This is one of my fave all-time quotes.

If you’ve been around here for a while, you know why.

If you’re new here, let’s catch up you a little.

I’m a TeamBeachbody Coach and have been for almost 4 years.

I’m actually currently a “plus-size” TeamBeachbody Coach.

And, in all honesty, in a place in my life I can proudly say that.

However, a year ago, I did not wear that honor well.

In fact, I was such a hot mess I couldn’t see anything for what it was worth in my life. And, I was letting my plus-sized-ness start to paralyze me from what I had set out to do to help myself heal and help support others along the way.

You can read more of the story here and here but my life has been a history of yo-yo dieting and yo-yo weight loss. I’ve tried every “diet” under the sun ~ many many pills, wraps and quick fixes ~ spend thousands on gym memberships and at-home equipment like treadmills, ellipticals….even some “amazing breakthru” ab belt that was supposed to do ALL THE WORK for you once you strapped it on and sat down and get you rock solid abs AND more. #asif

So, when I found coaching, it was like a lifeline.

It was FINALLY something that WORKED!

For less than my cell phone for one month, I invested in my health (and sanity to be honest) to get going with a fitness program and I used a superfood nutritional shake monthly which I never truly had to pay for (part of the awesome rewards we get as coaches) but would’ve PAID way more in a heartbeat for what it did for me. I spent the next year-and-a-half surrounded by awesome and amazing coaches and clients who pushed me and helped me stay accountable and I went on to lose upwards of 40 lbs.

And, then my life took a not-so-litte detour. You can read about it HERE.

But, in the end, it’s not really important what happened or what didn’t happen in the middle of my coaching journey.

What’s important right now is RIGHT NOW.

I said in my last post that I can’t use the excuse of feeling like a crazy person and gaining weight be my story on why I didn’t and why I ultimately can’t succeed now.

I have the same tools, resources and rockstar people surrounding me as I did when I first got started with this…plus a bunch more rockstars who joined along the way.

And, because of that, I can finally say with pride that I’M A FREAKING PLUS-SIZE BEACHBODY COACH. I honestly don’t even really break the mold by being this because honestly coaches come in all shapes and sizes and ages. However, I’ll be straight up that I had a vision in my mind of the example I wanted to be as a coach and I was not living up to that vision.

And, you know what? That’s OK. I may not be the picture perfect vision I had for a while in my head. But, I’m embracing where I’m at RIGHT FREAKING NOW. I’m gonna boldly and proudly say that I have earned this body….because I have!

And, because I love my body, I’m gonna keep pushing and honoring it the best I know how.

AND, because that means being the best, most healthy and strong version of myself I can be…..

I’ve decided to commit to a new OLD goal of mine.

I share this part of my story to be vulernable with y’all and to show you that if I can do this literally ANYONE can do this.

I’m making it a goal to compete in and rock a bikini/fitness competition next June.

NOW, if you’ve been around here for a while, you know I’ve set out to do this before.

You likely know I set out to do this TWICE before.

If you’re new here, I’ll be straight up with y’all I FAILED at this not-so-little goal miserably….twice before.

I don’t like to say I failed at something because in my eyes, as long as I do my best and am out there TRYING, I’m not failing.

But, unfortunately I literally stopped trying the times before. I gave up. I didn’t go after what I wanted after the moment passed.

But, I wanna be the one to tell you to give yourself some freaking grace if you’ve set out on a goal and got lost along the way….even….no ESPECIALLY if you’ve gotten lost more than once

‘cuz you know what?!? It doesn’t matter how many day 1s you’ve had. It doesn’t matter how many times you fallen. It doesn’t matter if no one else in your life supports you or understands it.

If you have it on your heart to do something, you can have as many day 1s as it takes! If you fall 7 times, you can get up 8. And, all you need is YOU and that little voice in your head being your best friend instead of your worst enemy.

We have ONE life to live and I’m of the belief that you can look different, have to fight harder, be the underdog and still somehow still succeed and maybe even get MORE out of it because you had to work harder for it! Who cares if people roll their eyes at your dream! Who cares if your haters make fun of you behind your back! Who cares if you zig-zag and roller coaster your way there….as long as you GET THERE?

I think we have this idea in our heads of what success looks like but have you ever since this??

