Louise is a Highland Hustle Instructor in Kirkcaldy …
I’ve been dancing since I was four years old. I just love it. Highland and tap were my passions and I danced all the way through my childhood.
At the age of 18, I did my Associate stage qualification with the British Association of Teachers of Dancing and loved teaching kids and going to various stage festivals around Scotland.
And despite a few niggling injuries, I was running classes and having great fun.But like many of us, life got in the way of my hobbies and fitness.
And by the time I’d hit my twenties, I wasn’t doing anything at all. I had put on loads of weight and my fitness had taken a tumble.
I was out of step.
But Highland Hustle changed all that for me. Louise
Highland Hustle is great because it has different intensity levels – so really suits any fitness level.
I still loved teaching but I was doing very little exercise – well none in fact and my weight was creeping up. I tried pretty much every diet out there and went to the odd gym class, but that only lasted a few short weeks and then I would get bored.
Then, two years ago, I saw a post about Highland Hustle on Facebook. I had always regretted not doing my teacher’s qualification in Highland dancing but after researching a bit further I thought “I would never be able to do it”.
That was a bit of a turning point for me because I then started to say to myself if I don’t change my lifestyle now I dread to think where I’ll be in a few years’ time.
So I bit the bullet and sent an email registering myself for the Instructors’ course.
I went along and really enjoyed it although I did debate with myself about whether I could do it justice. My biggest fear was having to demonstrate and talk at the same time without sounding really out of breath.
After a few weeks though I got the great news that I had passed and could start teaching classes.
I started instructing in September 2015 and am Highland Hustle Kirkcaldy along with Lorraine Milne.
You don’t need to have danced before either so it also suits anyone who wants to improve their fitness and have fun at the same time.
Three months in, I felt a lot better within myself and at the start of 2016 I joined Slimming World.
The news is that 18 months on, I have lost three stone in weight (which I have done with the support of Slimming World) but credit the changes in my life to Highland Hustle.
It has given me more energy, allowed me to instruct others which I love and now I am pushing myself to ‘up’ my intensity levels in terms of fitness.
It just shows what you can do when you make up your mind to make a change in your life.