The Story of My Life... Before Ballroom

Keep the comments & e-mails coming my dear readers! A couple of people have approached me at the studio, and sent a few e-mails asking for more information on what my life was like before I started dance lessons, and more details on how life has changed. So, without further ado… I give you a brief description of life before Ballroom... (Complete with my "before" picture)

Daily life for about 6 months before I walked thru that studio door was the picture of unhealthy living. I would lose my breath walking from my car to my desk where I sat on my butt all day to answer phones. The only movement I got was walking to the cafeteria for a high calorie lunch, then back on the phones for the rest of the day. Shift over, I would run out of breath again walking to my car to drive home. When I got back to my apartment, positively exhausted after climbing the one flight of stairs, I would plant myself in front of the TV again with a microwave dinner and stay there until bedtime.

While at home I would pretty much stay in front of the TV…vicariously living my life through the programs I watched…with breaks only to clean up or do laundry. As all singles know...cooking for one is really tough, so I microwaved EVERYTHING. Social activities included hanging out with friends at the local pub or watching a movie from my buddy’s couch. (I didn’t like going to movie theatres because I no longer fit comfortably in the seats.) All more sedentary calorie laden activities that helped me balloon to 340lbs, yeah that’s right I said it… I’ll say it again… Three hundred and forty pounds. Oh, and we can’t forget the pack of cigarettes I would smoke in a day. So you can understand why I say I was in the worst shape of my life on the day I met my instructor.

Here’s the MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW… I didn’t think I was in that place in my life when I began to dance, It wasn’t until learning to take small steps at the studio that I realized where I had gotten myself and that I needed to make changes. Here I was, in my 20’s, single, intelligent, and settled on laziness. I had such heavy blinders on that it took someone I hardly know from my office to basically give me no polite option out of a few dance lessons to get me into that studio. Followed by an absolutely kind hearted professional instructor to get me to understand that there is a better way…

Keep reading…next post is about what life is like on a daily basis NOW that Ballroom has become a permanent fixture in my life. Including details on non-dance related changes that I’ve made to live a better life.