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The Skin You’re In…
The skin we’re in. Thick. Thin. Pale. Tan. Brown. White. Freckled. Dotted with cellulite. Lined with stretch marks. Wrinkly. Shiny. We’re so quick to judge ourselves on appearances. But how many of us can say that we’re comfortable in that skin. That we’re getting rid of judging, and moving onto acceptance. It’s taken me a lot of years to get to this point. To be comfortable in my body. To love the cellulite and the imperfections and the wrinkles. I didn’t always. So I decided one day to ask for help. I was tired of being tired, being self conscious, and not getting the results I wanted from…
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Sesame Orange Chicken: Clean Version
It’s Friday night. I want take out. The old me would’ve called out for Chinese delivery. I still have dreams of General Tso’s chicken. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for indulging and “treat” meals, but the sodium that’s loaded into Chinese takeout is enough to make my rings too tight for a week. So instead of giving into my cravings, I had to come up with something that I could feel good about eating, feeding to the kids, and that would leave me full and not digging in the fridge for seconds an hour after eating it. Which by the way, why is it when you eat Chinese takeout…
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Making Your Resolutions Stick in 2016
It happens. We vow to make each year better than our last. We struggle through the holidays, eating one too many cookies, saying we’ll start in January. So we join a gym. We buy a Bow Flex. We throw out the leftover cookies, candy, and buy fresh foods, new cook books, download an app or two and tell ourselves, “THIS IS THE YEAR! NO MORE EXCUSES!” And what happens? Come February we’re picking up takeout on the way home from work, contemplating cancelling that gym membership, and vowing to “restart” tomorrow… or next week… or next year. Let’s face it. Life gets in the way. Sticking to a plan is…
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Competition Prep: 15 Weeks Out
I might be crazy. I might be certifiably insane. I’ve decided to tackle another competition. Bikini competition #3. March 26th. St. Louis, MO. I may be in the throes of my last semester of nursing school. That day will be my daughter’s 2nd birthday. I will be prepping for finals. Why not throw a competition in the mix too. Well. Here goes! I’m putting Body Beast up on the shelf. Temporary retirement. I’ve been using the program pretty ferociously for the past year and I’ve absolutely loved what it’s done for my body. It’s been outstanding to see my muscles grow in ways I never could’ve imagined. And if you’ve…
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Hammer and Chisel Official Launch!!!
You know me. Ok, maybe not all that well. Or maybe you’re new to my blog and you don’t know me at all. Welcome! Let me share with you a little something, in case you haven’t gathered it yet. I love to workout but I didn’t always feel this way. It’s been a recent journey- less than 3 years since I really started going to the gym. I had a baby in between, too. Actually I’ve had three but one since I really started working out. I’ve always been skinny. I decided last summer after my 3rd baby that I didn’t want to be skinny anymore. I wanted to be…
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Grocery Shopping on a Budget
One of the questions I am most frequently asked regarding eating clean and meal planning is “How do you do it on a budget?” It does take some planning but it is absolutely doable. We are a family of five, our kids are 7, 4 and 2, and believe me, they eat a lot. I stick to a $100/week max budget and what I have leftover we put away for splurges or Costco trips. Below are some tips and tricks to help you stay clean, stay healthy, and stay budget-friendly each week! Building your Pantry: The key to making a list and sticking to it is having a menu to…
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Luke and Ashley’s Body Beast Results
Find someone who shares your passion and do it together. My husband, Luke, really started pushing me to do more heavy lifting about a year ago. I was scared. Like a lot of women, I didn’t want to lift too much and have “dude” muscles! Ok first of all, if you’ve never really lifted before, it’s going to be pretty hard to get “dude” muscles. But it’s entirely possible to build some great definition, strength, and leanness while boosting your metabolism by increasing your muscle mass. This means that the more muscle you have the harder your body works. You burn more calories at rest! We took the plunge…
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A Lot Can Happen In One Year (My 1 year Transformation)
On September 19th, 2014 I took a leap. I decided to take some steps to better my fitness. I decided I wanted to improve my nutrition, and overall health. I was almost 6 months postpartum with our third baby girl and I was doing ok. I was working out a little bit here and there. Trying to make it to the gym 3x/wk and eating as healthy as I could. I was also breastfeeding, in school part-time, was stressed to the max and just feeling like I didn’t have it all together. So why not add something else to my plate, right?! I joined Beachbody as a coach. I wanted…
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Why I Became a Beachbody Coach
I remember that day that I walked into the gym, not really sure of what I was doing but decided to give it a shot. I had worked out before in a gym, granted it was in high school, but I could pull it off, right? Well… I got some weird looks. I was a scrawny, skinny girl, barely 20 years old, and couldn’t lift much to save my life. I looked around at my company and was clearly out of place. I didn’t know what I was doing and no one bothered to help me. Instead, I heard a couple snickers when I tried to use the leg press…
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Coach Summit 2015- Nashville
It’s been a few weeks but my first experience at Coach Summit happened over the weekend of July 16th and I’m still on a Summit “high”! If you’re not familiar with what Summit is, it’s the annual training trip from Beachbody where this year 25,000 coaches out of 330,000 came together. There is recognition, celebration, training, and workouts with celebrity trainers. I got to fist bump Sagi (the Body Beast guy) after my workout. I kind of felt like a big deal. I showed up to my workout with Autumn Calabrese (creator of 21 Day Fix/Extreme and Fixate) wearing the same thing she was wearing. She should have called me…
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