Calling All You Hot Mess Moms Out There....

 I Want To Help You

Hey there - yes you the one who clicked on this link because something was drawing you in. Probably because I said hot mess, right? You saw it, chuckled and thought oh girl if you had any idea hot mess barely describes it enough. This post is for you. Today I am speaking your language and I am coming from a place where I have been and know all too well. Today I think I can relate to you and the struggles you are going thru.

I suppose I will start by sharing a little bit of honestly with you. Most of us moms don't actually have it all together, like not even a little bit. We may look like we do on the outside, but quite honestly most of us are all a complete mess, struggling to keep our heads above water. In particular, those of us who are working moms. Like seriously this is insane, why didn't anyone warn us how hard it is to work full time and be a mom while running a household. We may show up at the daycare drop off looking polished and primped but lets be real, it took a hell of a lot of effort to get everyone out the door, dressed, lunches packed and be on time.  (Oh if you only knew what trying to get a three year old to hustle feels like.) I seriously feel like I ran a marathon before the clock on my car dash strikes 7:15 am. It is exhausting and so hard in so many ways. I made a choice to keep my job when I had my son and it was and still continues to be the hardest choice I have ever made. It breaks my heart to allow someone else to spend so many hours with him when it feels like I should be home with him. But I keep reminding myself that my choices today are creating a strong future for our family tomorrow. Am I envious of the moms who get to stay home with their little loves? Yep, you betcha and I bet if you asked them if they are envious of me and my career they might say yes too. The grass always looks greener no matter what side of the lawn you are standing on. Neither choice is easy and both jobs are equally important and special. I say were all pretty damn amazing and should celebrate that as often as we can. Motherhood's hard. 

Now here is where I share how I keep from becoming a crazy lady. (Okay the crazy lady still comes out somedays but not as often since I made some major changes). My world starts early each day. It starts early by choice because after three years of raising my son, I have begun to learn a few things about how to survive motherhood and the challenges of being a working woman. The secret to my sanity is that I make a deliberate effort to carve out time each morning for myself. Some days it's for working out, some days it is for personal development reading and some days it's so I can drink my coffee in peace while it's still warm.

I was not always this way. I was that mom who hadn't worked out in years because seriously who has time for that? I lived off the drive thru at Starbucks (white chocolate mocha's and bacon artisan breakfast sandwiches were my thing.) Each day I had a to-do list that I would knock out of the park. I wouldn't go to bed unless it was all accomplished, but you know something sad. That to-do list I was making everyday didn't have anything on it that would benefit my own health. I was my own last priority over and over and over again. Until one day I woke up and realized I was missing something. I got sick of not being comfortable anymore. I was sick of being tired, sick of being rushed and sick of feeling awful because I wasn't treating my body the way that I should have. I ate like crap so I felt like crap. I made the excuse that I didn't have any more time in my day to do something like exercise. Until one day I was fed up with my own excuses and decided I wanted to change more than I wanted to stay the same. I wish I could say it was easy. It really wasn't. There were so many days I wanted to quit, so many mornings when I wanted to press snooze but I kept reminding myself that what I was working on what worth it and I needed to stick with it. But truthfully, I had to fight to become the woman I am today and I still fight everyday to be her. I can proudly say that I have made myself a priority during a time period in my life when most moms don't.

I do it because I know I am leading by example. I am the role model my son is looking up to. I am teaching him the value of exercise, I am teaching him what being healthy looks like, I am teaching him to to make good choices but most of all I am teaching him how to take care of himself. I realize that down the road, his life will someday be just as stressful and busy as mine is. I want him to know it's okay to put the breaks on and care for himself each day without feeling guilty.

For the month of October I will be running a 30 day stripped challenge group. This is for busy women who are looking to lose up to 10 lbs in one months time by stripping away the junk and the excuses that have been holding them back in the past. The challenge group will teach you how to eat clean, how to stick to your plan and how to be a new happier healthier you. It means you will commit to doing 30 minutes a day of exercise, working on meal plans and clean eating, drinking Shakeology daily (I call that my super power, give me so much energy) and promising to stay focused on the goals you are going to set for yourself. The journey you are about to begin is hard, don't make it harder by trying to do it alone. Allow me to connect you with my other challengers who are going thru the same journey. Allow me to help you prove yourself and all of your doubters wrong and show you that you CAN do this. Someone once told me "don't be like the rest of them darling." I didn't get it until I become a mom. I don't want to be like all of the ones out there running themselves ragged who are tired, unhappy and not healthy. I wanted to be different and I want that for you too. I hope you will allow me to help.

Please fill out the application below and I will be in touch with you within 24 hours. We kick off soon, don't miss out on this group! It really could be your game changer if you want it to be.

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Peanut Butter Bars - Fixate Cookbook Style

This is healthy? Seriously? Stop.... 