I’ve been inspired by many amazing women along the way and my most recent #girlcrush and bikini inspiration is miss Kyra. I’m hoping to do an interview soon and share her amazing story with y’all but she was exactly whose story I needed to hear to commit to this yet again!

She shared her heart on a team call a few weeks ago and I’d already been thinking I needed to try this again. It wasn’t easy for her but her heart and passion for doing what she did TOTALLY inspired me. She even talked about how she still had insecurities and battles to fight after losing 80 lbs. It just goes to show that it’s not about the scale! It’s about what’s within, growing from the inside and how a part of us will always have to fight hard to remember who we are!

And, I know it won’t be easy for me. But, I think if I don’t do this, I’m always gonna look back on it as something I wished I would have.

And, gotta also give some love to these two inspirations! They have also played such a huge role in my going after this!! All of these amazing ladies have achieved their results with Beachbody programs AT HOME!!!! Meet Stacy & Kailin! You can click on their pics to go to their pages for more inspiration 🙂 Kailin even pushed play on Insanity and continued on her journey after reading an email from her husband that was deployed that he wanted a divorce. That video is below and I’ve watched it many times whenever I need a little motivation to #pushplay. My heart hurt so bad for her! But, what she did that day is a true testament to the human spirit!

So, there ya have it!!!

I WILL beat her.
I WILL trainer harder.
I WILL eat cleaner.
I know her weaknesses.
I know her strengths.
I’ve lost to her before,
but not this time.
She is going down.
I have the advantage.
Because I know her well…
She is the OLD me.

Have you ever seen the quote “My kids are my reason, not my excuse” when it comes to finding the time to exercise?

I think all us moms out here can relate to how much our lives changed after kids. Of course our lives became even more amazing 🙂 But, our time was no longer just OUR TIME. And, I totally admire the moms who are “plus1” in the kid department. How y’all get it done every dang day impresses the crap outta me. I have the 1 kid and some days I STILL don’t get it “all” done.

Let’s take a pause to talk about my kid 🙂
If you’re new here, this is my B 🙂
(We were camping for the weekend and she was SO excited that she found me a heart rock ‘cuz she KNOWS how much I love hearts 🙂 )

Ok, and I just have to share one quick story 🙂 This was from just last night 🙂 She is 100% tom-boy & 100% girlie-girl. She loves to get dirty and ride 4-wheeler and legos and climbing trees. She’s also OBSESSED with dolls and “real babies” and watching “real baby videos” on YouTube and Shopkins and her friends and has her own unique fashion sense and a collection of scarves larger than I have. So, last night, she was climbing on our 4-wheeler and fell off and totally scraped up her back on the step on the way down. She wouldn’t cry. And, didn’t want us to look at it. But, after we finally did see it and trying to hold back my expression of how bad it looked, I told her, “You’re my tom-boy girlie girl aren’t you?” To which she said, “No, Mom. I’m just a girl who gets hurt a lot.” (Her legs and arms would prove that point lol! Kid has more scrapes, bumps and bruises than I ever remember having!) So, realizing that she didn’t like me calling her a tom-boy, I simply said, “Well, you know one of the things I love the most about you? You’re not afraid to take chances.” “No, Mom. I’m not” with a proud grin on her face. Ahhhhh, my wish is that she never loses that.

Ok and now back to reasons….

I did have to take ownership of those days where I don’t…..get it all done.

It’s rarely on her.

It’s almost always on me.

So, when she was very little, I realized that I could either use her as my excuse as to why I “just didn’t have the time” to take care of myself by exercising and eating right and growing from the inside OR I could use her as my REASON to do all those things.

She is FAR from an excuse. She IS my reason.

She has been my reason for so many things……

For wanting to stay home with her the full 3 months of maternity leave….even if I didn’t get paid for all the time I took….and even if my husband kept trying to say it was a vacation. (insert eye roll right MOMS??) I wanted that time to bond with her. I wanted that time to enjoy and revel in the miracle and let’s be real…..to get some sleep (STILL not a vacation dad) lol.

For wanting to work hard to advance my education and my career to better provide for her….and then for wanting to think outside the box with coaching and writing to earn enough of an income to provide security AND freedom for our family.

And, like I said, for wanting to focus on my health and vitality to make sure that not only would I be around to watch her and her children grow up but I would be the strongest version of myself I could be along the way.

Which brings me to where I’m at in my health journey and being as strong as I can for her and for me…..

