100 Days Out the Box Challenge

Just about everyone out there has a 100 days challenge. They’re all designed to get you to push yourself to be healthier, be better, be stronger.

So I want to throw my own 100 days challenge at you. Except I don’t want to and I don’t want you to just try be healthier or happier. I want all of us, to stop being so complacent!

It’s so easy for us to complain about how terrible our lives are, how unhappy we are and so on. But at the end of the day, circumstance only plays a small part in the life you have. YOU play the biggest role in your own life. If you sit back and complain without doing anything about, it then nothing’s going to change.

If you want your life to change you have to change it and get out of your comfort zone. This is the point of the 100 Days Out the Box Challenge, to get you to live outside of your box. If you can make a conscious effort to get out of your box at least once every day for 100 days you can actually start to feel the confidence to make the changes that ACTUALLY matter!

So I dare you to join the 100 Days Out the Box and every day post a picture everyday of how you are living outside of your box. It can be something as simple as taking a new route to work or trying a new fruit juice or something bigger like starting a new hobby or maybe a new job. Post your picture on Facebook or Twitter with #100daysoutthebox. I am literally talking about something as simple as wearing your hair a different way or wearing that bright lipstick you’ve never worn. The challenge starts on the 1^st of August, so prepare yourself to get out of your box.

Take your life into your own hands and do everything you can to challenge yourself. Be the person you want to be, live the life you want to live and stop being complacent about the situation you’re in. 

100 Day Out the Box Challenge, it’s time to live the life you want!

A day in the life of a pole addict – South African Pole Sport Federation League July 2014

Today I competed in my first pole competition. The South AfricanPole Sport Federation (SAPSF) was founded by Karin Nicklin, Tracy Simmonds, Lindi Gyökösi, and, finally, a woman who is very close to my heart, Julie Swart. The federation, previously known as the Pole Fitness Association of South Africa, is designed to develop and uphold the standards of the pole sport industry in South Africa.

The federation holds the league four times a year in different provinces. It’s intended to be as easy entry into competitive pole sport for new comers such as myself. There is no “winner” as each dancer is competing against themselves. They can enter into the Bronze (beginner), Silver (intermediate) or Gold (advanced) division. Each division has its own required moves and obviously they get harder as the level goes up.

I’ve only performed once before at my studios annual showcase last November so this was only the second time I’ve ever danced in front of an audience. When I compare my first performance to today’s performance the difference is astounding. But as for it being a perfect performance, it was far from it. I ran into problems such as too much spin on a spinning pole and a double knee hook that just wouldn’t go in.

So if you’re going to be competing in your first pole comp anytime soon, here’s what I advise:

1.       Test your spinning pole before you start. I under estimated just how spiny the one at this comp was today and it showed in my performance.

2.       If you have to hold a move for three counts practice holding it for six. Nervous will almost always make you go faster than you should so what you count as six in your head is three in reality.

3.       Use really go grip. With good grip aid you can hang onto almost any kind of pole.

4.       Smile during your performance, there’s nothing worse than a dancer who doesn’t look like they’re enjoying dancing.

Thanks to support, encouragement, inspiration and care of the wonderful Julie, my instructor and pole role model, I have grown in leaps and bounds. The fact that I was able to do what I did today after only a year and four months of pole is partly thanks to the amazing teachings of Julie. So Julie, and my other Vertical Vixen instructors, Brenda and Rory, thank you! Thank you for being part of changing my life. Through all of you I have discovered a mental, emotional and physical strength I never knew I had. So thank you for helping my reach this point.

I can’t wait for the next league and I’m going to keep doing them until competing feels as natural as breathing. 

This is the official SAPSF video

Build your body confidence with Pole Dancing

Hey ladies, do you hate your body? Do you look at it in the mirror and cringe or cry? I have. I’ve hated my body for not being perfect. The strange thing is I’ve seen women that I think have perfect bodies, cringe over the way they look. So who’s defining this idea of the perfect body anyway?

The truth is, the perfect body is one that’s health, strong and fully able. Your stretch marks and love handles don’t change that fact. It’s taken me a LONG time to realise that.

You want to know what helped me get to that realisation. Pole dancing. Since I started in March 2013 I have lost weight and there’s now some muscle definition around my stomach and even my legs, but at the end of the day, I still have big hips and thighs and I’m still a size 14 and I’m still more or less the same weight on the scale as I was when I started (yes I probably have changed some fat for muscle, but still).

Yet, I find myself enjoying my body now, so what changed if my body hasn’t that much? It’s simple, my perception of my body has changed. Since I started doing pole dancing my body isn’t this wobbly gross thing. It’s now a strong and powerful dancing machine that can do things I never dreamed of doing.

Even the way I think of my hips and thighs has changed simply because I need them. There are certain moves which you’ll struggle more with if you don’t have a bit of hip, or thigh or bum to grip with. So those body parts you hate suddenly become useful.

