#14 - Heather Tran

Heather Tran is an amazingly strong woman both mentally and physically. She believes women can achieve anything they put their minds to and helps them to achieve their fitness goals and creates opportunities for them to do so. Heather has been a certified personal trainer for over 18 years with a background in sports nutrition and martial arts. She is also a certified Spartan SGX coach and she shares her stories including competing as an Elite for Spartan and in other obstacle course races throughout the years.  

Heather is passionate about using her knowledge and experience to help people build confidence within themselves, help their bodies to operate functionally and create goals for a healthy lifestyle. Her latest endeavor is the creation of an annual women's surf competition called Her Turn Women's Surf Festival in Flagler Beach, FL which takes place in June. She is in the process of forming a non-profit organization to help and encourage women and girls of all ages to go after what they want and providing the means to do so.  

Heather is a mom to 2 boys and a wife to an amazing husband. Her husband is a professional mixed martial arts fighter and they owned a gym for over 10 years in SC before moving to Florida. Her oldest son is currently attending Clemson University and her youngest is a competitive surfer for USA surfing. 

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Transcript

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This is Angela Grayson from the Loving Life Fitness Podcast. To help others in their fitness journey. It's All Possible! It’s time to wake up. Here we go. Hello, everybody. This is Angela Grayson from Loving Life Fitness. Today on our podcast, we have Heather Tran. Hi, Heather, How you doing today? Hi, Angela. I'm doing well. How are you doing? Great. Heather Today we're going to talk about everything that you've done in your life during your fitness journey and also what you do for others to try to help them to live their best life. Let's go ahead and start with you and where you're from. We are beginnings, the beginning. Okay. The beginning. I'm from Anderson South Carolina. Originally, I grew up there in high school there. Went to college there. I started as a personal trainer when I was in college. Actually, and I was working at a gym. My mentor at the time came up. He wasn't my mentor yet. And he said, Have you ever considered personal training? And I, I was in school for occupational therapy at the time, and I said, no, I've never actually considered personal training. And at that point I really I was a runner. I wasn't really into working out in the gym. I didn't really feel I was like most women, like not very comfortable with weights and really didn't know that side of it. I was only 18 years old and he basically taught me everything about working with clients and becoming comfortable in a gym. My husband and I two years later were 19 and 20 years old. We opened our own gym, but it was a mixed martial arts gym and at that point I was more comfortable with personal training. I've been doing it for a few years. I have a lot of knowledge in my belt and he was starting training as a mixed martial artist and he became a professional fighter. He did that for many, many years. Then we had our gym in South Carolina for well over ten years until we moved to Florida. And yeah, so that's kind of how it all got started with him and I. Started at a young age, very ambitious. At a young age, how many people at 19 or 20 opened their first gym? Well, we kind of got thrown into it. It wasn't. We didn't know what we were doing it with a learning experience, for sure. I'm grateful for it. I mean, you know, there's no better way to learn than just jump into something. But it was definitely ambitious for two kids to just say, you know what, we can open gym and we did it. It was great. It was wonderful. The connections we made and the team that we built really became family. And I really value that in my life and that experience for sure. Absolutely. Let's go back to something that you just said a moment ago about women and weight lifting. So intimidating for a woman to walk into a gym and see all these guys, you know, all muscle bound guys lifting all this heavy weight. And if you've never done it before, it can be very intimidating. But having a mentor or a trainer to help you through those first few times, I wouldn't even say weeks or months. Just first you times to make you feel more comfortable in the gym. How do you go about doing that with your clients as a personal trainer? I think it all starts with building confidence. We as women, we lack a lot of confidence in areas in our life and it is intimidating. Walk into a gym and not feel confident in your knowledge. Not though confident in your plan, not feel confident in your goals. And then that in turn makes you not feel confident in why you're even there. So as a personal trainer, my job is to help you feel confident, give you a plan that you understand. You know how to exercise properly. You know how to use the tools that I'm giving you, walk in and feel, okay, I know I'm going to this machine. I know how to adjust it. I know I have confidence that and also knowing why you're there, women come to me every day and say, you know, I want to lose weight and like, but that's really that can't be the