Then and Now

This week has been rough. I was about to start my forth week of 22 Minute Hard Corps on Beachbody on Demand. During my workout on Sunday morning, I went down into a squat to jump back up and didn't come back up. I pulled something on the left side of my lower back. I couldn't move. Monday morning, I called my chiropractor and got in for Tuesday afternoon. It has taken two visits to the manual therapist and chiropractor to feel like I was starting to heal. It just so happens that I was not stretching enough after my workouts. I was neglecting my muscles. My hips were completely crooked. When I laid down on my stomach, my left hip was visibly higher than my right hip. I'm all untwisted and even now. My muscles are healing and I'm taking it easy. It has been six days.

Here's the really cool thing about my experience with my injury. I have another story from about five years ago.

This was me:

I was miserable. I didn't even know how miserable. I actually thought I looked okay. I had decided that I was going to accept myself for who I was and be okay with my body. I was in deep denial. Not only that, I was unhealthy. I didn't take care of myself. Nutrition was the last thing on my mind. I tried to go back to working out a little bit before this was taken. About six months before that I was in a wedding and needed to fit into a dress I had ordered before I was pregnant. I barely fit in my dress but I was proud of myself for getting into that dress. I was overweight before that and had purchased the dress in a bigger size than I was at the time just to make sure. I figured I could always take it in. I ended up having to take it out a little bit, but I got into it.

Shortly after that wedding, I injured my shoulder. I had problems with my shoulder before my second pregnancy but didn't do much besides muscle relaxers and ice. It would come and go. This time, I hurt it bad enough to venture into the chiropractor for the first time. It took two years to get my shoulders to a point where they didn't hurt anymore. I went every week, then every two weeks, then every three, every month, every five weeks. Then I would stop going for awhile but didn't do much to fix it.

In April of 2015, a friend introduced me to Beachbody. Now, I didn't have to go to a gym and do things that I wasn't comfortable doing in front of strangers in my current size. I worked out in my living room. I could use my little weights to start out with and not feel like people were laughing at me. I had 3lbs for my light weights and 5s for my heavy weights. I was excited to try something new. I signed up for the limited version of Beachbody on Demand when they first started streaming their programs. I did Brazil Butt Lift! It was fun and dance based but there were a lot of really great moves and it was a major learning experience for me. I think I was still doing Weight Watchers at the time but I can't remember anymore. I had lost quite a bit of weight but still wasn't anywhere near healthy. I moved on from there and did the 21 Day Fix and a few other programs I had access to. That's when I started to really look at the foods I was putting into my body.

It took until the summer of 2015 to fix my shoulders to a point where I could workout and lift weights without re-injuring myself.

Do you see the difference?
3 years of recovery and chiropractor visits. My shoulder injury did not feel worse than my back did this time around. My back is recovering after 6 days. I'm taking care of myself because of everything I've learned through these amazing programs.

Now, with Shakeology, I'm putting so much good stuff in my body that my muscles are able to recover and heal so much faster. I have to put in the work, stay on top of my meals, and plan to succeed. Because I do that, I'm in a much better place in my life.

This is me:

The major difference is not my size, though it is a huge difference. The biggest difference is my determination, confidence, and knowledge. I'm a better version of myself. I love myself enough to make my health a priority. Shakeology is expensive. Coach purses, daily trips to Starbucks, ordering pizza, hair color, 50 pairs of shoes, and all those other things that we think we need are expensive too. For me, those other things that I thought I wanted don't even come close to the benefits I see with Shakeology, Beachbody on Demand, and the effort of meal planning.

I'd love to help and guide anyone who wants to feel this good. Just send me a message and I'll help you get started.