OMG I have been a BAD blogger

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SORRY for not blogging for the last several weeks. As most of you know I'm preparing for my first Figure & Fitness Model Competition and I have been going NUTS!! We can sometimes be our own worst enemy and I have truly been mine. I had to have to have a long prayer session and then I had to tell the Devil he's a LIAR b/c he was really trying to make me believe I wouldn't be able to accomplish this goal especially since I've been down this road SEVERAL TIMES and failed to compete each time for this reason or that reason. FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION!!! I promise to blog tonight after all my evening duties are done to catch you up on everything and keep going on my posts regarding MOTIVATION!!
KQ

M to the O to the VATION!!! MOTIVATION, how do we get it & keep it?!?!

Well now that we've been through my "how'd you get here" story its time to get down to the meat & potatoes, the nitty & the gritty of this whole health & fitness thing and wShat better place to start than at the beginning which is MOTIVATION!!!

• How do I get motivated to start?
• What do I do to stay motivated?
• When the going gets tough where am I going to draw my motivation from? 
• Now that I've reached my goal what's going to motivate me to continue?
• and the list goes on. . . ..

So lets just jump in with figuring out how to even get motivated and get this ball rolling. Well one thing you will learn about me is I have a MILLION sayings, some that are originally mine and others I have borrowed from people & places. My FAVORITE saying pertains to our current topic about MOTIVATION. . . during this journey regardless if you're single, married, have kids, no kids, employed, unemployed or any other category or definition you can find to describe yourself you need to adopt the principle of

SELF FIRST NOT SELFISH!!!

So lemmi explain what that means and what it has to do with our nemesis Motivation. No matter what you're trying to accomplish in life be it better health & fitness, a better job, college education, more money, peace at work / peace at home, happiness and anything else you can name you have to start with SELF!!  If you focus on yourself and the goals at hand and take care of yourself you can better accomplish the goals and tasks that lay before you. For example . . . you want to be able to provide better for yourself and your family. In order to do that you may need a more education to get a better job to make more money to ultimately take care of your family. Well you can't do that if you don't focus on yourself and accomplish the goal of working towards that better education which will in turn put you in the proper position for the better job, which will ultimately result in more money to support your family. Well its the same thing with your health & fitness. It doesn't matter if your goal is a big one like being healthy for your kids and your family so you can be around longer to enjoy them or a bit more personal like fitting in that dress (women) or that suit (men) for a function, or to look good for a reunion or upcoming event you at least have a starting point. Now that you have the reasoning and the goal in mind you have to attack it and make it come to life. In order to do that you have to focus a bit more on YOURSELF!! Again this is NOT selfish, this is self first, because if YOUtake better care of YOU in whatever facet that may be you can now take better care of others and those important to you.

Now I'll share with you what initially motivated me. When I became preggers I was already heavier than what I thought I was and I was floored. Unfortunately the pregnancy weight gain was inevitable and in the end I was in a place I really didn't want to be. After having Kyndal I was THRILLED to have such a beautiful baby and to be a mom but ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED with the way I looked. Much to my dismay I didn't immediately do anything about it and then that day came . . . I saw a picture of me and my stomach was so big my arms rested on it as if it was a shelf. WHAT?!? IS THIS REAL OR IS THIS A CRUEL JOKE?!? That's when I decided "The buck STOPS here"!!! It was time for me to hold myself accountable and responsible for where I currently find myself and do something about it. So my initial motivation was partially vain . . . I wanted to look at myself in the mirror and like what was looking back at me. I no longer wanted to be overweight. I no longer wanted to rock myself to get out of a car, to not be able to roll around on the floor with Kyndal and play without my knees hurting, to be able to go up and down the stairs in my house without being labored. And that was all it took to get my ball rolling.

So what will it take to get you MOTIVATED and get your ball rolling?!?! There are a million things that you can use to motivate you to get started but one of the easiest things we can do is first determining what the ULTIMATE goal will be, then once we have that lets break it down into several smaller goals and we will use each one of them as our MOTIVATION. As you start accomplishing the smaller goals your mojo  gets going and that keeps you energized to move on to the next goal then the next and before you know it you've reached what seemed to be the impossible the unreachable final frontier.

Now that we're motivated to get started "What do we do to stay motivated??" Stay tuned for the next blog as we tackle our next step to maintain our MOTIVATION. . . .Until then talk to ya later

KQ

Part 3: Let's Get Real & Get Right

Sorry for the delay on part 3 but here I am and here's the rest of the nitty gritty!!!

So I was 20 months in and NOW WHAT?!?! Fortunately I had taken my time and built an AWESOME foundation for my new lifestyle and this wasn't going to be just some overnight wham bam thank you ma'am situation. This was now my new life and I was living it and LOVING IT!!
 

I have always been a competitive person and thrived off of that motivation and excitement that competition brings. With that being the case I decided to run track again and it was full steam ahead. . . at least in my mind it was b/c it sure wasn't on the track LOL!! Turns out it was a slow and long road but I took it on no matter how painful it was and I kept pushing. Here I am 30 years old and I'm trying to get back out on the track. Things were slow going at first but they eventually picked up and everything was GREAT!! Unfortunately I had to sidetrack that dream because of work and family after I invested 2 years into it. But hey no biggie on to the next goal.

So during the 2 years of training to hit the track I was privileged enough to participate in an infomercial and how amazing was it that!!! For now we'll leave out what product I was endorsing b/c the infomercial has been pulled and will be redone soon but PLEASE BELIEVE its an honest infomercial and I followed the program and to this day I'm still following the program to this day!! I have to admit this was the absolute BEST EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE!! I was afforded the opportunity to share my story, to meet ladies I've been corresponding with through the internet for years and ultimately realize this fitness thing was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I was so overwhelmed by this experience I spent half the day crying because to think about where I came from to where I was that day it was just unbelievable. Here are a few shots from that day

After that experience it was ON!! So in 2009 I spent the beginning portion of the year preparing for my first figure show. I was working harder than ever. Hitting the track, gym, cardio, nutrition on point. . . THE WHOLE 9. Well needless to say I'm human and "something" backfired and a few days after Easter I started noticing my weight was increasing instead of decreasing. All of a sudden I went from 155lbs to 171lbs within a matter of weeks. WHAT IN THE WORLD IS HAPPENING?!?!? This was not the plan and I was DEVASTATED. Heck devastated isn't even the word, my world was completely WRECKED. All I could see and hear in my mind was all the negative things people had said to me in the past about my weight when  I was heavier and I questioned myself like never before. I immediately panicked and thought "Oh No I'm going to be 200+ again then what do I do". Needless to say I have GREAT friends and a GREAT boyfriend and they all slapped me back to reality and explained to me I need to let the past go and I had a bump in the road and now I just need to move forward and do what needs to be done to get back to where I was. Unfortunately it took me several months to get my mind right again but eventually I did and here I am back and better!!

All of that being said is to explain that WE ALL go through up's & down's. We are all human and things happen out of our control BUT if you have built a strong foundation and know what to do you can easily get back on track. I will say I learned a good lesson during that situation which is having your mind in the right place is more than half the battle. So thanks to a friend and to the Bible here's one of my favorite sayings that I will end this blog on . . . 

TO CHANGE THE MIND YOU MUST CHANGE THE CULTURE AND TO CHANGE THE CULTURE YOU MUST CHANGE THE MIND!!

Love ya
KQ