Christine Yu from "Love Life Surf"

Tell us a little about your life and what your passions are.

My name is Christine and I live in Brooklyn with my husband and two young boys. I grew up both on the East Coast and in the San Francisco Bay Area but never expected to call New York City my home. But now, I can’t imagine living anywhere else. I author the blog Love, Life, Surf (http://www.lovelifesurf.com) where I share stories about my experiences as a mom who is trying to balance work, fitness, family, and healthy living, and the lessons that I’ve learned through these experiences.

One of my biggest passions is fitness. I’ve been active my whole life and grew up playing pretty much every sport under the sun – from swimming to soccer to field hockey to volleyball to lacrosse to water polo. Being part of a team and playing sports gave me a sense of confidence and camaraderie. However, it wasn’t until later in life that I actually considered myself an athlete. Today, I love running, swimming, surfing, yoga, strength training, hiking, and skiing. I love anything that will take my outside and give me the opportunity to explore and discover new places, food and people.

Health and fitness are a core part of who I am as a woman, wife, mother, sister and friend. Fitness is something that nourishes my soul. It not only helps me build physical strength, but also mental strength to handle whatever challenges life throws at me. My main motivation to be fit is my children. I want to experience life with them – to run alongside them when they first start riding a bike, see their eyes widen at the top of a mountain, do cartwheels in the grass, and watch them grow up. I want to set a good example for them so they will lead active and healthy lives too.

What is your favorite type of exercise and why?

That’s a hard question!! I truly love all types of exercise. If I had to choose, I would say that my absolute favorite is surfing. I only recently started surfing. My husband and I went to a surf camp in Costa Rica on a lark and we both fell in love with the sport immediately. Paddling out in the ocean and catching your first wave is intoxicating – there’s no other feeling like it.

Surfing is an incredible full body workout that will whip you into shape faster than anything else that I have tried. But the great thing is that it doesn’t feel like a workout because you are having fun. Surfing provides you with the opportunity to be out on the ocean and to spend time with friends, and it forces you to be present in the moment. I learned a number of lessons that went beyond the water and that have helped to shape the person I am today. I learned how to check my expectations, how to trust my judgment, and, most importantly, how to manage and embrace my fears.

What does it mean to be “healthy” to you?

To me, “healthy” means balance and living a full and active life. It’s more than just spending hours upon hours at the gym, going to the extreme, or denying yourself food that you love. It’s about creating a lifestyle that allows you to make balanced choices – mostly good choices with a few treats sprinkled in – and to truly enjoy your life with the ones you love.

As a mother, what challenges have you come across when it comes to working out and how do you overcome them?

One of the biggest challenges I face is time – finding the time to workout given my busy schedule with two young boys and a freelance consulting career. I feel that my husband and I are constantly juggling schedules and tasks in order to make sure that everyone and everything is taken care of. However, for me, it all starts with making fitness a priority. If I don’t make it a priority, it’s easy to let working out fall to the bottom of my list of to-dos because something will always seem “more important.” In the end, when I’ve had a chance to workout, I feel better both physically and mentally, have more energy and make better food choices. I’m also more pleasant to be around!

Here are some specific strategies that I use to fit fitness into my daily life include:

• Schedule my workouts. My calendar holds me accountable and it also alerts my husband so he knows that I plan to workout at that time.
• Put on my workout clothes. Once they are on, I am more likely to go.
• Cultivate an active lifestyle. It’s not just about working out an hour a day in a gym or going to a fitness class. I try to walk when I can. I run around and play with my kids. I’ll do random calf raises or squats during the day. It’s all about being active and moving as part of our daily life.

What is the biggest lesson you have learned from all the time you have spent exercising?

Never say never. I never thought that I would learn to surf because I am afraid of the ocean. I never thought that I would try rock climbing because I’m afraid of heights. I never thought that I would run a marathon because I wasn’t a runner. I never thought that I would like yoga because it seemed too fuzzy and mystical to me. But, I have tried all of these things and love them. It’s often the things that we don’t think we ever would want to do that spark new passions within our souls. I’ve learned that I could be closing myself off from amazing experiences by not facing my fears and embracing these new challenges.

For more from Christine visit her blog, http://www.lovelifesurf.com, and follow her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter!