Way back in 2012, I wrote down my New Year’s Resolutions to be in “fitness model shape”. That goal stayed in the back of my mind for the past 3 years. All of my campers have heard over and over again.

…Write your goals down
….Make sure they are measurable
….Step outside your comfort zone 

I decided this year to do all of the above. I wrote this goal down again for 2015. I would measure this so called  “fitness model shape” with a bikini competition. However, I needed to make a lot of changes.

As a trainer,  6 months ago, I found my fitness shape embarrassing. We received awful news in our family in both November and then again in December. It seemed like the hits kept coming and I was drowning. I turned to food. 

6 Months Ago:

I was:

Stressed
Exhausted
Questioning my job & my profession
Questioning my relationship

Where do I even start?

I changed my way of thinking. 

I constantly heard those voices in the back of my head of:

You don’t need to be in that good of shape
What’s the point 
There is no way you can eat that way with a 2 year old
You have too much going on in your life
Your knee won’t hold up with that kind of training 
No one wants to hear your brag about your competition 
Waking up at 4am to run on my only days to sleep in is just silly

They were all excuses. I always say, there is no such thing as a good excuse or a bad excuse, its just an excuse. And I wasn’t living up to my own words. 

The next 6 months I went all in, no excuses, just one step in front of the other.

And guess what? I reached my goal. 

It was difficult at times, but my friends and clients kept me going. They knew my goal and continued to check up on me. That was all the motivation I needed. I didn’t want to let them down. I found an amazing coach, Team Haines Training, experts in the field. As a “teacher” for the past 5 years, it was kind of nice to be a student again. I soaked up all the information I could.

I not only told myself I could do it, but I finally believed I could…no excuses allowed. 

Let’s face it, life does get in the way. We fall off the wagon and make excuses. The above story proves it happens, even to the best of us. Fight like hell to make sure its temporary and then make the decision to take your life back.