the examples we set...

...play a huge factor in our lives, the people in it and the people we want to reach...

On my personal journey, I put being a mother as a priority but at the same time, 

I allowed myself to take the back seat. 

I had an excuse and it was finally a good one.  I was busy, 

a full-time working Mom and wife so who cares if I ate mac and cheese as a main dish!

But what about all that hard work?  I had lost so much weight and was now steadily piling on the pounds...so effortlessly.  Why was that?

Well to my surprise I had exchanged my fast food obsession to cooking "healthier" meals yet overindulging, eating 2-3 portions.  Why could I not get my foods right? I obsessed over exercise but learned to blow it all in one meal.  When I look back, in 2001 when I first lost weight and found my new journey, I wasn't exercising AT ALL and I was eating SO poorly.  Big portions and crappy foods.  Double NO!

Seems like after my first son was born, I gave myself a FREE PASS because I was exercising, heck I worked out less than 4 weeks after giving birth!  I was running, using the elliptical in my garage and walking while on my lunch break at work!  WHY WAS I GAINING WEIGHT?!

It's simple really.  I learned to exercise and then REWARD myself with lots of food.  

Balance was not a part of my life and it took YEARS to get it right...for now! 

You see, they go hand in hand and you cannot have one without the other.  If it's working for you, chances are one day it will stop working until you find that BALANCE.  

I took my relationship with food, "broke up" with it and built a new, healthier relationship with it.  I give food VERY little thought and rather than relieving stress through my stomach, I put it in my workouts.  Then I was working out SEVEN days a week, now it's only FOUR days a week but my food stays in control MOST of the time!  

The shorts I was wearing in that picture are a 16 ( I still have them tucked away in my closet as a reminder!) and now I wear a size 4.  While it is NOT about the size of your clothes or the weight on the scale, it is about feeling good and being healthy!  I will spend every day trying to help women that struggle with that balance, figure it all out...one day at a time.  

These days my kids and husband are still my #1 priority but the difference?  SO AM I!  

I make my health a priority and that decision to put myself as a priority will effect all other aspects of my life and the people in it.  

You work long hours?  Fit in a walk around the neighborhood with your kids/husband.  Kids have sports after work/school? Bring your tennis shoes and stroll, jog or power walk the areas around the soccer, baseball or any other fields.  Have a longer lunch break?  Bring workout clothes-change and go for a power walk/jog, eat a quick-ready made healthy lunch and use your time wisely.  PREPARE on the weekends if your weekdays are insane!  Keep healthy foods in your home, get rid of the unhealthy trigger foods that grab your eye as you open that pantry after a long day...THROW THEM OUT!  Your children will survive without Little Debbie staring you down every second of every day!  THROW IT OUT! Replace those foods with fruits, veggies, protein-rich snacks and pack you a snack on the go bag!  I am always armed with PB, fruit, a string cheese, almonds, high protein cereal snack mix, etc so I'm never caught HUNGRY! 

You must get fed up with feeling crappy!  

The cycle will continue as long as you allow it.  I'd exercise, feel great and then eat so much I'd have to unbutton my pants, burp then lose all energy because my body was on overload.  Then after work/school, I'd feel so bad the only way I'd feel "better" was by stuffing my face once again...with EMPTY CALORIES!  

If you've been there, break the cycle!

I feel like an entirely new person when I fuel properly and exercise regularly!  You can make excuses or you can change...choice is yours and the time passes the same either way!