Dare to Dream? - Yes You Should!

******Do you dare to dream big??******

Did you just answer that? I hope you did. I didn't dare to dream big before but I do now and why shouldn't I? Why shouldn't you? Do we have this strange idea in our heads that we need to keep it "real" and we shouldn't toss around crazy ideas in our heads like "owning several vacation homes or an island?!?"  "Ha Amy, keep it real girl, that'll never happen!"  Well I've got something to tell you, anything is possible - yep I said it and I believe it.

I had short-term goals of losing weight, staying home with my kids, being my own boss and getting supersonic fit (← still working on that last one tho) and ALL of those things have become REAL. However, I am looking into getting another side job working outside the home but that is so I can pay off my debt and reach my goals faster!!!

What types of things do you dream about or have you stopped dreaming? I know that when I became a parent, every choice I made would affect my kids so I stopped thinking about myself and started working towards things that would give them the life I thought they needed. I stopped dreaming big. I started listening to the world and I looked at my neighbors and I started copying them. I started chasing the debt, the bondage, the good corporate job with no freedom...

But now....yes now I am dreaming big because I am tired of living like everyone else! I want to live how I want to live and that includes freedom. Freedom to fly around the world. Freedom to take my boys on the most awesome field trips where they can experience hands on what the world looks like, tastes like  and feels like and they won't only get to read about it. They will get to SEE it. The freedom to change lives, teach others, help others, give others the hope and willpower they need to make their own dreams come true. That is what I dream for right now and that is what I will work towards.

The path isn't always straight but there is always a path. :)

If you are still a dreamer and need direction, message me. I would love to chat and help you devise a plan to make your dreams a reality too!

Be Good Enough not Perfect!

I’m not yet a recovering perfectionist but I hope to be someday soon. Aiming for perfectionism often steals my joy yet I find myself hopelessly trying to be perfect day after day.

This morning when I was listening to an audio book by Brene Brown, I came to the realization that I really needed to work on this. I need to quit trying to live and be perfect and learn to be happy with being enough. I wanted to become a recovering perfectionist and an aspiring good enoughist as she puts it so that I can see what it feels like to live whole-heartedly and to experience pure happiness again - that unbridled happiness that I can barely remember from when I was a kid.

In order for me to learn how to find real joy, I needed to first understand what was holding me back. What is perfectionism and how could trying to be my best or “the best” hold me back from living a whole-hearted life? Again, Brene Brown puts this into perspective. Perfectionism is not about striving for excellence; it is not about self-improvement or growth. It’s a defensive move – if we can look perfect or do things perfectly then we can minimize the pain of blame, judgment and shame….. or so we think. We may think that perfectionism is protecting us but it is really keeping us from being seen. That is definitely the case for me.

After learning all of this, I realized how unhappy I really was. Who was I trying to impress and why was I trying to impress them? Why would I aim for perfectionism when perfectionism isn’t even real. It is true - perfectionism is self-destructive because it doesn’t even exist. It is an unattainable goal. Perfectionism will not help me to avoid shame, it is a form of shame.  Was I ashamed of not being good enough or perfect enough? If I can rid myself of this destructive thinking and learn to be vulnerable and happy with my achievements, not only will I be able to find true joy but I will be free from the depression and anxiety that striving for this unattainable goal has created.

What can I do to become a recovering perfectionist and an aspiring good enoughist? For me, it is a work in progress. I will continue to listen to Brene Brown’s books and others that encourage whole-hearted living. I will do things that make me feel good about myself like working out or making choices that have positive results for me and my family and most importantly I will STOP comparing myself to others. I will also look for gratitude in things that might otherwise cause fear – fear because I am only afraid of being vulnerable.  This change of thought and attitude will take time but I would rather start now then look back on my life in the end and wish I could have done things differently or seen things differently sooner. 

Is perfectionism a problem for you or something you are working on overcoming? If so, please share how you strive to find joy and happiness in an environment that makes you feel you need to be perfect. If this isn’t a problem for you, I would love to hear your comments too!   

Honey Dijon Pork Chops

If you want a quick and easy time in the kitchen without regretting it later you have to give this simple recipe a try.

Honey Dijon Pork Chops

Ingredients

1/4 cup Dijon mustard

1/4 cup honey

ground black pepper to taste

1 teaspoon garlic powder

4 boneless pork loin chops

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a baking dish with coconut cooking spray.

Mix Dijon mustard, honey, black pepper, and garlic powder in a bowl. Arrange pork chops in prepared baking dish and pour mustard mixture over pork.

Bake in preheated oven until pork is slightly pink in the center, about 45 minutes. (the time will vary depending on how thick your pork chops are.  An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 145 degrees F.  Let cool slightly and enjoy.

My family loved this recipe a lot. I hope you guys enjoy it too! It is super easy!

