Kirstie’s Story

WE THINK IT’S TIME TO CHANGE THE NARRATIVE ABOUT FITNESS AND OUR TEAM IS SHARING THEIR STORIES TO HELP YOU CHANGE YOURS!

THIS IS THE STORY OF KIRSTIE, WHO’S A CHIROPRACTOR AND ONE OF OUR YOGA INSTRUCTORS.

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“I was the child who people recall as “the one who could dance before she could walk.”

 I took my first dance class at age 3, and my movement practice has been evolving ever since. It has looked like many different things in the changing seasons of my life – the same can be said for my body.

 Fitness was secondary to the hours I invested in a studio growing up; I trained upwards of 15 hours a week and my body grew lanky and lean in response to these demands. I asked so much of it, and pushed it so hard that it felt more like an obligation than a joy to me at times.

 I left the world of competitive dance and any semblance of fitness behind with it; outside of running to catch a bus ( I am perpetually late, and working on it), I had no intentional movement.  So many lessons spanning across 15 years, but no one teaches you what comes after dance.

 My body changed; curves moved in. With those new peaks and valleys came one of the more challenging phases of my life, and I started to resent the person living inside of this body.

 Then I found yoga.

 Yoga was a work in progress, teaching me that my relationship with my person and my physical body was not one founded on love.  Perfectionism just wasn’t serving me anymore once I discovered a gentler way to move. This movement felt kind, and for the first time in my life, I could breathe through it.

 I have since returned to dance classes (and Zumba, and Tone & Flex, and Fab Abs & Booty), and I carry the lessons my yoga practice has taught me.

 This body is a gift, and damn, do I ever feel grateful to be able to move it. It is a privilege I try to acknowledge every day. This body is beautiful. This person is good. This is my journey.


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SO WE ASK – WHAT DOES FITNESS MEAN TO YOU? 

WE CAN TAKE BACK A WORD THAT HAS HURT SO MANY OF US, TO MAKE IT SOMETHING OF DIVERSE BEAUTY. TO CREATE OUR OWN DEFINITION OF WHAT A “FIT BODY” LOOKS LIKE. 

AN ACT OF LOVE FOR OUR BODIES, RATHER THAN HATE. 

#THISISFITNESS