So I have utilized my personal fitness training and nutrition information from weight loss surgery to pursue a profession in Personal Training.  I have been studying  for my National Academy of Sports Medicine certification.  I chose that certification because it is the most widely accepted...and for good reason.  You REALLY NEED TO KNOW YOUR STUFF to pass this test!  I couldn't believe how challenging the test was.  But the important part is not the test, but learning the excellent information NASM provides in their study material.  I haven't had any reconstructive surgery  (and choose not to).  And although I was considered a lighter-weight, weight loss surgery person, I have alot of excess skin.  So, I don't expect to ever looked "ripped" as they say in the personal training profession.  But my experience with becoming physically fit, because of my weight loss surgery, has been INVALUABLE.  I know nutrition, I know documentation of nutrition, exercise, etc. and I really know personal training because of my studies and my personal trainer who helped me through my whole weight loss surgery experience both before and for 3 years after.  Personally, I can eat bad stuff and good stuff....but for me....the exercise makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE both physically AND MENTALLY.  Hope this will help those of you who are really serious about becoming the person you can be.

I suffer from an anxiety disorder and want so much to conquer it.  So I decided to undertake a ballroom dance on a major stage in Detroit.  Its called Music Hall.  Fred Astaire sponsored the event and we were the stars.  OMG!  I can't tell you how stressful the preparation for the dance was.  Training was vigorous.  There wasn't anyone that didn't have a brace on while training..  The rehearsal at Music Hall left me, literally, shaking.  I was shaking for hours after the rehearsal.  Many of the students felt the same.  Then, the main even came.  400+ people in the audience.  OMG!!!  OMG!!  I had a performance that included 3 lifts and 2 splits to Conga by Gloria Estafan.  Let me tell you something about that song....its incredibly fast!  My dance number was so difficult!  However, I was determined to make the best of it.  I didn't want to not remember anything about my performance after I was done.  I wanted to take it all in while I was performing!  I heard the cheers.  HUGE cheers...most likely my family!  But other performers mentioned the big cheers I got.  I fell apart afterwards.  The stress drained from me and the high intensity of the emotions got the better of me on the way home.  It wasn't pleasant.   But I did it anyway and became a star for a night on a stage that only famous people appear on.  I feel special for that. 

I have to wait to post more news.  sorry if you are following me. 

Yeppers.  I am now "dancing with the stars".  I am associated with a dance studio that is ASSOCIATED WITH DANCING WITH THE STARS.  I am actually practicing a dance that was choreographed by a "Dancing with the Stars" choreographer.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE  the exercise, but am very nervous about the attention.  The great thing is that I am doing all the gymnastics that I did 30 years ago as a cheerleader!    How many women at 50 can say that?  Like my personal trainer, Peggy, always tells me...your "muscles have memory".  SO TRUE.  Its like I haven't aged.  I can do the splits, and do all kinds of athletic performances with my dance partner at Fred Astaire Studio.