Accepting Me for Me

Accepting me for me

I am fat! It’s no secret. I have gained a lot of weight since I started having a family. I have had 4 kids in 5 years. So of course that would put a strain on my body. I don’t have easy pregnancies so I am usually very sick, or have other health problems that prevent me from moving like I normally should. But even with all of that I have been ashamed of my body for a very long time. I have stepped away from being in any pictures with my children banking on the fact that I would ruin it.

Being trained to think like this from a very early age I found it really hard to step out of that thinking pattern. But when I finally managed to see me for me, or through my children’s eyes, or even through my husband’s eyes I started to see how beautiful I really am.

Women are bombarded with images of how they “should” look. This summer for instance I went swimsuit shopping, and looked basically everywhere for a decent swimsuit that would cover my fat body. But all I saw were these perfectly looking women wearing these pieces. I was afraid to go anywhere because I knew that I looked nothing like the model who had just worn the swimsuit before me.  But then something amazing happened. All of the images that I saw was nothing compared to what I saw at the beach. I saw women of all shapes and sizes.

 All different.

All beautiful.

No one looked like they stepped right off the run way. But they were all still beautiful in their own way.

I was shocked.

I was happy.

I realized at that moment that I needed to change my attitude towards myself.

I needed to do it for me, and my daughters.

They deserve to feel beautiful at all times, and not because someone told them they had to look a certain way or wear a certain thing to be beautiful. They need to feel beautiful even when they have been rolling around in the mud all afternoon, or right after they wake up and have their hair all over the place and no makeup on yet.

I am sick of feel ugly because my body has curves and is bigger than the “normal” skinny body.

So… I am no longer ugly.

My body is the way it is. Yes I need to lose weight, but while I am working out, it isn’t going to happen overnight. And I must be happy now. Or else I will never be happy.  

Who is with me? All of you should be, because all of you are beautiful. No matter what society says to you.

 I say you are beautiful, strong, and capable of doing anything.

Yes I know this is a fitness blog, but it is also an important spot for women to be themselves! I never said I was going to stop working out, that is my goal to get in shape, but while I am getting is shape and striving to reach my goal, I still think I am beautiful.

Some other links to being yourself/ being beautiful that I love are...

Top Secret Tacos

Why does it always seem like the healthy foods go bad so quickly? And then when you manage to make them it all still goes to waste because your kids won’t eat it. If that is anything like your house, we feel your pain. I have very picky eaters, very picky. I am sure you are thinking “oh I am sure it isn’t that bad!” No it is, if my oldest doesn’t think he wants it, no matter how pretty, or interesting, or even if he helped make it, or even said it smells good while I was cooking it, if he decides he doesn’t want to eat it then he will not eat it, and if we make him even just have one bite of it, he will make himself throw up over it. I have picky eaters. We have grown so used to throw up at our house, it has become second nature.

But there is one recipe that I know he loves, and I have managed to sneak healthy things in and he still loves it. In fact he can’t tell at all.

So here it is,

Top Secret Tacos

Ingredients:

1 pound lean ground hamburger, sirloin, pork or turkey (the choice is completely up to you, we have done it with all and they still turn out really good)
1 can of baby food each of sweet potato, carrot, and butternut squash
1 packet taco seasoning, with no MSG
1 package taco shells (18 shells) or soft shells

Toppings:
Your choice

Directions:
Take a large nonstick skillet and set it over medium-high heat. When the skillet is hot, add the meat, breaking it up with a spoon. Cook the meat through and crumble it while cooking.

Stir in the vegetable baby food, and seasoning mix. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the mixture begins to thicken, 10 to 15 minutes longer.

Prepare the taco shells while the meat mixture is cooking, once all done you are ready to make your tacos and add your favorite toppings.

This is such a simple and healthy meal the entire family can enjoy!


*** this is a recipe sure to last, as long as the kids don't read what is really in it!!

Yoga has been one of my passions for as long as I can remember but I have never taken a class. I can remember back to when I was in junior high. My older sister would get Seventeen magazine and I would catch myself sneaking into her room to get the magazine in order to find out what was so alluring about it. I wasn’t the type of girl to hang pictures of cute boys on my walls or in my locker so all the “boy talk” didn’t interest me. As I flipped through the pages of the magazine, I came across some workout tips – now this did interest me. There were articles with pictures that described how to do some yoga poses and the benefits of yoga. They promised long lean muscle, good sleep, & decreased stress levels as some of the benefits. I could go for long lean muscle, I thought, so I decided to try some of the moves and ever since then I have been hooked.

I am a self-taught yogi. Since my high school days, I have found many different types of yoga videos. Some were long, slow and boring for me but as I have gotten older some of the meditating that goes along with yoga has proved to be beneficial in my life. Meditation is a little escape, it is the ONE time a day that I am able to turn my mind off and let go and not only that but yoga has made me stronger than I ever thought I could be.

