Fun, Fit and Fabulous!

Howdy Friends!

I hope your week is off to a great start! The wonderful Amanda at Livin", Lovin', and Lots of Laughter nominated me for the Liebster award. What an honor! I just discovered Amanda's blog a few months ago, and I absolutely love it. You can feel her positivity radiating off of your computer screen when you read her posts. They always put me in a great mood and ready to take on my day with a smile on my face. Thank you so much Amanda for nominating me for the Liebster award!

11 Facts About Me:

I am the oldest of 6 kids and completely live up to the Type A, over controlling, Mama bear oldest child stereo type! Just ask my younger siblings. :)
I am 110% obsessed with the mountains. Give me mountain trails over the beach any day. If I could live somewhere with a mountain out my back door and no neighbors anywhere around, I would be one happy camper (not that I'm anti-social, but nothing makes me happier than a great nature view and plenty of trails to explore).
Following up on #2, my favorite thing to do is go on a hike or walk with friends.
I love visiting new places and will take experiences of material things every time.
Jason's Deli is my favorite restaurant. Yep, you read that right, nothing fancy for this girl. A salad bar and some free chocolate and vanilla swirled frozen yogurt make me a happy as a lark.
I am probably the biggest light weight in the world. Two glasses of wine, and someone better drive me home and tuck me in bed.
Since graduating college 4.5 years ago, I've lived in 5 different houses, 4 cities, and 2 states.
Unless I'm at the lake, pool, or beach, I HATE extremely hot weather (not so good for a girl who lives in Texas).
Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, and I would probably eat it for every meal of the day if I could. Well I guess I could, but it probably wouldn't be the most nutritious choice.
I have been married to my high school sweetheart for five years this May, and he is the absolute love of my life. Thanks for putting up with me for 11 years E! :)
If I could choose one word to describe me, it would be "mom," because nothing in this entire world brings me more joy than being Annabelle's mom. Everyone tell you that you never truly understand how much you can love someone until you have a child, and that is definitely the truth.

DeAun in the white jacket with just a few of her girls at Dallas Mania.

Questions From Amanda:

Why do you blog? I started blogging when E and I were about to move for the first time so I could stay in touch with friends and students at A&M. I wanted a way to continue to share fitness tips and recipes with those who used to take my group fitness classes at the Rec. I have continued to blog over the years because of the amazing community of bloggers and readers out there!
What post did you just love writing? I have to say my favorite posts to write are probably Annabelle's monthly updates. It's so fun to look back at the previous month and see how much she has grown. I just posted her 7 month update, and I seriously can't believe she is getting so big.
Who is your hero and why? My very first boss in the fitness industry, DeAun Woosley is my hero. She is one of the most passionate, positive, and caring people I know. Every year she touches thousands of students at Texas A&M through her work at the Rec Center. She helps clueless college students, like myself, learn how to teach aerobics, teaches classes every day that hundreds of students attend, and inspires those around her to spread the word of health and fitness. She truly changed my life and the life of so many of my friends for the better! I would not be the person I am today without her!
What is your favorite thing about blogging? I love blogging because it keeps me a perpetual student. I am always learning new things (recipes, workouts, and mommy tips) from other bloggers and doing research to produce great posts myself.
Aside from family members, who is one person who had a big impact on your life? This is an easy one. DeAun (see question 3) has definitely had the biggest impact on my life. She led me to a career that I am extremely passionate about and is still one of my best friends to this very day.
What is your dream vacation? A secluded house in the mountains with amazing hiking trails. We would go in September or October before it got too cold, but all the leaves were starting to change for fall. The house would have a gigantic back porch with rocking chairs and a hot tub, so I could spend every waking moment that I wasn't hiking sitting on the porch taking in the views.
What is one of your biggest goals in life? I think my biggest and most important goal in life is to be an amazing mom and wife. Annabelle and Eric are the two most important people in my world, and I want to work every day to give them the life of their dreams, support them in everything they do, and make sure they know they are loved beyond imagination.
What is your favorite store(s) to shop at? Lululemon
What is one of your favorite childhood memories? This is a tough one. I would probably say spending the weekend at our lake house. We'd go swimming, tubing, water skiing, watch movies at night, and my dad would always make delicious breakfast tacos every morning.
What does your typical weekend look like? Our typical weekend usually involves some kind of sporting event on Saturday either in Austin for UT or back home in College Station for A&M. Sunday, is usually our recovery day full of grocery shopping, meal prep, laundry, family walks, and maybe even a nap!
What is your favorite holiday and why? Probably Christmas because it's the biggest chunk of time we get to spend with our families. I love all of the prep work that goes into Christmas.... finding presents for everyone, wrapping gifts, decorating, and COOKING. I also love getting to catch up with all of my siblings and watching E and my Dad play the boys in basketball. It's also nice because E's brother and his wife, Meredith, always comes into town and we don't get to see them all that much since they live in Georgia. Plus, it's the most wonderful time of the year! :)

