Life

Weekend Buzz

| cheriarmour

The weekend was absolutely, without-a-doubt, one of the busiest weekends I’ve had in forevs.  I say that all the time, but I totally mean it this time.

Anyhoo, so Friday night, I taught a Zumba ® Fitness party with two other fancy ladies, and we had an absolute blast.  I mean, I completely overdid it in the cardio department, but it was so nice to catch up with the other teachers.  The last time I saw them was at my wedding in August, so SO worth it.

After that, I headed home, and Austin and I decided to call it a night by watching a Disney movie, so we caught The Hunchback of Notre Dame on NetFlix.

Can we talk for a second about how screwed-up that movie is?

To be fair to Victor Hugo, the book ain’t no binder full of knock-knock jokes, but that is one screwed tale, and I’m not sure how or why my parents allowed me to watch it as a child.  A few highlights?

  • Referring to someone as a hunchback in general is not really encouraged.
  • When Frollo murks Quasimodo’s mother and then tries to throw Quasimodo in the well.
  • When the crowd tortures Quasimodo.
  • When Frollo is racist the entire movie.
  • When Frollo gets creepily obsessed with Esmerelda and sings an entire song about simultaneously wanting to have sex with her but feeling conflicted since he’s so racist against her people.

Those are just a few highlights.  But seriously, go back and watch it.  It’s SO creepy.

The craziest, then funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life…

So Saturday night, I was able to convince my sweet husband to take me out to sushi, and then we met some friends for drinks.  Driving around downtown, we saw this Santa bar crawl – so a TON of folks dressed up as Santa, drinking and roaming the streets.  In this one particular group, there was a young woman in a wheelchair also participating in the crawl.  Her friends were like, drunkly pushing her around, and they’d almost made it completely across when they hit the curb and she went flying out of the chair.  I made sure she was okay first (she was) before I lost it.  I have never, in my 27 years of life, seen something like that, nor have I ever laughed so hard.  To be clear, I am NOT a bad person, and I was not at all amused UNTIL I knew that the drunky monkey in the wheelchair was fine.

Following that, I went for a trail run in which I was still intoxicated from a holiday party the night before. Because the trail was actually pretty challenging, I fell (which means it was a real good time), but managed to not break my nose.  Which wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, because if I were to break my nose, I could get a free nose job and get a nose more like my sister’s.

Now, how was your weekend?

Tips for Managing Your Anxiety

| cheriarmour

I have been pretty open here about dealing with my anxiety.

To look at me, you wouldn’t know that I ever struggled with anything like that – people tell me that I’m fun, confident, and I can have fun on any dance floor that you put me on.  But despite all of that, I have struggled with anxiety, for the better part of 5 years.  Honestly, I know I dealt with it before, but I didn’t really have a name for it, and didn’t think that I needed to get help for it until I literally felt like it was running my life, and that I would need to go to rehab to get rid of the horrible feelings that accompany anxiety – the chest pains, the false sense that everyone doesn’t like you, the obsessive and repetitive thoughts – you get it.

Anxiety is one of those things that makes you understand why someone might self-medicate with drugs or alcohol.  At the point at which you’re starting to become afraid to leave your house or to interact with others, the only thing you can think of before it’s time to admit there’s a problem is to do something, anything to make the feeling go away.  Thankfully for me, I had the benefit of studying  human behavior, and knowing that if I tried to treat my anxiety with anything illicit, that nothing good could come of it.

So anyhoo, I’ve gone to great lengths to make sure that anxiety doesn’t run my life, and for the most part, I really enjoy my life.  A little spoiler alert, however, like a lot else, anxiety is one of those things that doesn’t ever completely go away.  It sort of lays in wait, however, there are things that you can do to manage, not to avoid, your anxiety.

