30 Day Pilates Challenge!

Once upon a time before marriage and babies I was pretty fit. Not in the sense of the word that comes to most people's minds but in a slightly different way. I wasn't a runner or a weight lifter you see, I was a dancer. When I was in peak condition I danced upwards of 15 hours a week. I also worked out on my own time, doing extra ab work outs and stretches, sometimes running the treadmill at the gym. I wasn't a fitness junkie, trust me I was not the super defined and completely thin chick with zero body fat. I just loved to be active. It was just part of who I was.

Then I got married and things changed because I wasn't studying dance in university any longer so I no longer had 8 plus dance classes to attend each week and well lets face it dance is expensive, so I couldn't afford that many classes either. My hubby and I joined the gym, I went to the odd drop in dance class, I taught dance a few nights week and also got myself involved in some productions so I still had a pretty active life. It wasn't what it had been but I was satisfied.

Then a few years later I got pregnant. I taught dance full time (5 days a week) while I was prego so that kept me feeling pretty good and relatively fit during pregnancy, but then after baby came things went down hill a little further.

However I can't complain completely because I did go back to teaching when baby M was just 4 months old. So even though I was now teaching only part time I still felt ok. I certainly was down to a 1 on a scale of 1-10 where my fitness used to be, but I wasn't completely hopeless. That part comes a bit later after baby 2.

I got pregnant again quite quickly after M was born and while I tried to maintain some fitness while pregnant- attending aerobics classes and teaching dance part time, I quickly became more and more tired and started to do things less and less. My formerly active lifestyle went kaput!

Now here I am with my second child almost a year old and I am sad to admit that I am just finally attempting to make a change in my now completely inactive life style! My body has truly turned into an enemy and I don't like it one little bit! I am constantly in pain, sore, stiff and tired! I know that all of these things stem from my serious lack of inactivity, but I have just been to lazy until NOW to do anything about it!

So my first goal is to do 30 days of Pilates. I'm starting small (with the basic 7 exercises) but I hope to increase the number of exercises I do each night to eventually get up to the full matwork series. And here's the best part Dan is doing it with me. We've both really been struggling with not being as fit as we used to so he has agreed to give Pilates a try with me. For any of you who are familiar with Pilates you'll know why this is a such a great challenge and why I'm SO excited about it. And well if you don't know anything about Pilates you should learn because its and amazing form of exercise that you can do right on your living room floor! All you need is you and a mat.

I'm totally excited to keep you up to date on how this goes and to feel my body transform (life, energy, flexibility) over the next month!

YAY PILATES!

Wish me luck. I'm getting my body back.

Jordan