Today, I am Thankful for: Pilates

Ho-leeee-coooowww. I'm in pain. But a good pain. A pain that is rightfully earned with sweat (thankfully no blood, or tears... but close!).

I started doing Pilates earlier this year. A wonderful friend of mine, Kristen Routh, teaches the class. Kristen and I go way back. She was literally my first friend at CLU. We were paired up in an activity in our Peer Group over oritentation weekend and have been friends ever since. We had so much in common - Sports Med majors (hence our peer group pairing), dancers at heart, sarcastic sense of humor, dog lovers... the list goes on. She's great...

BUT. (There is always a but) She is a tough cookie. Man-alive, she is a buff woman. Strongest girl I know. Honest to God. Seriously - she has this quiet nature about her, but I would NEVER want to make her mad. She kicks my butt every week without ever touching me. I don't want to know what her punch would feel like!!!

And her class is as tough as she is. My best girl, Miranda, came with me to class tonight, and she agrees - this isn't just Pilates. This is ass-kicking, body molding, strength building, craziness! And, that being said, we are so thankful!

As a child/teenager, I was THAT girl - the athletic/dancer/gymnast/skinny girl who could eat anything. Sorry if you hate me now. But I was active. I ran around like a crazy person, so what I ate never mattered. And the metabolism was higher than you ever want to know (even actually dangerously high.) While I'm still "skinny-mini," I finally have the ability to gain weight, the metabolism isn't quite as high, and I'm no where near as active. So if I want to stay that girl that you all love to hate (which, honestly, I do!) then I've got to do SOMETHING. And let's get real - skinny doesn't = Fit. I am SUCH A WUSS!!! I can't lift anything. I can't run long distances. I am asthmatic. I am so not fit. So pilates keeps me active, and is helping be build strength. I did push-ups! 5 REAL push-ups in a row, no giving up or giving in. I've NEVER done that before. And while that is no big deal for so many peope out there, it's HUGE for me. So I'm making progress and I'm thankful for that.

So I'm thankful for the sweat. I'm thankful for the newfound strength. I'm thankful for the chance to be active. And I'm thankful to have a little friendly competition with Miranda (thanks for being such an awesome pilates partner!) and for a chance to see my good friend Kristen on a regular basis. I'm Thankful for Pilates.

-Jen