Mam

  1. That weird feeling creeping up?  Chest tight?  Feel like you’re going to jump out of your skin?  Workout.  Workout HARD, whatever that means for you.  Maybe that’s a long run, a long Zumba ® Fitness class, a bike ride, or a long walk.  Do not use this workout time to indulge your obsessive thoughts, rather, consider this time as spa time for you.  It is your time to treat yourself.  This is a treat. [Warning: Don’t let this develop into an obsession either.]
  2. Stop binge drinking.  Though drinking is an excellent way for you to sort of get your mind off of what it is that you’re doing at the moment, once you come down (or are facing the hangover from hell), you’ve really knocked your body off-kilter.  It’s a good time to take a little break from drinking all together actually.
  3. Skip the caffeine.  Caffeine can be extremely useful for your productivity, but it also can contribute to that horribly jumpy feeling.  If you’re addicted, try to go with a black tea, which just feels more relaxing to drink for me, or go half-caff (less shots of espresso) when you order your coffee.
  4. Cry.  Don’t like, insanely cry at inappropriate times or in inappropriate places, but if you feel like you need to cry, cry.  I am a firm believer that sometimes that lump in your throat, also rudely known as globus hystericus in mental health circles might just be tears stuck back there.  Sometimes you really need that release, and if you need to cry, go somewhere where you feel comfortable doing so, and let those tears flow!
  5. Take a break.  I hadn’t taken a day off of work in a really long time – and I love my job – but I completely forgot to take some time to recharge for me.  And for the sake of my family.  On my day off I ran, I watched The View for like 5 hours (I DVR every episode), I slept a ton, and caught up on some of the blogs I haven’t read in a while.  It was glorious, and the following day, when I went into work, the sun was shining brighter, I felt more rested, and my office looked more inviting.
  6. And finally, if you’re on medication for your anxiety, take it!  I am not a doctor, however, I do know that that stuff takes forever to get into your system, and when you forget a few pills, you’re screwing yourself up.

Like I said, I’m no doc, but these tips have personally been tried and true.  How do you manage anxiety?  Or are you one of those lucky sons that have lived a life without it? 

Owned by a box jump.

| cheriarmour

I have been working hard hard hard, trying to get the group fitness schedule out, because once Christmas comes, I don’t really want to do JACK.  So when I got sick of sitting in front of the computer (which doesn’t really take that long), I hopped off my desk, and went over to the treadmill.

For one, there was this gorgeous tall leggy thing beside me who was running like a beautiful gazelle.  Now I am a lot of things – I leggy and tall, but I’m over 99% sure that I don’t look as good as she does on the machine.  And I completely own that.

For two, the gym is starting to get really really crowded, so the treadmills have started to do this weird thing where they sort of get overwhelmed and short out, so I was really getting it during Uptown Funk [see below]

I’m sort of addicted to this song – love the 70s theme, and once again, Mark Ronson kills it!

Anyhoo, so I’m really getting it during this song and the treadmill just CUTS OFF. I kind of just stopped, looked around. The girl next to me continued to run in her beautiful way, and I just tried to avoid eye contact with everyone else on the floor.

I finished up the run, and went over to the functional fitness area and did some clean and presses, dead lifts, and decided to quickly top that off with a little bit of box jumping.

Have you ever tripped while box jumping?

Just…don’t.

Mid-jump, I found myself preoccupied by something, and my shin caught the box.

“SHIT”

Of course, at that precise moment, I turned behind me to see who might have witnessed the foul, and my boss was standing behind me, mouth completely agape. Go me!

BruiseLong story short, my legs are just not cute at all – but at least I managed to sneak my workout in during such a busy busy week!

How are you sneaking in your workouts during this nasty (weather-wise) week?

 

Wedding Weekend!

| cheriarmour

Not mine of course. I tied the knot with my honey-bear in July.  But Deb, who sort of eloped in June of this year, celebrated her wedding with a reception in Charlotte.

A few things about it.

I made it through the weekend.  If you’ll remember from my ranty post last week, I was completely overwhelmed, and not 100% sure that I was going to be able to successfully make it through the weekend.

I made it, and we all survived.  As far as my brother’s hair, I borrowed some clippers from a friend and managed to cut his and Austin’s hair before the wedding popped off.  This really provides me little to no insight as to why the girl from the barber shop could not figure out how to cut black hair, because with relatively little experience, I was able to give him a decent  haircut.  It really wasn’t so challenging.  I learned my lesson, and will never, ever, EVER take my brother to a place that can’t handle black hair because everyone is making fun of me for screwing my brother’s hair up.

But moving right along, Deb held her wedding at the Levine Museum of the New South on Saturday.  Instead of doing some sort of ceremony or something, we started the reception out with a short cocktail hour, and then Deb and Luigi came down the staircase for an entrance.  They danced their first dance to Luther Vandross’ cover of Knocks Me Off My Feet, which was really cute and fun because Stevie Wonder was a focal point for the music at my wedding as well, so my father trained us well.

