I've lived in Southern California my whole life, inland, about 40 minutes from the coast. It was a really small town when I was growing up, a little bigger now, but then most people knew most people, which if you've ever lived in a small town then you know that can be a good thing or it can really set you back. Sometimes in life, we are judged by our very worst day. This has been my experience. And I used to let that define me.
I used to be pretty outspoken, and I had some BIG opinions that I wasn't afraid to share. But you know what, that isn't the most gracious attitude to have, and while I still struggle with it at times, I'm much better at being graceful now. The hard times in my life do not define me any longer, I'm super grateful to serve a loving and forgiving God!
I grew up in church. My mama always took my sisters and I. My dad didn't follow along until after I was grown, but watching him come to God has been one of the greatest joys. I have two younger sisters, much younger. And not that they didn't have a mom, our mom is nothing short of amazing, but I always felt very motherly with them. God gave me this gift of loving on people who are close to me, loving them hard. And that's what I strive to do with my family. Sometimes, I might even feel like I love my kids too much, anyone else struggle with wanting to solve your children's problems for them!?!?
I met my husband at 22 years old, we wouldn't date for another two years as we were both in relationships. Thank God that He had the will to make those relationships completely fail in a blaze of fire... seriously. And what I thought was one of the very worst parts of my life, that failed train wreck of a relationship, turned into an opening for Ben, my sweet husband, to come into my life. We have two beautiful children, Isabella and Nixon, and Ben has two sons, Daniel and Anthony. Being a step parent has called for me to use that gift God gave me to love on people. It hasn't been easy, what blended family would ever tell you it is? But it's been worth it.
So a little detail on my fitness journey! Let me start with, this is the last thing I would have ever expected to impact my life so profoundly. God has big plans, and we simply have no idea what He's working most the time!
To start, here's my transformation pictures from the very start of my journey, 2014. I didn't realize my body had STRENGTH! And I didn't realize that a fitness program could change more than just your figure.
So, the backstory... In May 2011, I had my daughter via emergency c-section. I gained 35 pounds during pregnancy. My c-section incision came open via medical error, so my recovery was very difficult. I am a huge breastfeeding advocate and it worked for us, so I nursed my daughter for 19 months and lost all that baby weight! Score! I really didn’t have to workout at all, or eat healthy. It just came off from nursing. But guess what happened, that weight came back with a vengeance once I stopped nursing. I found myself sitting around eating nachos, watching TV and avoiding any kind of workout, not even a walk! I was miserable for the next 18 months. I couldn't keep up with my child. I was just a big ball of unhealthy habits and was the heaviest I had ever been. The self loathing was fierce. And I was really good at pretending that I was happy. Really good. This is probably news to those closest to me. But I hated myself for being so tired all the time. For not wanting to do anything. I had slumped into a bit of a depression and it caused irreparable damage to many of my relationships. I became very sheltered. Not myself at all. I pretty much crawled in a hole. Anyone who wasn't in the inner most circle, those that I love deeply, I pulled back from. Still to this day, I would call myself an introvert, which was not always the case!
God works in mysterious ways! I won a tropical vacation for me and my husband and I needed to lose some weight for it! I tried some of the gimmicky diets out there, nothing worked. So how did this introvert chick who wanted a quick fix actually say yes to something new? Something that required actual work? Well, I was a people pleaser too! I hate to offend people (there's a painful backstory to that). And I totally offended a friend of mine who was a coach. She had been a coach for years. Always sharing her story, I had seen it a hundred times. She made a post that said "how can I help you with fitness?" And I commented that it would be nice to get free workouts, 30 minute workouts no less, so that I didn't have to buy a program from that Beachbody company. Uh, she was a coach for Beachbody. She explained that she used Beachbody programs as tools to bring health and fitness to people. The programs are amazing, results driven, and utilize a healthy blend of fitness and nutrition. I didn't know that! I didn't even know she was a Beachbody coach. I didn't even know what the heck a coach was. I thought coaches were just people who bragged about having a "beach body." Like they were somehow endorsed by this company as being perfectly shaped. You send in your pic and they say "yup, you look good." I hadn't taken the time to actually read her posts, I scrolled on by even though this friend meant something to me.
