Up in the Gym Just Workin' on My Fitness

Thank you Fergie for that fine introduction! I wanted to drop by today and touch on where I am at fitness wise. There is a whole story to be told about me and fitness, which I will give a very brief version of. I was not always as fitness oriented as I am now. From middle school through high school, PE was an embarrassment. I was a chubby kid who ran 18 minute miles on a good day. In high school I joined color guard, which really is like taking up a sport, and accidentally started down a route of "surprise, I like to exercise". Then when I entered college I started exercising regularly to deal with stress. To the best of my ability I would schedule my academic classes around my gym classes. It was pretty sweet. And then, junior and senior year I discovered BodyAttack and I became a GYM RAT! I don't know what it was about this specific class, the instructors, the intense routines, but I loved it. I didn't care what I needed to do academically, that one hour class was my top priority. Oh, I have to skip dinner? Oh, I have to study for a final? Oh, I'm going to have to stay up until 6am to get all of my work done? Whatever! I'll worry about that post-BodyAttack. In fact, I was so dedicated to this class that one instructor told me I should become a certified instructor. Hard! Core! And I was totally into this idea, but I never looked into while I was there and then I moved back to California and blah de blah it never happened. I did, however, join a gym when I moved home, but by the time winter '10 I was in a rut and barely going. 

Then sometime in January I discovered Oxygen magazine and in February I bought my first one and for various reasons embarked on their plan of clean eating and strength training. And let me tell you, four months later I am HOOKED. I'm not as into strength training as I was/am BodyAttack, but I do love and appreciate where this current path is taking me. And honestly, even with only four months under my belt, I can tell I am in the best shape of my life.

At some point I will upload a calendar to give a better idea of how dedicated/into fitness I currently am. And hopefully as time goes on I will create and post videos about exercising and clean eating. Right now I am going strong because I have reunions coming up in a few weeks that I, vainly, want to look smoking hot for. But long term I think I will seriously look into 1.competing in figure competitions and 2. becoming a BodyAttack instructor. Because I do not want this to be a momentary, I was 22 and did this for a while change. I want this to be my life forever. For me, this was a lifestyle change.

The Importance of Female Friendship

(what a stuffy title!) For years I was one of those girls who routinely said "I don't have very many female friends. Guys are easier to get along with." And for the most part it still stands true; the proportion of male friends I have is much higher than that of female friends. (This girl, who wasn't my friend, once told me that it was b/c I'm physically attractive. As if my personality and wit was negligent/nonexistent. Gee, thanks.) Be that as it may, I have slowly become a strong proponent of female friendship. No matter how close a girl is to her male friends, there is always this breach in understanding. What holds meaning and significance and thus how we approach and view topics is very different. Let me put this into context. A major issue in my life for about the past year has been hair. We can stop right there, and evaluate that. Most men, after that line, would be ready to move on with a careless wave of their hand and a "Don't worry about it" or "I'm sure you'll figure it out." To them the topic is over; to me it is just starting and it is SERIOUS. Even if they discuss the topic with me, it still doesn't register to them how serious and upset I am by the topic. Because to a man, how can hair be a serious topic? And maybe it is a result of me choosing to be serious about topics that most others would find frivolous and inconsequential. And by others I mean men, because you know who else considers hair to be a serious topic? Many other women.