I nominate:

Alison at Fearlessly Fierce Fitness

Lindsay at Broke N Bougie

Emma at Be Mom Strong

11 Questions for my nominees:

Why do you blog?
If you could meet a celebrity, who would it be?
Beach or mountains?
Big city or small town?
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
What would be your dream job?
What would you say is your biggest accomplishment in life so far?
All time favorite food?
What is your motto for life?
What's your go to type of workout?
What is your favorite memory of all time?

Whew, my brain is tired after answering all those questions. What fun though! I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your Tuesday?

What about you, beach or mountains?

What would be your all time dream job?

In health,

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Hello Friends!!

That's what this weekend was all about friends, fitness and fun!! On Thursday night, I had my boss from A&M and two other former colleagues over for dinner and we had the best time catching up and swapping fitness and life stories!! I also made an amazing eggplant and turkey sausage linguine that turned out deliciously (is that a word?). I will be sharing that recipe later in the week. It was so good to see them and talk about everything that is happening in the fitness industry!! A little later on in the evening, two girl I used to teach with at UNT, Sam and Kristen, arrived to spend the weekend with me! Even though it's only been a few month since I left UNT, I miss these girls like crazy! We turned in pretty early since our first session was at 7:30am on Friday morning.

My first two sessions on Friday were group exercise management lectures and they were fantastic! Next, I took an amazing step class by one of my favorite presenters, Gay Gasper! I wish I could take her class every week! After step, I was off to a strength circuit class that my chest is still sore from. Spider man pushups into side plank elbow to knee crunch will do you in quickly! :) Then it was off to another lecture about upcoming fitness trends. I finished off a wonderful day with a wonderful step class taught by Deborah Puskarich. Gay and Deborah are pretty much the step queens, so getting to take a class from both of them on the same day is like Christmas, my birthday, and New Years all wrapped into one!! :) I was so excited to be at Mania and to catch up with old friends, that I totally forgot to take pictures! I know, what kind of blogger am I? Thank you Lizy for this picture!

We were pretty dang pooped after day one, so the girls and I grabbed a quick bit to eat, including TCBY frozen yogurt of course, and then headed home. I passed out literally before my head hit the pillow! I kicked off Saturday morning with another killer step class called Step Layer Cake. This instructor was killer at breaking down complicated combos! After that, I headed over to the cycle room for a ride with my all time favorite cycle instructor, Julz Arney!! Julz could put you on a bike and make you ride for 15 hours and you would love every second of it.

All of my beautiful Aggie ladies waiting to go into class!

All of the Aggies plus our adopted Aggie, Julz!!

I was so sweaty after this class it was quite disgusting! I continued the fun with a lecture titled Women, Weights & Results. This lecture was so informative! Dr. Josephson broke things down in a way that was super easy to understand and very easy to apply to your everyday training plan. I'll share more on this later! After the lecture, things go serious! I went to a new class called Piloxing and almost lost my mind I had so much fun!! Literally, I think the smile on my face during class stretched from California to New York! I can't wait to get certified in October so I can bring this fun, sexy, powerful class to my gym! Watch out Dallas Piloxing is coming! :)

The Saturday night of Dallas Mania is always the Aggie instructor reunion. We pretty much take over half of a restaurant in downtown and spend the entire night chatting and catching up! It's definitely one of the highlights of the conference!

Sunday started even earlier than Friday and Saturday at 7:00am. I loved Dr. Josephson's lecture so much on Saturday, that I signed up for his talk on Eating For Energy & Performance. He did not disappoint and I will be sure to share what I learned in this lecture with you as well! After the lecture, I went to another inspiring cycle class and left equally sweaty as Saturday's class! Next was a much needed yoga inspired class. It was called Full-Body Flexibility; Yoga Inspired Stretch. It was kind of like yoga meets athletic stretching. It was really really neat! I ended the conference on a fun note with a dance class with Deborah P. It was a combination of old school high low and hip hop. So much fun!!

Overall, the weekend was absolutely amazing! I walked away with a ton of new ideas, new friends, and got to see some of my best friends in the whole world that are now spread out all over the state of Texas. No matter how far away from each other life takes us, we will always have our love for fitness and this amazing conference to bring us back together. I love all my Aggie Instructors!! :)

In health,