Lights, Camera, ACTION!

Two months ago, at our monthly Founding Moms meetup, I set myself a task: Figure out the technical logistics necessary to record a video for the studio.  I'd been thinking about making a video for a while, and even have toyed with having classes available via video, but felt like it was outside of my abilities.
It's amazing what a bit of accountability can do for you!

I had 4 weeks to have something figured out, so I set down to it...

I learned that my iPhone 4S would be enough of a video camera to meet my needs but that my old laptop was not up to the challenge of editing video.  I also realized, after trying my hand at getting some footage recorded, that a tripod of some sort was important.  One week in towards my deadline I invested in a new laptop, access to One to One training (thanks, Apple financing), and a little tripod.

With the help and patience of the ladies of the studio I was able to record several video clips of classes. These provided a lot of good learning opportunities with my Apple Geniuses at Old Orchard, though a lot of what I recorded ended up on the virtual cutting-room floor.

1 week to go and I landed on A Vision for the video...a vision that was impossible to realize with iMovie.  Of course, right?  Back to the drawing room I went but with a clearer idea of what was and wasn't possible.  The good news?  I had something to show at the follow-up Founding Moms meeting. I had met and exceeded my initial goal, but I was eager to have a finished product to share at the next meeting.

Our group meets again on Monday, one week earlier than normal, and I'm pleased to report I have a completed video to share!  What you see here is the video made in iMovie, with a soundtrack I created in GarageBand.

I've learned a ton about lighting, sound, fade ins/outs, titles, color matching, and more.  And I understand why people pay good money to have someone make a video for them - this takes a lot of work!

This is, hopefully, the first of many YouTube shares.  Next up...a practice video for our "Flash Mob" song for Custer Street Fair.  Yes, I'm hooked on the magic of video creation.

Stay tuned (and subscribe to my channel)!

KangaCardio™ - An Expectations post

So what can you expect at Hip Circle Studio classes?  I'm going to do my best to give you a peek into the different classes we offer through a series of "Expectations" posts.  Of course, seeing is believing, so I hope this is just enough information to help you give a class a try.  Nothing is a replacement for the live experience.

I created KangaCardio™ about 5 years ago, though it had a different name at the time.  My intention was to create a class that allowed moms with wee ones (6-weeks and older) to get out of the house, connect with other moms, AND get a workout all in one trip.  I used the information I had gained through my Zumba training and my Group Exercise certification, as well as my experience working with moms and babies as a postpartum doula, to craft the class.  The result was a fun, moderate-intensity level workout in which moms could wear their baby.  Success!

What happens in a KangaCardio™ class?

Moms arrive and get their baby on in the carrier of their choosing.  We've had moms in ring slings, front carriers, and back carriers - much of the choice depends on the age and weight of the baby.  Favorite carriers have been the Moby (linen, not the stretchy t-shirt material) and the Ergo, but I swear we've pretty much had every carrier represented over the years!

The music starts and we get moving quickly (the babies don't like standing still)!  We use several basic dance-fitness moves and, of course, bellydance moves to get and keep our heart-rate up throughout class.  Everything we do keeps baby moving with mom in a way that is similar to what one might do to soothe baby out of a fussy state.

The music is loud enough to hear but chatter happens over the music - we talk about baby-related things in equal measure with current events and general topics.  No topic is off limits in class and a lot of questions get answered from among the community of moms in the room.


When a baby needs to nurse or eat, mom slows down and moves off to the side.  The same happens if there's a diaper emergency mid-class.  These pauses are totally welcomed and understood since the whole room has either been there or will be there soon enough!

That reminds me...Fussy babies (and their frazzled moms) are welcome!  Every baby benefits from the movement of dance, but the fussiest of the bunch may benefit the most. Check out this list of tips from Dr. Sears - you'll find wearing baby at #1 and dance at #2.  Need I say more?  

We are sure to cool mom down and do a good stretch.  Some babies retire to the floor for stretching time while others stay on mom.

What you WON'T find in KangaCardio™:

• Jumping
• Sharp movements
• Inversions
• Mom-shaming (all parenting choices are respected at the studio)
• Age limits (if you can wear your baby you're welcome in KangaCardio™)

If you have a wearable baby, I hope to see you in a KangaCardio™class soon!

