Category Archives: Dancing

Groovin’ to the Music!

Good morning!!

I can’t help groovin’ to the music playing throughout the house this morning!! Belly dancing has infiltrated my soul!!! SO MUCH FUN!! and really any song that has a strong 4/4 beat can be belly danced too! I am sure my sweetie thinks I have lost my blessed mind!!! LOL!!

Tonight is date night in our household!! YEAH!!! I LOVE DATE NIGHTS!!! Tonight Jason is taking me to dinner and a movie – although I may talk him into doing dinner, and a walk around River Front Park, or bowling, or miniature golf, or just strolling around downtown – I haven’t decided yet! I just want to do something that would be fun for both of us, but keeps us off of our booties!!!

One thing I will need to make sure that happens, is that Jason gets some walking shoes! He doesn’t have any decent ones, so going anywhere or doing anything that requires a bunch of walking is really uncomfortable for him – so I will have to help him look into that!!! He is now wearing a size 18, so you can imagine how difficult it can be to find ANY shoes in his size!!! UGH! We usually go up to the Nike outlet store where they have the reject shoes from the Portland Blazers. Sometimes those really work out, but USUALLY we find all sorts of CRAZY colored shoes, and I don’t care how hot my hubby is – and he is pretty hot, but NO MAN LOOKS GOOD WALKING AROUND IN BRIGHT ORANGE HIGH TOPS!!! No thank you!!! 😉 HAHAHA!!!

It looks like it is going to be another nice sunny day here in good ol’ Oregon, so I am VERY excited about that! I have charged one of my camera batteries, so now I am ready to go out and take a bunch of pictures! I am working on getting my old “Style File” on my PC that is filled with other peoples’ artwork, and creating a new Style File with all of my OWN artwork!!! That way I will have a wealth of pictures to use for posting on my blog! Oh, the idea of that just gives me shivers of JOY!! YEAH!!!

Anyway, I have got to zip out the door to get to the office! I am planning on treating myself to only working a half day and then getting outside to go enjoy this BEAUTIFUL weather before my date this evening with my love!!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS day!!

The End of My Creative Day!

Good evening!

Thursdays have become my FAVORITE day of the week!! I am SOOOO IN LOVE with belly dancing!!! Each week the moves I had learned the previous weeks get easier and easier and the new moves we learn each night are just challenging enough to make the class fun!!

I know I must sound like a broken record, but I am telling you there is something so AMAZINGLY EMPOWERING about teaching your body to do moves it had never known it could do before. Being in a 300 + pound body, you reach a certain level of acceptence that there are some physical things in life that are just not for you!

WHAT A CROCK OF CRAP!!!

WHO DOLES OUT THAT MISINFORMATION?!?!?!?


NO, I am not a slim chicky! No, getting my junk to jiggle isn’t as difficult as it is for the other girls in the class (Hah!!!), but am getting out there and getting my groove on, having a blast, and feeling FABULOUS for all of my efforts!! I will never need anti-depression medication if I just belly dance with friends! It is THE ULTIMATE mood lifter!!!

Tonight I was also very excited to go out and be a photographer for the evening. The first and most important rule of being a photographer, I have learned this evening is…

MAKE SURE YOUR BLINKIN’ BATTERY IS CHARGED!!!

UGH!!

:-

Not only was my battery dead, but so was my back up! How is that for well prepared??? LOL!! I did manage to get a few pics in, but I was heartsick, when at the end of our class this evening, the more advanced class did an impromptu dance for us! It was beautiful, and sensual, and awe-inspiring! and unfortunately, my camera was dead! DAMN!! One of the advanced dancers even had this UNBELIEVABLE henna tattoo up one side of her abdomen!! It was STUNNING!!! I will have to do that when I get brave enough to perform, which I will do, just for the record!!! LOL!!! 😉

All of the pics that are posted throughout this blog tonight, are pics of the dance studio’s bathroom! It was tres chic, and I didn’t feel like I had to chicken out to take pictures in there!! HAHAHA!! I know, I can be such a Dork with a capital D!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

Please note: To those of you whose pictures I have ever used on this blog without permission, or without giving credit where credit was due, I apologize! I have been naive, but am naive no longer. I am vowing to use my own photographs from now on, or to make sure that all pics that are not mine, will be credited to their rightful owners. It is what I would want from others, and it is the right thing to do.

It’s Friday! Friday! Friday!!

Good morning, you FABULOUS people!!

I am in a really good place right now, and I can’t help but share some of that newly found joy with you!!! I have to confess, after my hour of morning pages, I started to get ready for work, and found myself doing some belly dancing to Rhianna!!! She has got such a GREAT beat in her music, it was fun!!

