This blog is inspired from a conversation I had with a couple of close friends over a month or two ago.  I can’t remember what the conversation was about, I only remember saying I’m going to name my next blog after that, so here it is.

I believe one of the famous Proverbs sayings goes, “It takes a village to raise a child”, and I honestly believe this to be true. But once you are an adult, what happens to your village?

#wheredidmyvillagego lol ????

You still need your small village, aka God, family and friends to help you along your life journey. Life can often be tough from trying to make decisions regarding your career, finances, family, etc. I experienced this first hand this semester with school. I literally wanted to quit my Calculus class every single week. I would tell my close friends, I’m dropping my class today, every single week. I’m sure they are happy to hear that the drop date has passed, so there isn’t any dropping of calculus now bih. ?

Although, the class isn’t over, I have 4.5 weeks to go, so continue to pray for me please. My motivation to stay in the class was from my friends’ constant small reminders of L don’t give up, keep trying, you can do it, you better not drop, even when I would probably text them back nah bruh I’m dropping. Lol They were my constant cheerleaders reminding me to “glow up” to reach my goals. I have continued on with this 7am class, even when I was faking it, like I was making it. I went to tutoring at the math lab, watched YouTube videos of calculus and frequently made appointments with my professor to keep trying. It is essential that you surround yourself with people who encourage you to “glow up” and not give up and that can recognize greatness within you, even when you don’t see it in yourself. My friends and I cheer each other on, all the time. Their successes are my wins because they are part of my circle.  When they glow up, I glow up, because I am excited for them just as if it is my own success. I pray for them, laugh with them and try to let them know I appreciate them.

I am fortunate enough to have a few groups of friends and we are all unique in our own way. In addition to my friends I sought after a mentor who is amazing, I have my church small group and my amazing sisters as well. Above, everyone else, I have God is who always there 24/7!

How do you stay motivated? Who are your “glow up” friends? Comment below, I would love to hear.

 Friends love through all kinds of weather, and families stick together in all kinds of trouble. Proverbs 17:17 MSG

P.S. Stay away from they. – DJ Khalid

I have pasted some pictures below of some of my friends!

60 Day Challenge Update:

For those of you wondering…I did complete the 60 day challenge with the exception of day 60, which was my birthday! So, I am okay with 59 days out of 60 and satisfied with my results. I am still in the gym working out for lunch during the week and also try to go on Saturdays, but I will be resting on Sundays and enjoying football for the rest of the year.

Story Time:

Earlier this year I was self-reflecting and I realized, I wanted to go back to school to pursue a mathematics degree. Yikes. Who does this? That would be me. Lol

***Side note: You will soon learn that sometimes I agree to do things in my mind that I wish I would have planned out on paper just a tad bit better, but I do them anyway. ***

For those of you all that are still getting to know me, here is an interesting fact, I currently have 3 degrees and if I could stay in school for the rest of my life and get paid for it, I would. I truly enjoy learning new information and finding ways to apply it towards my life and to help others.

In January of this year, I talked to an adviser to see what classes I would need to take for this degree and by the following month I was enrolled in a trigonometry class online.  #bigmistake I forgot to mention that I haven’t taken a math class since my second year of undergrad and that was almost 10 years ago. One would think that this should have been enough to deter me from registering for school, but nope I took the class anyway, purchased my TI-83 calculator and signed in to my online class. Well, thankfully I passed the class despite my many struggles, but I learned I will not be enrolling in any other math classes online! Sine, cosine and tangent are all words that sound like a foreign language and should definitely only be taught in person. #lessonlearned

Fast forward to this semester, I am currently enrolled in a Calculus class and it is challenging. I didn’t even plan on taking calculus, but things happen and I roll with it and keep moving forward. I initially signed up for pre-calculus for this semester and received a call from the Dean’s secretary 3 days before class was to begin and listened to her state my pre-calculus class was cancelled and that I could skip pre-calculus and take calculus. At first, I was hesitant, but she reassured me that the Dean of the school had checked my credentials and felt I would do well in the class. So of course, I was up for the challenge and a few days later I cringed thinking that I had agreed to take a calculus class at 7am and that same dean is my professor. #funtimes  I had my first exam a few days and I actually did really well. This degree may take me a while to finish since I am working full time, but it will be worth it in the end.

So, with all of this being said, whether you are starting a new job, a new project, dating again from a bad experience, etc…Get over your fear, whatever that fear may be and start something you have always wanted to pursue. I was nervous when I sent my first blog out and I have received nothing but love and support from friends and family! What are you thinking about starting? Share with me, comment below, I can cheer for you!

Have a great day and enjoy the rest of your week!

Food for Thought:

Joshua 1:9 NLT This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Today is day 50 of the challenge! ??

I’m so excited that the challenge is coming to an end and thrilled about my progress and dedication to complete the challenge.

Through this challenge, I have learned a few things that I wanted to share with you below that may help you be successful in future challenges.

