Go. Be. Do.

Gravy and I have a history. It's complicated. If I had a dollar for every time I attempted to make gravy, I'd have...$5. (Yes, I can count on one hand how many times I have attempted homemade gravy.  If you only count how many times I actually put the gravy out for consumption, my return goes down.) Over the weekend, my husband mentioned he was hungry for beef tips and rice. So, when grocery shopping Sunday evening upon arriving home from a business trip, I picked up the necessary items to make him some for lunch one day this week. Today was the day. The previous four attempts at gravy were hard lessons learned.  No flavor.  Lumps.  Too thick.  Epic fail.  You name the disaster and my gravy consisted of it; sometimes combinations of disasters at once. So, I've watched videos.  I've consulted with my sister and witnessed her make gravy in front of me. I've read recipes.  I've made mental notes. This time it was going to be different. Nope. I mad...

If you’ve achieved any number of years, you will be, or already have been faced with constant transition, challenges, and change. Born out of these challenges is an opportunity for greatness. Everyone wants to leave a mark on the world, and everyone has something of value. We’re all on a quest to find that one thing that we can finally say “Ah, that’s why! That was my purpose for living.” ~Sandy Peckinpah~ Almost 3 years ago, I was tired of living life on the same old roller coaster.  Unhealthy habits, riding through the days one sugar high then crash after another, and having no sustainable energy led me to simply whisper a prayer for help. Help for what, you ask...help to find the answers to being healthy, feeling good, and making the outside match the inside of me.  Help to find what works for me to finally discover what I believed to be a "normal" lifestyle felt like. Through the course of some months' time, and through some unique ways, my prayer became answere...

It is a title I now hold.  It is something I worked up courage to take on as a personal endeavor.  It is a way for me to save money on some of my beloved and favorite tools I use daily to achieve fitness and nutrition goals. Many do not understand my journey to this "job"...nor do they understand the "job" description that comes with it. Most likely this is because there isn't one to be found. I write the description for myself. Every Beachbody Coach writes the description for themselves. This is a good thing because every individual who takes on being a coach has personalized goals...whys...for which they work.  You choose your whys.  You choose your methods.  You choose your targets at which to shoot. What being a Beachbody Coach for me is different than most.  Being a coach is a way in which I can promote the tools I have found to help me become most successful at my individual goals where my health is concerned.  The way in which I promote the...

With much trial and error, I am finding my way to a healthier version of myself more so than ever previously accomplished in this thing I call my life.  I have been pondering what makes this time around more effective.  The answer, while muli-leveled, is quite elementary. I gave up on being perfect and became willing to be perfected. My focus changed from arriving at a destination to enjoying the journey. The first, the act of arriving, leaves little wiggle room for error.  There's an expectation to meet.  Nothing shy of that expectation is satisfying. The second, enjoying the journey, means, as long as I am moving ... stumbling ... falling forward, I am making progress and, perhaps, even making time to enjoy the milestones along the way. It may not be pretty all the time; it doesn't have to be. This is the great thing about switching gears from being perfect to being willing to be perfected: what I do (or try to do) doesn't have to be perfect to be eff...

Two years ago today, I received a call no one ever wants to answer. I heard the results of my breast biopsy. Stage 0 breast cancer. Surgery and radiation therapy needed. Thankfully, I had begun to listen to my fitness coach, Kristine, and had begun to change my eating habits and was working out pretty consistently at the Y and doing crazy things like push ups and squats for fun. It wasn't Shakeology and Tony Horton, yet; that would come later, but I had made a decision to make small, consistent changes and was seeing some positive results. The fast ball that came straight over the plate. Cancer. Strike one. I dug in deeper with my workouts. I relied on sweat, more than tears, to clear out the fog trying to permanently set in. When I was at the Y, I was in a safe place. A place in which people did not know me as a cancer patient, but just as Janet, the regular workout girl. Then, the curve ball that caught me off guard. Radiation Therapy. Strike two. You see, however, by now, my wo...

Let's talk about FAILURE.  Yep.  It's the elephant in the room, so to speak. It is high time to just get that elephant moving on out of here. Did you know that failure is part of success. Now that you are really paying attention, consider what Winston Churchill said about our elephant named Failure... Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.  Sounds crazy, but I know it holds true in my life. I went yo-yoing my way through life always husky; a little less husky; then college added 75 pounds; kept gaining; lost almost 100; had kids and gained back. Lots of failures in there.  What worked in my 20's failed in my 30's, and what kinda worked in my 30's was not working as the 40's began. Until now.  What changed? My mind. I whispered a prayer in April of 2013 and God heard it. He used some interesting characters to motivate me that summer to stop eating sweets, and, all of a sudden, I discovered I could say no t...

For those who may not know, Game Day is one of the workouts in Shaun T's Insanity Asylum. Appropriately named, if you ask me. It is insane and you have to be committed to finishing it in order to finish it. Every day of this now 16 month journey that I've been on, prior to July 6th, Shaun T and I had an understanding...it's rather one sided, of course, since he has no clue as to who I am, but an understanding, nonetheless. This was the gist of it: I don't try his workouts; he doesn't yell at me nor do I fail. Pretty cut and dry. I was happy. Shaun T was happy. Why wouldn't he be? Everyone else loves him and his Insanity this, that, and the other. I feared the man and his workouts. So, what happened that I am now blogging about Game Day? I began Insanity Asylum. And completed it. Will get the T-shirt one day soon. Before I get on with Game Day follies, let me just say I extremely disliked hated day one. I do not use this particular word lightl...