Jump, Start, Cruise

There's got to be something that gets you started on a path to wellness.  Something that happens (or doesn't happen) that makes you change for the better.

For me, that something was a threat.  Not from a person, but from my body.  I had found bellydance and fallen in love when my knees started to put up a fight.  Dancing around with my 240 pounds was too much for them and they let me know in no uncertain terms.  The threat of surgery or giving up dancing was real enough for me to jump into action.

I started my path to wellness by tackling my diet, feeling like I was already active enough - I was a dancer after all.  I did a fair amount of research into a variety of options (from meal replacement plans to surgery to "solution" diets) and landed on Weight Watchers.  It was hard to walk into that first meeting and face the fact that I had, according to the charts in the book, over 100 pounds to move, but it was a START.  And that was what I needed.  I tend to finish things I start (except for knitting and quilting) so taking that first step was super important.  I also went public with my plan by posting my intention on Facebook.  Now I had to do it, right?

I changed my eating habits with the help of their Core plan (which doesn't exist anymore, sadly) - I started eating regularly throughout my day instead of forgetting to eat for hours at a time.  I started eating tons of fruits and veggies and whole foods.  I started paying attention to portion sizes and nutrition labels.  I started losing weight.

I cruised through my first 20 pounds, going down every week, before physical fitness really came up.  When it did, I first tried to brush it off (again, I was a dancer...I was "active") but I really wanted to stay successful at my weight-loss process so I looked at my options.  I was working at the YMCA at the time and had a membership as an employee perk. I started on the treadmills and knew that wasn't something I wasn't likely to do long-term.  I tried a Zumba class on a whim since it happened right before a class I taught.  It was AWESOME - I danced for an hour and they called it "a workout"!  That was something I could get behind!  I did, however, know myself well enough to know that I wouldn't keep it up if I didn't *have* to. 

At over 200 pounds I was, by far, the largest person in the Zumba licensing workshop.  I didn't fit the mold (or the Zumba clothes they were selling), but I made it through the training and set out to teach my first class.

A year and a half later, I was 75 pounds lighter, my entire lifestyle had changed, and I was truly an Active, Healthy, Well person.  

Today a woman took a jump into the unknown by emailing me with questions about the studio, at the start of her journey to wellness.  I really hope I get the chance to help her find her cruise setting!

Importance of Motherhood

I wear a lot of hats.  Business Owner, Dance Teacher, Fitness Instructor, Personal Trainer, Board President, Meetup Organizer, Women's Club member, Doula, Wife, Friend, Mom.  It's that last one that is most important and that seeps into everything I do.

I've wanted to be a mom for as long as I can remember.  Once I learned that moms were where babies come from I was ready.  Really!  I'm not exactly sure where the strong pull came from, but it was a part of my consciousness all through my growing-up years.

When I found myself pregnant for the first time I threw myself into the roll, reading EVERY book I could get my hands on (I worked at a bookstore at the time - can you imagine?) to get ready for the baby.  I didn't focus so much on prepping for labor, but more-so for the task of parenting.  I was so excited about finally (finally, at the age of 21) getting to be a mom!

When Forest arrived I was hooked.  In love.  And 100% a Mom.  She was my everything, and my biggest concern was with keeping her safe and well.  We had bumps in the road along the way for sure, but I loved being a mom.  I worked full-time, juggled my way into a career, and navigated relationship ups and downs, all while being 100% a mom.

When we had Quinn four years later, I felt like I had a good grounding in the basics of motherhood, but he had new things for me to learn and practice.  I was able to improve on some things from the first time around (breastfeeding - 2nd time's a charm!) and had an interesting time juggling two kids having zero sibling experience.  I don't remember doing much more than working and moming when Quinn was small, but that was plenty.

Grey arrived as our third and final family addition three years later.  Being mom to three kids was QUITE a challenge, but we worked out the kinks fairly early on and I found my mom-legs again soon enough.  I added the most "other" things to my life after he was born.  When he was 1 I started doing doula support.  When he was 2 I started my own business in earnest.  When he was 3 I found bellydance.

Through all of these additions to my world, mom-ing stayed the most important "job".  I love my kids with all my heart and soul. I am thrilled to say that I like them, too!  Seeing them grow and flourish into solid individuals is awesome in the truest meaning of the word.

