New Traditions :)

I officially have put up my own Christmas tree! This Christmas actually has me excited! Both Stephen, and myself have Christmas Eve off this year which is a first in the last almost 3 years we have been together. His mom, and I decorated our tree together and celebrated the upcoming holiday, reminiscing about past Christmases and family traditions. This made me realize, Stephen and I have a lot of things to consider as we move forward together! What will we do every Christmas Eve and Christmas Day? When will we normally bring out our tree? A lot to figure out! What kinds of things do you all do with your families during the holidays? Comment with your answers! 🙂

Stay Strong, Live Fit.
Natalie

Day #4

Logging, logging, logging, and more logging! One thing that I don’t like about living this way is the constant counting of calories but if you don’t you have no idea how badly you are eating. My constant companion (my iPhone) has an app called MyFitnessPal. I use it for tracking my food, and exercise. It is a great way to help hold yourself accountable for the eating habits you have. I have a terrible time giving up one thing in my life that is detrimental to my lifestyle and that is fast food. I LOVE it, and it is so bad for you but with my lifestyle unfortunately it is so much easier to hit the drive thru than prepare a sit-down meal. I do know that if I made a conscious effort to cook it would be better for us! I need to work on that desperately. But I am queen of making excuses unfortunately! But I am celebrating beating an excuse today when it came to exercise! I completed Shaun T’s Total Body Burn workout today and I feel great! I really worked it today and got a good sweat going! Exercise is truly the best antidepressant out there! And I also have four wonderful ladies I follow who encouraged me with their posts to workout today regardless of how I feel. They made me realize I don’t have an excuse and THANK YOU FOR THAT! I owe you all! But enough of my rambling! Hope you all are having a wonderful day! Get up off that butt and get active!
Stay Strong, Live Fit!
Natalie

First Failure

While yes, I did great on my calorie counting today I did not exercise today like I planned… As I have attempted to make very plain. I am no where near perfect! However, I did find some motivation today that will fuel me for tomorrow! I found one of my pictures from when I was 19, and in pretty decent shape but still not entirely healthy. And now, I intend to beat this look! It took awhile to get my body as out of shape as it is so I know it is going to take a while to get back to where I was! But I am motivated to be at my best by the time I’m 23! ( I turn 22 in 11 days) so this is a real goal! Let’s set a goal together! Where do YOU want to be a year from now? 🙂

Here I am in 2011, this is what I aim to beat in a year!

Day #2 :)

Hey! So, my thighs are tender from the squats I did yesterday BUT I prevailed! 🙂 I completed both of my challenges as well as 16 minutes of Zumba! This is the video I found on YouTube by Linda Edler and she is a Zumba instructor! It’s for beginners but it got me sweating http://youtu.be/qa2IWYs3ags Check that out if you would like! I am posting the challenge pages under the page “Fitness” for your benefit if you would like to look! Tomorrow is my day off as well as my mans and we have plans during the afternoon but I will definitely post my workout progress! Hopefully there will be some Hip Hop Abs happening! Or maybe some more Zumba! I’ll let you know!
Stay Strong, Live Fit!
Natalie 🙂

December 1st or Day #1 of a New Life!

Well, today is December 1st and it’s a time for new beginnings! I started two new workout programs today that are basic 30 day challenges. One is a Abs & Squat challenge and the other is designed to strengthen the arms. I have never really done squats before and I had to look up tutorials to learn what I had to do. Lol. My point here is, I am doing what I can to learn how to do what I need to, to accomplish my fitness goals. I really need to be focusing on strengthening my core, and that is my main goal here. I have had so many set backs but that is just not acceptable for me any more. From here on out I have a plan on what I need to accomplish! I will blog tomorrow about how to start a fitness program and how to set realistic goals. I will also post the links to the challenges I am currently undertaking and we can do this together!
Stay strong! Live fit! :]
Natalie

Thanksgiving!

Hello all! I hope you all had a fantastically blessed thanksgiving and we will start the first day of our fitness adventure together tomorrow! 🙂
God Bless,
Natalie

Hello!

Hello there! My name is Natalie! 

First of all, I am a young woman on a mission to live my life as healthy and Godly as possible. I am a soon to be wife and hopefully God providing a mother in a few years. I am in no way perfect, and this lifestyle is completely new to me when it comes to health but when it comes to my walk with God it has been a part of my almost 22 years on earth. My life is good but when it comes to eating healthy and exercising daily it’s been a struggle but I am taking control of it! I am in no way where I intend to be health wise but my purpose in starting this blog is to help those new to this journey see that they are not alone. I will make mistakes and experience setbacks but that’s okay! God intends for us to make mistakes so we have something to build on! I am here to inspire, and give advice from what I have learned. I am not a Coach but I have one! I am hoping to help someone like me who wants to live a healthy lifestyle and do it with me! I want to show my journey as it unfolds! So, feel free to join in if you like!
God Bless!
Natalie Smith

This is my body changes so far…