Life, Fitness, and General Sillyness

I’ve been neglecting my blog pretty regularly, sorry guys. How is everyone doing? So the topic I want to talk about today is balance. How balanced is your life? Mine certainly isn’t. I’ve always been an “all in or all out” kind of gal. When I was younger and found something I liked, I obsessed over it. (Anyone who knew me in high school can tell you of my X Files obsession. Seriously, I had a problem.) Whether it is a musician or a band, a TV show, a movie, a hobby, a relationship, etc. I have always made one thing central I my life. That can be good and bad. The good is that it’s like having blinders on; you’re so focused on a goal or something else that you can’t possibly be distracted. But the bad side, obviously, is you miss out on the other stuff going on around you. What’s funny is I seem to meet other people who are exactly the same way. We live lives without balance. We are not evenly spread in our obligations, jobs, relationships, or hobbies. We even acknowledge we ha...

I go through ruts like anyone else does. It's pretty standard practice for me to do a show and burn out on fitness for a few months. I've done enough shows to know what to expect at this point and even though I get frustrated with myself, I know myself well enough to trust that I will get back on the full blown fitness wagon. In general the pattern goes as follows: ·          Train and diet my ass of for 3-4 months ·          Do a show ·          Come back and "be good" for 1-1.5 weeks ·          Start going back to "normal people" events like bars on the weekends or happy hours after work (enter mixed drinks, wine, and bar food) ·          Miss the gym more often, come home and veg out after work instead of training ·          Eat less...

I don't know about you guys but sometimes I just get stuck in a routine. I love routine but I become a slave to my schedule and diet. Or at least it feels that way. Aspects of my life are more flexible than others-- it's okay if I miss the gym for a little bit but my diet has to be dang close to contest clean if I want to get away with that. Even then, I'm fairly lax. I'm the first to admit it: I'm a flawed individual. I have lots of vices and guilty pleasures that I, as a fitness competitor and a role model for other people, have absolutely NO business partaking in. Trust me. I love ice cream and things that are terrible for me as much as anyone else. I seem to go through this funk every summer. I'm not entirely sure why, but I get a little "blerg" about training/eating clean in the summertime. It seems fairly counter intuitive, I know, but I'm most motivated in the fall and winter. Most people feel the pressure to get in the shape of their li...

I've been a bit behind on updating this so I figured I'd pop in here to say hello and see how everyone is doing. I myself have had a solid summer so far. I've been booked out pretty regularly on the weekends with this and that (family stuff, weddings, birthday, or just general nonsense). All in all, it's been pretty decent and I've been digging the warm weather. I don't know about you guys but I'm not a huge fan of change. At least not emotionally. Logically I understand that it's 100% necessary for growth personally, spiritually, and emotionally. But that doesn't make me any less of a baby who fights it with a big lump in her throat the entire way. :-p  So if that's you, don't feel bad-- you aren't alone. I'm very much a creature of habit and routine. When I'm in a groove, I'm in it for the long haul. Whether it's full competition mode with my work/diet/training schedule or it's my off season, I'm am very ...

Kicking off my "Summer of Facing Fears", this relates to my last blog. (Read it here .) This was my first challenge to myself and it was a tough one. This is an extremely personal one as well. Probably because I'm a sentimental chick! After my split with my ex, my internal "Map of the Twin Cities" looked like this. With time, it was downgraded to this. Who could ever be afraid of a lake, right? Why on earth would something so silly be 1000000% off limits to anyone? What's the big deal? I mean, sure, some people suffer from agoraphobia and have water anxieties, but are the ever afflicted by one specific lake in one spot? Seems ridiculous. I was. And I have been. This is a holy ground to me; this is iconic. After all, who could ever want to avoid something as beautiful as this? Lake Calhoun has been the source of many places I refuse to go to since my breakup last fall.  Refused. Many people don't get it. "It's just...

I've been at this whole fitness thing long enough that I'm starting to see things and all my endeavors from the last 4ish years pay off. How do I know this is happening? Writing for bigger and better publications every year. Working with bigger and better photographers every year. Getting recognized from fitness stuff when I'm out and about at bars. Emails from strangers, either with thank you for something I've written, or emails written in random scorn. (hey, whatever, you put yourself out to the public and that's gonna happen sometimes.) Emails from weird guys trying to ask me out and boasting of their money/things or treating me like I'm some kind of hooker. And for the mostpart, it's a good thing. I love fitness and I love my life. Here's the secret: The real secret. Pssssst, lean in closer. The internet, facebook, message boards? I t's all an illusion. The internet is a fabulous marketing tool. It allows you to build a brand i...

I get emails a few times a week inquiring why I use Isagenix products. I'm writing this to answer that question. And no, this genuinely is not a sales pitch. This is just the truth from my own experiences. I was approached with Isagenix products in 2011. I, like many of you, was incredibly skeptical. I thought it was a pyramid scheme. I thought it just seemed like stupid overpriced crap. At the time, I was very content with the products I was buying online or at Vitamin Shoppe. I just didn't think it mattered and it was just another Amway scheme. In fact, I'm pretty sure I was fairly snippy with the girl who talked to me about it. She was genuinely excited but my skepticism was so high that it didn't matter. She approached me about it or talked about it a few times in front of me. At the time, my then-boyfriend was looking for a natural product that didn't have artificial sweeteners of any kind. She talked to him and he ordered the Athlete's Pak (it had ...