like, what did you like? What did you not like? What does it mean to Train Like a Gymnast? What would you say to anybody else who's thinking about it? All of those I have saved and are zoom video testimonials and it's crazy. I need to use them more, but they're on the website.

Vincent Ferguson:

Excellent. Well, that's awesome though. I'm quite impressed about that. Do they have access to you? Those who join?

Danielle Gray:

Yeah. So once you download the app, after every workout, it'll ask you to rate it, and then it'll ask you how'd it go? And when you answer how it went, it actually gets sent to me in my messages and I can respond to it. I think it goes through email, but you can always, email the team at Train Like a Gymnast. You can always find me through Instagram at Danielle Gray fit or Train Like a Gymnast. I will respond to you if you are a human, right. I just don't respond to bots.

Danielle Gray:

I want to help and I want to have a dialogue because I don't believe in it, oh, I have an app if you use it, cool, if you don't, whatever, I am really invested, you guys. I am looking at my numbers every day to see, oh my gosh, we have another person in, I have another person in, I want every single person in the app to have their own personal transformation. And the more I know about you as a person and what you like and what your goals are, the more I can tailor the app to you. But if I have no idea who you are, I'm just throwing stuff out there like, oh, I think this is good. And you might use it. You might not.

Vincent Ferguson:

Oh, so you tailor the app to the individual's needs.

Danielle Gray:

Yeah. So like if somebody messages me like, oh, I want more of this. Okay. That week I'll plan. All right, let's do a muffin top workout. Someone actually said that so let's do it. I mean, you can't spot reduce, but if people are giving me feedback, what they want, then I will plan to do that, I'm not set in my ways. I will just create all right, how can I train like a gymnast here, but help them target this or help them with this. If you were super stressed at work and they are like, oh this is great for busy days. All right I know people are busy. So let me add in a couple more meditations where I kind of center them and realign them so they can continue the rest of their day. So I really, really want, I want to talk to people for sure.

Vincent Ferguson:

Wow. That is awesome though. Now, would you say that Train Like a Gymnast is something that can be done internationally?

Danielle Gray:

Yes. Yeah, absolutely. So yes. I speak English and yes the follow-along workouts are in English, but the programs that I have are short looping clips. So this is a video, right? Like I can pull it up.

Vincent Ferguson:

Oh yes. 

Danielle Gray:

Okay. So in the app, there are certain programs like, cause we're talking about the 28-day challenge. Once you're in the 28-day challenge, let's say you want to do core and upper body that day. It's going to take you about 45 minutes which means when you click start, you've got two circuits. I always give you core and then upper body, core-lower body, core-full body. You have a core workout every single time.

Vincent Ferguson:

Really.

Danielle Gray:

Every single time. And then ideally you're going to stretch at the end and cool down, but okay, let's start the core workout, press the button. And it's just looping videos like this. So you can see it and I'm not talking. So you can literally just copy and repeat. Then here, it'll tell you how many reps you got to do. You can swipe up. There we go and it'll tell you the writing of like what you need to do, what you got to focus on, and for a lot of these too, it's kind of like Instagram where you'll just tap to the next thing. But a lot of these will tell you a modification and a progression. So if it's too hard for you or it's too easy, then you just look in the description, and then you change it up and make it fit for you.

Vincent Ferguson:

Nice. Now how much is this app?

Danielle Gray:

So it's only a dollar for the first month, so you can give it a try. And then after that, it's only $14.99 a month after or $99.99 for the year.

Vincent Ferguson:

Oh, $99.99 for the year.

Danielle Gray:

Yeah so you'll save even more if you do that, but

Vincent Ferguson:

Yeah. But this is your app. Did you create this?

Danielle Gray:

So I'm on, also there's another, there's another, but wait, there's more. Yeah. So I'm on a platform, right? So all of my workouts are on this one platform. You'll download my app through that link. You're not going to be able to find the Train Like a Gymnast app in the app store, you have to go Train Like a Gymnast app.com to download it, but once you download it, it'll always bring you to Train Like a Gymnast. If you sign up through my link. But if you click the Discover tab, you will also get access to every other trainer on that platform with all of their workouts too. So you're literally paying $14.99 a month, not just for me, but for some of your other favorite fitness, you know?

Vincent Ferguson:

Oh really? So you have options to access a ton of them.

Danielle Gray:

Absolutely.

Vincent Ferguson:

When we pay for the use of your app, the platform that's hosting it, are they getting paid for that?

Danielle Gray:

Yes, this is the thing, that's why it's so important to sign up through the Train Like a Gymnast app.com because when you sign up through our app, small business, right. We make a bigger percentage. There's a revenue split.

Vincent Ferguson:

Okay.

