I feel honored and privileged to enter into peoples lives in this way.  Its the heart and soul of why I do what I do.  Without being overly dramatic, I want to state that working out is important. It’s obviously a huge part of who I am.  The fact that I have the opportunity to impact people to live a healthier life day in and day out is living a privileged life.

Honestly, I don’t always feel this way.  There are times when I complain about the challenge of energizing this many people.  It can be overwhelming at times.  Since the fall rush began, I’ve been running around like a crazy person trying to keep up with all of my clients and classes.  I’ve been overly tired and a week behind on everything else.  Moments like the one I had tonight remind me that at the end of the day its worth it because I’m helping people grow affection towards something that will enhance their lives.

What makes you feel like your living a privileged life?

“I asked the girls to pair up in groups of two, and I handed them each a piece of butcher paper and some markers. They traced the outlines of each other’s bodies and we held them up for review. We talked about how this was our “outline,” our “shape,” our “container.”   And how this shape basically was the one God gave us, having a lot to do with heredity (we defined this), history, and a bit to do with our healthy choices (we eat healthy food so we can grow, we exercise so our muscles are strong, etc.). Then I had them take their outlines, find a private spot in the park with some markers, and write all the things that were special and unique that they liked about themselves – on the inside of their outlines.

I wasn’t sure how this would go, if they would be shy, at a loss for words, or have short attention spans. I was frankly blown away. I don’t know if I have many adult friends who could come up with words about themselves that were so gracious, thoughtful, interesting, insightful, introspective, and honest. I saw words like:

…good friend, honest, responsible, loving, good sense of humor, disciplined, good student, smart, athletic, strong, loyal, good reader, adventurous, brave, silly, good daughter, good sister, thoughtful, kind, helpful, generous, fast, good runner, focused, dramatic…”

This post really got me thinking. I remember many moons ago when I was a first grader, my teacher asked us to draw a picture of ourselves. We were then instructed to write a brief description of our self along with what we wanted to be when we grew up. At the end of my senior year of high school, they handed them back to us. (yes, I went to the same school with the same people for 12 years).

My answers were simple. I wanted to be a nurse. My favorite color was pink. The color of my hair is brown, blond and red (My hair was strawberry blond). What if I had been asked what Kristen asked of those girls? My seven year old self was happy with every aspect of life. She wasn’t tainted with insecurities. The world was her oyster and dreams were things that come true.

Kristen goes on to say…” I had to wonder about my own outline. If I could lie still enough, without wiggling self-consciously or making remarks while being traced. If I would be completely at ease with my image on the paper, and what words I would choose today to fill in the description of the woman inside.”

If the seven year-old me was to take the adult me by the hand, what would she say? Her words would radiate with affection, self confidence and love . They would never be unkind, critical or pessimistic.

Be kind to yourself always and listen to the voice of your seven year-old self.

Clients hate push-ups.

What’s the deal with all the push-up hate?  It may be my all time favorite exercise.  There is not one reason to hate a push-up, not one!  It does so much for you.  How could one ever detest it?

Maybe the push-up could use a little publicity or an advertisement:

Ladies would you like a strong, sleek, sexy body?   Would you like an exercise that can be done at anytime and anywhere?  This free exercise promises that you will see a difference in your stomach, back, shoulders, chest and triceps in less than 1 hour per week.  If you act now this exercise is yours for $9.99 free!

Doing push-ups at home after teaching class tonight.

While we’re discussing push-ups…why do fitness tests determine a woman’s upper body strength by having us do the modified version?   It’s an insult.  The only reason some women have a hard time with regular push-ups is because they simply don’t really know how to do them or they just think they aren’t capable.

Now, I’m curious to see how many modified push-ups I can do compared to regular ones. hmm….  I bet the ration is 3:1.  I’ll let you know how it goes.  Before you get run off to do your own set of push-ups, check out these variations I found on Wikipedia (although they call them press ups).

Do you hate or love push-ups and what’s your favorite variation?