(song: I Can See Clearly Now/artist: Johnny Nash)
Well hey there. My last post was met with mixed reviews. Some were nice (people that like me) and I was encouraged to "hang in there...give it time...you know you can do it". Others were, well, not as encouraging (people that don't like me) but rather a "shut your whiny face you spoiled housewife" type response. Everyone's entitled to their opinions right? If I were super concerned about the meanies, I would have chosen a less public forum to express myself. So there!
Now, I'm kind of a "everything happens for a reason" type gal, and I just happened to be strolling down the street the other day, when I bumped into a neighborhood friend and fellow fitness enthusiast, Dièry. He is a personal trainer and has a beautiful studio in his amazing Brooklyn brownstone. I actually had a few sessions with him in 2009 after I lost my Turbo Jam weight, and I can tell you from experience that Dièry is an intense trainer, but he's also very intuitive and knows how to call you (me) on your bullshit.
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| Getting my ample booty kicked by Diery in 2009 |
So I bump into Dièry, minutes after writing my last post, and I tell you, it didn't feel like an accident. He praised my accomplishments and complimented my blog, which all felt great, but I couldn't lie to him when he asked me how I was doing now that I'm living in the real world. He told me to come over to the brownstone for a chat. (I should mention that the first time we met Dièry was at a block party for local business in the neighborhood. He was shirtless, wearing white linen pants and demonstrating all sorts of crazy yoga poses. The dude is in seriously good shape. My son was twoish-years-old at the time and was fascinated with the giant stability ball Dièry was using. My husband walked over to check out the ball, and before he knew what hit him, Dièry had "abducted" them and ushered them back to his studio, where he stretched my hubby out on a giant log and told him he needed to focus on core work. After my fear that the incredibly buff black man was going to murder all three of subsided, it became one of my all-time favorite moments in time.) So my point is, when Dièry tells you to come to the brownstone for a chat, YOU GO TO THE BROWNSTONE. You might even get a nice stretch on a log.
So I go to the studio for a chat, but of course you can't just chat, you have to do some crazy awesome exercise his backyard fitness oasis first. He had me do a set of squatted rows, which felt great in my glutes and back. I love and really miss having a trainer! Then, I'm sitting in Dièry's kitchen and we're chatting about why I can't seem to get my shit together, and I cry a little - SURPRISE! He gets deep, we tip-toe around terms like Body Dsymorphic and he voices his concerns about where my head is. He's frighteningly spot-on with some observations - probably because he's been doing this for 100 years and seen far worse crazy than mine - and he allows me to just get it all out. It helped tremendously. You know, he didn't have to do any of that, but it meant the world that he did. Thanks so much Dièry...
So for me, having a network of positive influences (including my OWN influence on myself) is extremely important right now. Well, forever really. I mean, why would I want a network of negative influences? I recently went back to my "mommy bootcamp" - Move It Momma - classes in Prospect Park and reunited with Chana Balk, the founder and leader of the class. Lady's got spunk. She's like 5 feet tall, curses like a sailor (never in front of the kids), holds me accountable and never goes easy on me. She calls me "Lady Butt Blaster" and constantly tells the other sweaty moms my transformation story - which totally makes me push harder. Chana is kind of my hero because she used to be a lawyer, then she became a full-time mom, but she always loved fitness and missed having an identity (hello!), so she first started a company called BabyBites, which was a great resource for me when I was an insane sleep-deprived mom to a small baby, then she decided to turn her love of fitness into a business; Hence, Move It Momma and now she's on her way to becoming a certified personal trainer. And I get to say, "Know her? I workout with her!", when she's famous. And I feel pretty certain that meeting her was no accident either...
