August 8, 2015August 9, 2015 | cheriarmour

I’m posting on a Saturday.

[Pauses for dramatic effect.]

I wanted to quickly say hey to you guys. I am in Reston, VA at the DCAC Fitness Conference, and I’m having an absolutely amazing time.

For those of you guys who don’t know, a fitness conference is when fitness pros converge on an area, and we spend a weekend taking classes and learning from master presenters. The goal is to learn, as well as to get some continuing education credits toward our certifications.

I drove up to Reston on Thursday night, and I was really anxious. Even though I can be extremely extroverted, I have trouble coming into a situation where I know no one, and my anxious mind was concerned that the whole weekend would suck, or I wouldn’t know where to go or embarrass myself, or whatever. Well, I monitored the doors yesterday for the conference, and today, I have had a wonderful opportunity to take some classes, and the conference so far has not disappointed.

I took or observed a Barre(less) class, Pound, but, but my favorite of the classes (so far) was a Martial Fusion Kickboxing Cardio Burn.

Here are a few snaps from the weekend so far!

I almost didn’t want to post this picture because I look like such a hog compared to Koh, but this woman is the reason I started doing what I do, and probably the reason why I work for the Y in the capacity I do today. Koh taught me that teaching a class was about the Y you could make the participant FEEL, and not about you. I ran into her on the first day, then ran into her again in a session this morning!

This session was fantastic, a kickboxing cardio fusion. Guillermo, the name of my new boyfriend, pictured her in the red gloves, connected all of the movements to breath, which totally, totally changed the workout. Definitely one of my favorites.

Pound! A format taught with drumsticks, known as ripsticks. I am looking to possibly go to a training in Asheville in November for this format, as a lot of my instructors have expressed interest!

This has been my (incredibly active) weekend so far! What have you been up to this weekend?

Weekend Update!

August 4, 2015 | cheriarmour

Hey.

I’ve missed you guys a lot. But things have been sort of bananas around the house – we’re finally, almost a full year after moving in to our first home together, starting to get things set up. Our next order of business is for Austin to order and go pick up office furniture from the Ikea in Charlotte, and I’m measuring for/ordering curtains from overstock. Austin told me I can start thinking about my she-shed if we get the house set up, so you know I’m on it.

You’re an asshole.

July 28, 2015July 27, 2015 | cheriarmour

Pardon the language.

Also, do you ever watch reality television? And they bleep the word asshole, but they only bleep the “hole” part. Which seems sort of struggly because I always thought the world “ass” was the bad part. But maybe it’s because of the vulgarity of the world “hole”. I don’t know. Not important I suppose.

As I go through life, I’m generally a happy person. Fun fact: I didn’t used to be that way, I was quite a sassafrass when I first moved here, but that’s cause I was miserable and I wasn’t doing yoga and working out and I didn’t consciously choose happiness.

But anyhoo, sometimes, I see things as I’m going through my day. I think to myself, “man, you are an asshole, especially as of late when every single person on social media considers them self a guru of race relations, the democratic/republican party, artists receiving full compensation for their music, and black hair.

So here it is folks, your handy-dandy guide to whether or not you’re an asshole.

You ~~may be~~ are an asshole if:

