Let the fight against fat shaming begin!

Good Morning All, So I’m not sure if you have heard the Name Roz Mays over the past 24 hours but … this Diva is shutting it down! The war on fat and body shaming has begun. I won’t lie …

The Experience that is Dangerous Curves

Hey everyone! Well I wanted to wait til the pro video was sent but I can always update that after for those who want to see it. But now that everything has sunk in and been experienced I think it’s …

Dangerous Curves SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!

Well hello there everyone, So here we are the week of the big day. I have to say its come faster then a fast monkey haha really only my husband will most likely get that reference but its ok. (its …

Crunch Time

Well another week and more pole successes and challenges.

But lets start with some awesomeness! So Dangerous Curves is 19 days away the showcase at the studio is on August first! Well the shoes are done, and OMG I’m in love. Thankfully I have an awesome friend who is fantastic at sewing that’s going to help me complete my vision for my costume for the show since I still need a lot of work on how the hell to use my sewing machine! The routine is coming along the floorwork and chair piece is throwing me off a little but I know ill get it! It’s funny because I’m going to a competition about empowering women to show we can do what people who “look” more athletic can do and im sitting here say man my ass shouldn’t twerk haha. Oh well the joys of hating your body for so long. I’m better but I still have a long way to go. Going to be working on it more this week on friday can’t wait!

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This weekends wins!

So this weekend during the #oldschoolpolerchallenge one of the tricks was the teddy. So i was sitting and editing and messing around a little and I said what the hell lets try it! And guess what!! The first try wasnt too bad i was terrified to let my hand down but I gave it a shot. I posted it to my RNLA support group and OMG the love and the support that was given to me by my poler peers was incredible. Such sweet words and even some support from one of my pole Idols CLEO!!! I almost died. After all the love I was receiving i thought lets get some shorts! And well I did and then this happened!!

Yup a full on teddy I couldn’t believe it this journey is taking me to such amazing places the amount of strength im getting is incredible.

Also another huge win would be working on my freestyle last week I decided to take my lunchtime to just dance. I was feeling a song and I just tried to make it flow so check that out here!

There’s things i would change about it but I really think its a great start into really exploring what you can do without a pole or a chair just you, the floor and the music. So much fun!

Last super win for this post…

Been working on getting so height from my splits siting into them is great but I want more range!!

So check this out! Not to bad still working with my PNF stretching and rockin legs n abs stretches sooo good! On leg is clearly better then the other but I’m really happy with my progress!

So that’s all for today’s post im sure there will be more this week so much going on!

Just remember this:

Stay strong, Stay Positive and Stay Fabulous!

XOXO

Kelley

Oh hey Hi im back!

Hello everyone,

Well clearly its been a while since my last blog and holy hell a lot has changed!!

So lets to a quick flashback:

So back in 2013 in the beginning of the year I fell off the pole and hurt my arm pretty good. With the amazing help of my now very dear friend Tobin(shes also co owner/instructor at the studio I go to) was helping me rehab my arm and i was getting to a great place almost back to pole i was chair dancing which has become one of my newest obsessions working on my flexibility which whoa the progress from where i was when i first posted just you wait! I got a new better paying job, then just a few days into my new job my husband and I found out the most amazing news, we were expecting our first little bundle of joy named Gen who blessed our little family with her presents in Dec of 2013. Now here is where is gets a little hairy if you will, I wont bore you with the details but I almost died having Gen needed emergency surgery after having her to remove my placenta. I had a retained placenta that released on only one side. A blood transfusion and DNC later I’m here still healing mentally but I’m here. Which brings me to my last little section. Since January Ive worked really hard to loose weight and to get back into shape in turn trying to get into a better poling weight to be safe on the equipment after all I’ve worked so damn hard on making my arm feel better what the hell is the point of hurting myself again!

