OK, I am going to share a little about my last few days, because even though parts are TERRIFYING, it is also kinda funny. I am sure my “buddy” Hunter will say that it is freaking hysterical!

You see, Hunter – Hunter Holmes- is an author. His normal genre I guess would be described as adventure/erotica. His first two books The Prospect : Chronicles of Crighton 1&2, were just that! And I loved them. Started following him on Facebook, got in his author group, and became friends. SO….when he decided to write a horror book, honestly, I was a bit less than excited. Because you may know that I love scary movies, but not so much with the scary books. WHY? Because I have a VERY vivid imagination, and what I picture in my mind is often much scarier than what I see on a screen.

BUT, like I said, I enjoyed his other books, and he is a friend and author that I want to support, so I read it. It took me longer than it should have because I had to take breaks from it. I mean….there are demons! And obviously from the title Hounds from Hell! So, yeah, it took a bit out of me and I had to put it down a few times.

SO, here is where I start to amuse “my friend”. I read the book. I comment several times on the group about how I felt about it. He finds me and my “scaredy-cat” ways and SLIGHT paranoia funny! And starts laughing at me. Happy to be a source of a smile, I share it all which brings more teasing and more laughter. You’re welcome! 😉

So, the book is evil! LOL! JK, it is actually good, and probably REALLY good if you do happen to actually enjoy horror books. That said, you do, give my friend some support and go check it out on Amazon Houndings of Hell by Hunter Holmes .

And since I am POSITIVE there will be more, yes, I will be reading his next one, but did request a nightlight from him. Again, he taunted and scared me. LOL! But for now, I am going to go read a happy little romance or some fun dark stuff with a side of kink 😉

BTW….speaking of that, I will be talking about more of my favorite books and authors coming up, since this is no longer a blog just about my fitness stuff 🙂

Next up will be COLE DENTON! The boy wrecked me with the emotion in his Trial By Fire Series. When I write about/ review this series, it will require me to write a full journal of feelings, so expect a LONG post! His current work is the next book in his Club Oxygen Series, SLAVE, comes out this Thursday October 22, 2020. Here is the link to Book 1 – Oxygen

Until next time, as always, but especially in this extremely strange time in our lives full of isolation, Take Care of YOU by moving and nourishing your body and feeding and caring for your mind and soul. Sometimes exactly what you need comes from a place you never knew your soul needed.

Peace and Much Love to You All!

Hi!

I know. I know!

It has been awhile! Almost a year actually 😦

Well, it hasn’t been a great one for many of us with the COVID pandemic, but I have actually been dealing with a lot other than that. Let me catch you up a bit and explain where this blog is going to go from here.

First, when I last posted, I was pretty sure that I was going to have to be finding a new job. Well that didn’t happen. Not really at least. The pharmacy I work for DID get purchased by the local hospital, and things have been changing. But as the in house bookkeeper, my job has not only been secure so far, I have been swamped! I am starting to get my footing now, but still learning new things every day. Finding out just how much easier it is and how much more efficient I am at doing my job, when things are done in a more precise and methodical way. Imagine that, the anal OCD girl likes this organized! LOL! I also have a whole team of people providing the information I need to complete my tasks, and so far everything is going great!

Second, my studio, Phoenix Fitness with Body By BrendaT. We did have to shut down for a couple of months, and while I did keep up my own workouts to a degree, I was working a LOT of OT during that time so I gained some weight just like about half the population has during this mess. But we are now again open, and if you are local and would like to see what classes I have to offer right now, go to the calendar on my website. Classes will be added or changed as we find out what fits into people’s lives once we all get back to a bit more normalcy. AND, fitness related, I AM still a Beachbody Coach. I just have not had a lot of time for much other than what I am doing and relaxing with books in between to protect my sanity! LOL!

And last but not least, me personally. Well…I cut all my hair off again! 😉 And as I said above, I have gained some more weight back. I am NOT very happy with myself, but I continue to eat nutritious foods more often than I don’t, and exercise is, as you know, a HUGE part of my life. I have also returned to my love of reading, and through social media have met some fun and caring people and authors who read and write the kinds of books I like to read, and even a few genres that I didn’t even know I would like.

