The Purpose of This Blog...

Sozopol, Bulgaria | Summer 2012

Hello! :)

Let me start my first blog by introducing myself. My name is Sonya Ruzheva. I am 30yo and live in sunny San Diego. For the last 6-7 years, I have been working in the Public Relations (PR) industry but prior to that, I was a professional Ballroom/Latin dancer and instructor for years.

Dancing was part of my life since I was a little girl and my mom took me to my first dance competition. I was so fascinated by the glamor of the dresses, makeup, bodies, and overall confidence of the dancers that I immediately asked to be enrolled in a dance school. So, from the age of 10, I was physically active on a daily basis, whether it was dance practice, show, or a competition. I never had to specifically think about exercising because I already was, just by doing what I loved so much.

When I made my career change and decided to enter the world of PR, I was faced with a dilemma.... how do I stay fit and active when I do not have an upcoming show or a competition to prepare for...I don't even have a dance partner anymore. I was still teaching dance occasionally but that just was not enough. Now what?!

For about a year, I did not know what do with myself, I just focused on finishing college and did not exercise at all. Well, I did not like how that made me feel physically at all. I knew I had to find a new way of staying active and taking care of my body. I started by taking Pilates classes and really enjoyed that. I felt like I could relate to it better because of my background in dance. Both share a similar focus of a strong core. Then, I thought I need to switch it up a bit and started taking group weight training classes. I really liked those and thought they were educational. But I was still "scared" of working out on my own with weights at the gym.

Then, I met my now-fiance, Miguel. He happened to be a professional athlete and someone who was also keen about staying healthy through fitness and a clean diet. Sharing that interest has been a huge plus to our relationship. He has taught me a lot about weight lifting and has completely changed my opinion about women and weights.

Since then, I have been trying to educate myself on what's best for my body. What is a clean diet? What is healthy? What exercises work for me and what don't. This brings me (finally) to the purpose of this blog. I often get asked about what I am doing to stay fit. What do I eat? What types of exercises I do? Well, this is what I am hoping to achieve with this blog. I will be posting healthy recipes that I make (there will be lots of protein in everything :) ) and also exercise/fitness tips. I will also do product reviews and share favorite fitness products. If there is anything in particular that you are interested in, please let me know and I will try to address it in my upcoming blogs.

I will also try to keep my future blog posts much shorter.