I am getting ready to head to work for the day, but I am hoping to get off a little bit early today, I do have a couple of errands that I want to run, and then I am thinking that my sweetie and I will go play in the pool for a while!!! Oh it is fun to be a kid again!!! 😉

I was telling my sis last night, that it I am just LOVING having activities in my life that I LOVE to do!! That is the key to happiness!! Oh, and having people to share those activities with!!! 😉

I am trying to decide what creative activity I would like to do this weekend. I am meeting Dawn in the morning for coffee downtown, so I am thinking that I am going to take my knitting, with extras (yarn and knitting needles) in case anyone would like to join me, and then people watch while visiting with Dawn!! Doesn’t that just sound delicious????

I am also needing to do some some serious kitchen overhauling and make a trip to the health food store to get some NEW groceries for our place. I have a restaurant that I just discovered last night that I want to tell you all about, but I don’t have time to get the pics ready before work today, so I  will post those pics and tell you all about my NEW FAVORITE RESTAURANT downtown!! In the meantime, I will tell you that the new restaurant has really inspired me to incorporate more FRESHNESS into my meals, raw vegetables are our friends!! LOL!! Hence the need to go to the Health Food store!! PRODUCE RUN!!! 😉

Anyway, I am off!!

Have a FABULOUS day!!! 😉

Note to Chunky Dunkers: I have not forgotten about you, my lovelies!!! Keep up the hard work, it will be SOOOO WORTH IT!!! GO CHUNKY DUNKERS!!! 😉

My Mind-Body-Spirit Connection – Literally!!

Good evening!

Ok, so where to begin?? Well, tonight was week 2 of my belly dancing class! I am soooooo LOVING this class!! If I didn’t hurt so badly after one, I could do this EVERY SINGLE NIGHT!!! I also have decided that I think it should be made a pre-requisite for any girl wanting to graduate from high school so that she is comfortable in her own skin. SERIOUSLY!!! 😉

I had a HUGE Ah-Ha moment this evening!! I have always known that I have had a mind, a body, and a spirit, but I have always treated them as separate entities! I learn to be smart, I talk to God to be spiritural, and I exercise to be physical. I realized that might just be exactly what my problem has been all along. I have literally created this disconnect between these three areas of myself and I have never made the connection that they each are effected and are dependent on each other.

Was this a lesson I missed in school??

Was I sick the day that this was taught in church??

Was this a day when I was too busy to listen to my mother??

Why haven’t I ever realized this before????

I have always been a heavy person, so I had come to the conclusion that I am never going to be a truly physical person because I have no control over my body.

The Ah-Ha moment was when I realized this was BS!

I am learning that practicing belly dancing shows you that through action, and practice you can make your body do things that you NEVER thought it could do previously!! The instant the instructor said,

“You can not think to do the move, you have to just let it happen.”

“What? That doesn’t make any sense”, my mind said to my body.
“Try it anyway!”, my spirit said!!

and the next thing I know, I am doing the move, at least the reflection of myself is doing the move, so I am assuming that person dressed like me, sweating like me, panting like me, is me!!

LIGHTBULB!!! YES, I CAN DO THESE MOVES!!

YES! I CAN BE A PHYSICAL PERSON!!!

But even more than that, my mind, and body, and spirit are all connected. They are not independent of each other! and if I am willing to put into practice actions that will challenge each of these three areas, they will rise to the occasion and things that I thought would never actually could happen, will happen. Now I think I understand what the Bible means when it says that men (or women) can move mountains!!

Am I the last one to have learned this lesson??? I sure hope not! I just can’t believe that I can do these moves!!!

I will tell you more about my day, tomorrow!! I even have pictures to post!!! but this girl has got to take her tired body, mind, and spirit to bed!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!

Friday Night Wrap Up!

Good evening!

First I wanted to start out by saying…to my daddy & his wife Trudi! They have been married four happy years, today!!! I wish you both the VERY BEST!!! 😉

I love you very much!! 😉

When I was trying to decide what to write about this evening, I thought that I would just share with you that this has been a VERY GREAT week. Between my new habit of writing for an hour in my “Morning Pages” every morning, or getting brave enough to start a 3-month belly dancing class, at the size that I am, this has been a FABULOUS week of self-discovery.

I have always felt that I have had a pretty good handle on who I was, and what I wanted out of life, but the action of writing my scatter-brained-random-crazy-confusing thoughts down on paper, in my own handwriting, with no set writing rules, for an hour every morning has given me a clarity about myself that I have never experienced in all of my 35 years of living. I am starting to see things about myself that I’d always hoped would be present, and actually are, and some things that I have wanted to be present, more out of envy than true want, but will never be.

Both are ok.

Both define who I am.

I am starting to see that I am good.

And knowing who I authentically am, and who I am authentically not, is such an eye opener and the giver of true freedom.