You don’t tip appropriately at restaurants. I’ve read those articles where people talk about the fact that they shouldn’t have to tip, blah blah, and it should be included. Well guess what? It’s not. Waitstaff make about $2.13 an hour and live off the tips you give them. And if you don’t like that, go home and make your own food. (Now if you are in receipt of bad service, that certainly another thing, and you really should contact the manager at that point and work it out with him/her.)
You don’t put your cart back at the grocery store. I get it. You’ve got kids. Your arms are full. But it’s just rude to put your cart in the islands at the store. Because when you do, someone either has to chase them around a parking lot, or someone has to fish it out of the island. Pro tip: if you really feel frazzled, ask the associate to call someone to walk you out, unload your groceries for you, and take your cart back.
You don’t give a shit about politics. This is a direct quote. Like a direct quote from a gentleman who was working the coffee counter at a local shop here. I think we were kind of shooting the breeze about Donald Trump running for office [Jim Halpert stare] when this gentleman told me, “I really don’t give a shit about politics.” Cool dude! Not. I don’t claim to be a specialist, but I really do my darnedest to stay on top of what and who I’m voting for. I don’t think it’s fair that we live in such an awesome country where potholes get filled, and the firetrucks come to your house when you call, and we have schools, and you just don’t care about politics. Sure, this country is far from perfect, but it’s something that we all should be invested in.
You comment on my body. This is something that I’ve discussed with the girls I work with. Often, and we’re talking like weekly, a guy at the Y will make a comment on one of our bodies. I’ve gotten comments on my legs. One girl has gotten a comment on her weight (she’s lost some for her wedding). Yet another has gotten a comment on her walk. A man once asked if “this is the YMCA or Hugh Hefner’s house,” implying that I looked like a playmate? This is not how you relate to a woman. It’s gross. And it’s not flattering. Pro tip: If you wouldn’t want someone talking to your kid that way, you shouldn’t talk to folks that way either.
You’re racist/sexist/ageist/ or in general, you discriminate, openly or otherwise. Thanks to our upbringing, we all have our prejudices. And it’s not cool. But it’s YOUR job to remember that a human being is a human being, and deserves the same dignity and respect that you deserve walking through the door. Period.

Ok. That’s really entirely enough bitching, ranting, and raving for the day. I really do love my life. It’s awesome. But I can’t stand assholes.

What’s your pet peeve?

Playacting at adulthood.

July 24, 2015July 23, 2015 | cheriarmour

First things first.

I went for a run yesterday during the heat of the afternoon. I am really and truly in the contemplation stage of becoming a morning person, and even though it seems really self-explanatory, I’m having a difficult time getting to bed at a reasonable time, and when I do wake up early, I feel like I want to stab everyone at least for the first 20 minutes of me being up. I don’t know if there are like some tricks and trips for me to start becoming a morning person. If I could honestly do something that would allow me to sleep less, I would do that. But that’s not really a thing, is it.

I managed to shuffle my way over to greenway (yay tax dollars!) and ran in the shade for a while before shuffling back to work, completely drenched.

I still don’t know if it’s enough for me to start being a morning person, but I’m willing to contemplate it.

Do you guys ever feel like you’re just playacting at adulthood?

I do. I still do. And I’m not sure at what point I’ll start feeling like a “real” adult. I’m married, I have a house, I am gainfully employed and can freely move about the cabin that is life, and still, I feel like a kid.

That became the most apparent to me when, last week, I was asked to be on a panel for girls at a boarding school here in Raleigh, as the resident “women in fitness/wellness” person. At first, I wanted to say no because I don’t feel like I’m in any position to be paneling about anything. As we speak, I’m wearing the minimum amount of makeup to make my face passable, and thinking about the over under on whether I can sneak a nap in tonight and still fall asleep at the normal time once my husband gets home.

Am I the kind of person you really want to be talking to your girls?

When I spoke to one of the administrators at the school, she seemed so excited to have me and told me that the girls would love me.

Whatever you say boss.

I’m not sure at what point I will start feeling serious. Maybe it will be if or when I have kids. Maybe it will be when I don’t feel like I have to clean my house like a demon when I know people are coming over. Maybe it will be when I don’t consider candy and salads to be equally important food groups to my mental health. Maybe it will be when I don’t accidentally say “shit” in front of my boss’s boss because I dropped my work-issued laptop on its head. I’m not sure.

At what point will I start feeling like a real adult?

At what point did you?

Chafing vs. Chaffing: The age-old debate.

July 15, 2015July 14, 2015 | cheriarmour

This is really one of those things that makes me put my head into my hands, willing the migraine I feel coming on to go away.

It’s kind of thing, much like the there/their/they’re your/you’re to/too thing that literally makes me want to rip all my hair out. But this one has been relegated to the runner’s portion of of society because of our issues, what happens when one area of the body performs a repetitive motion. Or in my case, it’s what happens to my thighs, between my boobs, and the skin that peeks out right underneath my armpit when I run for anything more than like 8 miles.

