New Year, New Me, New Blog

  

Happy New Year everyone! I am so excited to get 2018 rolling. I've had a very good first day in the new year. I started it off at a lovely brunch with one of my best friends, Rikki and her mother at Kiwiana, in Park Slope. Kiwiana is a New Zealand style restaurant, and quickly becoming a favorite brunch place of ours. Delicious Chai-spiced french toast, avocado toast (my personal favorite), necessary espresso bar, and fabulous mimosas (including kiwi and passion fruit juice). After, I went home to get to work...

Kittania with My Artist's Way Notebooks and Book

I have a few resolutions. They're mostly jumping off points for how I want my year to go. I am participating in a study group following the four month program, The Artist's Way. I have attempted the program three times before, without finishing. I'm ready for it this year, and now have a great team doing it with me! I've included a link in case you're interested in what it is:
http://juliacameronlive.com/

In conjunction with my study group I am continuing my personal fitness journey. I will be re-visiting Shaun T's two month program, "Insanity". I will be posting daily exercise selfies on my Instagram story to keep me accountable! (Just like I did when I was in China!)

China was the first time I attempted Insanity, and the first time I ever attempted a true exercise challenge style program. Flashback to Isabel arriving in China on the first day of rehearsal: When my director announced he wanted me to be Princess Jasmine in Aladdin I was ecstatic... when he also told me that I needed to lose weight and tighten up, I was embarrassed and angry. Reader, please know in advance, I have suffered my share of insecurities, I try my best to practice and promote self love. I have had many people in the industry and my life tell me I'm too heavy, I'm not pretty, I'm not sexy, my legs are too short, I'm not a "classic beauty", etc. etc. etc. It wears after a while. When I was teaching young people and teens dance I made a rule for myself not to put down or discuss my body in front of my students. I didn't want to set a bad example and wanted my dance studio to be a safe place to love yourself and feel comfortable in your own skin. I feel very cautious about discussing such things even now... but I reflect on this story and preface with we are beautiful at all sizes, back to my story: I meditated on it, and decided on how I was going to handle this news. I don't want anyone to tell me what to do with my body, ever. I still to this day think my director should have asked me if I would be willing to lose weight before I signed contracts and moved to China... but that's another story. I was healthy, I have an endomoprh body type, and my doctor had assured me I was at a healthy weight when I first had the concern. Healthy eating, light exercise and dance left me with a healthy but mostly curvy frame. I didn't and still don't look like your typical Broadway dancer. We're all different and that is beautiful, might I add!  I tried not to take the weight loss request as a pointed finger saying you're fat, change! I tried to instead take it as: you're beautiful- let's see how strong and fit you can get in this part and for your future as a performer. In the end, I decided I would try my best to get "more fit"... but for me, not my Director.

I dedicated myself to Insanity for the first month and saw dramatic changes. I continued to eat healthy and bumped up the veggie intake. I did not restrict myself from foods I loved, I still had desert when I felt like it, and I enjoyed my meals. I also didn't own a scale in China... so I have no idea if or how much weight I lost. Even now in New York I do not own a scale and will not be weighing myself anytime soon. Better to focus on overall health and how you feel. Your jeans will always tell you where you're at anyways. 

Nevertheless I toned up, felt great, my Director and all of my co-actors noticed the difference. The second month I repeated some of the first month's workouts with some Pilates and yoga. With less cardio than the first month, I maintained my new body but did not experience any further change. Upon coming home after the tour I hit a small bout of post performing depression and quickly lost exercise motivation. Not exercising seemed to make my depression worse, so I knew I would need a program that would kick my butt and challenge me... I really loved my time with Insanity in China, so here I am again. I'm learning more about the endomorph body type and what I require to reach my goals. With that little rant done, here is the website if you are interested in the program: 
https://shauntfitness.com/programs/

I am also committing myself to AT LEAST four dance classes a month. That might seem like very little, but in 2017 (oh, I hate admitting this!) I went MONTHS without class. Therefore, I am committing myself to a low, doable number for 2018. With that being said, I am facing my tap dancing nightmare. I have signed up for a tap workshop starting January 14th... phew... I am already shaking in my little black shoes. On a fun note I am taking belly dancing for the first time ever starting January 17th! My comfort classes are ballet and musical theatre, so I decided to challenge myself this year and add a little variety.

Now onto blog business. I have loved having this little blog to share my "catch ups" with my friends and family back home. I post when I like, and talk about... well, myself. I have not given myself any kind of structure or rules regarding my blog, but I am feeling some change in the air.

While living in China, I had been flirting with the idea of a blog focus change. I have lived in New York for over a year now and I have new and different ideas to share with the Internet other than how I'm surviving the big bad apple. I would love to not only blog for my friends and family but also for other people, whom I don't necessarily know. I have already come up with a series of blog posts for this coming year. I give myself permission to try and permission to let it go if I don't like it.

My focus will be primarily on theatre, NYC, and lifestyle. I will still post personal updates, so it's okay if you're not interested in: How To Still Love Yourself after Being Typed Out of Your First NYC Cattle Call Audition!, type of post.

I hope I do not lose readers with this change, and I hope I have your support. With this change I welcome blog topics and questions. So many people have asked me tons of questions about China so I have thought about doing a Q&A on the shows and my life there (so let me know if there's something you want to hear about besides the typical FAQ)... and also a maybe a big picture China post titled something like, What Really Happened In China. Although that would most likely take a bottle of wine (or two... or three...) and a weekend (or two... or three...) of writing to complete.

I hope you all have had a Happy New Year! I will be planning a trip home in the next few months, I am still devastated I missed Christmas with my family and SSPA's winter performance of Beauty And The Beast. I am planning on coming home in March for a scattering of my Gramma's ashes. I hope to connect with as many people as possible, after all I miss everyone so much. To any of my past students reading this, please know I am truly saddened I missed your performance, and I thought of you all so much this holiday season. I know you guys rocked it, everyone has told me I would have cried throughout the whole thing.

Thank you everyone for your continued support and love! Don't quit your daydream.

xx,
Is

Jake & I on Christmas taking the subway to Prospect Park for Ice-Skating 

Kittania's favorite spot during the Christmas time.