1. Never start a 60 day challenge. I am so serious, don’t do it.  Lol ?
2. If for some crazy idea you decide to start this challenge, accountability partners are encouraged.
3. Push yourself within the challenge to do different workout activities that you haven’t tried before, you will be amazed by what you can do!???
   I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me. – Philippians 4:13?
4. Set realistic goals for yourself and celebrate your success along the way. #Smallvictory?
5. Take time to relax and stretch your muscles, so add a yoga class or time in the sauna.
6. Stay hydrated, you will need plenty of H2O.
7. Plan ahead so that you are flexible to adjust your schedule to possibly workout earlier or later than your normal scheduled routine.?
8. Working out is half the battle, don’t forget your eating habits are also essential for success.???
9. Monitor your progress to ensure you are working towards whatever goals you have set.
10. Always remember to have fun with the challenge!

Oh yeah, today is Eclipse Day! Happy Solar Eclipse Day to you and I hope you were able to see pictures!

I borrowed this one below from Google. #citingmysource

Have a great night and an amazing week!

I wasn’t going to blog this week and was going to wait until next week since I have literally only been able to do 30 minute workouts daily and nothing more, but then I had a change of heart. ?

I received an email from WordPress that reminded me that today is my 1 month anniversary for blogging and I think that this deserves a celebration and a blog. ?

In preparing for this blog, I decided to look at some of my past photos that I have taken over the last 39 days of this 60 day challenge and I realized how much I have progressed in my weight loss journey. For the most part, I have more energy, I drink more water and I finally have a daily workout routine. #winning Initially, even after seeing the photos I was still focused on the fact that I still don’t have abs, which I want Really bad, but I am happy with my progress thus far. I am ecstatic that all my clothes in my closet fit again, because it is low-key depressing when I can’t fit a pair of my favorite jeans. Jk.

As a matter of fact, I am sure we all have those jeans that we can’t wear all the time because for some reason they must have shrunk in the dryer. Lol. For example, I have 3 pairs of black jeans that all appear identical when I wear them, but they are all different sizes depending on how my weight is doing at that time. I would tell you guys the jean sizes, but I don’t need the judgment. Lol. Thankfully after starting this challenge I can finally fit into the smaller size jeans again and they are comfortable. #wonthedoit

As I continue for the next 21 days, I will start to celebrate more of my progress and for my readers I even posted pics below for you all to see some of my progress! What progression are you celebrating?

Happy 1 month blogging to me!!!

Have a great night and an amazing weekend!

Day 39

 Day 2

½ way done or another ½ to go until completion; no matter how you say it, just keep going! ??
So today is my 30^th day of the challenge and I am so excited to have made it thus far! I will have to admit everyday has not been easy to complete, but I have learned to celebrate small victories. I am pretty sure this is the first time I have EVER done anything for 30 days consecutively in my life. #Smallvictory ??

One of the best things that I have learned from this challenge is to be more flexible with my time. My favorite time to work out is in the morning, but I don’t have time for that, so I opt to go at lunch.

In addition to squeezing in workouts in the middle of the day, I have challenged myself to try new workout classes at the gym. My current favorite class of all time is turbo kickboxing! I believe I am Rocky Balboa in class in my head and that I can defeat almost any opponent. Lol. Don’t try me because I will turbo kick you! ?JK.

Last week I tried a class called POP Pilates and OMG… I shouldn’t have. POP Pilates was an awesome core workout, but my core wasn’t ready for it, I thought my abs were literally going to POP. The class is a mixture of YOGA, a little cardio and abs! I literally limped out the class after sweating profoundly for 30 minutes and not being able to catch my breath. The great thing is although I wanted to walk out the class, I finished it and will probably go back and try it again. Another… #Smallvictory

So hopefully this encourages you to continue what you have recently started, whether it is a new diet, getting back in the gym or enrolling in a class. In the words of Nike, just do it and finish strong so that you can have a #Smallvictory to celebrate.

Small victories eventually turn into even bigger success stories! Just start.

Try something new, you just may enjoy it!

Until next time…Have a great night and an even better week! – Unknown

As the famous saying goes… it takes 21 days to form a habit and I will have to agree ?%.  At day 20 of this challenge, it was no longer a struggle for me to get out the bed, change to gym clothes and go complete my workout.  #whoop Surprisingly, I have been looking forward to my workouts recently, because it creates time for me to relax and decompress after a long day of work, which is definitely needed in my field.

For the remaining 37 days of the challenge, I’m going to incorporate different exercises and also focus on my food choices. For example, last week I tried Stairmaster for the first time ever. Yikes!!! In the words of my friend, she would say, “Did you die though?” Lol. Nah, I didn’t die,  but I wish someone would have told me the key to being successful at Stairmaster is to only put about half of your foot on each step which, I unfortunately had to learn the hard way after my shoe was stuck a few times.

While this challenge has been fun and a test of my commitment, I am glad that I have a huge support system cheering me on.  The random text messages saying I completed 2 miles today, or the IG message stating someone has been working out with me since day 1 of the challenge are encouraging. Air hugs to all of you guys!

Special s/o to the ladies in my group chat participating in the challenge, you guys are the real MVPs. ??? There were a few ladies who completed a 10 day smoothie cleanse, woke up at 5am for boot camp, completed a 5k and also set new fitness records for themselves; you guys are truly amazing!!! ?

Well until next time…Have a great day and a better week! – Unknown

This week’s post title was inspired by Insecure that has returned for season 2. Yay!!!!