Victorious

This is what it looks like to be victorious at Hip Circle Studio:

Daina, pictured above, first came to the studio for knitting.  Well, she brought her daughter to knitting. A few months later she came to the studio again for bellydance & yoga.  Well, she brought her other daughter to bellydance & yoga.  When she decided to come to the studio for herself Daina felt like she needed to ease into things after years of just getting through the day not really focusing on her health/fitness/wellness.  She began with our 30-minute classes, convinced that she'd stay there for the long term since a full-length 60-minute class was going to be too much.  30-minute Circuit & Exercise Ball were her go-tos. That was then...

Fast-forward to today...Daina is at the studio 5 days a week.  She does Moxie Boxing, Kettlebell AMPD, Curvy Yoga, and Pilates Mat.  All full-length classes.

But that's not why or how she's victorious.  

She tackled a new-to-the-studio class in June - Kettlebell AMPD - and started with a 5-kb kettle bell (the one under her foot in the picture).  This photo was taken almost 3 months to the day after her first class.  See that weight she's holding?  It's an 8-lb kettle bell.  That smile on her face?  Pure joy at having a clear representation of the strength she's building and the progress she's made in a single season, AND the overall progress she's made in terms of becoming an active, healthy woman.

I should have taken a selfie that day, because my smile was pretty darn similar.