Times Have Changed, and Times Are A Changin'. It's Time!

I am really proud to say that Mark and I have posted on our blog/blogs consistently for many, many, many years.  Mark started the first ever kettlebell training blog in May 2004, and I followed suit in Nov. 2006.   And if any of you know how the blogosphere works, blogs come and go...mostly go, because they are a damn lot of work to keep up.  Especially if you don't get paid through selling product or being sponsored (like moi).

Lots and lots of stuff has changed in this time period, including the addition of videos, then "talking" videos!  For me, even the titles of my blogs have changed based on what my life was experiencing at the time.  The original title to my first blog was "Rediscovering Strength", and here is the very first blog post I wrote in Nov, 2006, titled, "First Post", lol!

First Post

My name is Tracy Reifkind and over the last year I have maintained a weight loss of over 115 pounds. I'm 43 years old, 130 pounds and 20% bodyfat, size 6. This is about my kettlebell workouts, my food, and how alone, in my garage in just three short workouts a week I have gotten a body I never thought I would have.

I hope to help motivate and inspire those who are struggling to get started a lean ,strong and healthy lifestyle.

The story of the start of this journey can be read here on our website GiryaStrength:

http://giryastrength.com/pdf/Vitalics.pdf

I look forward to sharing my continuing journey as well as hearing from others who are on the same road.

http://tracyrif.blogspot.com/2006/11/first-post.html

It was my original intention to inspire and educate other people, through blogging, that have had, or that were having, similar experiences to mine, in regards mostly, to weight loss.  It was my intent to reach out to others that have felt like "the fat kid on the sidelines", or "the last kid picked for the team".  I clearly remember feeling like I was waiting for a chance for someone to recognize the drive I had in my heart and the physical talent that lay underneath a body that never really felt like it reflected who I was inside, or what I knew I was capable of.  "Rediscovering Strength" was during a time when I was living my "second chance", and what a second chance it was!

"Living My Physical Potential" was born from the "rediscovery of my strength"!  "Living My Physical Potential" was about consistency.  The consistency of showing up, no matter how I felt, to do what I knew was the key to freedom, physical freedom.  "Strength" to me means many things.  Strength means doing what is right before doing what feels comfortable.  Comfort comes in the rewards of strength.  I was living strength to the best of my ability and drive...I was living my physical potential.

Parallel Universe

I started my second blog in May 2008 titled, "Food and Thought".  This is where you are now.  It overlapped my first blog "LMPP".  I started this blog without any mention of training, or exercise.  I wanted this blog to be separate from my training blog, and only wanted to focus on my love for home cooking, food and eating.  The making and preparation of foods, the concept of healthy eating, diet and feeding yourself, but mostly, mostly, I wanted to provide a safe place for people that thought they had weight "issues", "problems", and "struggles" to share openly the message of hope outside of the kettlebell community.  I never, ever, once announced or promoted this blog.  You all have found me on your own.

"Exercise people" do not understand what it's like to gain 100 lbs + (give or take 20, 50, another 100 lbs).  Exercise people can help you lose it, for sure, but they lack the understanding of the psychology of letting yourself gain so much extra bodyweight.  I wanted to create a blog that was safe for us to talk and write about being fat, getting fat, staying fat, losing fat, not wanting to be fat, outside of the sometimes judgmental eyes of "the fit".  So I kept it on the "down low", knowing if anybody wanted to find it, they would.

For nine months starting in Nov 2008 Mark and I both decided to step back from the kettlebell blogosphere to take care of our personal lives, but I continued my "secret" blog, "Food and Thought".  After a couple months kettle bell training started creeping into this blog!  What was I supposed to do?  Training was part of who I was, and without the other outlet of "LMPP" I started posting videos and workouts.  So I changed the title of this blog to "Training" Food and Thought.

"Training" in the title means a few things.  It means "training kettle bells" (and yoga, and any other physical exercise I find myself doing).  "Training Food" as in the practice of preparing your own homemade meals and foods.  And "Training Thought", as in looking at how you think about your life's situation, taking control, or at least becoming aware of what is getting in the way of your dreams.  (if you haven't figured it our yet, YOU are the one getting in the way!)

So here I am now.  Today.  The Queen of the Kettlebell Swing, and an author of a book on exercise/fitness and diet published by Harper One....and still posting my measly blog with about 200-300 hits a day.  No paid sponsors, and practically one or two comments every now and then.  But still I'm on the verge yet another transformation, another blog title change!

What will it be?

Funny how much things have changed, but yet nothing has changed.  I am the same person I always was on the inside, only now reflected on the outside.  And the fun is starting again!  So much seriousness, in fact too much seriousness this past year!  It's my time for the best adventures of all, and I know you are feeling it too!

Stay tuned!