Vanessa Bogenholm lives and works her truth every day, both in her own life and with each and every client. Some days she would still rather be the unmotivated, overweight ten-year-old sitting on the couch eating candy, but she can’t be. She can’t because she wants better for herself and because she wants to show her clients—and you—that with a little belief and a shift in attitude, you don’t have to be stuck in a body that makes you uncomfortable.
Vanessa has watched clients make that choice with astounding results. She has seen people lose more than one hundred pounds—and keep that weight off. She has seen middle-aged men stop needing medications they expected to take for the rest of their lives. She has even seen people in wheelchairs get up and walk again. Her new book, It’s Your Body: Move It, Love It, Live shares powerful client stories that will truly inspire.
FWM: What is it like to run four companies?
It’s busy!! I think any entrepreneur is always looking how to grow their companies and how to not just benefit themselves, but give better opportunities to their employees and clients. I feel it is very sad that we have become a society that doesn’t value and take care of our bodies, some people don’t even know where to start. We run from our homes to our jobs, we don’t eat well, rarely have time for exercise or self-care let alone get good sleep. I have this need to show people how diet and exercise can make their lives better and all of my companies are about that, helping people find love and fitness of their bodies.
My Train with V, my San Jose location is my main location where I see clients one on one as a personal trainer and takes up the majority of my time.
Fitness 23 Las Vegas is a boxing/kickboxing group exercise gym that I purchased during the pandemic to grow my businesses. I go there every 10 days or so for a couple of days and manage all the rest on my computer remotely and talk to the employees many times during the day.
My Fitness 23 company is my video and book company where I try to help people who I can’t see in person.
Exercise in the Streets is my non-profit, which started as doing exercise classes, literally in the streets in impoverished neighborhoods, and run clinics in youth detentions centers. When covid happened, we pivoted to providing exercise bags with running shoes, sweatshirts, exercise equipment such as a basketball, and toiletries to foster children in Santa Clara and Clark Counties.
My drive comes from never wanting to be still. My parents were lazy and unmotivated in all aspects of their lives. I grew up wanting to be different. I also am willing to fail. Sometimes my businesses work, and sometimes things fall apart. It is just business and I try to move forward and keep at it.
FWM: Share your background in fitness.
I was extremely overweight, not athletic, and sad as a child. A couple of months before my 13th birthday, I began running to get fit before high school started. That started a life change for me that continued my whole life.
I had been a quasi-famous organic farmer back in the 90s and early 2000s. That all fell apart due to a couple of bad weather years and a relationship break up that almost brought me to the bottom. Don’t ever lose your companies and your marriage in the same 6 months, it’s brutal!!
For a few years I worked as a Sommelier (Hey if you are ever going to lose everything, might as well drink for a living) then in food sales. Food sales for me was the worst!!! I hated my job, like what kind of fitness person, I was very fit and a very high-level tennis player, wants to be an expert in 47 different kinds of french fries and selling 20 kinds of cheap frying oil?? So, poof I work up one morning and just quit. No job prospects and no way to support myself and no plan.
As I was looking to see what my next career would be, I got a job coaching tennis then helping a friend’s sister lose weight. That started my journey to the companies I have now. I didn’t have a plan it just fell into place
FWM: Tell us about Train with V. What will people notice when working with you?
I work one-on-one or in small groups, like couples, or families, or 2 or 3 friends together. The training we do is structured for the client. Some need to lose weight, some need greater mobility, some want to run their first marathons. No two trainings are the same because none of my clients are the same. I need to find the motivator with everyone. I ask personal questions until I find it. Do you want to be able to play with your grandchildren? Are you in constant pain? Do you want to look hot in that little black dress at the company dinner? Do you want to be strong? Whatever ’that’ is, I need to find it and we structure the diet and exercise to achieve those goals.
All the stories of clients in the book come from these sessions with clients. All of the names have been changed to protect the client’s privacy but I share the stories of people getting out of wheelchairs, losing 100lb., getting over depression through exercise, etc. I want these stories to help motivate everyone to move their bodies.
I have a very full schedule because most clients who start with me never leave. They may go down to just one workout a week, but over 80% of my clients have been with me for 2 or more years. So I always have just very few openings and I am expensive since I work one on one by the hour.
That is why I started the online videos and wrote the book. I want to help more people.
I don’t need my clients to tell everyone what they are doing. I need them though to really try- Try to eat better, try to move, and not give up on themselves easily. This is a personal and private promise to themselves to trust that they can be the person they want to be.
FWM: You work with corporations. Tell us about your programs.
I only work with corporations who are fitness related and have products that I use personally. On an average week, 10 or so companies contact me and want me to be an ambassador for them. I try the products if I am interested and feel my clients would benefit, then I am willing to be an ambassador.
Zensah makes amazing compression socks and we have worked together for years and i wear their products every day. I suggest them to all my clients who use their knee braces, bras, and socks. Such a great company.
ProSource Fit does exercise equipment for at-home use and I use all their stuff in both my gym locations. If the workout gear can hold up for years in commercial gyms, it is a great quality to have in your homes and why I recommend them for home use equipment.
