The Whole Kristen ca-Doodle

I Love My Body But I haven't always.  Beginning in 4th or 5th grade I remember being conscious of the size and shape of my body and convinced of its "unrightness."  Not a word; it is now; change approved.   Looking back of course, I can appreciate its beauty, my beauty, but back then, I just knew it didn't measure up (or down, as the case may be) to what I saw in magazines, on TV, or in movies.  I knew I wasn't pretty like my sister.  I knew, I knew, it wouldn't matter how smart or funny or all around rad I was, because I wasn't pretty enough, skinny enough, curvy enough, flawless enough.  Thanks, society, for that.   Coupled with a struggle with depression, my insecurities turned really quickly into body image issues, and when I was in high school, I became bulimic.  I learned all the tricks of the trade, I kid you not, from teen magazine articles that were supposed to be cautionary tales about eating disorders.  Instead, they bec...

Once upon a time, I was working at a local gym, teaching group fitness.  My best friend (aka gym wife) and I taught a dance fitness class, and used our own choreography, but also a lot we found on the internet.  (Shout out to the internet!  You have all the things!)  In this search, we discovered this YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/ReFitRev We loved the choreography, but were really taken by the music.  It was familiar and fun, but also we immediately noticed the values of the songs.  Our gym is in a church, so the lyrics and meanings were especially significant to us because of that, but also to us personally.  And then we noticed... REFIT® was coming to Kansas City that fall to do a training!!! We got approval and encouragement from our boss to sign up.  We were so excited! Flash Forward... It was now October, and I had signed up for the training, but my gym wife was no longer working at the gym, so I was ...