This seems to be a recurring theme.  Even in the process of writing this, I have had a few intimate conversations about body image.  The conversations are usually around a five or ten pound weight difference.  When I talk about body image, I am not talking about a healthy weight for a specific individual, I am talking about the ways in which women see themselves. 

Wednesdays are one of my favorite days in the studio.  And it’s not because I get to talk A LOT, well maybe a little.  I love Wednesdays because we do technique.  Every week we break down a movement and we spend an hour getting a better understanding of that movement and how our bodies adapt to it. 

I love Birthdays.  I love my birthday and I love other people’s birthday.  I love cake and I especially love frosting.  Actually its not even the cake that I love, it’s pretty much just the frosting.  My favorite would have to be cream cheese frosting but I’ll pretty much take any kind of buttercream frosting.

We all have bad days.  And I don’t mean the days that are just rough days.  I mean those days where everything goes wrong.  The days that start out with fighting children, spilling coffee and realizing you have no gas in your car.

Just to clarify, I did not run for chocolate.  I ran to chocolate.  This is an important clarification.  Running for chocolate means that I earned chocolate.  I went out and I ran so I could have chocolate.  Running to chocolate means that the fastest way to get chocolate and the more time to eat chocolate was to run to chocolate. 

And sometimes I wish I still was.  I used to run for exercise.  I ran for fresh air and time to myself.  I ran to look better and to feel better.  I loved running.  I loved running in the crisp air of the early mornings and the warmth of the summer days.  I loved running with my mini men and friends.  I loved the sunrises and the quietness.

I have a client, who is also a friend.  She started coming to classes more than three years ago.  Her first day in the garage to workout, and I think one of her first days working out ever, she says “I am doing this so I can wear a bikini on my fiftieth birthday.”

Waking up to teach early Monday morning after Rhody is equal to a really bad hangover.  I guess it is pretty much a hangover, one of over stimulation.  The Rhododendron Festival has a little bit of everything and we tried to cover as much of it as we could fit in.

This is like those stories that you hear a hundred times because someone thinks it’s super important.  Well, as a trainer to women, this is super important.  This is like a Public Service Announcement about feelings, or better yet an After School Special for middle age women.  

I train hard.  I don't lack motivation or drive when I hit the gym.  But life is stressful, raising kids is stressful, relationships are stressful and what if one bad day turned into a week and then turned into a month.  What if the maintenance of strength became a slow regression, my previous PR’s became a memory of the past.