goal. We have to have know we want our body to function better. Do we want our body feel better? Those are goals. Weight loss happens also and giving women the confidence to feel like they belong in a gym I think is really my job is the training. It is teaching somebody how to workout. I don't want lifelong clients. I want to give you the skills and the tools to be able to do these things on your own without me and support you in that process. So I find that the clients that I have as a personal trainer that do stay around are those that want to be held accountable. Yes. Yeah. So there's the the one reason why it's good to hold on to a trainer if you're that person that has nobody to meet at the gym, your friends falling to the wayside and so you stop going. That's a great reason to keep a personal trainer for as long as you have to win and definitely worth the money to to keep you strong, to keep you going, to keep yourself healthy and able to do things ever on an everyday basis, let alone if you want to be involved in any kind of sport. Absolutely. I mean, there definitely is value in working with somebody like us. Like you said, just having somebody that will show up for you like I am here for you, I want to be your sounding board. I want to be the person that you know is waiting for you to be there and somebody that you can work with in towards those goals. And I think so many people have such a a mis representation when it comes to personal training. We have this thought of this guy that's going to come in there, make you do a thousand reps and like this. But really most of the time for my women, especially that I train, we become friends and we really work through things together and it's like it's almost therapeutic. We go hand in hand with talking about what's going on with your family. It's no some of your long term clients on a personal relationship. It is a really great process to be a part of, and it's why I love the idea of the the personal relationship just kind of happens when you're spending so much time with somebody trying to help them get healthier. And the psychological part of it is a big part of it. So when you really start trusting somebody and get to know them a little bit better, it's easier to talk about anything that might be bothering you so that you can get past it and continue on your journey of fitness. Let's talk about sports nutrition. Tell us what you do. I became certified in sports nutrition back when I was 18. When I first was certified as personal trainer, I learned to apply that through working with my husband and all of our guys. My husband fights professionally and so he would have to cut weight. He fought at 135, but he walks around it anywhere between around 150. He's a little bit lighter two years back, but right now it's like one 5155. And so we would have to put weight for that and how to do that responsibly. And so that it would not cause long term issues was where all of my experience that that came in. And then I use a lot of what I worked with him on I equipment and that in my professional career when I was running and racing full time for Spartan, that's my experience with it in my life. Now, applying it practically, you supply it. It depends on what they're competing in or what their goals are and how I balance that out with them. So you tested your expertise out on you and your husband first? Yes, exactly. Very good. And it worked. I can tell you all it worked. They both look great and they're very competitive. Okay. Now, you mentioned your Spartan racing. Let's go into that now. I actually first competed in Spartan for my birthday. My husband said, I'm going to let's sign up and do an obstacle course race. And it was my 30th birthday. And up to that point I had only competed in running events, running races, and I wouldn't say that I was highly competitive at those. I was always good, but not really wasn't planning on doing much with it, just doing it for fun. And I did my first Spartan race and I was out. I decided obstacle course racing is for me. I did really well at it and really enjoyed training for them and through a few years it took about five years for me to finally qualify to run as an elite for Spartan, and I did that for several years up until up through COVID and then things changed. But yeah, it was it was a really fun part of my life and I'm really grateful that I did it. During that time, I became certified as a Spartan coach so I can teach other people how to do obstacle course races and how to do them well. And yeah, it's just one more tool and might move back or it's knowledge and, and I enjoyed that part of my life as well. So do you think that being a Spartan is more competitive than, say, for instance, running because of the type of sport it is or just because of, oh my gosh, the people that are involved and all that you have to do, Why do you think it's more competitive? I wouldn't say it's any more, any less competitive. I think it's just different. I think it's kind of like saying, is powerlifting more competitive than swimming? They're just different. They're different sports. The beauty of it is I was able to transition some of my running experience into Spartan, but I was also very strong for a woman. Quote unquote, upper body wise. So that was also something I was able to carry. And that so I think it's just a different sport. I