Writing Your Story Again And Again

Your life is going to change several time during the course of your years here on earth. Chances are your body will too. There will be times in your life when your in the best shape of your life then times when you are at your rock bottom. Some years you will be wearing your clothes with confidence and some years when you look for layers to hide the body image issues your running from.

Some with go thru life at a consistent weight, but many are not that lucky. Life, stress, hardships, medical conditions, pregnancies, and "midlife" crisis will take you on journeys you could have never dreamed of. Your body is a canvas and it will change. I can promise you that.

One thing I know for certain is your body is strong and it can transform into whatever your heart desires as long as your willing to go after it.

Will you all end up with flat six packs and sculpted arms someday? Probably not. But you all have the power to feel happy and confident in your own skin. How do I know? Because I have lived at both ends of that spectrum.

My transformation over the last almost three years is nothing drastic as you can see from my pictures. My weight has only had about a 5 lb fluctuation over this time. But my muscle mass has changed, my choices have changed and so has my confidence.

If you have followed my journey you know I started out as a mom just looking to drop the last few pounds I was carrying around two years after my first pregnancy. I did the 21 day fix and fell in love. The rest is obviously history because I am still here today sharing how much it helped my life. The girl who started this journey in the black shorts above was tired. She has no time for herself. She was skinny looking but lived off of junk foods and drinks from the drive thru at Starbucks each day. She hated her muffin top when she sat down and she was unsatisfied with her new mom body she had. On the outside she looked fine but on the inside she needed a change.

The girl with the abs on the far left. The rock solid ones. Yep that's me too. I earned those abs and quite honestly I can do without them. I wanted to see how I could sculpt my body and come back from a 57 lb weight gain in my first pregnancy. I pushed my limits from a physical standpoint. I said no to sweets and lots of carbs and I did ab workouts every single day until I hated it. I learned that abs are indeed made in the kitchen but if you wanted them to stay you had to be relentless. I decided it wasn't worth being relentless over. I started this journey to be healthy for my family. I didn't need to have a six pack to be happy so I backed off, but I proved to myself I could do anything I set my mind to.

The girl in the middle picture. She's smiling but she is terribly sad. This was her before picture taken just this past summer. She was about to do the Country Heat workout for the first time. She is 4 months out from suffering her first miscarriage. She used food to curb her emotions that she was going thru and she decided exercise was just too much for her on some days. The emotional eating and lack of exercise put her in a place she hated and didn't want to be in anymore. She needed to get rid of that weight she was now carrying to help move her forward from the miscarriage because each time she looked into the mirror she was reminded of what wasn't there anymore.

The girl in the next picture is smiling but it's a real smile this time because she proved to herself again that she can do anything she puts her mind to. For 30 days she went "all in" with Country Heat. She ate according to the plan did her workouts for 30 minutes each day and she wanted to change more than she wanted to stay the same. So she did just that. She changed. She healed a little from the miscarriage and she got her habits back on track. She felt good again.

Then you see the girl on the far right. Gosh is she ever beaming and she is so proud of what her body is doing. Her body no longer has a six pack. She is not a size zero right now and to be honest she fits into NONE of her clothes. You know why she is smiling? Because after almost three years of a struggle with infertility and loss shes expecting a baby. A long awaited and much prayed for miracle. That little belly she is sporting now is about to get a whole lot bigger and she is okay with that.

My story and my journey is not over. My body is undergoing a "transformation" and it will do the same again this summer once my little one arrives. You see this lifestyle really isn't about what the scale will say or what size pants your wearing. In every picture I am wearing a size zero pants. (Yep the maternity pants are maternity zero too.) But a size zero can look and feel very really different.

Wear your scars like armor it's proof you showed up for something hard. So what if pregnancy gave you stretch marks. It also gave you a baby. Maybe you have lost a ton of weight  and you have excess skin. Be proud that you got yourself to the point that that's a problem for yourself. Realize your worth is determined by your heart and what is on the inside. Inner beauty beats the heck out of outer and inner beauty doesn't require any six pack abs.

If you need help rewriting your story. You know where to find me. Allow me to show you how, Lord knows the last three years has taught me how to do that.

Make 2017 your year to rewrite your story.

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Why Hitting Rock Bottom Is A Great Place To Be...

Rock bottom... The place where you rebuild your life

If I have learned anything during my time as a coach, it's that rock bottom is the best place to be at if you want to truly change your life. In fact, I don't really want to work with you unless you really are at rock bottom. Pretty bold of me to say isn't it? I say it out of love. I want you to be so driven and so sick and tired of feeling the way that you do right now that your willing to do whatever it takes to change. I find that those who are not ALL in just yet are the ones who fail. They are the ones who make excuses and the ones who buy programs with good intentions but never finish them. Why is that? I used to blame myself as a coach until I began to know better. It wasn't me. It was them. They were not ready and I can never make them ready. This has to happen on their own terms and conditions. When they are ready though, you better look out because that is where serious change happens. That is where they create new habits, they drop the weight and the best part, they learn how to keep it off. This is the place where they learn to rebuild a new life for themselves.

