The Kangoo Jumps® Instructor Adventure Continues

If a passion for something were enough to accomplish it, I would be a Kangoo Jumps® instructor by now. Instead, it's been almost a year since I took the initial course in August 2012. I just learned this week that the video that has held me up did not need to be as complicated as I was making it. Plus, my horoscope this morning said I should just get out of my own way and most of my obstacles would disappear.

But enough about me. Here is an opportunity for YOU to become a Kangoo Jumps instructor.  On August 18, 2013, in Franconia, Virginia, there will be a one-day workshop to start the licensing process. That's the blue flyer.  This is the course I took last year. Once you take the course, there are three other requirements. One, you have to be certified as a group fitness instructor (GFI) by an accredited certifying organization, like AFAA or ACE. Two, to be certified as a GFI, you need to be CPR-certified. Third, of course, is the video showing you actually instructing (very specific criteria). Of course, if you are GFI-certified and teaching something else already, that shortens the process.



But wait, there's more! If you want to really sharpen your skills at instructing a music-based Kangoo Jumps class, Chakaboom Fitness is offering a six-week course for exactly that (the pink flyer). Six Saturday morning classes, four hours each, will take you step-by-step (pun intended) toward becoming an excellent Kangoo Jumps instructor. Many of the skills will come in handy for any other music-based fitness class you happen to teach. For more information about the two courses, email kathchakaboom@gmail.com.

The catch? In order to take the six-week course, you have to take the one-day course first. Never tried a Kangoo Jumps class before? No problem. Check out the schedule of regular classes at Chakaboom Fitness, the Franconia location, either on Facebook or at ChakaboomFitness.com. There are classes four days a week where you can rent boots and try it for yourself.


As for me, I am going to listen to my horoscope, and a piece of advice from back in the late 1970s. "You get what you resist," so I am going to get out of my own way and stop resisting the obstacles to getting my video done. You know I'll keep you posted on how that works out.

Healthy Eating is a Learning Process

In 2011, I lost a quarter of my body weight, dropping 45 pounds between January and December. People assume I must have been dieting to achieve this, but there was no planned diet about it. I kept eating many of the same foods I had eaten for years, added a few more salads and fruit smoothies, and accidentally turned most meals into snacks for lack of time.

The trajectory of weight loss went like this. From January to early May, I used my treadmill when I could, lifted weights at the local recreation center, gardened, took tap dancing and Zumba lessons, and went about my abnormal life. In that four months, I lost 8 pounds. Not great, but it felt like a good start after several mostly unsuccessful attempts over the past years.

On May 2nd, I tried a different Zumba class, recommended by a friend from college.*  She warned me to bring two bottles of water the first time, because there would be some serious calories burned. She was absolutely right! The dancing itself was more intense and challenging than a typical Zumba class, the people were friendly, and the instructors were a couple of hot Brazilian guys who actually interacted with the crowd. What was not to love? I began coming to their classes several times a week, and eventually got to be friends with more than a few people there. By early September (my 40 year high school reunion, did I mention that before?) — also four months — I lost 25 more pounds and dropped my cholesterol so far that my doctor canceled my prescription.

In August, the same instructors added classes using Kangoo Jumps boots, which I fell in love with immediately. By the beginning of December (three months), I had lost 10 more pounds. Christmas treats did me in, because I had counted on hours of fun fitness every week being enough to keep the weight off. Zumba and Kangoo were no match for the holiday (eating) spirit. I had to figure out another piece of the health and fitness puzzle.

2012 was a year of learning about better ways to eat, balancing workouts and paying work, realizing that sleep is not just that nuisance time between fitness classes, and going up and down a small roller coaster of weight. Admittedly, some of the gain was building muscle (muscle weighs more than fat), but some was just bad eating habits.

It was either late 2012 or early 2013 that a couple friends became vegan in their food choices. This is a nutritional choice even more stringent than being vegetarian, as vegans do not eat dairy foods or eggs, in addition to not eating any form of meat or seafood. They happily shared information with anyone who would listen. I am nowhere near a convert at this point, but because of talking with them I have tried an assortment of healthier foods in addition to, or instead of, things I already eat.