So this brings me to today. Though I’m closer then ever to the weight limit I need to be and I have started doing a lot of training at home! And even bigger news on a whim i said screw it lets try out for Dangerous Curves!! I did I submitted a video after a month of being back and I GOT IN!! Since then Ive been pounding out the training it has to be the hardest thing I’ve done in a long time. Did a 5k with friend was running and training all spring long! We walked it mostly ran some and I brought miss gen with us! It was the color run and it was soo much fun! I love her so much! So here we are just under a month til my first competition I’m honored that I get to compete along side some amazing plus size polers! I’ve gotten some tremendous support from friends and family and yes I have crossed over to the dark side I now own not one but 3 pairs of Pleasers and I’m obsessed haha! I know I have a long way until where I want to be but I’m happy where I am and the blog is back. Ill be updating periodically about my journey to Dangerous Curves my thoughts on my successes and struggles as a plus size poler. I just want to help empower women who say no way i could do that or who think they would be shunned because they aren’t the thin girl on the pole. There’s a lot more to me then my heels, my pole and the number on my scale. So follow along and please feel free to comment on here about your struggles and success!

Without further a due my split progress!!

Lets take a moment to remember where I started haha!

And we have 2 years later!

 

In the words of Ru Paul ” If you don’t love yourself how the hell are you going to love yourself”!

Stay Fabulous and never give up!

Love Always

Kelley

Poling in Public

Ok so I did it not sitting on a street pole in Boston lol I have done that but this I think was more scary. I decided to get up and show some moves before and after the competition this past Friday in a bar!! HAHA It was great so scary because I was just waiting for someone to say get the fat chick off the stage ect. You know the same things people in this world have come to expect from being a plus size lady.. But it didn’t happen of course my ladies at Love were crazy supportive but I mean DUH were like a family over there its great but other people were supportive cheering me on I mean common I bad Kittied in public haha! It was great I’ve decided if they do this again im all over it!! I’m going to compete already started planning out my routine and picked the song its perfect!! Check out a few pics below! 🙂 I felt like a champ and to be honest this was one of the first times I was in public that I didn’t care what people thought about me because I was having a blast!!! The girls who competed did amazing I was so proud to say I’m from their studio it was great and Seirra Won!!!

I have so much to more to write about!! But that will have to come tomorrow update on splits my rock star and more!! Stay tuned!!

Happy Poling!!

XOXO ❤

Split goals and Measurement Challege

Well happy Sunday everyone!! Hope you all had a great weekend! in

As usual I had a poltastic weekend full of the usual climbs and inverts spins and spining but beyond that I went to my first pole Jam with Samantha Star!! She was awesome she helped me with some ideas on how to make my climb and invert better and some floor exercises on how to practice them without worrying about being in the air. I think this is going to start to make a huge difference in how I invert and climb and will make it better when I get into harder moves! We also learned a spin called the rockstar. Now lets say im not 100% on it but hey it looked pretty good!! Can’t wait to get a video since from my understanding its considered a more advanced spin which makes me feel great!!

Now on to the challenge since it is what I’m almost even more excited about! Another goal of mine that wasn’t listed on my goal list was for my flexibility and my splits and measurements! So here is what today is as my start!

Weight: 260.8

Arms:
Left: 16 inches
Right: 15.5 inches

Legs:
Left: 28 inches
Right: 27.75

Stomach:
Lower: 49in
Upper: 41.75

Straddle: Inches to floor
Left: 25 inches
Right: 23 inches

Spit across:
7.5 inches to ground

Split Left First:
7 inches

Split Right First
5 inches

The plan is to take these measurements every week to see my progress and take photos every month to see how much better my straddle and stretches are and posting monthly the differences that happen. How will I do this you ask. Plan is to stretch every morning run a little at lunch then stretch after (short stretch) then do another good hour or so a night! That will take care of the flexibility! Little sore from getting the start pictures but hey lets get some more stretching in!

Well that’s all for now happy poleing!!! Write soon!  Check out the where I am now in my splits 🙂 we all have to start somewhere! 🙂

 

Last class of the year!

