Confessions from a group fitness instructor

She gets up on stage, she has been studying her choreography all week, I know this she confidently whispers to herself!

She stands on that stage and stares out at the sea of expectant faces before her, in just three minutes everything she thought she had is gone.

How does this fricken release start? Are my legs wide or together? Do they know I have gone blank, why have I gone blank, why cant I remember?

Breathe damnit breath, relax she silently screams to her racing brain.

With a sudden jolt of clarity, she remembers. I remember she almost screams into the microphone.

How long have I been standing there it must have been five minutes, it’s only 30 seconds, it felt like 30 minutes.

She starts the class, no one is smiling, some look angry. Do they hate this release, do they hate me, or are they just concentrating?

Stop worrying, get back to the moment.

She smiles, she smiles from the inside out, she is on stage she is teaching body balance, she smiles and her whole body relaxes, the movements flow, she is doing what she loves.

One track after the other it seamlessly flows, then bam, deer in highlights what the frick is next, is this the new release or the old one?

Should she stay in deer in headlights pose or would some spirit fingers and interpretive dancing be better? Maybe some running man or sprinkler?

Get it together.

There we go, she is back. She comes back to the moment, if she stuffs up on one side, she will just stuff up on the other – keep it consistent and all that.

She will go back and re-learn, she will do the class next time and it will be perfect.

She continues class, can they see down my top in this pose? She lies down – darn mic belt is in the way, she moves it as daintily as she can, which isn’t very dainty at all.

Sometimes she is energised, excited and free, sometimes she is tired from multiple classes, from learning choreography, from the rest of her busy life.

She forgets her lefts and rights at times, she forgets the names of body parts, she sounds like she is trying to get the class into a giant game of twister.

She has a small class one week, and wonders what she did wrong the week before, she has a big class she feels amazing.

She is touched when she finally realizes what a positive impact she makes on some people’s lives, she is humbled and a little embarrassed when people tell her that class is the highlight of their week.

She is overjoyed that week after week, people come to her class, they are motivated and inspired by her.

Yet still she has her moments of self doubt.

She is not alone, she is human. She is a group fitness instructor, but she also is many many other things…….

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Lift your heart to the sunshine & let your soul shine through

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Beauty is 10% looks, and 90% what’s happening on the inside.

How you feel on the inside will transfer to how you appear on the outside.

When you feel a little down, rather than focus on the negatives lift your heart to the sunshine, allow your thoughts to drift to all the good and beautiful things in your life.

Watch the transformation yourself, as your soul literally shines through, you radiate happiness from the inside out!

Beautiful yes?

The emotional side of exercise

It has been an oddly emotional week, for myself and others around me. I have had a few people cry in my classes and this of course has made me think more deeply about my life, and my classes.

Emotions are a funny thing, they can be pushed to the background for so long, before all of a sudden they explode when you least expect it.

Exercise releases endorphins we all know about this, it makes sense then that emotions can be released as well.

While you may feel more comfortable crying during relaxation or a hip opening yoga sequence than pumping weights or running on the treadmill, don’t be surprised if halfway mid squat you suddenly feel overcome with emotion.

Here is where all the guys are puffing their chests out saying whatever lady, well guys it happens to you too, I know this, I have seen it.

While you may disguise (or bury) it better than the ladies, it does happen to you as well 🙂

Think about it, when you are exercising, you are away from your life so to speak; no wife, husband, children, work, deadlines, chores before you – just you and your chosen exercise.

Your mind is now focussed, your breathing has most likely changed, without these other external factors what are you left with?

Your thoughts!

Your emotions!

Now for my yoga, pilates, body balance people; relaxation is confrontational, being left quietly alone with yourself and a potential racing mind can be daunting, so I am here to tell you that it is ok to feel whatever it is you are feeling.

It is ok to let some tears flow silently down your cheeks, and if you end up a blubbering puffy face mess then that is ok as well.

We tend to hold a lot of emotion in our hips, so if you are in the midst of a deep hip opening sequence then it is quite natural to start to feel an emotional release during this.

How you feel is how you feel, so recognise this, accept this and embrace it.

Release what needs to be released and I am confident you will feel a million times better for allowing yourself to do this.

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Step outside your comfort zone

Sometimes to get the most out of your exercise routine, diet or just life in general you need to step out of your comfort zone. Try a new form of exercise, a new way of eating, a new hobby.

Quite often even though the choices we have made are working for us, if we don’t try new things we can become complacent and bored. When we become complacent we are not performing at optimum level.

To get the most out of your exercise routine try mixing it up every now and then, I trust you will notice the difference.

