"Start a blog," they said...

Well, hello! It's nice to see you here. Pull up a chair. Grab your coffee. Stay awhile.

The first blog post always seems so...awkward. What do people write about? It seems a little generic to say, "Hi, I'm Brittney. I will be blogging about such and such." I guess the title sort of gives it away anyhow.

A fairly brief description might be nice, though. I'm a 25 year old mom of three kids, three and under. Life can be a bit hectic, but we will just stick with creative. The truth is, I love every moment of it (well, most moments...), and I have truly found joy in all of the adventures we've had along the way.

Many of the adventures we've had involve health. Learning to live a healthier, happier life has always been a passion of mine, and I've gathered quite a bit of knowledge and experience along the way. I thought this might be a nice way for me to pass that knowledge along to all of you. Now, I'm no certified personal trainer or dietician, but I can share what has worked for me and my lifestyle.

Before I dive into a shallow version of my "fitness journey," I will say that I am NOT, by any means, one of the lucky ladies who pop out a kid and leave the hospital looking like they were never pregnant to begin with. I have worked HARD to reclaim my body and fitness level. There have been times where I have given up, and times where it seemed easy, but overall it has been a crazy roller coaster ride that finally seems to be leveling out.

Let's take it way back for a second. All throughout highschool, I was "normal," for lack of a better term. My weight fluctuated between 106-125 lbs, which is fairly thin for being 5'5". I definitely struggled with body image, and went through some not-so-healthy phases in my relationship with food, but I never really struggled with weight issues, if that makes sense. I was naturally thin.

Fast forward a few years to my very first pregnancy. After countless gallons of neopolitan ice cream, a hefty number of trips to the Pizza Hut buffet, and quite a few peanut butter milkshakes from DQ, I found myself gaining a whopping 50 pounds! "That's ok," I thought, "It'll all be gone once the baby gets here." HA! Oh, the naivety. That weight did not melt off. In fact, I'm pretty sure it had dug its claws in and was clinging on for dear life.

Needless to say, I found a couple of workout programs and, quite literally, worked my butt off. Eleven months later, I was below my pre-pregnancy weight, and I was PREGNANT AGAIN. After all of that hard work, I was determined to stay fit and healthy through that pregnancy. It worked for the first six months or so, and then came the cravings. This time, it was macadamia nut cookies and biscuits and gravy. Oh boy. I ended up ballooning right up to the same weight as my first pregnancy.

I dabbled in some of the same workouts, and lost most of the weight, but due to some unfortunate stuff going on I mentally could NOT get myself to commit and lose the remaining 10-15lbs, and then, you guessed it, I was pregnant AGAIN. The "unfortunate situations" that I mentioned before had begun to work themselves out and I did stay pretty healthy throughout this pregnancy. I didn't give in to most of my ridiculous cravings and I made sure to walk a few miles every day. I didn't gain quite as much weight, but the postpartum struggle was still there...and that struggle was REAL when Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled around. I actually started gaining weight. (That's probably partly due to the fact that I had my Domino's Pizza order saved in my phone as "The Usual"...)

I thought I said this was going to be a shallow version of my story...oh well, if you've read to this point, you want to know what's next anyway. In December, I weighed in at 149 lbs and I started the popular workout program Insanity. In combination with a 90% clean diet (cutting out processed foods, white starches, and refined sugar), I quickly inched closer to my goal of 125 lbs. After completing Insanity, I started doing some other workouts, including my own, and have continued to eat healthier stay active, which can be tough with three kiddos! Now I'm weighing in at 122.0 lbs and I feel amazing. The number on the scale is just a plus. You can't put a number on how you feel in your own skin.

Over time, I will be sharing meal plans, tips and tricks on how to stay healthier, my fitness routine, and other things that contribute to leading a healthy, happy, mommy life. I can even share what my kids eat and how I keep them active if there is an interest in that :).

If you actually read all of this, THANK YOU, and I hope you will check back in to see my future posts :).

Brittney