Until two days ago, my yoga experience had been limited. My feet rarely left the ground except for crane pose so I decided that I wanted to extend my yoga practice to more challenging poses. I was following a couple yogis on Instagram and the poses they posted were just beautiful! They eased into these poses with absolute grace so much that I thought I could do it. I then started researching more; looking for classes or someone to teach me handstand or inverted yoga poses. With no luck so far I decided to look online for some videos. I found hundreds! With that, I tried my first hand stand yoga. I didn’t look as graceful or confident as those I had seen doing it before me. I stumbled to get my feet up afraid that they wouldn’t stop at the top and go on over and they did, several times. After a few attempts I discovered that using a wall or other standing obstacle (such as a tree or building) will help me to feel the sensation of being upside down and help me to practice getting the right balance.

For me yoga isn’t just about the challenge, it is about feeling better in my own skin. I have fought depression off and on for as long as I can remember and yoga along with other fitness routines has helped me to battle it more than anything else. Yoga helps me to appreciate myself for who I am. It helps me to feel energized and like I actually accomplished something. My motivation for fitness used to come from me comparing myself to others. I wanted to be thin and attractive. I was never happy with my body – I wanted smaller hips, a flat stomach and toned shoulders, thighs and calves. I was working out because I hated my body and I thought fitness would change it. Since then, I have realized that those motivating factors wouldn’t last. They don’t lead to routine and a healthy lifestyle. They only lead to anger or disappointment because I would never be good enough; I would never meet my own expectations. Over time, I was able to change this train of thought because of working out and especially because of yoga. Yoga is surrounded by so much love; every yogi I have met has been so open, inspirational, and caring. I have learned that I work out to feel better about myself, not worse. I work out because it helps me to fight depression and it makes me feel strong. Having and gaining strength builds my confidence and confidence can lead to great things!

Are you into yoga?  If so attach your pics or comments below! & to watch my yoga progress follow me on Instagram @pjs_and_dumbells or like my facebook page www.facebook.com/pjsanddumbbells

You know the cliché.  “Don’t take it personally,” or “don’t take this to heart.” What is that supposed to mean? You’re going to tell me something cynical and you expect me not to take it personal? It seems to me that this cliché is misleading. Taking it personal is the thing to do in order to change, getting angry about it isn’t the thing to do. Yes there are times when maybe, just maybe we shouldn’t take it personal. Like the lady at the drive-thru that is having a bad day so she chews you out because of one little mistake you made. What if we did take it personal? What if we tried to make a difference and acted like we cared about each other? Instead of retorting back or looking angry at those people who we don’t know that offend us maybe we could be friendly, leave a nice note or say something nice. Yes I know there are those people that will always appear angry no matter what we say or do but wouldn’t you feel better knowing that you did nothing wrong to contribute to their loathing behavior.

I think that something needs to change. I think that people have a hard time communicating how they truly feel.  It seems that the majority of us cares for one another and don’t like to see anyone getting hurt but I also think that most of us don’t know how to express our concern or maybe we don’t feel obligated to or don’t want to get involved. It seems that all of us are stuck in our own little worlds fighting to make ends meet. We are fighting to stay afloat, to take care of families or loved ones, we are fighting for fulfillment and a happy life, stature, and peace? It seems that most Americans are in survival mode and when in survival mode we don’t care who we take down as long it means we are rising to the top; the top of “our” personal pedestal. Now maybe I’m not speaking for the majority but I know that I am speaking for many. What really are we fighting for? Do you want to make a change? Do you want to make a difference? If you are looking for a fulfilling life then making a difference is the best way to get there. And the best way to make a difference IS to take it personally.

Today I was listening to the audio book “I Thought it was Just Me (but it isn’t): Telling the Truth about Perfectionism, Inadequacy, and Power” by Brene Brown. While listening, something really hit me. She mentioned that if we truly want to make a difference, we need to take it personal. If we see someone being treated cruelly, we need to take it personal. If we see someone being treated unfairly, we need to stand up because when one person notices and takes a stand typically others will follow.  No it won’t be easy but taking it personal will make a huge positive difference. At first the difference may only be within ourselves but as we grow into the habit of making issues that we care about ours, others will notice and stand up too.

If I was a conspiracist, I would coin the cliché “don’t take it personal” so that everyone would mind their own business but we are in this together so why not work together? Only a few people have gone down in the books as making a difference. We hear about them quite a bit: Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Joan of Arc, Princess Diana, Rosa Parks, and Margaret Fuller to name a few. What is one thing that all of these people have in common? They took certain issues personally and stood up for what they believed to be right. We can do the same.

As I look back at history, I realize that I want to do the same. I want to be remembered as someone that did something. I want to be known as someone that made a difference. You too can make a difference if you want to and to do that is simple….just take it personally.


What do you think? Do you think that making issues your own can make a difference?