Why my neighbors love Winter

With Fall officially upon us, I thought I would write an open letter to all my neighbors, but especially, the young family who just moved in to one of the houses that backs up to my backyard. This is an apology in advance for them because they won't experience my "mommy-rath" until next Summer. I would like to apologize for all the shit you hear me yell at my son and my dog. I know you can't see me through the bushes, but know that I am cringing at the ridiculous sentences I say.


Ok, a little backstory here. I live with my parents and we have a pretty sweet backyard. It's not huge, but we have a pool, a swing set, a sandbox, a little pool, a big dog, a small dog, a garden, and my four year old son. Our beautiful landscaping has grown so big that our backyard is like an escape. You can almost forget you even have neighbors. These bushes help me believe I'm hiding my crazy, but I'm clearly not. Here's pictures of the backyard:

And here's how it would look from the air. My yard is the polaroid with the "social problems" sticker. All the other ones are backyards that are affected by this. The new family just moved into the house with the star. Although, they have what appears to be a young son, so this could just be a warning of what's to come. All the other affected neighbors have been there for years, or have kids around J's age, so they don't mind and have told us they love the random comments they hear through the fence.
*I know it's not the best collage, but I had to work with what I got. *

So, that's the yard, these are the characters responsible for my crazy:

Lucy & Thor

Top ten phrases I have actually said that make my neighbors love Winter

During the Winter, we're all rarely in our backyards at the same time, but on a beautiful summer day, you can expect to hear one of the following come from my backyard. 

1. Where did your clothes go? / Why are you naked? / Can you at least put underwear on?

2. Don't pee in/on/off of that

3. Stop throwing your toys in the big pool

4. Stop throwing sand in the little pool

5. Lucy, don't eat Thor's poo

6. Lucy, don't eat Thor

7.Be careful. Going down that slide naked is going to hurt. 

8. No. I'm not kissing your butt cause the slide was hot. I told you put clothes back on 5 minutes ago.

9. Don't go near that pool. I told you we can't go swimming till your have clothes on. We don't swim naked. / Don't sit in the sandbox naked

10. Where the hell did you find that paint?! No don't paint that, or that, or the dogs. get back here!

Why I became a personal trainer

So, a few weeks ago I officially became an ACE certified personal trainer. I took classes at my local jr. college and studied my butt off for a year. Besides with people who know me personally, I have never gotten into why I wanted to become a personal trainer, and there is a lot behind my three main reasons, so I thought I'd delve into that today.

Reason #1: Everyone deserves to feel happy about their body and I would love to assist people to getting healthier.

I fell in love with exercise, and it became habit, when I stopped looking at it as something I HAD to do for weight loss. I had exercised on and off since I had my son, but finally, after two years it stuck. I wanted to lose weight, but I gained so much. It was a huge stress reliever, mood balancer, and gave me confidence. That was before I even saw any results in the mirror. My mother had repeatedly told me I would never get my pre-baby body back and that only crazy people tried to get back into shape. When I did start to see results, I realized she was crazy, but right at the same time. But how, you ask.
1. I had changed. I no longer wanted my pre-baby body back. I wanted to be healthy, happy, and active. I never lost all the weight, but I'm in better shape than I was when I was 18.
2. I realized that I spend so much time making sure my son is healthy, happy, and active, that I DESERVE to do the same for my self.
3. She was crazy! Being in good health wards off all kinds of disease as you get older. Good for the women who do lose all the weight. If they are happy, who am I too judge?! Same for the mommas who don't try to lost any of the baby weight. The crazy ones are the ones who try to tell people they can't accomplish their goals.

Reason #2: I witnessed people missing out on opportunities to have fun and be active. It's the culmination of these missed chances that keeps it from becoming a lifestyle change for people.  

My son and I love to be outside, or just active. We hike, walk to the park, he helps me garden, we swim, we go to nature centers, etc. I've written numerous blog posts about exercising in nature and kids in nature, so I won't talk about that more than necessary. This reason is the result of a few observations I made while with my son, so to make it easy, I'm just going to list them out.

1. Parents who drive to the park and then sit on their phones while their kids play.
My son is young enough that he still wants me to play with him, so I use the playground equipment as my gym. He doesn't realize it, and we have fun. If your kids are older, body weight exercises with the benches are great.

Also, WALK TO THE PARK! Walking is so good for you. Bonus points if you push a stroller or carry a bike home cause "they're too tired". haha

2. I live next to O'hare Airport in Chicago. You would be amazed how many forests you can get lost in, right by the airport. The trees are surrounded by busy streets, but there are nature centers, trails, museums, lakes, boat rentals, picnic shelters, and you never feel like you're in Chicago. That amazed me. THERE ARE OPPORTUNITIES LIKE THIS IN COMMUNITIES EVERYWHERE! PLUS, MOST OF THEM ARE FREE! Walking is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Take advantage of any cool opportunities near you. Get out and explore your area, your outdoors, or your region.

I believe doing fun things like this are what make it easier to adopt an active and healthy lifestyle, and stick to it. This also transfers to all the people around you. My son loves going on adventures! He doesn't realize mom's happy cause she got a three mile walk in and cause he'll sleep like a baby that night.

Reason #3: Prevent people from dieing. 

While studying personal training, both of my paternal grandparents fell ill and died. They hadn't been well for quite a few years. Both had trouble with falls, grandpa had Parkinson, they were older, etc. Not being physically fit is not why they died, but I think a little more activity earlier in life would have benefited them. I read a research article that stated, "to prevent falls in old age, people should stay healthy enough to get out of a sunken chair without using the arm rests." 
If I can help ONE person go into old age knowing they are of decent health and can live a better quality of life than my grandparents did the past few years, I will be happy.

So, that is why I became a personal trainer. I would love to help you reach whatever goals you have. Email me and we can talk about how we could work together to get your health where you want it to be! 

jschwent.fit@gmail.com

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