Never, ever, EVER give up!

Well hello, y'all!  It's been quite a while since I shared my crazy thoughts with you.  I just wanted to post a quick update so you know I'm alive, and I wanted to let you know to be watching for more posts!

Life has been hectic.  Since January, I feel like I have devoted at least half my energy to putting out fires and surviving the challenges thrown at me.   My father spent quite a bit of time in the hospital, my little girl has battled pneumonia and other winter illnesses, and in general, the winter blues hit me hard.  I have survived, though!  I kept my eyes above the waves and plowed through every obstacle with God.  

My Fueled by Faith challenge came to an abrupt halt after January.  Below freezing temps, tons of snow, rain, and ice, and the above-mentioned life events really impacted my ability to get out and train.  This month, though, I've taken up biking.  I have managed to bike at least one a week this month, and I love it!!  The furthest I've gone is about 2 miles, but considering I'd already done HIIT cardio and trained legs on biking day, it's a wonder I even survived at all!  I don't know what next month will be, but I'm going to stick with it.  I have to say, being unable to do what I say I'm going to do never sits well with me.  This has been a huge lesson in "progress > perfection" for me.  As long as I'm pushing for progress, trying to be the best I can in all aspects, I am moving forward.  Life never goes as planned!  

Speaking of "progress is greater than perfection"...one last thing before I wrap this up!  I'm 4.5 weeks out from my next show.  There were so many times I could have given up, and nobody would have blamed me for it or thought less of me.  There were days I couldn't get a workout in.  There were days I was at the hospital and I made it work with vending machine food.  (Not ideal, but I made it work!  Flexible dieting FTW!)  There were days when I had no energy, no motivation, and my workouts were mostly going through the motions.  EVERYONE HAS THOSE SEASONS.  Don't allow them to stop you from the pursuit of your goals.  I will be sharing progress pics and a few shameless selfies in the next post so you can see a glimpse of what I'm bringing to the stage in April, because in spite of all the pitfalls that could have been my downfall, I pushed forward, and I'm hoping to bring the best package to date in a few short weeks.   This was my ab self on Sunday morning:

Never, ever, EVER give up!!  

Until next time...

TRAIN HARD - LIFT HEAVY - FUEL YOUR BODY - FEED YOUR FAITH

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