My journey with health and fitness has been a roller coaster ride, a lot of highs and lows to say the least. I’ve gone from trying every fad diet under the sun to working out hours a day every day just to “work off” a bad diet. I am 27, and I can tell you right now I do not have it all figured out, but I finally feel like I’m on the right track to having and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

As a female, society is always telling us how we should or shouldn’t look. Don’t eat that, don’t lift too heavy, etc. I remember as a young girl being overweight and literally every day worrying what kid on the playground is going to make fun of me today. Around high school, I found my love for lifting and sports. Naturally, it made my broad shoulders and big thighs even bigger from building so much muscle. I still remember to this day during a volleyball game hearing “thunder thighs” being yelled my way. In college, I decided to get obsessed with running (which is super odd because I absolutely do not enjoy running). I lost a lot of weight but also lost a lot of muscle mass. Through all these years of this, I was either half starving myself or completely binge eating. I was never fully getting the nutrition my body needed.

Years later, I found CrossFit. It is now my favorite thing ever. It is more than a hard workout. It’s a mindset shift. I enjoy the people I go to the gym with. We are all working toward a common goal of bettering ourselves. It’s not focusing on the physical aspect of your body, but more of the mental aspect. The physical changes eventually follow on their own.

A couple of years ago, I really tried to get more on track with my nutrition. Like I said before, I’ve tried everything under the sun and of course always gained the weight back. I never felt like those fad diets were a lifestyle I could maintain. The main thing I was trying to focus on was making meals at home, incorporating more fruits and veggies, and eat good, quality meat. Chicken has always been the “go to” because it typically has less fat than beef. Well I am here to tell you that I burned out on chicken a long time ago, and it’s really not hard to incorporate beef into your meals. It tastes way better and you are getting healthy fats from the beef instead of other additives throughout the day. I make steaks regularly for Trevor and me. I also try to find creative ways to use beef in meals throughout the week because beef truly is a healthy source of nutrition to fuel my body. A single 3 oz serving of beef, which is 173 calories, contains 10 essential nutrients and 25 grams of protein. Those healthy fats that I mentioned, that’s monounsaturated fats (the same heart healthy fats found in olive oil) and over 51% of fat in beef is monounsaturated. Fat is often thought of as a scary word in the healthy and fitness world but really its super important when it comes to fueling our mind and body!

I was very fortunate to have Haley and Max start their meat business because I order from them all the time. My freezer is always stocked up with beef. I also love knowing where my food is coming from!

My journey is far from over, but I finally feel some sort of peace. I am starting to love the skin I’m in, and I’m not ashamed for loving to lift heavy and eat REAL food!