I'm Coming Out!! -- Of the workout closet

Happy September my lovelies! So sorry I have been away from here. Summer has been a blur of writing, in fact the entire year has been. Somebody please pinch me I feel so incredibly lucky to have been working. As a writer you never know when that next job is going to come.

But I've missed you. I've missed being here and blogging and hearing what you all have been up to. I don't think I've actually posted anything since January *Gulp* do you forgive me? Are you even still here? I'm dying to know how your summer has been.

I feel as though 2017 has really spun me through a wringer. 2016 was challenging and I felt like the biggest lesson I needed to learn was surrender. You can't control everything, sometimes shit just happens, sometimes (as hokey as this sounds) the universe just knows better, and you've gotta give it up to a higher power. Yeah, well that lesson wasn't learned evidently because 2017 has been making me cry "Uncle". 

Not only was I asked to juggle two primetime shows for two different networks, there was a point that I was doing it at the same time. So it shouldn't come as a shock to learn that there have been some repercussions on my health. 

Got to feeling exceptionally worn out, as if my tank was totally out of gas. My doctor kept telling me that I was anemic and needed simply to take more iron. I was taking enough to probably kill a horse already and if I took any more, I'd likely never poop again. (iron supplements constipate you btw) Eventually I grew so weary I could no longer workout and I gained ten pounds and I looked like crap.

Long story short - I'm still in the weeds and not feeling great. But, after going to a naturopath and spending a fortune on blood tests (nearly every damned thing came back normal) I learned that I have hypothyroidism and I've fried my adrenals from stress - cortisol levels were through the roof. Hey, no wonder I wasn't sleeping and had a spare tire.

All this is to say that I could not keep up with my beloved Katia and Court at Dancebody. Oh, don't get me wrong, I still do their little shortie workouts but no dancing. I could barely climb stairs there for a while.

In case you haven't been around here even longer than me, I quite streaming and the Tracy Anderson Method at the start of the new year and committed to DB. I'd been streaming for 2 years straight and my results were in the crapper. I wasn't able to do half the workouts because of a pre-existing neck injury so was always having to modify and as a result I came to really dread working out. In June of 2016 Katia Pryce came out with her own streaming and I was in love. The music was great, she gives instruction which I definitely need, and she was teaching me to dance. But learning to dance when you are not a natural born dancer takes time, time I did not have. So I found (because I had neither time nor energy) I could only do the 12 minute classes or 20 minute classes. I love those options but I needed more. But not more intensity. I guess I just needed something different. Something I had yet to find.

I was longing for those Meta days. You feel me? Any of you know what I mean? A full body workout that doesn't kill you and doesn't consume two hours of your day? Back in the good old days of Mastering the Method, we'd do 30 minutes of sculpt and 30 (read 15) minutes of cardio and that would be that. Tight, trim, and in top form. So what's an old girl like me to do? We can't go backwards. Such is not the way of life. We have to keep moving forward, onward and upward.

Again, I'm lucky. Lucky lucky lucky. And I have genuine lovely friends, people like you all, and my beautiful buddies Melissa and Shaina who on one fateful day, reached out to me to ask how I was doing? What I was up to? And to share a new workout with me that they were loving.

CONFESSION TIME - when I first saw the workout I was like nope - no thanks. I sort of thought it was more of the same as where I had been and did not want to go back there thank you very much.

However... I love to workout. And I hadn't been because I was feeling so darn tired all the time, yet I knew if I just moved my body I'd feel better. Maybe I'd sleep better, manage my stress better, and even lose a little weight? Too much to hope for? I'm a dreamer. So, I did what the past year's lesson had taught me -- I surrendered. Everything happens for a reason right? 

So I signed up for a free 7 day trial and lordissa, you guys I'm finally home. I've found my workout sweet-spot.

It's been four weeks and I've been able to do the workouts 5-6 times a week without burning out and feeling completely sapped and unable to do anything else for the entire rest of the day (which was what was happening to me if I exerted myself too much) 

I've lost 4 pounds! And do you want to know the absolutely best part? Those dreaded over-developed obliques that I have been carrying around like a freaking muffin-top after two years of other streaming -- are shrinking! Shrinking I tell you. It's a miracle. I used to call Tracy the Muffin-Top Slayer and in Meta Abcentric she definitely was but the method has evolved into something that was no longer managing my dreaded roll. 

