Q&A Move it Mama
Fitness by mothers, for mothers, Christchurch entrepreneur and mum of four boys Lisa Fong turned a passion for exercise into a multi-million dollar business. Then her husband Dan was given two weeks to live. She tells her story to Metropol editor Nina Tucker.
Lisa turned the weekly 20-minute workouts used to reclaim her sparkle in motherhood into an online platform that empowers thousands of mothers to feel good
through fitness.
In the last few years, while the rest of the country battled post-pandemic trauma and a cost of living crisis, Lisa and her family fought something bigger – for husband and father Dan’s life after an aggressive cancer diagnosis. Lisa and her family lived in a “nightmare” while the world kept turning, and her seven-strong team kept showing up for the Move it Mama community through live online classes and local events.
After spotting Lisa at Cancer Society Southern’s Parakiore charity netball match last month, we took the chance to catch up with her.
Q: Lisa, thank you so much for chatting with us! What has life felt like lately?
A: Thank you so much for having me. Life for me lately is a combination of many words:
chaotic, messy, joy, sunshine, busy, worry, anxiety, fear, but there’s positive progress too!
Q: The last few years have been a lot. Dan’s gruelling cancer diagnosis; being a mother to four children; running a global business, what does survival look like amongst it all?
A: When my husband was diagnosed with Stage 4 leukemia, lymphoma and thyroid cancer (and months later being told he had two weeks to live, thankfully he’s now on the road to recovery), life was so excruciating for me. During those weeks and months, survival for me was more like an hour-by-hour approach.
In my head, I knew I had to keep going because I had so many people who needed me. I needed to be Dan’s advocate. I needed to be there for our four sons. So, in the morning it was about getting up and being mum, getting them off to school as level headed as possible so they felt some sense of stability during an extremely rocky time.
I would then go to the hospital and my job there was to speak up – ask questions, fight for more tests, more help, more opinions. Then it’d be back to the kids, sport, and back to the hospital so they could see their dad (many times, this was so confronting). After, we would head home for dinner and I’d get our children settled for bed.
I compartmentalised as much as I could and focused on what was right in front of me at the time. There is so much to this question and I’ve only just touched on some of the things. Really, it was a very dark time. I’m not sure how I managed it to be fair. I waded through a huge disastrous mess, day in, day out for years.
Q: How has this experience changed your perspective on life?
A: I never knew what hard was until this happened. I still can’t believe how our life got completely shaken the way it did. It wasn’t your ‘normal’ cancer diagnosis. This was tragic and horrifically scary. His body was ravaged and my strong man was wheelchair- bound within days and bedridden for months. I was showering him.
Life is easy until it’s not. Mum used to always say ‘health is wealth’ and I wouldn’t really ‘hear’ her. But now, I can’t wait until my husband has his health back because I feel I’m only really as happy as he is feeling. One thing I know for sure is that I can wholeheartedly count on my parents and my siblings, Dan’s family, my extended family and my close friends. It’s a blessing to deeply learn this and know how that feels when your life is crumbling around you.
Q: How has your world at home and in business transformed over the last few years, during Dan’s recovery?
A: I finally have myself a little office. Dan is home now and won’t be working for a while so thought it was about time I spread my wings – something I have never done since I started Move it Mama. I always worked from home. Now I am fine to leave Dan, as he is mobile again (albeit pretty slow) so it’s amazing to have my own space I can escape to. Now we’re a sole income family and will be for the foreseeable future, so there is more pressure on the business and my work. This is both a challenge and a blessing, as I love what I have created and am blessed to have such an incredible community already. A bit of pressure in business is good, too!
Q: Move it Mama, and the community you built is flourishing, Christchurch and beyond. Did you dream of making it this far?
A: Move it Mama is the best fifth baby I’ve had! I love it so much and to see it continue to flourish just feels so great. When I dreamed of Move it Mama, I wanted this so badly. If I’m being really honest, I wish it’d taken over the world more but there is still time – I’m only 43 and I now have a pretty great team around me. My dream was to help as many women feel better about themselves and that dream is still well and alive to this day.
When Dan got sick I went AWOL. I coudn’t speak on social media. I couldn’t speak to many people at all. I honestly was walking around like I was in a real life nightmare. Then after a couple of months, I took to the Move it Mama community and started sharing what was going on. Special mention to my sister Jess and the team for carrying the business while I was out of action. I can’t put into words how powerful and uplifted I felt when sharing our story with our Move it Mama people. I am madly obsessed with our community and I wish one day I could have every single one of them in a room with me and my team.
Q: How did your relationship with exercise shift, from when it no longer made you feel good, to enjoying it again?
A: For three weeks, I didn’t exercise, which is actually no big deal really, but I always used to say to people who were going through hard times to exercise because it’d make them feel better. What I didn’t factor in was actually sometimes exercise doesn’t make you feel better at all. All that could make me feel better back then was to know my husband was going to be okay and for this nightmare to end. After that time, I changed my perspective and started moving again. I chose workouts that made me feel safe and ones I knew I could achieve. Instead of using exercise as a tool to feel better, I was exercising to help maintain strength and clarity. That was a game changer. From then on I continued to workout. Sometimes I would break down and cry but I got it done and I found out that you are way stronger than you ever think you are (mentally).
Q: What does self-care look like for you?
A: It’s making a delicious lunch and enjoying every mouthful. Taking time to enjoy my coffee in the morning, sitting next to Dan. Going for a walk and seeing the sunrise. Doing a workout. Going to bed with a good book. Charging my phone overnight in a different room. Listening to a podcast. Connecting with friends. Sending audio messages to my best friends. Quality chats with my family. Facetime sessions with mum! Cuddles with my kids.
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QUICK FIRE QUESTIONS
Your best parenting hack?
If something doesn’t feel right, re-parent it always!
Your go-to ‘struggle meal’?
Mince (any way possible ha)!
Your favourite exercise/movement?
I love just me, my mat and using my bodyweight.
Your guilty pleasure?
I love smutty novels. Don’t go looking though my kindle! On a more serious note, I am very fussy with how I have my coffee so don’t invite me round for one unless you’re prepared to work hard. Haha.
