Joie Chavis has been fitness goals for many of us since she danced her way into our hearts a few years ago. She is a mother of two, one being kid superstar Shai Moss, and a fitness influencer, as owner of Joie In Life fitness brand. She also has her own YouTube channel, where she showcases her daily life as an entrepreneur and mom, a channel that has well over 140K subscribers.
Recently, she uploaded a video on her channel discussing all things fitness, from tips and tricks, to her own experiences. And because sis has bawdy-ody-ody-ody-ody, anything she has to say about achieving a healthier lifestyle in order to look like that, well, consider me front row. Like, Seat 1, Row 1 m'kay?
Continue reading for a few quick tips to get our bodies together for the rest of the summer!
Disclaimer: Joie is not a licensed nutritionist or trainer, these tips are based on what works for her.
On How To Gain Weight & Get Thick:
Joie Chavis/YouTube
Joie opens the video with a quick introduction, and hops right in.
The first question? How can we get thicker, sis?! Well, her answer is simple: be consistent and lift weights.
"People stray away from lifting weights because they're scared they're going to get bulky. Don't be afraid of lifting weights. The weights are going to help you build the muscle. It's going to help give you muscle tone in your legs and arms along with eating a lot of protein."
Here's what she recommends: Lift, lift, lift, and incorporate protein shakes into your diet to help gain healthy weight.
On Why It's So Hard To Get Rid Of Your Tummy:
Joie Chavis/YouTube
"The stomach is the hardest area to tone, especially if you're so up and down with your weight or you've had kids and you have loose skin. That's where your uterus is so you can't get rid of it, but you can tone your stomach. It's mostly just cardio that I do to keep my stomach tight, and diet. Diet is so important."
Here's what she recommends: Start small. Try a week without eating breads/flour, sweets, dairy, or sodas, and double your protein. "I promise you, it'll make a huge difference."
On If You Should Focus On Cardio Or Strength Training In Order To Lose Weight:
Joie Chavis/YouTube
Joie reveals that she notices that she has better results when she does both to tighten up.
"I would do both. If you're trying to lose weight, I feel like, you should do both because you don't want to lose so much weight from cardio and you're super flabby or you have loose skin but you have no muscle tone, no definition, you just lost weight. I would do weightlifting and cardio. Intense cardio, though."
Here's what she recommends: Sprints, stairs, weightlifting, and clean dieting.
On If Waist Trainers Are For Back Support Or Losing Inches:
"Both. It gives you really good posture. The more you wear it [waist trainer], and sweat with it, and eat with it on, you're [also] not going to eat as much."
Joie On How Long It Took Her To See Progress In Her Butt Growth Journey:
Joie Chavis/YouTube
OK, so we all know that Ms. Joie has an amazing rear that has us hitting 1000 squats a day. And according to the model, that will help, as long as you're patient with the process.
"It really takes time. It's not going to happen overnight and maybe because I'm getting older, it takes me a little bit longer and it's harder to be strict on what I eat. It just takes time. You look at some of the challenges that me and my trainer have put together, it's amazing to see their bodies transform."
Here's what she recommends: Be consistent and give yourself a few months to see real changes. "It'll push you to just keep going further."
On Hacks For Curbing Your Appetite When Dieting:
"You really have to snack. That's why they say it's better to eat like seven small meals in a day rather than three big ones. Water is essential."
What she recommends: Consistently have something with you, whether it's nuts, fruit, a smoothie, or water. Increase your water intake and eat small meals.
Joie also touches on how she resists eating bad foods when going out, hitting weight loss plateaus, and what pills she takes when dieting. Watch the full video below:
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Featured image by Joie Chavis/YouTube
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Skylar sees things differently. At the time, she was shooting content on her iPhone. Temi came into the picture with a new perspective, an understanding of tech, and, eventually, a camera. “He doesn't give himself enough credit,” Skylar says. “He wasn't just my tripod. He wasn't just standing behind the camera and going ‘click.’ He was giving advice. He was giving me insight to how I could look at things from a different perspective. And I was like, 'Oh, he’s an artist.' I think it was maybe a heartbeat of that kind of energy of like, ‘Baby, can you take this picture?’ And it turned so quickly into, we're partners. We can work together in a way where we're advancing each other's creative thinking.”
The pair often says they’re two sides of the same coin. Skylar is an Aquarius. She attended art school, paints, and loves poetry. She’s more than happy to let the couple’s management firm and agency, Kensington Grey, handle their admin work. And, she loves to sleep in. Temi, on the other hand, wakes up early. He’s a Virgo. He loves a to-do list and regularly checks in on the couple’s brand partnerships spreadsheet to make sure everything is on track.
Because his storytelling was steeped in his love of technology, he didn’t always think of himself as a creative person. “Where I [am] the dreamer who wants to pluck things out of the sky and spend all day with my head in the clouds, Temi [is] so good at grounding me and helping me figure out how to make things make sense on paper. We just work together in such a complimentary way,” Skylar says.
It’s been more than six years since Brooklyn-based couple Temi and Skylar started dating, and nearly four since they cemented their working relationship. On TikTok and Instagram, the couple’s travel, fashion, and home content regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. They’ve worked with brands such as Coach, Aesop, Away, and Liquid IV, bringing their vibrant perspectives to every campaign they execute. Still, nearly two years since both Temi and Skylar committed to full-time content creation and creative directing, the couple says their romantic connection remains their priority.
“We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting,” Skylar says.
Working from home can make it hard to separate work from personal life for any entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging when your business partner is also your lover. Temi and Skylar had already used couples therapy as a tool to help them effectively communicate with one another. When they ran into challenges while working together, their therapist helped them set physical boundaries to help combat the issues.
"We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting."
“It actually took us doing very specific physical things to create boundaries between work and play in our relationship,” Skylar says. “So, for instance, we will only have conversations about work when we're out of bed or we're at the table or in the office. Initially, when we started, we had to light a candle to say that, 'Okay, this is a space where we're connecting, we’re not talking about work.' We needed really hard boundaries at the top. And then it became a little bit more organic.”
The boundaries have been crucial to implement, especially because the couple began working together so naturally. When the pair first met, Skylar was NY-based a social strategist for BuzzFeed and was using content creation to drive business to her lingerie company. She was shooting her own content. Temi was working for Microsoft in D.C. He’d recently traded in his DJing equipment for a camera. “I've always loved taking pictures,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, my African mother would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. [during a] party, and be like, 'Come take the family picture.'”
Growing up, Temi says he watched his parents support each other and be the true definition of partners. He knew he wanted the same for his own relationship. But, the couple also wanted to make sure they were being financially responsible. The pair didn’t quit their traditional jobs until they’d saved up two years' worth of their cost of living. And, Temi received his Master of Business Administration from New York University with the knowledge that it could either help him advance in his corporate career or be applicable to his business with Skylar.
Temi and SkylarCj Hart @hartbreakToday, they say their working relationship is more of a “quiet dance.” They still implement some of the boundaries they learned in therapy, but they also lean into their natural strengths and deep love for one another. When we speak, Temi has planned a date for the couple to see Princess Mononoke in 4K IMAX and added it to their Notion so they can factor it into their busy schedules. “I fully plan to date for the rest of my life,” he says.
Skylar says the couple doesn’t just wait for date nights to check in with one another, though. This often happens in the mornings, after Temi has made her peppermint tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. When they ask each other how they slept, she says, it’s not just a “nicety.” It’s a genuine question meant to foster connection.
“A lot of it happens during the day in the midst of work. We'll stop and we'll hug. Or we’ll slow dance in the kitchen,” she says. “Sometimes it's hard to set a whole date night when you have 7,000 things going on. So, we must grasp these moments and check in when we can. And I think it's become so organic to us that I actually didn't even realize how often we do it. But all day long, we're like, 'Are you good? I felt like your energy shifted,' because we're best friends, we just know. We just feel it happen.”
What’s better than being in love? Building wealth while doing it. Watch Making Cents here for real stories of couples who make money moves together.
Featured image by Cj Hart @hartbreak