Everything you need to whip up a pretty darn good dessert! 

Here's the deal I HATE TO BAKE. Like hate it. I can cook you anything but if you put me in charge of desserts you would have been better to send me to the grocery store. Ask my husband if you don't believe me. That's why when I got the fixate cookbook, I pretty much just skipped right over the dessert section. Well this past week I was craving some sweets but didn't want to ruin all the hard work I had been putting in with T25. (That's the program I am currently working out with. 3 weeks in, no stopping me now.) I pulled out the cookbook and decided to see if I had anything on hand that I could somehow turn into a treat. The peanut butter bars looked easy and appealing so I went for it. What a win! I loved it and what I loved even more was that it really wasn't all that unhealthy. They were very moist and had a nice after taste. I will absolutely be making these again. Check out the recipe below to see how I made them.

Ingredients 
2 eggs
Pure vanilla extract - 2 tsp.
Maple syrup - 1/2 cup
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp.
All natural creamy peanut butter - 1 1/2 cups

Directions 
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Spray a glass 8x8 pan - I used coconut oil
Combine all ingredients using a mixer
Layer into the pan using a spatula
Cook for 20 - 25 minutes
Allow to cool before cutting into squares
ENJOY!!!

Want to learn more about what the fixate cookbook is? Check out my video below! 

Click here to get your hands on a copy of the cookbook! 

The final product. Not too fancy looking but sure tastes great! 

My Honest Review Of The Honest Company

The Verdict's In - I Love The Products 

Since I began my own journey towards becoming healthier,  my views on things have drastically changed. I am absolutely not the same person I was when I started my own journey and transformation. Not only has my opinions about exercise and eating changed, but my entire lifestyle has changed. Let me explain: It first started with me becoming very cognizant about what ingredients were in our foods. I began to adopt a five ingredient or less rule at the grocery store. If it had something I couldn't pronounce or had more than five ingredients we avoided it. This was my way of cutting out processed foods. This was no easy task because quite honest we were eating a lot of junk. From there it stemmed into my quest to be all organic. I became a nut about what was going into my body and my families. I was on a mission to keep the processed chemicals out and try to eat foods in their most natural state. While I am not 100% organic (it's really hard to do actually) I am about 90%. I started small with the "dirty dozen" of suggested items you should eat that are organic. Then next went to meats and lunch meats and eggs. I had been all organic on my sons snacks from the start we were already there with that. I then switched our milk to all organic as well as our butter. Lately I have moved into only buying cooking ingredients like olive oil, coconut oils, spices, sugars and the list goes on and on that are organic. Basically I started small and worked my way here. Often I get questioned if it is expensive to shop this way. The answer depends on how you shop. If you stick with the perimeter of the grocery store and try your best to only buy foods in their most natural state, this isn't going to be all that more expensive. However, if you do all organic and load up on processed foods that may say they are organic, your looking at a fortune at the store. I am very careful to always look for the USDA organic label. Some companies are good at "marketing organic" but don't have enough organic products in them to be certified. I am learning very quickly that just because it is organic does not always mean it's "healthy."

Now for the second part to this story. Last October I learned that my thyroid was off the charts out of whack. My doctor is more of a naturalist and we began to talk about natural ways to aide in making my thyroid symptoms become less severe aside from taking medicine. One of the things she really encouraged me to do was begin to remove all products from our home that had chemicals in them as well as move towards because they can be considered endocrine disruptors.  She also encouraged me to pursue my organic lifestyle.  Little by little, I began to change things. I threw out all of my plastic containers and switched everything to glass for our food storage, tried my best to removed products that contained fragrance, (I kicked my beloved Amber Romance lotion from Victoria Secret to the curb) and even got rid of the typical deodorant that most use and switched to a salt stick. I kept searching for a more natural approach.  I became a hawk about what I was not only putting into my body but also what I was putting on it. My husband often joked that I was becoming a crazy person,  but he went along with my wishes anyways even if I was making him nuts. All along I have been teaching my son about what it means to buy organic and why it's better for our bodies to be "chemical free." I have to say nothing makes more proud than when my three year old questions if something is organic. My hope is to teach him to live the same lifestyle.