think if you it's like anything else that you compete in, you develop the skills for that sport, sports specific training. It's not more competitive or less competitive. It just is a different. It is would be. You said it took you five years to qualify for Elite. Why five years? What does it take to become an elite? What is an elite? They've changed the qualifications over the past few years. When I started racing Spartan Races, you could do open competitive and then or open age group in a week. So I started doing a couple of open races just to test the waters. So I did a few of those for the first a year and I would only do probably three or four against a year. I would I wasn't trying to overtraining or do too much because they can be taxing and also, you know, working full time and having kids. You know, it wasn't my job. So three or four a year is enough for me. And then I started racing an age group. So during that time that I was running in the age group races, I was placing first in my age group and I was doing really well and thought I should maybe try to qualify for Elite. Well, they changed the qualifications somewhere in there and I forget exactly what it was because it's changed like three times since then. But Kogut they kept changing while we all patients. But when I did end up eventually qualifying to run as a pro, you had to place top ten overall overall women in your heat. And so I did. It was in South Carolina and it was cold and rainy at night and I was so excited. I was like, Oh, I'm going to lead out now. It was like my goal. And then I did a few more elite races after that over the year and did pretty well, but then kind of took a year off and then just, you know, I'm still just training and working out, but I just have a race for Spartans. And last year, last year was my last race. What are the obstacle courses like? It depends. It depends on the distance. So Martin has a few different options, but the primary ones are either Sprint, which are around like a super, which is about a ten K and a B, which is about a half marathon. They also have, you know, other races, longer distances, options and stuff like that. They also have now started doing just a trail series, which I am a huge fan of too. And I've done that as well. And it's just a trail race. It is not the obstacles, but you are running the same course. You just don't have obstacles or course nearby and those are a lot of fun because I really love trail running. I think being in the woods is probably one of the most brain things that you can do. So why not do it for a medal? You know, So it's a medal and a T-shirt session. Yet, though, with the obstacles each different distance, there are certain obstacles that are standard for pretty much every race you're going to have to do. They might have a barbed wire. All they might have. They're probably going to have monkey bars. But then every now and then they'll throw in like a difficult obstacle, like they have one that you have to go back or like a hex, like it rolls as you do it. So it just depends on what race you're doing. And each race, they kind of design the course differently. So my job with Spartan coach is to teach you how to effectively have the strength to do each of these obstacles regardless of what they throw at you. So you're ready now? I was like being a kid. All these it is then thrown out to earth. Is there a favorite obstacle of yours? I know you like a good challenge that was really challenging for you that you accomplished and overcame. I love the rope, quite honestly. The first time I did the rope climb are the first time I ever race. I got to the rope plummet. Thought I'm never going to be able to do this. Why would I have never done a rope? Why? Why would I ever be able to do this? And I just instantly like crawled up there and did it for one second. I thought, why would I ever doubt myself? I doubted myself so much running up to this. I thought, and I thought, I'm never going to be able to do this. And I did it. So that one was kind of big for me because I'm like, Why am I questioning my athletic ability? The hardest one for me has always been this fear of growth because I am athletic. I know I'm a talented athlete, I have no hand-eye coordination. So any sport that involves a ball or growing, I have to work really, really hard to be good at. So getting my first year grow, I used to always fear that every that I just knew I was going to end up doing burpees. I said this obstacle, I'm doing 30 burpees that I knew that was like part of the race. And then the first time I got the spear throw, I mean I was done at that point. I'm like, Oh, well, I got scared now. Check box, check for every adult to do. So I was reading up on Spartan Racing, and in the information that I was reading it said that the spear throwing is the hardest thing for people to get good at and overcome. Yeah, I had my husband build me a spear. That's how much committed I was figuring out how to throw the spear. So it has a rope on the end as well so that the next person can pull it back, which is great. But you mess up like throwing the rope on the other side so you don't step on it or stepping on accidentally when you throw it. Or I mean, there's just it's so difficult. But once you learn how to do it, it's one of those things that it just takes practice. And once you figure out how to do it, you