People Come in All Shapes and Sizes

After 9 years of teaching pole dancing I've seen how critical women can be of their own bodies, myself included. If you've gone through huge weight fluctuations I think it can be even harder. I'll use myself as an example. For a very long time I weighed 135lbs, when I started working full time at a desk job and got married that moved up to 155lbs. While I wanted to lose some weight I didn't focus on it because I was trying to get pregnant and dieting can make it harder to get pregnant. I weighed in at 147lbs when I got pregnant and made it all the way up to 194lbs the day I went into labor. Several months after having my daughter I was hovering around 178lbs. A side note here, breast feeding did not magically make the weight drop here like many claim. About a year after having my daughter I was down to 135lbs. I didn't diet, in fact I made brownies so often that I had the recipe memorized. After some health issues that doctors were never able to figure out. My weight crept up over the next 5 years to 159lbs, and today I have slowly whittled it back to 155lbs. Over the last 10 years my weight has fluctuated up and down almost 60 pounds (25 if ignoring pregnancy). That's a lot and it is hard because clothes fit and then they don't, you don't want to buy new ones because you don't plan to stay this size. I get it! (Wow! This is getting way more personal than I was expecting when I started writing.)

How do I cope? Honestly, I rarely think about it. It is not worth my mental time and energy to waste it worrying about a few pounds. I am still at a perfectly normal weight for my height and could never be classified as having been overweight or obese. (If you are at a weight that is or likely will cause health problems please consult a qualified practitioner for help.)

So what's the point here? The point is people come in many shapes and sizes, which may change over time. AND you can still be a pole dancer. Don't let a negative body perception stop you from doing pole. We're all at class to improve our pole dancing, and perhaps you have other motivations as well, but no one is there to judge your body. 

I know this blog post just came out of nowhere and it rambled a bit, but I was online looking at clothes and shoes and came across this site ​www.mybodygallery.com/ where real people can post pics of themselves, and where people can search and see what people of various heights, weights, and ages look like. I think is is important to see that 2 people can both be 5'8" tall, weigh 150lbs and have very different body shapes.  

Don't be ashamed of your size, age, or any other number, AND definitely do not let any of those numbers stop you from pole dancing or any other activity you want to pursue. As I write this I am 5'9", 155 lbs, 36 years old and wearing size 10 jeans. BAM!!!