I don't eat 100% healthy at this point, but I feel like I eat in a more healthy way than I used to. I enjoy the texture of foods, and timing is also a big factor in what I eat. So, for those who have asked me about my eating habits, here is a typical day. I start with two cups of coffee, usually with whole milk in them. Next is often an English muffin, half a bagel, or a slice or two of cinnamon toast. Other days, there are eggs embellished with onions, cheese, and whatever else is handy. Breakfast depends on what's on the agenda for the morning. I take a fruit smoothie to work with me and it gets me through the rest of the  morning, along with a handful of nuts. My favorite lunch is mushroom ravioli with pesto sauce and roasted red peppers, but other choices include corn chips with salsa, hummus, or guacamole, or sometimes a bottle of whey-protein-enhanced coffee if lunch has to be done while driving. Afternoon is usually a snack instead of dinner, because of fitness class timing. It could be a salad (today was iceberg lettuce, baby kale, and matchstick carrots), the other half of the morning bagel, or even a bottle of b-vitamin-enhanced blue juices. After evening class, I am most likely to drink a big glass of chocolate milk, or have a few more corn chips with hummus or salsa. I don't pay attention to calories or carbs much, but I do make sure I get enough protein and water. Some days the choices are more healthy, and some days ... not so much. 

If anyone wants to adopt me and feed me on a regular basis, I will consider offers. For now, I am getting more sleep than last year, taking fewer fitness classes in order to get more sleep, and trying to at least notice my food choices, so that they move along the continuum from less healthy to more healthy. Life is a work in progress, people. Change is the only constant.


*Thanks again, M.A. Mulligan, for introducing me to Chakaboom Fitness. And thank you to Roberson Magalhaes and Leo Lins for creating the energy explosion that is the heart of Chakaboom.

I Never Knew That About You!

We all like to settle into familiar patterns, whether traffic routes, breakfast routines, or interactions with friends. While there is a lot to be said in favor of familiar and comfortable, sometimes it's good to get outside that comfort zone. One way to do this is to find out new things about old friends. For example, I am going to share five things here that most people don't know about me. That might be enough to make you wonder what you don't know about other people you think you know, and explore a new side of those friendships.

I have taken tap dancing lessons three separate times in my life. When I was four or five years old, I barely remember being there. When I was about 10 years old, I have a photograph of me and my younger sister in tap shoes and tutus for the recital at the end of the year. Just a couple years ago, the same sister talked me into taking a few lessons again with her. We did not remember as much as we hoped we would (seriously, more than 45 years later?), but we still had a great time.

I am a convicted international smuggler, on a technicality. When I was stationed in Iceland in the Air Force (two more things most of you don't know about me! Bonus!), I had borrowed a car to drive downtown to get my new contact lenses. (Another bonus, I used to wear contact lenses.) I intended to drop off a turntable at the on-base post office to mail stateside, but the post office was closed. With no time to drop it off at the dorm, I told my story to the gate guard when leaving the base for the eye doctor, and he said "sorry" but had to confiscate it because of concerns about American electronics and the local black market. I went to an administrative hearing, and had to admit I had heard that rule before that day, so I was technically guilty of attempting to take electronics off-base, or international smuggling.

The fingers of my left hand are numb as I type this. I have had carpal tunnel surgery on my right wrist and hope to arrange for it on my left wrist soon. I knew they both needed it back when I had the first one done in 2006, but just "didn't have time" until this summer to take care of the left wrist. Besides, I am SO right-handed it was almost irrelevant that my left hand was not as capable as my surgically-improved right hand. When it got to the point that I could not open a plastic juice bottle without help, it was time.

I ate my first taco in Iceland, at a Coast Guard party, on a Navy base, while stationed there in the Air Force. The whole Coast Guard contingent on-base at that time happened to be from Texas. I saw Blazing Saddles at the NCO Club on-base that year too, when the movie first came out, not knowing ahead of time it was a comedy and not a typical western. Another first in Iceland, I was a DJ on the base radio station for a couple weeks.

I gave one of the speeches at my high school graduation, and forgot the words partway through. I started coughing to stall for time until I could remember the next line (memorized, baby, no notes or teleprompter). The only person who knew what really happened was my English teacher, Ms. Deemer, who had coached and rehearsed us all. My own stepmother wondered if she should go get me some water! After a few seconds, I regained my place, leaving out only one sentence. I've been a fan of improvisation ever since.

I have to get to work now, but here's your "homework." Don't wait until you have to take out a personals ad to find someone who will "like pina coladas, and getting caught in the rain..." Find out something new about someone you think you know today.