Debbie and Luigi Wedding 2 Debbie and Luigi Wedding

We ate, danced, and after the wedding is when the real fun began.  The wedding itself was awesomely fun, by the way 🙂  We headed to Ri Ra, an Irish pub downtown, where my cousin forced, yes forced me to drink shots against my will.  Absolutely needless to say, I will be taking a little breaky from the drank this week as I let my liver heal.

So one really cool thing?

I didn’t have a dress, and I’ve been on a budget.  So for Deb’s wedding, I tried out Rent the Runway, something I’d heard of, but never had the guts to try.  So essentially, I rented a $700 Badgley Mischka and earring for $70.  Dress turned out to be a hit, so I may do the same for a few holiday parties.

Rent the RunwayIt’s kinda cool just shipping it back, and not having to worry about getting stuck with a dress that I won’t be wearing again.

Anyhoo, what did you do this weekend?  

 

I can’t do anything right this week.

| cheriarmour

This week is really one of those weeks that I cannot do a single thing right.  I fielded nasty emails, my house looks like an explosion rocked through it, and I could not, for the life of me, get anything done in a timely fashion this week.

Including my brother’s haircut.

My sister is getting married tomorrow.  Actually, let me back up.  Debbie actually got married in York, South Carolina last June, and she’s doing the reception/party thingie tomorrow.  Which is awesome, great!  And of course, when you’re overbooking yourself (sure, a staff meeting the same weekend of my sister’s wedding?!), it all seems great a few months out, but I’m completely freaking out and not sure how I’m going to accomplish everything and still emerge with my sanity this weekend.

Two words.  Xan-ax.  Jk jk!

So, in today’s episode of what did I manage to screw up, I was trying to be helpful because I knew my parents were running around and I offered to figure out somewhere for my brother to get his hair cut.

Now I get it.  We’re black, our hair is a little different to manage, however, I went to this kinda hipstery place that gives you a free beer when you come to get your hair cut, and asked if they cut black hair.

The guy was all “OMG of course we cut black hair!”

“Like, black PEOPLE’S hair.  You can do that, no problem?”

“Yeah, of course!”

Course, at that point, I feel like I’m being a jackass for even asking, because hey, they studied hair right?  How dare I assume that a black man’s uncomplicated haircut may be a challenge? So I made my brother an appointment, dropped him off, and waited for the result.

It was a freakin nightmare.

My brother looked actually worse than he did when he walked in.

Exhibit A:

Derek Haircut

Derek Haircut 2From what Derek says, the poor girl had no clue what she was doing, could not so much as brush his hair without pausing to ask him if she was hurting him, and when he asked for a “fade and a shape-up,” she looked at him like he was speaking cat.  Which I speak well, but he does not.

::sigh:: I get it.  Our hairs are textured differently. And you didn’t study black hair wherever you went to.  HowEVER, can we all just agree, at that point, that we won’t tell Cheri, whose sanity is already hanging by a thread, that we can do a fade with an edge-up, when obviously that’s not true?

So, if I go missing, you know my entire family is responsible because I did this to my brother’s hair a day before my sister’s wedding.  The good news is, it’s fixable, and my dear husband is going to take my brother somewhere in the morning while I teach a class and fix this mess I made.

OMG.

OMG.

Anyhoo, Happy Saturday!  Stay tuned for some pics of my sister’s nuptials!

Nick Jonas

| cheriarmour

I kind of feel weird about this.

But I didn’t really get the Jonas thing growing up, which is really funny for me, because I freely admit that I have a lot of love for talented teeny boppers.

Ariana, Justin Bieber, and I even dabble in the dark art of the One Direction.

I don’t care if it’s a kid, if the kid is talented, there is a really good chance I will thoroughly enjoy his or her talent.

Which brings me to this.

So Nick Jonas made some waves when he posed for some delightfully NSFW photos. So I’m doing my usual rundown of what’s going on in pop culture, and I stumble across this treasure trove of Nick Jonas photos…

Nick JonasNow, this is one of the safer photos, but fear not, if you haven’t seen these photos, just click through, and I have conveniently linked you to those photos.  If you’re not faint of heart, scroll all the way down, and put a smile on your face.

So I was really confused because I never got down with the JoBros that much, and I can’t really remember which one dated Demi Lovato, or if I’m supposed to still be mad at him or not.