About a month ago, (yes, my dang blog editor has been down for weeks again!…and I have no idea what changes and all the sudden it will work again! grrrrr) I shared a post about a crazy health discovery. You can read about it HERE if you haven’t already.

And, I’ll be sharing more of my story as I overcome and reclaim my health.

But, I’ve been doing a lot of self-reflection since the discovery about my IUD and I just had to share this.

I mentioned in the last post that I’d been dealing with a lot of health issues but I wanted to be a bit more vulnerable and real with y’all.

I haven’t officially been diagnosed with PCOS. I’m praying the Mirena didn’t cause it….and that ultimately I don’t have it. I will be following up with my OBGYN for the next few months and hopefully finding more answers. But, she did say I have symptoms of a “PCOS-like metabolism”…..which, among other things, can likely result in weight gain and weight loss resistance and is correlated with anxiety and depression, among many other challenging things.

It was a hard pill to swallow when you’ve been on a weight loss journey and worked so hard to become stronger emotionally AND you’re a health & fitness coach trying to lead by example.

I started coaching in late October 2013. And, for the next year and a half, I rocked my journey! I was feeling amazing. I was in the best shape of my life. I was in even better shape than when I had trained for and ran my first half marathon. Things were JUST working for me. I wasn’t binge eating. I wasn’t perfect by any means and that’s not something I strive for but I was comfortable in my methods. I honestly felt like I was overcoming my depression and emotional eating and my weight. I got down to my lowest in years at 154 and was getting close to being in a size 6.

And, then the middle of 2015 hit.

The next two years would be a battle.

And, in the “end,” the better part of 45 lbs. would creep back on and I would feel more physically sick and more depressed and anxious than I had maybe ever before.

I was my heaviest just before and just after I had B in 2010 at 199 lbs. In 2014 I got down to 154 and honestly just FELT the best I had maybe in my entire life! By February of this year, I would be a little over the 200 mark and struggled with just about everything under the sun.

The thing is, I’m not gonna sit here and not take any ownership and blame it all on the Mirena. I believe in my heart, especially considering all the other side effects (if you read the post, the CRAZY PERSON part for one lol), it was in fact part of the reason. I had to work really hard to lose and when I would even have one or two not so good days, I could gain 8 lbs. And, mentally, I feel completely different than I did a month ago!

But, that’s just it….it was part of the reason….it can’t be my excuse.

Because I’m here to tell ya, if you let something negative be your story, IT WILL BE YOUR STORY. If you hold onto it, it will ABSO-FRICKIN-LUTELY HOLD YOU BACK. What you focus on grows.

So, just as my little B is a reason to simply love and believe in myself, this setback and my reality of what has happened is SIMPLY A REASON TO WORK HARDER. If, in fact, I do have PCOS, it doesn’t have to be the reason I don’t succeed. If I live every day telling myself I have PCOS and I can’t lose weight, that will be my reality. If I live every day telling myself I’m depressed and anxious, I WILL BE DEPRESSED AND ANXIOUS.

The words and the stories we tell ourselves have such strong, amazing power over us!

SO, I’m rewriting my story and changing my words. I just had a few bad chapters. But, those chapters don’t have to define me. This “thing” that happened doesn’t have any power over me. I truly feel what we believe we achieve.

And, that can work either for you or against you.

It’s been working against me.

It’s time to get my story working for me again.

It’s time to start telling myself that PCOS can kiss my buttuski. It’s time to start telling myself that I’m actually not depressed and I can keep focusing on growing in my Faith instead. It’s time to start using the 5 Second Rule to tell my anxiety that it doesn’t live here anymore.

(Let’s take another PAUSE. What’s the 5 Second Rule?!? It’s a GREAT book but you can also learn about it with this TedTalk by Mel Robbins! So worth time! I’ll be talking more about it!!)

And, a bit more frivolous note, I’ve had the goal of getting into a bikini before and I’m recommitting!! I get to go to the Riveria Maya next April on a coach reward trip and I’ve made it my goal to be rockin’ a bikini!

I’m gonna hang that baby up and look at it every damn day as a reminder of my goals.

But, it’s really not about the freaking bikini.

It’s about proving to myself that I can. It’s about recognizing my setbacks and my limits but not letting them have power over me.

