Volunteer Your Way to Weight Loss!

Hello avid readers, it has certainly been awhile, but I recently saw this quote by Harriet Naylor that said "Volunteering can be an exciting, growing, enjoyable experience. It is truly gratifying to serve a cause, practice one's ideals, work with people, solve problems, see benefits, and know one had a hand in them."

What Harriet says really spoke to me, since I blame volunteering for my absence on this cheaply fit journey. Volunteering has become by biggest weight loss motivator over the past few months, and a mental life saver to boot.  I wrote an earlier post about a workout called Piloxing. Well, I fell deeper and deeper in love with it, and all of the women involved.  I knew I wanted to make the Piloxing mantra: Sleek, Sexy and Powerful the slogan of my life.  I truly believe in what it is all about.  I began volunteering at the studio...cleaning, helping with shipping, checking gloves, doing inventory and anything else that needed to be done.  I was welcomed by all, and even felt a sense of family amongst this group. Now, I walk into the studio and I can honestly say it feels like home.

Granted, cleaning mats and floors may not be the most glamorous of jobs especially when you're trying to make it in Tinseltown, but I do it with dignity because I get to be a part of something that encourages women of all ages to be confident in who they are, and give them the desire to do more for their bodies and souls. It works!

 It has been one of the most challenging years of my life.  However, I have seen so much personal growth in myself because of this incredible experience at the studio. I would rather be on my hands and knees scrubbing used mats and know that I have a hand in something that promotes so much good to women everywhere, than wasting my life with people who mistreat others and feel a sense of entitlement, any day of the week.

Seeing this organization grow makes me very happy and incredibly proud of the women I have grown to call friends.  I now see Facebook statuses of friends who are 3,000 miles away about going to their local Piloxing classes. I take such pride in it. I'm just sorry they don't get to have Viveca, Cortney, Kristin, Allyson, Jordan and Sara to themselves like me. :)

Piloxing has changed my life...physically, mentally and even spiritually. Going through the motions of a freelancer and aspiring actress in Los Angeles can be daunting, so I found my ground through volunteering and in the process have lost weight and I certainly feel great.  If you are in a position where you're unable to afford workouts, see if you can volunteer somewhere that means so much to you, or volunteer just because you can. Of course the benefits of a free workout are great, but there is something so powerful about the act of volunteering. Give it a shot, you won't be disappointed.