None of us are impervious to the effects of aging. But aging is a privilege. And it isn’t something that only happens at a set point in time. We are eternally changing and evolving. The question is: who do you want to evolve into next? Who do you want to be going forward? What do you want your life to look like?
Hi, I’m Sybille and I am the founder and CEO of pHule My Fitness. On my 25th birthday, someone said to me: enjoy 25, it’s only downhill from here. A few hours later, in a taxi passing through Union Square, I turned to my best friend Joe and said: I’m not going to do that, that whole aging thing. At the time, I only viewed aging through the lens of its inevitable decline. And I made it my point to research how to keep holding on to youth for as long as possible. But I didn’t have a vital part of information back then, one that only comes with age. That aging isn’t defined by a continuous process of deterioration. It is a process of forever growing and evolving into an ever more complex and interesting version of yourself.
Only chasing youth for the sake of youth is exhausting. When a certain tech-bro millionaire made headlines with his intense regime and two-million-dollar a year investment to reduce his biological age, all I could think was: man, that guy does not have friends or a life.
I have no kids and I work in health and fitness and still, even just trying to adopt all those protocols certain podcasters prescribe, is simply not sustainable even for me. I’ve tried. As much as I value my health and fitness, I have a lot of amazing friends I want to spend time with, I live in one the most exciting cities in the world, and there is so much I want to see, learn, and explore. I don’t want to freeze time. I want to make sure I can live as fully as I can in the time I do have.
The idea for pHuel was conceptualized a long time ago and it has gone through many mutations before it morphed into its current form. But the mission, the problem I was trying to solve, remained the same.
Modern medicine keeps us alive for longer than ever before, but it so far doesn’t counter the effects aging has on our bodies.
At the same time, our society has undergone a drastic shift. We no longer live and grow old in the same small communities we grew up in. Many of us choose not to have children and if we do, they may not live in the same city or even country as we do once they reach adulthood. The responsibility to make sure we can still thrive and live independently as our birthdays add up lies with us. The choices we make now will shape what those final years will look like. Whether we can still hike up mountains or whether we need assistance getting up from the toilet.
My first big love was biology and biochemistry, still is. I get ludicrously excited by molecules and proteins. But I realized that people are more than just chemical reactions and understanding physiological pathways doesn’t help anyone change for the better. That is how I ended up on a path to coaching. Taking the time to learn how we make decisions, what we need to feel safe and seen, and understanding the importance of connection, values, and purpose, has not only made me a much better coach, it had a tremendous impact on my own life.
It allowed me to find the right kind of balance between engaging in health behaviours that add to my life without having them take over my life. And I want to help you achieve the same.
Once I had clarity of what it was that I wanted to achieve, I threw myself into research and study. Into big things we all might face at one point or another, like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or even non-medical life transitions like menopause, and I pursued qualifications in all of them. But also into more foundational things like how much muscle strength, power, and aerobic capacity it takes to get up stairs, carry groceries, or take a suitcase on an airplane. Because without active intervention, those decline as our years increase.
Most of my clients have to balance demanding careers with raising a family. If I told them they had to take an ice bath every morning, do four hours of zone two cardio every week, spend hours at the gym lifting weights, only eat in an eight-hour window, all freshly prepared of course, and then meditate for 20 minutes a day while still making sure they get their eight hours of sleep, they would have a good laugh and then find a different coach.
Just as I do with myself, I work with people to identify the most effective and accessible steps they can take to ensure they can live their lives to the fullest in accordance with their values, full of joy and fulfillment.
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