Certain shorts exacerbate this problem in my thighs.

It always happens between my boobs because I tend to lose weight when I’m in a serious training cycle, and my boobs move around a little more within the confines of their cage.

And it likes to happen when I’m wearing a tank top or those cute running tops with the cap sleeves on them.

During Ragnar in Vegas, I made a critical error when I wore the diaper, the Norts that all you cute college kids are wearing with your tall cotton socks, to run my first 13-mile leg in. I knew I was in trouble right around the 8-mile mark, and spent the remainder of my time trying to sanitarily (which is not a word, according to the red squiggly that’s appeared underneath) rub the shared stick of body glide on my thighs.

What I’m referring to is chafing.

Not chaffing.

Chafing.

And I’m writing about it today, not to tell you how to avoid it, cause I really don’t even know. But more so to tell you how deeply it offends me when you spell it chaffing.

It’s gross.

Stop doing it.

It looks like it should be pronounced “laughing” when you spell it that way. I don’t take you seriously as a running/fitness blogger when you spell it that way. It doesn’t make me want to offer you my body glide when you spell it that way.

When you spell it that way, it detracts from your overall message.

Please. Running bloggers. People who post a lot on the running forums. Moms who utilize Desitin. Cyclists who use Chammy Butter. It’s chafing. For the love of God.

How I Landed My Job

July 7, 2015 | cheriarmour

Hi! (Whenever I say that, it makes me think of this vine).

I hope you guys had a good 4th. I went to Atlanta with some friends from Elon, while my husband headed to his mom’s to help her move some stuff. It was really cool to see my friends, some of whom I haven’t seen since Elon Homecoming last year. Everyone seems like they’re doing well, and we all get a huge kick out of giving each other a hard time.

Peep how cute this high-waisted bikini I snagged from ModCloth is!

I appreciate the vintage style, and I snagged this bikini because I saw this style on a few girls at the beach last week, and was impressed by how forgiving it was.

How I Landed my Job

First off, I totally stole this from Kristyn at Chits and Giggles, who took us through how she landed her gig at Coca-Cola. It was really interesting because I too came to my job in a fun way, and I’m always interested to see how other folks land their jobs.

So, I am a Group Fitness Director at a Y here. The job is amazing, incredible, and I feel often like I’m living a dream with the position.

So the way I got it.

I’m not sure I even quite realized that being a Group Fitness Director was a thing until I worked for UREC at NC State. Suddenly, what I wanted to do started to become clear. My heart was in group fitness, teaching, weight loss, nutrition, and counseling, and I wasn’t really sure how to do it.

One of the best things I ever did was to get a job with Fleet Feet Raleigh shortly after I graduated, and I’m so grateful that Bob (owner) took a chance on me, and I’ll tell you why in just a minute.

So, in the summer of 2012, the woman who was in my position moved on from the job, and I applied for the position a clueless 20-something with not a whole lot of job experience. I think I remember the interview going well, but not having networked a ton around Raleigh, and not having a ton of job experience, the position went to another candidate, and I was devastated. For a few days after I got the news that I didn’t get the job, I took the hit extremely personally, and cried for days.

After crying, I think I wasn’t entirely sure what my next move should be, and I asked people around me what I should do. A few people were angry on my behalf, and told me that I should quit teaching my classes and sever all ties with the Y. And I think deep down, we all have that desire in there, but the thought of not teaching my classes anymore there was really even more devastating. I made the conscious decision to stick it out there, stick with Fleet Feet Raleigh, and begin applying to jobs, learning about the field, and networking with the hopes of eventually becoming Group X Director.

Fleet Feet Raleigh

I’d like to take a second here to talk about my time with Fleet Feet Raleigh (FFR), which I really need to credit for a lot. Fleet Feet Raleigh is a running specialty shop, specializing in running. Running shoes, apparel, nutrition, and hydration is our bread and butter. I have to credit FFRal with helping me to grow as a candidate. In my time there, Bob (our fearless leader), encouraged and supported my foray into this blog, provided me leadership opportunities, allowed me to learn and play with social media, and really provided me the tools I needed to become more marketable in this field. He and his wife, Kathy, are truly the bomb.