When I tell you that I can help you, I really do mean it but you also have to be ready to help yourself.

The challenger who I am featuring today has been at both places. She reached out to me a few months back with an interest in joining the challenge group I was hosting but after a bit of conversation back and for she just wasn't ready yet. I respected that and let her know I would be glad to have her when she was ready and that I wasn't planning on going anywhere.

This is more common than you would realize. Most who join me for a challenge group have been on the fence before they decided to fully commit. Some share conversations with me and wait but some watch silently and just are not ready yet. I realize this and honestly respect it because I did the exact same thing when I was new. I watched my coach. I had a conversation with her about wanting to join her, but I just wasn't ready. It wasn't until I committed fully on MY terms was it that I had success with the programs and went all in.

Eventually Danielle hit her rock bottom. She reached out to me and shared she was ALL IN and ready to start. Because of her determination and hard work she gets to happily report that she is now down 21 lbs in the last 30 days. She committed to drinking Shakeology daily, she cleaned up her eating and did 30 minutes of exercise each day. She followed the Country Heat program and lost the weight all while having fun doing it.

Below you can read her story. I asked her to share what her journey has looked like. Her story is one that many of you can probably also relate too. I hope you are inspired by her efforts and actions. You can do hard things just like she did. You just have to be willing to put your mind to it.

As a kid weight was somewhat of an issue. I remember being thirteen and not be small like my friends. When I was fifteen I decided I wanted to be on birth control. I was introduced to a shot that would take my menstruation away. COME ON being a teenager who wouldn't make that choice! Well I wish I would have read up more on the medication before I started it or continued it. I began to gain a lot of weight which is one of the side effects. My senior year of high school I tried to lose weight and I did but I gained it all back! This has always been a vicious cycle for me.

Three years ago I had my first baby boy. I remember thinking I cannot wait to lose this baby weight. I did in three months I was under my pre pregnancy weight. I felt wonderful, but in it all I was not exercising. I remember after losing the weight I started to have a lot of anxiety. Something that I thought was normal but it isn't. With the anxiety came some depression and this took me into a downward spiral. I had gained all the weight back.

Six months ago I had my daughter. While on maternity leave I did nothing! I blamed it on feeding the baby. “Oh how tough is it” I would say. Talk about excuses. I didn't lose any weight sitting on my ass the whole day feeling sorry for myself.

Last month, after talking to Sarah for 2-3 months if not more, I looked at the scale at the doctor's office and I almost came to tears. I had let myself gain so much weight. All I could think is what the hell am I doing to myself? What am I teaching my children? I was teaching them to eat junk food at all hours of the day and night! I had taken it way too far. That is when I realized I had to do something and I had to do something now.

Sarah had posted on facebook that she would be doing a mentoring program for anyone who wanted to become a coach. All I thought was could I do this? I mean is this really something that I would enjoy… Of course still trying to talk myself out of it. Using more and more excuses. I finally had to tell myself its now or never. I was at my lowest point with the weight issue. I did it.. I filled out the application and just waited to see if she would contact me. See if i meant the criteria. Well when she emailed me I never opened an email as fast as I did when I saw her name. I opened it and she wanted me to join her team and she was willing to teach me the ropes. I had to do this, I needed to get out of my comfort zone and do this for myself and my children.

I decided to do Country Heat. I love country music and to dance. I ordered it and could not wait for it to arrive. When it came I was so excited to do it. I even started my challenge group a week early because I was just so ready to get started and lose weight. I wanted to learn a new lifestyle that would keep me and my family healthy.

Day 1 I pushed myself to the end of that first workout. Damn was that tough, but I felt so great when I was done. I wanted to keep moving. I cannot tell you the last time I wanted to keep going. The last time I had so much energy I just wanted to go for a run. I was feeling on top of the world!

Midway through the program I couldn't wait to get out of bed and do my dance! I was talking about it at work all the time. The meals I was making following the program were so amazingly good. My husband and kids were loving the new delicious foods. The best part was getting on that scale everyday and seeing the numbers just continue to drop!

Finishing the program I have lost 21 pounds and feel so wonderful! I am getting back into the clothes that didn't fit. I can play with my kids more. I'm not sitting on the couch all the time. There is no more junk food in the house and I have not had one complaint from anyone! Which is surprising to me!

