One video, posted on Gwyneth Paltrow´s website "goop", almost twelve years ago, changed my life forever. Until then, I had never really considered to do any serious workout - but I had just stopped smoking and so I was desperately looking for inspiring ways to change my lifestyle.

As I did not want to get fat - like almost every woman, I always followed my mother´s advice: better dead than fat! - I had to refine my diet and also develop a fitness routine.

I had read about Tracy Anderson before, she was working out with Gwyneth Paltrow and also Madonna, and as many other trainers at that time, she became famous for working out with the famous.

But it was this video alone, that really did it for me. The next time I flew to New York, I booked a class and also a private lesson at her studio in Tribeca. And this was it. For the next ten years, whenever I touched American ground, I went back, every single day of my stay.

Got in shape, but more importantly, discovered a side of myself, I never ever had suspected, I called it: the Sporty Spice! That would not make me Baby Spice before, let alone: Posh Spice - I was more Brainy Spice, the funny one, maybe - everything beneath my neck seemed unimportant, if not: not excisting.

From then on: Leaving class or a private lesson in the morning, made my whole day. I became kind of addicted, fell in love with the excellent trainers, got a very different kick out of staying in New York or on Long Island, where there is another Tracy Anderson studio.

When we moved to Los Angeles for three months last spring, we chose a house in the Hollywood hills, also, because it was close to TA at Studio City. But, alas, the studio location was under construction, the other one in Brentwood just too far away for a daily commute.

So I chose another studio instead, downhill from our house at Santa Monica Boulevard.

But that is a whole different story.

(Pictures taken from Instagram, Video courtesy of goop.com )