What do I know?...oh don't answer that.

This has nothing to do with anything except it is beautiful and the view from the front of my house. And when I miss CA, I walk out and look at this.

But anyway, I've learned some things over my fitness journey and now at the age of 45 I finally get some credit. I always worked out. I was a serious gymnast (trained 4-6 hours, 6 days a week in the height of it), then moved on to kickboxing, weight training, dancing, teaching classes, personal training, you get it. So, I have logged the hours. But people will be people and some used to tell me things like:

1) oh yeah, you are young, of course you are in shape, just wait until you are 25, 30, 35, over 40...well each of those birthdays went by and now at 45 people have stopped saying it! Because I am just too damned old.
2) I would look like you if I worked out all day and had the time- I don't work out all day and I have the same time restraints as other people.
3) wait until you have kids- OK, I did that and I had them at age 37 and 40.
4) your lucky, your naturally skinny- this one kills me, because I am NOT naturally skinny and I hate being called skinny. I know it is some twisted compliment because it usually comes from women and they think it is a desired look. But I work to have the body I have.

So you see, people don't always want to give you proper credit, I believe the reason is that it would shoot down their million excuses of why they aren't doing it themselves. Because I am not particularly talented in weight lifting, time management or dieting. I have just made it a habit. The moral of the story is that you CAN be fit, you can create the habit and it is all about consistency. I just never stopped. Sometimes I was leaner or stronger, but I was always healthy and could kick someones ass, hence the kickboxing...lol.

Next I am going to single handedly dispel the myths of meal timing, protein consumption and clean eating. HA! Just kidding on that one. But I do have some insight into those hot topics.

I'm all for tradition, but...

Really, how do these say on?

Takin' it to the Streets

People here (Austria for sure and most of the European countries I have been to) do not wear fitness/workout/training/active wear out and about. I repeat, you will not see folks running around in their gym clothes. You might as well wear your bathrobe or pyjamas in public.

Of course I do. But since I am always going to be auslander (foreigner) I get more leeway in the eccentric department.

Which reminds me, I need to get more workout clothes and they only have the standard Adidas and Nike stuff here. I am going to order from the States. Who makes cool stuff? I am out of the loop these days living the Heidi life up here in the mountains.

Can I Offer You a Beer?

I'm getting tired of pictures of myself so after this one, I will take a break, promise.

My friend emailed me yesterday and asked if I could get her some lederhosen for Halloween. Now I love lederhosen as much as the next person, but they still are more popular on men than women. Frankly I don't have enough time to shop around or find them on ebay in time for Halloween, which includes mailing them to London. The Austrian post is notoriously slow. The trains are never late but the mail...good grief, Glacier speed, people. Oh yeah did I mention they run about 250-300 euros in the shoppes? That is about 400 bucks for a Halloween costume.

But I did have this little number. Behold the dirndl. It is a traditional Austrian dress, also seen in parts of Germany. Think Munich and Oktoberfest. You MAY think this is a costume, but it certainly is not over here. People dress like this on a regular basis. Kind of like how the rest of the world thinks of cowboy gear. I mean we don't look twice at cowboy boots, jeans, cowboy hats and western belts...to everyone else we might as well be dressed as an Indian or a clown. Touche.

I am going to send it off to London tomorrow and because my friend is a righteous babe who happens to work for a cool clothing design and wholesale studio, she is sending a load of cool clothes. Score.

I have to mention I am wearing white fishnets under that dress. My legs and arms are not that mismatched.

Doughnuts and Abs

Here's a funny one:

I teach English to kids. My kids like to join in and it helps because they speak fluent English. Right now we are making picture dictionaries. So for each letter we draw 3 things. We get to "D" and I am sitting next to Nicole, my almost 8 year old daughter. I say, "how about doughnut?" (yeah, yeah, my mind is in the gutter). She says, "what's a doughnut?" She DOESN'T EVEN KNOW! I am thinking on one hand, she is missing some very American stuff here. They do have doughnuts in Austria, but with their passion for pastry, they are not exactly flying off the shelves. On the other hand, I am thinking GOOD, she doesn't know what the deep-fried crap is.

It is kind of snowing. Yup, that's right, it is feeling very winter 'round here. I like winter. Sweaters, boots, SNOWBOARDING, holidays, family, fires, food and COOKIES. As much as I TRY to avoid it I usually put on 5 pounds and then I work my booty off in January to lose it for the summer. It's OK. I usually think it is worth the cookies and yummy food. But last January the thyroid went whack and I dislocated my shoulder and I seriously suffered trying to lose that fat. And I know 5lbs sounds like chump change, but I like to stay lean and when you are losing that last bit, it is tough. Now I am in a good place and I am not so willing to travel down that road again. So I am treading lightly.

