Hiya Barrebabes!

I hope this finds everyone well and happy. I have a few tidbits that have been on my mind recently to discuss today, some tips for writers, students, and assorted other worker bees.

thin schmin

While I'm pretty sure I'm preaching to the choir here and that no self-respecting BarreBabe would EVER "fat shame" someone, I think it's important to discuss thinness/thickness in the realm of fitness, health, and our city full of models (no offense to my model friends). "We," meaning American culture at large (all puns intended), are an overweight nation obsessed with thinness. We are surrounded in both cheap, delicious and abundant food and an omnipresent and a totally photoshopped (which is a verb now) popular culture of skinny, extremely made-up and photogenic people. This disconnect seems to cause a lot of fear and stress (which in turn can lead to more fat, but that's a topic for another day) and I have some things to say:

1)thin can be beautiful, and thin can be healthy, but it is NOT the only way to be beautiful and healthy. a person can be on the larger and softer side and be in perfectly good health with tremendous physical potential, and I happen to think bigger bodies are quite beautiful. there, I said it. I know this can seem like a scary fact if you are exercising only to lose weight, but I just want to say that there's so much more to it than that. the changes I look for in the bodies of my babes and clients are muscle shape and tone, body alignment and capability, and the beautiful individuality of their loved, respected, and obviously valued physiques. this is different from size or pounds or even inches. so if the idea that you can do all this "hard work" and still be x pounds overweight or a size whatever frightens you, I encourage you to examine the reasons behind that dream number (because it's usually numbers we seem to be aiming for) and check that ish. before I was pregnant, I weighed almost 10 pounds more than my "target" weight, but I was healthy and sleek and strong and felt awesome in crop tops, so how could I care? ya'll didn't seem to. it's just a number. let's get real.

an example of this is when I was sick with malaria. I had been dancing in Guinea for a little over a month, and I got sick about a week before the end of my trip. I had endless fevers and could not eat for days. I was so thin the first thing Mr. Roddancerbod did when I got home was buy me an entire pizza, and he would look away when I changed my clothes because it made him nervous. and do you know how many people told me I looked amazing? so very many. like, more compliments on the bod than I've ever received at one time. I guess I was finally "New York thin," but let me tell you, it wasn't worth the 7-hour fevers, the nauseating trips to the clinic with no electricity in Conakry, the huge syringes plunged daily into my butt muscles, the months of fatigue, or the inability to eat a banana in under a half hour.

which leads me to my next point:

2)it's all relative.I have been roughly the same size since I was a teenager. for instance, with no 30-day shredding or preparatory dieting, I wore my junior prom dress to a fancy party at age 32 (which, in case you were curious, was a floor-length-black-silk-slit-up-the-leg-Morticia Addams situation, which tells ya what kind of teenager I was). in spite of this consistency, there's been a few times in my life when it seemed as if my body suddenly changed. one was when I moved from Denver to NYC and my oft-described "slender" and "athletic" physique was suddenly now "curvy" or even "voluptuous." thanks for the compliments and all, but really, how could both be true within the same month? I, like, many people, even lost a few lbs when I moved to the city from all the walking and being broke, so how could I have suddenly become so va-va-voom? perception, people. it was all in the eyes of the beholders. squinty, judgy little eyes.

another was when I was dancing in African dance troupes and traveling to West Africa regularly. at around the same time when people started calling me curvy, I was also swimming in my costumes, always the smallest one in the group, and often felt almost inadequate next to the bigger, extremely beautiful bodies I danced with. I definitely wasn't particularly sexy in that world, and my friends laughed at my calorie consciousness and joked that I would throw my back out trying to emulate through movement the bounty/booty they already possessed. so in one world I'm getting offered plus-size modeling jobs (no, really, that happened) and in another, I'm the runt of the litter. all of this is to say that there isn't just one standard of beauty or size out there, and thus, if you can't please everyone, focus on your own wonderful self, health and capability. it will show.

3) it's not your fault, but you can change it. "it," in this case, being perceptions of fatness/thinness and all the emotional weight that comes along with them. truth is, I've thought there was something wrong with my body, or at least something that could be improved upon, since I was a very little girl. I started sucking in my stomach as early as kindergarten and half-heartedly dieting, or at least being emotionally aware of food indulgences and habits, pretty soon thereafter.(note: neither of these are effective at stomach flattening. barre class, appropriate food, awesome posture, and less stress ARE.)as a teenager, I almost never wore shorts because I thought my legs were too thick and too pale. I thought all these things, and I've never even been chubby! why, then? well, I think it's different for all of us, but I eventually realized this early self-criticism and discomfort came from internalizing my mother's opinions about herself on this particular subject, and that she in turn had internalized her mother's views as well. when I was able to recognize this, I was suddenly free. I'm not sure whether it was this psychological release, barre, pilates, or frequent avocado consumption, but I finally had a figure I loved. I also stopped judging other people's figures and displacing my internal hangups onto them. (although I will, however, judge the shit out of their posture.)

anyway, I know you babes are all empowered and reasonable, but this stuff just kept coming up all around me and I felt I had to share. as always, I love to hear from you, so don't hesitate to ask questions or otherwise "weigh in." (ha ha).

every day posture tips: computers

The other thing I keep hearing from babes is intense neck & shoulder pain, tension, or limited mobility - and that their finals are due/books are written/work life is crazy. While I don't personally spend too much time in front of a computer these days, as a Pilates teacher and former graduate student and copy editor, I offer my personal tips to help counteract this common malaise:

- writing is physical work. it might not be a major calorie burn, but writing and typing are physical acts that require mindfulness, just as your workouts are. you can and should adjust how you work to make it work for you.
- keep your head up. tupac was right. work with your screen at eye level as much as possible to prevent extra downward strain.
- preserve the curve. it's actually incredibly difficult to sit for long periods in good working alignment, as you've by now discovered I'm sure, so I recommend sitting at the edge of your chair on top of your sitting bones (as opposed to being slumped back on your sacrum) with feet on the floor to keep the front and back body equally long. keep your shoulders broad and don't tuck your pelvis under, or even worry too much about pulling your stomach in (if you're in a good position, you won't really have to for the muscles to work). stack books or something behind you to help keep you up. it's like, you bought the seat, but all you really need is the edge.
- ya gotta get up to get down. any movement can become repetitive movement and repetitive movement without mindfulness can lead to injury. so vary your position regularly by getting up & stretching or moving around. touch your toes. lift your knees up a few times. twist from side to side. if you're at home or don't care about looking nerdy in front of coworkers, do some squats here and there. maybe a few pushups. just move. i used to pace my apartment dictating to myself and then sitting to type it all out. you can't expect to undo 8+ hours of sitting with an hour of exercise, so figure out some way to pepper in a little movement every hour and you will feel the benefits everywhere.
- keep 'em separated. (all my music references are soooo 90s!) don't work in your easy chair, or curled up in bed. easy chair is for relaxing, bed is for sleeping, snuggling, and sex. you wouldn't eat a meal sitting on your toilet (ew, would you?) so why would you work where you relax? try to work in a space where you can keep your torso supported and long, where you can keep your screen at face level, and where you can get up and move frequently.

All right, babes, after all that, we both need to get up and stretch.

See you at the barre!

Annie