I haven’t stopped noticing those parts of my body and wishing they were smaller and more toned and I still envy the way other women in my studio look in their pole short. But then something special happens, I do a move that they can’t, a move they want to be able to do and they envy me. That’s when I’m reminded that I’d rather have this body, with its strength than their beautiful lean bodies.

Pole dancing has given me a confidence to feel sexy and beautiful no matter what I’m wearing. I’ve seen women who are two, maybe three times bigger than me, strutting around in their pole shorts like a size 8 diva and you know what, they look amazing. It just goes to show you, it’s not how much you weight or even your shape that matters, it’s how you feel that matters. No one can really pinpoint what it is about pole that transforms your perception about your body but it really works wonders.

So change your perception and improve your body confidence with pole dancing. Trust me, you’ll never look back.

PS. I’d love to hear your stories on how pole has changed how you feel about your body so please share them in a comment.

Practice a bit of body love

A good friend of mine, Esther Fennie, recently put up a post on her blog, HighHeels and Protein Shakes, about practicing body love and I decided this is a sentiment I want to echo.

You see, our mind set affects everything we do in ways we can’t even begin to understand. What this means is if you see eating healthily as a punishment, you’re doomed.

Just like if you hate your body and see it as fat, then that’s all you’re ever going to see. This is partly because even if you do lose weight, your mind says you’re still fat so that’s what you’re going to see, and then you feel like nothing works so you fall off the wagon and give you. The first step is to accept the body you have.

The next step is body love which is about coming to terms with the fact that healthy food is a reward not a punishment. As Esther put it, all she wanted was pizza and she felt like a naughty child who just wanted to break the healthy eating rules instead of obey them. This is all because of the mind-set, if you think good nutritious and healthy food is restrictive and punishing you, then you’ll want to rebel.

So in order to succeed you have to change your mind set. Every time you eat your plain oats, egg white omelette or chicken and broccoli, remind yourself and your body that this is a reward for the hard exercises it did or is going to do. You’re showing it love with good food instead of poisoning with crap.  

The same applies to exercise, you’re rewarding your body with an increased heart rate, endorphins and health. If you focus on this instead of the sore muscles or effort, then you’ll actually get somewhere with your fitness.

If you check out Esther’s article you’ll see she’s had great success since adopting this new mind set.

So change the way you think about your food and exercise and practice a bit of body love, remember, health is a choice and a gift, not a prison sentence.

Your cat could teach you a thing or two about your physical and emotional well-being

I’d like you all meet someone very dear to me, his name is Dali (after Salvador Dali), he’s about five months old and he’s my little darling

Yes, Dali is my kitten who I love madly. Dali is everything a kitten should be; he’s playful, inquisitive, energetic, he only wants and gives love on his terms and you know what, he’s perfect.

But, Dali is more than MY PET, he’s a creature that has taught me a few things. Sounds nuts right?

Well, not really, let me explain.

Imagine what your life would be like if you were constantly curious, playful and energetic? See this is what my little bundle of fluff (or my bug as I nicknamed him) taught me:

Be curious: You never stop learning! The world is a massive place and when you stop appreciating that fact and stop learning and you stop growing.

Give affection on my terms: So often people will accept and give their affections just because they don’t want to be alone or they don’t think they can do any better. What happened to giving your affection because it’s what you genuinely want? My little fluffy reminds me that when it comes to love and my affections it must be on my terms, something my significant other has always understood.

If something interest me, I must pounce: Just like when Dali stalks something, it may disappear before he actually jumps and then it’s gone (normally because it’s a ribbon and I’m holding it) but this applies to life too. If you wait too long to grab onto the things that interest you they may disappear before you can catch them. So pounce, pounce today and hold on for as long as it has your interest. Whether it’s a new hobby, new job, new love interest, new adventure, seize the opportunity before it’s gone.

Remember play is important: We’re all so serious about meeting deadlines and making money that we forget how important play is. When we let our hair down and “play” we learn more about who we really are and that’s when we grow. Just like a kitten practicing its hunting skills through play, we must also learn through play. This is what pole is for me, it’s my space to play, explore and grow.

Listen to me body: We’re so cruel to our bodies these days. We feed them crap and then we starve them. We push them past the point of exhaustion and we hate on them. If we simply listened to our bodies, eat when we’re hungry, sleep when we’re tiered and be active when we have energy, then we’d be much happier and healthier.

How many times have you said, “I wish I could have my pet’s life” or heard someone else say it. Well you can’t have their life, but you can learn something from them.

What have your animals taught you?

The Art of Creating a Pole Dancing Routine

So, I’ve been dancing for eight years. And I danced for a bit in high school, as I mentioned in my “Why Dance” post and all that training has given me two pretty important dance skills:

1.     The  ability to understand moves easily; and
2.     The ability to understand how movement links together with music.

Now I don’t think I can help you with the first skill but the second one is easier than you may think. You just need to follow a few pole dancing principles and you’ll have a routine in no time.

So here’s my top ten LivingLovingLifestyle tips to creating a pole dancing routine:

Tips 1:  Have an idea of a few songs you might want to use even if you haven’t settled on one yet. Most pole dancers are notorious for constantly changing their minds about their music.