I’ve been feeling like a new person this past month! Most all of my symptoms that were at times debilitating have almost completely vanished!! (The only really lingering struggle I seem to have is the fatigue but it’s getting better!) And, my body has released almost 10 lbs without me making any changes.

And, I’ve honestly just taken this time to enjoy my family and friends and camping and ate and drank whatever I wanted. But, I decided the real work begins now. Yes, I feel good and I’m so so thankful to finally be able to say that. But, I know I can feel even better!!

Over the past few days, I just feel like someone up above is trying to remind me of something.

In church on Sunday, the message was about life and pain. While pain is unavoidable, it does serve a purpose. It makes us grow. It makes us stronger. And, as I’ve talked about, it doesn’t have to define our lives.

Life will knock you down. You don’t have to stay there.

And, I just started a new fitness program yesterday that is NEW to the world and the trainer is absolutely amazing. The guy literally cried when he stepped out onto the stage at Coach Summit last week in New Orleans and many cried with him. I’ve listened to his heart several times since….once during a live workout with him in New Orleans. Seriously guys, this trainer knows how to pull at your heart strings and strengthen your mind with his words! At one point during the very first workout yesterday, he said, “It’s never too late to reinvent yourself!”

You’re never too old, too young, too broke, too scared, too stuck, too ANYTHING to take a chance on something that’s on your heart to go do.

So, I’m listening!

I COULD sit back and just enjoy feeling normal again. I COULD just see how much more weight I could lose without really trying and wait for my body to regulate itself on its own. I COULD tell myself that I just don’t have the time.

OR, I COULD push my limits again! I COULD make the choice to do the hard thing. I COULD freaking EAT like I love my body and help turn things around even faster! I COULD forego that instant gratification that results in long-term pain. I COULD make the time. And, I COULD use my little as a REASON yet again.

I think I’ll go with the latter!

I share my journey here and on social media as a way to stay accountable and in the hopes of making someone smile or inspiring someone to make a change they’ve been wanting to make but just haven’t had the courage. I am blessed to use this platform as a way to heal, but I don’t share because I’m special or any different than anyone else. But, because I truly believe God put sharing my story on my heart to do. And, I want to listen. So, when I had to share a new “Day 1” yet again in my journey yesterday, it was freaking hard to do!! I didn’t WANT to do it!! And, I couldn’t help but ask myself, “How many day 1s are you gonna have girl?!?”

Guess what my answer was?!

“As many as it takes!”

“She remembered who she was and the game changed.”

~Lalah Deliah

HEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY strangers!!

It’s sad I had to look back at the last time I blogged.

It was the middle of March!!

I’ve missed it….without a doubt. But, truth be told, I’ve been struggling to find my words. I was stuck in a pattern of thinking I had nothing of value to say but I didn’t really know why.

And, the longer I went without blogging…..the easier it was not to blog.

Ha, isn’t that just the thing about life?! Once you go a few days without doing something….even sometimes the things you love doing….it’s easy to let the days turn into WEEKS….the weeks turn into MONTHS…hopefully not YEARS but that happens, too! (I see and hear this with exercise ALLLLLLL the time too btw ~ especially when people start out with something they don’t love OR they don’t see immediate results! Instead of trying something else, they give up. And, instead of practicing a little patience, they give up when they don’t see results.)

And, as with exercise, welllllllll……as with ANYTHING really….it’s never too late to get back in the saddle again! AND, instead of shaming yourself or feeling guilty for getting a little lost or for failing at a new goal, just decide to rise again!! Reflect on WHY it didn’t work. Reach out to an expert or a mentor or sometimes just even a FRIEND. Set NEW goals. Find a different way.

What’s helped me rise again to the challenge of writing and sharing my story…..well, sharing more of my story than the few blips on Facebook and IG from time to time?

I reflected. I reached out. I recognized I made mistakes in my approach. I learned from said mistakes. I set new goals. AND, I found a different way!!!!! (Now, all this pertains to my life in general in the past several months….but first to share about blogging again.)

Last week, I met with a blogging expert recommended by Jen Hatmaker, Micah J. Murray. (Where are all my Jen lovers?!?! She rocks my socks off, and if you’re a Believer and not following her, you totally should 🙂 You can follow her here!) So, I’m not surprised someone she recommended would TOTALLY help turn this whole blog-ship around! (His name is Micah and if you’re looking for an awesome workshop to help you blog or for a 1-on-1 to help you find your voice, I would definitely connect with him!!)

