THANKFUL FOR MY VILLAGE

THANKFUL FOR MY VILLAGE

Black Friday marks the one year anniversary of my family joining Cherry Hill Health and Racquet Club.  I figured that deserved a year in review. A LOT has changed with me over the last twelve months. I spent the first ten of those months dabbling in all the different types of classes and training CHHRC had to offer. I fell back in love with yoga.  I did that pretty regularly. I am not sure if it was because I have truly learned to value being mindful or it is because I was too scared to really do anything where I could lose my breath or hurt my body. The truth is that I know I am not twenty anymore.  The last time I just went full into working out hardcore, I tore my ACL and needed surgery…that was not at this gym – of course. Twelve months ago, I was in the worst shape of my life. My mental health was so/so and I was in no-way-shape-or-form a positive role model for my children.   

 

Skip to now…

At the end of August, something truly clicked in my brain.  I decided that I needed to be serious about changing my habits.  I joined a lifestyle brand that will remain nameless. I started counting p**nts in relation to my food intake ←-  I can’t write the real word because that nameless lifestyle brand may have trademarked the words “counting p**nts”.  I mean, Oprah is in charge of the brand, and I believe she secretly runs the galaxy. I wouldn’t want my blog to get anyone in trouble.  

 

Since August 31, I am officially down 20lbs.  That may not seem like that much when you are my size, but due to all my gymming, I am down 12 inches in my waist alone, not to mention all the other inches in all the other parts of my body.  I could never ever do this alone. It has taken a village to help me stay motivated. I figured since this is a really big deal for me, I would use this blog as a platform to thank some of the humans in my village.

 

First thank you goes to my brother, David.  He woke up one day and decided to just lose 140lbs.  He did it at CHHRC and because of him, we decided to join.  I get to see him each morning when I go to my 5:30 am classes.  You could call him my inspiration, but don’t tell him I said that.  

 

Next, I have two cousins who have helped me on my journey.  One is on the Oprah lifestyle brand train with me. She motivated me to start.  She helped me realize that I can do this! We share recipes and favorite low-p**nt foods.  The other cousin is a morning gymer. I started going in the morning before I have to be at work because I dreaded thinking about fitting time in after work.  She had mentioned how she loved going in the morning back in September when she brought me to a movie premiere. I decided to give it a try and clearly I fell in love!  I love checking in with her, too. We sometimes text funny little memes at 6am. Its special and fun and it keeps me going.  

 

I will try to keep this short – I have visions of an orchestra playing to cut my time off like the Oscars.  

 

I can not have a thank you to my village without thanking my class instructors Laurie, Dana,  Rachel, Leslie, Veronica, and Jody. Laurie (Mossa Groove, Mossa Active, and Mossa Core) and Dana (Mossa Centergy and Pilates) are my morning ladies.  Their amazing energy keeps me coming day after day and week after week. I can be myself with them and they always encourage me to work my hardest. Leslie is my Form and Foundation yoga instructor. Without that class each Saturday, I would never have grown strong enough to power up and commit to all the classes in August.  Veronica ran the Yoga 101 and 201 courses that really showed me how to move things to the next level. Rachel and Jody are my superstar subs. There was a point in time(at another gym) where if my instructor was going to be out, so would I.  Jody makes me laugh and just has so much energy. I love it when she is part of the class! Rachel is the yoga boss but is cool enough to sub for the yoga classes, too. This is the first gym I have ever been to where the subs are as good as the regular instructors.

I consider myself so lucky for being a part of this place and having all these amazing people in my life who support me.  I thought I was lucky last year to get the Black Friday Deal to join CHHRC. I never realized how much luckier I was going to get by making that place my home where I spend about 8 hours a week.