I am a registered nurse and currently work doing home care in the surrounding counties. I work crazy long weekend hours, but I have the whole week to be a stay at home mom with my little guy. It's an ideal situation while he is young and not yet in school. I will revisit the hours once he's in kindergarten (since my social life is nil working every single weekend!), but for now, I'm one super lucky mom! Before having my son, I worked in the operating room and the ICU of one of the largest trauma centers in New York State. I have seen and done things I NEVER would have imagined ever really happen, but I wouldn't trade a second of that experience!! I met some of the most amazing people and left with a whole new perspective of how fast life can change, and just how lucky we are to be here on Earth and healthy.
Throughout my career in health care I've always had this nagging feeling that I wasn't doing all that I could to help people. I was coming into people's lives after they had years and years of bad health and poor habits under their belts. Many of them were past the point of being able to help them "heal" and we had to more or less sustain the misery they were in or let them die. It didn't sit right with me. Especially not since I had a personal interest in nutrition and fitness and had a good amount of knowledge of the possibility of avoiding many of these diseases with the right diet and exercise. I continued to care for the patients in front of me, but I couldn't let that desire to intervene earlier leave my head.
On my own journey to fitness (I'm an emotional eater, so throw a colicky baby, failing marriage and exhausting job together and you have one chunky mama! After having my son, I weighed in at 180lbs! And I'm only 5'3"...), I stumbled across this opportunity on Facebook to join a "challenge group" that promised to motivate me through an at home workout program, giving me some accountability while I completed the program from my living room. It sounded like exactly what I needed! I joined this group, followed a program through Beachbody called Chalean Extreme, learned what "clean eating" is and started to follow that, and NEVER LOOKED BACK. Having this awesome group of people to connect with everyday, to vent to, whine to, brag to, cheer on, commiserate with, and celebrate with was exactly what I needed to set this underlying passion I had ON FIRE! I have bought plenty of DVD fitness programs and read many-a-nutrition book. I knew what I had to do for years, but having the accountability and support to actually follow through was the missing piece for me. I am now at the lowest weight and smallest size I have been since I was 18!! (Down 40lbs and 4 sizes!)
It wasn't long into my "challenge" that I knew I had to be a part of this experience well past my 60 day challenge group. I wanted to help others find this opportunity and better yet, I wanted to help others through their own transformations! I then found out I could become a coach myself. I wasn't through my own transformation yet, but I knew what it took to get started and begin seeing results, so I wanted to pay it forward as soon as possible. Three months later I am still shocked at how much I love this "job" of coaching. It was as if I wrote down all the requirements I had for a dream job and someone created this just for me. Autonomy, working at home while raising my son, making my own hours, talking about health and wellness all day, doing research on nutrition and fitness, encouraging people as they face challenges, watch people grow emotionally while changing their bodies, keeping myself accountable and on track, dreaming big, setting goals, and making those dreams come true. It's sort of unreal that I stumbled across this. But I thank God every day that I did!
I am not at my goal yet! Healthy weight loss takes time and there are ups and downs, no doubt!! It wasn't a smooth ride to a smaller size, I have had challenges that arise along the trail that everyone should expect will happen to you too. But don't beat yourself up, its a PROCESS!! There is no failure as long as you continue to move FORWARD! I have an intense and exciting plan for 2014!! I will be completing an intense 90 day challenge group in which we are all following p90x3 and planning on getting SERIOUS results! Stay posted as I will be writing about it in my blog, progress pics and all! :)
So that's my story! I'm a weightlifting, clean eating mama trying to fumble my way through the everyday but keeping my dreams big and my hopes high. :) I'm so glad you ran across my page! Don't be a stranger! You can always reach me at burgundy.livefitrn@gmail.com or leave me comments on here... Have an awesome day! Xo
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