Freedom to be me.

Without fear.

Without worry.

Without self-judgement.

That is huge for me. That might be huge for you too, I don’t know.

I took my first MAJOR step in literally stepping out of my self-imposed box, and took a belly dancing class. A belly dancing class that will last for 3 months, mind you!!  Being a 300+ pound woman, the old me would NEVER EVER have been brave enough to do that!! I was trying to talk myself into skipping the whole thing and just going home, all the way up through having to walk out of the dance studio’s restroom, after changing into my leggings and t-shirt, and I just stopped and remembered what I had already had discovered in my morning pages. I am an artist. I knew like a flash that I was not going to chicken out. For once in my adult life I was actually going to follow through with one scary thing on my life list simply because I knew it was AUTHENTICALLY ME!! I am an artist.

I am an artist.

I AM AN ARTIST!!!

I want to shout it from the rooftops!!

This is something that I have always, ALWAYS wanted, and was just too damn chicken to bring it to the forefront of my reality! I AM AN ARTIST! I get teary-eyed saying it out loud even now. I AM AN ARTIST! I ALWAYS have been, since I was as young as I can remember. Going to a belly dancing class is something that a creative person would do. When I made that mental connection then I wasn’t scared anymore. I walked out there, into the middle of all of these women – who I am sure have all of their own body issues going on, and are too focused on that, to be focusing on my body issues, stood right in front of the dance studio’s windows and I GAVE IT MY ALL AND HAD THE TIME OF MY LIFE!! It was as if I had taken a deep breath for the first time since I stopped playing music almost 13 years ago.  I am an artist.

Wow! I have always been a firm believer that God has a dream for you, but not only that, but that His dream for you is WAAAAAY BIGGER than you COULD EVER IMAGINE for yourself! I don’t know what the future holds, or what more the next 11 weeks of Morning Pages is going to help me uncover about myself, but I think that this week, I got a glimpse of God’s bigger plan for me, and it just jazzes me more than I could EVER imagine!! I guess that is the point, isn’t it?

He is bigger.

He is greater.

There is a little song that we used to sing as children, and these are the words:

God is so good,
God is so good,
God is so good,
He’s so good to me.

This simple little song sums up my feelings perfectly.

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

A Night of Shimmying!!

Good morning!

Well, I did it!!! I can’t believe it, but I did!!! My belly dancing class last night was sooooo much fun!!! What an EMPOWERING class!!! I had always thought that belly dancing was for the benefit of men, after last night I realize that the power in belly dancing belongs entirely to women!! Taking charge of your body, undulating, swaying, and shimmying. When combined with the music, there is almost something magical that happens that just pulls the moves out of you – I can’t think of how else to describe it!!

I also love that belly dancing is so accepting of all ages, body types, and conditions!! And last night all categories were represented, so I fit right in!!! I really had nothing to be afraid of!!!! 😉 I have muscles I never knew that I had that are hurting right now (but in a satisfying way)!!! What an AWESOME way to trick yourself into exercising!!! 😉 I can not WAIT until next week’s class!!

Well, I have got to zip off to work!!!

Have a FABULOUS day!!! 😉

A Morning of Excitement!

Good morning!

Well, I am seriously late on getting my posting out the door this morning! I have been running myself ragged trying to accomplish a bunch of stuff of my to-do list every morning, and Thursday’s are kind of hard because I have to get to work a little earlier than normal.

Tonight is my first belly dancing class. I am so scared, and nervous, and super excited all at the same time!! This is my way of challenging my bravery muscles by stepping outside of my comfort zone and doing something that I have always been super envious of others who have been ballsey enough to do – so now IT IS MY TURN!!! 😉 I couldn’t decide what to pack to wear for this evening – you should have seen me freaking out in my huge closet this morning! I have decided on a simple pair of black capris, a tank top with a fun t-shirt over the top of that. I may not be too stylin’, but at least I will be EXTREMELY comfortable!!! 😉

I finished my morning pages this morning! I am really LOVING the process of doing those! I have to get up at 5:30 in the morning to get them done, because they take me almost an hour to do. They really help clear the clutter out of my head, and help me focus on what is really important to me right now. I only started doing these pages on Saturday, and in the few short days I have started doing them, I have really learned A LOT about myself that I WAS COMPLETELY OBLIVIOUS too!! How does that happen??? I have lived with myself for 35 years, and apparently I am just meeting myself for the very first time!! 😉 

The morning pages process comes from the book The Artist’s Way. I have the morning pages journal which doesn’t have too much from the original book, but it basically skims the surface on how to tap into your inner artist. When I first found the book, I couldn’t afford it, but my Sis, Alex told me that she has found it for me for only $8 and will be sending it up my way! I CAN NOT WAIT TO GET MY HANDS ON IT AND START READING!!! I LOVE it!!! Thank you, Sissy!!! You are THE BEST!!! 