When he asked me what I wanted to focus on for our call, I immediately starting talking about feeling like I lost my voice. After some probing questions about how often I blog, the goals I had set and about the overall look and layout of my site, he had some incredible insight to WHY in fact I was stuck.

Last October after attending an annual conference for administrative assistants, I made it a goal to blog every day. We had just witnessed a presentation by an amazing artist who had committed to writing a new SONG every day for a year. I was like, DANG, if this guy can write a new SONG every day, surely I can write a blog post every day. I wanted to do my part to change the world…if even just a little…every day.

I did pretty well going after that new goal and I was loving writing. Did I FEEL like writing every day? No. But, for the most part, I enjoyed it….I was finding the words to say what I wanted to say….and I was doing it. UNTIL my blog was the target of a hacker. I still don’t know a lot about being hacked ~ why they do it and what they gain from it. I’m guessing it was purely random and coincidental my site was targeted BUT I can tell you that the expense of fixing it and knowing they had access to the INS of my site felt very violating. My site was down and up and up and down for weeks and honestly there are STILL remnants of what happened. And, I spent hundreds of dollars paying experts to clean and protect it. I made the mistake of not researching what I needed to have to be protected. And, it not only cost me a lot of money and time to fix but it seriously took the wind of out my writing sails.

The next mistake I made was my goal of publishing a blog post every day.

I hadn’t really looked at it like this but Micah opened my eyes to the fact that it’s REALLY challenging to have enough creative energy to keep up with that kind of blogging schedule. And, given I work full-time and have a side hustle as a wellness coach, in addition to focusing my family and friends, it was simply too lofty of a goal. My new goal is 1 to 2 times a week 🙂

And, since I’m human (remind me to tell y’all a little story about B and “humans” lol), I spent the better part of a month and a half until I chatted with Micah feeling down on myself for falling again…..for failing at a goal I set.

It’s taken me a while but I’m finally ok with failing at that goal. Because I now recognize the goal was just too big. I’m ALLLLLL about setting big goals and stretching myself….BUT this one just wasn’t a goal that was good for me or for my family in the season that we’re in. And, once I accepted that, I could let go of that feeling of failure.

The last thing that Micah believes has been holding me back is my online space. I had described just not feeling like my site was HOME to me anymore. It was almost like I felt like a stranger writing on it. I think this started to get worse after the hack….but I’d been feeling even before that that it just doesn’t show who I really am. It’s not bright and bold and honestly….there’s simply not enough PINK!! lol. When I first envisioned my site, it had a LOT of pink and colorful images and made you smile just to look at it (probably too much pink…..as if there’s such a thing)….but in the initial design, the developer was trying to incorporate pink and teal and black all together and it was just too much….I ended up saying no, let’s scale down….and then she recommended teal. ANYHOO, long story short, pink is my jam if you’re new around here 😉 So, I have a new design to be in the works soon…..WITH a new name and everything!!

AND, I have some exciting news about the new name!! I’ll be hosting a little reinventing my blog contest!! I MAY just end up using my name (that’s what many experts recommend). BUT, I’m just not sure that’s what I want to do! I want something that is fun and POPS and has ME written all over it….without just saying my name lol. And, I’m totally gonna be giving away prizes for submissions that make the top 10 and a grand prize if I end up choosing a name that’s submitted!! Stay tuned for more deets on how you can help me reinvent my blog!

AND AND after all the help I received from Micah….I was going thru to approve comments from previous posts and I found this! It’s not to toot my own horn but I more wanted to share it because I think we ALL wonder from time to time if we are making a difference…and honestly, it just made me feel really good. As I’ve said before, if I’m making a difference and inspiring even ONE person with my story, it’s more than worth it to me. And, from day 1, my blog has been about healing myself thru my writing and it’s been a long road but the awesome, amazing news is that it has been helping me heal….in part because of messages like this.

“Dina,
Thank you for sharing your story. You are a very talented writer; one who makes you “feel” as the reader. That’s a gift, and you’ve got it! I love the inspiration I get every time I read one of your blogs or posts!
You are beautiful because of who you are!” ~Corena 

I think my favorite part of it is “you are beautiful because of who you are.” 

