Plan B... or Plan C... and Window Shopping

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans," according to John Lennon. I am in the midst of switching to Plan B, or Plan C, and trying to remember that there are 23 more letters after that. In fact, I know several other people working their way through the alphabet this way. If a straight-ahead, linear path worked for everyone, we would have a lot fewer really interesting people in the world, and I tend to like the People of the Convoluted Path.

Three years ago I worked really hard to achieve certification as a Group Fitness Instructor, as part of becoming a licensed Kangoo Jumps® instructor. Two years ago, I got my official KJ license and started teaching classes using KJ rebound boots. Last year I renewed my GFI certification, which required money and continuing education credits. This year I am not renewing my KJ instructor license, although I will still be teaching music-based fitness classes using Kangoo Jumps rebound boots. I am not interested in attending the initial licensing class all over again (and having to fly somewhere to do it), nor submitting a no-edits, single-shot 11-13 minute video in a style I choose not to teach. This sounds like a simple decision, but it was not.

At the core of my decision is the belief that rebound boot classes should not be limited to those who are already fit and flexible. For the most part, those are not the people I want to reach with the delights of rebound fitness. I want the people who need that "up to 80% less impact" that these boots offer, who want high-impact fun with low impact on their joints. I want to make people comfortable with their own learning curve when they use these boots. More experienced jumpers who attend my classes are welcome to embellish the choreography I use, and they do. At the same time, other people choose to just "do singles or doubles" until they feel ready to follow the choreography, and I make sure they know that's OK too. "Keep moving and keep smiling, and we're all good!" If I were teaching 8-10 classes a week indoors, I would customize them for easier and more complex choreography, maybe even for musical themes, and would try to serve a variety of jumpers but not all in the same class.

Because of how I want to teach rebound fitness, I have never considered (at least not seriously) even applying at an established gym. I have taught in private settings (employees only) and in parking lots. For two years now I have been feeling "location lust" whenever I drive by a vacant storefront of a reasonable size, with good parking, and good food nearby (and a few other criteria). My current "plan" is to put more time into making this indoor rebound location happen. Hopefully before it gets too cold to jump outdoors! To make this profitable (can't pay a lease if it's not, right?), I am also interested in hearing from other instructors who would consider offering fitness classes there, offering health-related classes weekly or monthly, or even using the space for tutoring when classes are not scheduled. I am open to many possibilities to help pay for a place I can jump indoors in the winter. Find me on Facebook at Loraine Says JUMP and leave a message if you are interested in making this happen, as an instructor, location scout, decorator, investor, supporting member, or whatever else we need to make it work. Let's be indoors before it snows!

The Secret Behind "Effortless" Results

We've all witnessed amazing performances by people in the arts, athletics, academics, and many other areas of life that don't start with the letter "a." They make whatever they are doing look so effortless, almost as if they were born doing it. Here's the secret behind making something seem that effortless...EFFORT.

No, that can't be right. Do you mean if I put in enough hours practicing the right way to do something, I'll get better at it? Do you mean if I can identify my goal and the steps to get there, and I put time into working those steps, I can make progress toward achieving my goal? Do you mean I didn't have to be born the perfect weight, with the perfect skills, or start with any other perfect anything? I just have to work consistently (not constantly, mind you) and there will be consequences, which in this case are also called "positive results."

The babes in the front row of fitness classes who look like they could almost teach the class were once the beginners who wondered if they would last through the first class. They showed up consistently, they worked on their skills, and now they make it look effortless. Same for golfers, bowlers, gymnasts, spelling bee contestants, master teachers, Zamboni drivers, chefs, race car drivers, sculptors, musicians, and just about anything else you could want to become.

So, half the message today is set a goal, show up and put in the effort to improve specific skills, and good things happen. Nice. Motivational. Not enough.

The other half of today's message is for those who already did all that, or who are doing that currently. Please don't hide the effort it is taking you to get to where you want to be. Those who are struggling need to know you were not born perfect either. The education grad students in my family have learned that this is a "fixed mindset" vs. "growth mindset," this notion that you either are or are not smart, athletic, a good cook, or whatever else, vs. knowing that while you may not be good at something YET you could be better if you work at it.