Well another year has come and gone but I’m not stopping with my weight loss goals! 40 last year and 40 this year or more who knows! Since starting pole in October I’ve fallen in love quite hard with this sport. Proving stereotypes wicked wrong and really finally enjoying something like I did volleyball ( which I really thought was hard to do!! Damn Near Impossible!

In this video I’m working on climbs inverts the chair(which is getting better but still needs work) the attitude which I really like and would love to be able to get it down one handed. I also switched up my back hook by working on something called the power back hook. I think its quite evident from my last video how much my strength has improved with how I lift into the back hook to make it higher!

I then through in a freestyle stupid youtube didnt like either of the songs I put in thus the silence in the front and I can tell you that wasnt the song I wanted for the first part I was really using this….

But I know the freestyle isn’t the best its a start I can see what I did not so great get a shorter song would have helped too and Im still learning so what the hell why not try it!

This song really hits a soft spot with me and in some ways its how I feel when it comes to some of the stereotypes I’m fighting doing pole! But I digress I’m kicking ass and taking names and I don’t care who knows about it I LOVE IT!

Pole Goals in 2013:

1. Get a strong invert and climb on both sides!! As you can see my right side is a wee bit weaker than the other in both of these subjects!
2. Do a Gemini I don’t know if I’m forcing anything but I really like this move and would love to be able to work on it this year!
3.  Strengthen my forearms so I can get better with my split grip!

Those are just the top of the many I have!

Weight loss Goals 2013:

1.  TRACK TRACK TRACK!! Don’t get lazy like I did towards the end of the year!
2. Maintain and loose 40 more I did it this year why cant i this year!!
3.  Remember the off scale victories to keep you going there will be bad days and bad weeks but when you remember what you did right one week and one day it will give you the motivation to not give up.

Personal Goals 2013: 

1. Run another Color Me Rad Race
2. Finish my Masters from SNHU
3. Really work hard to get more photography work and build KelleyAnne Artistic Creations Photography and Graphic Design ( Hey got to add a shameless plug!)

Looks Like I have a busy year ahead of me!! Good Luck to all of you out there with big goals this year!!!

Happy Poleing write soon!

UPDATE!!

Just wanted to post my newest inver video you can actually see a huge diffrence from even a week or two ago above!! Really happy with my progress!!!!

WHOOOOOOO!!!!

Wow! Thank you! Now, Back to business ;) 2013 Around the corner!

Well this was a wonderful surprise! Thank you all for reading my first post on here! The response has been over whelming, and I am truly grateful for everyone taking the time to read the quick summery of the past two months of my journey for pole! So I thought let’s talk about something on all our minds New Years Resolutions.

Ok, I know pretty much everyone does these and most women well they want it to be about weight loss or some sort of physical change. Why not do something different this year? Why not try and do a mental change? A wise person once told me until I can be happy with who I am already that any change in my body will never be a fix all being skinny was always a fixation of mine until well pole.

I started Weight watchers almost a year ago hard to believe a year has past already! I can remember a year ago most likely around this date I got on a scale and saw the number it was 299, Just 1 lb shy of 300. Now I can honestly say to you all that I did not hit that dreaded number, but at the time me and my husband started talking about children and the first thing that came to my mind was how irresponsible it would have been to even consider a child at that weight risking the baby and mines health, it was my ah ha moment.

That first month of January I started well eating less 1-2 meals a day and small ones at that drinking lots of water and going to a non healthy regimen to try and get some of this weight off. Realizing that that was not working as well as my brain thought I looked into weight watchers people for years have been telling me to try it because it’s awesome so I thought what the hell besides my bank account what can it hurt. So I began this part of the journey with my best friend Erin, Its been an up and down fight with the scale but  I’ve lost 40lbs and learned that I can do this.

