January. The month marks a new year and a new opportunity to form new habits. Unfortunately for many, those “resolutions” are often just a memory by the time February rolls around.
Resolutions for the new year can sometimes feel looming and impossible, and some of the most popular are centered around health and wellness. While the app store and Instagram’s Explore page can be littered with quick fixes and lifestyle resets, the Form app aims to do things a little differently—offering long-term progress and science-backed solutions rather than quick fixes.
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“We are never going to be participating in that clickbait that we have all seen on the cover of every magazine at the grocery store,” says Sami “Bernie” Spalter, co-founder of the fitness and lifestyle app called Form. “We are not here to sell you getting abs in seven days, but we’re all here to start saying yes to ourselves and to make you feel your best version of yourself — not trying to look like someone else.”
Form’s January Jumpstart Program launches this year with the aim of helping you reach your fitness and wellness goals from the inside out. It’s about more than just regular exercise because Form is about building a healthier routine as well as a healthier mindset and greater lifestyle.
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When Spalter and fellow Form co-founder Sami Carke started going on walks together during COVID-19 quarantine, they had no idea they would soon create a wellness app centered around mindfulness and empowering women to listen to their bodies and say “yes” to themselves.
Form officially launched in August of 2021, and Spalter says everyone involved—from the corporate team to the users alike—are all “girl’s girls.” In that sense, Form was founded not just as a fitness app but as a kind of sisterhood.
Clarke and Spalter recently launched a podcast on Jan. 3, in tandem with the app’s January jumpstart program, to help that community stick to their resolutions in a healthy and positive way.
“A big part of why [resolutions] don’t happen in the way we want it to is because we’re not actually making decisions that we want for ourselves,” Spalter says. “We can all want to be a fitness expert by the end of the year, but if we make no time for it, how is it supposed to happen?”
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Clarke and Spalter agree that January is a powerful time for the Form community, and when it comes to helping the community keep its resolutions, Clarke said it has to be a gradual process.
The January Jumpstart program focuses on three main components: movement, nutrition and mindfulness. Clark says the program is designed to guide users toward keeping up with those foundational pillars every step of the way.
“They can’t just jump in the water if they’ve never learned how to swim,” Clarke says. “You actually need a system in play, someone to teach you, or you won’t understand, and you will sink and fail and decide, ‘Okay, this isn’t for me.’”
Clarke said that mindfulness, which has always been a huge focus for Form, is the factor that is often overlooked in setting resolutions. This is why Form partnered with a manifestation and affirmation coach to work on goal setting and positive self-talk.
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For those worried about how Form can fit into an already busy routine, Spalter says Form’s weekly schedule is like her wellness Bible.
“We all make so many decisions in a day; decision fatigue is not a lie,” Spalter says. “What movement do I want? What do I want to eat? For me to know I need movement in my day and not have to wonder what that will look like and how I will get that, I just open the Form app.”
Form offers three different schedules: a pilates and strength training combo, a pilates-only track and a strength training-only track. Clarke says the accessibility and ease of the workouts make goals feel smaller and more attainable. In her opinion, sometimes saying yes to a quick 10-minute workout is more important and impactful than making time for a 45-minute one.
For Clarke, the journey of bringing Form to life began when she accepted the journey of saying “yes” to herself and used her social media platforms to share the ways in which she was doing that.
“I was starting to have a conversation with my body and hear my body and love my body,” she says. “That was something I had never experienced before.”
Through her various platforms, Clarke worked to redefine how she spoke about movement and fitness; rather than highlighting the physical changes she saw in her body, she shared the mental and spiritual improvement the movement was bringing her.
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When Spalter entered the scene, Clarke was craving a closer connection with the community she had built on social media. Clarke’s boyfriend and Spalter’s husband were middle school friends who encouraged Clarke and Spalter to get to know one another during the social isolation of the pandemic.
“Soon enough, Bernie and I were just going on these walks, and the boys were nowhere to be found,” Clarke says.
Spalter described Clarke as the “fitness expert” and herself as “a part of Clarke’s community, who is now grateful enough to be a co-founder of Form.”
Spalter, who owned and sold her own business before co-founding Form, is also a living embodiment of Form’s mission. Using the workouts, nutrition and mindfulness tools of Form, Spalter lost 80 pounds.
“I personally was the one who didn’t understand anything about her own health journey,” she says. “Truly, all of the tips and tricks and Form’s toolkit has fully changed my life.”
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Clarke says Form’s superpower is listening to its community and playing an active role in the conversation. Form users feel heard and understood in their struggles, and Spalter says that sense of community is the heart and soul of Form’s brand.
The friends agree that genuinely changing people’s lives and hearing the powerful testimonies through the Form community is the most beautiful thing to watch, and working at Form just never really feels like “work.”
“Once you know Form, you don’t even have to ask [how it is different],” Spalter says. “It is just such a feeling, and the community is the heartbeat within that.”
Form is available for download on iPhone and Android, on Apple and Android TV, Roku, FireTV and Chromecast or online at digital.joinform.co. Form Memberships are offered for $119 annually or $28/month.
Photography by: Courtesy of Form
