Becky Choi is a Certified Postpartum Corrective Exercise Specialist, and the founder of Tummy Warrior diastasis recti coaching program. Becky is a mom of 2 little ones with a passion for diastasis recti (DR) as she experienced severe DR twice. She helps moms heal their diastasis recti, strengthen their core and improve their health and fitness.

She has been featured on Toronto Sun, CTV, Yahoo Finance and Amazon Kindle. Becky is the author of Diastasis Recti Secrets for New Moms: Proven Methods and Postpartum Exercises for Healing Core Weakness and Weight loss.

Here’s what Becky had to say:

“The biggest challenge, in the beginning, was that I just didn’t know what I really needed to do. I had to figure everything out by myself, know that it will work out and have faith and belief that it will work out for me.

At the time, I only had 100 people following me but everyone starts like that in the beginning. It was hard to grow my social following and juggle my business as a mom. I had to take care of my baby, learn how to run my business and keep working on my fitness recovery journey. How was I going to divide my time to do all these things?

The mindset is very important to your success. You have to think about your vision, destination and what you really want. Don’t aim for something small because it you aim too small, it will take the same amount of effort to reach something big. You might as well as have a big vision because it will pull you and give you enough motivation to keep working on this.

You have to have passion for what you do. If you don’t have passion for what you teach or create and you’re just trying to make money as a goal…it will be very difficult for you to sustain. You might as well get a part-time job.

You have to find something you love and you really think it will be impactful for other people and change their lives. Follow your heart and have a big vision and believe! Right now, all the dots are all over the place but it will straighten out as you walk through these trenches. You will connect these dots in the future. It might be messy but have faith and do lots of mindset work.”

In this episode, Authentic Energy founder and Body Confidence Coach Jing Fang and I have an open and honest conversation about how our culture affected how we view our bodies. We dive deep into our postpartum journeys and how challenging it was to see our bodies change after pregnancy.

We compare East Asian media with Western media and how each has a different lens of body image. 

We share stories about how our family influenced the way we want to portray ourselves and the shame and honour expectations.

Join us for a heartfelt, casual and inspiring conversation that will help you realize how much our environment affects our body confidence.

Connect with Jing:

♥ INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/AuthenticEnergy

♥ FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/AuthenticEnergy

♥ FACEBOOK GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bodyconfidencebuilders

♥ WEBSITE: https://www.authenticenergy.co

After our wedding, I started wearing both my wedding band and the engagement ring. It felt very official like I’m a married woman now. Every morning, like clockwork, I would pop them on my finger before heading for work. I would be typing an email and then I’d look down at my hands and be in awe of my new status.

For years I wore them whenever I went out. I kept wearing them throughout both my pregnancies. But then the pandemic hit and I stopped.

Full Transcript: https://sumonsleeve.com/2021/09/how-the-pandemic-made-me-stop-wearing-my-wedding-ring-3-minute-read.html

As I entered relationships and became sexually active, I would keep a tally of my partner’s good and bad behaviours. For instance, if my partner did something that made me happy, I would be more inclined to have sex because I felt he deserved it. And if he did something that upset me, I would be less inclined because I felt he didn’t deserve it.

Sex became a reward and withholding it became a punishment, creating a power imbalance in the relationship. Unknowingly, I was objectifying my body by using sex as a weapon to get what I want.

This continued throughout my relationships and into my marriage.

But then something interesting happened that changed the way I viewed sex.

Full Transcript: https://sumonsleeve.com/2021/08/how-i-stopped-using-sex-as-a-weapon-when-we-started-trying-for-a-baby-5-minute-read.html

As I finished school and became a young adult, I noticed many non-Asian peers go on self-discovery journeys.

From travelling the world, exposing themselves to different cultures, jumping from job to job, attending personal development seminars, getting (and becoming) life coaches to reading self-improvement books, they were working on themselves to define who they are.