I picked up running using the couch to 5k program which I have to say really really works if you looking to build up your endurance and run a 5k which I did for the first time this summer.  It was called the color me rad 5k this was one of the best days of  my life besides marrying my husband of course but it just showed me that I could accomplish anything. But the fact that I still had not lost the amount of weight I felt I needed too still plagued me, wanting to give up because I apparently wasn’t getting the instant gratification that I wanted from what I was paying so much for. At that point I decided to take a break from running as my hip was getting beyond sore and I feared injuring myself. Then it came the thing I was scared to death of I hit a plateau. Stopped loosing went up and down the same 3 lbs for about 4 months now. Feeling defeated and I lost all motivation to do anything I stopped tracking barley went to Weight Watchers and then started pole as we talked about in my first post below no need to re state all of it but it changed something in me. It was the wake up call my husband had been begging for.

Something that pole did for me is finally allowing me to laugh at myself  not in a bad way but in a silly way. I can remember walking in for my first class thinking “what the hell am I doing? like serious Kell do you honestly think you can spin on that little thing?” 2 hours and 2 classes later I knew I could do this and wanted to keep going. Do I sometimes wish my legs looked a little better in the spandex yea, do I wish I could pick up on some of the things as some of the other girls yes of course am I not human? But am I confident in my body and my abilities and my strength. Hell yea. Its been a long time since I could look myself in the mirror and call myself sexy, finally be more confident in myself even at 260lbs and know that I’m beautiful and that even at 299lbs I was beautiful I just wasn’t healthy and that’s what needed to change not me.

And I thank my Pole instructor Monica everyday for what she has helped do for my confidence she hasn’t given up on me no matter how frustrated I’ve gotten she has been an inspiration to me, the tricks she can do and how pretty she can make everything I’ve seen her do just drives me to be better and want to be better.  Still in awe the progress I’ve had because of her teaching’s. For the first time in a very long time I’m loving being in my own skin.

That’s the change we all should be making, the resolution to accept yourself be the beautiful women you are and then work out. Besides loosing weight and toning up working out is a great stress reliever, a social experience when going with friends and meeting new ones. And hell Don’t call it a diet either its a lifestyle change, diets fail to many restrictions.

So my New Years Resolution you ask…. Work towards my first Pole Competition Dangerous Curves ( as long as they do it again teehee NYC BABY!!) And to continue to be happy, a friend told me yesterday that she sees a change in me in my confidence and my happiness its only taken 26 years to finally be happy with myself as I am today not what I was in high school and where I want to be in another 70lbs.

Let me leave you with this:

I’m done thinking someone can put a smile on my face, only I have the power to do that…my thoughts are changing, the energy is gone.
The smile on this face is for myself done by me, no one else – Ayla Johannson

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Good Luck to you all with your resolutions!! 

Happy Poleing!

Kelley B.

UPDATE!!
Had a great pole class tonight! Got some great shots of my stargazer! Did some climbing inverting and more really needed it felt great to get back too many days of nothing!! Check out the pics!

A New Kind Of Fitness

Hey ladies out there welcome to my Journey!

40Lbs Lighter! 

On October 10th, I started a new work out something very well lets call it unique. You might know it as pole dancing(or to some stripping)  but really its pole fitness no stripping necessary. In the beginning I was skeptical really not thinking I would ever be able to hold myself up climb invert or just do some of these simple spins. Boy was I wrong! I’m now working on doing 1 handed spins I can climb to the top and now just started inverting and starting to be able to do it without a spot and started spin class which actually takes more strength than regular pole!

Check out my 2 month video here

So ladies out there if your looking for a new strength training regiment and if you want to tone up what you have lost you have to try this. You will not only get physical results you will get mental ones too. I’ve received so much support from the instructors at my studio.

( Me and My fav Pole instructor trying a double stargazer …

I slipped we’ll get it next time! &This is my first night getting my invert! 

Now just so you all know I do Weight Watchers with this, doing this alone will not help you loose weight eating right along with the exercise will and  I will be honest I didn’t track or weight in for a month  (I know very naughty)… But with pole alone I maintained my weight. All that proves to me is that this program (WW and Pole) does work to help you with a lifestyle chance.. So to those struggling or looking for something new and your not sure.. Just do it! Can’t hurt to try!!!

Ill write soon fellow curvy girls happy Poleing!