So what does it mean to me to be a mom?  I should have all sorts of flowery prose to explain that, right?  I don't.  I can only say that I AM a mom.  My kids come first in my mind.  My absolute most important task is doing what I can to help them grow up healthy, well, and safe.  I make decisions of all kinds with them in mind.

They probably don't realize how important they are to me, and how much I think about them every day.    That's ok.  I think that may be the way things are supposed to be.

Happy Mother's Day!

Hula Hooping - Try it!

Read on for our first guest-authored post!  Cynthia Narcisi, our inaugural Hoop instructor at Hip Circle Studio, shares her love of hooping and gives you a peek into what you can expect in your first Hula Hoop class!

You might’ve noticed that hula hooping is a big trend (again) and no longer just for kids. It’s gotten a ton of media attention lately.  You’ve seen Kelly Osborne hooping, Marissa Tomei hooping, and even Ellen DeGeneres hooping (who knew?).    Good Morning America recently did a segment on it, too.  So all this might be what has inspired you to try hooping. And if it has, then great! But maybe there’s more to it than that. Maybe you want to lose weight. Or spend an hour having fun and connecting with other amazing women. Maybe you want to just move your body in a brand new way.  It could be you just want to prove to your inner child you finally, FINALLY, got that hoop to stay up! As kids, some of us were great at it, but most of us really really struggled, myself included.   I’d wind it up, give it a whirl, and then PLOP!   You can expect you absolutely WILL learn how to waist hoop. And you’ll have a LOT of fun while doing it because we don’t just stand there for an hour with the hoop on our waists. We hoop it like we mean it! 

Aside from waist hooping, we also:

• Hoop on the hips, chest, and shoulders.

• Hoop off-body such as on the hands and above the head.

• Hoop while we move (it’s no fun to just stand still, so we walk, turn in circles, do grapevines, all while hooping!)

What else can you expect? You can expect to use a larger sized hoop! They’re adult sized (and hand-made with L-O-V-E), meaning they’re much larger than the toy hoops you’re familiar with. Larger sized hoops are excellent for beginners so please don’t feel offended if I suggest you use really big hoop, probably MUCH bigger than what you’ve ever seen before.  A larger hoop will spin more slowly around the body, making it easier to control.  Remember how fast those lightweight, small toy hoops would spin? That’s why you had trouble with them. 

You can expect NOT to use weighted hoops. With hooping being so popular you may have been tempted to buy hoops that weigh anywhere from 3-15lbs. While that might not sound like much, all that weight (plus the additional force of the spin) pulling against your spine can actually cause injury to the lumbar area and bruising on the hips. Our hoops weight less than 2 lbs. and people love them! So we also ask that you don’t bring your weighted hoops to class as we really don’t want you to injure yourself. We provide hoops and you can also purchase them at the studio.

There are a million reasons why I love hula hooping and why I think you will too. Here are a few:

• According to American Council on Exercise, waist hooping burns 400-600 calories per hour

• Hooping strengthens your core and back

• Hand-hooping will give you amazingly toned arms
• It improves your balance and coordination

• Here’s the best part: It reduces stress!  

• Always wanted to try meditation but couldn’t do it? Hooping is literally a moving meditation!

What else can you expect in Hula Hoop class? You can expect lots of individual attention since we keep this particular class size small (max of 6) due to space requirements. It’s like a semi-private lesson every time! You can expect me to cheer you on like crazy because I really REALLY want everyone to walk out of class feeling accomplished!  Expect a variety of ages, sizes, and backgrounds which means, you guessed, you will fit right in!

When you come to class please wear:

• Cotton everything! The hoop will slide on anything shiny or synthetic.

• Fitted tops (or at least nothing baggy). The hoop will get tangled in loose-fitting shirts. Bottoms can generally be as loose fitting as you feel comfy with.  Yoga pants are great for hooping too.

•  Footwear? You can go barefoot or wear an aerobics shoe or a Zumba shoe if you have them.   Running shoes are nice too because they’re lightweight.  

Here’s the last thing you can expect: You can expect to become addicted to hula hooping! 

I hope to hoop with you soon!