About a month ago, a woman who had taken my BODYPUMP class a few times approached me after class one day and asked me if I would be willing to participate in an article she was writing about fitness and pregnancy.
Thinking that she probably wanted a quote or two about the importance of keeping your body moving from a pregnant instructor, I said I would be glad to help.
Then, she said she’d be bringing a photographer to my class and interviewing me at length, and I got a little nervous.
I told her I’d have to check with my gym to make sure it was fine.
Of course, it was. After all, it was free publicity.
I didn’t hear from her for a while, and I thought maybe she had changed her mind, until she contacted me, asking me if the following Wednesday would be a good time to send the photographer.
This was the part that had made me nervous, since, despite the fact that I have a blog and post a ridiculous amount of pictures of myself on it, I’ve historically been quite averse to having my picture taken—especially when the picture-taking must occur during my 36th week of gestating two human beings while I am attempting to concentrate on teaching a class.
But since I had already told her yes, I said that would be fine and crossed my fingers that it might fall through.
When I didn’t hear from her for another week, I assumed that it probably had…right up until the moment when a man carrying the biggest camera + flash I’d ever seen walked into class as I was teaching the warm-up…
And proceeded to stick around and shoot every (and I mean EVERY) angle of my very pregnant body for the next 45 minutes.
It’s pretty much a miracle that I didn’t accidentally tell my participants to stand on their heads and do the hokey-pokey or, worse, “Leave me the heck alone!”—the phrase that started rebounding around my noggin by minute #12 of flashes and having him lie on the ground underneath me to capture the “most pregnant angle possible” (his admitted goal).
ANYhoo, let’s just say that, while he was pleasant enough, I will not be saying, “Sure,” to any more newspaper articles any time soon. I hardly felt persecuted or anything, but self-conscious-as-all-get-out is pretty accurate. (Plus, I hadn’t warned my members since I thought he might not come, and they were all a bit bemused by my sudden celebrity).
A phone interview and a video later (yup, pictures and a video…both of which occurred after I’d already taught a BODYCOMBAT class and had the sweaty underarms and frizzy hair to prove it), the article came out in the Sunday edition of our local paper.
And you know what?
It was good!
Not that I’m surprised, since the lady doing the article had taken the time to gather all of that information from me alone, and there were several other sources that the article referenced as well.
But I was a tad surprised that I (mostly) made sense and that the pics included didn’t make me want to cry (too much).
This is the one that graced the cover of the article
(and, FYI, that belt is for my mike; it’s not holding up my belly : ))
I only just saw the print article two days ago when one of my sweet members brought me her copy (and informed me that she had a) shown all of her friends, and b) assured them that I didn’t really look that big in real life…OY!), but there’s an online version that’s basically the same thing, except that it includes the video with me blathering on about why I keep moving while pregnant and a few shots of my actually teaching my class.
Since these are topics that you guys hear quite a bit about here on the blog, I thought I’d share the link with you in case you want to watch a very sweaty, very pregnant version of me hand-talk my way (seriously, even my shoulders get in on the action) through the video.
And thus concludes the story of my (and the girls’!) 15 minutes of fame.
The end.
P.S. Yup. I’m still teaching. And, nope, it doesn’t seem to be encouraging the twins to come out. *pout*
P.P.S. Bring on the, “Get labor started!” suggestions. After two overdue babies, I’ve probably heard (and done) almost all of them, but—hey!—you never know.
P.P.P.S. Don’t forget about our big NOVICA giveaway! $50 to spend on any combination of jewelry, handbag, and/or house décor that strikes your fancy. Yeeeeehaw!