Happy Hump Day Friends!

I’m so excited as well as nervous to be writing this post on the new website!!!! If you haven’t checked out me chatting all about the new design process, you can read about that here.

This post has been a long time coming. A lot of you have been asking me what I did to get started on my wellness journey and how I lost the weight. Well today I am here to talk to you about it and show you some transformation photos that I CANNOT BELIEVE I am about to show you!

From the very beginning, my wellness journey has been about me and me alone. I set out an a personal journey to get back to being MY best self.

My journey began on October 9, 2017. This was my first day with my personal trainer.

I took this before photo my first day.

When I first went to Coach Linda she asked me what my fitness goals were. I told her that I wanted to wear a two piece again and be comfortable wearing it. She asked me was I ready to buy new clothes and I told her I was, so we got started.

Now I’m not even about to sit here and tell you that I loved working out in the beginning and I was so motivated… No maam, not even a little! I love it now, but then… NO! My first day with Coach Linda I was really thinking how I could get my money back because this was going to be HARD!!!!! However, I knew that I couldn’t so the best thing for me was to get my life and mind together and buckle up!

There were a lot of days when I didn’t “feel” like doing any of that fitness stuff. It was hard yall. The hardest part for me was when the motivation ran out, I wasn’t seeing results and I just “felt” like I was on the hamster wheel going nowhere and doing all of this for nothing.

That’s when DISCIPLINE had to kick in.

Needless to say I stayed the course and have reached my goal!

This photo of me in this two piece is not to show off.

It is to show you that hard work AND consistency pay off and if I can do it, so can you. Really!!

For me it was about more than losing weight and fitness. I wanted to be WELL all around. I wanted to be whole in my mind, body and spirit.

If you are looking to make a lifestyle change, first of all… I am proud of you and I’m sending you a huge virtual hug! It takes courage to step out of where you are to be or feel better. You can do it and you will!

If this is you, I wanted to share a few tips with you that can get you started on your wellness/fitness journey.

• Already see yourself where you want to be. If you are visual, make a wellness vision board.

Listen Linda… I am a very visual person. I needed to visualize myself looking and feeling the way I wanted to look and feel. So I started by pinning some images on Pinterest. Things like quotes and fitness motivation.

Then I printed them off and made a big vision board and some small personal vision boards that I could fit into my planner. That way I could SEE my goals right in front of me daily. I check my planner daily and I knew this would be a good way to keep the vision right in front of me. Especially on the hard days. I encourage you to get creative with this part of the process. Make your vision board all yours.

Don’t just focus on your fitness goals, but your TOTAL wellbeing. Make goals that are going to feed not only your body, but your spirit and mind also.

• It’s about more than fitness and working out. This is a total lifestyle change.

Again, it’s not just about fitness, it’s about your total wellbeing. When you begin to make lifestyle changes, it becomes about more than working out. Everything about you will change. Your mindset is the biggest thing that will change.

I have learned so much about myself on this journey and I am so grateful. It will cause you to face some hard truths if you’re bold enough to be completely honest with yourself (And you should be), but you will be much better off. Trust me.

•  Discipline and consistency is KEY!

Listen to me!! You WILL NOT and I repeat WILL NOT always feel motivated. You just won’t. However, if you can remain consistent to your goal and push through, you can make it. You WILL make it. You have to develop a disciplined mindset that says, no matter what, I am going to remain consistent to my goal. Remaining consistent will cause you to become disciplined and that will spill over into a lot of areas in your life. When you feel stagnant and like you’re going nowhere, do not abort the process. Discipline will have to be your motivating factor. It will not happen overnight and you don’t want it too. Slow progress is still progress. It will get hard, but stay the course.

• Not everyone is going to understand or be supportive, do it anyway.

I hate to keep telling y’all to listen, but listennnnnnnnn!!!!! This is one of the biggies. When I first started this wellness journey, along with the gluten free diet, I caught SO much backlash from people that claimed to be for me. I’m not the kind of person that is moved by what other people think, so it didn’t cause me to stop. However, it did annoy the crap out of me, if I can be totally honest. I had to turn down social invites and dinner with people because I didn’t always feel like explaining myself. This journey was about ME and I wasn’t going to allow others to dictate to me what I should be doing, how I should be eating or how much weight THEY thought I should lose. That didn’t stop folks from trying smh, but my mind was made up. Not everyone is going to understand why you’re doing what you’re doing ESPECIALLY when they start to see your results, BUT this journey isn’t about anyone , BUT YOU. I have had folks tell me, “you have lost enough weight you don’t need to lose anything else” or my personal favorites are “you can have just a little bit, it won’t hurt you” or “why did you need to lose all of that weight anyway, you looked just fine before”.

Like really?!? Chile bye!

Put your blinders and earplugs on and get on about doing the work you need to do in order to become your best self. No one knows what that is but you! Regardless of who supports you or who doesn’t, learn to become your biggest cheerleader. Also, if you do better with groups, align yourself with some people that have some of the same wellness goals as you. You know I have your back too!!

• It will be hard, BUT SO WORTH IT!

If it was easy everyone would do it. Truth is this thing can get downright hard and it takes a minute sometimes to see results. I had times, where I wasn’t seeing any results and the scale (hated it) wasn’t moving, but I was losing inches and I felt great. That was one way I measured my success. Another was how I looked and felt in my clothes. The main thing to remember is not to quit. If your body is anything like mine, it will go through changes. One day you will look slim and trim and the next you may be bloated or have water weight. Stay the course. Ladies will most likely have to deal with water weight and bloat, but it will go away.

MY motto has been to put myself at the top of my to do list every single day and I have not regretted it one bit. I still have a few more goals to reach, but I am so excited about how far I have come.

I am grateful to God everyday!! HE kept me going on the days that I wanted to give up!! I started the beginning of the year with this little, but powerful scripture:

Proverbs 16:3 Commit your works to the Lord [submit and trust them to Him], And your plans will succeed

That was and still remains my remedy for success!

Also, BE HUMBLE! When you see your results, remain humble and always remember the journey that got you to where you are. Your didn’t get there in a day and you didn’t get the on your own. Be sure to reach back and help to motivate and encourage someone else

I really hope this post has answered some of the questions that you have. The important thing is to just start. Where you are and with what you have. I am definitely cheering you on friends!

Do you practice wellness, if so, what got you started and what does your routine look like? I’d love to hear from you!

Nicole