So, last year, in the thick of us preparing to get married, I received word along with the monthly schedule requests that our Group Fitness Director was moving on elsewhere. I wanted to go for it again, but I was honestly afraid of how humiliated I might feel if I didn’t get the job again. One night, walking around the mall parking lot, I asked Austin about what he thought. He was supportive, told me to go for it, and reminded me that if I didn’t get it for whatever reason, that I shouldn’t beat myself up, and that it didn’t mean that I wasn’t valuable.

So I sent Matt, my current boss, an email, and explained that I had applied for the position once before, and hadn’t gotten it, but was still interested. He responded, and called me within the next few days, and asked if I’d like to set up an interview.

!!!

I really don’t remember a ton about that first interview to be honest, because I was trying to approach it as chill as possible. Matt called me a few days later and asked me to come back for a second interview, this one an interview with maybe four people there. That was was intimidating, but I really tried to speak from my heart. I talked about my passion for group fitness. I talked about not getting the position before and the grown I felt like I’d had in the 2(ish) years since. I just was really honest.

Again, a few days later, Matt called and asked me to come in to meet with our branch director. This interview was really more like a chat, and Dan was really warm and welcoming to me. Again, I was really trying to be chill about this whole thing, so I tried not to get too excited, and with each meeting, I made sure to send a thank you and remind myself that if this didn’t go my way, there was probably a reason why it wouldn’t work out.

Matt stayed in touch with me. He assigned me to evaluate a class one weekend. He checked in with me regarding salary. And finally, one day when I was at work, I recognized Matt’s phone number.

“Hey Cheri! Is now a good time?”

Is that a trick question…

“We just want to thank you so much for going through this process with us..”

Oh dammit. He’s breaking up with me…prepare for it…here it comes…

“…With the passion and the growth you’ve demonstrated…and…we just wanted to go ahead and offer you the position. Now we don’t want you to answer us today, I want you to take a day or two to think about it..”

!!!

One fist went up in the air. But I had to keep it together so I wouldn’t look like a jerk on the phone and so I wouldn’t distract from the regular day going on at my job.

Needless to say I took the job. And I have not looked back. I truly feel like I’m living my dream. I get to teach classes, schedule classes, supervise a large staff, and develop my skills at a nonprofit – all things I feel truly passionate about. I actually enjoy going to my job, and can see myself there for a long time, and hope that they feel the same about.

So all that great big long post aside:

What do you do (work-wise)?

How did you land your job?

My Sober June

July 2, 2015July 1, 2015 | cheriarmour

I did it! We made it! Sober June absolutely flew by, and I did it without any cheating! No alcohol for a month!

Sober June

I have to admit, I was really intimidated by the entire idea of not drinking for a month. We’re dinks, I’m a runner, and I’ve centered a lot of my social activities around drinking for as long as I can remember.

I go to run club, run a few miles, then drink a beer.

I invite friends to catch up over dinner, we order some beers.

I’m working on the group fitness schedule for the next month, and I would pour a glass of wine to keep me occupied as I sifted through emails, making sure that we didn’t have any holes for the following month. It was just something I did.

But I read Andy Cohen’s book when it came out late last year, and he made mention of doing a sober January, which was really curious. Andy loves to drink, and features a drinking game on his show, which sometimes airs 4 nights per week during the high season. But he did it! So maybe I could, right?

So like I mentioned here, a friend posted on Facebook about 5 or 6 weeks back that he was curious about what it took to do a sober June. I was intrigued, and after a really good hangover, and a horrendous bout with strep throat, (or strep thoat as they say here in the south). I was ready to be done with alcohol for a while. So I jumped, both feet in, after reading a few articles on going sober for a month, and went for it.

Surprisingly, after a day or two, it wasn’t super hard! I drank lots of other things. Seltzers, fake beers, coffee, and tons of water, but I never felt a huge urge to grab a beer and start chugging.

