I Didn't Mean To Lose Four Pounds!

Honestly I didn't - a few days ago I started reading up on hormonal balance and wrote  "My Own Teen Weight Gain Story".

I picked up a Kindle version of Dr. Joseph Mercola's "Effortless Healing". I bought it a couple of months ago and had read it and put it down a few times.

He recommends the usual sensible eating habits as well as "intermittent fasting" to re-train one's body for fat burning instead of sugar burning, for energy.

I had read a couple of his newsletter articles about this but had never thought I could do it.

I have the symptoms of insulin and leptin resistance. My body has forgotten how to burn fat even though I have rarely eaten grains for five years. This means:

• no sugar

• no breads

• no crackers

• no cookies

• no rice

As grim as that sounds I eat well and am pretty healthy.

I also gave up chips of all kinds, and popcorn.

Exceptions would be at other people's dinners. I would enjoy some mashed potatoes or baked, or some chips on occasion.

I still did not lose weight no matter what.

So last Sunday evening I decided I would try the Intermittent Fasting. It looked easier once I did the math. Which is:

Fast for 16 hours a day.

I decided to eat breakfast at 10:30am, lunch whenever I next got hungry, and dinner before 6:30 pm. So my meals are within an 8 hour period. After dinner I drank water or herbal tea.

This was almost what I was doing anyway! 

Plus, I cheat a bit because I make coffee as soon as I get up and I put cream in it. I know from experience slow change works best.

By Wednesday I had lost 1 pound. Cool! I wasn't expecting more than that.

On Friday I was wearing heavier shoes and when I got on the scale I expected to see an additional pound because of the shoes.

And I was 4 pounds down from the previous week! Huh?

I am going to keep at this and will be happy with a pound a week loss.

The factor of hormone balance is related to fat (and not sugar) burning as well as slowing down the aging process.

I have to recommend this for any retired athlete especially if you have a desk job. Ihave no medical problems so I just went ahead and did it. But if you have any health issues take stock of them and maybe consult a health practitioner.

This isn't a diet however. It's simply grouping your meals differently. And its success is related to overall healthy habits, like anything else. Everything is connected.

The "Effortless Healing" book is a great reference for all kinds of health issues.

And really good if you're a teen with a weight gain story!

My Own Teen Weight Gain Story - Hormone Imbalance

Teen Weight Gain is agony

I rarely talk about personal stuff but since you all have stuck with me for a few years now, I feel comfortable to share.

Teen weight gain is agony - and if you're a ballet dancer, cheerleader - or "any" girl - it is horrible. And this is way before social media or every day bullying at school.

I wrote a slightly clinical post about hormone imbalance on my other toe shoes blog today. But this is my own story.

When I was young I was so skinny my mother called me "the skull". But for ballet that's good right? I ate anything that I wanted to and was thin.

When I went to the summer ballet course in Hockley Valley, Ontario Canada, the ballet teachers were all from the National Ballet of Canada and the National Ballet School teacher course. I was in good hands.

We had 3-4 ballet classes a day and we gobbled up our boxed lunches - 2 sandwiches, some raw vegetable snack and a cupcake.

Our ballet teachers were horrified. They picked the sandwich contents out of the bread with a fork and threw away everything else.

And that summer I auditioned for the National Ballet School of Canada and was accepted. All was well for about a year and a half.

Then the teen weight gain began. Nightmare! I was eating what I had always eaten. There were a few other girls who gained weight too. We were lepers, let me assure you.

What I didn't know was hormone imbalance was involved. Nowadays a parent and a family doctor would suspect. But not then.


Here is a video that discusses stress and progesterone deficiency:

If a girl has heavy and had painful periods, that's a sign. Weight gain (while exercising and eating the same) is a sign.

Worry, anxiety, fatigue and social withdrawal are all signs of hormonal imbalance.

No one realized we needed a hormone balance test.

I was impressed by an interview I read with Suzanne Somers today and her new book "Tox-Sick Suzanne Somers".

