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Life and Family Update

Well – my last post on here was about living in limbo and building our house. We have currently been in our house for about a year and a half now. We are loving it for the most part, and have been already planning more changes for the future … deck, pole building, etc..

In 2023, we planted grass, and got a REAL driveway. This will help so much with rain and also melting snow…if we ever get any. A couple other bigger things that happened in 2023 was that my mom, and my grandma moved back home from New Mexico! It’s been so nice having them back close by.

In October of 2023, we had been treating our 10.5 year old German Shepherd Zooey for a UTI, but it was not getting any better — the third time we took her in her bladder ruptured, and the vet had found a blockage in her pelvis that was cancer. We had to make the VERY hard decision to put her down. Even though at times she drove me crazy, I still miss her, and she will always have a place in our hearts.

In November 2023, my cousin James (aka Jimmy) moved back home to Minnesota as well!

Its been so fun having him so close to us as we haven’t gotten to hang out very much through out life, but especially as adults. Unless it’s the annual trips to the MN State Fair. Also shout out — if anyone needs any wines for special occasions or even just a Tuesday night — he’s your guy! The boys are so excited to have Jimmy close by as well because, last summer when he was visiting he taught Killian how to play pickle ball, and he loves it. Killian can’t wait to play more pickle ball with Jimmy.

Fast forward to this month (Jan 2024), we got a “puppy”. Everyone meet Zeke (formerly known as Kasper).

We got Zeke on January 5th, through Ruff Start Rescue. He is such a sweet boy, most of the time haha. We started Obedience training with him about a week ago, and that already seems to be going better than expected. He loves playing with balls of all sizes, and seems tolerant of Zelda (Mini Schnauzer) chasing and barking at him as he chases the balls.

Once again, I hope to be more active on here as I enjoy sharing my life with any one interested in it. As usual, please leave a comment for things you want me to talk about or share on this page. I think I’m going to share about the next steps on my fitness journey on my next post to give a little self update.

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Living in Transition/Building New

As I sit here enjoying my coffee on my birthday week day off — I am reflecting on the past year. The past year has had a lot of ups and downs, but I feel as though we are definitely on the up right now.

My family and I are living with my adopted dad in a much smaller space than we are used to while our house is being built. Its been hard at times — especially when the boys are home and we are trying to work — key word TRYING.

“We are doing the best we can”, I just have to keep saying and remembering that. Another common phrase that I have been saying is that “Its only temporary”. These two phrases have kept me mostly sane through out the past 9+ months.

The new house we are building is coming along, but the estimated time for us to move in is still the end of July due to potential materials or fixtures that could be delayed.

House progress as of 4/2/22

I has been so much fun and exciting going to go check out the house at least once a week to see the changes happening. We all can hardly wait to move in and making this house a home for us.

The next steps in the house progress that we are looking forward to are:

  • Windows being installed
  • Getting the basement heated up so that we can get the floor done and walls up down there
  • Meeting with cabinet guy
  • Meeting with electrical guy
  • Picking out our rustic mantle and barn door for master bath
  • Picking out all of the lighting

Dan (husband) and I are going to go check it out this afternoon so hope to have something else checked off the list of progress by then!!

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Finding… balance – Life Update

Hello! It’s been a long while since I have posted anything. Over the past year — or more, I have learned a lot about myself through individual counseling.

That’s right.. you read that correctly — I have learned that mental health is very important, and to me you need to fix yourself before you can fix anything else around you. Kind of like the saying that goes something like you need to love yourself before you can love or be loved by anyone else.

I started writing this blog post back in February of 2021 — its been a long time since I have taken the time for myself to actually sit down and write a post… so here we are October 2021.

A little update on life — I started a new job in Feb 2021, thought I would like it but it turned into a stressful situation, and made me lose a lot of my balance that I was working so hard to find. Every time I would need to be away from work for appointments, or dropping kids off, I would feel bad, and feel like I needed to work extra, extra hours to make up for lost time, even when I had finished all the work that I knew how to do.

