About Me

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Who am I? Wife. Mother of 2. "Newbie" to fitness. Personal Trainer-in-training. Lover of health. Fitness. Religion. Family. Gluten and refined sugar intolerant. Welcome to my journey. Learn with me.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Just a Snippet

I have so many things on my mind right now and I have been burnt out in every way. I took the weekend off from exercise. No formal exercising - just playing in the park with my babies, going on a walk with my family, resting and recuperating.








It was glorious.

It was hard to get back to the normal grind this morning (early) but I managed it by the sheer goodness of God who inspired me to get to class and preserve my grade when I am so close to the end of the semester.

I will be quite swamped over the next 4 weeks trying to get lots of projects finished for the end of the semester. I am very grateful for the opportunity to be in school, however. I do enjoy so many of my classes... and some of them I will just be very grateful to see go away. :-) That is pretty much how it always is in school though, right?

We had an absolutely lovely weekend full of love, happiness and peace. I sure hope I can capture those feelings and pull them through this week with me.

What about you, dear readers? How was your weekend?

Loves...Shayla


Wednesday, April 3, 2013

What I {Love} Wednesday

I think it is time for another edition of What I {Love} Wednesday. {Go here for edition #1.} Making "Why am I happy?" lists is my go to activity for always improving my mood. I have tried really hard to focus on all of the reasons I have to be happy instead of focusing on all of the reasons I have (even legitimately) to be sad. It doesn't always work... (aka Life's Lemons) but most of the time it does! Plus, isn't it fun to focus on things that we just love?


  • I LOVE peanut butter. It is probably one of my all-time favorite foods on the planet. My fitness friends who get my daily updates know that this is the case. There are two foods that I eat almost every single day... popcorn and peanut butter. (Not together although I would be lying if I said I hadn't considered it...) I could probably be better about variety in my diet, but when you can't eat gluten or refined sugar... by golly just let me have my popcorn and peanut butter! My favorite way to eat popcorn is to air-pop it and drizzle it with coconut oil, tabasco sauce, and then sprinkle ground flaxseed, nutritional yeast, and lemon pepper over it. It tastes like delectably spicy, cheesy popcorn. My entire family (including my babies) LOVE it. My favorite way to eat peanut butter? Stirred into greek yogurt with a sprinkle of stevia and unsweetened cocoa. Thick, delicious, amazing. 
  • I love not getting ready for the day. If I don't have anywhere to go during the day I typically get ready for the day around 2 - 3 pm. I like to look presentable for my piano students and my cute hubster but other than that? Jammies + No make-up. All day. For example, right now. 2:25 pm and I am sitting on the couch in my jammies. 
  • I LOVE lazy days when I don't have to be running around like crazy!
  • I love sleeping in. I get up to go to the gym super early in the morning because I know that that is the best way for me to guarantee working out for the day. But I love just laying in bed for long periods of time. When I get home from the gym and cute hubster goes to work I lay in bed with my phone or tablet under the covers until my babies wake up and it is blissful!
  • I love falling asleep to movies. I know that for optimal sleep your bedroom should be free of technology and blah blah blah but I love it. I don't know if I just fall asleep better when there is a little bit of noise or when I have the option to not just be laying there wondering when I am going to fall asleep. We set a sleep timer on our movies and we have been trying to make our way through The Lord of the Rings for quite awhile now... but we are finally on The Return of the King!
QUESTIONS FOR MY DEAR READERS: Your turn! What do you love? Do you have any "unusual" snacks that you enjoy? When given the choice do you get ready for the day? Are you a morning person or a night owl? What is your favorite movie?

Loves...Shayla