Danielle Gray:

Somebody goes and downloads the main platform app first and then ends up using our stuff, we have to split with the app store, we have to split with the platform and then we make like a lower cut right. So right. Here's someone who loves to support female-owned businesses, small businesses in general, you're going to want to download through our website.

Vincent Ferguson:

Most definitely. This is an awesome business structure, format. I love it. And again, with the holidays coming, and then the new year, people are going to be like looking for opportunities in ways to lose weight. But again, it has to be realistic and sustainable.

Danielle Gray:

Exactly.

Vincent Ferguson:

This is sustainable. This is real. Okay. This is real. And I think you're going to do very well with this.

Danielle Gray:

Thank you.

Vincent Ferguson:

And I'm definitely going to promote it in my circles because I know a lot of people looking for opportunities like this, this is great.

Danielle Gray:

Right? And you don't have to just stay with mine. Like sure. You are supporting me, but you can go train with like Kevin Hart's trainer or if you want to train with a fashion model like there are so many different trainers on there with their own programs and stuff. So there are yoga people who have like 90-minute meditations. I swear that's real. So it's up to you. You can just kind of discover and experiment, but ultimately you are supporting us. You are giving us a chance if you can stay consistent and then on your other days just kind of check out and around, but I'm really about this sustainability. If you can't picture yourself doing something five years from now, it's not sustainable. Right?

Vincent Ferguson:

Exactly.

Danielle Gray:

If you're dieting, not sustainable, intermittent fasting or focusing on portion control is completely sustainable.

Vincent Ferguson:

Definitely.

Danielle Gray:

That's what I'm trying to get peoples' minds around, is this is a lifestyle, it's not going to happen overnight, but Train Like a Gymnast is dedication, is consistency, is repetition. Talk about how many times we do one skill to master it. I don't think people realize and that can be "boring" because it's not like a football game where you watch and it's a different team every time and you know, it just happens to call different players, when you watch gymnastics, that one gymnast is doing the same routine at every competition for that entire season.

Vincent Ferguson:

Yeah. Wow.

Danielle Gray:

So you are repeating those skills. That's why people are like, oh my gosh, they're so good, because literally a four hour practice, you're doing the same skill like a hundred times.

Vincent Ferguson:

Yes, exactly.

Danielle Gray:

So that's how you get strong and you get with your body. So I want people to really work on their core to get strong, but also lengthen their muscles so that they are less prone to injury, they're going to feel better, have less chronic pain. And then of course, if you're consistent and you like training as a gymnast, then you're going to do it more often. You're not going to avoid it and you're going to see results. And then the body that you want is going to become a side effect.

Vincent Ferguson:

Hmm. Most definitely.

Danielle Gray:

The thing that I tell a lot of people is, if you did a sport when you were younger, you weren't playing volleyball to have defined legs. You weren't playing soccer to do this. You know, you were doing it because you liked I, it was fun, it didn't feel like working out or you wanted to get better. And that's ultimately what you need to discover as an adult. For some reason, there aren't like a lot of organized adult sports, like it's just not a thing and it blows my mind. And I want to be part of that chain is like, just because you become an adult, doesn't mean you have to just, all right well that's done now I go to a gym to stay fit. A lot of people don't like that.

Vincent Ferguson:

Exactly. that's what I'm getting at. Where do you see yourself and your company in the next five years?

Danielle Gray:

Kind of what I was explaining before I want to be able to host big meetups where I can impact more lives in less amount of time. Right. Someone brings a friend and then that grows and that grows and that grows. And I want to be able to hire coaches to teach workshops around the country as well. I want to host these retreats in incredible destinations and help see that transformation and be a part of life change. Cause I've changed people's lives. I've heard from them like just shifting their mentality or realizing that they can do something. If I can learn a backflip in one day, what else can I do? Boom. And it gives them that courage to do more and take more risks. So I just want to continue to impact as many lives as possible. I would love for the app to have over a thousand numbers like that would blow my mind and be amazing.

Vincent Ferguson:

Thousand members?

Danielle Gray:

That's just like my minimum goal. I would love at least a thousand members worldwide.

Vincent Ferguson:

How many members do you have now if I may ask?

Danielle Gray:

It's funny because I haven't told, my ex and I live together, so he keeps asking me, but I haven't told him. Currently, I think we launched two weeks ago and we're at 61 right now. Okay, its still growing.

Vincent Ferguson:

Yeah. The app is new. The app is relatively new.

Danielle Gray:

Yeah and it's not even the new year yet. So I'm very excited because also, I don't know if anybody's heard of Vevobarefoot, they're going to donate a pair of shoes every month for a year for us to do as we please. So starting in January, we're going to do month-long challenges where if you do that month's challenge, you get entered in a raffle to win a pair of Vevobarefoot shoes of your choice.

Vincent Ferguson:

Wow.

Danielle Gray:

We're also doing it right now as a signup bonus. So if you sign up before December 24th, you're going to be entered to win a pair of Vevobarefoot shoes.

