Happy International Women’s Day

I woke up this morning to instagram and facebook posts all about girl power, girl bosses, and women’s rights. Today is the day that all over the world people are getting together to celebrate women. The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is #PledgeforParity. Check out their website HERE and read all about the campaign, how you can become involved, and activities in your area.

Today, I would like to celebrate all the strong, amazing, and diverse women I know. Everyday I am in awe of all the accomplishments I see from women all over the country. Mothers, athletes, daughters, wives, sisters, friends, regardless of our title or status we are all women. Let’s not compare ourselves to each other. As the saying goes, “comparison is the thief of joy.” As women, we have so much to overcome. We may feel we need to work harder to prove ourselves. And, yes, this is very true, especially in the workplace. But, we should not have to work so hard to prove ourselves to each other. We are all doing the best we can. We are all working hard. We are all making the best choices for ourselves.

As mothers, our choices, our actions, make an impact on our families. Our children look up to us and it’s up to us to be the best we can be for them. This is pressure enough. Let’s not pressure ourselves even more with comparing what we do to what anyone else is doing. Let’s not tear each other down, but build each other up. There is no room for that in our lives. Why wast time with criticism, when we can empower each other instead. Let’s show compassion, love, and acceptance. It is so much easier to love, than hate. Our daughters will thank us for it.

To all the women in my life: Thank you! Thank you for building me up, for pushing me further. Thank you for sharing a little or a lot of your life with me. Thank you for running with me, for celebrating with me, for laughing with me, for putting up with me, and mostly, just thanks for allowing me to be me and for always being you. XO!

Transformation Tuesday

This is the first time I post a Transformation Tuesday, probably because I’ve felt I am not exactly where I want to be and I don’t feel I’ve reached my ultimate goal. But today I’m like, hey, I’ve come a long way and I should be proud of all the hard work I’ve put in. You can read all about my journey in detail on My Story page. It’s amazing to see that almost 2 years ago I would not even consider buying running shoes, nevertheless wearing them! Yet, here I am today itching to buy a new pair of sneakers, signing up for races and events I didn’t even know existed and training hard for these challenges.

I’m here to tell you today that you can make changes to your life. You can find the drive and the focus you need to make those changes. It’s not going to be easy and if you’re anything like me, you will have pitfalls and it won’t be perfect success. But, that’s not the point is it? No, the point is that you are out there doing what you thought was impossible. Doing what you didn’t even know you wanted to do! So, whether you are just starting your fitness journey or you’re on the road and think you’ll never reach your destination, just know that it’s happening. It’s not only happening on the outside, but it’s happening on the inside. People are noticing. It’s not about reaching that perfect number on the scale, although that’s nice too, right? It’s more about finding the courage to do something different and focusing on becoming the best version of yourself. Here’s to transformations from the inside out!

It may not seem like a huge drastic change to many, but it is to me and I'm happy with where I am now and looking forward to where I'll be 3 months from now! — It may not seem like a huge drastic change to many, but it is to me and I’m happy with where I am now and looking forward to where I’ll be 3 months from now!

Letting Go Of Our Fears

What would happen if we just let go? If we just woke up one day and said, “I’m gonna do it!”? Excuses are abundant. I know I have a million!! We all make excuses for ourselves. Excuses for why we can’t workout, why we are stuck in a job we hate, why we can’t go back to school, why we don’t follow our dreams. Like I said, I get it. It’s hard to step out of that comfort zone. It’s hard to make the first move. It’s hard to try something new when we don’t know what the outcome is going to be. Did I mention, I get it. This is me right now. Sure, I have taken some risks. I have made some big changes in my life and to an extent, I know what it’s like to let go of fear. I’ve had some fears. The fear of walking into a gym, the fear of being in the front row of a Body Pump class (What was I thinking?), the fear of failing at my business. And, guess what? I overcame those fears and I’m here to tell you and to tell myself again, the outcome is worth it.

We get comfortable in our routine. We find something we think works for us and we stick to it. It’s safe and warm and cozy in our comfort zone. I’m in a pretty comfortable place right now. But, I started thinking of “what if’s?” and “why not’s?” and I got scared. I got scared of failure. So, I kinda put a few things on hold for a bit. But, of course those thoughts and ideas are still bubbling up inside my head and I can’t ignore them anymore. I shouldn’t ignore them and you shouldn’t either. What’s the worse that could happen? What’s holding you back? What’s the worst case scenario? I thought of mine and I am ok with it. I am ok with living with my worst case scenario. You know why? Because if I don’t try, if I don’t let go of my fear of failure, then I will never know if I will succeed. So, if you want to succeed at something, you have to give it a try. Lots of times, that means being scared. It means getting out of your comfort zone and trying new things. It means you have to work hard. You’ll never know unless you try and wouldn’t you rather say you tried and failed than never tried for fear of failure?

I know, I’m not saying anything you haven’t already heard or anything you probably haven’t already seen in an infographic on Pinterst. What I am saying right now to you and to myself is this: Let’s do it! Let’s focus on one (or 2 or 3) of our fears and take them down one by one! It doesn’t matter what it is. Whatever it is let’s let go of fear and come out winners. Winners for trying! Winners for letting of of fear!