I was so EMBARRASSED, I felt so dumb, I asked for more information about her "challenge group" so as not to be such a jerk. I wanted desperately to prove to her that I wasn't such a jerk! It took a lot for me, I didn't have the $60 that I needed to buy a program, and there was no way I was trying that Shakeology stuff because I was literally shocked to my core when I saw the price. I sold a few things in a Facebook group and earned my $60 (stay at home mom, very little play money). And really the $60 to buy a program was NOTHING compared to what that group and that program gave me. The girl wasn't trying to sell me on anything, she was trying to give me a gift. And that she did. And the rest is history!
Sometimes God allows you to make an idiot of yourself to bring something better to you that you would never do on your own!
So, I bought this program and I entered that friend's challenge group... the program was 21 Day Fix and I learned how to eat right and exercise, and put in some work! I worked my booty off, literally! I tried the shake that I was so skeptical about, and learned that I was comparing it to a protein shake and it's NOT a protein shake! The cost? Nothing compared to what it is. I lost all that weight! And I was truly surprised at how easy it was once I actually did the right things!
Here's us on the beach on that tropical vacation!
My life transformation didn’t stop with just my body. Before I found the tools and support for my transformation, I was broken. Depressed, fatigued, trying desperately to find something to make me fulfilled. I felt like I had everything I always wanted, beautiful family with my amazing husband and children, but I wasn't ME. I wasn't on fire for life. My soul was longing for something. And it came to me in a form of fitness, which I NEVER would have expected! Fitness was probably the last thing I would have reached out for. But this program has since changed my fitness and my world!
I was looking for a way to earn income and stay at home with my daughter. My friend asked me to try coaching. I said no. I loved the program, sure. But a coach? No, no. That's not me. And she said something that I'm so thankful for... "try it for 30 days, go all in, share it with others, see what you think. Don't like it? Stop." Well, okay, I guess. I can hold myself accountable to keeping this new figure that I loved, get my discount on my shake that made me feel SO good, and try out this thing to get extra income as a stay at home mom. I didn't want to go back to work! I tried it, 30 days, all in, sharing it.
And there it was, staring me in the face, lighting a fire in my soul, health and fitness coaching, my new job! It was more than a job though... I had something to be excited about. I was talking with actual adults, about actual things that mattered. People were telling me I had changed their life by reaching out to them with these programs, thanking me. I was working on personal development, which Beachbody requires, well, strongly recommends, but remember I was all in! So I did it! I even picked up my Bible. It was dusty guys. Obviously my inner peace had left me because I wasn't focusing on my relationship with God. I never lost faith in God, I've always believed, I've always been a follower. But, I would say I lost my focus. I lost focus on Him. And I lost peace within myself.
But this opportunity made me ME again, whole, fun, inspired, great mom, great wife, great person. I wish that for you! Fitness doesn't mean you're going to look like a fitness model to adorn the cover of Shape Up or Men's Health. It means that you are going to feel healthy and fit from the inside out. I became a health and fitness coach and kept myself accountable while helping others realize their fitness goals. Such a magical profession I have! I took a huge leap and became a coach in effort to help others feel as I do! To share what has worked for me. I have always had a passion for helping people. But being a coach helps me to keep myself accountable to my fitness as well as my clients…’Cause let's face it, I'm a REAL mom, a REAL wife, and I have a real life. Being a coach has been a privilege. A true privilege that I've been allowed to share this gift with other people.
Fast forward to January 2016, pregnant with my second child. Some pregnancy complications sent me to complete bedrest until my son was born 4 months later. That has been my greatest challenge. Many things have happened in my life, some bad things, but nothing is ever as bad as worrying about your child. I was told he may die. And no he didn't, but hearing that has been the worst moment of my life. I prayed, but in those 4 months, I didn't feel like I was praying hard enough. I didn't really feel like I could. Was I worthy of a miracle? I prayed without ceasing. But my faith was shaky at best. I was worried. All the time. The worry consumed me. The what ifs consumed me. The worst possible scenarios consumed me. The depression was real. I couldn't work out, which honestly keeps my depression at bay, so I was a mess. I cried all day long. Everyday. Pretending I was okay. We had complication after complication, separate issues! It was not even one thing, it was multiple things. I couldn't let myself hope. I couldn't let myself name him. That's a scary thing, friends. If you've been there, or you're there now, my heart aches for you. This was a test of faith for me, a test of my trust in God.
Now, my son is here. He's beautiful. He's perfect. God gave me my miracle. I know I'm lucky. Some have not been spared. I know I've got to give this little boy everything. Everything.
