Combine boss babes, fab workouts and America’s favorite junk food and you will find fitness duo, Joanna and Grace Park, making all of our balanced diet dreams come true. The faces behind IG account and blog @exercisewithextrafries have proved that a healthy lifestyle can include a balanced combo of workout classes, healthy foods and ‘extra fries’. The girls share their motivation tips below and how their fitness business has made their sibling bond that even stronger!
How did you get started with your blog and IG account, @exercisewithextrafries?
JP: We both had our own accounts and we would go to work out classes together and would fight to see who could post the photo first after class.
GP: We would literally sit in the car and race to see who could post first. All of our friends were seeing the same photo twice so we thought ‘why don’t we just start one joined account’.
How did the name come about?
JP: We’re all about balance and we are obsessed with fries so we just threw some names around this one stuck!
Did you both grow up working out and going to fitness classes?
JP: No, it was very new for us. I wasn’t very active in high school, but once I got into workout classes and group fitness classes it turned into something. I got hooked on Bar Method and that’s what made me fall in love with classes!
GP: I played field hockey in high school and was always fairly active, but my when I started doing crossfit, I hurt myself and got patellar tendinitis. I started doing rehab with a personal trainer and a physical therapist and that’s how I started learning about fitness and getting into working out.
What is your favorite quality about each other?
JP: Grace is very organized and very driven. When she has a goal in mind she sets up the perfect plan to achieve that goal. I love that about her.
GP: Joanna is really creative. I can figure out the organization and everything, but Joanna is the one that sees the creative direction of how it needs to get done. (ex: flat lays and content creation photo ideas). I organize the content calendar and she edits all of our photos so it is a really good balance!
Is this the direction you knew you wanted the blog to go when you started?
JP: Absolutely not. When we started the account we did not have the intention for it to get this big, we were honestly just having fun with it. Because there is a 5 year gap between us, we weren’t very close growing up so this definitely brought us a lot closer.
What’s one thing that gets you out of bed every morning?
JP: Grace sometimes literally gets me out of bed in the morning if I am wanting to ‘call in sick’ or take a day off. I have learned that I need to get a good sweat in before I start my day or else I get a little cranky.
GP: I most likely would have paid for a workout class and I don’t want to pay the cancellation fee so I need to get out of bed and get to the class!
What’s something that people may not know about you guys?
GP: I’m in school for my JDMBA degree (so my law degree and my MBA) which some people may not know just looking at our account.
JP: Hmmmm…..I failed PE in high school which is kinda ironic….
What are your favorite Goldsheep prints?
GP: (without hesitation) omg the Corgis!
JP: Definitely the donuts and the unicorns.
Pet peeves about each other?
GP: Joanna is so messy. But it’s okay because I clean up after her :) It’s a good balance.
What does being a Goldsheep mean to you?
JP: I feel like a Goldsheep girl is fun, outgoing, very welcoming, friendly. You love their energy and they are the ones when you walk into a room and they instantly stand out from the rest of the crowd.
GP: And they aren’t afraid to just be silly. That’s one thing especially that we do on our account. Some people take fitness so serious, but it doesn’t have to be that way, you can have fun with it - that’s how you enjoy life!
