Barre with Justine

Fitness and Wellness

What is Balletone? Discover Cardio that you will fall in love with!

I first heard about Balletone at a Barre Above training at CanFitPro in August of 2018. The Barre Above training with Tricia Madden was amazing and I learned so much about barre but also about how to create a great environment in a class and create connections with members. Then another training – Balletone – was mentioned. My curiosity was piqued! I danced for many years and loved ballet with its graceful movements and strength. Alas, there didn’t seem to be any trainings in Canada!

10 months later, in the grips of the COVID ‘lockdown’, I discovered that there would be an online Balletone training – the first one ever! It was an absolutely lovely training by Elizabeth Lenart (Balletone Program Director) and Lauren George (Balletone Master Trainer). Despite never having taken a Balletone class I KNEW I would love it. Balletone is one of the most engaging formats that I have ever taught. I love that it’s accessible to all ages and fitness levels but still a challenging, sweaty, cardio workout. Here’s my own Fitbit heart rate from a Balletone/Blend class. I’m always amazed by the results for my ❤︎

Balletone:

  • is a low-impact cardio workout best performed barefoot (*but no judgment if you prefer shoes!)
  • is designed for all ages and fitness levels
  • is great for strengthening the heart and toning your entire body
  • uses a variety of music so that you can forget you are working out and just have fun!

Are you interested in learning more about Balletone? Please send me an email or comment below! 💕

Novel a Week?

This week I FINALLY read a novel (Where the Crawdad’s Sing by Delia Owens). I have no problem buying novels, starting novels, and buying more novels but I have a huge problem finishing them. Usually, my kids are a big reason since it’s very difficult to carve out time for sustained reading and I usually tumble into bed exhausted each night.

As I cried my way through parts of Owens’ novel, feeling my heart swell and break like the waves in the marsh, I reflected that my inability to complete novels may also be due to an unconscious desire to protect myself from feeling too deeply. When I studied English in university I didn’t mind summoning all the feelings and would often even pick poems and novels specifically TO have a cathartic cry.

There are some books that are on my list of “books that make me cry”. These include:

Read more

“Emotional Thrift”

A scene from Brief Encounter (1945)

When I had my first child I was thrilled to be able to use a name that had been in my mind for so many years. Celia. Unique, lovely and inspired by one of my favourite movies: Brief Encounter. The film centres around the love story of Laura (played by Celia Johnson) and Alec (Trevor Howard) who meet by chance and fall in love.

Without spoiling the story, it is enough to say that both are married and it’s an aching portrayal of repressed emotions and English society in the 1940s. It’s reminiscent of The Bridges of Madison County and Celia Johnson does a magnificent job of capturing Laura’s emotions of boredom, passion and heartache often just through the expression of her beautiful eyes. Very little is spoken in the film about the powerful emotions that Alec and Laura are dealing with.

The film is a time capsule of a generation when life carried on no matter how painful or awful feelings might be. We have all seen the poster “Keep Calm and Carry on” even if it may have a complicated history. You may even have family members who fought in the war and never discussed it. During that time so many experiences and feelings lay buried, perhaps too painful to revisit or share.

India Knight coined the term “emotional thrift” in her 2008 book Thrift, which applies the concept to everything from food to beauty. In the final chapter, Knight implores readers to practice emotional thrift to preserve not only the mood of others but also ourselves. “This isn’t (quite) a plea for all of our human transactions to have a tragically repressed Brief Encounter vibe about them,” she writes, “but it is a plea for a return to a stiffening of upper lips. Emoting all over the place is exhausting, makes you vulnerable, and is seldom the cure-all it’s touted as being.” (Thrift by India Knight, 265).

Follow @barrewithjustine