can get it. You'll get it every time. It is definitely a high likelihood that you're going to miss the spear the first time you do in a sport race unless you're separately getting so the 30 burpees is that like every time you can accomplish part of the obstacle course. Yes. And now I will say that is something new that they've changed relatively in the past like year. Now they have a penalty lap. They're no longer doing burpees. I'm indifferent on how I feel about that. I haven't done an event with a penalty lap. I've heard some people are upset because you have people just not even attempting to do the obstacle and doing the penalty loop because they know it'll be faster. And so there's a little bit of technique involved in that. I really don't have an opinion on whether I prefer burpees or a penalty loop, but that being said, the burpees were brutal. There was one time that I had a race up in Ashville and it was a super and it C and this is before they standardize the course distances too. So they would say a super would be 8 to 10 miles. Well, this one was absolutely 11 miles. It was so long and I happened to fail like the last five obstacles and ended up doing like 150 burpees in the last mile and then getting up, I crossed the finish line and I was dry. I was like, I'm going to throw up. I'm going to throw up. This is awful. I why would I do this to myself? And it was the toughest challenge I've ever had because I was just having to dig so deep to finish. So the burpees can be brutal for sure. But, you know, I mean, it's part of it. It's fire, it's conditioning, good time, it's a good time. But if I felt like I was throw up, well, I think I got my t shirt off. That family's proud of you. Yeah, Yeah, I know those are struggles, but my next question was going to be struggles to get to where you are today in your fitness journey. Losses are lessons that something that I tell my youngest son is a competitive surfer now and he works for USA Surfing and watching him go. I didn't compete as an as a young I did I did competitive things, but I wasn't a competitive athlete growing up. And I definitely was in a high level young, competitive athlete and so to see him have to work through the things mentally that I had to work through as an adult with an adult mindset, with an adult let down, the only the best advice I give him is losses are lessons. Every time you lose, every time you come in second when you thought you were going to come in first, every time you failed this point in your performance, you have to take a step back and say where I am for the next time and try not to work through it and then release it. Think about it, figure it out, let it go. Because you have to learn from the things that some people don't overcome, that some people let losses jeopardize what they're going to do in the future or how they're going to perform next time. And you just can't do that. You can't carry that into the next heat, the next race. We can't do that. No, that being let down or disappointed or losing, it's just part of the process and that you don't win all the time and you're going to have injuries and you can't let those affect your body. You can't let that affect your journey. And you just have to come back stronger and and believe in yourself that you can because you can. Great advice. Now, you mentioned your son, your amazing surfing son. So as a child. And how old is he now? He's 12. He's 12. Okay. Very young still as a child. And I think back to when I was involved in sports that that young of an age out to me, it was always just so much fun. I didn't care if we won, if we got individual, you know, gymnastics. Yeah, you wanted to do good. But I think as we get older, it's harder to let go of disappoint. It's harder to get beyond your injuries, harder to just pick up and keep going. It's like we hold so much inside as adults and if only we could act more like kids. Remember that feeling, What it's like to be involved in sports and play, Play and sports. And I see your son skateboard with his dad quite often all over town. You guys bike riding up the bridge and go over to Flagler Beach and it's like as a kid, none of that stuff bothers you as an adult. It's like, Oh my God, it's so hot. Or like, do Isn't it funny, though, how we grow up and we just change the way we think about everything? It's hard to keep that competitive spirit sometimes, Like you said, just remembering why he started it in the first place. Life is so short. How can be fleeting? And so just remembering to be grateful for where you are and think I am able so I'm lucky enough to be able to go biking in this heat with my son. Yeah, I am lucky enough to be on the beach watching him for 10 hours surf and I'm grateful for where I am. I'm grateful for my ability to run even if I'm slower than I used to be and still running, or even if I'm not as strong as I used me. I'm still lifting. Just remembering to be grateful for where you are and not to compare yourself to even where you were five years ago or ten years ago. I think we constantly look back and think, Oh God, ten years ago I was doing this. I was lifting this much weight and now I can't do that. It's almost like you're discouraging yourself versus saying what I'm still doing. I'm still actively in the gym or I'm still working out or I'm still able to physically do this. Then there's a lot of