KT-tape is by far the best tape for your feet, knees, and shoulders. I have tried every other brand out there and there is no comparison and because I have Haglund’s Deformity on my feet, I tape my feet every day.
The supplement market is huge and I am so distrusting of this market. I am very careful what I put in my body. When the Rhelief Tame Your Pain company contacted me, I was doubtful. This is a drink mix to control inflammation, so important to me as a runner. Inflammation is so damaging to all my tendons and ligaments with the long mileage I put in. I was shocked at this natural product that works so well and I use it every day I run. So you get the picture, all the companies I work with, I use their products daily.
FWM: You say, “Let’s start a new relationship with food.” What does it mean to have a “relationship” with food? What does an ideal relationship look like?
Why do we as humans eat? We eat because our bodies need fuel and nutrients to survive and live. Plain and simple. But food has turning into so much more in our society now. Our holidays are centered around the food we eat. It’s your birthday, we have cake, it’s Thanksgiving we have turkey, let’s go out for drinks, it’s Christmas let’s have ham, hey why don’t you come over on Sunday for a BBQ? I am sad so I drank a bottle of wine and ate a whole box of donuts. Sugar to our brains helps us close down those sad feelings. So how do we get back to using food to better our bodies instead of hurting our bodies? Just take a few seconds and think before we eat, will what I am eating help me do the things I want to do tomorrow? Will I feel sick if all I eat is all of this cake? Learn to listen to your body when it asks for protein or fruit. How is your digestion? What do I need to eat to make it pain and problem-free? Can I adjust my diet to achieve these goals and still enjoy food?
FWM: One of your clients said, “Vanessa is a strong communicator who is very good at bringing people together. However her problem-solving skills is what sets her apart from the rest in the field.” Can you provide examples?
The most important thing I do with clients is to help them find the motivation for why they want to get fit. Once I find that I have direction and then have to figure out how to do things with them they will enjoy. Some people like to work out with others so I put people together to run, golf, or sail or whatever, just so they can be with other people doing healthy activities that bring positive good feelings. I encourage families to exercise together and cook together.
FWM: Recess TV works with 1,000’s of top instructors. Tell us more.
Especially after the pandemic hit, many personal trainers went online to do workout classes and offer exercise instruction videos. I had already been moving in this direction even before the pandemic doing zoom workouts with people who weren’t in my locations and doing exercise videos on YouTube and Vimeo. Recess just make a great easy to use platform for me as a trainer to offer group classes. I offer group classes at a very affordable rate once or twice a week.
FWM: Fitness 23 Run Club is on the fast track. What does it offer?
Running can be tough. The Fitness 23 Run Club is a way for us all to connect and support each other even from far away. https://www.strava.com/clubs/772348?oq=Fitness
Strava is an app and website where endurance athletes keep track of their workouts. We have 209 people currently in the run club and we connect online then see each other in person at races all over the world. It was so cool to be at a 1/2 marathon race in San Diego a month ago, when someone came up to me and said “Hey I am in your Run Club” We just feel like we are then all one working on improving our lives. it is free to join on Strava or on Facebook and you can buy a shirt if you would like to also that I sell at cost. It’s just so we can all encourage each other no matter what speed or distance you are going.
FWM: Who has inspired you the most? Share a few client success stories.
Wow, there has been so many. First is Jack whom the book is dedicated to and the only real name I use in the book. Jack was the first client I got out of a wheelchair and walking. He was so grouchy when we met and the last thing he wanted to do was exercises and get up. He wanted to sit in his wheelchair, watch Fox news and be angry. But I got him up, walking and laughing. Amazing. He will always be such an inspiration to me about being willing to change.
The first woman I ever worked with lost over 100lb. She hated me, hated working out, and hated her body. But she never gave up and kept at it, trusting that this was going to work when so many other times, she had failed at losing weight. She is now married with two lovely children. I cry every time I see her.
I have a boy that I started working with when he was 14 and just starting to run. He had never been athletic but through hard work and many miles, he is on a full-ride scholarship for running at a major university. Getting to see him run in a college track meet was incredible. I feel honored to be part of his journey.
FWM: Tell us about your new book, “It’s Your Body, Move It, Love It, Live.”
I had always been a writer of some sort in my life through my many careers. I had written a fiction book before and now wanted to write an inspirational book for people who just don’t know what to do as they start their fitness journeys. I was a reader as a child and when I started my own fitness journey in 1980. Back then there were only books about famous athletes not about fat unmotivated kids like me. I wanted to write that book, the one that would have helped me all those years ago. I wanted to show what kind of people come to me for help; people that are having mobility issues, arthritis sufferers, need to lose 100 lb., on prescription medicines for lifestyle choices, suffering from depression etc, I wanted to show people that anyone can get fit and love their bodies, not just athletes and pretty people like we see on social media. I wanted to show the reality of going on a journey to becoming fit and out of pain. I wanted to show regular people they too can get the bodies they love and deserve free of pain.
FWM: Your bio and an early chapter in your book say you were once an “unmotivated, overweight ten-year-old sitting on the couch eating candy.” What changed?
