My New Obsession, by Stacey

When I was young my mum has always told me I used to become obsessed with an idea really quickly. One week I'd be sure I wanted to be a nurse, the next a vet and the following week it would be something crazy like a clown at a circus, my obsessions were extremely short lived and my family used to take it all with a pinch of salt.

As I grew older this wandering attention seemed to settle down as I got my one true dream, I became both a mother and a wife, a little earlier than most of my family would have liked mind but they were pleased for me all the same. When my daughter was born I had put on 4 stone and had gone up to a size 16, despite this I was happy with my baby girl and life went on nicely. My son was born 2 years later and (having given up weighing myself a long time before) I had gone up to a size 18/20. Occasionally I looked in the mirror and despised what I saw but mostly I was just happy with my family and as my husband told me it didn't matter to him I just pushed my bad feeling about my weight to the back of my mind and locked it away. Then my loving husband left me and my whole world fell apart.

I didn't consciously want to loss weight at this point, although I wasn't exactly adverse to the idea, but I had no appetite for a long time and just didn't eat, not healthy in the slightest but it was the way my life was headed at that time and I just had to ride it out. After 6 weeks I was a size 14 and felt great about the way my body was transforming. So I started eating sensibly and thinking about exercising, something which I hadn't even thought about since I was a teenager at school.

I decided that the only way to get into exercise was to have some form of motivation so I signed up for Race For Life so I started jogging and swimming, getting myself to a trim size 12 and permanently walking around with a grin on my face. I carried on with the exercise because of my goal but I was bored of jogging and swimming, there's only so much of that I can take so I started looking into a more exciting way of losing weight and staying fit, while searching the internet I stumbled upon Pole Dancing and my obsession was started!

At this time I had moved home to my mum and dad's house for moral support, and live in babysitters, so after I had made my decision and built up the courage I asked if I could put up a pole in the living room, as I had nowhere else for it to go. Firstly my parents dismissed the idea as one of my wild fantasies and laughed it off. But when I had booked lessons through Poleminx and was still bugging them two weeks later they decided that this time I was serious and they should probably indulge me (although at 23 and a mother of 2 I only needed the permission for the random pole in the living room not to continue with my dream).

My pole arrived a couple of weeks before my lessons started but I wasn't waiting to get started so I put it up straight away. I even watched the accompanying DVD, which in itself is pretty unheard of for me, but I'm glad I did as it had some basic spins and moves for me to be working on. In a few days I had mastered the 'Carousel' and was feeling very proud of myself. Then my lessons started in The Ivory Lounge, Sutton with Kelly and I was completely hooked.

My first few lessons I felt like the most uncoordinated person in the world watching some of the others (who were re-doing level 1 I might add) completing the moves easily and gracefully, when I couldn't work out if I was supposed to have my strong or weak hand up high, or even which of my hands was my strong or weak one. Thankfully I was 'Pole-addicted' as one of my friends put it, and I didn't let anything get me down, just practiced more and pushed myself harder. I found that Kelly was a great teacher and at the end of my 6 week Level 1 course I wanted to continue straight away, unfortunately the level 2 class was already booked up, I felt almost heartbroken, my new hobby had just gone up in smoke and I was back to the drawing board to find another teacher.

After a few days with very little to show for my internet searches I received an email update from Poleminx, new classes had been released in Stir Bar, Epsom, which was even closer for me to travel to. This was when I first met Elaine and I liked her straight away, she has a wonderful knack of encouraging and pushing each student in the best way to make them move forwards. Level 2 went really well, I learned to Invert which felt like the biggest achievement of my life at the time.

Since level 2 I've felt my progress has been slow, it takes a lot longer to learn the moves from level 3+ and sometimes I feel like I will never manage certain tricks, but when I do finally master them (like superman), the sense of achievement is massive. There are days I skip home from lessons having picked up a new pose/invert, other days I come home and collapse on the sofa from exhaustion, but it never puts me off going again!

I'm now on my third Level ¾ course, having completed 13 weeks back to back already and planning on going as long as Elaine will have me. I can see the progress I'm making slowly. There are so many moves I didn't even dream I would be able to do when I first started that now I can do with ease, there's moves I aspire to but can't imagine getting the hang of but now I can see that I'm working towards them albeit slowly. I think about Pole Dancing every day, planning, working out, thinking, trying, doing, failing, trying again and finally eventually, achieving. It's a great feeling, and is now truly my obsession, but I can't see this one going away any time soon!

My dream now is to train to teach pole dancing to others and hopefully get as many girls 'Pole-addicted' as possible, it's great exercise and great fun. I now have a size 10/12 body and am extremely happy within myself, as well as enjoying the time I spend poling I enjoy the rest of my life a lot more now too! Stacey

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Stacey at Stir Bar, Epsom, Surrey