Donna Lim

I arrived at my work at 5:30 in the morning and packed the few things that I moved here from the Ann Arbor site. It is weird how I sensed from the beginning that being at the Chesterfield location would only be temporarily. This morning was my job loss notification meeting and instead of feeling sad, I felt as though my employer is giving me an opportunity to finally create my own path. Pfizer was extremely generous to me throughout the 11 years. Working in a big company, you either get lost or work hard to get noticed. I am lucky that hard work paid off. I traveled around the world, gained advanced skills and had many wonderful opportunities. A week ago I told my previous manager about my job status and he replied, “I am really sorry things didn't work out with Pfizer - they don't appreciate what they are losing. I am sure things will work out as cream always rises to the top.” How sweet! ( I never knew how much he appreciated me until his farewell speech. He was always so tou...

Did you know? . . . A person has a better chance of maintaining a fitness routine if she or he not only address the physical aspects of being healthy, but also the mental and emotional aspects. Most of us go through life within our own little box. Unfortunately, there are days when the world of uncertainties enters, bad deeds of others are afflicted upon us, or that little voice inside of us starts talking trash. As a result, we fall into an unfortunate moment or negative thought and therefore, allow it, the situation or person to take control. What about comparing ourselves to others or wish we had something that someone else has. Overall, our self-esteem diminishes, we begin to have self-doubt and/or we give up on our goals. If you allow negative thoughts to consume you, you will believe it. If you believe it, you will become it. You must take ownership of your own actions and thoughts. You need to learn how to remain balanced during the ever-changing conditions around you. I remembe...

Regardless of the uncertainties in my life, I do my best to keep faith and trust that everything will turn out good at the end. It just has to, especially if you live your life being honest, good to others, kind, etc. Fitness Motivators Wins! To my surprise, a person decided to Trademark my company Fitness Motivators name and since July 2009, he finally convinced Go Daddy to take my website offline last February. I still remember the day when Go Daddy emailed me the notice and they even charged ME a fee for shutting down my website! It took ten days to try to resolve this with Go Daddy and the person without any luck. I had no choice but to transfer my website to another server and apply for a Petition to Cancel the Trademark. I also hired an Attorney to help counsel me as needed. After years of hard work, he actually thought he was going to take away what me and my team worked for and I was not going to allow that to happen. I created the Fitness Motivators name in 1988 ( I still rem...

This was my forth week of Pilates and it is getting better. I still have to do a workout on Pilates day because it is more like a stretch workout, but overall it is still nice. I feel as though I am gaining my flexibility back due to my long-term muscle injury and that is a great thing! In addition, this week I taught a Step class. It has been years teaching Step, so I mixed it up with plyometrics, aerobics and weights. The members were sweating horribly and I have to say, class was really intense! Yea!! Zumba and my z-box classes were awesome, too. Although, I did completely forgot an entire routine in Zumba! The class laughed and we moved on to the next song. It is nice teaching after all these years! It has been two weeks since I was told that my job was being eliminated, again. I expected it, but the reality sure does stink! At least I know it is not because of my performance (I was rated one of the highest in my group), but because of my duties. I hope that I will be able to ge...

Throughout the next several months, I will try other fitness class formats. I hope that I will be excited about one so we can add it to our Fitness Motivators class roster! Although we have xGravity a specialty, original class that the majority of our clients love, I decided that my first class would be Pilates (a small studio who teaches the authentic method of Pilates). I attended a Pilates introductory class a few weeks ago and today was my first official mat class of 10. The instructor/owner is extremely knowledgeable about Pilates, is why I chose her class. I hope she will be able to challenge me these next several weeks and we do more exercises in the class, with less talk. I notice that the majority of the women are much order than me and of average fitness level. I wonder if this is common in a Pilates class? Nevertheless, after my first class, I felt slightly elongated and relaxed with the few stretches that we did, but not as though I met my workout quota for the day. I...

My twin-sister recently lost her little dog Jasmine (on right) of 14 years. A client of hers emailed a story called A Dog's Purpose . Below are excerpts from it. It really makes you think and realize that life is too short to not enjoy life and not love the people in your lives as you should. People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life—like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?. . . Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Remember, if a dog was the teacher you would learn things like: When loved ones come home, always run to greet them. Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride. Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure Ecstasy. Take naps. Stretch before rising. Run, romp and play daily. Thrive on attention and let people touch you. Avoid biting when a simple growl will do. On warm days, stop to lie on your back o...

From my experience (and I am sure of many others) in the 1980s and early 90s, most aerobics classes were taught at such high impact during the duration of class the participants would leave with headaches, getting sick, or at the urge of getting sick. Little did these participants know their bodies were training at an anaerobic state which means the presence without oxygen when exercise intensity can no longer meet the metabolic demands of the muscles aerobically. Aerobic fitness on the other hand is where large muscle movement performed over a sustained period. The purpose of exercise is to help people become healthier and in return, live happier lives. Unfortunately, today there are still group exercise participants that believe the harder you exercise the better. They are under the impression that their bodies will not achieve results unless they endure pain or exercise to the point of fatigue. Let me be the first to tell you that you do not need to exercise at a high, continuous le...