Fit and Balanced Mom: NASHVILLE OR BUST!

Weekly Update: This week I felt good, REALLY good. Going into my weekly weigh in, I was confident. And it paid off!! I'm down 2lbs in a week, my total is back to 73.8lbs and I'm just shy of being back at 75lbs. This past few months has been a bit of a 'plateau', but I'm OK with it. I had 5lbs of fluctuation for about two months. The key is I didn't gain massive amounts because of frustration. I just let myself figure it out, and I feel finally 'back' at it.

I had a fantastic week last week, and this blog will highlight my experience with a trip to Nashville that happened to come right around my 1 year 'fit-aversary'.

I found these two photos and wanted to draw the comparison in this blog post. On the left, I was about 45lbs into my weight loss journey. I felt AMAZING in this photo. Here I am practicing "Combat" in a group workout with 300 others of all ages, sizes and abilities. I remember feeling SO PROUD. I then look at photos from this past week in Nashville, about 30lbs lost since the first photo, I can't get over how my body has changed. And my determination is still there, but in photos these days I'm also seeing my happiness really come out. I missed that happiness about me in photos. I used to be 'silly' but my lack of confidence took the silly out of me for almost 2 years. It's such a blessing to see the SILLY back in me!

My trip to Nashville was called 'Summit' and it was an event for all the Health and Fitness Motivational Coaches for the organization I advocate for. My dear friend, Katie, came with me. We took this photo after a group workout with 10,000 others (how cool is that?). I then searched back and found the two photos of us from last year. We both met each other months before we started our journeys and last summer we decided to make a change. In that year, we lost a full person! I am grateful to have had some amazing friends by my side over the course of this past year.

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So I said I had a great time in Nashville, what I forgot to say was that I had to get up at 5am every morning! I didn't 'have' to, but if I wanted to get up and workout with a mass of other happy people looking to improve their lives, 5am was wake up time! We had 6am live workouts with celebrity trainers (Shaun T, Autumn from the 21 Day Fix, Chalene Johnson, Sagi from Body Beast and Tony Horton). The feeling you get working out with 10 to 20 THOUSAND others at all different points in their journey is well worth getting up at 5am, eating a banana and moving on with the fun.

Our last workout was literally so big, the city shut down the main street in downtown Nashville. How amazing, right?

What was fun about this trip, it was also the first time in 3 years I've really had a 'vacation'. I did a mini trip with my husband (2 nights) to practice about a month ago, but this trip was out of state from my 2 year old son and really 'disconnected' me from any and all responsibility. I missed him dearly, as well as my husband, but it really was so cathartic to be away, focusing on me and really just letting myself relax for the first time in a really long time.

I love this one! Here I am with my friend and fellow Coach, Katie. We had access to a private vent for other leaders in the coaching network and they really did it up with the fun including a live band and this man on stilts!

While I got to workout live with Autumn, this is the closest I got to taking a photo with her. I'll take it!

And of course, you can't go to Nashville without taking a photo with Elvis!

While in Nashville, I had early access to purchase the newest program by Team Beachbody, "CIZE". If you know me, you know I DON'T dance. I never have. I was the girl at dances who would avoid the dance floor for anything.

Until now!

I am really working on going out of my comfort zone, which includes letting a little dance into my life. I am doing a 30 day program called "Cize" which really aims at helping everyone dance - even people like me who have no rhythm. And you know what, it's fun!

On to food news! Another thing I was able to pick up in Nashville was this amazing cookbook! It's a great addition to the clean eating program I follow that has helped me lose all my weight. The program I follow is the 21 Day Fix, but now all of Team Beachbody's newest programs are all including the container system. It's easy, and it gets you eating the right balance. This cookbook is wonderful and makes my days that much easier!

For example, I usually make my Shakeology pretty simply, I'm a creature of habit and am afraid of messing up a good thing. Well, I decided to go out of my comfort zone for a second time this week and try a Shakeology recipe from Fixate. Man, it was SO good!

Even my 2 year old son loved it - so much that I only got to drink half. The best part? The basil is from our garden and the blueberries we picked at the farm last week.