Personal Training NO GYMS

Well it was quite a year end.  Unfortunately the wonderful gym I had been using to train my clients was sold to an owner who has decided to change policy to the gym, no more outside trainers!  If that same gym had done that to him when he started, he wouldn't even be in this position so I find that a bit like kicking karma in the face.....lets see what karma deals back!

After 15 years of using a convenient and friendly neighborhood gym I have had to relocate my clients to 2 other gyms instead, and its costing me a lot of money in hourly fees to the gym and in travel plus I am not around as easily to check in at home for disasters - caregiving for a geriatric prescrptive drug addicted alcholic hoarder can be stressful with the drama which ensues such as house fires and bloody falls, it means I work less and make less......family does not get paid to care give nor are there many helpful services that do not cost and I am it for family, she has no one else around to help, nor do I, no other family wants to deal with it so they are non existent, literally.

Community centers in Vancouver no longer allow outside trainers, as is the policy with most gyms.
This paints a horrible picture for trainers who do not have the means to secure their own location or studio.  Becoming a trainer now a days may not be so appealing to the up comers as they are not getting much of a chance.  There are bad trainers yes but if better policies and rules were in place and enforced, it would help weed out the trainers which have caused this result of 'no outside trainers'.
Vancouver city does not allow studios in your home so even if I had the space, its not an option.

I ended up pretty stressed out about the effects of this to my life, work, finances and wound up with an ulcer - funny after years of dealing with some crazy 'intervention show' type situations in my home which could give anyone ulcers or even heart attacks, this situation really stressed me out.

I am so fiercely independent and also tend to value my long time clients, I hate to raise my rates on loyal clients so this was a huge catch 22 for me.  
Luckily things are working themselves out, I still feel a bit lost but did not loose any clients due to the move or adjustments that had to be made.

With stress I tend to lose appetitite, so my weight stayed low through Xmas and am ready to go for contest prep toward this years Nationals here in Vancouver but of course I have to get by the BC judges first who tend to score me pretty hard.

In order to NOT have to do them ever again I need not only first place but overall for the BCs which can be 20 girls one year and 2 the next and I have yet to enter the BCs and be the only fitness girl......it has happened in the past and those girls automatically move on and don't end up having to do the BCs ever again.....they can enter Nationals any year at will............this is the ticket I am seeking.  This would give me some flex and wiggle room so I can enter Nationals when I want with the ability to take a year off here and there, at this point because I got 3rd last year I have to do it again this year and had I not placed third I may have had to do the level under BCs to re qualify for BCs...........AAAAARGH!

One judge did confirm I need to get bigger and leaner.  I don't want to get bigger.  Leaner I don't mind but then I could enter Bodybuilding too cuz the girl who got first last year told me herself she was at 5.5 percent bodyfat a few weeks out from contest, probably around 4% contest day.  Put her beside me and the other girl who were lean for fitness but not 4%, well of course she looked leaner and they went with that, which makes a person also look more muscular.

Considering I have to please the judges, I guess I just have to do my best to balance what they want and what I want.....what a mind f*&k.  Amazing I love competing so much, but I do, its my competitive side which gets all huffy about placings but otherwise its the process, the performance which I love the most.

As for the blog and website and my lack of postings.....I have had to hold off on any web changes, I had planned on some but with the new fees I have with training in new gyms its been shelved.
I am going to try to get on the blog more regularly as best I can, so many of you have been emailing about that so even if I cannot do much else to the site for now, I can post here more often!

I hope you are all having a great 2012 so far and sorry for not posting through the holidays, usually I do with holiday pics but this year I was a bit distracted!

Now go workout!

Steel hugs!
Linda