Find Your Purpose

God has given everybody great purpose with their life. He put you on this earth for a special reason. Every day when you wake up we're given another reason to see that purpose. Sometimes, though, things get rough. Life gets hectic, people hurt us, bad things happen. Maybe you feel hopeless. My friend, I'm here to tell you today that you are still breathing because God is pushing your towards something. When's the last time you sat down and prayed about it or just sat and talked to God for awhile? In these times, if we listen, he is guiding us towards our purpose.

I have purpose as a wife and a mother. But, I felt like God was pulling on me for something else. I've always had a love for helping others and making them feel good about themselves. So, when an opportunity came up to do that, I prayed about it, thought about it, talked it over with my husband. It just made sense. I needed something outside of "mom" to fulfill something in my heart. When I'm helping others see their value or feel good about themselves, it makes me happy. It makes me happy to see other people happy.

If you're not sure which direction you should go or if you feel stuck, I encourage you to really sit down and pray about it. Go out and do something you love doing but you always put off or go to a peaceful place where you can do some soul searching. Spend time with your family and talk over things that you would like to pursue and get their opinions. Finding a purpose for your life is such an amazing feeling, it just may take a little work to figure out what it is.

How To Lose the Baby Weight

I think this is a question most new moms have. It can be hard to know where to start. I've made a short video to tell you my 3 top tips to reach your goals! Check out the video below and let me know if you have any questions. I love feedback!

How To Stay Motivated

I had a friend ask me how I stay motivated to work out. I hadn't really thought about it lately, it's just kind of turned into a habit for me. But, I've set it up that way. I just don't even think about it anymore, I JUST DO IT. It's important to me.

I think the most important thing is finding workouts I enjoy. I'm huge fan of Chalene Johnson and her workouts. TurboFire is my favorite workout, like, ever! Kickboxing mixed with dancing and it's a huge calorie burner!

Be realistic with your goals and celebrate your success. Know that you won't lose 50 pounds in one month. But, celebrate when you do lose weight. It takes a lot of work! And you should be proud.

And lastly, make time to workout. Make it important to you! I feel so much better when I get my workout in and it helps my whole day go better. I've found a great time for me to workout is when my youngest child takes his first nap. It's the first thing I do when I lay him down. Sometimes he gets up before I'm done, but you know what? 20 minutes is better than nothing, it's still putting you one step closer to your goals!

ChaLean Extreme 4 Week Results

I just finished up my first 4 weeks! Eeek, I'm so excited with how things are going. Watch below to see how I did!

You're Right

Whether you think you can or can't, you're right! Dreaming big and wanting better for yourself is awesome! But, if you are already telling yourself that it won't happen, you're right, it won't. You have to change your mindset, be positive about it, tell others about it, write it down and DO NOT give up. If you can start something new with a positive attitude and be willing to take the steps to make your dreams come true, you're already halfway there.

In a book I'm reading about setting goals, I found a really great exercise and I challenge you to join me in this and take the first step in achieving your dreams. I think once you break down your goals, they won't be so scary!

Write down some goals that you have right now. For example- spending more time with my family, saving for vacation, getting healthy, having a successful business, lose weight.

Now, from those goals, choose just 3 that are the most important and put those goals in order, number one being the most important.

     1. Spending time with family

     2. Lose weight

     3. Saving for vacation

Now, write down the steps you need to do EVERY day to make that goal a reality. This will be your action plan. 

     1. Spending time with family- I will not use my phone between 6-8 pm. 

     2. Lose weight- I will exercise for 30 minutes 5 times per week, I will drink water instead of sugar filled drinks, I will be conscious of what I put in my body.

     3. Saving for vacation- I will eat out less, I'll pass up my daily Starbucks, I'll put $20 into savings every week.

You can elaborate more, that's just a general idea how you can put this to work for you. Put your action plan where you will see it every day! Every day you will have a reminder as to what you're working towards.

Let me know when you get your action plan done!

