soul sisters: blog post from our spokeswoman chrissie

This past week was hard. Apparently my love for English muffins runs deep and it runs hard.  Those warm nooks and crannies make me happy and who am I to run from true love?  You see, I am not doing this challenge b/c I want to tone or b/c I have to lose those pesky last 5 lbs.  I am doing this b/c I am overweight and my health was becoming a serious concern.  So I had to dig deep this past week and mentally I struggled.  It didn’t help that we got a giant snow storm, my oldest got the diseases my youngest had the week prior and I clocked over 60 hours at work.  Then right as I was about to go search for the biggest loaf of bread I could find I got a text.  A text from a soul sister.  Now as you will learn my DTMS is my foundation but I truly believe that all women need some soul sisters. I was fortunate enoughto realize this at a young age so I have surrounded myself with the best.

The soul sister that is really my sister.  We are bound by blood and she will be the first to tell me I need my eyebrows waxed.  She gave me a lesson in tofu for this week’s challenge and will harmonize to Mariah Carey with me while doing the running man.  She feeds my soul with the perfect amount of sass and love.

The soul sisters that have seen you at your worst and still call.  We have walked in 10 degree weather in nothing but tube tops and black pants, we have foggy memories that still make us laugh until we cry and we have text messaged in the middle of the night as we were feeding our babies.  We have stories about each other we will hold over each other’s head until the day we die and I am mostly confident they will never come out to the general public.  They will be your soul sisters that you share a house with in Miamiwhen you are old while “Thank you for Being a Friend” plays on repeat over our boom boxes. Never ending friendship that will always hug your heart and lift you up.

The first adult world soul sisters.  They met you when you could still drink 10 beers in a night but had to get up the next day for an actual job.  They knew nothing of your past but firmly became part of your future.  They shared your love of beer pong and still check in during bad weather to make sure you are home safe and not on the roads.

The local mom soul sisters.  These are the women that you pray you meet and when you do you hang on for dear life.  They walk the daily road of parenthood with you and love my children even though we know our boys have each other in headlocks every day.  They send text messages offering up support and cold beers and the first to show up on your door step with a chicken pot pie after a particularly hard week. 

DanceFit studio time out – I need to take a moment to give some love to a special soul sister who introduced me to DanceFit Studios.  We didn’t have the best start; we met when I was newly pregnant and very sick.  She was so nice and kept saying hi to me at our sons’ daycare even though I kept shooting her death stares for speaking b/c all I wanted to do was crawl into bed.  She knew what was going on without knowing me and without me saying a word.  She never stopped saying hi and when I finally apologized two months later she smiled at me and said she knew I was pregnant and so happy I was feeling better.  This is a soul sister.  Over the last 3 years she has been a solid foundation for the tough road my family had to walk and for that I do not think I can say thank you enough.  She invited me along one weekend last year to DanceFit for a BalletFit Cardio class.  She knew I needed to get out of the house and asked me to join.  I almost died in that class, like for REALS, but it lit a fire in me I hadn’t felt in a while.  She was also the text last week that reminded me why I started this journey and that it was ok to have a bad day.  Lindsey, thank you for the friendship, for the beer, for the laughter, for the invite and for the kick in the ass when I need it, and most of all thank you for being my soul sister. 

Then there are the soul sisters you didn’t know you needed.  Team Berries, I would probably walk past most of you on the street but you have quietly helped me stay the course over the last two weeks.  Getting a wave from you at the beginning of a virtual class or telling me to take a rest day when I was working on 3 hours of sleep from a sick baby.  You are helping me through six weeks that I hope is the catalyst to a long life of health. I high five you b/c I know we all have our struggles but we continue to be present even on the hard days.

Thank you all for standing with me and for waving that soul sister flag as I take this journey.  Now let’s sing the song of our people, which is obviously I’m Every Woman but the late great Whitney Houston.

Wishing you all a life of awesome sisterhood and no orange fingers,

Chrissie
xoxoxox