Meet my FXB Instructors: The Captain

The Captain: a.k.a. Jenny

Why is Jenny the Captain? I can assure it’s not because she reminds me of this guy:

Or this one:

Or even this one:

And she certainly doesn’t remind me of this Captain:

While these are all Captains of debatable aptitude, Jenny is much too cool to be modeled after any of them. No, she is The Captain for one simple fact: 

She is hands-down the best FXB Cheerleader I’ve ever met!

If you have ever been in the same class as Jenny, I’m sure you would agree that she is every bit a cheerleader for everyone there. She’s always encouraging others. She’s often seen doing round-offs across the mat. She’s always the first to respond back to the instructor’s prompts (sometimes also the loudest). And what do you hear if she’s not in the class?

[crickets]

But what, you might ask, makes her The Captain and not just The FXB Cheerleader? I’ll use the qualities About.com lists for a Cheer Captain as justification.

- Good Communication Skills

The Captain was one of my coaches during my 10 week challenge, so I learned early on that she was a good communicator. And as an instructor, she clearly enunciates what is to be done.

- Responsibility and Maturity

Um, let’s just skip past this one.

- Be a Good Role Model

The Captain is certainly a good role model for FXB. When she’s not instructing, she’s trying to knock the stuffing right out of the bags, or pop the bands! She certainly walks the walk and talks the talk!

- Fair and Impartial

The Captain is very fair and impartial. She will brutalize each muscle group with the same amount of intensity, and no one set of muscles is given preference. Not even the triceps.

- Helpful and Friendly

The Captain is always at the ready to answer any questions. She is very friendly (and is usually smiling) while she forces, I mean encourages, people to work harder.

- Be Approachable

The Captain is one of those people that others gravitate toward, like butterflies to a flower (or is it more like a moth to a flame?).

So Captain, my Captain, thank you for leading us through some very fun workouts!

Change is Good

It’s amazing how one small change can make a big difference.

It’s not like this is a new concept for me—in fact I’ve known it for several years. I’m a huge advocate of change and adapting as necessary in order to improve, evolve, or grow. In my role at Cummins prior to my leave, driving change was basically my job.

Yet, in my personal life it’s been easy to forget.

Now that I work out of the home, this is how I dress pretty much every day.

  

What you have here are your basic comfy pants in black (gray or purple on the odd occasion), a loose shirt, and a long sweater. In the winter it’s a long sleeve sweater (gray), and in the summer the pants are the same but shorter (and sometimes a shorter sweater). Even when I worked at Cummins it was the same look, but amped up for work—the pants were still comfy (and black) but they were dress slacks, and I wore a black jacket in place of the sweater.

I started layering when my hormonal problems began, and I experienced severe temperature swings. However, when the hot/cold flashes stopped the sweaters remained. I no longer wore them for warmth, but to hide. I didn’t like my arms showing and felt better when my back side was covered up. Occasionally I’d change up the bottom half and wear a pair of jeans, as long as I knew I wouldn’t have to be in them for long. They weren’t comfortable, and I always had a ‘muffin top’ that I had to add another layer to control.

So I defaulted to comfort. Comfort in the loose fitting clothes, and comfort in knowing that the areas of my body I didn’t like were covered up.

As I was getting dressed today, I grabbed a pair of those go-to pants automatically. However I paused before putting them on. I’ve claimed that I’ve learned to love myself for who I am, so why can’t I wear clothes that don’t cover everything up?

I put those pants back and put this on instead.

Today I have to go grocery shopping, run my daughter to gymnastics, to the orthodontist, and then back to gymnastics. Then I’m home getting work done (either on the computer or around the house). I would have never considered wearing jeans on a day like today. It’s the kind of day where comfort is very appealing.

But you know what? I feel so different today in my ‘non-standard’ outfit. I feel like I’m making changes. I feel lighter without all those layers to hide behind. It makes me want to keep working hard for more progress.

Change feels good. No more hiding.

(You might still see the sweater from time to time—I do live in Indiana after all where the weather changes in the snap of a finger!)