While working that job, we prepped our house for the market, and sold it in 24 hours. We moved in with my adopted dad in a much smaller space than we are used to. The kids started a new school (Spanish immersion). We started the process for building a house and I quit that bad for me job.

From my Springbrook Nature Center trail walk this week.

I have two weeks off in-between quitting my previous job, and starting my new job. During these two weeks I have already planned so many things that make my heart happy. I am meeting up with friends that I haven’t seen in a while, and taking care of myself by getting out in nature for walks and just sitting. It feels good to feel good about myself again. The kids seem happier too since I’ve been able to take them to the park after school each day for them to enjoy the weather and just be kids. I love that I am able to have this time with them.

K and P playing at the park — living their best life.

Throughout the next few weeks I will be keeping that word balance in my mind as I start my new job, and know in my being what balance means to me. I feel so much better inside and out since quitting that job — its unbelievable what a not so great environment can do to a person.

We continue to juggle the struggles of working from home, being twenty or more min from everything, and trying to find time for each other during this time of transition.

If you are wondering where we are at in the building process — its just getting started. Currently awaiting the preliminary drawing of the blueprint from the architect. If you know me, I am kind of impatient but have been trying to keep busy so that I don’t think about it. I hope to keep you all updated on the progression of building a house.

I am truly hoping that I don’t take a year off from posting on this blog. I hope to create some valuable information for you all in the months to come.

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2020 Goals — Here We Go AGAIN!

January for me seemed to fly by — I have already started working on my goals for this year.

I have seen/heard a lot of people coming up with 20 in 2020 lists, so I decided that I wanted to do that as well — at least for a couple things:

I will read/listen to 20 Books in 2020. I will go to 10 new restaurants in 2020. I will try 10 new recipes at home in 2020. I will go on on monthly date nights. I will practice SELF LOVE. I will blog. I will run (Ragnar Sunset, Grandma’s Marathon, and Ragnar Relay – so far). I will have a gratitude practice.

I have started reading/listening to books already this year — I have completed at 5 books so far this year. All of them so far have been on audible, because that is easier for me to do with my busy life, but I’m still getting it done. The books that I have listened to so far have been Mindset by Carol Dweck — so so good talks about the differences between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset and helps you try to find the ways to get out of a fixed mindset and into a growth mindset. If you love the Netflix show You then you would love listening to or reading the books You and Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes. They were really easy to listen to and the first book was pretty close to Season 1 of the show. These two definitely kept me engaged and I literally couldn’t stop listening. Another fun read was The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines it was such a sweet book and it was fun learning more about their story of how they came to be, and the bonus of the audible version was that it was read by both of them. #couplegoals Another book that I listened to was Not a Diet Book: Lose Fat. Gain Confidence. Transform Your Life. by James Smith — very informative in all the ways. I first learned about James Smith from one of my best friends, she sent me his instagram and I started following him and would watch his story and have listened to his podcast. He really knows his stuff, and I loved listening to him read this book on audible.

As for my other goals, I have tried one new restaurant Momo Sushi in Minneapolis, such an amazing “cheat” meal!! I love sushi so much, just in case you didn’t know that about me. We got a sous vide for Christmas and we have made quite a few different meats using that (chicken — so juicy and steak). I would count that as one of my new recipes, because it was a new way of cooking. 🙂

The monthly date nights have been working well, because we have made a plan with another set of parents from our daycare that we switch off with them one weekend each a month, and they take our kids one weekend and we take their kids another weekend. So far it has worked out, and the kids have had a lot of fun.

