Every BODY, not everybody

Finding the right fitness instructor for you is like church shopping. You are pretty sure in what you believe, you have an idea of where you want to go and you are looking for the right fit to help you get there. I love living in an area where there are MANY instructors to choose from who can help you on your fitness journey. Judgement is a dirty little word that we need to get out of our vocabulary. I see women who come to class and march in place for the entire hour. I see women who go full out and walk out drenched in sweat. One is not working harder than the other. They are both different and on different journeys and are both warriors. Just getting to class sometimes is a battle when you have families, work, and other stresses in life. Getting there and honoring what your body can do for that day is a celebration! I don't know about you, but it's hard sometimes tuning out those messages of what people "think" being fit looks like. The constant stream of Facebook pictures that are supposed to be motivating, but only make me annoyed. The "body after baby" magazine articles...not motivating and not real folks! I worked up the nerve to take a "sultry dance class" once  and I was soooooo self conscious because I had this idea of what I thought I was supposed to look like. I carefully stood in a place where I couldn't see myself in the mirror and watched the instructor teach us about letting go and enjoying the movement. I looked at the women around me and saw the joy in their faces, not caring what they looked like. You can tell can't you? When someone is comfortable in their own skin? It's empowering! Going into that class was traumatic enough, but having an encouraging guide who was there for me, not for herself, was what made me want to come back. And for a moment, I stopped judging, forgot about what I looked like and just kept moving. That was the victory. I may have even worked up a sweat.

Don't let someone else define what success is for you. Surround yourself with people who lift you up and help you define it for yourself.

I have a crush...

So if you know me, you know that I have a few girl crushes in my life. We all have them, or have had them at some time. It's that person we think is just so amazing and perhaps we have never even met them. There's just something about them that speaks to us and we might even want to emulate that person is some way. I have two girl crushes, one on Kate Middleton and the other on a Zumba Education Specialist named Gina Grant. I believe (maybe I hope) that this is completely normal! I think it's healthy to look and admire personality traits about certain people and want that for ourselves. Here's the tricky part. A girl crush can turn ugly fast. It can turn into jealousy or even into self hate because we will never be that person and then sadly, the next question it "Is myself good enough."

The answer is YES! My A-ha moment was that voice sharing something with me and I'm now going to share it with you! There is NO ONE like you! Did you know that? You are so special that no one else in the world is you. You are unique and custom made. No one else has what you have and can do what you do. There is NO COMPETITION. Why don't we identify the trait that we love or admire about someone and adopt it into our own personalities.

We can't be something we are not, but we can strive to be our best selves!

The Journey

Although I have been teaching fitness classes for almost 4 years, my fitness journey has evolved so much. It started with needing some me time and I joined a gym with childcare. It wasn't about getting healthy, it was more about getting away! I had no idea how much I could enjoy exercise when I discovered Zumba. It went from once a week, to twice to three times and then poof; I became an instructor. Well, of course it was a bit more than that but you get the idea. There is always a reason we are pulled in a certain direction and what may have been our initial intention may evolve into something completely different. I call this a journey because I believe that there are no quick fixes to whatever issues or problems we are facing. I may have wanted childcare to get away, but I still had to pick the kids up right? Exercise gave me the skills to deal with whatever stress that led me to believe I needed to get away. It made me see the kids weren't the problem. I was! It didn't solve the problem, it made me identify what I wanted. I wanted to be more pleasant around my children. I wanted to not be so tired and crabby. I wanted to feel good about myself. Exercise, fitness, health...walking in that class changed my life and brought me into an industry I never thought I'd have a career in. You truly have no idea what lies on the other side of a door that you have yet to walk through. 

It's okay to have expectations, but don't be surprised when something extraordinary to happens.

Welcome Welcome Welcome!

Welcome and hugs to you for visiting my new fitness and lifestyle website! I'm so excited to be on this fitness journey with you. I have the honor of being an instructor and being a witness to the positive transformations people are making in their lives! And here YOU are! Whatever brought you to my page, I hope that you will take something positive from what I share and that it will bless your life in some way as you have blessed mine by simply visiting!