This leads me to my review of The Honest Company. This past summer I came across the book The Honest Life by Jessica Alba. It was a great resource for me to learn more, but it also got me interested in giving the Honest Brand products a try. I learned online that they have a "bundle option" to get monthly shipments of the products so I decided to give it a try. A friend of mine shared with me some of her reviews on which products were worth trying and she also gave me a tip that I should make my five bundle options the most expensive choices then add on the less expensive items at the end. You have the option to get a few additional items at 25% off after your five bundle items. I loved the products from my first shipment and am anxious to use these new items from my newest shipment I just got this week. I liked this so much I actually went ahead and ordered a bundle for my mom too since she also has thyroid issues. One thing that I really appreciate about the brand is that most of the products do have the USDA certified label for being organic. My only complaints so far is that when I ordered the laundry soap the first time and also the hand soap, they got opened somehow and spilled on some of the other products in the box. Honest company handled it very well. They sent me a new bottle of laundry soap and hand soap with free overnight shipping. I don't know if it was bad luck or something that happens often, but the bottle of laundry soap leaked again during the shipping process. When I let them know they actually refunded me 10% of my entire order. Pretty great if you ask me. So my advice would be to avoid ordering the laundry soap online and just buy it in the store. You can get most of this stuff at Target.  Stay tuned for more product reviews and check out my video for my "honest review" of each that I have tried so far! Here is a link to let them know I referred you and it will allow you to save $10.00 off your first bundle if you are a new customer. Let me know your thoughts and your own reviews on the products if you give them a try yourself!

Just A Girl Who Decided To Go For It...

It's Time To Start Living The Life You Have Only Imagined 

The business of Beachbody coaching has allowed me the privilege to interact with many people on social media that I don't actually know in "real life". At first it was very difficult networking with so many "strangers" but I quickly learned that I loved the interactions and was able to form connections with many. I remember reaching out to one of my newest coaches Shianne this past winter. When I first started talking with her we had a great connection but she had zero interest in what I did as a Beachbody coach. She was and still is a gym lover to the core. She was already fit and seemed to have clean eating down.

 Most would see her and quickly move on to someone else who needed more guidance in getting healthy. But not me.... What I quickly learned about Shianne is that she has a CRAZY strong work ethic and works harder than ANYONE I know. I have no idea how on earth she does everything and still seems so put together, but she literally is like SuperWoman. She is working four jobs and seems to never stop. That in itself told me something about her. I knew from day one she would to whatever it was going to take to be successful and I wanted someone like her on my team.

To me I saw the Beachbody opportunity not as her saving grace for her health like it usually is the case for many. Rather to be her saving grace from the chaotic life she is living right now. She has a stunning little girl who I know she would love nothing more than to spend more time at home with her.

She is a dreamer wants big amazing things for her family. I have no doubt that she has what it takes to be successful in this business. I knew I had her golden ticket to a different lifestyle and I felt compelled to share it with her. Let me just say signing Shianne up as a coach on my team was not an easy thing to do. However, I saw my role as a business mentor too important to not continue to extend the offer. I knew that from a business perspective, I had the power to change not only her life but her entire families life so I stayed consistent and kept offering to take her under my wing. It wasn't until after she joined me for Super Saturday in Pittsburgh that she finally saw how much potential there was for her in this company. That evening she took the first steps towards creating something bigger than she could ever imagine for her family and signed up to be a coach. As I guessed, she has been a rock star from day one and is already helping so many of her own challengers  have amazing weight loss transformations.

Of course I had to share her own transformation with you. She did one round of the 21 day fix. As you can see, she was already fit but looks even more amazing now! 

Keep your eyes on this girl she's going straight to the top of this company. Just sit back and watch.

If you have been considering the Beachbody opportunity and would like to be mentored like I have been mentoring Shianne, please fill out the application below and I will be in touch within 24 hours.

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When Things Don't Go According To The "Plan"

Difficult Roads Often Lead To Beautiful Destinations 

If you have been following me on social media, you know that this past year has brought a new reality that my husband and I had to face. Our reality was that even though we had no trouble at all getting pregnant with our son almost four years again, our chances for another have become very slim on our own. It's funny when you have one, you always just assume there will be more. We always have talked about "the next one" we saved all of our little guys baby things for "the next one" and had anticipated that our family would grow at least by one more. Then two years down the road after there was no next one month after month of trying, we decided maybe something was wrong. After lots of testing, regulating my thyroid,vitamin d levels, unblocking my tubes and taking several rounds of fertility drugs - we found ourselves in a dark place this summer. It was a place of hopelessness and sadness. We feel very very very blessed that God gave us our son, but we also are very very sad for the little brother or sister our son does not have. It has been a hard road to walk and one that luckily we have walked together as husband and wife. As hard as this struggle has been, it also has really brought us even closer together. While I don't like the road we are on, I wouldn't want to be on it with anyone else. 

When our last round of the fertility drugs did not work in June we decided to take a step back and spend the summer trying to accept what might be our reality that our family may be smaller than we thought. We took in every moment of the precious life that is growing up before our very eyes. We stopped talking about "the next one" and simply have tried to just be present and enjoy our summer with our blessing we were given. We decided that we would take a break from all the trying, the medication and the stress of it NOT working every single month. 24+ months of trying with no luck gets to be defeating after awhile. While I wear a big bright smile every day, some days that smile is hiding sadness that only my husband knows about and understands. However, I can honestly say we are in a different place now than before. I would be lying if I said I wasn't still sad some days. It's still hard but I am better, stronger and even more grateful than ever before. 