Self love and gratitude is an on going work in progress for me — I am trying to get back my confidence in myself and figuring out my balance of fitness and being a wife and mom. I would say this year is off to a much better start than last year. Last year I lost weight and felt great and so confident, but I was becoming addicted to going to the gym and would be so upset at myself if I cheated even the slightest bit on my diet — my diet was very restricted. This year I started training with Okon Fitness, and I am in love. From the weekly check-ins not only looking at weight, but also measurements, and photos it has made a world of difference on my mind. They are also part of an app where there is a group of strong women that are part of the program and we motivate, inspire, and lift each other up. It’s such a great feeling.

The running — well in October of 2019, I was planning on signing up for Grandma’s Half Marathon in Duluth — well by the time I got around to signing up — that race was FULL, so I just decided to go for it and sign up for the full. Why would I do such a thing … you might ask. Well, I LOVE, like literally, LOVE Duluth and Lake Superior, and I have always heard that if your goal/dream doesn’t scare you a little bit then its not big enough — well needless to say — I’m scared for June 20, 2020. My goal going into this is to finish, I don’t have a time that I need to beat or anything like that I just am going for the experience and the challenge. Fun Fact: When my husband, Dan, and I were up in Two Harbors in April of 2019 we randomly met this great girl and her friend at a small town karaoke bar. Her and I connected so well that we became friends on Facebook, and started following each other on instagram. Each time that I’ve been up to the north shore, I have met up with her. Her and her fiancé are letting us stay with them for grandmas marathon weekend!! So excited to get to know her more!

The Ragnar runs — a group of my crazy FXB people #teamstupidstuff decided to run the sunset Ragnar as well as the full road Ragnar running from St Paul all the way up to Duluth. Again — I’m so scared, but so excited at the same time.

I will blog this year! I am making that promise to myself, the only way to get better is to practice…so here I go.

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Its been a while

So much has gone on since I have last updated you all on my life. I know that I said I was going to post about food with my next update so I will include some of what I have been doing for meal prep in this post.

I have been eating a lot of the same things for the past few months, and for me I have been able to be really good during the week and then I’m not as on track on the weekend — sometimes I’m not eating enough on the weekends and some times I’m eating too much.

To start with, during the week I am usually eating 5-6 meals per day.  Meal 1 consists of my pre/post workout meal, then the meals following that are about 2.5 hours apart.  I also aim to drink at least 100 oz of water per day, if not more.  In our house we usually prep a lot of our food on Sundays, and then if needed we will prep on Wednesday or Thursday for the rest of the week.

A few things that I meal prep every week are:

Steel Cut Oats: Instant Pot recipe – 7 min with high pressure with natural release. 2 cups of Oats and 5 cups of water.  This recipe makes 8 servings.

Hard Boiled Eggs: Instant Pot recipe: 5 min with high pressure with 5 min natural release. 1 cup of water and 10-12 eggs.  As soon as the 5 minutes of natural release are up, put all eggs in an ice water bath and peel when slightly cool.

Brown Rice: Instant Pot recipe: 2 cup of rice and a little more than 2 cups of water. 12 min high pressure with a 10-12 min natural release.  This recipe makes 8 servings.

Ground Turkey/Beef: Stove top – brown the meat, and then just season with whatever seasonings you are craving a recent favorite in our house is taco seasoning. Be careful on how much seasoning you are using because of the sodium content.

Chicken Breast: Depending on the type of chicken you are wanting (shredded/strips), I have been really enjoying frozen chicken breasts cooked on the grill.  When it gets colder here, I will probably start incorporating more shredded chicken recipes in the instant pot.  When that happens, I will share some recipes that me and my family enjoy.

The weirdest one of the bunch is “drinkable egg whites”, they don’t taste as bad as you would think, and they don’t have the super runny consistency.

Drinkable Egg Whites: You will need 1 short blender bottle, 1 (16oz) carton of pasteurized egg whites (we purchase ours from Costco), 2 tablespoons of your favorite flavor of coffee creamer, and 1 packet of Truvia.  This recipe makes 2 servings which is equal to 25g of protein in each serving.

