May 16, 2016

Market to Market IOWA | 2016

Another year with this crazy crew (+1) means:

We were crazy enough to do it again
We tallied about 17.5 hours total in a vehicle
75 miles of race ground covered
Most of them were ran… I will let you ponder on that and make your own assumptions.
Our newest team mate is a bad influence. See #4
Or that’s what the rest of my team led me to believe. See #4
We love her anyways. See #5
Sunny days are better then cloudy days
Bridgette is SnapChat obsessed
I love taking selfies while running just to listen to my team bitch
Jenn changes her clothes often
Troy is the best driver, ever.
Sara doesn’t like to run but yet, she still joins us every year. That’s how cool we are.
Blair is full of the best one-liners.
Brad organizes this every year, so we really should question his ability to make life decisions.
Not sure what that says about us who join him.
Never underestimate Brian and his quietness. EVER!
With that said… pay attention to Brian. He will pull something over you. Or off him. See photo number 7 for reference.
Pay attention to the rule book. The after party tends to get moved. You’ll be incredibly disappointed when you walk to the former location.
Burgers at the end of the race is the way to go.
And Beer
And Ice Cream

Market to Market IOWA 2016 is a wrap!

April 17, 2016

Life Lately | April 2016

Hi Friends! I was inspired this weekend by my girl Katie over at Yellow Mango Life to start blogging again. She took a year off and I missed her updates! When I saw that little notification come up in my inbox that she had a few new posts up, I jumped for joy. She’s back! And with the CUTEST little addition to her family. Go check it out!

So for me… where do I even start? Here we go!

Clint’s Birthday – January

The annual Des Moines trip for Clint’s Birthday, aka Winter Party, ensued. A riot as normal.

February – Certifications

Certified some AMAZING new TurboKick and INSANITY instructors in Knoxville, IA. I love my Master Trainer job. LOVE!

Colorado – Copper Mountain – Annual Family Ski Vacay

Our annual trip to Copper Mountain Ski Resort with Clint’s family was, as always, a GREAT time away from work and everyday life to just enjoy family, clean air and fresh powder.

Master Classes – March

The first two weeks of March I spent traveling to Northwest Iowa and Red Oak, IA to offer free TurboKick and INSANITY Master Classes. Offering Master Classes is a way to spread the format love across the States and to notify folks of upcoming certifications. Always a great way to spend a day! Want me to come to you? Hit me up and let’s work it out. Bonus? I don’t charge for Master Classes! 😉

Biker B!tch Winter Sucks Party!

An evening with the Biker B’s. Shenanigans all around with these ladies.

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St Patrick’s Day Shenanigans

…with my morning INSANITY crew at the YMCA! I didn’t get to drink a green beer on St. Pat’s day this year because at 7pm, I was boarding a plane for California.

Master Trainer Newbie Bootcamp – California – March 18th-20th

Master Trainer Newbie Bootcamp. A time for Master Trainer’s within their first year as an MT to come together, learn, workout, learn some more, get pushed, learn some more, repeat, repeat, repeat. It was an experience to remember. It was hard, it was rewarding, it was eye opening, enlightening and humbling. I made new friends, connected with my 2015 Ambassador audition group, met some of the most influential folks in the fitness industry and learned from some of the best of the best. I look forward to future bootcamps when I am not the newbie! 🙂

Master Trainer newbie bootcamp was the culmination of a year long learning experience for me.

February 2015: Auditioned in Colorado to become a Master Trainer.
March 2015: Entered the 6-12 month master trainer ambassador program to start the learning and training process.
March 2015: Advanced into the fast track program for TurboKick.
May 2015: booked my first TBK certification as a trainer
June 2015: Cancelled my first certification. 😕 I wasn’t ready. There are times in life when you have to know when to push through something and when you have to pull back. I wasn’t mentally prepared to offer my own certification. I am hyper critical. Hyper aware. Hyper sensitive. I knew going into the certification wasn’t in my best interest, my future instructors or the companies. I chose more time to continue to hone my skills and craft.
October 2015: Hosted my very first TurboKick certification as a trainer. I finally did it.
2016: hit the ground running with five certifications completed, an added format of INSANITY and many more certifications on the horizon.

What a CRAZY 3 days of intense training, education and fun with fellow master trainers and ambassadors facilitated by some of the best MT’s and format/industry experts in the business.

The remaining Colorado Auditioning Crew.

❤

Super Workout

Region 2: Represent!

Sarah.

I officially met Sarah in California after speaking with her for a few months prior. I have grown so close to this girl through this experience. She is genuine, loyal, honest and you always know what you are getting with her. She and I continue nearly daily conversations and use each other to bounce ideas off of, talk through scenarios and build each other up. I dig her. She’s my jam.

April

Time with Friends – Erin was back for a few days. The three of us were roomies 10 years ago. TEN years ago I moved to Omaha and these chicks took me under their wild and crazy wings. Then Erin left us and we were forced to grow up. HA! It’s always fun to see her when she comes back. My oh my have our get-togethers changed.