Vincent Ferguson:

Really now?

Danielle Gray:

Yeah.

Vincent Ferguson:

I can see a lot of sponsors coming to you. I can see you opening.

Danielle Gray:

We already have a lot and I'm excited.

Vincent Ferguson:

There you go. Exactly. Exactly. Wow. Where can my audience find out more about Danielle Gray and Train Like a Gymnast?

Danielle Gray:

So if you want to know about me, Danielle Gray fit on Instagram, on Facebook, on Twitter, I don't use Twitter. And on YouTube, Danielle Gray fit.com is where you can see my fitness modeling portfolio. It's where you can learn more about my stories, see press and interviews and podcast interviews. Then if you're interested in Train Like a Gymnast, whether it be the retreats or the app or anything like that, just go to trainlikeagymnast.com. You can get to our Instagram through my Instagram or through that website. And we have like a couple of freebies. There are a lot of ways that you can Train Like a Gymnast either for free or starting with the one dollar for the first-month app and potentially getting a pair of shoes. So, I hope you guys reach out. Ask questions, send me a DM. I check my requests. I check the comments. I respond to comments, everything like that. So there are so many ways to get a hold of me.

Vincent Ferguson:

Nice, Danielle Gray, on behalf of Body Sculpting New York and 6 Weeks to Fitness, I want to thank you for coming on my show today.

Danielle Gray:

Thank you so much for having me. I hope I vomited enough words for your audience.

Vincent Ferguson:

Ha, ha, to my listeners, I hope this program was inspiring, rewarding, and informative and that you had a wonderful time watching and listening to Danielle Gray and if you have any comments or suggestions for the show, please leave them in the comment section below and don't forget to subscribe, so you don't miss any future episodes. And remember you don't stop exercising because you grow old, you grow old because you stop exercising.

Direct download: Episode_183_-_Danielle_Gray.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:51pm EDT

In this episode of my Six Weeks to Fitness podcast, I interviewed Dona Andrews, domestic violence and cancer survivor.  She was born and bred in Esperanza Village in the country of Belize and migrated to New York in her early 20s at the encouragement of her mother.  During the interview, Dona will share the physical, verbal, emotional, and financial abuse that she endured in her marriage, and the steps she took to break free from the abusive relationship. 

At the beginning of the marriage, her husband was very loving and attentive, and then one night at a party, all of that changed.  While at the party, Dona got up and started dancing with her sister, and then another man (as some men do) got up and started dancing with both of them; her husband saw that the man was dancing next to her, so he became furious, stepped in between them, and told her that she was embarrassing him and told her that he was going to deal with her when they got home.  Well, the husband couldn’t wait until they got home, so while in the car he slapped her so hard that the earring she had on actually bent, and that is when the nonstop abusive behavior began and did not stop until she was able to free herself many years later from the relationship, and become, in Dona’s words, not a domestic violence survivor, but a “domestic violence thriver,” because she is thriving now in so many ways.

In addition to being a domestic Violence thriver, she is also a cancer survivor (twice).  Also in the interview, Dona will share how she found out about her cancer and the steps she took to recover.  She will also discuss how her relationship with God, fitness, and nutrition, changed her life.  Dona is living a life free of domestic violence and free from cancer.  She is devoting her retirement years to providing service to others in business, the church and supporting those in need of support in dealing with domestic violence issues.  If you need counseling or someone to speak with regarding domestic violence, Dona can be reached at (646) 498-4779.

This is the Dona Andrews story.  The story of how an amazing woman against all odds, turned lemons into lemonade.

Direct download: Episode_182_-_Dona_Andrews.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:20am EDT

In this episode of Six Weeks to Fitness, I interviewed fitness expert Nate Palmer and asked him how to Build a Million Dollar Body during the holidays.  The holidays are a time when most people seem to pack on the pounds.  Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could use the holidays to reverse this trend and start to build a million-dollar body? This and other questions, I asked Nate Palmer, who just happens to be a fitness and nutrition expert, coach, speaker, and writer who believes that being in incredible shape gives a massive advantage in business, focus, and relationships. He's also a dad, husband, and the #1 bestselling author of The Million Dollar Body Method and Passport Fitness. Nate helps business owners and entrepreneurs improve their physique, finances, and family time using fitness and nutrition as force multipliers. During the interview, Nate provides fitness and nutrition tips on how the average person can apply the principles from his Million Dollar Body Method book into their daily lives, even during the holidays. 

Nate’s advice to anyone who gets down on themselves for overeating during the holidays is to “not quit, you only lose if you quit,” which reminds me of a quote I heard many years ago which states: “a winner never quits, and a quitter never wins.”  Nate Palmer is definitely a winner!

Direct download: Episode_181_Nate_Palmer.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:16am EDT

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