jo burgess hannon

fit for today, fit for life

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It might be a Celine Dion song

March 24, 2017 by Jo Leave a Comment

Women & Wine, Kathy Womack https://www.kwomack.com

 

More and more I appreciate the women in my life.   I have childhood friends who know my whole story: you know, even those bits you mostly never talk about but still affect who you are. I still have a connection with my college roommate that to this day I cherish.  And then there is the mom friend I met at a school parent meeting. This was a friendship built over many volunteer hours.

I have developed great relationships in my neighborhood over bunco dice and shared walks through our local streets. One girlfriend I met during our years building an Amway business and today we share a common interest of helping people get fit. Amazing co-workers have come into my life, and stayed after the work was done. Connections have developed from the classes I have taught.  And the women in my family: daughter, sister-in-laws, cousins, mother-in-law, have become lifelong confidants.

So Many Amazing Women.

A close friend can be a listening ear, hearing a long story, with detail after detail because sometimes you. just. have. to. say. it. all.   A friend can provide a good laugh.  A friend can nudge a shift in perspective and encourage looking beyond your own thoughts or beliefs.  Having a chance to hang out with fabulous women and hearing what they have to say can really be a positive, enriching experience.

Don’t be afraid to say yes to someone new in your life.   It is worth it to share you life with a great group of women, large or small. Even if they don’t all know each other. Even if they all know each other.

Thank you girlfriends, old and new.  You lift me up.

And then I just realized I am getting a little sappy and might have just quoted a line from this:

♫ Celine Dion ► Because you Loved me ♫

I’ll stop typing now before we end up with a link to Bette Midler, too. Because referencing my friends being my wind might get a little weird.

 

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I’m leaning in and enjoying every bite

February 27, 2017 by Jo Leave a Comment

 

Pizza by the slice on The Campo, Sienna, Italy May 2016

 

As our extra-large Pride and Joy meat & veggie lovers pizza arrived, the man sitting next to me at The Rock bar says he never eats pizza because it is all carbs, all carbs are bad and he doesn’t eat carbs.  The health coach in me rose to my lips and I said right back, ‘who says carbs are bad?’ As he went on about how he eats a healthy, all organic diet, he proclaimed again how bad carbs were.  I swallowed my bite of pizza, which was delicious by the way, and I fired off something along the lines of ‘what makes YOU the expert?  Are you a doctor, a nutritionist or other trained specialist?’ I need to mention that he was chugging a 16 ounce carb rich, non-organic, maybe GMO loaded, breweski.

Have I ever written on this blog that I might be a little outspoken? OK, Honey might raise one eyebrow (if he could) at the word little. You know why I was rankled?  I didn’t even know this guy and he was pizza shamming me.  Maybe this isn’t as bad as what Gaga endured after her Super Bowl performance, but really?  Dude, we are in a pizza restaurant.  People are EXPECTED to order pizza.

I turned my body slightly toward Honey to finish my slice and raised an eyebrow. He nudged my knee under the table, his way of saying leave it alone. It’s the silent language of couples and most seem to have their own dialect.  My one sided eyebrow raising skill was learned back in Mr. Luft’s high school social studies class.  It was probably one of the most boring classes I ever took, so I usually sat in the back of the room and silently made faces at other back rowers.  One guy, and I don’t even remember who, could raise a single eyebrow at a time.

Usually it’s not the guy next to us that tries to ruin the perfect slice of cheesy goodness, it’s the voice in our head.  Like him, we have these stories we tell ourselves on a wide range of topics. When it comes to food we tend to repeat restrictive words over and over resulting in a whole lot guilt around our food choices.  All foods fit: some more abundantly on a daily basis, some more moderately and less frequently.

And that eyebrow raising skill? Its harder than it looks.

By the end of the semester I was a master.

 

 

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The stuff of champions

February 14, 2017 by Jo Leave a Comment

I got to give it to Lady Gaga.  After performing in Super Bowl 51 she got a lot of shade thrown her way: for having a muffin top.  Really?  Anyone else out there experience a little extra pinch worthy skin at the top of your fitness pants?  (Or in Gaga’s case, her fitness panties)  Her reaction is really the lesson to take away from a lot of unnecessary body shaming:

“I heard my body is a topic of conversation so I wanted to say, I’m proud of my body and you should be proud of yours too,” she wrote on Instagram in the caption of a photo of her performing. “No matter who you are or what you do.”

Be you, relentlessly you.

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Life is good

January 9, 2017 by Jo Leave a Comment

Ah, do you remember when you first saw or heard this phrase?  My first was on a sun visor given to me as a gift.  Like you, I have had some rough times, struggles. However, maybe life is good if we look for the good even through the hard.

I shrug my shoulders as I say to myself, ‘struggles’. In the end, I think some of the past challenges have been significant. really. significant. Some have been admittedly minor when I pull back and look at the big picture.

Yep, we have all had them, struggles.

However, life doesn’t have to always be great to be good. So I leave you with this quote to ponder:

“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.”                         ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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Daughter of a truck driver who married a doctor's kid. Life, stories and attempting to age with grace.

recent posts

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