Hope you enjoy these simple how to recipes for some of the things I meal prep on a weekly basis. Have a great one and keep working on find your balance in life.

 

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What has been going on with me

Hello all!! Sorry I have been MIA for a while.  So much has happened since I last made a post… where do I begin….

Well, at the end of the last FIT challenge at Farrell’s, there was a training that came up to become a kickboxing instructor.  I was scared, but I decided that now is as good a time as ever.  I have taught 6 full classes on my own and have a few more currently on the schedule.  So far I love instructing, it brings out a more outgoing and confident side of me.  Sure I’m a little nervous every time I put that microphone on to teach a class, but once I get started its all good.  I am so thankful for all the people that believed in me, even though I didn’t.  It sure makes me feel so happy that I have such a large number of people that push, inspire, and motivate me to do my best.

Since I have started instructing kickboxing at FXB, it has motivated me to start thinking about yoga more often, and possibly work on finding the courage to teach that — even in a community ed or just for fun setting.  I have my certification.. maybe now is the time to do something with it.

Well, after I completed the first three kickboxing classes, we went on a family vacation to Branson, MO to visit family friends. I was excited to have a vacation, but also not excited to miss my morning FXB workout for 9 days in a row — especially since I had not missed a workout all year.  I know that it is good to have balance, and I think it was good for me in the long run to have a vacation from FXB — I was able to sleep in, and we all know how great sleep is for you!

Our vacation was great, I worked out a couple times, but definitely not as hard as I would have back home — at least I was getting activity in.  I was even able to get a couple small runs in which felt really good, since I had kind of fallen off the running wagon.  Which brings me to now, last weekend a good FXB friend of mine talked me into signing up for the Twin Cities 10 mile drawing.  How it works is if your “team” is chosen in the drawing, then you are able to run in the TC 10 mile. I kept telling her how nervous I was, and that I couldn’t run 10 miles… that’s almost a Half Marathon.  She consistently would tell me to stop telling myself that I couldn’t do it, she also told me to believe in myself, because she does. Well to make a long story short — our team was one of the many chosen to run the TC 10 mile.  Let the training begin!

I haven’t been running as long of distances as I should be at this point, but at least I’m running some.  My goal for the TC 10 mile is just to finish the race — I will not beat myself up if I walk/run the whole thing.

Along with that training, a new FIT challenge has begun at FXB.  This time it is FIT Olympics.  We each pick a few categories to “compete” in and there will be prizes for the winners as usual.  I also decided to go in on a small challenge with some of my girl FXB friends based strictly on weight loss. So far, I have been running at least twice a week as well as being more strict with myself on food.

Also, in regards to being a Kickboxing instructor, every class feels different to me, and the more classes I teach the more comfortable I am.  I love every second of it, I have a lot of fun doing it and hope that the FXB members taking my classes have fun taking my classes too.

I am so thankful for my fitness family, they are amazing and are always lifting me up.  This morning 4 of us ran 1.59 miles before LEG DAY… well it turned out to be my fastest mile time ever 10 min 15 sec — all because when you work out with others you knowingly and unknowingly push each other, and that’s what makes it so great!

Find things in your life that you enjoy, and that you can be with others — find balance in your life between work and play.  I haven’t been blogging as much as I originally wanted, but I WILL commit more of my time to focus on this blog — my next post will be something in regards to food. YUM! 🙂

 

 

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Personal FIT challenge results — and learning moments

I have so many thoughts and emotions going through my head so I figured I would just write it all down.  Those that know me, know that I don’t have a lot of love for myself, and I never really feel proud of myself.   I am working on that. It is really hard for me to take compliments.  Also, when I make goals and then don’t reach them by the time I have set out to reach them — I get disappointed in myself, and kinda beat myself up.

The most recent FIT challenge has just come to a close.  The goals that I set for myself were the following:  Lose 10 lbs of weight, and down 2% body fat.  Well — what actually happened was I ended up down 9.1 lbs of weight, and down 1.9% body fat.  I should have immediately been really proud of what I accomplished, but I wasn’t.  Why??

