Nutrition Lessons Learned by a Celebrities’ Yoga Instructor

Chau P. is a professional yoga instructor who works with celebrities in the music business. “Impossible” is not in her vocabulary. She is a living example of “adopt early–fail fast–move on with the best solution” and “live–love–laugh” attitudes.
Life is something to have fun with,” Chau says, “It shouldn’t be serious all the time. You are here to love and have fun and experience things. Laughter is definitely one of them”. As they say, a quick glance at her Instagram account tells you more about her personality than a thousand words.
We found Chau at an important moment in her life: She has just delivered a baby boy. While learning a new role of Mom with her 3.5-week-old son in her arms, she kindly shared her HEALBE GoBe experience with us.

The lean look I wanted for 20 years

Chau has been into fitness and human body-tracking for a very long time, always looking for the data. She graduated med school around the time that phones were coming out–all the different Palm Pilots and Blackberries. When fitness trackers came out, she started wearing pedometers working in hospitals.

I was into seeing how many steps I took and then just watching things grow from there,” she says, “the estimated calorie burn. I got it based on your height, your weight, and your BMI [body mass index], but nothing came close to what the HEALBE actually did, like–tracking the cellular respiration. First time ever, that was not theoretical, that was for real.

I was into seeing how many steps I took and then just watching things grow from there,” she says, “the estimated calorie burn. I got it based on your height, your weight, and your BMI [body mass index], but nothing came close to what the HEALBE actually did, like–tracking the cellular respiration. First time ever, that was not theoretical, that was for real.

Having a GoBe, Chau has realized that her digestion lasted way later than she thought and that she had actually been overeating. “I would not eat maybe for 18 hours just being busy, and I could still see my body was digesting,” she remembers. “I’m not sure everyone’s like that, but for me it felt like I could definitely go without having breakfast.” Her GoBe was always there to support her with the truth about her unique, individual digestion, which helped her balance the timing and sizes of her meals, including when to simply go without eating. “Sometimes you’d tell yourself ‘I had that big dinner, that big snack fest last night,’” she remembers, “‘clearly, I don’t need a lot of food right now’”. Thanks to the energy balance Chau could daily see on her GoBe and in the HEALBE app, she has achieved the lean look she’s wanted for 20 years.

A fitness challenge on a year-long tour around the globe

As a fitness instructor, Chau went on a world trip with a famous pop artist. Throughout her exciting one-year global journey, she was accompanied by her GoBe tracker every day. “I went on a full year tour around the world: South Africa, South America, Europe, everywhere. It was pretty awesome,” she says. Apart from the benefits of travelling, of course, staying fit was a big challenge with all the time zones changes and food temptations on every corner.

«When you go to a new place, it’s always about experiencing a new culture through the food (and it’s never the healthiest food),” Chau says, “I really would watch if I was having enough protein. The fat-carb-protein ratio–that was something I was looking at a lot, making sure I balanced it out,” referring to the calorie-intake function of her GoBe. “That’s something that helped me».

During the tour, the celebrity’s team also had fitness competitions.

«When you go to a new place, it’s always about experiencing a new culture through the food (and it’s never the healthiest food),” Chau says, “I really would watch if I was having enough protein. The fat-carb-protein ratio–that was something I was looking at a lot, making sure I balanced it out,” referring to the calorie-intake function of her GoBe. “That’s something that helped me».

During the tour, the celebrity’s team also had fitness competitions.

She [the artist] would offer us ‘I’ll give you guys a cash prize–whoever gets the leanest,’” recollects Chau. “She needed the motivation. She would have these challenges all the time, so funny! And then she would cheat because she didn’t need the money, and we would all be serious about it, like, ‘Yes, I won a few of them!’ Which is a really nice incentive. It’s so nice she did that to inspire us.

Eventually, the prize was split up among all the team members, which, apart from our heroine, consisted of a chef, a makeup artist, a hairdresser, security, assistant security, and management. Everyone tried their best to avoid candy, sugar, and junk food. But Chau was the one who knew exactly what she ate and absorbed with the help of her little GoBe friend.

«We were all a small group. We just tried to keep each other checking, to remind each other to go to the gym, to give each other tips. So we took turns winning. But I definitely won some,» Chau remembers with a smile.

«We were all a small group. We just tried to keep each other checking, to remind each other to go to the gym, to give each other tips. So we took turns winning. But I definitely won some,» Chau remembers with a smile.

A meet-up with the body during pregnancy

After the tour, Chau faced a new challenge: eating healthy while pregnant. The morning nausea was especially hard, but she discovered something.
«I would have really bad morning sickness, and it was so interesting looking at the smart band data,” Chau shared about the low calorie intake she could observe in her HEALBE app. “There were periods when I wasn’t digesting much, and that’s when I felt the most nauseous. And it gave me the sense, like, maybe the food was just staying in my belly.»
As a self-described “data person”, always searching for a scientific explanation, Chau tried to find out what was happening in her body at the time.

When you’re pregnant, the hormones slow down your digestion, so you absorb more nutrients. That’s what’s happening physiologically, but then the effect is it’s sitting in your body. There are more acids, so you’re getting the morning sickness. And I was like, wow, this is so interesting. I wonder—what if people knew that that’s part of maybe why they’re experiencing the nausea.

Chau had quite a tiring pregnancy with all the morning nausea and high blood pressure. “I guess I had an allergy to my placenta, which is common, especially with the morning sickness,” she says. “My body just kind of reacted to be pregnant.” Once the baby was born, though, everything went back to normal. Now Chau is a happy mother of a baby boy, feels more energized, and is curious to learn more about her current body stats, which a HEALBE device is expected to help her with.