Weight Perception - The Emotional Roller Coaster

My arms before (left) and after (right) pole
Weight on left: 136 lbs; on right: 146 lbs

As with most people, I've suffered with body issues for most of my life now. My body type is short and thick boned. My thighs like to hang onto fat (thunder thighs galore.) It's how I'm shaped. It's very different from bodies portrayed in the media. I've come to realize this and appreciate it. I love my hips; I love having curves. Despite that, I still battle insecurities of weight gain. Once I hit puberty I put on a ton of weight. Despite the fact that I was fairly active, in my teens, being on several performance teams, and despite being pretty muscled (we joked that we could beat the football team at push-ups), I was soft over my muscles, and I hated it. I got to 143 lbs and cried. My costumes and pants started giving me muffin top (though looking back I probably needed the next size up to begin with.) I didn't eat terribly. I ate when I was hungry, but none-the-less the weight kept creeping up. I have never been able to get a handle on my weight issues. Was I overweight? Not really, I was in the normal range of healthy, but I fell for the ideals of the media, with regards to body weight and became insecure (waaaaa! I'm not a model!)

The Anonymous Poler - May 2014 Blog Hop

This months Pole Dance Blog Hop topic is "Pole Dance and Social Culture." This is something that hits home with me tremendously. Currently, we live in a society that, in some regards, is progressive and accepting of many things different, but on the flip side, shuns the unknown and is terribly ignorant on topics such as pole fitness. Despite the ignorance, there is the issue of people holding strong opinions on things they don't understand. This is where I have an issue.

Our femtastic pole brothers - breaking the barriers

This is a Pole Dance Blogger Associations blog hop. This topic for February is "pole dancing and men."

When I first started pole, I was a recent college graduate, and decided to treat myself to a pole class. Of course, being naive about pole, I had the same misconceptions about pole that most outsiders do. I was quite surprised to that pole is so much more.

When I was signing up for my first class, I noted that the studio website said that classes were female-only. At the time I didn't ponder the reasoning much, and just figured it was to keep people away who wanted a "show." My pole journey went on without thinking about the restriction, until one day our instructor asked us if we would mind if a male joined us in our Burlesque class. My gut reaction was, "of course I don't mind." The class started and I thought nothing of the male dancing along side us. He was there for the same reasons we were, to learn an art form.

Best of 2013: My Dog is Okay - PDBA December Blog Hop

The best of 2013

This blog post is written in separate segments, is very disjointed, starts out sad, and is not pole-related,

so be forewarned. This is just a compilation of my thoughts through this entire ordeal.

Around Thanksgiving 2013:
This year is turning out to be terrible. I hate being negative, I truly do. Honestly, I wish things were different so much. I tried being strong, and managed for 2 weeks. Something is wrong with my dog, and I still don't know what. It started with him yelping when I pet him, a few days before Thanksgiving. That lasted for a few days, so we had him checked. Vet figured it was a bruised rib and gave him some pain medication. Within days of the visit, small masses began appearing on his torso. He has at least 10 that sprouted within days. One of them is the size of a ping pong ball. They are tender we you feel them. At this time he also developed a fever. The fever goes up and down everyday. Part of the day he's normal temperature, other parts he's got a fever. This has been going on for 2 weeks. Doctor did an needle aspiration and found nothing. Most of the slides didn't even take, which fat can do, but why would fatty tumors appear so suddenly and give him a fever. I don't think they would. My fear is he has an aggressive cancer. Right now he is acting happy. He eats, plays, goes potty normally. He's just very lumpy and has a fever. He's on two different antibiotics.

"Stripping" the sexy: October pole blog hop

We all know pole has a stigma. Many of us hide our poler side from others in order to protect ourselves from job discrimination, family drama, being shunned, etc. Due to this stigma, there is a "sanitization" movement occurring in pole. I do not mean rubbing alcohol on the poles to get off our grip aid residue. No, the goal of this movement is to make pole more accepted in the mainstream world, by stripping out any element that ties pole to the exotic dance industry. But is this "sanitization" really necessary?

A Day in the Life of a Pole Dancer (July pole blog hop)

Per the July pole blog hop, this is my IDEAL day, though it doesn't always follow this pattern. I give you, the day in the life of a pole dancer, fur baby mama!

In the morning I wake up to wiggly pups. Sometimes they start trying to wake me up earlier than my alarm clock, but lately they have been good boys and let me sleep until my alarm clock goes off. After that, KISSES!

Meet Gryphon(dor)