Our steps from here if we want to continue this difficult journey requires some science and gets to be a lot more expensive with no guarantees. We are still praying about that decision. Quite honestly, we have been praying about this for months. My heart tells me I have to at least try once so I don't spend the rest of my life wondering what if. It's more so now that the timing has to be right and right now the timing is not right. My body is still under too much stress with all that I have going on.  In the meantime, I decided I wanted to try a more holistic approach. I had read tons of articles and books and talked with people who dealt with infertility and many had suggested I try acupuncture. I felt like at this point I had nothing to lose so I went for it and loved it.

I signed up for four weeks in a row worth of hour long treatments and will decide from there how often I plan to go. I was absolutely amazed at how much she was able to tell me about my body by feeling my pulses and meridians. Right away she was able to tell me she knew I was there for infertility just by what she was feeling from the pulses. I was amazed and my tongue also told her that I had recently been dealing with something stressful and traumatic (umm yeah 24 months of this struggle I would say is a bit stressful.) The treatments may or may not work but what it has done for me is helped me to feel more balanced and less stressed which is important because the hormones secreted during stressful situations can significantly decrease fertility. While I cannot promise it will work, I would highly encourage anyone who is trying to get pregnant to give it a try. Actually I would encourage everyone to try it. There are SO many other health benefits as well aside from fertility help. To answer the million dollar question - NO the needles DO NOT hurt!! 

So why do I share all of this with lots and lots of strangers? Because the scars that you share become lighthouses for other people who are headed for the same rocks you hit.  Someone out there is reading this and needs this it. Somebody is in the same boat as I am, and if that somebody is you; I want you to remind yourself that just because it's not happening right now doesn't mean it never will. You are in your own little storm right now and it's changing you and it's testing you, but it will not break you.  When this storm passes you are going to come out of it a different person than you were when you went into it. Keep up the faith, keep your chin up and keep us in your prayers. We could use a miracle. Feel free to reach out to me for support if your standing in this storm, I get it and would be glad to talk with you. S.Griffith27@gmail.com

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

Today I wanted to get real with you about my challenge groups. I wanted to share with you what they mean to me and what they are all about. So heres the deal - I started this journey as a challenger myself first. I remember feeling like I "hit rock" bottom when my son had just turned 2. It was the night of his birthday party and it felt like my last straw. I was so sick and tired of being tired, living off white chocolate mocha lattes from Starbucks and NEVER having enough time for myself. I wanted things to change. Even though I was a "busy mom" I wanted to make some time for myself. In that moment I didn't know how I would do it, I just knew I had to make it work. Quickly I began to scour the Internet to learn more about the 21 day fix that was just coming out at the time. I thought there is no way you could seriously drop up to 10 lbs in 21 days or could it really work? That's all I was after just 5 or 10 lbs but more so I wanted to feel better. I was very apprehensive about Shakeology and just the idea of being in a challenge group. I really didn't understand what it all meant, but I saw one of my friends from college being successful not only as a challenger first but also as a coach. After watching her for many months, I decided to pick her because "she wasn't going anywhere." She clearly knew what she was doing when it came to helping people find success. 

My group lasted for a month and at the end of the month not only did I hit my goal that I was working towards, but I also was hooked on the whole challenge group environment as well as Shakeology. It made me a new mom and wife for my husband and son. I was refreshed, energized, less crabby, happier and no longer living off of Starbucks because of my small change. Which was funny because I was SO skeptical of all of it at first. From there, I knew I wanted to help others feel as great as I did and quickly became a coach myself. 

But here's the thing - I am now 18 months into coaching and helping challengers to get the results they are pushing for and to this day - I am STILL a challenger myself.  The environment that is created in a challenge group is a place that makes you feel like it's okay to fall off the wagon but you don't get to stay off the wagon. We celebrate wins big and small and encourage each other when they need it. We share recipes, health tips and ideas that we are picking up along the way as we adapt to our new lifestyles.The groups are not about being on a diet, they are about changing your lifestyle once and for all for the BETTER. I teach you how to make this a part of your life and how to make yourself proud. 

During my time as a coach, I have helped countless individuals lose A LOT of weight. But what I think is more important is that I didn't give up on them when everyone else including themselves had. I kept them accountable and held their hand thru the challenge. It seems to me that regardless of your income, your profession or your weight loss goals we all just need a friend to help support us along the way.

If that's what your in need of, please fill out the application below. Allow me to be your coach, your friend, your hand holder, whatever you need. Just ask - be brave enough to say I need help with this and I can't do it alone. I can quickly place you in a support group and help get you started.

The journey is hard enough, don't face it alone

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