{Noelle} So as many of you may have seen on our feed or Instagram (if you follow us), we recently attended the Ignite Girls Fitness weekend in Atlanta, hosted by the lovely Keri Lynn Ford (fitness coach, model and WBFF competitor). We wanted to share some of our experience with our friends and fans because after all, our lives don’t completely revolve around photography and design (gasp! I know, right?!). We also figured it would be a nice window into our personal lives, not that it is oh-so-secretive but we tend to focus a lot of our energy these days into nurturing and continuing to grow our business. It’s nice to kind of disconnect and recharge though, especially when it comes to taking care of bodies. We both love eating healthy and practicing yoga and exercise, so we thought this would be a great opportunity to expand on our knowledge and just have a great time with some other health-minded women!! So here is a little recap of the weekend as well as some promotional images we shot for IgniteGirls Fitness!
{The event was held at The Forum Athletic Club in John’s Creek, GA}
The weekend started out bright and early on Saturday with an intro from Keri about her love of fitness and what got her started in this industry. To learn more about her and her story check out Keri’s site (she’s got one hell of a story too!). After that, we had an intense pylo workout session to get our blood pumping with partner circuits. Keri’s goal was to get us to push past the boundaries of what we “think” are our physical limitations and see where drive and motivation can take us. I’d say we all conquered it like ANIMALS! And we were pretty darn proud of ourselves too.
We were then able to relax a bit (and catch our breath) while we listened to guest speaker, Casey Shipp (WBFF Pro and Fitness Trainer) tell her story and give advice on nutrition and fitness. She showed us how to not be scared of the “big bad weight training room” and also demonstrated proper form. It was an “ah-ha” moment for a lot of us, who as regular women, aren’t always exposed to this kind of weight training. It was so inspiring to see these strong women who weren’t afraid to put themselves out there and show up the men!! Not to mention Casey has a “no-nonsense” approach to everything, which we love.
Then we were able to sit and listen to registered dietician Dana Casendino talk about the importance of a balanced diet and how she is able to collaborate with Keri on creating healthy and balanced meal plans for her Ignite Girls Fitness program. As women, we tend to think “less is more” when it comes to trying to lose weight, but Dana stressed the importance of including a variety of foods and nutrients based on a balanced meal plan. And to follow through with the conversation on a healthy diet, we all went back to Keri’s house where she had Chef Tesia Bunton there preparing a delicious meal for us all. Tesia gave us a cooking demo and talked about the importance of knowing exactly what ingredients go into your food in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. She even gave us these adorable little Olive Oil bottles infused with Rosemary (they also came with these clever little cards).
{We all got some lovin from Keri’s sweet pup Kaylee}
On the last day, Sunday, we started out with an open forum so each girl could talk about her story and journey to becoming healthier and fit. It was really inspiring to hear other people’s stories and struggles. The biggest topic of the day was learning how to “let go” and not try to do it all, since as women we tend to take things to the extreme wanting to be perfect. I think we can all relate to that in some way! There was also a raffle with lots of goodies from some of Keri’s sponsors (which Nicole and I just happened to both win)!! Keri also had some of her adorable IgniteGirls fitness shirts for sale (I couldn’t resist “Lunges and Lipgloss).
Keri was not about to let us off easy however, so we finished off the morning with an even more intense weight training circuit (check out her blog for the entire workout list). And just when you think you can’t do one more rep, she announces another round of the circuit training. No pain, no gain right? Well, we killed it once again (and a week later and my glutes are still screaming, ha)!
We finished off the weekend with a Q&A lunch and then one-on-one body consultations with Keri, where she discussed our fitness and health goals and gave advice on areas we felt we wanted to improve. It truly was a life changing and inspiring weekend and we’re so glad to have been a part of it all. Here are some photos of the girls all together before we left.