This is part of why I kept (and will keep) posting updates about my recovery from carpal tunnel release surgery, and other things I have to work at if I want to accomplish them. I know that in public I will only use my left wrist to do the things I know I can (e.g., no heavy lifting, no strongly flexed or extended wrist) and it will look like an effortless recovery. NOT. I may not have an official curriculum of physical therapy for getting the flexibility and strength back, but I create many opportunities throughout the day to gently test and work through range of motion and weight-bearing activities. I identify the effort I need to make, and I make it.

I am currently reading a couple of different books that relate to all this. In Flow: the psychology of optimal experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says, "Although the flow experience appears to be effortless, it is far from being so. It often requires strenuous physical exertion, or highly disciplined mental activity. It does not happen without the application of skilled performance." (You know, flow, that in-the-zone great experience when you become one with the activity you are doing; yeah.) Then there is Brené Brown, in Daring Greatly, who says "Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance." The effort-making stage is us being authentic and imperfect, and if we can't accept that, we will never feel like we are "enough."

This week, think about some of the people you meet and ask yourself what effort they put in to make their results look so effortless, or what effort they could make to get past where they are stuck in a fixed mindset. Then spot-check your own life and congratulate yourself where you've worked hard to get where you are, and ask yourself what effort could make a difference where you feel stuck. (You knew there would be homework, right? At least I'm not asking you to write it down!)

Kangoo Jumps® Rebound Boots Demo at Wellness Fair, April 18 in VA

Kids know fun when they see it, and the Kangoo Jumps® rebound boots "try 'em on" booth was extremely popular at last year's Rose Hill ES Wellness Fair. We have more boots in smaller sizes this year (and still have plenty of adult-size boots for parents, staff, and random grown-ups).

Starting at 9:30 am, people can come talk with us, try on boots and wear them for a few minutes (in our marked off, supervised area of the gym), and find out where they can take classes locally. I hope to be able to let people know when the next instructor licensing will be offered locally, for other fitness providers who might be interested.

At some point during the Wellness Fair, a few of us will do a brief demonstration of rebound jumping, so everyone can see what you can do in these fabulous boots with a little practice.




Preceding the Wellness Fair, there will be a Kid's Fun Run at 8 am and a 5K Run/Walk at 8:30 am to benefit the Autism Society of America. If you are interested in this, you can find the registration form at www.fcps.edu/rosehilles. If you want to run in rebound boots and don't have your own...contact me and we'll see what we can arrange.

For my local followers who like to help out, I am definitely looking for volunteers to help get people (mostly kids) in and out of boots, supervise the enclosed jumping space, keep order in the line and answer questions, and be part of the on-stage demo. (I don't have a time for the demo yet; will post on Facebook and here when I do.) Whether you can help for a few minutes, or longer, "it takes a village" to make this work smoothly!

For any other instructors out there reading this, I have found that wellness fairs and similar demo opportunities are great opportunities for introducing people to Kangoo Jumps rebound boots. Five minutes in boots and they realize they won't fall, they really can balance, and it's SO MUCH FUN! Then it's up to you to keep them coming back for more.

Questions? Leave them here as comments, or find me on Facebook and ask, or if you know me then you know how to find me in person. I'm really looking forward to this event!

Snow Days and Birthdays and Death, Oh My!

This is a post about being prepared for the good and bad in your life, and whatever else comes along. Today is a snow day, next week is my birthday, and just over a month ago my youngest sister died. These don’t sound related, but they are.

January and February in northern Virginia we all play a game called Guess the Snow Days. There will always be some, they will not always match the weather or the weather predictions, and they will often be over- or under-prepared for by localities. With one of the nation’s largest school districts (Fairfax County), the school system is usually the trendsetter in calling a snow day, but some years they can’t win for trying. This is one of those years. On the home front, we were better prepared this year than usual. We now have six shovels at the house (with four people to use them) and one in each car, snow brush and scraper in each car, two snow-blowers (gas and electric), an ice chopper, and a leaf blower that we could probably use to blow snow off the cars. We have a kerosene heater, a propane camping stove, and a gas grill out back if the power goes out. We have a generator, for the coffeemaker and other important reasons. We live in a townhouse. Really, we are ready for some snow.

