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Booty Camp: Jannah Pwns The Knees

Going back to Booty Camp  was a hobble.  Week 1 had left me searching for my knee braces, limping and taking the stairs two feet at a time, very, very, very slowly.  The thought of returning for squats, jogging and deep knee bends made me kind of quesy.

But I went. 
Sports bra, clean sneakers and all.

I took it slow, low and not bouncy.   Jannah encouraged me to push it a little further and I was trying to figure out how without whining even more.

Then in the middle of class I saw a Jannah have a “lightbulb”, to quote Gru.

All of a sudden her suggestions for alternatives weren’t just low impact, they were … well...  creative alternatives that used the strength of my legs without putting strain on my knees.  Using a chair instead of the floor for lunges.  High knee marching instead of frog jumps.  Multi-staged push-ups against the wall followed by a low impact jumping jack instead of Burpees.

Booty Camp: Round One To The Knees

First night of Booty Camp finished!  All in all the experience was great and at the end of the class  I was mostly intact with only a slight tweaking of my knee and some bruising of my ego.  But isn’t that always the way when you jump into a new fitness regime.

I’m the slowest, heaviest and possibly the oldest in the crowd... so as I mentioned above my ego is getting a bit of a work out alongside my body.  But in general the crowd seems pretty non-judgy.  Trust me, that’s not always the case in groups of women... especially when you are fat.  There’s often lots of eye-rolling and quick glances of disgust creating an unpleasant work-out environment. In fact, an unpleasant environment period.  Not so at Booty Camp.

Fat AND Beautiful

I wrote this great piece recently that I was going to title Fat AND Beautiful. It was about the people who hear me say “I’m fat” and immediately jump to reassure me that I am, instead, beautiful. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I like hearing that I’m beautiful, and it’s very kind of them to be protecting me from what they see as bad self-talk, but I AM fat. Thing is, I am beautiful too. Fat is not the opposite of Beautiful, they aren’t mutually exclusive either.

But it has happened a number of times and every time it happens I’m surprised that anyone would immediately think that the opposite of fat is beautiful. 

The problem is: I’ve lost that piece.  I wrote it on paper and it’s floating around in a note book, like many of my notebooks, filled with brilliance. (Because, you see,  I’m smart along with being fat and beautiful, but I’m also forgetful and easily distracted too.)

Anyway, that piece was supposed to be the launching off point for a sponsored discussion of health and wellness.  Yup, me talking health and wellness.  Prepare yourselves, it’s going to be a bumpy one...