(Fear not, because it was Joe, not Nick who Demi dated, and she is apparently over it because she was touring with Nick, and I think he played drums on Made in the USA)

So, I’m going along really confused.  Nick looks awesome in these photos, he’s diabetic, and for whatever reason, that makes him all the more adorable to me, and then he goes and does this…

Now, when you heard this on the radio, you’re like, “Oh, some R&B newbie, who could it be?!”

Well, if this isn’t your scene as much there’s a gospel version that’s actually not silly…

And I just feel so confused. I have so many questions. When did Nick Jonas get cute? When did he get muscular? Why was I not alerted to this before?

At any rate, go listen to Jealous, and add it to your workout playlist.  You will thank me!

What’s the last song you added to your workout playlist?

On becoming a fitness instructor

| cheriarmour

First things – I was supposed to come into work super late, but ended up having to come in early because my email was EXPLODING, so to alleviate the pain and suffering I was dealing with from having to answer 65,000 emails, I bought myself an inappropriately large coffee from Dunkin Donuts, and it’s been sloshing to and fro in my belly.  Wanna know how good it feels to have 18 million gallons of a diuretic sloshing about in your stomach?  Not good at all.

But enough complaining, life is wonderful, and I’m not here to talk about my GI issues.

But I am here to talk about a question I’ve gotten a lot since becoming a fitness instructor in late 2009, after I completed my undergraduate degree.

First and foremost, I can, without a doubt say that becoming a fitness instructor completely changed my life.

I’d been taking Zumba® Fitness classes for a number of years, and had always toyed with the idea of teaching, because I loved the way my instructor made me feel.  After a boyfriend made fun of me so badly that I didn’t want to get certified, I finally got up the nerve and took the plunge a few months after I graduated.  I’m still amazed that my chubby ass got up the gall to to to the licensing weekend, but I went and it changed my life.

Before
As a total side note, I was never obese, but I was eating really poorly, and had put on about 40 pounds when all was said and done in college.

 

So my process for getting licensed and certified in fitness goes like this.

Zumba® Fitness ->Schwinn Cycling Certification->AFAA Group Exercise Certification->Body Pump™ Certification

So for those of you interested in getting certified in group fitness and becoming a fitness instructor, here are a few steps that can get you from the process, to getting the credentials needed to effectively teach a class.

Becoming a fitness instructor

1.  This one seems pretty obvious but go to a lot of classes.  What do you like about your favorite teachers?  Start paying attention to their cueing, their mic level, and how they interact with the class.  My strengths are my dance classes as well as my toning, but it made me a much stronger teacher to see how different groups do different things.

2.  Get the basics.  Before you hop to teaching/getting certified/licensed in something crazy or a specialty like Yoga or Zumba® Fitness, look for a group fitness certification through a program like AFAA.  I DID NOT do this, I did it all backwards, but looking back on it, AFAA was valuable and helped to remind me about some of the safety cues we often forget when we’re getting all hot and heavy in a class.  Like I said, I did this all backwards, but an AFAA cert is really valuable.

3.  Sign up for a training.  Whether’s it’s AFAA, Zumba® Fitness, Pound, or what have you, go ahead and sign up for a training.  Once you sign up (early, cause those things can really sell out), you will be sent some materials.  Definitely look them over, and if it’s a training where you will be presenting for evaluation, definitely study.  ‘Cause you don’t want to be the problem child who has no idea what’s going on.

4.  You’re all signed up for a two-day training!  It’s the night before!  Pack your stuff, pack some snacks, and be prepped to be sore.  I am super active, but the Body Pump™ process had me the most sore that I’ve ever been in my entire life, mostly due to the fact that in the span of 48 hours, we took like 5 classes, and did the Les Mills challenge.

So all of this is how you get to become a fitness instructor…stay tuned for info on how to get to teaching at the gym!

 

 

The world’s most unproductive day.

| cheriarmour

So, I am straight exhausted from Thanksgiving.  We hosted our first Thanksgiving as a married couple together, which was awesome because I got to flex my cooking muscles.  Most people assume because I eat pretty healthy and I pretty much hate to eat most things (mushrooms, potato chips, pickles, mealy tomatoes, watermelon sometimes, and the gourds), that I suck at cooking.  But when your options are either hate everything OR starve to death, you get pretty creative with cooking, which is exactly what I did.  All day on Thursday.