A few times when it was hard?

I had a stressful day at work, and instead of heading home that night, which I really couldn’t afford, I headed to a coffee shop where beer was also served. I really wanted a glass of wine, which I had gotten used to treating myself to, like if you get your work done, you’re “allowed” this treat. The feeling was short-lived, and I decided on a cup of tea instead.

It was a smidge hard at first with dinner, when you just wanted a beer.

But other than that, it really wasn’t so complex.

As I write this, it’s the first of July, and I haven’t run to the store for a bottle of wine. Even better, I’m thinking of running to the store for fro-yo later. I believe I plan to drink on the 4th, as I’m going to visit friends, and I’ve planned on it all month. But one good thing about this is I don’t necessarily feel the need to drink in a social situation. And I think that that’s what this month of sobriety has taught me.

Stay tuned for my tips on doing a sober month!

Carolina Beach

June 30, 2015June 29, 2015 | cheriarmour

Me and Austin. We’re one of those couples who LOVES to do stuff together, but we’re also complete and utter workaholics. We work tirelessly, go to the gym at some point at the end of the day, and are lucky to catch half an episode of Orange is the New Black before falling into bed, exhausted. For weeks, we’d been talking about going somewhere, anywhere just the two of us, so that we could enjoy one another. Finally, after a particularly rough Wednesday, I told Austin to pick between the mountains and the beach, and he picked the beach for us. Thank…GOD.

Saturday morning, we woke up to cloudy skies here in Raleigh, but we were really determined to get the hell out of dodge and enjoy a little vacay, something we probably haven’t done silly Kelly invited us to Fripp in March of 2014. (Shame on us, but we got married!).

Once we got to Wilmington, I was starting to get really hungry, so Austin stopped for a salad for me, and then we drove straight to the beach. I de-robed in the car (thank you kindly to Kia for my tinted back windows), threw on a coverup, and off to the beach went. As soon as we sat down, we were pelted by rain, and we both looked at each other nervously, praying that the rain would stop. And almost as soon as it started, it was gone.

The weather was perfect, but due to some storms, the sea was really really rough, and going in much further than waist-deep was a little dicey, as the water was really pulling, and hard. Austin and I alternated between splashing around, and reading books for hours and hours. I forgot how much I really love the beach, and I didn’t really want to leave on Saturday when we did, but a windstorm picked up and started to make it really hard to do much of anything. When we left, I’d wrapped a blanket around my head to protect my eyes…

Austin somehow managed to snap a pic as the wind was whipping around…

I texted Alexa while we were at the beach as she’s the donut specialist, and asked here where we could find a good donut in the area where we were. She pointed me to a place that was literally 500 feet from where we were sitting. Austin and I both ate two of Britt’s Donuts, the freshest and warmest donuts I’ve ever had. Totally worth the trip if you’re in Carolina Beach.

We ate dinner at Dockside, a seafood place that we visited on the first spring break we went to Wilmington on. I managed to get through dinner without a drink (still sober!) and then we hit a local gated community for a brisk walk before it started storming, which is pretty typical for out there.

When we got back to the hotel, we were like two kids. We explored the hotel for a little while – checked out the pool, the breakfast nook and the fitness center…

I hopped on the treadmill for a little while in my dress and my flip flops while Austin tested the weight machines.

Sunday morning, we woke up and enjoyed a breakfast at the Best Western, and I treated myself to Frosted Flakes, forgetting that eating cereal ALWAYS makes me feel like shit. Luckily, we walked for over an hour on the beach, and that passed quickly. The best part of the walk was the fact that we happened upon a wedding on the beach, and lord KNOWS I love a wedding.

We finished off the day with a trip to the Wilmington Whole Foods. I was desperately craving a salad for the way home, so I told Austin I’d buy him lunch if he would take us to the Whole Foods. It worked, and I got the most Caribbean/Indian salad know to mankind, packed with all sorts of curried “meats” and beans.

The weekend was so so great and relaxing, though way too short.

What did you do over the weekend?

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