The entire year of 2015 has been a theme of change. I began the month at my absolute heaviest. I escaped the stress of work by stuffing my face with packages of oreos and bags of chips. It was horrendous. By March I decided something had to change. I had no direction to go but life never really has a set path. You are given an opportunity and it is ultimately up to you to decide. Is this where my story will be? Am I willing to settle? All my life I have been asking myself, am I willing to settle because it's the easy way out? For a while that was what I did. Over the years I took charge of my life and now have the most amazing marriage and chose a career path I am proud of. So naturally I decided that my health needed to also change for the better.

My starting weight here was 237 pounds! eeek!

So in March I went to the gym almost every day and began clean eating. By the end of the summer I was able to cut down my carb content to nearly nothing. Just enough to have energy to burn, because that is what carbs are for. I was able to accomplish many things I never thought I had the capacity to do. I ran in TWO 5k's which my best time was 36 minutes. That was a huge accomplishment for me because running for a while was the bane of my existence. I wanted to make it a goal to do however because I knew I could. Other accomplishments was I was able to build muscle like I never thought was possible. I learned the basics of sports nutrition and medicine to be able to build muscle. If you know me, I never ever had any sort of muscle in my arms. To be honest, I was down right puny. I wanted to be able to prove to myself that it was something I could do, and I ended up finding my true passion in lifiting. I can do squats and dead lifts all day if I was given the chance (and until my legs give out). When I started lifting I could only squat with 45 pounds and now can squat up to 70 pounds. Also doing bench presses. I could only do 20 pounds and now can do up to 50 pounds. I still have a long way to go but having a goal has been the best way to push me harder. And so thanks to lifting, cardio, and proper eating I am able to be down a total of 50 pounds! 

Finishing my first 5k Color Run August 2015

Joe and I and an anonymous lady finishing the Rise and Shine 5k. My second 5k and Joe's first.

Recently I joined the Beachbody family as a coach to even further my health journey. I have always heard about the great benefits but was honestly didn't want to feel pressured into doing it. But I am super happy I signed up. For a while now I have been wanting to help others with their own health journey because I have been there. It's intimidating to have not a single clue where to start, and when you do start you wonder if you are doing it right. It took me at least six months to really start results and boy was I getting super impatient. What I really like about Beachbody is when coaches run various challenge groups (which I will running a clean eating one in Janurary so look out for that), you have access the on demand works (which I LOVE because when you can't make it to the gym you feel lost) and the shakeology products (which is so yummy and they really do make you feel full). Plus they have so many options for work out programs, There really is a program there for everyone. In early January, I will be fully focusing on my coaching with Beachbody so stay tuned!

Recently receiving my coach stuff, shakeology, and Body Beast workout program

This year has surprisingly been not only about my health journey but very recently Joe and I took on a completely new job opportunity which will land us in Florida. We accepted a house parent position at a Golf Academy which they include our housing, meals, insurance, gym, etc. I won't go into grave detail about the job but the two biggest reasons why we joined was the money we will be able to save and for less work then what we do now. Of course moving out of state is going to be hard. We have been super fortunate to have our friends and family understand our decision to move. We are honestly looking at this situation as an adventure vs settling. Recently we have been doing a lot of talk about what exactly we want to do with our careers. Is being a house parent something we want to do for a long time or go back to "normal" 40 hour weeks? I have been so fortunate to be able to work with my spouse and that is something I want to do as long as we both can. There are so many job opportunities out there for couples and it is honestly the best way to travel and see new places without having to pay for it. You actually get paid for it! But of course, depending on the job, you and your spouse will log in longer hours. You don't work 40 hour week's, it will more range from 80-100 hours a week. The profession is not for everyone but for those who enjoy it, then it will be perfect. We all deserve to be able in our job profession right?

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After this year coming to an end, I am looking forward to what next year will bring. I will be able to have more time with this new job to REALLY focus on my health and physical fitness. I want to able to end the year of 2016 with the same satisfaction I feel now. I have a very good feeling that will be possible!

My current weight is 188 and going down!!