Stepping out of my box

        Since starting my journey, I have been working on stepping out of my comfort zone when it comes to workouts, runs, recipes, activities, and life. I was comfortable in the status quo and convinced myself that I was ok with my life as it was going.  This was the path that I had decided on since high school: go to college, get a degree, and become a teacher. The only hiccup along the way was getting pregnant for Jadynn my senior year. After having her, I jumped right back on the path to becoming a teacher. Luckily, I found a job right out of college and started my fifteenth year of teaching. I love what I do and look forward to work most days, like everyone else. Until January, I was going through the motions of life. I no longer dreamed, I no longer lived for me, I no longer put myself first, and I no longer loved myself.
         When I signed up to be a Beachbody coach, I had no idea what I would gain from it. My intentions were to hold myself accountable and possibly help others along the way. Boy was I wrong! Through all of the books I have read for personal development and groups I have joined, I realized that I needed to start dreaming again and put myself first. If I take care of me, I am going to be a better mother, sister, aunt, friend, and teacher. I have started to love myself again and thinking about what I want to do with my life.

Right now, I am reading "Start" by Jon Acuff. In his book, he talks about living an average life in comparison to an awesome life. He discusses that most of us settle for the average life because that it was we are taught to do. There is the master plan for life that all of us tend to follow, and we lose sight of being awesome. As a child, we are on the path to be awesome, but someone convinces to jump on the path to the average life. This got me thinking about my own life and what I am doing to my daughter. Am I making her jump on the path to an average life when she could be awesome? I really want to support her in her dreams, but what happens if they bring her nothing but heartache? It is such a fine line to walk. I am committed to helping both of us finding the path to awesome. The first step is to figure out where we are now and embrace the surprises that we find along the way.
            I have been an athlete my entire life and love being active. With

that being said, I truly enjoy working out and running. But I have never pushed my limits until this year. I truly feel like a runner for the first time in 5 years. My times are getting faster and faster, and I love doing long runs with a partner because I can run and talk with ease. I always made excuses for not pushing myself during workouts when something was too hard. Now I just do the best that I can do. FINALLY, I can do big girl push-ups and push through workouts. I am done making excuses.
            Nutrition is still my biggest struggle, but I am learning to step outside my comfort zone and try new foods. There are some things that I eat now that I used to turn my nose at in the past. I cook more and firmly believe in meal planning and prepping. My pallet is changing, and I can truly say I enjoy trying new foods. This weekend I tried two new recipes for my breakfast and lunch this week.

Since it is Fall, I felt that it was time to make pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. I found the recipe on Skinnytaste. If you would like it, click here. I used whole wheat flour and Truvia in my batch. For lunch, I am having Mexican quinoa. Quinoa is a new staple in my diet, and I am always looking for a new way to make it. I tried this recipe because I love Mexican food. It was delicious. Here is the recipe that I used:
1 pound ground turkey seasoned with cumin and chili powder
1 cup of cooked quinoa
1 can of black beans (rinsed)
1 can of corn (rinsed)
1 1/2 cups of salsa

Mix everything in a glass baking dish and sprinkle cheese of your choice on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
          I look back over the last 9 months, and I am so glad that I decided to start stepping outside of my box. Life is a different, but I love it. I cannot wait to find the path to awesome and what that looks like for me. Don't be afraid to step out of your box!!

What's this 21 Day Fix all about?!?

My nutrition has always been a thorn in my side since starting my journey. I started with simply counting calories without realizing that there was a difference between good and bad calories. As long as I stayed under my calories, I was a happy a girl! Then I started educating myself about the different types of calories and what "clean" eating was all about. I started learning that low calorie and fat free were doing more harm to my body than good. Skinnytaste became my best friend, and I started whipping up recipes. I finally found my home in the kitchen and felt like I was Julia Childs. Even with these changes, I wasn't getting the results that I was expecting. What was I doing wrong? I started realizing that my portions were out of control, and I wasn't always eating all of the right foods.
     Enter the 21 Day Fix- I was super excited for this program because it was the answer to my prayers. It was going to tell me what to eat and how much I could have of each group. When I first got the program, I thought that I was going to starve because the containers were so small. I found out that I needed to eat a lot more vegetables and my love, carbs, were going to be minimal. I was determined to make this program work, so I swallowed my doubts and forged on. On the first day, I was completely shocked at how much food I was able to eat. I couldn't even eat all of the containers. I realized that I needed to plan and prep a little bit more than I did if I wanted to be successful. There were many days that I cheated and didn't follow the plan. It was full of trial and error and figuring out what foods I liked to eat and adapt to the idea of eating the same thing all week.
     I just recently completed my fourth round of the "fix". This was my most successful round because I finally had the program figured out. I knew what I needed to do to be successful. The key was figuring out my food ahead of time, putting my workouts in my planner, figuring out new ways to get vegetables in my day, and finding someone to hold me accountable. This time around I lost 7.6 pounds! The trick is going to be figuring out way to keep up the habits that I developed and stick to it. If you are interested in hearing more about the basics of the program, listen to my Youtube video.

Buddha Bowl: 1 yellow, 1 red, 1 green

Whole grain wrap with scrambled eggs with spinach and mushrooms
1 yellow, 1 red, 1 green