Guest Post: My Mom's Pure Barre Story

My mom is an amazing writer, and today I asked her to guest post to share her Pure Barre story. My sister and I both love Pure Barre classes and when I was home a few months ago in August we convinced my mom to join us for a morning class, which she agreed to because she wanted extra time with her girls ;)

But to her surprise, she ended up really enjoying it and so she signed up for an unlimited month to see how it would go. She's been going ever since, and she's half way to her 100th class I might add!
I'm so proud of her for finding something she enjoys doing and it's extra fun that my mom, sister and I all have Pure Barre in common!

PS - My mom has the cutest Instagram account - if you don't follow her, you should :)

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Pure Barre Mills Park - Mom's first class before signing up for a month!

My Pure Barre story is short and sweet...

I love to spend time with my daughters! I wasn't intending to start exercising... I really wasn't!

My very first barre class was probably three or four years ago, at another studio with my girls.

I remember laying on the floor in class and the thought went through my mind,
"I think I'm going to die!"

I did what I could in the class (which wasn't much) and I wondered if I'd be able to merely WALK the next day, or week?? But the good thing was I was with my girls!

Fast forward two years and never another barre class. Then, we had our two daughter's weddings.

I did what every mother-of-the-bride would want to, lose weight!

I started a 28-day diet, that on Day 29 ended up becoming a new way of eating for me and my husband. I didn't intend to permanently change the way we eat. I had lost the weight, all 33 pounds of it! But what was still missing, was exercise in my life.

Remember how I love spending time with our daughters? Our Atlanta girl was in town for the weekend, and she and her sister were going to a Pure Barre class that Saturday morning. They invited Mom. It was a fun Mother-Daughter morning. We went to an early class at the Pure Barre Mills Park studio in Orlando, and met their Dad next door for breakfast afterwards. It was fun! 

I started thinking... maybe? Maybe I could do this???

During breakfast, the girls were so encouraging. My husband was so encouraging. 

I was "weakening." Maybe just maybe I could try it for a month?

I'm a practical gal, and I had just paid my $25 for the one class. If I was ever going to try it, now was my time. It certainly was a better deal - a month of unlimited classes for $99!

I was beginning to consider giving it a try, for the pure economics, if nothing else! Right there, in the middle of breakfast, they grabbed me (and my credit card!) and said, 

"Let's quick do this before she changes her mind!!"

And that's how it happened...

What I didn't realize was, I was about to fall in love with a new form of exercise for me, and that was HUGE because... I HATE to exercise! It was a TOTAL unexpected thing to happen in my life, too. Not too many big, new things happen in your life when you're SIXTY!

Each class slowly got a little easier and all those new phrases (like "lift, tone and burn") started making sense. I could do more than one thing at a time! Now I look forward to going to class, rather than dreading other forms of exercise I had previously tried. I can hardly believe it myself!

Class is tough... I'm not gonna lie. Every class is tough, but I'm doing it, and it feels so good!

I am feeling stronger, and that's been awesome!

Sunday Happenings

We're enjoying a nice and relaxing weekend catching up with friends and doing some brunching!
Met some friends for brunch yesterday morning at South City Kitchen, one of our faves. And went to Tree House for brunch this morning with my friend Heather.
Snuck in a few Pure Barre classes and catching up on a little work this afternoon.

Something I think I want to try this year for my "Sunday Happenings" posts is to focus on a few specific topics to focus on such as: 

fitness, funny, food, faith, family and photography (perhaps a photo of the week?).

I can't promise I'll always stick to these topics but thought it might be a fun idea!

Fitness

A new year often comes with goals about health.
And I'm hoping to keep up my commitment to Pure Barre in 2017. It's something I've really enjoyed not only seeing the results but it just makes me feel better overall.

Be on the lookout for some tips for your first PB class I'll be sharing on the blog soon!

Funny
Have you seen these pictures of poor George W trying to put on a poncho during last week's inauguration? I lost it watching this hilarious video where the whole scene unfolded.

Faith

Been jamming out to this on the way to work each morning. Absolutely love this worship song!
Our church does a worship evening every so often and it's always incredible. There was one we went to last year that they handed out a North Point CD called HEAR and it's amazing.

Here is one of my favorites!

Photography
I am terrible at keeping any sort of plant alive. My sweet mother-in-law bought us an orchid several months ago for our home and I was pleased to find out it requires a little water about once a week to stay alive, thought I could handle that.

Well I think I remember about once a month to actually put some water in the vase. I made a comment last night that I was shocked it was still alive, and Houston admitted that he's been watering it once a week for me which I thought was the absolute cutest.

I had to take a picture of our beautiful orchid that is only alive because my sweet husband waters it for me because I never remember! Isn't he the best??

Happy Sunday, friends!

xox, A