Motivation Monday: Cheryl’s Story

A new series on the blog, Motivation Monday will share YOUR stories. Have you made a change in your life? Want to share your progress? Send me a message at fitwithaundra@gmail.com and let’s tell your story!

Read previous Motivation Monday posts.

‘Never an Athlete’
I was never an athlete in my growing up years. I didn’t even really
know that girls’ extracurricular sports existed. My biggest goal in my
own life had always been to avoid all balls, since my elementary school
experience was mostly that my glasses seemed to be a magnet for
them.

So when forced to participate in softball in 6th grade, I’d stand
in left field where I hoped balls never went. During 9th grade
volleyball, I became adept at jumping aside for the more engaged
players to yell, “Mine!” as they dove at the ball coming straight at me.
I was an expert at “playing my position” at right wing in 7th grade field
hockey, since I’d observed that the ball rarely came out as far as that. I
do have fond memories of going in a small circle during jr. high school
gym class, close to the basketball hoop, pretending to have a ball in my
hands, following the other girls and repeating to myself, over and over,
“1, 2, 3, up,” as we drilled for a layup. I did great without the ball.
But when we got the real thing, I was sunk.

Dancing Queen

So you get the picture. Not really in tune with organized physical activities. Except that when I was a little girl, I wanted to dance. I dreamed of dancing imagined
myself as one of the fancy ladies on The Lawrence Welk Show with
the fluffy, swirly, twirly dresses going round and round. Surely that
was the life for me! The closest I got was the biannual, countywide
Spring Festival dance that my grade was doing where a few of us
would travel from the country into the big town of Chestertown for the
practices and performance of our class dance. Big time stuff.
Wonderful memories.

I hit high school, managed to survive “cool dancing” without mastering cool moves, then went on to college going to frat dances where it didn’t matter that I’d never become an expert dancer because most people were drunk and didn’t notice me. Got
married, then discovered International Folk Dancing: thought I’d died
and gone to heaven. I did that for two years in Muncie, Indiana, (once
dancing till 3 in the morning, when they finally kicked us out of the
dance room at Oglebay in West Virginia, where we’d been dancing for
three glorious days in a row!)

But then my dancing days were over (I thought). We moved back to Chestertown and no one seemed to be dancing here (in 1977). Besides, I was teaching, then had 2 babies a
couple of years apart and aside from twirling them around, (which I did
love), that was it. More life happened (and I loved raising our girls as
much as I’d loved dancing), but then my own girls grew up, moved
away, my dear aunts died, and I found that I had some holes. (My
parents had died when I was a teenager and I learned that my “holes”
had happened because later life losses hook into former big ones and
all of a sudden you’re sad and you’re not quite sure how to be unsad.)

And then came Zumba
So to try to fill some of those kind of empty places, we turned our
daughters’ upstairs bedrooms into B&B rooms. Gosh, what fun! And
then a guest told me about Zumba! I’d never heard of it before. I
hadn’t been looking for a fitness or a weight reduction plan I already
walked regularly and went to the pool but I was looking to get smile-
ier, and after my very first Zumba class with Aundra, I’d found
another place where spaces were getting filled! Woo hoo!

Zumba really was just what the doctor ordered and that subtle sadness slipped
away. I did Zumba for a year or two, got sidelined with a foot injury
for another couple of years, and now am back, laughing at myself all
over again for messing up over and over as I’m trying to get it right!
But it’s FUN and I love going!

On to PiYo

PiYo has also become a real love. Because of my (ahem) P.E. background, I’d never been strong. I’d never learned what it meant to be pushed (but with Aundra, this
“pushing” is actually “encouraging”), and I’d never do it on my own,
but I pretty much would do whatever Aundra tells us to do. I look
forward to going (and yes, just about die doing all she has us do) but
it’s such a capital ‘A’ accomplishment getting it done!

Strong & Fit at Any Age

I LOVE being a 63-year-old Zumba / PiYo person; I LOVE hanging with the young gals
in the classes (and my dear PiYo people) this keeps me more focused
on maintaining a fitness lifestyle (and if I only sat around and hung out
with other 63-year-olds, I’d get “old” faster!) and I LOVE feeling
strong and fit!