We are all our own worst critic.   I feel so lucky to have so many close friends and immediate family that tell me all the time how great I’m doing, and that I’m amazing. When they tell me these things, I usually just brush it off, probably roll my eyes, and say thanks.  To all of you — I’m sorry that it is so hard for me to take compliments.  In my heart, I really love having others notice my progress, because it feels really good.  However, in my head — I don’t BELIEVE in myself, so therefore not in agreement with the compliments. I am working on this, because it really does all start and end in your mind.  Believing that you can do it, believing that you deserve it, and believing that you will get it.

The next FIT challenge starts in approximately 5 weeks —  a lot of changes have already started in my mindset.  I will be proud of myself through all of my accomplishments — small or large.  I can do this!! I’m half way through the 10K challenge through FXB.  I want to win this!  I need to buckle down my nutrition and have very minimal cheats.  I know that I need to tweak a couple things with my nutrition, but I also know that I have the support to help me kill these last 6 months of the 10K challenge!!!

More to come soon about other new happenings in my gym life. Stay tuned 🙂

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Believe …

….Deep Breath….

The past few weeks have been very empowering and emotional for me.  The first week of this month, I started running.  For those of you that know me, I am definitely NOT a runner by any means.  I ran a mile outdoors and only stopped to walk once.  I was so proud of myself. I couldn’t believe that I did it. My close friends and family members were really proud of me too.

The next morning I got a text from my husband saying that he ran a mile — I inspired him to get out there and do it. I was very happy for him and kind of excited to see what new aspect this could bring to our lives. When I got home that day, we decided that we would start running together 2-3 times a week.

On the 4th, there was a 4K run/walk supporting Hope4Youth, which I had known about for about a month.  I was too afraid to sign up to do the run/walk — even though I totally could have just walked the whole thing.  There was a group of friends from FXB doing the 4K, and one in particular, Marilee, thought I had signed up.  She called me wondering if she needed to pick up my registration packet…I told her that I hadn’t signed up for the run, because “I can’t run a 4K” and “No one will go as slow as me” and “I’m scared”.   Marilee has always been a huge supporter and told me that there was nothing to be afraid of, and that I didn’t have to run any of it if I didn’t want to.  She also told me that she believes in me and that if I couldn’t do this 4K that she would get me out of my comfort zone and do a 5K with me.  We hung up the phone with each other, and I thought about it for about 5 minutes or less — I called my mom to see if she would be able to be home to watch the kiddos, and called my husband, Dan, to see if he wanted to run the 4K.  Everyone said yes…with that I called Marilee back and she signed me and Dan up for the race.  She was so excited for us to do the race.

When I got home from work, after talking to Marilee, Dan and I decided to go running.  My thoughts were that we would run a mile and be done — his thoughts not so much. We ran the mile (I ran the whole thing without stopping!! FIRST TIME EVER!) and then started walking and talking.  As we were walking, I decided that wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be and we decided to do another mile.  I ran that mile without stopping too.  I was so proud of myself, I’m still tearing up a little typing this.  I made a goal in my head that I was going to run the whole mile and then I did, even though I didn’t think I could. That was proof to me that if I get out of my own way, I can do anything that I put my mind to.  All I have to do is believe in myself!

When it got to race day, I was nervous.  All of my FXB friends just kept saying you will be fine. You got this.  We went to the starting line up and started the run.  I ended up running by myself, but that was OK with me because then I could just run and focus on my breathing.  When I got to the 1 mile marker I hadn’t stopped — I said to myself, “I can keep going”.  I kept going — I definitely thought about stopping, but told myself that I didn’t need to.  I was still breathing and pacing myself just right — I got to the 2 mile marker.  I nearly started crying — this was the first time EVER that I had run without stopping for that long. “I have gone this far — there is only .5 miles left — I got this”.  The finish line was just in reach — I heard Marilee, Dan and some of the others cheering me on — I pushed harder.  I ended up passing the finish line at 29.02.  I felt amazing, I cried. I couldn’t believe that I did it!!

