I played basketball in high school-- of the four sports offered for girls then, it was the only one where I had any natural aptitude. In college, I was finally able to take some dance classes through the PE department. (My family hadn't been able to afford them when I was growing up.) When I got out in the world, I'd take some dance classes as my budget allowed but then got busy raising a family. I dabbled in fitness, including weight training, through the years from college til my youngest child hit middle school. I looked at my middle-aged body and thought, this needs some serious attention! I was more trim than a lot of suburban moms and had thought maybe Size 8 wasn't too shabby for a woman who'd just come out of the long, dark tunnel of thyroid cancer and its aftermath. But everything was soft, losing shape and spreading rapidly. The scale was fooling me with an acceptable number, 136, that didn't reflect how much of that was body fat and how little was lean muscle. Looking at pics from then, I'd guess I was around 25 percent body fat. I tried weight training and cardio and was still a bit of a dabbler, even with a new level of awareness of my not-great condition. Then I took some ballroom lessons and was completely and totally smitten, filled with joy. I trained in a ballroom dance teachers academy so that I could share that joy with others and started competing in pro-am to bring my technique up many notches more than you can achieve from social dancing alone. Body fat fell off and muscle grew. I dropped to a Size 2. To be more competitive on the dance floor, I became very steady in cross-training with cardio and weights. My body fat plummeted to 13.8, very lean and strong.
I became a personal trainer and love helping other people get stronger and healthier. Now, I'm at a stage where I want to step it up again. I want to take a national or world title in ballroom before I leave the pro-am circuit and start teaching dance. My models for inspiration in this new phase? Cirque du Soleil acrobats. Crazy strong and incredibly graceful. On with the show!

I love to move it, move it! I appreciate what strength training does for my metabolism and my mood -- both get elevated. The athletes who inspire me most are acrobats and professional dancers. Power, strength, stamina and gorgeous grace that appears effortless but requires unending sweat equity.