It Just Keeps Getting Better and Better!

Where do I start?   First of all, I have GOT to start blogging more often...I will be so thankful years from now when I can look back at this point of my journey.  Every day I am feeling better - stronger, more optimistic, healthier, happier...life is just getting better and better!

I am now nearly 6 months into this journey and I'm down about 50 lbs.  I am able to do things I wasn't able to do, simple things that most people take for granted, with no effort at all.   I am walking daily, routinely getting at least 7,500 steps a day and often over 10,000.   I have also started swinging kettlebells again...and my passion for my bells is coming back stronger than ever before!

My friend and mentor, Tracy Reifkind, just came up for a weekend, and we went to Vancouver, BC.

Even though I was barely recovered from bronchitis and an awful reoccurrence of decades-long dormant asthma, we had such a wonderful time.  We stayed with my friends Christina and Marshall, and packed just as much into two days as we possibly could.

We did a lot of walking and some hiking, and visited Lyn Canyon Suspension bridge, which was simply AMAZING!

Vancouver is so beautiful; I envy those who are fortunate enough to live up there.  All the metropolitan excitement of an international city, surrounded by the beauty and majesty of ocean and mountains and forests and canyons.

I can't wait to go back again.  It's definitely not going to be another 25 years, which was the last time I was there!

We also spent an afternoon in Point Roberts, where Marshall and Christina moor their boat, along with their friends Don and Erin.

Unfortunately it was too windy to go out on the water, but we still had a wonderful afternoon sitting on the boat, enjoying healthy munchies, wine, and great conversation.

I think Tracy has made some new friends - I love it when I can share people I adore with other people I adore and they all enjoy each other!

 Tracy did a workout of her own the next morning on the deck...Christina was out on her run and it was a brilliantly gorgeous day.

I, unfortunately, was nursing a hangover from the wine I had over-imbibed in the day before, but I enjoyed watching her and taking photos.   She is so motivating to me, and watching her with the bells is like watching an artist in motion.  The bell seems to be a part of her, and the movement is so natural and graceful that it is almost like a dance that should be set to music.

Tracy wrote a great blog about the "Vancouver Swing Sandwich" she designed that morning, be sure to check it out as she'll be posting videos as well!

Before we headed out, Tracy trained with Christina, to teach her the Swing, I left a kettlebell with her to use as she discovers the joy and beauty of it, but I'm pretty sure...we have another Kettlebell-liever!

It feels so very good to feel that passion again.   To get the validation from Tracy that I still have the form AND that I have the knowledge and the ability to share it with others only makes me feel even stronger and more determined to do the thing that I've only imagined doing.  

I am going to start training others in the kettlebell swing, sharing with others the power and strength that can be found in this little iron ball with a handle.  

My dream is to share it with other middle-aged women - women who perhaps feel the way that I felt just 6 months ago:  I was hurting all over, I was well over 100 lbs over-weight, I was having mobility issues and joint issues and it seemed that every part of my body was aching from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed.  I felt hopeless and I knew that I didn't want to live the rest of my life feeling like that, whether that was 5 years or 25 years.  And the way I was going, I knew that I was living on borrowed time, that every day I went without a heart attack or a stroke I had dodged a bullet.  My blood lipids were off the charts and I was literally moments from being diagnosed as diabetic.  

I'm never going back there again.  Never.