Motivation Is Not Enough

Let me say this up front: I am generally in favor of positive sayings, words of encouragement, motivational posters, inspirational quotes, and that whole genre of communication. That still leaves me room for having an unintended reaction to some of them, and hiding some from my Facebook newsfeed.

Here's my problem. Some of these aphorisms ignore reality. I can want to wake up a foot taller than I am, and pray for it, and generate positive intention toward it, but as an adult of my species that isn't going to happen. I can be very motivated to become a professional football player, and even take steps that would lead to that goal for someone else, but the entire goal would be a delusion for me, being my age and size and never having watched an entire football game, ever.

My point is that motivation is not enough. Working toward your goal is not enough. Both are totally required if you want to accomplish something, but the key is a realistic goal. The first hard work to be done is determining if your goal is realistic for you.

If you choose a goal that is not realistic, you stand a strong chance of failure. Sometimes those failures make you stronger and wiser for the next goal; other times they drain your resources (financial, mental, emotional, social, and other) and leave you with little to show for it. Crossing the Grand Canyon on a tightrope is a spectacular example of a goal that is not realistic for most of us, but worked out well for one person. That person used talent, training, and a host of specific skills and resources in order to realize his goal.

Here's my other problem with some of these motivational aphorisms. Not all people have big goals, or even want them. Some people are quite content to get through the day doing what they have to do (income, housework, etc.), working well with others, and enjoying whatever the day offers them (sunrise, sunset, a favorite song on the radio, wine with a friend, whatever makes them happy). Positive sayings should not make them feel wrong for not having big goals and dreams. We are not all on the same journey, and even those who are may not be at the same point in that journey. You may be ready to fly while I am still gluing my wings together and building arm strength to use them. We can encourage each other without judging each other to be wrong for choosing different goals.

Here's your homework.

• Stop judging others for having no visible goals, or for having very ambitious goals. You are not the GPS for someone else's journey.
• "Encouragement" should give someone courage to keep trying, not make them feel bad about their choices or their circumstances. Your words carry weight, so use them wisely.
• When choosing your own goals, remember that realistic and easy are not the same thing. Some goals are very hard to achieve; they take great amounts of effort and time, but they are still realistic if you choose to invest that time and effort.

Reality Check on the Kangoo Instructor Trail

Memo to myself:

Here are a few ideas to help keep this adventure of becoming a Kangoo Jumps instructor in perspective, and keep you moving forward in it.

1.  It was never your intention to teach the same class you are taking. Remember back to when you started this adventure, when you wanted to teach the people who watch from the doorway but are afraid to try it, and the people who try it once and say it was fun but never come back, and the people who come back repeatedly and find some moves very challenging because they didn't learn the fundamentals that make them easier. Keep those people in mind when you feel discouraged.
2. Confidence is a skill you can take steps to improve, just like technique, style, and stamina. Figure out the steps you can take, and make them part of your plan. Start by remembering when you were very good behind a microphone or leading a class, and picture those earlier successes as often as needed. Keep working on the technique, style and stamina too, because confidence that can't be backed up with substance won't get you very far.
3. Since you are worried about your mind trying to write checks your body can't cash, get expert help in determining where to draw the line between highly motivated and flat-out delusional. (For example, no amount of motivation is going to make your legs longer or you taller, so starting a career in professional basketball at this point in life is not realistic; good thing that's not your goal.)
4. If it stops being fun for you, that will show. Make sure that at least some of what you do every week is just jumping for the joy of it. Instead of the Alamo, Remember the Euphoria!

Now, for the rest of you voyeurs reading my memo to myself, here's the synopsis and how it applies to you.

• Remember why you started whatever you are having trouble
  finishing.
• What steps are under your control to reach your goal?
  Take them.
• Get a reality-check from someone who is not invested
  in the outcome.
• Make sure you are getting something out of the process,
  whether it's fun, money, or something else you value.

All right, troops, let's do this!

The Kangoo Jumps® Adventure: Sometimes You Get What You Need

It seems that my quest to become a Kangoo Jumps® Power instructor has become more of a marathon than a quick and ambitious sprint. In the six months (oops!) since I've added to this blog, many steps have been taken but the process is not yet complete. I have not submitted a second video, and I have learned many things.