Their value for personal identity put them in pursuit of purpose and meaning while mine led me down a path of further education and a stable job with a healthy pension.

I couldn’t relate. I was told who I was since the day I was born. I didn’t need to find myself. What I struggled with was finding who I wanted to be.

The self-improvement work I needed to do was to create a balance between the collectivist instincts instilled through my upbringing and the individualistic urges influenced by my environment. I wanted to have my cake and eat it too. But the traits of each culture conflicted with one another and pulled my identity apart.

When I became a mother, it challenged me to take a stance. Now that I’m in my parents’ position…what do I want to preserve for the next generation? What values, beliefs and priorities do I want to instill in my kids? How certain am I that who I am is who I want to be?

Full Transcript: https://sumonsleeve.com/2021/08/as-an-asian-woman-self-work-means-creating-balance-between-collectivistic-instincts-and-individualistic-urges-7-minute-read.html

I turned 36 earlier this year. It was a simple celebration with my husband, our kids and a very decadent chocolate cake from Whole Foods. It was perfect.

As I made my wish and blew out the single, pink candle, I realized my life had changed quite a bit in the past 5 years. I no longer try to impress people I didn’t care about. I declined events I know I won’t enjoy. Lastly, I stopped spending money on things that didn’t matter to me like new clothes, make-up, heels and drinks.

Instead, with the busyness of motherhood, I’ve started investing more time and effort in cultivating deeper relationships with loved ones. I re-discovered my old hobbies and pastimes like writing, baking and shooting hoops. Lastly, I started spending more money on things I never thought I would. Growing up was about feeling comfortable in my skin. Getting older is about living a life of meaning.

Full Transcript here: https://sumonsleeve.com/2021/08/5-things-i-started-spending-more-money-on-when-i-hit-my-30s-3-minute-read.html

One of the toughest and daunting parts of being a freelance writer is finding work. As an introvert with a touch of social awkwardness, asking people to hire me isn’t exactly my forte.

However, I’m 3 months into my freelance writing journey and so far, getting clients hasn’t been too much of a headache. Here’s how I landed my first clients without getting too far outside my comfort zone.

Full Transcript here

I turned 35 this year and as I reflect on all those years of adulthood, I realized how much money I frivolously spent on things I didn’t care about. Maybe if I didn’t spend that, I would be a millionaire by now?

You know, if I had taken every penny I earned from my part-time job in high school and invested it into Google in 2004 (the year I turned 18 and when it IPO’ed), I would be laughing right now.

However, it doesn’t mean I regret spending that money because my 20’s were a time of discovery and experimentation; succumbing to social pressures and trying to prove myself for external validation were parts of being a young adult.

As I grew up, my lifestyle just naturally shifted and I became more true to myself. My spending reflected that transition. Here are 5 things I’ve stopped spending a lot of money on when I hit my 30’s.

Full Transcript here

I made a decision earlier this year to start freelancing so that I could leave my 9–5 and focus my time doing what I love. So in the last two months, I’ve been side hustling like there’s no tomorrow.

As I continue this adventure, I’ve realized why freelance writing aligns more with who I am, my values, beliefs, lifestyle and priorities than being an employee. Here’s why.

Full Transcript Here

In my late 20’s, I ended an 8-year long relationship. As part of my healing and recovery, I started digging deep into myself about my toxic habits and behaviours. With less time focused on trying to resuscitate a failing relationship, my mind freed up space to dedicate to myself. I realized how terribly I was treating myself.

It’s an ongoing journey but one of the most important insights I discovered about myself is that in order to be happy, I needed to focus my attention on how I was feeling. Eating well and exercising regularly is not about looking good; it’s about feeling good.

What I look like is the least of my concerns if I’m not happy. Putting my mindset on the right path allowed me to truly appreciate my body where weight loss isn’t the goal but a by-product of the journey.

Here are 5 reasons I exercise and eat well that aren’t related to how I look:

Full Transcript here: