Today we’d like to introduce you to Hibaru Maywood.
Hibaru, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’ve started my lifestyle and fitness blog “Beach Bum Kitty” in 2017 summer. It took me a long time to start my blog, but I’m hoping to inspire someone in some way through my lifestyle change since I moved to Los Angeles through my blog.
I was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. After graduating a college in Tokyo, I was not sure what/how I wanted to be. I started my first job at Internet advertisement company and worked very hard for several years in Tokyo.
I’ve been always interested in living in the United States for a long time and dreaming about my life in the States. Thinking back how I got inspirations for living in a foreign county, I’m pretty sure I got a lot of stories from my parents. My dad is documentary TV director who’s always traveling around the world for filming. My mom is an English teacher in Japan. So, my whole image of living in the States had been built up with the stories from them. Also, I’m not going to lie, I was obsessed with American reality TV show that I could watch on cable TV in Japan!
Since I couldn’t give up my dream, I finally decided to move to the States, so worked really hard to look for the job in here. It was not easy at all because I needed to deal with Visa situation, however – luckily, I could get a job in San Francisco. I was in a rush to move to San Francisco with only 2 suitcases. I remember that I was super excited more than nervous or sad to say goodbye to my family & friends.
After working at local advertisement company in San Francisco for 2 years, I really wanted to find something that I was passionate about. At that time, I realized that I wanted to inspire people in Japan with my experience in the States, what I see and what I think it’s cool. So, my goal was getting a job that I could work with States and Japan. It was almost miraculous that I could find this job opening of marketing manager at ShopStyle (global fashion search website) which I’m currently working as a director of ShopStyle Japan. After 5 hours long interviews, I got a job that I was exactly thinking.
Working at ShopStyle, I think I got so many inspirations that made my lifestyle change. I’ve discovered a lot of creative beautiful blogs by so many girls in the States through one of the business ShopStyle has called ShopStyle Collective. At that time, I still didn’t think to start my blog and sharing my story, but I thought it’s amazing to have a platform for their own creative outlet.
5 years in Northern California, I got married to my husband at beautiful Carmel Beach. We started thinking our long life and future, and thought we might want to live in Los Angeles! We both love the beach and sunny weather (than mountain and fog in NoCal), exploring new places and thought we could get them in LA. After a few months, we talked about it, my husband got a new opportunity down in here and luckily ShopStyle has LA office in Culver City, we moved to Southern California very quickly!
LA has changed my lifestyle A LOT! As we expected, the weather and beaches are definitely my favorite part, but I didn’t even think that I got into fitness, and even sharing my experiences through my blog! I wrote how I discovered myself getting into fitness journey in my blog post “3 Things That Made Me Start My Fitness Journey” last year. I had never worked out before, but I’ve kept up myself working out 5-6 days in a week since I moved to Los Angeles.
I’ve started my blog because I had great experience of my lifestyle changing also body changing in LA, I finally thought I wanted to share my story! It took me a long time to start my blog, but I had all great inspirations through my work, people I met the amazing and fun variety of fitness studios, so many photogenic scenes in LA, so it’s been really fun to create my own blog and posts.
I’m still working on building my blog and Instagram, but I’m very excited to see what kind of opportunities and collaborations are waiting for me!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It was definitely not a smooth road. Before starting my blog to share my lifestyle changing and getting into fitness journey, I wanted to quit my workouts & training so many times.
First 3 months since I’ve started my training (as first time ever in my life), I couldn’t see any results and even gained my weight. I couldn’t believe it happened and almost blaming on my trainer.
He said, I didn’t have enough muscles to burn calories with cardio exercises, so I needed to increase my muscles first. Then he didn’t put any cardio aspects in my training for first 3 months. That’s why I gained weight because of muscles increasing.
After gaining my weight, I really wanted to quit. But, I also really enjoyed exploring new exercises and studios in LA (can’t believe we have so many different kinds of studios all over in LA!). I somehow could keep up my workout routines.
After a year, I finally could see the major results. I lost 7 lbs. and 4.5 inches off my waist. I’m only 5 feet, so this number was definitely major changes for me.
Since this experience, I really wanted to share how I felt horrible at the first 3 months but could see results after a year to anybody who’s struggling to keep up their workout routines!
Please tell us about Lifestyle & Fitness Blog “Beach Bum Kitty”.
I’ve started my blog just a year ago, and am still building up my blog and Instagram. I can say my uniqueness is, I’m bi-lingual of Japanese and English, so I can connect with people in both market. I’m getting a lot of DM even from Japan as many as I get from local. They usually want to know, which studios I go to, what kind of training app I use, how to do boxing exercises, for all workout related questions, but also they ask me where to go in LA, which coffee shop is my favorite, and even ask me to host LA tours (what a fun idea!).
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
As I mentioned in the first question, I remember my dad always told us really crazy stories from foreign countries he visited for filming documentary. It definitely made me wondered and been curious the world outside of Japan.
I was very shy and quiet child (probably I’m a middle child, so always tried to read everyone’s mind!), but I had been going to dance class years with my sisters and really enjoyed an annual performance. I still love cardio which involves music and rhythms a lot!
Contact Info:
- Website: http://beachbumkitty.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hibaru1011
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