First, I learned not to expect myself to finish much of anything during the cold, gray, dreary winter where I live. I have wondered more this year if I have Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) than any year I remember. As soon as spring came, with more sun and warmer weather and flowers in my garden, my motivation perked up immensely.

Second, I was reminded how the universe gives me what I need when I need it. Every time I felt I would never finish this quest, someone would come up to me and tell me something encouraging that made me want to keep trying. That helped get me through the winter of my discontent.

Third, I learned a LOT about being an instructor from being allowed to practice in small ways, and from watching many instructors and analyzing how they do what they do. I learned that stamina matters, so I don't look worn out before the class ends and I am only a little out of breath while giving verbal cues. I learned that style and technique matter, because making it look effortless and fun is good but making it clean and easy for the class to copy is better; doing all of the above is the stuff of greatness. I learned that you have to know your content so thoroughly that you can cue it ahead of time and take distractions in stride (like microphones that try to fall off your head). I learned that you need to teach to both the beginners and the advanced students in the same class enough that neither quits on you. I learned that more cues are better than fewer, especially when students need the "which body part is doing what" and not just the name of the move.

Lastly, I learned that I am not a video producer. The first location I used is hard to schedule again. The second was my basement, much too small and crowded. The third was a wooden deck I was worried about breaking. The other two locations did not work for reasons of coordinating with other people. At one point I thought it might actually be easier to fly to Florida and "audition" live than to get the video done (too expensive; not an option). My current plan is to treat this more like a home video, and do a segment at a time when the opportunity appears, and then have it edited together into one file.

One thing I am clear about is that the delay in getting the video done has given me the opportunity to become a better instructor. (OMG! Is that the universe giving me what I need instead of what I want? Cue the Rolling Stones as the credits roll.)

The First Kangoo Video Was a Rough Draft

It's hard to believe I haven't written in this blog in 60 days, but that's what the date-stamp on my last entry tells me. A lot has happened, and little has been accomplished. C'est la vie.

In November I sent an email to find out what were the requirements for the video I needed to submit to Kangoo USA to become fully licensed as an instructor. I never got an answer, so I decided to just do one song and submit it and see what happened. For the record, it was my own choice not to call and ask, which might have been more effective. When I did submit my one song demo in December, the response was quick and clear: nice enthusiasm, wrong content. I think that makes the first video my rough draft.

Here's how the first video was planned and executed. I chose a song with the right beats per minute (BPM), a good pace for beginners, Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive, Paul McCartney's version. I put together choreography, thinking about what beginners could follow easily and thus gain confidence, emphasizing just rhythm and bounce. I got permission to use a room where I work, with a nicely padded floor (former weight lifting room), and I found four camera operators, two high school students and two college grads with video-related degrees. The students used the school cameras, one grad brought his own camera, the other grad brought the audio recorder and became the director/producer/floor manager. I borrowed a boom box and used my iPhone for the music. We did not put a microphone on me directly, using just the camera sound (one with a shotgun mic) and the audio recorder; I totally underestimated the sound level of the boots hitting the floor, compared to my voice. For the next video, I will use a mic, preferably a headset mic. I also had two volunteers from the Kangoo Jumps class I attend who pretended to be my students for the demo.

For the actual video shoot, we ran through the whole song once as rehearsal, with the cameras rolling. We checked the sound and look of it, made some adjustments to the sound and the camera placements, and did three takes. For planning purposes, I must admit that setup, teardown, and shooting four takes of a 2.5 minute song took us about 90 minutes. Due to scheduling of the grad editing the footage into one coherent video, it took a few days to get all the footage into the right computer and do the editing. Once it was done, I had my editor post it to her Google Drive and sent the link to my Kangoo USA contact. Emailing it was not an option because our finished file was enormous.

So, flash forward to today. I heard back that the video we spent so much time on was not what they needed to see, and I wondered for a few days if I wanted this badly enough to record and submit a video that will have to include seven very specific elements and be 7-12 minutes long. In the meanwhile, several more people came to me and said they can't wait until I am licensed so they can take my class. Being very susceptible to that kind of peer pressure, I am now working on a breakdown of how to get all these separate items recorded a little at a time, and edit them together, but much more simply than the rough draft, to keep the file size down.

To all who have encouraged me, and continue to...thank you. Keep up the good work, and I'll keep working on seeing this through to completion.