SO, one of our cars is in the shop so we are working with one vehicle this week. My son has a Dr.'s appointment this morning and my hubby is driving him there. I wanted to go and coincide it with a stop at the sporting goods store to get some Adidas tights. (he didn't know THAT part)Well something happened and our wires got crossed. He called to pick me up, I was in the shower and thought he was just going to pick me up. Well he didn't when I didn't answer the phone. So I took some pictures because I was in my cute-going-to-the-city outfit. I don't wear this around the village because I would break my neck on the dirt roads in high heeled boots and people would think I am uppidy to get so dressed up to pick up my kids from school. So here they are. I am back in my workout clothes. I teach 2 classes back to back tonight. Can you say circuit anyone? That way I get to blow my whistle and "supervise."

PS. I saw some of the new Beachbody program, Insanity and you betcha those ladies will be doing some of that tonight. It is seriously hard.

PSS. I have to say I am pretty pleased about the abs shot. YES, they need more work and less fat, but considering that I have been basically vegetarian and no protein powder, for a couple of months, I am jazzed.

Look at me!

Look at me! That would be 3 posts in 3 days. I am on a roll, man.

So who am I? Just in case someone cares to know, and it will be fun for me to see where this goes.

I am a 45 year old woman from San Francisco, CA. I can't even believe it. The 45 part.

I now live in a small Austrian village in the mountains.

I have lived here for 4 years, my German still sucks, but I keep trying.

I hope to move back to CA one day. (more on that later)

This blog is about fitness and hopefully some funny stuff about living in a small village in the Austrian Alps because there is plenty of material here, folks. (see photo, this is a common occurrence in these parts)

I am married to surprise, surprise an Austrian. I tell people that I was traded for Arnold, it usually gets a chuckle, even though I am so tired of telling it. But when your German sucks, you stick with what you know.

I have 2 kids, 8 and 5. Yeah, I started that pretty late.

At the moment I teach fitness classes. It is an eclectic mix of Muay Thai kickboxing, weight training and yoga. Because that's what I know.

My current goals are to really learn German (beyond speaking in the present tense with the finesse of a caveman) and to be a role model for the women in my community and anyone else who gets something out of my experiences. It IS a tall order but I am making it happen with Divine help and Trust.

OK, that's it for now.

Auf Wiedersehen.

Dressing Room Meltdown

I live in Europe. I am an American. We have this store over here (Europe) called H&M. Perhaps you know it? If not, it is the equivilant of The Gap. The Gap is cool for some things, but I have never been a fan of their jeans. I do have some cargo pants from the Gap or Old Navy, same thing. So when I moved over here, I checked out the H&M for your basic t-shirts and tank tops. Thought I would try some jeans too. You never know.

Well, I will admit it, I get hung up on sizes. Not as bad as I used to, but I have this aversion to wearing a size 8 or above. I want/need to wear a 6. I am 5'9", by the way. Even as I write this I am thinking who cares! Get over the size thing. I should find pants that fit nice and if they are an 8, 10 or 12, well so be it.

Oh yeah, back to the H&M. So, I look at those Euros sizes and grab the equivilent of a 6. It tells you right on the label the various sizes, UK, European, and USA. I believe it comes to what is called a 36. They looked a little small for a 6, but I was not going into the 38/40 territory. No way.

After nearly ripping the seams in a desperate attempt to get that denim over my booty, I was humbled. Could it be that the good ole USA has been making us feel like we are a size 6 when the rest of the world is snickering at us as we dilude ourselves into giant pants with a small number? I am serious a size 10 over here is a 6 in America. I have the pants to prove it.

So which is it, do the Europeans want to make their women feel fatter or do Americans want their women to feel smaller. Or does anyone care about their pants size? Maybe I am a freak that way.

And what is up with Plus sizes for kids???? I just saw that for the first time as I was checking oldnavy.com for my daughter.

Bust out the Big Hair

Damn. I used to love blogging and I actually kept up a decent blog back in the day. That would be a couple of years ago. I tried to rekindle the magic again and it just wasn't the same.

And now it appears I am going to another failure.

But something inside me wants to do this again. Like the 80's. I had fun in the 80's. I want some of that again. So, I am going to wear the leggings and I bet the shoulder pads are not far behind and get in the mood. No stirups though. Yeah I rocked the 4inch pumps with the stirup leggings.

I am going to give another shot. Oh yeah, I suppose it would help if I commented on the blogs that I read. I think that's how it worked last time.

Oh yeah, I need a picture. People like pictures.

How about those 80's. Is it just me or do I have vampire teeth in that pic?