Staying Motivated...

To be honest, I have been in a real funk lately

and can’t seem to get motivated to exercise... yes, I still show up to my boot camp classes but only because my friends drag me and I am not giving my 100%. 

I am hoping these pinterest inspirations help...

Also, some very competitive friends & I decided to have a competition since we all have fitness goals to meet. We each put ten dollars in a pot and whoever loses the most inches at the end of July wins. It’s not a lot of money - we mostly want bragging rights. The only rule we have set is we have to influence each other to exercise and eat healthy constantly.

I am crossing my fingers, this friendly rivalry will push me to work harder in the gym.

Exercising is never ending - how do you stay motivated?

The Best Kind Of Fitness Goal

I was honored to be featured on Robin Dayer's Fitness Blog

I am happy to share that I have lot 27lbs and gone from a size 12 to a size 7!! The last time I was a size 7 was high school.  =)

I started this journey for many reasons----to lose weight prior to my big 30th birthday, to get healthy, to gain confidence, but most importantly to be an example for my daughter. I wanted to start living a healthy lifestyle, making fitness a priority in hopes that she would

follow my lead.

come over here and read about my journey.

I still struggle with eating clean - mostly on the weekends.

If you have any helpful advise or tips, please share!

Happy Friday!!

XOXO

Toad Suck Daze 5K

We had a “toadally” fantastic day in

beautiful downtown Conway!

Remember Here i made a new year's
resolution to run a 5K - i did it!!

Adrianna ran with me & i am SO proud of her.

We woke up this morning at 5 am got ready, ate breakfast so we would have some energy, and then we had to be at the track at 7 am (That's early)

Jeremy & Andrew are troopers they came with us.
my step-mother, Pam even got up super early to
cheer us on {cute signs and all!} - she is AWESOME! 
she waited on side of the road, to cheer as we ran past then she got in her SUV and drove ahead of us to
 cheer us on again!

Adrianna finished @ 32:28.33  & me @ 32:32.35

After the race, we went to Toad Suck Daze 
Andrew LOVED it!



Posing with the Toad Suck Queens

 Before heading back home, we relased
Andrew's toad "Big Foot"

Happiness

My AMAZING Trainer, Robin Dayer, sent me this email today and I had to share with you...

"My opinion is that you never find happiness until you stop looking for it" ~Chuang-tzu

This is so true---happiness lies within ourselves. No matter what external circumstances arise, we have the choice of how we make it. You choose to be happy or not. Bottom line.

In your quest for fitness, which should be never ending--it is a lifetime commitment because you are constantly making progress, always--------DO NOT fall into the trap of comparing yourself to others. We all have our own journey, our own limits, our own bodies. Its a slippery slope when you have an internal dialogue that sounds like this: "If I could look like her/him I would be so happy", " I am so out of shape and de conditioned, look at how many pushups he/she is doing", or the worst "If I would just loose 20lbs I would look fabulous and I will finally be happy".

Believe me, this is a slippery slope that only ends in one place---failure. You will quit before you even start.

Happiness and love of your own body and its marvelous capabilities lies within YOU. You wont be a happier person because you loose 20lbs. You will just be a thinner,
unhappy person (and NO, I can hear you
 right now, that is not better)!

Until you learn to accept your own body and love it for what it does for you EVERY WORKOUT, you will continue the awful cycle of negative and punishing thoughts during your workout, which only leads to failure and honestly will make your workout 10 times harder.

You are strong, healthy and beautiful! Repeat, repeat, repeat

back on track...

The holidays were wonderful but I must say I am rather excited to get back in my daily routine.
I won't lie... I enjoyed sleeping in late, eating junk food and wearing cozy pj's all day but it was making me feel sluggish.

***
I am happily back to my routine which consist of going to bed early {I need my full eight hours} waking up at 6 a.m. & drinking a cup of french vanilla coffee by 7 a.m. If I don’t follow this routine then my whole day is off.

Also, I jumped right back into my exercise routine.

{note to self, never take off an entire month again}

I train with Robin Dayer, she is tough but she gets results! It is amazing to me that it takes months to gain strength and endurance and then just a few weeks to lose it all.

I struggled as I made my way back into the fitness world after a LONG month break. The first week was horrible, I felt ill during the workouts, my legs and abs were hurting. My heart was racing and my breathing was labored. I wanted to quit but instead kept thinking of Robin's quote.
"Dont quit! Your already in pain. Your already hurting. Get a REWARD from it!"

I am struggling with cooking healthy too. Not only do I want to eat healthy but I want my family to eat healthy as well.
Jeremy & I both were raised on "comfort foods" and have no clue how to cook healthy... I finally found a promising website For the Love of Cooking  

Do you have any tried and true healthy recipes?
I would love for you to share
 

Survived...

...My first cycling class

I've wanted to try a cycling class for a while now. My regular exercise class was canceled so it was the perfect opportunity. I forced persuaded one of my co-worker into going with me.

It was INTENSE but we survived. We liked it so much we are both going back tomorrow. 

I think I am addicted... I burn tons of calories while having FUN! 

Any one else tried a Cycling Class?