So there it is, the big events that make up me. Some of it not so pretty. All of it forgiven by God's grace. And a couple of little miracles sprinkled in. I love the quote "we can live as if nothing is a miracle, or we can live as if everything is a miracle." I choose the latter. Choose joy my friends, we've been given a miracle every single day.
And my life now? A series of self reflections. Trying to be a better person every single day. Working on myself. Loving my coaching business and the opportunities that it's bringing me and my family. Focusing on the big picture, that I CAN have dreams, and they can be big! I'm worthy of living a passionate and fulfilling life! I'm worthy of living the way God wants me to live, with fire, with dreams, with purpose to spread His goodness by helping people find their own worth instead of just going through the motions. We only get one life. We can be scared, or we can be bold. Both fear and faith involve believing in something you cannot see. I choose faith.
My mission is to help other women who may be in the same RUT that I was! We can do this ladies! We can have a more meaningful life, we can be healthy, we can be amazing mothers, wives, women with dreams, goals, passion. We can have MORE for our lives.
My daily life... well, momming is hard. There, I said it. I love my children with a fire in my soul, but man, it's hard. It's thankless. It's not glamorous. It's long days followed by sleepless nights. It's a "coffee is REQUIRED" lifestyle. It means I always come, 2nd? No, more like 10th. It's trying to talk to your husband but feeling like you have Tourette's and distracting from the conversation every 32 seconds. It's having someone literally attached to you, always.
Now is it the most rewarding thing ever? Hell yes. Would I trade it for anything in the entire world, no way. Do I absolutely love being a stay at home and absolutely refuse to go back to work, uh yes! My children mean everything to me. I wouldn't want to miss a single moment. So I'm glad they are literally attached to me!
But I will say this, I'm so glad that I have my health business. It's something for ME. It actually forces me to get out of my introverted ways and talk to people. You guys, if I didn't have that, I would just be sitting over here in a little hole, 10th in line to everything! It forces me to eat well. Forces me to workout. Forces me to take care of myself. And when I say "force," this isn't a bad thing. How many people think talking to people, eating well, and working out is bad? No one. But how many introverts would totally shy away from these things if given the opportunity? Probably 90% of us. I would never talk to a soul!
The conversations I get to have with actual adults, about actual things that matter, thank you to my business for that! I look so forward to speaking with like minded people!! I look so forward to sharing my passion with people! And hearing their passions! And giving this GIFT of health and fitness to people who, without home workouts, wouldn't have another way to get it! Cause before I was introduced to this thing, I didn't EVER make it to a gym. I was a HOT MESS! I didn't have a passion, I didn't have a purpose, I sat in my hole, I didn't talk to anyone, I wasn't healthy (omg not in the least!) I was wasting the gifts that God gave me. I was wasting my life and my children's lives. Seriously you guys, I couldn't keep up with my girl. We didn't even play. I never went to the park. I could barely chase her up the stairs I was so unhealthy. When I think back on it, it's just gross. I was a grumpy, frumpy, bump on a log. And the self loathing... we talked about that already.
Thank GOD that He brought this opportunity to me. It has impacted my life and my children's lives immeasurably. I was asked to imagine my life without Beachbody, if Beachbody went away. And I won't say I can't imagine it and give you a bunch of froo froo language about how I can't even picture my life without this amazing opportunity... cause I can picture my life. I've been there. It's not a pretty place. I won't go back. Keep moving forward!
I have a real passion for people. I remember when I felt so lost! Didn't know where or how to start. And my mission is to help others overcome the things that are holding them back! Get healthy, prioritize the important things in life, lose weight if that's the battle, pray more, be on fire for their life, their marriage, their dreams. And feel as great as I feel. Because this stuff really does change your life! I am so humbled. I am a regular, flawed person who gets to do this awesome job daily!
I hope you can relate to my story and get a sense of who I am and the things that make me tick.
I do have to tell you that "momming" was another reason I decided to become a coach. I became a coach to reach my goal of remaining a stay at home mom! When I became a coach, I never expected what happened next! My transformation was solidified down deep into my soul. I LOVE coaching. I LOVE myself as a coach. I LOVE helping other people reach goals in their health and help their own families become healthy, helping other women reach their full potential and believe in themselves enough to start a business! Seriously, this career will change your life in more ways than one. You are not only helping others with their health, which is probably one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever been privileged to do, but you are focusing on yourself, your own health, your own personal development. And you're realizing DREAMS that are directly related to your WHY, your REASON FOR LIVING! For me, that's my children and my family.
If you are interested in learning more about coaching, visit me here!
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