My family was fat and weren’t hard workers. We are a product of our environments and I just did what everyone in my house did, I ate candy, read, and watched TV. But I wanted to play sports in high school and a very nice coach said to me, “Vanessa, you probably want to get fit before high school starts.” That was it. I wanted to be like Frank Shorter, a very famous Olympic Marathoner so figured I would take up running at the age of 13. My first run was 23 steps. That was it. I cried when I realized that was all I could do and realized I was a fat loser and that is why I didn’t have any friends and no one wanted to hang out with me. But this time I didn’t give up. If I could run 23 steps, why not 24, so I tried to do just one more step. This was the beginning of my fitness journey, just one more step and just a little better than the previous time. And every time I was able to do more with my body, my brain became happier also. Running didn’t just change my body, it also changed my brain.
Any time now when things get going sideways or tough, instead of self-destructive habits like drinking or eating sugary or carbo laden foods, I do a little exercise, lift some weights, take a run, throw my javelins. I always feel better afterwards and the negativity goes away. Life is tough. We just have to adjust our habits to positive ones instead of negative ones.
FWM: Your book is filled with inspirational stories of real people who made tremendous transformations from thirteen-year-old kids to CEO’s. Who inspired you the most?
Gosh, I feel so lucky to see 8-10 clients a day that all inspire me everyday. Just tonight I had a 25-year-old tech guy almost cry when he did his first real push-up, he just looked at me and said, “I couldn’t do that 6 months ago!” I just smiled and said, “Just wait, you will be stronger and have those muscles you always dreamed of, I promise you.” Because that is what he wants, to be muscular and attractive and fit. So that is the direction we are working.
I had a woman in her 70s who tried to commit suicide and because she didn’t have insurance, was stuck in a Medicare facility. It was a nightmare and gross, worse than you could ever imagine. She had obviously failed at committing suicide but had broken her back in a fall off a 3 story barn. She couldn’t walk. She cried and screamed for the first few visits. I was able to help her gain her strength back and learn how to use her body weight to get off the bed and onto a walker. She still wanted to die when I met her. Within 3 months she was up and walking and in 6 months got out of that facility and moved in with friends. She found joy in life when she thought the world was better without her. She was wrong, she had family and friends who loved her and even in my horrible comedy routine, she learned to laugh and look forward to life again. She fell down, she got up again and made life happy, priceless.
I have worked with many successful people. I had one I didn’t put in the book. He had a stroke, and because of his business dealings, he felt that anyone knowing he had a stroke would show weakness and vulnerability and could hurt him financially. I went to his home and worked out with him for 6 days a week for 4 months. The day his left leg moved without him thinking about it was awesome. We were able to rehab him through hard strenuous work and sweat and get him back to where no one knew he had a stroke. Then a couple years later I ran into him at a party and he proudly tells everyone I rehabbed him from a stroke!!! ugh, we laughed. everyone stared at us in shock. He realized loving himself, forgiving himself and learning how to take care of himself was the best lesson. Such a nice man.
FWM: You pose an interesting question in your book: people take such good care of their possessions, so why don’t they take care of their own bodies? In your experience as a personal trainer, what possible answers have you gleaned?
We live in these bodies every day so sometimes we just forget about them. Tomorrow I will eat better and exercise, oh yeah I hurt myself from too much alcohol but I lived, so no big deal. Our brains help us cope and then poof, we stop the self-care for too long or the pain becomes too much and now we are in trouble Our brains only could fool us for awhile and then we are in serious poor health. And the big one, I am not as out of shape as that guy, or as fat as that guy, or whatever, we compare ourselves to others so we feel better. Then one day this self-delusion stops working. Then hopefully the person starts to care about their health and fitness or they will die and be in pain.
FWM: Tell us about the nonprofit Exercise in the Streets and your goals for the upcoming months.
I grew up in poverty and it still is always a draw for me. When ever I go to a new city, I look for the most impoverished areas and just like to hang out there and meet people. About 5 years ago I was in Birmingham Alabama and went to a neighborhood that was considered one of the poorest in the United States. Poverty also brings obesity. I met some very nice people and said hey, how about if I come back and do a free exercise class for the neighborhood on Saturday? One guy said he would bring some music, other people said they would tell the neighbors. I brought some friends, got Whole Foods to donate apples and water, a Big 5 gave me 10 workout mats, and wow. We did an exercise class that was like a neighborhood party. My non-profit was launched and we did this in 5 cities so far. We had to stop because of COVID. Back home in San Jose, I also started taking run clinics into Juvenile Hall. Showing kids how exercise can help them. We had to stop that also but will start that up soon. Because I still wanted the non-profit to do something, I pivoted in 2020 and we put together exercise bags, running shoes, sweatshirts, and sports equipment and give these bags to Foster kids in Santa Clara and Clark counties. I love this and hope we can keep this going and grow to more counties. We take new shoe donations, sports equipment and of course money. I have never asked anyone for money, people have been very generous.
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https://www.instagram.com/trainwithv_fitness23/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessabogenholm/
https://www.facebook.com/vanessa.bogenholm/
https://www.youtube.com/c/Fitness23VanessaBogenholm
