My Health Journey

I shared this for our boot camp challenge & thought I’d share here.

I’m not going to lie, this particular challenge started out for the money. The chance to win $100,000 or any amount in the top 3 places or even the smaller amounts at our particular boot camp & help out my family for the price to get in was too good to pass up. After all, we’re in our biggest fixer upper yet, have 5 kids 10 & under, & have been living off of one income since we first started having kids as our 2nd came a year after our first. I just wanted to contribute more.

Not giving up on my health, pursuing confidence again, & setting a good example for my kids were also part of my goals. However, the night we were invited to go to the ninja academy, all that changed. I originally signed up our family to go because of the family rate we were able to get. My 9 year old son had asked me countless times to go there, but with 5 kids, the price there for the time spent financially didn’t make sense for us. When I saw that I could surprise him & my other kids for such a low price compared to normal, I was thrilled and so were they. It was all about their opportunity and getting a good deal my husband would be happy with as I had made my priorities for the last decade of my life. However, as I watched my kids having fun doing things I would have loved to do in the past before I had them & dealt with some crazy health issues, all that changed. I hid behind watching my kids, not even trying one single thing for fear of failure & being shown up by everyone else, and i realized just how much a part of me had died over the years, and how much I wanted to bring that part of me back.

Looking fit enough to feel confident about myself now seemed like such a shallow goal, like I was just settling in life. I once saw health and fitness as a way of challenging myself every morning, & through conquering that challenge at the start of the day, i felt like I could handle anything i was faced with. I just wanted to live in my potential in every area of my life; yet through the years and all the setbacks I’ve had, those dreams seemed too far to even reach for anymore.

I had dealt with so much relational toxicity, health issues, and setbacks that I started unknowingly playing the role of a victim in life, and just trying to survive day after day. My dreams of helping others out only extended to the kids I brought into this world, my husband, and closest friends.

This challenge has not only awoken a part of me that I felt had died long ago, but helped me feel like my dreams of living out my potential are not only worth reaching out for, but possible. Through my renewed energy and confidence I’ve gained in all this, I’ve been able to come alongside others who have been struggling just as I have over the years, and I can’t imagine a better way to spend my life. Seeing my type A 10 year old now writing out daily meal plans for school lunches, things to do daily to grow and not waste her time in front of a screen, and exercise options I’ve seen or heard her follow through with was just an awesome bonus in all of this! Fit Body and the inspiring family I’ve gained here has become such a part of my life, I can’t imagine ever leaving! I feel incredibly grateful to even have the opportunity to be here! #fitbodybootcamp #dreamagain #nevergiveup #growyourself #live #potential