I ran a 4K without stopping, what else could I do that I had previously been holding myself back from…only time will tell.

I really enjoyed running — I decided to make some running goals for myself:

Run a 5K by mid July.  Do the Rugged Maniac with Marilee in September.  Run a 10K by October… and the biggest goal… Run Grandma’s 1/2 Marathon in 2019.

“Yes I can!”  All I need to do is believe in myself.  If you have any running tips, tricks, or must haves let me know in the comments below!!

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Goals before 30

Well, its a new month and I just turned 29 on April 4th.  There are so many different big and small goals that I have set for myself to accomplish by the time I turn 30.  I have already started working on some of them, and I’m aware that some of the bigger ones I may continue working on for years.

I know it isn’t the normal time of year to talk about goals or aspirations for the year ahead, but I figured now is as good of a time as ever — so here are some of the things that I would like to work on for the year ahead —

  • Read at least 1 book a month — preferably something in regards to personal development or health/fitness/wellness. Some of the books on my list to read:  Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, How to get out of your own way by Tyrese Gibson, and You are a Badass by Jen Sincero.  I would love to hear some personal development titles from you.
  • Be around 25% Body Fat — When I started at FXB in Oct 2017, I was about 47% BF, after the 10 week challenge, break, and an 8 week challenge I ended up at 37% BF.
  • “Get out of my own way” — This will most likely be an on going goal for a while, but I will definitely be working on this a lot this year.  I have built invisible walls that are holding me back in a few aspects of my life.  I plan to break down those walls.  I want to become a more confident person all around, but especially at work.
    • Another goal that goes along with the above is Love Myself more — everyone around me sees me as a great person — I just need to see that and believe in myself.  I have been told that I need to “believe to achieve” — so that is what we will do.  It won’t happen over night, but the more I practice it the more it will become natural as with anything.

These are just a few of the things I will be working on accomplishing or at least making progress toward achieving by the time I am 30.

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Finding My Balance

Hello all… I’m so excited to finally start a blog.  One of my 2018 goals this year was to start a blog…so here it goes.

First of all, let me start off telling you why I chose the title “Finding Your Balance”.  Balance means a lot to me — for instance having so many things that you want to do and being able to fit them all into your life at the right time and the right amount.

I have a full-time job in Finance/Accounting, I am a mom of 2 young boys, and a wife.  I love to work out at Farrell’s Extreme Bodyshaping  (FXB), and practice yoga.  I also enjoy eating healthy most of the time, because I love the way it makes me feel.  As you can see, that is a lot of different things going on in my life, which is why I need balance.

Some of my hobbies are making lists, singing, dancing, shopping at Target, getting coffee or tea at Starbucks, working out at FXB, going to Duluth, and just hanging out with my little family.

In 2016, I became a certified yoga instructor through CorePower in Northeast Minneapolis, I never thought I would have been able to put in all the work and time necessary to “graduate” from teacher training, but I did. That was such an amazing experience, I learned so much about myself, and about yoga, but more on that later.  I know that I could NOT have done it without my wonderful and supportive husband. He definitely helps with keeping our lives balanced.  While I work out every morning at FXB, he is home – sleeping of course – with the kids.  I’m so grateful for him.

In October of 2017, I started working out at FXB as a “10 weeker”.  What an amazing experience, all of the wonderful instructors, coaches, and fellow classmates to work out along side and see their journeys first hand.  I will also post later about my journey at Farrell’s, and how its just the beginning.

I hope you all enjoy my blog, and feel free to let me know your comments… or if you have anything that I should post about — recipes, yoga, FXB, date ideas, kiddo ideas, etc.