But this is a blog about hope. And I believe that things always have a way of working out. And workout they have. Pun intended.

Please allow me to introduce you to the amazing LOVE HANDLE HANDLER, the BOOTY BUFFER, LEG LENGTHENER, ARM SCULPTER, AB-TRIMMER - SOUL SOOTHER (because she does it all) LAUREN KLEBAN of LEKFit.

Do I want to go so far as to say she's changed my life? Um... yeah. I do. In fact fuck yeah! Okay? She's a full time mother of two - and her little babies even sometimes pop into class and she always has time for them. Everything about her is real. I love that so much. 

So why do I love her? Why has she changed my life? What makes her so special? How much time do you have? Never mind I can keep it simple. But to do that, I need to take you back in time.

I was yogi, and in my heart of hearts I still am. I lived and breathed yoga. I taught yoga for nearly ten years. But I bad neck injury prevented me from doing most conventional types of yoga because deep stretches aggravate my injury. Enter TA and her Method. I fell in love with her Mat workout because it was simple, straight forward, but oh so hard. You worked all the little muscles with supreme control. And it was a lot like yoga. Streamlined and kind of meditative. Once streaming came around, it was definitely way more fun. The energy was higher, the music was better, but it was also harder, and somehow less specific. The movements didn't have the same focussed intensity. 

Then, the past 8 months, working with Katia of Dancebody (and Mary Helen Bowers of Ballet Beautiful) gave me a new passion for ballet. And something occurred to me. Turns out - every single thing I've done up to now that I've loved has had a foundation built on either Ballet or Yoga. 

So why not both? Both indeed.

Enter LAUREN who's entire practice is built on these same foundations.

This recent quote from her IG page will tell you:Dance was always my first love and passion plus it made the most sense in my body + mind. As I began creating LEKfit, I wanted something that provided all the good vibes of yoga, beautiful lines of ballet, benefits of Pilates with an uber feminine feel (a la burlesque) so I created SCULPT.

And her classes really are all of the above. The music is smooth and groovy, the pace is uber controlled, reps are counted, instruction is given in a continuous flow so you rarely have to crane your neck to see if she's changed positions on you without telling you, the camera is close enough so you are actually able to see what she's doing. And - AND - she releases two new classes a week. On Wednesdays and Fridays. Like you actually get an email in your inbox saying Hi, come on, new workout is up, come workout with me. On Time. Every week. No excuses. Sounds radical, but isn't that what a great service provider does?

Can I get a hell yeah!

I love lots of reps. I love slow and controlled movements that make you cry uncle, I love getting prompts explaining to me what to do and why the hell you want me to do it. But that's just me - always the remedial student who needs everything to be explained.

There is no single workout that is right for everyone, but every workout is right for someone - and LEK? I am the someone that workout was made for.

OMG and I forgot to mention the best part. The best part is her cardio. It's done on a rebounder! Can you even believe it. All through Meta, I modified my cardio and always did it on the rebounder. Bye-bye modifications. So long not being able to keep up with the dances. I can now bounce, stretch, lift and sculpt my way into my best most healthy feeling self.

I know that there are a lot of people who are loyal to other programs for all their own reasons. I love loyalty. I'm a cancer. It's my jam. But you've got to be loyal to your own well being first and above all else. I felt that I needed to share this with you because it just might change the way you move, how you feel about yourself, how you feel about working out in general. Life is too short to dread any moment of your daily routine. And that daily routine makes up your life. Good habits are hard to form - just ask Gretchen Rubin, she wrote a whole book on the subject. 

Without Melissa I would have never found my way to LEK. If you're dancing to Dancebody - get it girl, if you're tamming your heart out - you go sister! I applaud you. If you dance, walk, hike, yoga, swim, run, soul cycle - whatever. Be healthy and go live your best life. As for me - I'm getting LEKFit ladies!

Loads of love and a happy autumn to all!
xo
Shan