It covers many causes of ill health. The interview covers the hormone imbalance issues.

All I can say to another dancer, or another woman (including you teen dancers!) be forewarned! 

 

Sadly, Suzanne Somers died of her cancer in 2023.  She had achieved some healthy periods during her long fight with this illness.

 

A key element to long fights with cancers is the prevalence of hormone mimickers everywhere in our food chain, in our house hold cleaners and furnishings, and in our clothes.

 

How can you get better, or prevent disease when you're surrounded by the causes of said disease?

 

 Common Carcinogens

 

Consider these:

 

Popular air sprays, plug-ins and dish and laundry detergents, even unscented

 

Carpet detergents and powdered scented "refreshers". 

 

Formaldehyde and other caustic chemicals in new clothes, furnishings, paper products and packing material

 

Most things plastic 

 

Pesticides in everything shipped across the world, or country. 

 

Search the ingredients. 

 

Your favorite brands aren't going to come up on a list of cancer causing products, you know, like cigarettes. 

 

But if you search the ingredients of these, one by one, you will be, at a minimum, concerned.

 

Don't be fooled by the label NATURAL on products.  

 

Almost everything is natural. 

 

Before it gets altered for shelf life, persistence of scent, wrinkle-freedom, guarded from stains, bacteria-killing capability, and all those other handy things.

 

As for teen weight gain, it's not as related to carbs as we used to think. There goes the whole keto approach. Yeah, I fell for it too, along with a lot of doctors. 

 

Sadly, nutritional research goes slowly, which I think is why FADS come and go roughly every ten years. 

 

Healthy saturated fats still matter, but a measured amount of carbs ingested at the right times give you energy.   

 

Eat pesticide-free foods as much as you can. Pesticides  are hormone mimickers, which means they fill your hormone receptors, blocking the reception of your own natural hormones. 

 If you're a teen dancer, wanting to be thin, and still grow properly with the muscles and endurance for ballet training, you need to understand how this works.  

 

Find out all you can about hormone imbalance and lead a very healthy and happy life.

UPDATED NOVEMBER 2025

I Would Still Be Teaching Ballet If I Could

Yes, I would be still be teaching ballet if I could.

So why aren't I?

A bunch of reasons -  I emigrated and had no idea how long it would take to re-credential.

And that I was in the wrong place to do that.

And I had a (wonderful) child. Any mother knows what that does to one's other plans!

But many years later and after some financial catastrophes, I had not yet re-credentialed.

Things change. Years ago (when I was in Canada) I was offered a 3 year contract and a Green Card to teach in the Dance Department at UCLA.

Yet not too many years after that, UCLA dissolved its dance department. What a shame.

In the early 21st Century I discovered blogging. So here I am and here we are.

Recently I started reading a book "The Thinker's Way" by John Chaffee, Ph.D.

It was very disturbing. Firstly, it is probably wonderful for younger adults. It gives practical advice on plotting one's life.

What was most disturbing, is that no matter what I can still plan as a senior, for my life, that my favorite thing would be to be teaching ballet again.

I am still happy and optimistic about my future. And I'm so amazed that I have a ballet blog with so many followers - yes you!

I wanted to share this and mention how much I've enjoyed writing all the technical posts on this blog.

I am determined to keep writing - for instance, recently Stephen Woodjetts (once my room mate in Toronto) posted a link to a wonderful production of Swan Lake on Facebook. I couldn't find a picture of Steve that is copyright free - darn.

He remarked that this Swan Lake was exceptionally musical. And it is! Way back when Steve and Liz (a flautist) and I shared a dumpy apartment, Steve used to play Swan Lake on his piano.

Liz and I would sit in the dark on a very hot and humid summer night. I was transported by the music and Steve's special talent.

And every time I see Swan Lake I think of that.

Steve had a score (Russian) given to him by Babs MacKay who was concert pianist for The National Ballet of Canada, and later The National Ballet School. I am sure Steve can think back to the sound of her playing for class as well as I can.

