Ladies & gentlemen, boys & girls, children of all ages! My-Thai.org is proud to bring to you another unique, fun, and active interview. This time I am joined by a local fitness enthusiast / model / awesome person who is training for the upcoming Spartan Race. If you’re not too intimidated now, give it up and enjoy the interview with Lotta Lemon!

Thanks again for joining! I always start with a similar question to my interview guests: How do you introduce yourself to the people who don’t know who you are (yet)?

Thanks for having me! My name is Lotta Lemon, I know it sounds unusual but Lotta is a common Swedish name, and my surname is actually pronounced Le-món as it originally comes from France because my dad is partially French.

Would you mind giving us a bit of background information about yourself?

I was born in Bangkok, but moved to Sweden at a very young age. I was raised there in a province called Skåne and returned back to Thailand during my late teens. I’m currently studying for my bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, and am working as a customer service agent in a Swedish Company here in Bangkok.

How would you compare life in Sweden to life here in Thailand? What do you prefer? Is there anything that you would wish Thailand would adapt from Sweden or the other way around?

I prefer living in Thailand than in Sweden, I actually feel like it’s my home here. Everything is so easy here; the lifestyle and the culture, it’s something that made me fall in love with Thailand, and is why I haven’t moved back since. I feel there are great things about both countries! The technology and the way some things are set up in Sweden seems to be more advanced than in Thailand, such as having the power/telephone cables above the roads over here, but I love how Thailand never sleeps – if you’re hungry, you can always find somewhere to eat! I know it might sound a bit silly, but I really love to eat 😀

Is it easy or difficult to live in ‘both’ worlds? Can you adapt easily to the different cultures or does it take a bit?

Because I lived half of my earlier life in both Sweden and Thailand, I’m pretty used to both cultures now so when I am in either country, I find it easy to adapt and fit back in.

What’s the response from friends and especially family? I’ve talked to quite a few models / actresses here whose parents didn’t really like their daughter taking ‘racy’ pictures / acting in such scenes. How’s that for you?

I have really supportive friends so they are all positive with the posts I make. I’m really into fitness so showing my physique just lets people see the changes I’ve been able to make and how far I’ve come. My mum actually wanted me to compete in beauty pageants before, but I’m not sure if that’s really my thing! My dad supports me in whatever I choose to do really, but he still treats me as his little girl (he still thinks I don’t drink coffee because it’s only for adults, haha).

As we can see from your IG and as you mentioned in the intro, you do lots of fitness and frequently post fitness pictures and videos. Would you run us through your workout routines a little bit?

Currently, I’m doing full body workouts, so I work all muscle groups each time I train. As my workouts are aimed at strength, I lift relatively heavy weights and do compound exercises like squats, bench presses, military presses, pull-ups, deadlifts, etc. Since I’ve started training for the Spartan Race, I’ve added exercises like rope climbing, sled pushing, and have started running a lot more.

A post shared by L O T T A L E M O N (@lottalemon) on Jul 9, 2017 at 4:15am PDT

What are your favorite exercises? Is there anything you dislike but still do?

I have a love/hate relationship with squats, haha. I love doing pull-ups at the moment because I could never do them before, but since I’ve been working on them, I can do quite a few of them now. It’s really exciting to see that I’m getting stronger! I hate running! I know it’s good for my health, and I need to do it to improve my fitness for the Spartan Race, but… I just hate it!

Any ‘tips’ on how to get the best out of each workout?

Focus on your long-term goal. Make it your lifestyle. I try to think of the gym as my second home, and is a major part of my routine. Think that each workout will get you one step closer to your final goal. Results don’t come overnight.

How big of a role is nutrition? How do you handle that? Do you cook yourself or use meal prep or what’s your ‘secret’?

Nutrition plays a major part, some would say it’s more important than anything else. I try to cook food myself to make sure I’m eating healthy food and to get enough of what I need, but sometimes I order healthy ready-made foods online too. The main thing is that I eat enough protein to make sure I recover and stay lean, and not eat too many calories so that I don’t gain weight (unless I want to).

What’s your worst trait or pet peeve in regards to training? Anything you avoid? Anything you can’t get done? Anything that upsets you?

People who don’t put their weights back after they use them is a HUGE annoyance! Why should I have to put their weights back if they’re the ones who used them? There isn’t really anything else that I don’t like, to be honest. I love training and the whole lifestyle that comes with it. Also, you can eat more when you train than when you don’t train… and I just love that!

Since we’re among friends….any quirks or weird traits? We won’t tell anyone! 😉

My close friends always tell me that I’m nothing like they thought I would be when they first saw me. I guess it’s their way of telling me that I’m a lot weirder than I look!

Do you have any other hidden or not so hidden talents?

I can do a baby freeze, which is a beginner breakdancing move haha.

As we found you via IG a question in regards to social media. Did ever happen anything ‘weird’ to you online? Do you just post anything or do you take into consideration what people might think, who could see it, etc.? Or, like most, do you also have different profiles just to be safe?

I think that anybody who is quite open on social media will get some kind of strange interactions at some point. I’ve had a few love letters from people, but nothing really that crazy. In the beginning, I was worried what people would think when I posted a picture, and how they would think of the way I looked. Now that my main focus is fitness and I’ve gotten used to posting quite regularly, I don’t really worry at all any more. I only have one account on IG, I just try to keep it real and be myself. I like to think of it as a diary of my fitness and travel because I like the artistic aspect of it.

A post shared by L O T T A L E M O N (@lottalemon) on May 5, 2017 at 2:31am PDT

What’s next for you? Any immediate or long term plans?

At the moment, I’m training for the Spartan Race that’s happening in Thailand for the first time on September 9th – feel free to use my code ‘lottaspartan‘ for discounts when signing up ;). It’s a completely different type of training than I’m used to. My main type of training is usually strength based, but now I need to do a lot of endurance work to improve my fitness because there’s a lot of really great athletes out there!

If there’s one thing you could get everybody’s attention to, what would that be?

Global warming is real, we all need to be doing something about it!

Famous Last Words

“Money can’t buy life” – Bob Marley

[Tweet “”Money can’t buy life” – @LottaLemon”]

That’s it for today. Thank you very much for your time. Lots of fun and some interesting answers and I do hope we will see the baby freeze some time soon 😉 Also good luck for the Spartan Race of course but I’m sure you don’t need any luck!

If you liked what you read and want to see more of Lotta, follow @lottalemon on Instagram!