That brings me to the next subject that I want to talk about in this blog post. The future of this blog is not just going to be about fitness and nutrition. YES, there will still be a lot of that, but this blog will also have a bit more of my day to day life, motivation and accountability posts that help me keep going even if it has NOTHING to do with fitness, books I have read or books I am reading(along with possible reviews), where my mind wanders and just general musings, from things that I have overcome or am working through, and maybe I’ll even touch on hopes, dreams, and goals for my future and things that I am working on or that we can work on together.

I am sure some of you who just liked the fitness stuff, may not like all the future posts, because some of it is dark, some if it may be a bit out of the box of who and what you think I am, and some may simply not interest you. But I’m going to be honest. I am doing this for ME! I have found that over the last several years, I have let some stuff eat me alive, and I feel I have TOTALLY lost Brenda!

NO MORE!

I will, as always, put on my armor and move forward. Bullies don’t scare me anymore. Frankly, I am too F’n old to care who thinks what about me. So if you have an ugly opinion about me, you can keep it to yourself! Because I can delete you out just as fast as you came into my life. NO negativity tolerated anymore. 🙂

I feel I have once again hit a Rock Bottom!

Time To RISE UP!

Hello!

I have been MIA from this blog for awhile now.  Life changes, a LOT of stress, topped off with a dollop of depression and anxiety, and I honestly haven’t known which way was up for quite some time.  So this blog is really more of a personal message to those of you who are wondering what’s going on and where I’ve been.

BUT, I really want to share my gratitude with all of those who have not given up on me.  Because I am truly grateful for all the the support and encouragement that I have received from all of you.

I know that as an introvert and someone who withdraws from social interactions quickly, that I am often not the greatest friend. Yet I still have many people in my life who accept me for who I am and continue to support me. Even when I do things like duck out of parties because I don’t like the feeling of my nerves crawling throughout my body out of discomfort and my, possibly irrational, fear of never being good enough.

This has been a tough year for me.  And I am facing yet another failure.  I am not giving up, because I AM NOT A FAILURE, but I am reevaluating what I REALLY want out of the rest of my life.  I am thinking that finding ways to make my life simpler may be better for me.  Sometimes you CAN give up too much of yourself to the point that you forget to save anything for YOU!

So, My Friends, I appreciate all of you and lovingly accept your support and encouragement while I decide what is next for me.

A new job?

Changes at the studio?

Something TOTALLY different?

I am honestly not sure yet.

But I am keeping my heart, eyes, and ears open for the opportunity that I am sure is looking as hard for me as I am for it! 🙂

I have people all the time telling me that they just “CAN’T”.

I call Bull Spit!

You CAN, but you have to SHOW UP and make yourself a priority!

And the old saying, is 100% TRUE!

If you stop showing up for yourself because your journey doesn’t look like someone else’s, you are only robbing yourself of the joy that you could have if you keep reaching for your goals!

People think that their results are going to be the same as someone else’s who consistently SHOWS UP and puts in the work, even when they don’t give near that level of commitment.

And BELIEVE ME, I am saying this to myself as much as I do to others who need to hear it!  I have been continuously fighting my own demons.  Can’t seem to go more than a couple of days without wanting or needing alcohol or food to help me relax and wind down my day.  It’s a crutch, just like all excuses.  I use excess snacking and drinking as an excuse when I sit down to JUSTIFY taking a break. I know in my head this is wrong, but I do it anyway.  I don’t abuse food and alcohol BECAUSE I sit down, I abuse them to ALLOW myself to sit down.  I know it makes no sense, and I am working on it, but I do go into the next day ready to kick its ass!  Some days I win, some I lose.  But I SHOW UP and accept the outcome of MY actions!  My success or failure is on ME, no one else.  I don’t pretend that I have done everything perfect while putting back on some of this weight that I worked so very hard to get off.  But I do SHOW UP and do at least one good thing for myself every day.

I KNOW what to do.  I can tell others what to do and how to get success, because I have HAD success!  And I get that sometimes life gets in the way.  But when things don’t go your way, don’t blame the journey, unless you can say with absolute certainty, that you 100% committed and SHOWED UP!

I haven’t lately.  I admit it.

Stress.

Life situations.

Life seasons(MENOPAUSE AND HORMONES SUCK BTW!!!).

Addiction.

