I was a little frustrated with my dancing this past week. After a breakthrough the week before and feeling like I was understanding more about why my body hurt while dancing and how to fix it, I went home from Tuesday’s lesson with my back aching in that old trouble spot. We were working on Foxtrot, and I thought I employed the same tweaks as the week before that made my movement in Waltz so much more powerful and less painful. Apparently not, or at least not with the same results. Thursday, we returned to Waltz and while I felt like I made some minor progress, my back was still aching.
Continue readingTag: knee problems
One Impossible Thing at a Time
Tomorrow marks a full month of working from home. Time has been moving at an erratic pace. It feels like months since I had a dance lesson, years since I last competed, and yet, have I really been home for an entire month already?
Week 4 of staying at home brought its own challenges, but I held fast to the idea of pacing myself. Finding the right pace turned out to be one of the challenges, and the search continues.
Continue readingDancing on Carpet and Other Quarantine Challenges
Three weeks in. It’s been interesting to reflect on how each week of staying home has brought something different. The first week was full of stress and anxiety. The second week was full of motivation and determination to not sit and wait for things to “get back to normal” and instead, accept this new reality and figure out how I was going to thrive in it. Week 3 unfortunately had me paying for some of that enthusiasm.
But as I always say, it’s all part of the journey!
Continue readingStaying Fit Through Knee Injuries
It’s been over 6 months since I first started going to physical therapy for chondromalacia patella in both of my knees. In the first couple months, I regained the 6 pounds I had lost during the fitness program I joined at the beginning of the year. Then I signed up for a 90-day transformation program and lost almost 11 pounds.
Aside from the weight loss, the biggest change in the last 6 months is that my body has gotten stronger. I had a lesson with the owner of my studio last week and she commented that she could see that I was using my core as I danced the practice routine she provided. She was impressed with my strength. She’s one of those people who doesn’t give praise just because, so when you get a compliment from her, it really means something.
That plus compliments from my physical therapist on how I was handling my at-home PT inspired me to share what I’ve been doing to not only stay fit, but also grow stronger, as I recover from double knee injuries.
Continue readingCountdown to Embassy Ball 2019: 10 Days – Solo Practice and Stress
I’ll just tell you upfront that this isn’t one of those “do this because it works” posts. This is one of those “I’m freaking out and writing about it helps me process” posts.
I’m officially in the high anxiety part of my pre-competition journey. Less than two weeks to go!
90 Day Transformation Program Update – Week 8
As I make my way through Week 9 of the 90 day transformation program, I wanted to pop in here and fill you in on how the second month went.
Gettin’ my sweat on like a Klingon
Countdown to Desert Classic 2019: 4 Days – Trust Yourself to Do What You Love
This countdown series certainly took a different turn from my other competition countdown series. Although, it isn’t the first one in which I ended up not competing. That’s part of the fun of blogging about my journey as it happens instead of telling a story that’s already over; not even I know what’s going to happen next!
90 Day Transformation Program Update – Week 4
I feel like I say this every year now, but I can’t believe tomorrow marks the beginning of the second half of the year. 2019 is halfway over!
I still have a couple more weeks to go before I hit the halfway mark of this 90-day transformation program. Today marks the end of week 4, and it felt like a good time to update you guys on my progress.
Countdown to Desert Classic 2019: 17 Days – Go/No-Go
I thought this post would be coming out next week, but the wait ended early. If you’ve been following along, you know Teacher and I set a go/no-go date by which we would do a final assessment of our Open routines and decide if they would be ready to debut at Desert Classic. I was determined to get them ready, as I’ve grown weary of sitting on the sidelines since my last competition at the end of August. But as Treebeard liked to say, don’t be hasty. Being determined is one thing. Actually being ready is another.
To keep you from shivering too much from anticipation, I’ll just come out with it.
(Bonus points to those who can name the movie references.)
Countdown to Desert Classic 2019: 1 Month – Wait For It
The countdown has begun! Desert Classic Dancesport Championships is only a month away. I’ve booked my hotel room and confirmed my dress rental. I plan on getting entries done this weekend if not sooner. Only thing left is the dancing (small detail).
The Girl with the Tree Tattoo 