Perfectly Imperfect KC

If you ask me what my favorite thing to do is, I would say I love to DANCE. I dance everywhere. In my car, in my kitchen, in my bathroom and even in my shower. If the right song comes on, I just can’t help myself. I guess that’s why you can say my absolute favorite workout program is Jazzercise. I have been dancing my whole life. I started in Jazz, Tap and Ballet when I was little.   It was one class that included all three formats. You would practice some jazz squares and then you would throw on your tap shoes and practice some kickball changes and then you would throw on your ballet shoes and practice some leaps. This probably isn’t the correct order, but you get the idea. I kept dancing all through high school. In college, I was always involved in some kind of aerobics class that included a lot of dancing. So, when I graduated from college, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. A friend of mine had mentioned that I should try Jazzercise. I had actually never heard of ...

I work in the fitness industry and want to be knowledgeable in all aspects of health and fitness. I discovered Precision Nutrition (PN) through a friend. I did some research and decided I liked their approach to nutrition and I liked their coaching style. I signed up for their certification program and dug in. I learned everything from the cell level to how you digest food to how to coach clients. It took me a while, but I passed all the certification tests and became certified in Sport and Exercise Nutrition. I now offer personal online one on one nutrition coaching. It is a year-long nutrition program. I am currently in the middle of the program myself.  I wanted to experience what my clients are and will be experiencing. Not only have I lost 20 pounds by following the program, which is an added perk, but I have also gained a wealth of knowledge when it comes to my body, food and my life in general. From what causes me to stress eat, why I make certain choices in my lif...

We returned home from Florida last night. I always get a little depressed when we return from vacation. Especially this year knowing that this may be the last year for my daughter to make this trip with us. I laid in bed this morning, our bags are still unpacked, the toiletry bag is open, and only the items needed to get ready for bed were thrown on the counter. Thoughts of the trip ran through my head, so I decided to get up and write about it. Light music is playing on my headphones, a candle is burning, and coffee is by my side. My daughter disappeared to a friend's house as soon as we got home last night, and my husband and son are still sleeping.  I can unpack later. We drove 15 hours yesterday with only 4 quick stops.  My family typically packs up the car on the day we leave Florida, drive about 9 hours and stay the night in Jonesboro and then we complete the 6ish hour drive in the morning. This time, we decided we would pack most the car the night before, get up at 5...

We are on our way to our fourth annual spring break trip to Florida. We are sitting in traffic in Memphis as I write this. Yes, we road trip it. It’s about a 14-hour drive, but it makes for lots of family time. We might all get a little crabby at times, and my kids may bicker, but it creates memories that will last a lifetime. We decided to do this four years ago with another family that we are close with. Our kids are friends, and they are the same age. It was a very of spur of the moment decision, but one that continues to grow. One year we weren’t sure what to do for spring break. We had gone skiing the year before, and it was a debacle. My kids were young, and I had to carry all the skis, boots and everything else that goes along with skiing. My kids did ski school one day and my daughter, for the most part, picked up on it pretty quickly. My son, however, isn’t really the ski type. The day after the lessons he was with me. I had him between my legs as we tried to manuev...

It's National Rare Disease Day, and since we discovered this week that my son's congenital scoliosis is progressing, it is a perfect time to focus on this topic and share his story. My son was born with Anal Atresia. When all babies are born, one of the first things the nurse will do is take their temperature in their little booties.  I always thought this was just the most accurate way to get their temperature. Well, that is true, but it is also how they check to make sure their little bums have formed correctly.   After a pretty easy labor and delivery, everyone had moved their focus on the little guy that just came out of me. I noticed that my son's nurse kept messing with him and was acting a little weird as she was running all the tests on him.  I, of course, was doing the after birth shaking as the doctor finished doing his business with me.  The nurse did eventually hand him to me and told me I could start to breastfeed, but I had an in...

I have been in the fitness industry for 20 years! I have always been able to eat whatever I want and stay "looking" like I was fit until I had a couple of kids and hit my mid to late ’30s! WAKE UP CALL! I kept working out, but never changed my nutrition. The weight kept coming on. The pic in the awesome swimsuit (NOT), I’m at 167 pounds (Nov. 2017). I'm 5'7 and they consider 160 pounds overweight at 5'7. I don't think I was overweight, but this was the most I have ever weighed, not pregnant! I am now down 18 pounds!  I have about 9 pounds to go to get to where I want to be. It has taken me over a year to get to where I am at. I have done it slow, consistent and I have changed my habits. Nutritional habits and lifestyle habits. What did I change? I became a certified yoga instructor, kept teaching Jazzercise, but added different formats, added more strength workouts to my existing workouts. But the number ONE thing I did, CHANGED HOW I ATE and became certi...

Being a teenage mom is freaking hard. My daughter tells me too much, my son tells me nothing. Do I punish my daughter for telling me too much and being open and honest? Do I punish my son for wanting some privacy? What are the privacy rules when it comes to phones and social media? I do my research and I listen to people who supposedly know how to handle this. But who really knows how to handle this? We are the first era of parents to have to really deal with social media and phones that are attached to our children like another arm.  Do teenagers really get privacy? Is it like having a diary when I was a teenager. If my mom had read my diary when I was a teenager I would have died. Where is my diary anyway? Do parents not allow kids to have phones and social media accounts. I get this parental control to a certain age. Then it gets to a point if we want our kids to be able to function in this society, we can't keep them in this bubble of security. If they wan...