Crazy Eyes and Ugly Knees

First things first...

My name is Nikki. Welcome to my blog.

This is my first post so bear with me.

I mentioned that I was thinking about starting a blog to my husband while we were on vacation last year. I told him the website name I was thinking of buying and he told me to go for it. So I did. One year later...here is my blog! Yes, I move at the speed of light.

My reason for starting a blog was that I looked for blogs about women like me. Someone who had a family and a thriving career and the battles that came with balancing both of these. I was looking to not only balance, but to kick ass at home and at work. I have finally found a home at my current job. I have a “side gig” as a group exercise instructor at a YMCA near my house. My kids are doing great in their lives and my husband is kicking ass at his job too. Sounds great, right?

On paper, this life looks good. It is good. It’s great! There are times when I struggle to balance everything I do and I was in search for someone who was struggling like I was. I don’t struggle all the time, but there are days when I wish for a cloning technology app. I could not find a voice in the blogosphere to match my needs. So I took matters in to my own hands. I will create one! I will have a blog about being a career woman with a great family who wants it all. Easy! HAHAHA! So easy it only took me a year to start it.

Now I have to talk about my group exercise classes now to explain this post title. I am a Les Mills International instructor. I am certified in Bodypump, CXWorx, Bodycombat and Grit Series. I teach/coach them all at the YMCA near my house. This is really my release. When I have had a stressful day, leading a class is such a great release for me. I will admit, there are days when I walk in and I am not as prepared or not in the mood to motivate. But as soon as I see all my members eyeballing me, looking to me for motivation, the adrenaline kicks in and I am in motion. During my Bodycombat class, I typically tell my class I want them to do their knee strikes ugly. I will say stuff like “This is not a time to be cute! I want ugly knee strikes! I want the rubber band holding your ponytail together to come off!” If you have never taken a Bodycombat class, check it out here. You can see from the front page the look on their faces when they do knee strikes. They look mean! HA! I also tell my class, during this track, that I want to see crazy eyes. I want to look scared to approach them in class because they are doing knee strikes that would break my nose and they are giving me crazy eyes like they are DYING to break my nose. It sounds crazy but it works. I love my members. They think I motivate them but they are the ones that constantly push me to do better and be better. Here are some of us in our custom shirts. Yes, mine says “Khaleesi”.
(Huge Game of Thrones fan. Starts back in April! As Bart Scott said, “CAN’T WAIT”.)

This would not be complete without mentioning that I am a HUGE football fanatic. I went to Texas A&M so I love my Aggies. I grew up in South Texas and everyone there is a Cowboys fan. So am I. If you hate both of these teams, this is not the blog for you. I also participate in fantasy football with some of my grad school classmates. More on them later.

Since this is my test post, I will end it here. More about me as time goes on. I don’t even know if I will be able to keep this up with weekly or even bi-weekly posts. I sure hope so. I am worried about putting too much out there for everyone to see. I hope it doesn’t backfire and this serves as an outlet for me to gather my thoughts, share my experiences and inspire others that go through the same things I do. I am also going to play with the background a little because I initially had a red wine glass in the background but now it is not visible. I love my red wine!

Now, time to be super mom for 3 hours.