Happy Monday!

I woke up to birds chirping and a cool breeze coming through my window. I love a good spring morning! I crawled out of bed to my Nespresso machine, made myself a latte, read my Jesus Calling book and now I’m ready for the day. Ready to write to you about Listening To Your Body. This will be short and sweet because mainly I want you to implement the simplicity of it.

You know when you can’t do something, and it becomes all you want to do?

That’s how I’m feeling right now. As I mentioned in my previous post I hurt myself pretty bad the other week. I was doing front jump kicks and when I landed my entire back locked up and I couldn’t move. On my way down, I looked up at Jon and suddenly everything was in slow motion, the years we spent together flashed before my eyes. He reached out his hand trying to save my fall but he was too late, I had fallen and I could not get up.

(It wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t dramatize this)

Reality went more like this — when I landed I instantly dropped to my knees, said a few accidental curse words and Jon mouthed from far away, “dang are you ok” and went back to training.

Yeah Jon, can’t move but I’m good. Thanks for checking in.

I took the weekend off from working out to ice and rest. When Monday rolled around and I didn’t feel half bad. So what did I do?! Went right back to bootcamp against my better judgement. Which was a mistake because the next day I was hurting even more. Not in a sore way, but in a ‘if I move the wrong way, I’m pretty sure I will be paralyzed’ kind of way. So finally I got the picture, and I took the rest of the week off, got a massage and basically bathed in Icy Hot.

Although today I feel OK, I’m not going to workout this entire week. I know that’s what I need!

It’s not every day you feel like working out, but I’ve trained myself to push past that feeling and get it done anyway. However, there comes a point when your body is screaming at you and you push it too far. There are some weeks when you need a re-set, a re-charge and it’s important to give your body that. I will probably lose some muscle, because I always do but I see the bigger picture at the end of the day. It’s a lifestyle for me, and I don’t want to be injured and resent the gym.

Take care of your body! Learn the difference between being lazy, and making up excuses verses physically needing to recover and take a break. The important thing is, I’m ok with not working out! I’m not worrying about it. Years ago I would have been stressing out, thinking all my progress is hindered and I’ll never get to my goal. Your body tells you what you need to do and reacts according to how you treat it. I haven’t been stretching enough therefore lead me to injury.

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Feeling bloated and sick? You ate food that your body is rejecting. 

Feeling fatigued and tired? You didn’t sleep enough, & you didn’t drink enough water. 

Feeling sluggish and lethargic? You ate acidic foods that gave you zero nutritional value. 

Feeling achy and sore? You didn’t recover properly! 

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Our bodies don’t hide anything from us. My body didn’t hide the pack of Oreos I polished off in 2 days and it certainly won’t hide my strained muscles. We all want to reach our goals faster but we don’t want to be patient or go through the process. We want everything and we want it now! That’s just not how it goes, sometimes you’ll have setbacks.

There are ways to prevent these things from happening so you don’t have to take weeks off at a time. I’m fully aware of all those steps, yet sometimes I don’t follow through and unexpected things happen that set me back.

This week I’m going to listen to my body and come back even stronger! Whoohoo! In the meantime, I’ll continue life with this ice pack strapped to my back and epson salt baths.

Later this week I’ll be writing about stretching and how beneficial and necessary it really is. I tell myself I’m going to stretch every day and I never do because let’s be real, it’s boring. SO BORING. Yet so essential and one of the best things you can do to see progress.

I hope you all had a blessed Easter weekend.

all my love,

+ I haven’t forgotten about my fav JUICE recipe & the difference between cold pressed juice and bottled juice. 

++ 7 Day Detox coming soon! A great way to re-set your body to get ready for summer. PDF packed full of information on how to detox your body & why it’s beneficial. 

+++ Upper Body Workout + Why 30 minute HIIT workouts are the most effective type of workout you can do for lean muscle & fat loss! 

Hang around for all that goodness!