Anyway, I had better get back to the business of living life! It will be late, but I will try to post at least SOMETHING this evening about my class tonight!! I can’t wait! I really just am SO STOKED!!! 

Have a FABULOUS day!! 😉
~Christina

The Chunky Dunker’s Club, Week 6

Good evening!

Welcome to week 6, of the Chunky Dunker’s Club!!! Can you believe it has been Six weeks already??

Every week I post a new Chunky Dunker’s article ever Wednesday evening, and you have the opportunity to comment, and cheer each other as you each go through your journey to get fit and healthy!!! We will discuss hints, tips, and ideas on losing weight, staying motivated, and achieving your fitness goals, whether that is to lose 5 pounds, to do 10 sit-ups, or just incorporate some healthy habits into your daily life!!

Tonight’s topic: Staying with the Program When the Program Gets Tough

We are at six weeks in our get fit journey, and I don’t know about you, but there have been a few times that I want to throw in the towel. WHY? I don’t know, there are lots of reason at different times:

  • I’m tired
  • What’s the point?
  • This is taking so much time
  • The weight isn’t coming off fast enough
  • This is too hard
  • Blah! Blah! Blah!

Have you dealt with any of this yet?? Or is it just me? I thought tonight would be a good time to talk about this. To get this out in the open so that we can push through this sixth week so we can keep going on our journey to get fit. How can we make the lulls easier??

  • Get support, reach out and talk to someone who will genuinely cheer you on and help motivate you to keep going!
  • Do at least one thing that you didn’t think you could do before. Once you accomplish that task it will empower you to keep going!
  • Change it up! Is the reason you are wanting to quit because you are bored? Try a new activity, recipe, or something that you have been wanting to do but haven’t taken the time to do yet!
  • Look at the “old you” versus the “new you”. For example, the old me would have eaten that whole box of cookies in one sitting, changes to, the new me was able to eat just two cookies, and walked away.
  • Find something fun to do as exercise, so you trick yourself into burning more calories. For example, tomorrow night I am starting a belly dancing class, something fun, but something that will also get me moving!!
  • Remember why you wanted to get fit in the first place. Me wanting to be able to walk all over Paris without getting tired is great motivation for me to keep going!

What are your thoughts on sticking through to your journey of fitness? Have you had any inclinations of quitting, or giving up? What were some of your reason? Do you have any ideas to add to help the group keep on keeping on?

I can’t wait to hear your thoughts and how all of you are doing. If there is anyone new who has just stumbled onto this blog, feel free to join the discussion in the comments section. This is not a closed group – the more the merrier!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

Is it Sunday Already?

Good morning!

I would love to tell you that I woke up this morning just raring to go, but I have to be honest with you – I woke up with a screaming migraine this morning! OUCH! Every sound I hear seems to be amplified by 100, which has made me feel a little grouchy.

HOWEVER, when I turned on my computer to blog this morning, I discovered this little video, and honey – it made me laugh so hard (quietly, and on the inside) that I know that even with a headache – I am going to have a good day!! AND I knew I would just HAVE to share with you!!! 😉

 

HAHAHAHA!! That is just sooooo dang cute!!!

Have a FABULOUS day! 😉

 

Note to Chunky Dunkers: Do something special for yourself! Give yourself a manicure, take a nice bubble bath, or take the time to do some pleasure reading! You deserve a break today, and your body and mind will thank you for it too!!

Getting Out of the Doldrums!

Good evening!

You may not know this, but my life has gotten to be in a little bit of a rut! Doing the same thing every day, day in and day out! Get up, go to work, come home, eat, watch tv, go to bed, get up, go to work…well, I think you can see what I am talking about!

I have just this moment made the decision to look into taking a dance class!! Matter of fact……………………….

TIC-TOC
TIC-TOC
TIC-TOC

I just made a call to one of the local dance studios, and I am making arrangements to get into the beginning belly dancing class that starts at the beginning of March. It is an 11 week class, and it is going to cost me about $9 per class!!! YEAH!!! Now, the hard part will be going – but HONEY, I have got to do something crazy to build my courage muscles and get out there and be brave enough to be me!!!

Wow!! Now, that I have had a chance to think about what I have just done, I am going to have to REALLY get my bravery muscles out!!! I know it will be a BLAST!!! I love the idea of idea of feeling comfortable in my own skin, and learning how to move and undulate with grace and confidence. Plus the idea, that I will be doing something outrageous for just myself is rather exciting!!! Plus to be able to say that I did something scary, is motivating and I know that if I can do this, I can do ANYTHING!!! PLUS – I think that this will be a fun way to get exercise and get in a little better shape!! I can’t wait until classes start!!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