My New Fitness Fun...finding your flow.

At the age of 40, I stepped outside of my fitness comfort zone and took a gymnastics class for the first time in at least 25 years. As I have mentioned previously, I was never one for team sports as a kid. Gymnastics was the only sport I really stuck with and enjoyed...until I dislocated my elbow for the second time when I was 11 years old while jumping over a pummel horse on the way to the water fountain.   Doh!

I have thought about revisiting this sport as an adult, but never saw any classes being offered anywhere....until I signed my son up for a class this fall. There it was....adult gymnastics.....offered the same time as my son's class. Could it get any more convenient? Why wouldn't I do it?!

Looks like fun doesn't it??

Well, I will tell you why....fear. Have you flipped into a foam pit lately? Or done straddle jumps and back handsprings on a tramp? When was the last time you kicked up into a handstand? Does the thought of it make your belly do flip flops? It did for me. No way can I get out there and do these things after so many years. So week after week, I brought my coffee and my iPad and I sat.











I watched other big people tumble on the floor, flip down the tumble track and do hip circles on the bar.  I always loved doing gymnastics and longed to be out there...but I thought I was to old, to rusty.  The last time I did a forward roll I was dizzy for hours!

And then something happened.

Someone died.

What does that have to do with anything? Well, it has to do with everything....because life is short, and opportunities WILL pass you by.

If you allow fear to rule you, you will never progress. Because change means risk and risk means flip flops in your belly.

The morning after I went to the funeral I showed up to gymnastics with my son as usual, prepared to sit, drink my coffee and read the new Steve Jobs book on my iPad (which, having now finished the book, is ironic in and of itself). Then I overheard a woman talking about taking the adult class. I heard her say, "I've never taken gymnastics before." and  I thought to myself..."if she is willing to give it a try...why wouldn't I?"

I did a quick check and realized that I had sweats on and an elastic around my wrist. $20.00 cash and I was IN. I refused to let myself over think it...in fact I blocked it all together and just moved forward.....and all of a sudden there I was....doing straddle jumps and back handsprings on the tramp...tumbling across the floor and doing hip circles on the bar.

I came home that afternoon and told my older son and husband what I had done. "I took a gymnastics class!". I exclaimed. My son looked at my husband and said, "I've never seen Mom so happy about something!"

And that was all I needed to hear.

My tummy still does flip flops on the Friday night before class leading all the way up until I get out there...but I refuse to over think it...and I keep moving forward...and by the end of every class I am totally in my flow.

You can check me out here. 

Paleo out of curiosity. Gluten free out of necessity.

Funny how things happen sometimes.  You see a video, read a post or hear a conversation and something about it catches your interest.  You might think it is coincidence, but more often than not, if you really really think about it, you would realize that it's not.  It resonates with you for a reason, even if you are not completely aware of it at the time.

A few months ago a friend of a friend overheard me talking about the book Sex at Dawn.

Hi.  You may think I am a nut...but I'm not!

He stated that he was interested in the book and went on to explain how he had started this new way of eating called Paleo.  Hmmmm..being somewhat interested in diets and the way we choose to eat I was intrigued....especially in how it related to Sex at Dawn.  He went on the explain that basically the Paleo Diet is one in which you only eat what our paleolithic ancestors did.  This means no processed food, no dairy, no legumes and no grains.  You can eat meat, fruit, vegetables and nuts.  But not peanuts because they aren't really nuts, they are actually legumes...who knew?  The theory behind this diet being that we are not biologically meant to eat the way we do.

Shortly thereafter, another friend was praising the Paleo Diet, saying she has never felt better now that she has cut all the engineered stuff out of her diet.  My interest was peaked again so I started to research this Paleo Diet.  And..whoaa..turns out there is a whole Paleo lifestyle which includes an exercise "cult" called Cross Fit.  So this is pretty cool now....a back to the basics diet paired with a fitness regime that...you guessed it....focuses on moves from back in the day (the paleolithic day I'm talking about).  Squats, rings, rope climbing, pushing, pulling....all bundled into a WOD (Workout of the Day) that is posted on the website.  Wait...this is just to perfect!!  Check out this funny video about it... really. 

So I figured...let me try this diet out for a few days....and maybe I will even try to do some WODs.  I think I lasted two weeks trying to eat like our ancestors....and I did not give up my yogurt and I ate a handful of pretzels every night...and wine...I definitely did not give up the wine.  This is called the 80/20 rule.  Yes it is a real rule...honest it is...which says you can follow the diet 80% of the time and still say you are "Paleo".   The WODs on the other hand....well I didn't even try, because let's be honest...they're kind of scary.



Not for nothing though.....I probably lost a few pounds due to cutting out a lot of carbs during that time but I really didn't feel any better....I actually felt pretty drained and ucky.  I guess I just need my carbs and grains.

Yummmm....bagels!!

Fast forward a couple of weeks....I get a call from my son's doctor.  We had taken him to CHOP for short stature...he is but a weeee little boy....with a very big presence...but that is another post all together.

Turns out he has Celiac Disease.  For those who aren't in the know, Celiac is an autoimmune disease in which the body destroys the villi in the small intestine in order to protect itself from gluten which is perceived to be a foreign substance.  With little to no villi, the small intestines are unable to absorb the nutrients we need to survive.  Why does this happen?  Well....maybe because for some of us...our bodies just haven't evolved enough to handle engineered food.

Although the main symptom of Celiac Disease was once thought to be gastrointestinal, they now know that is shows up in all forms, one of which is short stature. Hopefully within a few months the one who is little will be a bit bigger....maybe I will finally be able to pass on his 2T clothes to his 2 year old cousin who is probably taller than he is.

Treatment?  Easy...remove gluten from the diet.  Gluten is found in wheat, barley and rye which means no bread, no pasta, no cake, no cookies...well you get the picture....no bagels.  Luckily going gluten free seems to be a trend these days, and the options are endless.  This does make things easier for the little guy and for us.  But it does take some foresight and planning...no more quick drive thrus or stopping at random pizza places for a pie on the way home.  Not that we did either of those things often...but not having it as an option anymore kind of stinks.

Thankfully my little guy has a lot of HEART.  He didn't even blink when I informed him, on the way to Trader Joe's to buy up all of their gluten free food, that he would have to change the way he eats.  As a matter of fact, he told everyone in the store that he can only eat gluten free food now.  That was three weeks ago and he is still a trooper, even when all of the other kids are making their own pizza at Pizzaria Uno and when I told him he couldn't play with the raw dough.  "Okay Mommy" he says..."because it isn't gluten free?"

The only thing he is asked of me throughout this whole thing is that I go gluten free with him.