Feeling so much love

                                              



 My heart is currently full. For almost 5 years I taught fitness at a small gym. The fitness I taught was high impact, and the environment I worked in was very stressful. I began listening to Chalene Johnson's podcasts again after a few months of slacking, and realized this job was no longer enriching my life in any way.
     My husband travels a lot, and keeps long hours. However, he was having to pick up a lot of slack. I had a philosophy summed up as "never turn down money". That often equaled working 7 days a week, split shifts. If a kid got sick, I couldn't always drop everything and go home. He would get calls in Paris, France, or London, England from the school wanting him to get our youngest who would be feverish or otherwise icky.  We would have to scramble to get our kid.
     The journey began with a clean, organized fridge. Diet is the first and primary step to losing weight.  An organized fridge makes it easier to make right choices. Next I went through my closet. I got rid of anything that didn't make me feel great, or that I hadn't worn in years. No matter how expensive it was. Our local Goodwill got a pair of Chanel shoes I hadn't worn in five year and owned for 10 or 15 years. Ouch!
     Finally, I put in my two weeks notice. I had several formats I taught, from dance fitness to weight training. I decided to concentrate on one workout program-barre. I got the best results from barre. I had been doing it in one form or another for 13 years so I was committed, and I am one of the few instructors in my area. The market is saturated with yoga and dance fitness instructors.
     Now, to the card. When I left my job, the lovely amazing ladies I worked with gave me this card with $100.00 in it. They had taken up a collection-100 reasons why they will miss me. Now keep in mind-I live in a country town in the midwest. $100.00 is a significant amount of money for these ladies, many of whom are on fixed incomes.
     I have a wish list to the tune of a couple of hundred at Houzz and Red Dress Boutique. I wanted to put the money towards that stuff, but I decided I wanted something permanent and lasting to remember these amazing ladies by. I went to Chalene Johnson's webpage and bought the 79.00 Smart Life Push Journal. I plan to use this to "get my shit together". I will figure out what my goals are for the future and use this as a tool to do it right in honor of the love and belief these ladies gave me.


                                                                   Here's to the future!

Now what? Barre of course!

necklace by Jenny Bird

I'm enjoying the silence this early morning. I don't have to prep for a crazy dance fitness class anymore, and can just enjoy my barre. I love the peaceful challenge barre gives me.
If you're afraid that barre is for graceful people, fear not! I was almost 6 feet tall by 7th grade. Graceful has never been my thang. If you're heavy and afraid of barre-fear not! My good friend took my first pay class at the gym. Normally all group classes are free with membership, but barre was had to be a pay class due to equipment costs. She was heavier, but had already lost a lot of weight prior. She has had amazing results, but only took the class to support me.

When you get older, maybe you still have strength and flexibility but can't bounce like you used to. Maybe a quick run will cause you to pee your pants. Hey, it happens! Deal with it. You can still challenge yourself with the isometric/dynamic exercises in barre. It's hard, but not so painful you can't use those muscles the next day.

About Today

It's a big day for me. I spent almost 5 years in a gym setting. Today I quit. I'd been re-evaluating things after a health scare and realized this job wasn't for me. I loved the customers, this was a women only gym. However, I was teaching many different formats such as dancing, yoga, weights, and personal training, and I wanted to slow down. I'm going to be 46 and I worked twice a day most days, 6 days a week.

But now what. I want to be shallow! I love clothes and fashion but spent 6 days a week in sweats. What's my personal style? I know what I like to look at. I know whose blogs I follow for inspiration. I haven't found many over 40 style blogs I click with yet, but I'm hoping I'll find my style soul mate!