two roads..

Or.."How I made the unlikely jump from Point A to Point B (being a fitness instructor)".

I was an active kid but not exactly "athletic" growing up (despite my seemingly athletic build). In fact I was solidly terrified about even trying out for sports in school because:

1. I was very shy
2. I feared rejection
3. I feared making a fool of myself
4. From experiences in PE, I determined I was not very good at any of them (basketball, volleyball, track)
5. I didn't like to "workout". Pushups, sit ups, running drills. No way.

My parents weren't exactly athletic either. And apart from the few years they got into square dancing, I seriously can't remember them being particularly active. My mom, an avid smoker, was downright sedentary. Going for a walk down our country road or for a hike in the woods? Pfffft. I don't recall either of my parents ever inviting me to one of those. And like a lot of young girls I was "horse crazy".  I grew up on a small 2 acre farm on the Oregon coast. In those days without internet, video games and the wealth of TV programming we have today I was outside every day, playing with my dogs, climbing trees, making "farms" for my model horses etc. When I was 8 years old, a woman named Joan came by our place one day and asked if she could rent our front pasture for her horse. I remember being so eager to see her truck pull up every evening so that I could run down and help her groom and saddle her horse. Over a few months she started to let me ride "Lobo" and I was in heaven. In fact I had a bit of a natural ability as far as riding goes and over time...I can't remember how it all played out.... but Joan eventually sold her horse to us. From that point on? Organized "sports" were the last thing on my mind.

In school I was a very good student but my shy nature definitely made things more challenging for me. Just the *thought* of having to get up and give an oral report or a speech? Sent waves of nausea over me. I remember being absolutely shaking and petrified having to give a presentation in high school one year. And participating in drama, debate, or any activity where my singular voice would have to be heard? No way. Instead, I focused all my energy on horses, my 4H club and horse shows. Where coincidentally I did quite well. Not scared or nervous in the least because I was doing something I absolutely LOVED.

My academic sights were set on science classes and subjects that would get me into college and eventually into vet school. And then I got *into* college and realized all those straight A's in high school meant nothing because I was never particularly challenged or properly taught how to study. My grade point average quickly dropped into a range that would never make me a competitive candidate for veterinary school...anywhere. As an aside, it was in college when I got into "working out". I took weightlifting 101 as a PE credit spring term of my freshman year and learned how to throw free weights around.  This was old skool weight lifting. No machines. One rep max kinda stuff. Bench press, military press, pullups, sit ups and tall bench step ups for cardio. I also discovered the student rec center as a junior and the Lifecycle became my best friend. I remember skipping my afternoon Ecology course time and time again so that I could get to the gym and get a bike before it got too busy. I toyed around with the weight machines but I was always too scared to head into the free weight room with all the ripped and grunting boys (there's that shyness again).  I was also equally as scared to *ever* venture into the group fitness studio. I'd walk by and see girls doing step but I was completely terrified about ever joining in. I remember the pretty red haired instructor up front. Oh how she intimidated me. Me who wore t-shirts that were *entirely* too long or wrapped a 2nd shirt around my waist in order to cover up my *seemingly* huge ass (eh hem....size 4 at the time. What was I thinking?).  I focused on finishing up my foundational degree in Biology, got done in 4 years, and graduated with no idea of what I wanted to do with it.

The first couple of years out of college I worked summers for a wildlife research program here in Oregon, surveying spotted owls. The rest of the year I had horrible odd jobs of waiting tables, doing telephone market research, and working at a pet store at the mall. I had a gym membership for 3 months one summer, when my grandma sent me some $$ for my birthday. That was the one and only time I ever had a formal gym membership. My mom bought me a step for christmas one year and I used to do videos at home in my living room. I also took a community college aerobics class one term that was held at a local elementary school. The class was taught by an older Jazzercise instructor and to this day I remember the routine to Huey Lewis' "Heart of Rock and Roll". There was this other routine done to a Black Box song too but sadly that one escapes me. Every class was the same songs, the same routines to those songs and I barely broke a sweat. But it did keep me moving. And it did finally get me into a group dynamic.

After getting married and moving to Texas I got a job in toxicology lab for about 6 months and then I landed a research assistant position at the University of Texas Health Science Center, where I worked for almost 11 years.  Most of my 20's were spent working in the lab, growing my career, and not doing too much on the activity front. Summers in Houston aren't exactly condusive to outdoor activites so if I did anything it was at home in my living room. We lived in a part of town that didn't have any gyms and the UT rec center was just not convenient for me back then. In 1998 I got serious with the home video workouts and branched out into weight lifting and yoga in addition to my faithful step workouts..sometimes 2 to 3 tapes a day. It wasn't until the year 2000 when Body for Life came along that things started to come full circle for me (and where the bulk of my long term readership of this blog probably comes from). It combined my newly rekindled love for working out, with my old skool knowledge of weight lifting, and gave me attainable goals to strive for.

Body for Life changed a LOT of people's lives. I think an entire cottage industry exists today of people who are making a living in one way or another because of it. Personal trainers, coaches, motivational speakers, even fitness instructors like myself. When I was doing Body for Life the first time in 2000, I started going to the community fitness center in my neighborhood on Saturdays because they were offering a step class for FREE and I was bored with doing the same old cardio routine at my house. And because I had been doing all kinds of crazy advanced step workouts at home, the live classes were easy for me. No fear of falling down, making a fool of myself, or being embarrassed. It was also around this time that a friend of mine, whom I had met on the internet via the videofitness.com website, studied for and passed the group fitness certification. Whether it was her experience, BFL, the fact my mother died at the young age of 53 and realizing life was very short, or just the right time for me..when the step instructor at the neighborhood club mentioned to me after class one day "hey you are really great on the step, you should get certified to teach"..that I instinctively just jumped at it. A week later I ordered my study materials from AFAA and one month later I was taking the exam. Teaching in the beginning was a hobby.  My great salary in the lab afforded me the opportunity to take any and every fitness seminar, workshop, convention and certification that came to town.  All of a sudden I had turned myself into a teaching machine and my day job was seriously cutting into my hobby time. When I realized fitness was my "true" calling .....in 2004....... I quit the career job to do this full (part) time.

It's funny. I don't often sit down and really think about how I got where I am today. Sometimes I'm truly quite shocked by it. The girl who couldn't even give an oral book report can now walk into a room full of strangers and teach them anything. I do sometimes regret that it came to me so late in life...all those years lost doing something that didn't make me happy. Had I known what I know now I would have changed my major to "Kinesiology" and with only a few minor tweaks to my already heavy science background..I probably could have finished in the same amount of time. Maybe even gone onto physical therapy school or something.  But you and I know all about hind sight don't we. That path wasn't meant for me either. Whichever road I was on at the time..clearly it was leading me toward this direction. Give or take a few turnouts, detours, backtracks, accidental crashes etc.

Wow. Typing it all out today has really reminded me of what it's like to be a beginner again. When doing the "Cher" step workout at home would leave me red faced and gasping. Feeling so afraid to join in the step class at the college rec center. Too scared to lift heavy weights with the boys. Perhaps the purpose in writing it all out today is so that I can embrace these memories and incorporate them into my own classes in order to make them more accessible, inviting, and inclusive of everyone. It's good to get "re"-grounded sometimes.

Hmmmm.....I wonder if the pretty red hed is still teaching these days....