The view from my desk…

When you walk into one of my classes you are an athlete. To be honest, it doesn’t totally matter if you define yourself as such (although I hope that you give yourself enough, I’m a bad-ass, credit to do so,) but to me, the moment you walk through the door to the studio/box/gym you are one. This classification defines how I teach, and it may catch the occasional “dude, I’m just here because I feel like I should be” person off guard. If I do not believe you are holding yourself to the level that an athlete should – I will tell you. That being said, If I think you are putting in the work worthy of that title – I will also tell you (mostly likely very loudly and enthusiastically.) Here’s the thing: I do not expect perfect classes with perfect people who have perfect conditioning. Where’s the thrill in that? What I do expect each and every time I teach are classes filled with people willing to put in the work – because that is what athletes do, and that is what distinguishes them from everyone else. They put in the work. And a truly great ones do so not selfishly, not egotistically, but passionately and humbly. You do not need to be in the NFL to be an athlete post high school or college, you simply need to change the way you approach the gym– to change the way you work. Continue reading →

The only picture I managed to take in my wanderings. Total fail of documentation.

I’ve found that me being an emotionally erratic, single 24 year old is in fact very advantageous for blogging. Who knows where my emotional state will be at the end of the week, and thus I always have a new and exciting emotional platform from which to write from – Whooo. But seriously, it sometimes astounds me just how often my internal dialogue vacillates throughout the course of the week. I can go from feeling like a rock star to a big waste of space in about 8 seconds. How is it possible to lose our ground so quickly? Are we able to become resilient to such superficial swings – or I guess the greater question is: are these emotional swings merely superficial – meaning that they don’t penetrate the baseline of our self, or are they in fact very substantial – exposing the lack of a solid foundation of the self? Continue reading →

My dog Mojo with a tennis ball: absolute bliss attained.

I was sitting around with two friends this weekend, chatting about life decisions and the choices that had lead us to our current paths. Not to toot our own horns, but we are a tri-fecta of intelligent women, and yet we have all chosen paths that may not always be associated with the top tier of “success.” Two of us are fitness + instructors (the + being a dabbling in other endeavors, as in the world of blogging and nutrition…) and one is in school to become a nurse practitioner. I guess if we wanted to be more classical in our life pursuits, the  description of our career paths should’ve been: a law student, a business student, and a med student. But, the crazy thing is, each of us is thrilled by our not so classical choice. And, perhaps the really crazy thing is, somehow in the conversation “success” got juxtaposed to, as opposed to, aligned with our lives – had we made the right choice in choosing happiness over success… Continue reading →