Setting Your Goals

A lot of people fail to set attainable goals when they have decided to make a lifestyle change. If you have 50 pounds to lose and that's your only goal, you're likely to fail because it will take quite a bit of time to reach that goal. If you set smaller goals that will help you reach you're ultimate goal, you will see progress and have pride in your accomplishments.

Start off by setting SMART goals.

S- Specific goals.

M- Measurable goals.

A- Attainable goals.

R- Relevant goals.

T- Time specific goals.

Specific Goals

It's important to set specific goals that will lead you to your ultimate goal. I'll use the example of losing 50 pounds for these. To get started you should write out a plan that will help you lose 50 pounds; watching what you eat, exercising, drinking more water. So, maybe your first goal would be to start exercising for 30 minutes 4 times per week. You could also break down your goal weight loss into smaller numbers. You could make it a goal to lose 5 pounds your first month.

Measurable Goals

If your end goal is to lose 50 pounds, your smaller goals will help you reach that and being able to measure your success along the way will help keep pushing you. You will need to make sure to track your progress along the way. If you aren't weighing yourself or taking measurements, how will you know how far you've come? In one months time you could be 10% closer to your ultimate goal and that's something to smile about!

Attainable Goals

I've already mentioned that it's impossible to lose 50 pounds in one month. Setting up your smaller goals will help you reach that big goal, but they also have to be realistic. For example, I will lift weights 3 times per week and drink 8 glasses of water every day. I will lose 1 pound every week.

Relevant Goals

Be sure that your goals are relevant. If you are setting too many goals that are unrelated your mind will wander and you will lose focus.

Time Specific Goals

This one makes you work harder towards your goals. If you give yourself a deadline you will push yourself to achieve those goals. For example, I will be halfway to my weight loss goal by Thanksgiving. So, in 4 months you will lose 25 pounds. You could even make those more specific and say, I will lose 6 pounds every month so that I will be halfway to my goal by Thanksgiving. 

Don't forget that life happens. There will be road blocks but, keep pushing forward. Reward yourself every time you make a goal. It could be a haircut, new workout gear, manicure. Whatever will make you feel good about reaching your goals! If you need a plan of action for your goals, get in contact with me. I'm happy to help!

Don't Let Self-Doubt Control You

Today I was talking to a friend and she shared her latest blog post with me (read it here). We talked about it and how far she has came and she looks amazing! It brought up some feelings from the past for me.

Growing up I was overweight and teased about it in school and that still echos in my head today. (Sidenote, I think it's really important that we teach our children to be kind to others.) Anyway, I've been up and down with my weight since high school, I've had three babies via c-section and seem to pack on the pounds just to have to turn around and lose the weight again. I feel like I'm in the right mindset now to keep going on this journey to health but I will always have to fight the urge to over eat and eat junk food.

Which brings me to today's blog post. I still struggle with self confidence and anxiety issues sometimes, like people are looking at me, judging. Or doubting myself, that I will fail or not be "good enough" whatever that means. And sometimes that leads to missed opportunities, making new friends, living LIFE! I talked to my doctor recently and he did suggest some anti-anxiety medicine. I took it for a couple weeks but, honestly, I hate taking medicine. It also made me really groggy, which is not good when you're still waking up with a baby in the middle of the night! I have to fight this on my own and do things to better myself and make me happy.

I have to work on changing this thought process. I've recently started listening to Chalene Johnson's podcasts and she has some episodes about just that. There is one point from her episode about anxiety that really stuck out to me.

Whenever you start feeling a negative thought pop into your head you have to stop it in its tracks. As soon as you start feeling anxious or nervous take a deep breath and remind yourself how awesome you are. Chalene talks about coming up with a mantra to say to yourself. Something like- I am enough, I'm not a failure, I'm a good person, I have a lot to offer people. Try to also remember that those people are probably nervous to talk to you, too!

The last thing is to surround yourself with positive people who lift you up. I get it, everybody has bad days and wants someone to vent to. But, if there's someone in your life who is constantly dragging you down, it's time to take a step back and re-evaluate that relationship.