I am so thankful for Sarah offering this program, and for country heat for kicking my ass to help me lose weight. I probably would still be sitting on the couch feeling sorry for myself if she would not have offered me this opportunity. Also, a huge thank you to my family for their awesome support. Now I can help others that fell the way that I have felt. I am so excited to continue this lifestyle and continue to lose weight and be a better ME.

If you would like to be considered as a challenger in my next accountability group like Danielle was please fill out the application below and I will be in touch. The next group is beginning on November 28th. Spots are filling up quickly.

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Country Heat Week 2 Recap

Week Two & Counting - Country Heat

Week two brought with a a few struggles that I had not planned for. My grandmother passed away on Tuesday. While I actually still stayed on track and did my workouts each day I found myself struggling with my nutrition. I just didn't feel like eating all that much and I will confess I had a few slip ups with my eating. One of which included a not so gluten free pizza. If your following my journey with this you know that I am staying gluten free because of my Hashimotos disease. It is an autoimmuine disease where my body attacks my thyroid and prevents it from functioning correctly. There is lots of research indicating that that eliminating gluten can help make me feel a lot better. I have found this to be true and have been working hard for many months to be strictly gluten free. 

The workouts have become easier for me. I actually have some of them down enough that I wouldn't even be embarassed if others saw me dancing to them. What I am enjoying most about Country Heat is that it's truly fun and a great workout. It does not feel like "work." I have found myself looking forward to the workout time each day. This week we added in an additional 23 minute dance conditioning routine on top of the daily workout twice a week. We learned two new routines to keep it interesting. I would highly reccommend not skipping the dance conditioning one because it seems to be how I am going to really tone my core and arms. Country Heat has lots of lower body work and this seems to be a great way to work the upper body. 

This week I had much fancier meals than usual. I had signed us up for a weeks worth of Blue Apron dinners and man were they ever delicious and sophisticated. I was impressed with the freshness of the food and how elobrate and healthy the recipes were. I would reccommend anyone give it a try. 

I posted this picture and quote earlier this week on social media. The quote spoke a lot to me about how far I have come on my own health and fitness journey. I have made so many changes, I truly would never want to go back to the old me. It wasn't something that happened over night but little by little I began to become a healthier and happier Sarah. You can too with the right mindset. 

Below you will find the meal plan I will be following for week 3. No Blue Apron this week for us, I had to do the planning and prepping this week. Thinking I will do Blue Apron again next week though. Most all of it fix into my meal plan for Country Heat. 

Interested in being one of my clients? I would love to have you in my next upcoming accountability group. I would be glad to proivde you with personalized support. Please fill out the application below and I will be in touch shortly.

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Country Heat Week One Recap -

Week One Country Heat

After getting my hands on Country Heat at our Coach Summit event in Nashville I didn't want to waste any time getting started with the program. I have been carrying around an additional 10 lbs since our recent miscarriage and I wanted rid of it. I knew that this was going to be the program that did it for me. My clients in the test group with me started their workouts this week but I thought it would be a good idea to be a week ahead of them so I knew what they should expect. Each week you will find a recap on here from me with details about each week is going. Since we got home late Sunday I was not able to get to the grocery store until Tuesday so my meal plan ran Tuesday - Saturday. Saturday and Sunday we were away for the weekend so my meal plan was a little non existant on Sunday. I had one cheat snack and had some vanilla ice cream while we were away. All in all I was pretty impressed with how on track I was. I managed to stay away from most all foods with gluten in them. (I have Hashimotos diesase and it's highly reccommened that I avoid it.) In addition to following the meal plan I am including Shakeology daily into my diet. I always use it so that won't be a change for me. I love how it makes me feel. To be honest I have hardly missed a day in over two and a half years. 

I was craving ice cream late at night earlier this week and decided my goals were too important so I whipped up some chocolate coconut banana Shakeology Ice Cream instead of the real deal.

In addition to following the meal plan I am including Shakeology daily into my diet. I always use it so that won't be a change for me. I love how it makes me feel. To be honest I have hardly missed a day in over two and a half years. 

The struggle is so real when your getting back on track. Trying to "detox" from gluten and totally wanted to eat this entire box of snacks my son was having. 

One of my many yummy meals I made for myself from the meal plan. 

I did a youtube video for my clients on how to plan and prep your meals for Country Heat. 

You can access the meal planning tips by clicking below to launch the video. This was something that I put together for my clients doing Country Heat along with me. 

The good news is that my hard work paid off. Since starting on Tuesday I am officially down 4 lbs and feeling a lot less bloated. My nutrition was absolutely the missing piece. I had been working out and drinking my Shakeo each day before but I was eating whatever I wanted whenever I wanted and it was catching up with. Stay tuned for more updates and week and more meal plans from Country Heat. If you would like to be included in my next Country Heat accountability group, please fill out the application below. 

Not bad for week one! Down 4 lbs. 

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