By Kat Eftink
Memphis health and wellness influencer, Catherine Sistrunk, or The_StrayCat, is on the rise. She shares workouts, beauty and wellness tips, fashion inspiration, lifestyle content, and much more, daily, to nearly 15,000 Instagram followers.
Catherine fell in love with documenting her life. She fell in love with sharing it. She fell in love with inspiring others.
“Find something that ignites your joy in working out and go with it,” Catherine said. “If anybody ever wants to become an influencer, share your life, document everything.”
Discovering what workout sparks happiness can be a journey within itself. Discouragement is a common hurdle at the start of many health endeavors. Like others, Catherine felt lost at the beginning of her health journey, but she knew she just needed to add movement into her life.
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” she said. “I just wanna pick up some weights, and I want to wear a cute workout set. That was literally my thought process.”
Through the initial confusion, she found patience with herself. She learned that trial and error is the best way to figure out what works best. She explored kickboxing, swimming, and CrossFit, but yoga is what kept her interested.
And yoga was the first thing she started posting when she began influencing others on health and wellness. As her influence grew, so did her personal goals. At first, she just wanted to change her appearance, but now, she’s working towards a long-term physique.
She wants to be fit to feel good. She wants to be able to easily carry heavy boxes up 3 flights of stairs. She wants to be strong for herself.
“I always said to myself, be easy on yourself because you’re not training for the Olympics,” She said. “I’m a human being that works, and I want to live more healthy, and I want to live longer.”
A way that Catherine keeps herself accountable is by documenting her life. She said that writing it down or recording yourself can be very helpful.
“It’s like a reward system,” Catherine said. “ You know, just being a good noodle.”
Not only will it keep you on track, but it will also give you something to look back on. It shows where you started and how far you’ve come.
And Catherine has come a long way since she first started influencing. She always dreamed of being an influencer. She discovered this at 12-years-old, when she found Jenna Marbles on YouTube. Watching Jenna brought Catherine joy, and she wanted to spread that same joy to others.
Before she fell in love with posting about health and wellness, she posted about her travels. She had a role with the USO in the Middle East. Since she was in a warzone, she got “hazard perks.” For her one year contract, she received 60 days of PTO, so every 3 months she took a 2 week vacation. She documented her adventures on Instagram. This travelogue phase is where her username, The_StrayCat, originated.
“I was like, I’m going to name my Instagram account The_StrayCat because my name’s Catherine, and then the stray is like all over the world.”
The Stray Cat, once roaming the globe, now has nearly 15,000 followers that she brings joy and inspiration to every day. 12-year-old Catherine would be proud.
Follow Catherine’s bubbly, sweet personality and health tips on Instagram @The_StayCat! For more health and wellness tips, follow us @ProjectYouMagazine.