Okay, so Thanksgiving was all well and good, but immediately following, Austin and I drove up to Philly for a funeral, and because the death occurred so suddenly, we drove up and back to Philly in a day, not something  I’d recommend.   As a total side-note, as an avid runner and marathoner, I can honestly say that my legs hurt worse sitting in the car all day than they did running 30 miles in the desert last month.

So that said, I went into work for a little while on Sunday night after we got back, to clean out my inbox and work out and get some blood flowing down in my legs, and I formulated a plan to come into work, guns blazing on Monday morning, ready to rock.

Are These The 43 Funniest GIFs Of All Time?Yeah no.

I sent approximately 1.5 emails before the internet at work starting cutting out.  So naturally, I decided to go for a run in hopes that the internet would magically be restored by the time I got back.

No such luck.

I wandered around the branch.  I looked sadly at my iPhone.  I worked out some more.  I contemplated lifting weights.  Decided against it.  Ate some lunch for a while.  Thought about why Nick Jonas’ new single was so good.

I’m still not sure why it’s so good. Why he sounds black. Why he’s so cute. Why he’s playing with my emotions.

And by 4pm, when the internet finally decided it was going to come back on, I had like 1/2 of what I wanted to get done, done.

I ended up having to stay at work hours later than I planned to.

And still.  The most unproductive day ever.

Ah well. How was your Monday?

Four facts survey.

| cheriarmour

Thanksgiving was pretty bananas, first and foremost.  When I woke up yesterday morning, I started cooking, and did not stop until my parents arrived around 1:30.  I started freaking out that I didn’t make enough food…

Thanksgiving Dinner…that fear was unfounded, as I ate Thanksgiving Dinner for a second for lunch after I popped by work today.

But moving right along….

This thing has been making its rounds around the interwebs, and before I miss that train, here it is!  Four fun facts about me!  (A little disclaimer – I’m supposed to tag folks in these, and I always feel really weird about doing that – please just feel free to steal this and do it.)

4 Fun Facts

Four names that people call me other than my real name

  1. Cher
  2. Pickle <-my husband calls me that
  3. Poop <-also a name my husband has for me
  4. Sure-rhesé.  This was how my name has been pronounced by doctors as they’ve come into the room before.

Four jobs I’ve had

  1. Bakery staff at Whole Foods
  2. Barista at Whole Foods
  3. Fit Specialist at Fleet Feet Raleigh
  4. Now, Group Fitness Director at the Y.

Four movies I’ve watched more than once

  1. Sex and the City
  2. Knocked Up
  3. Pretty Woman
  4. This is 40

Four books I’d recommend

  1. The Help
  2. The Nanny Diaries
  3. Most Talkative (Andy Cohen’s Book)
  4. Where’d You Go, Bernadette

Four places I’ve lived

  1. Brooklyn, NY
  2. Pocono Valley, Pennsylvania
  3. Charlotte, NC
  4. Raleigh NC

Four places I’ve visited

  1. Vegas
  2. New York City
  3. LA
  4. The Bahamas <-One day, I will tell you the story of how I ended up there, and how absolutely heinous that experience was.  I will absolutely never set foot on a cruise ship again.

Four places I’d rather be right now

  1. On the beach somewhere warm.
  2. Eating food outside in LA maybe.
  3. Going for a hike/run thing.
  4. Greece.

Four things I don’t eat

  1. Mealy tomatoes
  2. The gourds.  Pumpkins, squash, zucchini.
  3. Mushrooms
  4. Beef/chicken ->Veg

Four of my favorite foods

  1. Coffee
  2. A burrito bowl type item
  3. Cheese Pizza
  4. Malted Chocolate Balls from Whole Foods

Four TV shows I watch

  1. The View
  2. Real Housewives of Atlanta
  3. Watch What Happens Live
  4. Keeping up with the Kardashians

Four things I’m looking forward to this year (I’m looking at this like 2015)

  1. Warm weather to come back
  2. Saving more money
  3. Rock ‘n’ Roll Raleigh
  4. My house finally coming together and being decorated.

Four things I’m always saying

  1. I’m hungry.
  2. I’m going for a run.
  3. Can we turn up the heat in here, I’m cold!
  4. A-r-m-o-u-r. (Evidently folks have a lot of trouble spelling my maiden name).

So feel free to steal away and share some random things about yourself!