It maybe a bit fortuitous but Happy New Year to you all. I do hope that this is the year that we see an end to the pandemic, and a more positive “vibe” coming back, slowly but surely.
I am told that when variants get milder, it points to the ending of a pandemic, but who really knows. We can only hope and that is what we have – hope.
I thought it would be a good way to start the new year on my website / Blog by sharing some new plans soon to come.
My fitness journey has gone from boot camp classes, to weight training, to training and “preps” for competitions… to home workouts all during lockdown (which I posted to social media) and now back to the gym. Over the last six years I have studied, lived and breathed fitness – it is almost like drinking water for me – you may not want to do it but you know you have to 🙂 Over the years I have had so many friends, online and in person reach out about helping them with their fitness journey. I realise that I am passionate about it, write about it, post about it — whatever I do, it is clear many people have seen that I LOVE it.
Posing at my little beach, very rustic but sweet beach. This is me at 54 and if I can do it, anyone can!
Which leads me to the next thing to talk about….age. I never have given my age away on social media – as many persons presume I am much younger than I am, so I feel that is cool. However, I have always been very vocal about wanting to help women achieve their goals at any age, but especially as you hit your 40’s and 50’s and think it is not possible. Well I am here to tell you that it is VERY possible. You can get into shape, change your physique literally, create healthy eating habits and have that balance of life…without extreme measures – and still look fabulous!
I am currently putting together a few online Fitness Programs, ones that I have used for years, and feel I would love to now share with others and I am getting many questions for training, online and in person. I will also have in person training available but only available in Jamaica.
Stay tuned to this space, alot more to come, which I am currently working on. If you are not following me on Instagram yet, you can by following the link on my sidebar – this is where I post alot of fitness content, and under highlights many At Home Workouts which I did during our lockdowns when the gyms were closed.
Here is to a healthy, happier, more positive, FIT and balanced 2022.
It has been awhile since I have posted anything here, life has been so busy since I last posted in December 2020! And as you all know, so much has changed – but we have also had to get used to a continuing year of the pandemic, variants, vaccines and trying to keep the balance throughout it all.
Coming up the end of 2021, I feel a mix of emotions, and “feels” and have been going back and forth in my head as to how I am going to manoeuvre my new way forward post pandemic.
One lesson I have learnt, and it has not been an easy one…is that there are those whose “true” selves, came out in this era. The ones we thought we could count on, but could not. And at first, in saying goodbye to those people (sublimely or not) it was hurtful – but then I realised that sometimes people are only in your life for a season and a reason. And that is a lesson, maybe we all have to learn.
I leaned on my family and close circle of friends much more than I ever have. I may have over-shared my life story with certain confidantes, but it was the year you could.
One of the things I did to balance was to go to the Beach on a late afternoon after work, or more on the weekend, to swim, tan and think.
Focusing on the positive, and what is to come, is how I have gotten through each day. Exercising and focusing on my fitness goals is another way I have kept the balance.
I drank wine, I cried, I planned…..for my post pandemic life.
I wrote in a journal all throughout 2020, with goals and thoughts. Dreams and hopes. I prayed. I cried. I laughed. I cried again. I drank wine. It was a rough year last year and I think we all agree. What was incredible in the midst of such chaos, was how the things I wrote down last year, started to slowly manifest in my life.
I moved in to a dream home in July. I had walked past this house for four years, and always admired it — the space of the gardens around it, the trees and the house itself….we had been on the lookout for something new and fresh. And it came to me very easily in June, on a whim. After I was letdown by another house we were to move into and some bad news there. I looked back at my journal from May 2020 and saw that I had written about this very house in detail, and how I would love to find out more, in order to live there, and it worked! All my dream wish list items: large, open kitchen, a loft, lots of space outside, lots of guest rooms, a covered garage and a beautiful sunroom. I cannot wait to start decorating for Christmas!
I was one of those persons who stood outside in the HOT SUN for four hours in order to get my first dose of vaccine back in April, and then again in June (AstraZeneca.) Many people in Jamaica do not believe in vaccines much less the AstraZeneca. Yet I had been reading about it for months before we received it, and I felt very confident about taking that one. Albeit life is still a very cautious one, it has given me a level of feeling more “safe” – many of my friends who are vaccinated have gotten Covid, and stayed home with it, there was no need for hospitalisation. In fact most of them got it very mildly or asymptomatic. About a handful got it where it was like a bad flu.
I worked as hard as I ever have, knowing that in tourism in Jamaica, we have to put more out there to get the business for the future – and that meant creative marketing, public relations and social media. Social Media is 24:7. And I manage about 14 channels. Imagine how annoying that is to my friends and husband. My head is constantly down looking at the phone in order to answer questions about Island Outpost 24:7. It can get very stressful and a feeling of not ever going to have a day off, and that in itself is a challenge. I have had to pray about that too. However one has to do, what they have to do, and not complain. Especially now!
I have mapped out my future in my head, as I am sure MOST of you all have too….it will be a future with genuine, FUN people as my “circle”, NO guise, no “fakeness”….a future of MUCH more fitness goals in terms of competing, attending competitions, and taking on clients, why not?
My life story will always include working out, fitness goals for future Shows, and the beach for a total unwinding session. Even a rustic beach like this one, is fine for me!
The premise is to try to make more income where we can right? If that is ONE lesson I have learnt, it is do not sell yourself short. Do what you have to, even taking on extra work to make it all happen.
Don’t sweat the small stuff anymore, life is TOO FRAGILE for that.
In the next post I will talk about (and show pictures) of how I have simplified and edited my life in terms of wardrobe, my fridge organisation, general frivolous spending, and cutting out selfish/rude/insensitive/”bad mind” people.
We need to go forward in a much more genteel, gentle, kind… loving way, don’t you agree?
Fitness. Health. Wellness. Balance. 