My fitness journey started a few days after my daughter turned one – Feb 8, 2016 to be exact. I was constantly getting chest pains and had to go to the emergency room several times for emergency medication. I was assigned a cardiologist at the age of 39. I was not in a good place health wise.
I was tired and lonely from 12 months of being home alone with a baby and pumping around the clock. She was born premature and didn’t latch so the result of that was me not giving her enough milk to be interested. I still wanted to give her some of my milk (some is better than none). I pumped every 3 hours 30 minutes at a time during the day until I fell asleep for 5 hours to wake up and do the same thing all over again. I had no time for me and while I was pumping my snacks were candy and chocolate.
I also ate all the things thinking it would help with my milk production. Little did I know I was slowly but surely degrading my body. I was eating way to much sugar. I did start working out a little bit my going back to Barre classes. I was so weak that I sometimes had to take a break or catch my breath.
On her 1st birthday was the last day I had to pump. I made it to a year and the heavens cleared and I now had time to take care of myself. My best friend told me of this program called Fitgirls Guide. I looked them up on Instagram and downloaded their books. I started my Instagram account and started following the most inspirational and up lifting women.

I modified my eating according to doctors orders. I mostly stuck to a low fat paleo food plan using Whole30 as a guide and started working out at home 3 times a week and during the weekends I would go to Barre classes while my husband watched our baby.
At Open Barre Fitness
I kept at it (consistency is key!) For me I started feeling and seeing the difference after 3 months. I lost 10 pounds and started feeling stronger and started looking for new ways to challenge myself physically. I started a new workout program called BBG. It was intense, but what I loved about it was that it was just 28 min long no matter what. I could work it into nap times and even do other light workouts to compliment it without it being to intrusive into my day as a stay at home mom. I completed 2 rounds of it in a span of 6 months. I lost another 10 pounds.
It was time to step it up a notch again. When I turned 40 last November the present I gave to myself was a personal training session. Conveniently right next to my barre studio a private gym opened up and I did my first training session and I got killed and I loved it. I have now added lifting to my workouts and I have to say out of everything I did that year this is what changed me the most. I so much stronger in everything I do and have so much more control over my body.
Right before my Personal Training Session at Beyond Health and Fitness
A year after I first saw my cardiologist he gave me the most awesome news that I no longer have to see him. My blood pressure is maintained with the right medication. Unfortunately I have to still take the medications as my condition is inherited, but the medication is minimal. I normalized my cholesterol with clean eating. I now primarily eat plant based with a few paleo days thrown in. Dairy is not in my diet anymore unless we are out to dinner on a special occasion.
I feel so much better and younger.
One Year of Fitness completed.
In future posts I will talk more in detail about my love of Barre and Lifting and do a comparison of Fit Girls Guide and BBG. Comment below let me know if there are other things you want me to go in detail about.
p.s. I am not a certified trainer or nutritionist. Everything I talked about here was under the supervision of my doctor. Please talk to yours first before changing your exercise and eating habits.