::Just being honest:: A new way of thinking...

This is a totally raw and honest post from yours truly J

2 ½ years ago I took on a HUGE goal—LOSE weight! Get HEALTHY! It was my life, it was my passion, my every thought, my total mindset was focused around this. I did it too—I lost 30 lbs of FAT! Put on muscle and never felt better in my whole life. I never starved myself, didn’t use a “lose-weight-quick” plan, never thought about throwing up my food, nor did I obsessively weigh myself. I am proud to say I got healthy the healthiest way you can do it. Eating healthy and getting active…

In this pursuit for the perfect body ;) What’s that? Right! LOL!

SOOOOOOO many changes occurred. As they do whenever you make or have a significant life change. My goals, focuses, aspirations changed. A lot of them were for the better, but some weren’t… I started asking questions like:

WHY doesn’t everyone do this?? Why don’t people lose weight? What’s with all of the excuses? {I know I had my excuses for about 5 years} What will MAKE people change? How can I MAKE people change? I posted about it on my FB, twitter, told everyone I knew, I just became obsessed with “Fit-Thinking”. I have to make everyone lose weight!!

What I didn’t realize in this crazy, one-track-mind, obsessed frenzy I was in, was that not everyone wants to make this change. Not everyone was as obsessed as I was about their body image. Needless to say, the “healthy-looking mindset” I thought I had, wasn’t too healthy. I offended people with these thoughts and couldn’t give my clients what THEY NEEDED. Even though I thought I was doing it out of love {Who wants to watch their family/friends die, be depressed or get sick because of obesity related issues you can do something about it??} The way I was going about it, was not loving.

My point of this post is not to be an advocate to being overweight or that it’s okay to shovel fast food into our mouths on a daily basis while we follow it with a HUGE soda. I 100% believe in living a healthy lifestyle, but that also means being able to have “cheats”, enjoy cake, take a rest day from fitness, be a size 8/10 without having criticism, help people find a plan that works for them and their lifestyle.

Over the last year-ish {steadily gaining weight} during this pregnancy, not being involved in any fitness/weight loss company, stepping back from FB, prioritizing and re-fueling, I feel I’ve have a “mindset change” I’ve been able to step back, take a break and my eyes have been opened. I thank the Lord for this time. Although I’ve maintained a healthy pregnancy and stayed active throughout- I’ve still GAINED… My skin has stretched and I’m a vessel for this little boy who has already stole my heart and I haven’t even met him!! Also, stepping out of the fitness industry has been huge, constantly feeling the pressure of the competitions and media can take a tole on your thoughts!!

I want to be in a place where I can HELP people. Not force people to be a certain size or weight, but ENCOURAGE them to just make healthy changes in their lives.

It really, really, really is AMAZING to have a healthy, functioning body. To sweat out toxins, fill up with endorphins, feel confident in swimwear, have energy to LIVE, fight off diseases, feel sexy and proud of the work you are putting in. I’ll never stop living a healthy lifestyle!!

After baby comes I’m SO BEYOND excited to work on my post-baby body {I dream about it everyday, lol}, which will be amazing, beautiful and any flaws will be proof that I created LIFE inside of me! I want to encourage others to join me and help people find their way of living healthy.

It’s just important to keep healthy and happy in the forefront of my dreams! There is no one-size fits all fitness plan, people are fabulous no matter their shape or size. As long as they happy and healthy!!

Over the past couple years I’ve been BLESSED to have helped quite a few ladies {And men}

lose weight, get their bodies to a place where they feel confident and sexy. It’s a passion of mine to help, motivate and encourage people. It’s also been amazing to go through this journey and discover my flaws so I can better help MORE people. Thank you Lord for showing us our weaknesses and flaws so we can work on ourselves and be better, more joyful people J

Where do I get Motivation?

The TWO questions...

"Can you be my Motivation?" Or "Where do you get your Motivation?"

These questions have been asked to me many, MANY times since starting my health/fitness journey and becoming a health coach.

I love it! When people reach out to me and ask for help, they are acknowledging that they want a change. There is a trigger that's gone off that causes them to desire this lifestyle. My "switch" was a little over two years ago. I was DONE-- Totally fed up with myself, my eating habits, my endurance, my confidence level {or lack thereof}. I humbled myself and reached out for help! I found fit/healthy, non-toxic people and surrounded myself with their positivity. Most of them lived in Facebook land and I've never even met them in person... and that was okay with me. I was able to push myself with their long distance support because I believed in myself. My life was changed forever and I've never looked back! The friendships I made with those people at that time was essential for my personal growth and health goals.

The motivation question posed above is something that I asked one of my coaches when I started my journey. I asked her to be my motivation. She simply said, she is here for me, she can guide me, she can encourage me, but the ONLY person who can motivate me is myself and the BELIEF that I can accomplish my goals. This was a hard one for me-- I had never pushed myself to  this limit before and I wasn't sure I could do it. {Those of you who have trained, KNOW the limits you have to take you body to}. It's not easy to say no to cake or pizza, doing the last rep is freaking hard and you want to stop, the emotional aspect of changing your habits and body takes a tole. There are so many things, but what you have to keep focusing on if the belief you have in your goals, aspirations and in yourself!

You can do ANYTHING you put your heart to. KNOW you can do it, believe in yourself, if you fail one day or fall off track-- that should not stop your movement. You pick right back up and go. When your alarm goes off and you've barely slept, still get up! Lace up your shoes and go!

When you start seeing changes in yourself, it will become your motivation. You have less doubts, you have more confidence, excuses don't even matter any more because you've conquered your old doubtful self.

I am here for you! I'll coach you and encourage you and give you advice, tips, samples... But BELIEVE in yourself and become your own motivation, you are amazing and perfect and the goals you've set for yourself are real and powerful and you will achieve them!

 XO,
Hannah