Ho - Cassey Hos hot body year-round: the POP pilates plan to get slim, eat clean, and live happy through every season

Copyright 2015 by Cassey Ho and oGorgeous Inc.

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Harmony Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.
www.crownpublishing.com

Harmony Books is a registered trademark, and the Circle colophon is a trademark of Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ho, Cassey.
Cassey Hos Hot Body Year-Round / by Cassey Ho.
pages cm
1. Pilates method. 2. Reducing exercises. 3. Reducing diets.
I. Title.
RA781.4.H6 2015
613.7192dc23
2014021074

ISBN 978-0-8041-3904-5
eBook ISBN 978-0-8041-3905-2

Photographs 2015 by Sam Livits
Photographs 2015 by David Kim
Cover design by Gabriel Levine
Cover photography by Mike Rosenthal
Cover illustrations: Shuttterstock/Alexander Tihonov (background);
Shuttterstock/Picsfive (vintage note papers);
Shuttterstock/Mtkang (photo frame);
Shuttterstock/Lainea (masking tapes);
Shuttterstock/jannoon028 (white notebook paper)

v3.1

To my POPsters. You helped
me live my passion and turned
my dreams into reality. This is
for you.

I just got back from my Boston Meetup after leading a POP Pilates class of more than 500 crazy enthusiastic POPsters! Mats lined up side by side, people laughing and sweating together for the first timesomehow it feels like weve known one another for years. How does this happen? This is the magic of Blogilates. The magic that youve helped to create. I am overcome with emotion on this plane ride back to L.A., as I massage my cheeks from smiling too much. There are now Sharpie stains all over the fingers on my right hand from signing yoga mats for more than four hours.

I never thought that when I uploaded a simple, unedited Pilates video to YouTube back in 2009 after college graduation that it would lead to any of this. Nor did I intend for it to. But I guess when you follow your passion and decide to live life for happinessfor yourself, for those you love who love you too, and not for the pleasure of othersthings just start to flow in your favor.

Growing up, I was a superobedient, overachieving child who took home perfect report cards. I was the girl youd ask to see her homework. As I got older, being that person eventually became very stressful for me, with all the AP classes I was taking along with being captain of the varsity tennis teambut of course, this all made my parents very proud. As a first-generation Vietnamese-Chinese American, I knew that excelling in academicsand life in generalwas a big part of our culture. So when it came time to pick a major for college, I was allowed to choose between becoming a doctor or a lawyer. Everything else was unacceptable.

Inside, though, I always wanted to be a fashion designer. I had a natural talent for drawing fashion figures and clothing. At the age of 10, I already had compiled a few 10-inch-thick binders of haute couture, red carpet dresses. When I told my dad I really wanted to go to fashion school, he scolded me so badly. He told me Id never make money, Id never be successful, and I would never have any friends. I remember crying forever, until my eyes puffed up so much that I couldnt see. I looked like a sick turtle.

So I took my full-ride scholarship to Whittier College and majored in biology. It wasnt bad, but my heart was missing. My soul felt empty. I thought, Just get through this, Cassey.

This is when Pilates really became the rock in my life. Between classes and on weekends, I would work out to de-stress myself. Side note: Pilates was something I picked up when I was 16 and had signed myself up for a pageant! I wanted to tone up quickly, so I started doing Mari Winsor Pilates DVDs from the infomercials and became hooked. Not only did I strengthen my core like mad, I also ended up taking home the crown as Miss Teen Chinatown 2003!

So by the time I was in college, I was a super Pilates enthusiast and was even encouraging my friends to do small sessions with me in the dorm lounge! One day, I was browsing the local classifieds, and I saw an ad for Pilates Instructor for a small gym down the street. I knew I probably wasnt qualified, but I was confident and saw no risk in auditioning.

To my surprise, the studio liked my style and offered to pay for my Pilates certification. It was this rare opportunity that sparked everything. They took a chance on a young girl who they believed in.

From that point, I fell head over heels in love with teaching. Id walk in exhausted from chemistry experiments and lab disasters, lead a class, and leave feeling like a reenergized human being. Pilates did that for me. And it still does. So I will never ever stop teaching. Pilates is and forever will be my rock.

When my father found out I was teaching on the side, he kept telling me to stop and make more time for studying. He said it wouldnt help me in life. So instead, I taught more. And in junior year of college, I dropped out of the only class I still needed to take the MCATs for medical schoolorganic chemistry. It was a way of sabotaging, or I guess you could say saving myself from entering a life I did not want. Now, I wont lie to you and tell you I was strong and stood by that decision. I actually ended up dropping out three times because I was so unsure of myself. It was scary. My parents went berserk.

So I dove deeper into my love affair for design. As a senior in college, I fused my passions for fitness and fashion and I designed a high-end line of yoga bags that I named oGorgeous.