people that can't a lot of people don't have the ability to do that. That's my advice, is just stay great or where you are and enjoy the process of this life. We have. So I know that you enjoy surfing too, not just your husband and your son, but you too. You're out there on the waves and you just threw an event not too long ago for women. Tell me about the inspiration for that and how it all went. I was out surfing last August with a friend of mine and we were just sitting out there and I looked around and there was like half of the lineup was women. And I remember when we first moved to Flagler, it was about eight years ago and I wanted to start surfing. I grew up on the lake, so I was used to wakeboarding and being on boards and I had done some surfing, but I was by no means a surfer. And there was literally maybe a handful of women that you would see out there at any given time. Yeah, we just looked around and I looked at all these women and there's a girls group in Flagler. We now meet up every week and go surf, and it really has changed. Like the confidence of women to paddle out, especially here in our town. So I looked at Marlene, looked at Marlene. I said, Why do we not have a women's only surf contest in Flagler Beach? Look at all of these girls. Look at all these young girls that are like seven, eight years old that are upcoming. It's the home of Rita, Zambia. We should have an all women's a contest, which is like, yeah, he's going to do it. And I was like, me going to do it. Have I ever done anything like this for No, but yes, I'm going to do it. And, and yeah. And that's how it started. And it really it was it was wonderful. The the outreach from the community, the involvement from sponsors and people that wanted to just be a part of it, it just blew me away. It just solidified my belief that women, we are a force and we can do anything that we put our minds to. And it was just a really great event. It was the first week of June every year, but it turned out to be a really wonderful event. We were all just cheering each other on, having a good time. We have an expression session called the My Board My Choice Vision, so you can ride any board you want or I can surf any style you want to start, not longboard short or just anything you want to do. And it's just a really great day. Are you going to continue that again every year? Yeah, that is the plan. The I'd love to learn how to surf. I live in the perfect place for it. Absolutely. I would love for the movement. It taught her to answer the event and I am working with somebody right now. It's a start up 50134 Broxburn Foundation. All the proceeds for these events to benefit girls and women in surfing and use surf therapy for women that are forms of trauma have, you know, youth, girls, surf camps to build confidence and self-esteem and community and friendship. And so giving back to women and girls in this area and help them to have that, I can paddle out with the guys. I want to be looked at as equal. And that's important is to feel like I can do anything you can do. It's always kind of been my chip on my shoulder is why can't I? And I want to help other women feel that way too. And what they want to if they want to do it. I want to help you build your confidence that you can get out there and and do it. And I'll go out there with you. I'll be fine. We're better in numbers. That's great. I love that. Tell me now. Surfing and the body surfing is a challenge can help improve balance. But go ahead and tell us more about how surfing can help improve the body. Physique surfing straight for all parts of the body, especially building strength in your back, in your low back, because you're constantly arched up, you're laying down and in a miss that Superman position where you're out. So we have really great strength in our medial glutes and our erect. It's the knee or low back. It's great for shoulder. Repetitive shoulder motion is not great. So that's why we want to do things that are kind of upset that but build shoulder strength it build strength in our chest with this work pushing up and we're doing pop ups. So that same like for strength is required in yoga, as I'm sure you're familiar with balance and cardio. I'll tell you, I think I'm in good shape and so I'm out there having to duck, dive and paddle over a lot of waves. And I get out there and I'm like, I'm breathing heavy. And I realize that it is a very specific, solid training that surfers need. Just watching some of these guys on the tour, I mean, they they do everything from strength training to mobility, hip mobility. It really does keep your full body in shape. So any any woman that wants to get involved in surfing, I encourage it. I would be more than happy if you reached out to point you in the direction of either group of women you can surf with surf instructor that you can get with. You can compete a lot with me at any time. You know I will get you in the water. It would be great. And you can bring whoever you want to bring and we'll do it together. That's awesome. Yeah. A fun sport. That's good for the body. Hey, exactly what more can you ask for being out there in the water on a hot day? Vitamin D, vitamin, getting sunshine. Yeah. Salt water is the best. Okay, let's talk about travel. Travel to inspire all that you do. I love to travel my family. Let's travel. We are a traveling group. Luckily, we were blessed with. Our oldest son is in college now. But our youngest son, we just said, Listen, cat, we're going to travel, you know, get. And he loves it. He's the best kid to travel with. We went to Thailand for 45 days last year and we just bought around Thailand. We did some. My husband had a fly over there, so he bought it professionally. And I when we were over there and it was just a really wonderful experience to see the culture in so much of understanding different cultures is eating your food and seeing how they live and interact. And so being able to go see that is really important for my husband and I to show. I go, So yeah, we been to Thailand, We we go to Puerto Rico pretty often and Costa Rica, we just got back together recently, so sure, there was some surfing involved there. There's always, you know, off always. Do you try to grab your cards with you on the airplane? I don't bring my board. I ride along with my 492. And so unless we are specifically going or me to our which they like a different type of way than I like, I'm not bringing my word. I can rent one. They're my husband and my son. They do bring them aboard. Yeah. Okay. The surfing is always involved, but I know you do a lot of hiking too. Yeah. So like I said, originally from upstate South Carolina. And so there are some really beautiful lakes and heights, especially as you get into the North Carolina area. So I grew up really loving the mountains and having connections, the woods, which were why I love Trail running, but I love to go high. And two years ago, all four of us did a portion of the Appalachian Trail together where we all hike then and can't, and it was quite an experience. So we did a little of between 18 and 19 miles together during the course of the weekend that we were up there and it was it's a fun bonding experience and take what what state are you in? So we started in Georgia and we did the approach trail up for your mountain. It was very is wonderful and he blisters the other and out with the great awesome no TV no nothing just out there in nature with each other and that have beautiful And since you were camping and hiking you were carrying everything on your back, right? Yeah. Do you do any trail running with your backpack? No. I've never done a rock carrying race, which is what that's called, but there are quite a few. And I have talked about it. It's a percentage of your body weight is typically what or what you're carrying. I've never done one, but in Spartan, I do a lot of carry. So we do sandbag carry. You have like an atlas carries not really carry it, but there's a lot of things in Spartan where you have to do heavy carry. So I always thought that would be my next thing to try to accomplish was a route carry. But no, I've never done one. They look like a lot of fun. Maybe that's in your future. If you think it looks like a lot of fun, maybe I've done I've done a couple of workouts where we had to wear best like way to best across the workouts that challenge. Yeah, especially over a period of time, I'm sure. Exactly. All right. You're also in writing you to yoga instructor. Yes. Do you instruct much anymore or just. Honestly, I don't. What I do is, like I said, the tool for my tool belt. I really incorporate all of these being certified for so many years. You have to take as you share. I'm sure you know, you have taken 10 minutes every year or two years. I do something that I have really had interest in and just add that tool to my tool belt. So I quite a few different certifications under my belt. I got into yoga. I was going through a difficult time emotionally and I started going to Yoko in South Carolina. This is years and years ago. I think I became certified in 2008. Don't quote me on that. It's 2008. I started going to yoga because it was just really it was a spiritual experience. I really found my mind body connection or that very external. I had never really healed or internal. And so yoga helped me with that. And I started, you know, teaching yoga, trying to. But what I really realized that I love being led it was more, like I said, a spiritual practice for me. Well, what I took away from that was all the knowledge to help quiet this mind body connection with their own bodies. Fitness doesn't have to be rigid. You don't have to constantly break down the body in order to be healthy. And so it helps me to have an understanding in that way. And it just it helps my mind kind of put it all together during my yoga teacher training. I have such an appreciation for it. I'm extremely grateful. I went through my teacher training and the knowledge that I gained from I use every day with clients. I just I don't teach yoga. Seems like everybody that's drawn to yoga is drawn for one of two reasons. Either one, just hearing about how good it feels, you know, they need to try it for flexibility and range of motion and they go to it for that and then they start experiencing, just like you said, the mindfulness part of it all, and you become a part. Others like you were saying, and I've heard this so many times, people start going to yoga because they're going through a challenge in their life emotionally or whatever it is. And you go and and it really does help you get quiet inside and try to you just listen to what's going on and you get addicted that way. And then, of course, the absolute wonderful part of the physical, the asanas, the way it makes the body feel. I want to go back to a Spartan obstacle courses. There is something that I forgot to ask you about. It's called a death race. What is the death race? I've never done one. They are basically pushing people to the point of exhaustion, just feeling like you want to die. But yeah, it's basically an extreme right where they are pushing you mentally and physically to the point of really getting past those comfort zones. I think it's healthy for people to push themselves past the point of comfort in a lot of areas, like not just physically, but we get so used to just staying in this like uncomfortable gear. I don't want to try anything new. So death races are great for that introspect is that it's going to push you out of your comfort zone. It's going to be hard. The challenge you have to work. Like you said, I've never done one. But yeah, if you're looking for a challenge, they're great. I encourage all people to train properly and push yourself at least something in your life. If we don't push ourself, we'll never know what it was like. We'll just stay at the same place all the time. Exactly. Yeah. What happens that No fun. No fun. Need change badly. All right. Heather, do you have any books that you'd like to recommend to our listeners that maybe you've enjoyed that have helped you in your past with health and fitness, or just generally? I really and I really love the China study. That was one that I recently just finished for the second time. I actually it was we're on a road trip, so my husband and the boys and I were listening to that one over again. China studies great by the club. That's really great when it's all in the Book of Joy, as are some of my favorites that I've read in the last year that I've read other than just like other. I read a lot of or agreement type mindfulness books, but health and fitness, I would definitely say China studies rate one and then the body. Okay, so what's in the future for Heather Tran? Do you have anything on the horizon? You know, I'm not sure. I'm kind of just playing it by ear at this point. You know, I, I feel like I'm in a season of my life where I'm enjoying training. I'm not overtraining, which I think is important. I'm enjoying the time being spent with my family. We moved down here from South Carolina and I started working at a gentleman was very invested with with that gym for seven years, six and a half years I was there and which is great. I love I love that. I love my niece that I had there. But since then I'm kind of just enjoying homeschooling and I still train the clients that I have and I still have my wonderful, wonderful clients that I see and I help. I love helping them reach their goals. And I love I really started, you know, looking into what I can do with the Hirschhorn Foundation and helping women in that way and possibly doing some other events. But yeah, I mean, health and fitness while helping people and this will always be my life. I don't know how to do anything else. I just I want people to realize how good they can feel. I want to be able to help people build the best version of themselves that they can. So I'll always continue doing that. That's wonderful. That's that's the reason why I started this podcast, started recording quite a while ago, and now I've come this far and it's just been a great journey. I have people getting in touch with me, you know, and telling me that this guest or that guest said something to spark their fire or get them back on board or to read one of their books that they recommended and just so much positive feedback. It's such a good feeling. So you you definitely are making a difference with people's lives and and I know you always will in the future. Mark, thank you so much. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So if I were to ask you to leave the audience with a goal so that they could live their best life, what would that be? I think practicing gratitude, waking up each day, drinking a cup of water before coffee, going outside, getting a little bit of sunlight. Right. First thing in the morning before you get on your phone. Watching what you view your body with is so important. So make sure that you're eating real food and get your body moving. Walk. You don't have to run. You don't have to be an extreme athlete. You don't have to push yourself to the point of exhaustion in the gym. Just get outside how to walk or what I buy, anything that is just getting your body in rhythm with itself and really practicing keeping your body one. So try not to let your hormones get out lately. Stress hormone cortisol out of work and stay in that mindful resting mindset I think is probably the best advice that I could give anybody. Just enjoy it. Life is short. We don't have to stress about too much. All right, listeners, you heard Heather, those wise words. Thank you, Heather, so much for being on Loving Life Fitness today. This was a great conversation and I know that somebody out there has gotten some value from what you've had to say. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Angela. Thank you for having me. I really I really appreciate this. A lot of fun. Okay. I'll see you soon. This is Angela Grayson from the Loving Life Fitness Podcast. To help others in their fitness journey. It’s All Possible! It’s time to wake up. Here we go.