Try varying your diet to keep your taste buds alive and stop the bad cravings.

As for life well stepping outside your comfort zone can only ever be a good thing; if you try and fail you can take pride in the lessons learnt from the experience, the satisfaction of being brave and the huge rewards you can feel for achieving and conquering a new goal.

Balance and harmony

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Finding the perfect balance in life isn’t always easy.

Balancing work, kids, exercise, hobbies, it seems as though time is often against us.

When we have balance we find harmony, when our lives are in harmony we find fulfillment and isn’t that what we are all striving for?

Something I have found helpful lately is compiling a list of how I spend my time.

While I feel a little silly doing it and admitting this publicly, it has been such a useful exercise to find more balance and harmony in my life.

If you are being totally honest with yourself (as I was) you will be shocked just how much time you spend on Facebook and other social media platforms.

If this brings you great joy then I say continue, if you however are not enjoying this, or feeling time poor, then I say it may be time to re-evaluate as I did.

Spend the time doing what makes you feel good any chance you get.

Spend less time (outside of work/family commitments) doing things that make you feel bad.

It seems so obvious when I say it, but often so hard to actually do.

Find balance and create harmony.

The key to success starts with what is happening in your head

It doesn’t matter what your diet plan is, which fitness or life goal you have set, if you are not in the right head space mentally your chances of success are low.

If you are not 100% committed to achieve, or are already telling yourself you are going to fail then perhaps you are not ready to start.

While this all may sound very negative, it doesn’t need to.

The key to all of this is YOU and what is currently happening in your head.

It isn’t easy to change patterns of thought and behaviors that you may have held on to for years.

It isn’t easy but it is possible and achievable.

If someone tells me I am going to fail, I have two choices; I believe them and fail or I prove them wrong and succeed.

I know which person I would rather be.

Which person do you want to be?

The key to your success starts with what is happening inside your head.

Get out there and be fabulous!

Kale – super food

It’s the start of a new year, and I like millions of others around the world are busy making plans to “eat better and get fitter”.

Well as a fitness instructor, I have the fitness bit all sorted, and while my husband and I eat very healthily already, there are always things that can be improved.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not (and never will) one of those girls who drinks water only when out and has nibbles on a few lettuce leaves and thinks that’s enough…..

Sure if that lettuce was a comfortable bed for a range of other veggies and meats then count me in.

I love a good steak, and recently I read that kale is the “new beef”. I knew it was a superfood but it has cow like properties – amazing 🙂

So off I went to buy my bunches of kale amongst other things as I figure putting that into a blender rather than a chunk of porterhouse steak makes way more sense.

I made (thanks to a recipe from a friend) a healthy, and surprisingly refreshingly delicious drink of kale, green apple and coconut water.

Kale is not only super it is versatile, throw it in your omelette, put it in your stir-fry, make some brown rice with kale, avocado and mango.

These are just some of the super things I have been doing recently with my super food.

Here is an interesting article I read recently on the top ten health benefits of Kale.

Everything in moderation

Everything in moderation, we have all heard that saying countless times.

I think this time of year as you are devouring your third plate of Christmas dinner goodness, eating just “one” more chocolate, and drinking your hundredth alcoholic drink you are starting to wish you actually adhered to it.

While I do think that drinking 100 drinks probably isn’t ideal and eating too much fatty sugary food isn’t going to make you feel amazing;  it is Christmas, it is a time for celebrating and partying so please don’t beat yourself up if you are consuming the “bad” things a little more frequently and less moderately than you normally would.

As I always say in my classes, be kind to yourself, listen to your body, give it the break and treats it deserves, but keep in mind if you are drinking and eating excessively you will most likely put on weight.

So my friends, eat and drink (at least not too crazily)  if the weight creeps up, then so be it, deal with it by not allowing this to become a habit, jump back into action early in the new year and get your body healthy again.

Life is too short to be at war with yourself.

 

Water a trusted old friend

The human body is comprised of over 50%water.

So clearly quite an important part of it.

As you sweat you dehydrate, as you drink you dehydrate.

As you dehydrate you need to rehydrate.

When you reach the point of feeling dehydrated, your body has already been pushed too far.

If you don’t really know the effect that lack of water has on your body, look at your garden and notice what happens to your plants when they are thirsty and starved of water.

Our bodies are the same.

If you, like the majority of people, are drinking more alcohol than usual over the madness of the Christmas party season, then your water intake is crucial.

Even if you don’t realize it at the time.

Drink water, then drink more, then drink more again.

Your body will thank you for it.

Water is an old trusted friend, who often gets neglected, yet always come back to rescue us when we need it.