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Grandma Evan’s 80th Birthday!

I just LOVE this woman. What a fun weekend of celebrating her greatness with family. ❤

The Brother. ❤

The Nieces ❤

The Husband

❤

The Mom

❤

Wine and Junk Run – Saturday, April 17th

Sara owns and operates SW Iowa Primitives, Antiques and Furniture in Emerson, IA. Each Spring and Fall she does a tour of wineries and shops in neighboring towns. Each stop requires a signature or stamp from the owner, you hit each stop and make your way back to the shop for food and prizes. It’s a great way to bring business to the small communities, find unique items and enjoy a day with your friends.

And if you have friends like mine, we definitely make it a day to remember.

Present Day!

There you have it… a quick recap of a few highlighted moments over the last few months. Today was a day of housework, meal prep, dog snuggles, an afternoon Harley ride with my man and now evening downtime. Cheers to a great week and maintaining at LEAST a weekly blog update. 🙂 No promises, folks. No promises.

February 22, 2016

Life As A Master Trainer: What I Have Learned So Far

Life as a Master Trainer

I’ve always had an interest in instructing and mentoring. I was deeply invested in being a Cheer and Dance team coach. I lived for the big concert moments as a teacher, watching my students play their instruments with pride and joy. I love teaching fitness classes. And as a Master Trainer, I am now combining all those little worlds into something bigger than I had ever even imagined.

The homework. The planning. The preparation. The networking. The outreach. The partnerships. The agreements. The marketing. The branding. The conference calls. The hours of work at night after an already 8 hour day in my career and two fitness classes under the belt. There are sacrifices. There are hours of missed sleeps.

But, with all of that comes accomplishment. There is reward. There is fulfillment. There is a sense of self. There is pride. There is opportunity. There is passion. There is pure joy. There is nothing I want to do more.

Being an MT means helping people achieve their bucket list item of becoming a fitness instructor.

It means pushing people beyond their physical limits and showing them what they TRULY can do when they put their mind and heart to it.

It means helping instill a different level of appreciation for the human body and how it functions.

It means helping teach the importance of community and family in a Group X classroom and how to create it.

Truly create it.

Being a Master Trainer is more then just certifying instructors. It’s days and hours of heart and soul. It’s walking into an 8 hour certification as strangers and leaving as a family. It’s taking all of their fears, doubts and nerves and changing them to goals, accomplishments and excitement. Each certification I learn more about myself. I become more self-aware. I reflect for hours and days following a certification on how I can make the next one even better then the last. On how I can help these individuals who have just put all of their trust into little ol’ me to help make THEM the best they can be before they go out to the world and instruct their own classes.

Being a Master Trainer is far more then I ever imagined.

And to just think…

this is just the beginning.

January 31, 2016

Mr. Miracle?

Remember when I was telling you about my back/hip issue? And then remember when I stopped talking about it? Because if you are like me, you want to just say “SUCK IT UP ALREADY… I AM SO TIRED OF LISTENING TO YOU”.

I get it. I am tired of listening to me too. I am tired of living with it more.

And I became more tired of having people look at me like I was being a baby when I attempted to explain it.

You know who you are. You judgmental judgy McJudgersons.

…

I still love you.

Some days I could suck it up and pay for it later. Some days I could suck it up thanks to some magic pills. Some days I couldn’t suck it up to save my life. Right now I am back to the days where I can barely get in a squat, let alone a burpee. Burpees are my JAM! I WANT TO DO BURPEES!!! I haven’t worked out all weekend trying to alleviate the irritation so I can do my Tuesday burpee challenge. Oh, you crazy kids, stay tuned for that!

Anyway, I have focusing problems. Back to it.

So, I saw a new Dr. on Friday.

We are going to call him Dr. Miracle.

Because I am going to believe in him and the miracle he is about to bring to my back/hip.

His diagnosis: Sacroiliitis

What is it? Sacroiliac joint inflammation

So what? It causes low back, hip and pelvic issues and often time leg issues. Yo prego women… if you have this, it’s gonna suck even more. Whew… I am good there.

Levels: Sometimes the pain is minimal, sometimes it’s debilitating. I have all the gambits. Thankfully the day I saw him I was at the stage where I was unable to squat or pull my right leg up to my knee to cross it. Like physically not possible. Not painful and don’t want to do it… straight up can’t do it.

Stupid right? Ya, I agree. For three months!

Solution: An X-Ray guided anesthetic and steroid shot to the joint.

When? THURSDAY!

Why not Friday when I was there? INSURANCE

(Sometimes I really hate insurance…)

Who is excited?

THIS GIRL!!!!

My life revolves around being active. Not being so active is Sucky McSuckerson. I’ve got classes to teach, miles to run, weights to lift, burpees to complete, certifications to facilitate, chairs to sit in, Jeeps to drive, Harley’s to ride. This girl is ready for that pain to disappear!

Cheers to Thursday and Dr. Miracle.

Harleys and Heels

Living Life in the Moment

Fitness

Market to Market IOWA | 2016

Market to Market IOWA 2016 is a wrap!