My Journey To Ultimate Fitness

This blog is for my friends, family and anyone who wants to listen and follow me on my journey.

For those of you who know me, you know that I love pretty much anything that has to do with fitness. Being fit and keeping active makes me a better friend, mother and wife. Exercise for me, is a little break from the craziness we all call life. It’s a place for me to find a new start to a bad day or an excuse to get out in the sunshine. I LOVE working out! If I miss a day (other than my off day), I’m bummed. But…it wasn’t always like that.

Eight years ago my husband and I had our first child. I remember telling myself before I even got pregnant that I was NOT going to get fat. I found myself judging others who had gained weight and swearing that “I” wasn’t going to do that. I had promised my husband that I was going to continue to eat well and workout. Having struggled with my weight for as long as I could remember, I just wasn’t going down that path.

Well…as many of you know…what we say and do can often be two totally different things. I started off with a small weight gain that was quickly followed by the attitude that “I would just deal with it later.” My big plan became to take it all off once I had the baby. So I ate and ate and ate. I ate all they way from 175lbs to 220lbs being the last time I chose to look at the scale. I was in such a state of denial about how easy it would be to get all that weight off!

You see the problem with eating poorly, even for a short time, is that you create some really bad habits. Habits suck and they’re so had to break! When Lexi was about 6 months old, I had to go back to work and that really helped. It helped to just get out of the house and away from the food. Part of the habit I had created, was eating for no reason. If I was bored…I ate! If I was tired…I ate! If I was still bored…yep you guessed it…I ate some more! By the time Lexi was a year old I had gotten most of my weight off. I was lucky, I was young and my body actually bounced back pretty well.

About 2 years later I was pregnant with our second child, Grace. I did the exact same thing with my second pregnancy. However, things didn’t quite bounce back with round two. I tried and tried AND tried, but nothing seemed to be working. You see those bad habits I had created years ago just wouldn’t let me go. I would do really good for a few months and then totally fall off the wagon. Until about 2 years ago…

Two years ago I did my first triathlon. I was asked by my little sister (who is 10yrs younger than me) to do the Coeur d’Alene Triathlon. I remember her saying, “You can do the duathlon, it’s a shorter distance and no swimming.” Ok, so I was over weight, but still quite competitive and I wasn‘t doing less than my little sister! My response…“If I do it, I’m doing the whole thing!” I guess this is the part where I say thank you to my sister Alyssa, because that day has changed the course of the last two years of my life.

So I headed back to the gym. I got a new pair of running shoes and started running again. I bought a new bike and fell in LOVE with cycling. I quickly found myself headed back to the life style I once had lived and loved.

So where am I now and why am I writing this blog? I have just completed my Personal Training Certification and I’m currently back down to 179lbs. The last time I checked I was at 28% body fat, which is still too high. But I’m working my butt off and I have a goal AND I will reach that goal by summer! I am determined to make this year one of the best years of my life! My goal…to be my personal best and to help others do the same.

Last week I went on a little journey. I went in search of ways to help others get to where I am. I spend a lot of time training and so many people ask how I do it. The number one complaint is that there just isn’t enough time in a day, especially when you’re a Mom. Trust me, I get that! I also realize not many people want to ride their bike for 2 or more hours or go on long runs like I enjoy. So I went on a mission to find something that everyone could do.

When I went on youtube.com and began to search, I found a program called Beach Body. Beach Body is the home of the famous P90X. I continued my search for women specifically. I swear, I looked around for about two hours! The stories I found were amazing. I thought it was so awesome that people were seeing true results. I’m not kidding you, put in P90X in a youtube.com search, you will be amazed! The most impressive to me was a gal named Barbie Decker. One word…AMAZING! Over the last week I have spoken with Barbie several times. Girlfriend is awesome and I have a huge respect for her, yet barely know her. Barbie has a passion very similar to mine. It began with the goal of fitness that lead to a love of fitness and a passion for helping others. After talking with Barbie I knew this was something I had to be involved in. I signed up as a Beach Body Coach two days ago so that I can coach and help others meet their goals.

For the next three months I’m going to be doing P90X along with my normal training. I will be eating from their nutrition plan and trying different supplements and the Shakeology shake that Beach Body offers. I’m making myself a test dummy. I’m taking the dreaded “before” pictures tonight and I promise to post updated pictures each month to show my progress. I’m going to do my best to blog daily with details about that day. I’ll share it all, both good and bad. So, follow me, I’m going to prove it can be done!