Tag Archives: fitness

An Inspiration to Change: Kathy Pacholski

Posted on by November 15, 2011

Have you ever met someone that’s inspired you to change? That’s recently happened to me.

I met Kathy Pacholski. She is a stroke survivor warrior. She was very healthy when she had a stroke 15 months ago, relearned to do practically everything from folding laundry to walking and then on Nov. 6 climbed 103 flights of the Willis Tower.

Impressive, right? I wrote about Kathy’s journey on The Huffington Post here and we talked a lot on the phone. Our conversations would start with … Read more ...

Hot Fitness Trend: Getting R.I.P.P.E.D.

Posted on by October 25, 2011

Have you heard about the new fitness trend, R.I.P.P.E.D.? Think Zumba, meets P90x, meets Tae Bo and good old-fashioned interval training.

Terry Shorter, me, and Alex Isaly

R.I.P.P.E.D. was created by two California boys in 2008 and it stands for Resistance, Intervals, Power, Plyometrics, Endurance and Diet. Naturally these two guys’ bodies, embody all that is “ripped.”

My trainer thought it’d be a good idea to bring the R.I.P.P.E.D boys to our gym to offer the class to its members. … Read more ...

One Year Later: My First Marathon

Posted on by October 10, 2011

*I wrote this Oct. 22, 2006

When I crossed the starting line, I was terrified and wondered “What in the hell am I doing?” It was very cold with wind chills in the mid-to upper- 30s and a little drizzle here and there on the course.

But the only chills I got was from hearing the crowds cheer, especially because I shamelessly had my name plastered in big yellow letters across the front of my black shirt. (A friend of mine gave me … Read more ...

Rockin’ at Chicago’s Half Marathon

Posted on by August 15, 2011

We did it. Today, Hubby and I ran Chicago’s Rock n’ Roll half marathon. Our feet carried us 13.1 miles or over 230 football fields, or up and down Willis Tower about 16 times or … You get the idea. It was a long haul.

But we did it..

Our day started off at 4:15 a.m., after I’d hit the snooze button a couple times. We had stayed up too late the night before and loathed dragging our carcasses out of bed.

On the … Read more ...

The Blubber Battle: My Second Missive Against the Bulge is a Bombshell

Posted on by July 12, 2011

Well, I’ve been trying to lose 30 pounds for the past four months. I told myself that after I dropped my first 10, I’d blog about it. If you follow this blog much, you’ll note that I haven’t really written about my weight loss.

It’s because I’m not really losing. I’d lose 10 pounds then gain back two. Then three. After a bit, the scale would start to drop again, but never the steady decline that I hoped needed expected to see. I’m down … Read more ...