Next week I will enter a whole new demographic. I will turn 62, eligible to apply for Social Security. I feel somewhat less prepared for this than for snow, although I have seen this coming for a lot longer. I take better care of my body, spirit, and emotional health than I used to, although I am still not a great example to follow. (No, really; just ask me.) I was 10 when my mother died of a heart attack, and assumed for many years I would be lucky to see 50. Around 58 years old, I realized I was still here, and might have another 20 or more years to go, and if I wanted to keep doing anything interesting I had better whip this body of mine into a condition that would support those interesting things. I had dabbled in exercise before (weights, treadmill, Zumba, tap dancing) but in 2011 I got serious, partly because I found something that felt better than cookies and milk taste. I lost 45 pounds by going to Zumba, and later rebound classes using Kangoo Jumps® rebound boots, at Chakaboom Fitness. This was no casual fling, since by fall of 2011 I was attending as many as 12-13 classes a week. The classes were high energy, the instructors were easy on the eyes, and the camaraderie with the other students was amazing and supportive. In 2013, very gradually, the classes changed and it became easier to skip them sometimes, and eventually almost all I still attended were rebound classes. I was not the demographic they were aiming the classes at any more, and it just wasn’t fun for me like before. That’s when the struggle began. I started to gain weight back, and a snow shoveling injury started a year of less than optimal movement which made it even easier to skip exercise classes. (To condense the medical side of this, I should have started with the massage therapist, not waited 10 months to try that.) Apparently, I was not prepared for aging; I had just been lucky most of my life.

My youngest sister was also not prepared for aging. I suspect she did not expect to outlive our mother as long as she did either. She started smoking in her early teens, kept smoking after four minor heart attacks, and got her only exercise taking out the trash. Even when you know someone’s habits are going to get her, you are still not prepared for her to leave so suddenly or so soon. My preparedness take-away from losing my youngest sister is to stop procrastinating about being in touch with friends and relatives. I am turning an age she will never see, and that’s an opportunity I choose not to waste. I am trying to learn to cherish most of the moments I have left, whether they are days or many years. (Admittedly, there are some moments I am not cherishing, but I am at least trying to accept them.)

So as I turn 62 next week, there are some things I am looking forward to and some I am hoping to change.

• I want to return to sending letters on paper to one of my longest-known friends, Nancy, since she refuses to use Facebook and I still want to keep in touch.
• I want to start talking on the phone regularly with my second-longest-known friend, “Bean,” because I still can’t figure out how to get us in the same state again.
• I want to find something else to do that is fun-fitness in addition to the rebounding I adore, because too much of just one form of exercise is not a good balance for the body I happen to have.
• I want more time to sit on the deck and enjoy the beautiful flowers in my garden, both alone and with friends. (Um, but not until it’s warmer out there.)

I want to do, or stop doing, many other things, but I find myself typing and erasing them, so I guess I am not ready to share the rest of this list. Let’s just say 62 feels like more of a landmark birthday than 50 or 60 did, and we will see how prepared I can become for whatever life brings my way.

Commitment, Inertia, Habit, and Addiction

Getting ready to end one year and begin a new one seems like a good time to consider the concepts of commitment, inertia, habit, and addiction. Only one of these is an active choice. The other three are different versions of “but we’ve always done it that way,” which can be good or bad.

This is a useful distinction in so many areas of life, from career to marriage, wellness to cultural change. For a common starting point, here are my working definitions (the limited perspective I am using for this moment for these words).

Commitment:  A solemn, binding promise to yourself to do (or not do) something you have an emotional or intellectual investment in.
Inertia:  the tendency of a body in motion to continue that motion, and resist any change.
Habit:  A recurrent, often unconscious, pattern of behavior acquired through frequent repetition.
Addiction:  Physical or psychological dependence on a substance or activity.

We need one more limited definition to make this one-sided conversation work. A goal is the purpose toward which effort is directed. A commitment requires a goal. Addiction requires you to think, believe, or feel something terrible will happen if you don’t comply with your addiction; that’s not the same as a goal. Habit can go both ways, serving a goal when commitment has a weak moment or putting obstacles in the path of new commitment. Inertia manifests most often as resistance to new commitments. Commitment must be stronger than inertia for change to occur.

Let’s use wellness as an example. Let’s say you want to do some or all of the following in 2015.

• Lose weight
• Firm up what is left
• Sleep more or better
• Have your doctor say "good job!" after your check-up
• Train for and finish a race or other physical event (running, swimming, biking, dancing...)
• Eat to support the choices listed above and improve your overall health

Commitment to your goal is where you start. Be clear about your goal in order to choose the best steps to achieve it. In choosing your steps, try to include some that can become habits through repetition, e.g., always go to Saturday morning dance workout or always eat a salad for lunch on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Don’t try to change everything at once, or inertia (resistance to change) increases. (Think of Dr. Suess and the oobleck — if you poke it fast it seems like a solid, but if you poke it slow it is soft and pliable.) Once the first couple steps have turned into habits, add the next.

