2017 started strong. My fitness game was on and my body was probably in the best form of its life.I was committed to my workouts and was dancing 6 days a week. I had decided a couple months prior to the start of the new year I wanted to go back to dance, after more than 10 years off.
I started taking lessons at 2.5 years old and never turned back, continuing to dance into my late 20’s. I took ballet, tap and jazz, dropping ballet first, due to my high energy personality. I was always dancing in my teen years. I took weekly lessons, I competed for cheer and I hit the dance floor any chance I could, at the various teen nights throughout high school. In my adolescent years, I was often found clearing the floor at the near impossible to get into, Limelight, during it’s heyday in the 90’s. When I moved into to the city in my 20’s, I enlisted in hip hop classes at Broadway Dance Center. And to my delight, when I met my husband, we quickly discovered we shared a mutual love of house music, which found us spending weekend afternoons at PS1 and many, many evenings at Centro Fly.
Oh the memories and how things have change since 15 years ago! We started some eves, or should I say mornings out, as late as 1am(even on school nights ;) and now fast forward, it’s a rarity to still be awake at these wee hours. With kids, work and everyday responsibilities, its near impossible to find downtime.
I pondered how I could bring this love back into my life, outside of the occasional dance parties I have with my kids in our living room. I found an amazing and fun program called DanceBody and was quickly falling in love with hip hop all over again.
Within weeks, my daughter became curious about what I was up to. As I danced proudly, practicing daily to perfect the new routines I was learning, she watched quietly in the background. Slowly, she joined me and tried to emulate what I was doing. And after many years of softly encouraging her to sign up for a dance class, she became interested. I danced with the owner, Katia Pryce, once a week, and she was consistently both motivating and always in an upbeat mood. I was dancing on air with spirits high and within 3 weeks saw amazing results!
Unfortunately, 3 months later, I hurt my hamstring and had to abruptly stop. As I let my injury heal and started loosing results, I made a decision to go back to boxing, another fitness category, I enjoyed in my 20’s. My rationale was to focus on my upper body and core, while my leg repaired itself. Once again, I went all in, boxing 4-5 times per week and I was excited to introduce this activity into my kid’s lives as well.
One of my goals for 2017 was to find different types of exercise my kids and I could do together. We found the perfect place to make this a reality at Church Street Boxing. As my kids were learning the basics in their children’s class, I was hitting the bags hard in another area of the gym. I was working on overdrive to make up for the fitness gains I had lost, while relieving stress and frustration in the process. Clearly I took things too far again and wound up within weeks with a shoulder injury.
The good news is my kids continued and in addition my daughter signed up for a hip hop class. So I did wind up fulfilling one of my goals and in the interim found a new one... to finally address living life in moderation. You see, I have always had an all or nothing personality. I go from not working out to working out 6-7 days a week. I either eat what I want whenever I want or follow an insanely strict and limited diet. I put a 150 percent into my work and the same into my parenting. In these areas, I simply can’t choose the opposite as I have people depending on me, but allowing myself an easier day here or there, pushing off a non urgent work obligation or not fulfilling everyone of my kids’ needs and saying no once in awhile would be a healthy thing for me to achieve.
So for 2018, I am making goals for myself that are more moderate. I look forward to hopefully getting back to dance class a couple times a week, mixed with some moderate weight training and a box here and there. I plan to follow the 80/20 approach to life. 80 percent healthy living and 20 percent live and let live.
I am also going to make a commitment to drink more water. I know this one sounds minor, but I am pretty much never thirsty so it’s near impossible for me to remember to drink up. That being said, I must say whenever I am not feeling well, the first thing I do is drink a tall glass of water and 9 out is 10 times I start feeling better almost instantly. I also commit to sharing with you all how I am doing with my goals a few months from now... holding myself accountable.
Lastly, I am going to strive to be more patient towards my family and myself.
Happy New Year! Peace and Prosperity in 2018 and beyond.