It was so exciting when Nickie opened her new space in the old Corrigan Electric across from the Post Office, especially when the neighbors would call the police and complain about the noise. At that point, I had been attending regularly for two years. I was the strongest and fittest I had ever been. I was drinking Shakeology and doing several of the Beach Body workouts on top of the Warehouse workouts. Planks, burpees, and the Bosu were my friends. I felt so good in my own skin. I was 39 and feeling fine! And then I got pregnant… My age made me a “high risk” pregnancy and I toned down the workouts. At that time, The Warehouse offered Zumba so I opted for those classes. But it didn’t take long before I experienced some complications during Zumba so I stopped working out altogether. At age 40, I was blessed to give birth to a healthy baby boy and he consumed all my focus and energy and I did not work out one time for the next nine years. During that time I continued to follow Nickie and The Warehouse on Facebook. I often thought about my bootcamp days and missed feeling fit, strong, and healthy. I would dread doing my health assessment for work every year and would lie when answering the questions about how many times a week I exercised or did strength training because the answer was zero. My cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood sugar were at unhealthy levels. In 2021, I was the heaviest I had ever been and I had zero energy. I joined a popular weight loss program and lost 30 pounds. Even though I was thinner, I still didn’t feel healthy and once again all my focus was on food. Fast forward to early 2023, I was still following Nickie but something else on Facebook also caught my attention. A former work friend was into this new workout thing called Pound. It looked like she was having a ton of fun – getting to exercise AND act like a rock star, how could that not be fun? And then it happened…I ran into Nickie at a local nail salon. We were both getting ready to go on a Spring Break vacation. I had seen that The Warehouse was offering Pound so I asked her about it. She told me I’d love it and should stop by and try it out. She also mentioned this thing called Oula and said I’d probably really like that too. I went on vacation and my vanity got the best of me. I felt like a frumpy old lady amongst all the young, fit bodies at the pool. When I got home I started a membership at The Warehouse and went to my first fitness class in nine years! No one told me how many squats and lunges there are in Pound. I took that class on a Thursday and couldn’t walk down the stairs without feeling it until Monday! But it felt so good!! The music, the people, the energy; it was what I was missing. And then I tried Oula. The dancing, the emotional connection and release; it was what I was needing. When I’m at Oula, I smile, I laugh, sometimes I cry, and I FEEL GOOD. I have to say that I was nervous coming back after all those years but Nickie, the instructors, and all the wonderful, amazing women made it easy.