For far too long, I thought the only way to be beautiful was to be…….welllllll, I honestly didn’t think I could be. I just wanted to be someone else…..anyone but me. I didn’t think I had any gifts. I wanted to look and act and think and be gifted like “someone else.” And, I found my worth in the validation of others….

Well, the truth is, I’ve always been my own kind of beautiful because….I’M ME!!! And, I’ve always been worth because I’m His!!! This blog and my journey as a coach have helped me realize that!

And, guess what, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL BECAUSE OF WHO YOU ARE, TOO. Plain. And. Simple. We each have our own unique gifts and it’s a FREAKING shame if you’re not sharing yours with the world. Maybe you don’t know what they are yet….but I can guarantee you you have them. You just have to dig deep and FIND THEM and THEN most importantly have the courage to go share them with the world. And, the next time you wanna try tell yourself anything but, JUST STOP. Start talking to yourself like you would your best friend. Would you ever tell your best friend they’re unlovable? Fat? Not pretty enuf? Not smart enuf? That they don’t have any gifts???

No.

So, why would you say those things to or think that of yourself?

Start acting like you are your best friend….because you are.

And, if you’re out there wanting to be someone else…..wanting to have someone else’s success and talents…..wanting someone else to validate your worth, JUST STOP.

Don’t waste another minute wanting to be or look or think or do like anyone but YOU!!!! Everything you need is already inside.

And all this leads me to rest of the story…..(can anyone hear Paul Harvey’s voice?!? if you’re young, you probably don’t even know who Paul Harvey is lol)

If you’re new around here, you maybe don’t know that I have fallen and got back up over and over and over again. And, you know what? That’s partly still my story but it doesn’t have to define me. It’s STILL freaking ok. It was OK that last time I fell. And, it’s STILL freaking OK!!

Why?

Because life happens.

And, because I will rise every time.

These past few years have been really hard. From debt to my marriage to my Faith to my health to my family.

As most of you know, I blog mostly about my health & fitness & personal growth journey. And, to try to write about what I’ve been going through is hard but I also know that we grow through what we go through and if this part of my story can help someone else, AGAIN it’s more than worth it to me to share.

As I write this post, I’m at the highest non-pregnancy weight I’ve ever been. And, while I will say all the time, it’s not about the weight you lose but the life you gain, I have to be honest that it’s hard to have my first blog post back in several months be in part about how I’ve gained weight and haven’t been owning my life. What makes it EASY is because of what I said above….we grow through what we go through. And, I have grown even stronger on the inside.

Yes, my weight has yo-yo’d yet again. I did a detox in February into March and despite some ongoing health issues I physically felt the best I had in months. But, I still didn’t feel GOOD….I didn’t feel right. I lost a little over 14 lbs. and 17 inches. And, to be completely transparent, I’ve gained all it of back plus about 5 lbs. It’s hard to admit that. It’s hard to say I “failed” again. Yes, it’s hard because I’m a health & fitness coach promoting a healthy, sustainable lifestyle change and I seemingly can’t figure out my own! BUT, more importantly, it’s hard because….I’m human.

I’ve experienced a LOT of “God things” as I like to call them since February. I will be blogging more about them but some things and opportunities have come into my life that I just KNOW were meant to to help me find the answers I’ve been searching so desperately for.

I’ve been fighting health issues for the better part of two years now. And after quite a bit of doctoring and money spent last spring, I kinda gave up trying to chase something that I felt was elusive. I didn’t give up on ME and kept trying a variety of things I would find through research on my own. But, it’s almost like I gave up on feeling normal again. I kinda resigned myself to the fact, well this is just how I’m gonna feel I guess since they just can’t find anything. Well, I reached a breaking point recently where it just wasn’t acceptable to me anymore and I got back in a more proactive role of trying to find out what’s wrong! After I starting gaining the weight again and was really paying attention to all the strange things happening with my body….even issues with my vision….I got back to the drawing board and started to take ownership again. I scheduled an appointment with my OBGYN because I’m starting to think many of my issues are hormonal and I started to become more of a detective with my health and specifically my nutrition. I’m not following any certain nutrition program with a set meal plan and a guide on when and what and how often and how much to eat. I’m making my own decisions but with the guidance of one of the most influential mentors in my life, Chalene Johnson. And, I feel the most hopeful and excited I have in a long long time.

No, the most important thing in life is NOT your weight. BUT, one of THE MOST IMPORTANT things in life is your BODY. You have one body and one life, right?!?

