Brooklyn readers: you should be happy that Fit Mama Sally Streets is staying fit and calm with Bikram. Mom to 2.5 year old Hazel, married to Mike, occasional make up artist and awesome blogger (Read her blog Make Face Beauty here and please check out her hysterical-and-informative Make Up TV here), Sally explains that when she falls out of her fitness habits, she may be a little difficult. Actually, she just comes out and says she would turn into a bitch. Let’s find out how this Fit Mama stays healthy, fit and sweet as pie.

Sally, what was your fitness routine like before you had Hazel?

I worked out regularly before Hazel. Definitely more than now, but also without any real science or schedule. I mostly did yoga on fit tv and dvds in my living room, or occasionally in class settings. Really, though, if you ever need advice on how to do anything on the cheap, I’m your girl! Back then, I lived in a building with a pool in Florida, so I’d swim as well, but I was never taught strokes so I’d just make something up using as many extremities as possible to get from one end of the pool to the other.

So, that’s completely changed now, right? I know you freelance as a makeup artist and blogger, but would you describe yourself as mainly a stay-at-home-mom?

I’m 90% mom and 10% makeup artist. This ratio varies month to month, but always leans heavily toward mom.

What challenges do you face in keeping fit?

The challenges for me are time and money. Since right now we don’t use outside childcare, I only get to a Bikram class once a week at best. Which is kind of ok since I really can’t afford more than $20 a week for yoga anyway, which is what each class costs. I would be really happy, though, if the ‘at best’ was turned into an ‘always’. When several weeks go by without a class, both my mood and body suffer.

What motivates you to workout now?

My main motivation to be a fit mama, is being skinny-fat. Especially since having my daughter, I can get skinny-fat quick, particularly in the area I like to call my FOBA (fat over baby area). Besides not looking toned, skinny-fat women also deal with diseases that would be helped by building strength, like osteoporosis and arthritis, the latter of which runs strong in my family.

I’m also an achy-painy person. If it’s not my hip, its my shoulder; if it’s not my shoulder, it’s my neck. I actually had occupational scoliosis, which was when I first discovered the power of therapeutic exercise for these aches and pains. I take a lot less Advil now!

And lastly, I find that without exercise I can turn into a bitch, just like the stupid cow who yelled at my daughter and I for riding our shared bike too close to her (like 5 feet away) a little while back. Uppity overly entitled Park Slope cow needs to get on a bike herself and get her negativity out. But I digress.

Indeed you do! 🙂 You mentioned Bikram yoga – is that your go-to for working out? Why do you gravitate to Bikram?

Yes, my wonder drug is Bikram – yoga using a set series of moves in a room heated to 105 degrees. It’s amazingly therapeutic. It tones and strengthens. It sucks all the surplus anxiety out. I also really really love the environment of the location right near me. It’s the first fitness experience I’ve had where truly no one gives a shit what they look like and everyone is supportive and relaxed. Last week one guy was taking class in his old gray Hanes underwear. An elderly practitioner has come to class there on crutches every day for 4 years. The women get totally naked in the changing room, which in America is really rare. Body image just doesn’t exist here. All that matters is how your body feels.

I will say that in the classes I’ve taken out of town this wasn’t necessarily true. The instructors were good, but the vibe didn’t warm my heart so much. In Southern Cali the room was filled with young hot girls and in Richmond, VA with middle-aged ex-military types. But still, I got what I needed out of each class regardless of feeling a bit self-conscious wearing as little as most do in class. For chicks that’s a sports bra and spandex booty shorts.

Bikram is a totally different bird to me than regular yoga. Not just because of the heat, but because of the focus on form. I’ve been to a lot of regular yoga classes, and while I still enjoy them and find them valuable, they never focus on making sure your body is perfectly aligned and the poses are done in a fashion that doesn’t cause injury like Bikram does.

Yes, to keep active between classes I love getting on the bike with Hazel. No money, no childcare necessary. During the warm months we bike all around Brooklyn to parks, playgrounds, classes, even doctors appointments. We’re always a little dirty, but we’re not the kind of gals to get uptight over a little ambiguous urban dirt.

You made the point that body image is not an issue in your Bikram class – do you think it would be an issue for you in another fitness setting?

Well, here’s the thing: I’m thin. I’ve been thin since I was an infant and my parents had to strap me into a carseat so I wouldn’t cause bodily harm to myself or others while they attempted to feed me. Now I love, love, love food, but it still has a depreciating value to me. I’ve had times where I felt like stress eating, or craved chocolate cake or something, but in general I don’t miss it or think about it if it’s not around, mainly because of negative associations involving tummy intolerance.

What kind of intolerance? Allergies?

Yes, I was allergic to a bunch of foods until I was 4.  My mom tells the story of touching a green bean to my lip and the lip itself becoming instantly inflamed. But on top of allergies, in elementary school I was hospitalized with gastroenteritis. Then in high school I started having IBS. So all in all, food has never been just fun and games to me. The IBS has continued to haunt me, ebbing and flowing with what’s going on in my life. Yoga definitely helps because the breathing and focus involved can slow down the hyper-active signals being sent between my brain and gut, which is what is happening in my body with IBS.