Growing up in Vietnam in the 1980s, Tayla ThuyAn was surrounded by unspoken, and often spoken, rules about beauty. In her culture, being thin wasn’t just ideal, but expected. “Everyone is skinny in Asian culture,” she says.

“If you gain a little weight, relatives will tell you directly. There’s no sugarcoating,” she remembers. Her family moved to the United States when Tayla was 11, and she found herself caught between two worlds: the constant push for thinness from her upbringing, and the more food-centric, consumer culture in America. But neither approach taught her what proper health meant. By her teens, Tayla was struggling with a negative self-image, yo-yo dieting, and restrictive eating, always chasing a specific physical aesthetic rather than proper health and well-being.

Motherhood became the turning point for Tayla, and despite the joy she found in being a new mom in 2013, she also recognized that she felt heavy and unhealthy. She was considering resorting back to the restrictive mentality that had never worked for her in the past, when a friend invited her to come for a run. Tayla quickly found a love for running and exercising, and started to see food as fuel. Tayla’s mindset around her body image and health gradually shifted as she learned more about exercise and nutrition. “I realized I wanted to be healthier for my daughter, not just skinnier,” she says. Over the next year, she lost nearly 30 pounds while developing a passion for fitness that goes far beyond her physical appearance.

Initially, running was Tayla’s primary form of exercise because it was a quick, easy burn. But within a few years, Tayla discovered weight training through a friend in the bodybuilding community. With guidance from a bikini competition coach, Tayla honed her lifting form, built muscle, and transitioned from fashion modeling into fitness modeling. “Once I slowly began to see results, it clicked. I loved the strength I was building,” she says.

Now, Tayla trains six days a week at CLUB4 Fitness. Her program includes two heavy leg days focused on glutes, one quad/hamstring day, two upper-body sessions (push/pull and biceps/triceps), and core work most days. While she loves bodybuilding’s aesthetics, she also maintains her cardiovascular health with running, tennis, and other sports to achieve a “hybrid athlete” approach. “A lot of bodybuilders don’t have cardio health, and I want to make sure I am well-rounded from a health and longevity perspective,” she says.

Her nutrition philosophy rejects the extremes that are often seen in the bodybuilding community. Rather than overloading on protein using strange supplements with questionable ingredients, Tayla sticks to whole foods and incorporates all the nutrients she needs to live a long and healthy life. “Especially after growing up with disordered eating habits, I think it is important to eat everything in moderation. Nothing’s off the table,” she says.

Tayla is outspoken about the dangers of crash diets and the unrealistic physiques dominating social media. “Fast results usually mean water weight. It’s not sustainable, and it messes with your health,” she says. Progress, she believes, is rarely linear, but showing up consistently, resting when needed, and focusing on long-term well-being pays off.

Recently, more people have been turning to her for fitness advice, sparking a new sense of purpose. “I want to help motivate and guide others,” she says. “It’s okay to have bad days. Just go through the motions, show up for yourself, and remember that caring for your whole body health rather than just aesthetics will give you the longest and happiest life.”

You can follow Tayla’s fitness journey on Instagram at @thuyanannn.

By Zoe Harrison
Photo by Tindall Stephens