Tip 2: Vary the speed and level of your moves because if everything is performed at the same tempo, it may feel boring. Find moves you can do quickly and ones you can do slowly. Ones you can do high up and ones you can do much lower. And don’t forget to add in floor work!

Tip 3: Begin your routine with a move you can hold comfortably, whether it’s on the floor or the pole. You need to be comfortable so you can remain in that move for as long as it takes for your music to start.

Tip 4:  Put your hardest moves close to the beginning. There’s method to this madness I promise. If you leave your hardest trick for later, you’ll already be tiered and sweaty and they might not work. So do them while you still have energy and dry skin.

Tip 5: Spend as much time in the move you are most comfortable. I personally hate spinning so I’d rather spend as much of my routine as I can static. You may prefer a spinner. If so, stay there.

Tip 6: Try stay on the pole for as long as possible. It looks bitty if you have to keep coming down and inverting into your next trick.

Tip 7: Mix hard moves with easy ones. For example, knee hook or “Gemini” is easy and doesn’t take much effort to stay there. Use this move to catch your breath before you go into something harder, like a double knee hold.

I love these :D not a great photo though…

Tip 8:  If you need a moment to breath, go back to the floor. Even basic floor work is the perfect opportunity to catch your breath.

Feel free to browse my YouTube channel for inspiration on some floor moves.

Tips 9: Find a move that looks epic and/or difficult for your finish but is actually really easy. You’ll want to end on a high note even if you might be too tired to pull off THAT triple somersault off the pole. I like basic swan drops. Any time you look like you're falling then catch yourself, it has a big impact, but this drop is simple

Tips 10: Wear whatever makes your feel comfortable, confident and sexy!

So there you go, those are my top ten tips on creating your own pole routine.

Happy dancing!

Why Pole Dance

So after last weeks ‘Why Dance’ article, I thought why not take things one step further. I first wanted you to see why I’m so passionate about dance, before I introduced the love of my life… Pole dancing!

There are lots of people who seem to believe in the myth that if you’re a pole dancer, then you must be a stripper. Those people can continue to believe what they want, but that isn’t the case. On the contrary, most of us pole dancers pay to dance instead of the other way round.

Pole dancing is basically a beautiful mix of dance, gymnastics and parkour.  It’s the grace and fluidity of contemporary dance; the hard, rhythmic, edgy stylings of hip-hop; together mixed with the flexibility and skill of gymnastics and the gravity defying stunts of parkour!

What could be better?

Well let me tell you…

Pole dancing or pole fitness is an amazing form of exercise. You’ve probably heard that before but imagine this: you could do your weight training AND your cardio AT... THE SAME... TIME!!! 

That is exactly what pole dancing is. 

You have to use your own weight to build your strength. The beautiful of this form of training is that you don’t just have a broad goal of “I want to have a six pack” or “I want to be stronger”. Your goals are supper specific based around a move you are trying to perfect. A happy consequence of those goals will get you stronger in the process. Maybe you are trying to do a one handed bow and arrow, which looks like this…

So you practise and practise and practise until you get the move right and in doing so, you get stronger and stronger. This means you are more likely to succeed because you can actually see your improvement week after week as you get harder moves right.

So that’s one amazing pole benefit or polefit J

There’s another one though! Pole has this incredible ability to change lives. You see, the stronger you get, the more you can do these gravity defying tricks. And if you can go from doing this...

To doing this…

Or this... 

Then hell, you can do anything right?

Suddenly, the things that used to hold me back are minor, my feelings of inferiority have dwindled and I feel invincible. I firmly believe every woman out there should stop making excuses and get on a pole. Pole has definitely changed my life, it’s given me strength physically, emotionally and mentally. It’s given me more confidence and taught me the art of perseverance. It’s taught me not to be afraid. 

In pole, there’s nothing that will hold you back more than fear. If you can take that and apply it to your life, there’s nothing that can stop you. And pole has changed the way I feel about my body.

If you’ve read my Beautiful Body Challenge article, you’ll know I’ve struggled with this curvy and somewhat wobbly body of mine, but pole changed that for me and many other women I know from pole. Not only is pole a great way to lose weight, which obviously makes you feel better, but it also just makes you feel sexy. I think it’s partly that feeling of strength and power where you know you’re strong and that makes you feel confident which makes you feel sexy. I also think that there’s a little bit of that “Hey I’m a pole dancer and I can do the kind of things men pay to see in strip clubs except I do it with a class and my pole clothes on” and that always just makes you feel sexy.

I love pole. I love my pole family. I love the women and man who teach me. I love the constant support and encouragement you find inside any pole studio. I love how we share our triumphs and our tribulations. I love how it makes me feel and what it’s taught me about myself.

Every day is a new challenge and a new achievement. So all of you, women AND MEN, please do yourself a favour and go try pole, because the only answer to the question “Why pole dancing” is because it will change you life…