At the extreme, if the activity becomes more important to you than the goal, take a moment to consider it. Is the activity still serving the goal? Is it becoming an obstacle to reaching the goal? Is it impacting other areas of your life negatively? This is where some people talk about “exercise addiction,” when the amount and/or kind of exercise you do starts to have negative effects in your life.

Now let’s make this all about me. I began taking rebound classes in Kangoo Jumps boots because they are a fun cardio workout. I kept going because I was getting better at it. (I do love learning and improving at a new skill.) And…um…the endorphins from jumping were amazing to me.  I became an instructor for three reasons: to share the fun, to share the endorphin rush, and to design a class that allowed more people to have access to the first two. Then came the setbacks: snow shoveling muscle injury, arthritis, and high room rents. Teaching class remained a commitment, but taking class became part habit and part addiction (got to have those endorphins!). That was not a bad thing until taking class became an obstacle to teaching class (inertia to be overcome). From now on, I want to be more in tune with the commitment and more aware of when and how habit, addiction, and inertia interact with that.

Viewed from the perspective of commitment / inertia / habit / addiction, where are you getting in your own way and how will you change that? Let me know how that goes in 2015.

Canceling Class, or Optimism vs. Insurance

First, the outdoor class in Lorton, Virginia, is canceled for this morning, October 11. So stay in the warm and dry location you are in while reading this. Maybe get another cup of coffee, tea, or cocoa, or maybe even go back to bed.

Here's the situation. The radar says we might be clear or in misty rain by then, but the rain will be recent enough that the ground will be wet and there might be puddles, even on a flat or barely sloped parking lot. Insurance companies are not fond of their clients taking risks that do not need to be taken, and jumping in the rain might be that kind of situation. (Might be?)

If you are reading this in Northern Virginia, keep your eyes open for indoor locations that could work for a fitness class using Kangoo Jumps rebound boots, and let me know about them. Winter is coming, and outdoor jumping in very cold weather has to stress the boot materials more, so I won't do it. (Yeah, I don't jump outside when it's too cold to breathe anyway.) The high ceiling is the hardest part to find. When you put a six foot tall person in boots, and they jump two feet off the ground, that adds up to needing at least a nine foot ceiling. A twenty by thirty foot room will work for a small class, and larger allows for more variety of moves or more people. Observe and let me know what you find so we can all jump this winter.

Thanks, and stay safe and warm this holiday weekend!
Loraine

Recertified and Ready to Rock

Some days things just fall into place. For example, my recertification for another two years as a group fitness instructor came today from AFAA (Aerobics and Fitness Association of America). I needed that in order to renew my fitness instructor liability insurance, which is due very soon. I needed both of those to continue offering rebound fitness classes using Kangoo Jumps boots to public school employees as a "staff wellness" class the rest of fall and early winter. The timing is working nicely for all this.

It's been a good couple weeks for finding the balance between the business side and the creative side of teaching KJ rebound fitness. I introduced the choreography for four new songs to my students, and they got almost all of it on the first try. I helped a friend find a solution to a boot that couldn't be repaired (and now it IS repaired). That's the creative side. I decided to reorder pink t-shirts and pink hoodies with "Loraine Says JUMP" on them to offer to other people, not just wear them myself like I did the first order. I learned how to offer them in the Square Market (mkt.com/LoraineSaysJUMP). I learned how to invoice students for classes using my Square account. And I started researching locations again, because it won't be that long before it's too cold to jump on my deck for several months.

I've also been in touch online with other instructors licensed by Kangoo Jumps, having conversations where we learn from each other. Not every idea transfers from one situation to another, but sometimes one of us writes something that sparks a new approach for the other. I am sure that's going to be one of the best parts of the Kangoo Jumps Festival in Fort Lauderdale in Florida in October, that exchange of ideas and energy between instructors. I won't be there (other commitments), but everyone is welcome to attend the actual Festival Day on Sunday, October 12. For more details, go to  www.kjfestival.com.

(OK, so I have been sitting here trying to come up with a suitable conclusion for this post for way too long. I am officially giving up and going to get some sleep, in the hopes of accomplishing a lot more tomorrow. Now that I am recertified, I want to be rested and ready to rock!)