Fear.

Failure.

All of those have taken a toll on my health over the past 5 years.  I had reached a place of what I thought was success in my life and FREAKED OUT!

But when I look back, what made me successful, was consistency and doing things every day that I knew would bring me closer to my vision of success, which to me, is first and foremost being healthy enough to have the energy to take on other things in my life.  I started to veer away from those consistencies when I started allowing distractions to take me away from my habits.  Now I am once again addicted to my distractions.  But I am currently taking steps to help with that.  I am not going to be super forthcoming with these steps at this very moment, because I am doing them for ME and ONLY Me, but watch for future posts 🙂

And that is ALWAYS my biggest advice to anyone who asks me for it.  Make YOU a priority!  And SHOW UP for Yourself EVERY DAY!

And as always, MAKE TODAY GREAT! ❤

Good Monday Morning!!!

I WANT to feel like this~

But since I woke up thinking this~

I actually feel like this~

LOL!

BUT….since that isn’t possible, I have made up my mind to CRUSH this day!

So this is just a quick hello and Motivation Monday post to encourage you to CRUSH it with me! 🙂

If you are local, I have 4 spots open at Phoenix Fitness tonight for all 3 classes!  Come join us for some Fitness Fun 🙂

Check the website Home Page for the schedule and times, and message me on Facebook so I can reserve your spot!  I also have permanent spots open for August in ALL classes.

Guess that is all I got for you this morning, so let’s Get Out There And CRUSH This Monday!!!!

The last few weeks I have felt a shift in myself.  I have really been beating myself up for quite some time lately. And each time I think I am doing better, something else happens to pull me back down. I have had troubles accepting this season of my life.  I workout and, yes, I DO eat right most of the time.  Yet still I struggle with the greatest nemesis of my life, my weight.  I know now that I have not made time and taken enough time to rest, recover, relax, or even just breathe.  I am stressed most of the time. And up until my Sweet Emmy Lou died, I was averaging about 4 hours of sleep per night for the last 2-3 years.  I simply haven’t been doing very good on my self-care.  And in the meantime, have returned to some pretty toxic feelings of self-loathing and worse.  Add in some sneaky toxic people, and you have a pretty good recipe for a slippery slope back to depression and under rock dwelling 😦  But I REFUSE to reside there for too long EVER AGAIN!

Although it was a horrible and heart wrenching time for me, after I lost my sweet Emmy, I realized that it is time to start being nicer to ME in more ways than just starting to get a little more sleep.  I recently listened to a book about being healthy at any weight, and although I really agreed with so much of it, because I have had a horrible relationship with food all of my life, I am also not happy with where I am at now for ME!  Not to please anyone else.  Not to make myself feel worthy of love or friendship.  Not even for acceptance as a fitness professional.  You don’t HAVE to be a “Barbie” to be a FIT!  But I also know that with my knee problems, I feel a lot better about 40# lighter than I am right now.

But I will NOT be body shaming myself anymore!  And I will not tolerate anyone who thinks they have a right to talk about me or ANY ONE else in that way.  Either to our faces, OR behind our backs!  To them, I simply say F!U! Because they may think that beauty is about weight, but in my opinion, their ugly hearts are WAY uglier than my Big Butt, Thick Thighs, or Bulging Belly!

This is pretty much a TOTAL overhaul of the way I have thought and talked about myself for most of my life, so please be patient with me.  So if you see me struggling, saying a kind word would be appreciated.  Further criticism, or even unsolicited diet, nutrition, or fitness advice is NOT!  Following crappy advice and fad diets for research has also contributed to where I am now with a 100% jacked up metabolism!  It will NOT happen overnight, and I do not expect it to.  Neither should you!  So don’t assume that I have given up just because of what I LOOK like!  Sometimes the people that you think aren’t doing anything, are working harder than anyone else.  Or they have simply decided to believe in THEMSELVES more than what media and society tell them they should believe in.

I have been told SO MANY times in the last 2 years, that it is my age, or menopause, or stress.  And even though I do believe that all of those things have played a role in why I have “fallen” as some have said, you know what?  I have fallen before.  I have also gotten back up EVERY TIME!  If you think you know my whole story, I would like to know how, since it isn’t even close to being over yet! 😉

I GOT THIS!