October 2017: Health, Fitness & Bump Update

I started this blog with the overall long-term goal of supplementing my personal training income eventually. But I have been blogging off and on, seriously and casually, for over three years now.

And I have seen bloggers that balance being personal and treating their blog like a business well, and I have seen bloggers that are ALL business. And I don’t think that’s the right thing to do for fitness bloggers.

If there’s anything I’ve learned about life, blogging, business, and fitness, it’s that keeping it real and personal is key to happiness and success.

Psst! I’m using this blog to reach my fitness goals and make money online. (Find out how in this post.) Then see how you can start your own blog here.

Truly helping others, being happy, and succeeding involves your own vulnerability and sharing with others.

So while I want to build a blog that is educational and valuable to you along your own journey to health, I want to make sure that we truly connect somewhere along the way.

I’ve decided to do a monthly goals/check-in post to do just that. Since this is the first one, I’ll start with a little bit of background for those of you who care. 😉

Why I Committed to Fitness

I spent two years after having my daughter (first baby) being completely lost and depressed. It got bad. Scary bad. I hated how much I hated being a stay-at-home mom. I gained a lot of weight. I was afraid I’d hurt my daughter, husband, or myself at some point. I decided to get help so I started on Prozac.

That made me feel worse, honestly. I knew there had to be another way. So I started trying to go to the gym regularly and even worked with a personal trainer. It was the only thing that felt healthy and made me feel better. One workout changed my entire day for the better.

It got to the point where my husband could come home from work and know just from my mood whether or not I’d been to the gym that day. Seriously. I needed that one-hour of sweat to calm my mind and give me good energy.

GYM=HAPPY DRUG.

Hubs and I on our wedding day. Pre-baby weight on this very day was 130lbs.

It took me TWO years to really feel like becoming a personal trainer was what I needed to do. I weighed the pros and cons forever, thinking I could do life without fitness.

Finally this year I said to myself, “I can’t go back there again. I need to commit to this in a way that doesn’t allow me to live life any other way.” So even though I didn’t grow up in sports or doing anything fitness related consistently, I chose this.

So now I am here, pregnant with baby #2, working on passing my NASM certification. I’ve taken the class, read the book, and now I just need to pass the exam. (Update: I became certified in Nov. 2017!)

Why I Got Started Blogging

I started blogging a few months after babe was born in 2014. I wanted to find ways to make money online so that I could be a stay-at-home mom without feeling guilty about the financial implications. Blogging turned out to be a promising place to start.

Well, it turns out that blogging definitely can be a great source of income. I spent a good amount of time learning how to use a blog to make money and was supplementing my family’s income by several hundred dollars a month for about a year.

But I got sucked in big time, and it hurt my health. I decided to take a huge break when I felt myself slipping into another depression.

I decided that if I was going to blog, it had to be on the “side” and it had to be health-related. I needed to stay accountable.

So for me, this blog is one part business, one part accountability, one part venting zone. 🙂

Goals for October

I’m almost 6 months pregnant right now. I would love to have a million fitness-related goals right now, but since I’m pregnant for what I hope to be the last time, I’m pretty relaxed about that.

My only goals are to not gain 45lbs like during my first pregnancy, and to not quit moving.

Before I got pregnant I was working with a personal trainer strength training 3x per week and doing my own workouts 1-2x per week.

So I was gaining a lot of muscle and losing unwanted flab, but I was still sitting at 162lbs, which is overweight for a woman of 5’4.”

But because I lost weight during my morning sickness fun, I haven’t officially gained any weight so far. I know that can change super quickly, considering that I gained almost all of that 45lbs in the third trimester last time.

So, like I said, my goal is to not lose everything I worked so hard for but I’m not getting too specific about it. I’d like to keep weight gain under 25lbs but that’s it.

Plans for the Blog & My Hope for You

I’m just getting my feet on the ground with this blog. As I prep for my NASM I am trying to take a step back, even though I have a ton of work to do here. I am trying to build some great content for you all and get ahead so that when baby is born in January, I can still keep the blog afloat.

Read the November update here!

I also have big plans for a c-section & postpartum recovery program, to be tested by my own body starting early next year. 🙂 Update: My Restore The Core program is here!

For you, my readers, I hope to build a great community of women and mothers. I want this place to be a support system that encourages you to approach your own health holistically.

I want to help educate you, motivate you, and help you see that it’s up to you to build your own health. I can’t wait to start hosting challenges and support groups just for you.

What are your October health or blog goals? Tell me below! Until next time,