I have a long way to go again to regain my health and my body, but rest assured I AM GOING TO. I’ll be sharing more as I go through this next new exciting season!! Stay tuned….

And, I’ll leave you with this…..

We fall. We rise.
We make mistakes. We live & learn from those mistakes.
We’re HUMAN. We’re not perfect.
We’ve been hurt, but we’re still here.
We can choose to live….to breathe….to think….to enjoy…..TO FIND JOY….to chase the things we love.
Sometimes we will be sad, but for every moment of sadness there are more moments of beautiful.
We need to just keep putting one foot in front of the other….even when we hurt, even when we are sad, even when we feel lost….because we know that often the MIRACLE is JUST around the bend….just on the other side of the pain and sadness….and we don’t want to be the ones who quit just before the miracle.

Hey! I’m finally finishing a blog post! I blogged some this past week but I didn’t finish any of them lol! The first part of the week I just didn’t feel good. In fact, days 2 through 5 of my 21-day detox I felt like I had the flu. So, most evenings, I just listened to my body and rested.  The guide says days 3 through 5 are commonly the toughest. I sure hope that’s the case. Day 6 was great! We had a good day as a family with church and just relaxing. And, I just felt really good! Today was a challenge, as I think I’m moving into the emotional release phase. I’ll be sharing about that in another post but let’s just say the human body amazes me!

My plan is still not to weigh until the end but this is me before I started and below 6 days in.

My bloating is so so much better! I’m noticing a lot of positives! Which makes staying the course much easier.

The planning and food prep hasn’t been bad at all and the best thing is it’s making me get back into the groove of meal planning and prepping every week! And, B is having fun helping me get things ready. I will definitely be having some of the meals on a regular basis! Like this microsalad! It’s DELISH! And, HUGE! I’ll also be sharing in another blog post some of my fave recipes so you can try them!

And, this southwest taco with homeade quac/pico 🙂

Ha, and just a few of the temptations at work!

I was frequenting that candy jar way too often for way too long lol! But, this no sugar thing is legit!

I’ve also given up coffee FOR NOW lol. I guess I never like to say never but I just don’t think I’ll be giving up coffee for the long-term. And, I’m realizing how many shirts and memes I have saved that are about coffee!

My other temptation this week was going grocery shopping while I was hungry. I waited too long in between breakfast and lunch on Saturday and then had to make a grocery run for raw pumpkin seeds (these toasted for 10 minutes and added to a salad are wonderful!) and a few other things I couldn’t get at our grocery store in town. So, it added an extra hour-and-a-half in between meals and I was HANGRY when I found myself HERE…..#notcool #notcool #iloveoreos (someone told me not too long ago that they don’t like oreos. I didn’t know such people existed 😉 )

She is my bright spot to keep pushing when things get tough…no matter what it is….even this 🙂 And, yes, we still have to have the car cart! She can barely get in and out but it’s still cool with me. I didn’t get a pic of her sprawled across the top this time but you can be sure she’s in & out & on top of this thing about 100 times in a trip lol.

And, my inspiration board helps, too 🙂

So, tonight I’m finishing my first week! I’ll admit I’ve had several times this past week wondering if I can do this for 21 days. But, whenever I’m struggling, I reach out to my accountability partners in this! There are 4 of us doing this together and I don’t know where I’d be without their support and encouragement! We’ve been sharing struggles and successes as we go and it’s been so helpful to get perspective from others.

And, on that note, our team’s next accountability group, The Sisterhood Challenge is kicking off March 6th! Making a change or starting something new is so much easier when you have support from peeps doing and fighting for the same thing! Like I said above, I’m not sure I could have been as positive and focused on this phase if it weren’t for my partners! If you’re ready for a change or just ready to push yourself to the next level, you should totally fill out this form so we can connect more and see if this would be a good fit for you and your goals! And, I like to focus on mindset and personal growth in groups and not just spending 21 days together talking only nutrition and workouts 🙂 I totally feel like groups just like this have helped me find go get my inner little girl who wasn’t afraid of anything! AND, special free offer for any new client who joins me by tomorrow evening ~ A FREE ROKU streaming stick ~ which is a $50 value to be used for the challenge BUT it also works for Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and more! #thesisterhoodchallenge #sisterhood #letsgogether