Starting over at 60*

* Okay 58, but I really who's kidding who!

I never expected to beginning my career at fifty eight.  After getting married, 1982 and working for four years, I had my first daughter.   My son followed 19 months later.  My third after him by eight years.  I always loved staying home with the kids.  I also love my "part time" job as a fitness trainer.  I loved working hard at home and working harder in the gym.  I loved seeing my clients finding their stride and achieving their goals.  

As a child of the 1970's, yoga was for hippies.  I wasn't a crunchy granola type.  I preferred running miles and lifting weights.  Yoga found me!  While in an eating disorder hospital for eight months, yoga was the only option for me.  In fact, for the first three months, I wasn't even allowed to move through the asanas.  While everyone else got to move and experience the yoga flow, I sat on my bolster and watched.  I had deteriorated physically.  Any movement was closely monitored.  So, I closed my eyes and moved in my mind.  I actually

came to love disappearing in to myself.  When I finally was strong enough to join in the practice, sumadhi.   

Returning to "normal" life, after months of hospitalization was hard.  Yoga kept me grounded.  I knew my practice had changed me.  I also knew I needed to work again ~ to teach again. I worked really hard from the years 2000 to 2010.  I had what I thought was the perfect spot for my classes and clients.  It was a beautiful studio.  I had wonderful students.  Through a wonderful teacher, Tom Gillette, I learned the true practice of yoga.  I read the great works and honed my practice.  Graduating from Eyes of the World 200 hour teacher training was as big an accomplishment as finishing the program at The Westwood Lodge.

Life took another turn.  My studio was no longer my studio.  I saw years of work and tons of money just disappear.  I am happy my students stayed in the space.  I miss them.  But, happily, the studio is still an active place with yoga classes.

I limped along for about a year.  For the first time, I was NOT teaching.  I did not step on my mat.

I finally put on my big girl pants and decided it was time to get my life back.  I worked hard to reestablish myself as a quality caring teacher of movement and health.  Mind Body Barre and Core Studios welcomed me back.  I will be forever grateful.

Now I am 58 and starting over~ again!  I am working on my yoga again.  I am thankful for Coral Brown and her 500 hour yoga teacher training.  I am thankful I have my practice again(I do not think I ever really lost it.)  

I am stretching my yoga with the help of Alison Bologna's community at Shri.  I am hoping to bring practice to all those who think they are not skinny enough, flexible enough, smart enough, strong enough or young enough to have a yoga practice.

Will I succeed?  Will I find a studio who wants a teacher starting a journey at my age?  I am not sure.  But just putting myself out to the world feels like a win!

NEW TOOLS FOR OLD FOOD ISSUES

NEW TOOLS FOR OLD FOOD ISSUES With help like this~even Oprah can dismiss her personal "food" assistant! WWW.HONESTLABELFOODS.COM NEW TO THE CYBER MARKET~SEPTEMBER LAUNCH. The end of September 2012 produced a web site that gives us what we really need: truth in labeling. Consumers can scan the bar codes of food products and get the real low down on the nutritional information. Shoppers will instantly get a list of ingredients daily values based on the user’s needs. Very cool for people with special dietary needs. WWW.LOSEIT.COM This site uses the calories in calories out equation. It comes with thousands of preloaded commercial foods. The users can create a food and exercise log book that will take into consideration the individuals height weight and fitness goals. It even uses rewards and gaming strategies! WWW.SPARKSPEOPLE.COM This is voted the number one rated app for fitness and mobile diet for the I Phone. This app comes backed from researchers at Duke and George Washington U! WWW.MEALLOGGER.COM My sister hates food diaries. This is the web site that answers the “I don’t have time to write everything down” problem. Snap a pic of what you are eating or drinking. Professionals review and give constructive feedback on how to make the meal/drink better.

Is your teacher really certified?

Certifications are really worth the time and effort….
I have always loved finding innovative ways to have fun and work out. Unfortunately, learning and getting certified on new ways to lead a class involves more than attending a conference and demonstration. What is the difference you ask?
Certifications last at least 8 hours, involve teaching a class while being rated by a master trainer and scoring at least an 80% on an exam. Attending a conference and taking a demo-class, IS ALL FUN. So I was faced with what to do this month.
Should I take the day off from work, sit in a class room for 9 hours, worry about passing an exam and teach in front of a master trainer~ or attend the conference and have fun? My students wouldn’t know. I could TELL them I attended and was certified…..
In the end, my conscience won out. I did the right thing and go to the pre-conference certification. I sat through the class (my priformis is still screaming), taught the class (the master trainer was really intimidating), passed the test (by the skin of my teeth) and battled Boston traffic (2 hours in the big dig tunnel.)
I am so glad I did the right thing (thanks L.)
I have my certification to hang (literally) on the wall.

Call me Scrooge

I have always loved watching The Christmas Carole. I am obsessed with the movie from the time Thanksgiving dinner is over, until Christmas night. It started one particularly difficult Christmas season. I had always been close to my family; particularly my sisters.
I had just lost my Aunt (Ant) Jean. She was the mother figure I craved my whole life. Jean knew my warts. She loved me anyway. After a battle with breast cancer, Jean died in my home. She died when I needed that love because at the same time, our family business had hit hard times. All pays were cut. I needed her brand of wisdom typical of the “depression” generation.
It was a time when family either bands together or falls apart.
I needed a good book. Reading always relieved my stress. I was looking for a story of hope. I was looking for a story of Christmas. Enter the Christmas Carole.
I was surprised the book was so short. It was a novella. I sat down and read the book in one sitting.
I needed more….
Enter the movie.
It is a story of redemption. It is a story of a man bitter from a life oriented towards the wrong pursuits. Ebenezer must come to see his actions in life as wrong. He must understand that his actions had their own consequences. When he does, really truly, honestly recognizes the cruelty of his actions, he is given a chance to redeem his life.
I see Ebenezer as a man not too old to learn or change. He starts to live his life at the age when most men retire.
If a man like Ebenezer can change; there is hope for the rest of us. There is hope for those who create realities to suit their needs. There is hope for those who are so bitter, they will scratch and fight to maintain their house of cards. I do believe 99% of people have the power to change, all year: not just at Christmas.
Call me an optimist.
Call me Scrooge.

The summer of George

The Sunscreen song was always a favorite of mine when I was teaching spin. I hoped if I put the song near the end of the class, the words would magically imprint on the minds of the riders. It is chock full of good advice. I often think of the lyrics at the oddest of times. Three weeks ago, laying in the ICU of the hospital, the following verse came to mind:
Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.
Maybe it was the pain drugs, but I actually found myself chuckling to myself.
“ The damn song is right again I thought.”
Never in my wildest list of worries did I imagine I would be in this situation. I was blindsided. But I wasn’t upset. I should have been really angry. Honestly, I was not.
Maybe it was the pain drugs, but I never wondered why this sucky thing happened to me; not even when the doctor came in and told me I faced a long recuperation period. The list of don’ts was ridiculous.
After all, what was I facing? Just a forced vacation from the trials and tribulations from life.
No heavy housework; my oldest daughter cleaning my house on her day off from work. No driving; Chris and I having multiple dates doing errands. No work; Suzanne and Emmie filling my days with music and conversation. I had been given the gift of the luxury of time to listen to books and watch every movie on my “watch” list.

My life resumes on August first. I have nine more days of goofing off.