Here is that wonderful Swan Lake with musicality :

Thanks Steve!

The Dance I Never Danced

Well...not quite. I'd had the amazing opportunity to have some classes in Flamenco with Susana. Yes, The Susana.

I was teaching at The National Ballet School of Canada then and only did one summer intensive - 4 weeks - of classes.

Fast forward many years later to when I had moved to LA. I had not danced for about 5 years then.

I had a child and a job. One day, while walking from the bus stop to our house, I passed a home and from inside the garage I heard someone practicing Flamenco. 

On the third day, I left a note stuck to the front door, asking where this person was studying. And she called me!

Unfortunately, a few days later I got served divorce papers at 10 PM on a week night. Phooey!

Quite a few dreams circled the drain at that point, including me taking Flamenco classes. I still had the shoes...the skirt...oh well. And I still have them! Talk about a die hard!

Not About Dance Today

 A fellow writer and artist, Vone Deporter and I have started a Gofundme campaign for another artist - John Cox, 77 years old, disabled and homeless.

I first saw John's art and fine jewelry at an art gallery show organized by the late Canadian ballerina Angela Leigh.

I met John in other creative communities in Toronto - he was friends with some founding members of Toronto Dance Theatre and worked with alternative health practitioners doing massage and bodywork. 

(She too became a visual artist after leaving the stage). 

 "100 people give $10 a month - or 200 people give $5 a month - sounds easy.....http://www.gofundme.com/m1uz1o" 

is the nutshell of our campaign.

If any of you followers would go the link and simply share it from the Share buttons - we'd be so grateful!

btw Vone Deporter is the painter of the beautiful ballerina on this blog header.

 

My First Dancing Job

Before I graduated from the National Ballet School I landed a dancing job. It was for the summer Canadian National Exhibition Show.

Having trained in a very sheltered environment, there I was with hundreds of other girls who could do so much more than I could.

They could jazz and tap. Some of them had already done dancing in tv commercials. I was so impressed!

And so intimidated.

But part of the requirements was pointe work. For a chorus line. That I could do.

I landed the job.

Then graduated from school.

The first day of rehearsals the choreographer (from New York), Midge addressed us with a bullhorn.

What I remember her saying last was "Don't sit around on the concrete. It's cold and you'll get hemorrhoids."

The football stadium was our rehearsal grounds. A mobile stage that sounded hollow (it was) suffered our learning curves. Natalia Butko was the Dance Captain. She was stellar.

The hardest number was in the pointe shoes. It was the first time I had ever worn Capezios. Rock hard compared to the Gambas I wore. Made to last!

The Pointe Number was a very tough Rockettes type of material.

While walking around on pointe, wearing huge Mountie Bear hats and full mini-pleated chiffon skirts that blew in the wind, we had to grab buttons on the skirts to raise them and create a black and white design for the audience.

Wind was a challenge with just a few counts to find those buttons! But the worst night was when it rained and there were puddles on stage.

One very cool thing was meeting other dancers from schools like Gladys Forrester's and Jacque Foesiers. They were so savvy I thought.

The other cool thing was that I got to join the union. Actor's Equity. At 17, I became a union man.

My roommate Anne Ditchburn was on tour with the NBOC and I lived alone for the summer. I went to Yorkville every night and sketched people. I filled a big sketchbook, a habit formed when Patricia Goss was my art teacher.

What was your first dance job?

That's me in Earl Kraul's class at George Brown College. In the 80's. I was teaching there too.

Photo by Victor Ongingko, used with permission.

A Quick Hello To All My Fellow Dancers And Readers!

I've been away from this blog for so long! Is it really May?

It is recital time for many of you, or your term has already ended, and you're getting ready for the I.N.T.E.N.S.E. ballet summer intensive!

I'm writing at a second job these days and haven't had time to focus on the big ballet world!

I'm so happy to see people are still dropping by this blog and hopefully it's helpful for those who need some technique tips!

So thanks for visiting and reading here!