A Life Of Gymspiration

Tomorrow is the big day! It's video shoot day! I said I wasn't going to blog until after it, but I'm feeling awfully inspired and bloggy tonight (I just made that word up). So here goes. This week was ROUGH to say the least. It was very taxing emotionally and sent me to a really dark place. I was thrown off early in the week by a conversation with someone who doesn't really know a lot of my history, but hears me talking about health/fitness stuff fairly often- because let's face it.... that's pretty much who I am these days. Basically, this person had asked me how much weight I'd lost and then the reaction was "really? that's it? The way you talk, it sounds like you weighed 800 pounds." Cue knife in the gut. Wanna twist it a little more? I found myself trying to justify everything. But the bottom line is that comment made me feel as if I'm just not good enough. That 40 pounds is nothing to be proud of. The challenges I've overcome

For those of you who have known me for some time you know that this journey has been a very long one for me. Though I have found so much success in my health and fitness efforts, you know that this was not my first attempt. Countless times before I'd attempted to lose weight. And failed. Fell flat on my face. So what was different this time? A few things. Most of the times before when I started it, my reasoning was ALWAYS for someone else. This time it was just for me. And I think this time, I was just ready for it. And it all just clicked. I knew what I had to do. The end. As I began my journey I made it a point to take a picture every week and put it on Facebook. It served as a journal, but also held me accountable. People could see my journey, struggles, successes, what have you. In doing so, people have told me that I inspired them. People I never even dreamed I would inspire. I have been so humbled on how I can inspire someone by just doing what I need to do to better myself.

I've said it before and I'll say it again right now. More likely than not, I will probably have to say it again in the future. I am not perfect. This is a journey and my journey will never be over. For me it started 28 months ago. I have learned a lot, made a lot of changes to my life, but by no means am I perfect. I stumble. A LOT. Old (bad) habits die HARD. In fact, I'm starting to believe maybe they never die. There has been A LOT of stress in my life lately. The healthiest way I deal with stress is getting it out at the gym. Fantastic! Have you ever slammed those medicine balls down on the ground as hard as you can 30 times in a row??? That's my favorite way to get rid of stress! With that being said, sometimes (though I really hate to admit it) I deal with stress by eating. And eating. And eating. I imagine that's how I got to where I used to be.* *Where I used to be. Found this picture of me from my college years. Woah. When I really focus on counting

I decided to switch things up a little this week. Usually I make one thing on Sundays and eat it for lunch and dinner throughout the week. But I have to admit, I've been getting a little bored with that lately. It seems I hit Wednesday or Thursday and I'm tired of eating whatever I've made, which typically means making poor choices. So I decided to make one dish for lunch and one for dinners. I suppose we will see how that goes. It did mean increasing my time spent in the kitchen today, but so worth it! This week I decided to try some new recipes- also because I tend to make the same 4-5 recipes and am also getting bored with those! :)  One of my all time favorite cookbooks. You can get it online, but I got this one at Barnes & Noble a few years ago before I'd ever even seen the show.  For lunch this week I will be having bbq pork sandwiches. I got the recipe in my Biggest Loser Cookbook. If you don't have this one, it's a must have. It has so many

I spent a good chunk of my morning discovering/catching up on fitness blogs. I get so excited to know that there are other people out there on this journey. The two that I have recently discovered that I am most excited about are the following: http://cherierunsthis.com/  I found her back when I posted that football workout. I had just googled football workout and found hers and loved it. I follow her on Twitter and she inspires me DAILY. Her journey is amazing and I think y'all should go check out her blog. If she doesn't inspire you too.... well you may just be dead inside. ;-) http://www.theleangreenbean.com/  I actually discovered her through the above blog. Funny how that works, huh? ;-) She is 27, got her degree in psychology and became a pre-k teacher. Sound familiar??? Her career in pre-k didn't last long as she found it wasn't for her, but she went back to school and is on her way to becoming a Registered Dietitian. So great. She has a program called Foodie