My Fitness Journey: 1 Year!

Wow! I can hardly believe that a year has flown by already since I started my fitness journey and changed my life around to better my health. My own desire to change my life has spilled over into my husband and children. We're all eating better. My daughter loves to work out with me. And I've loved sharing this journey with them, and teaching them about why we need to live a healthy life and make the most of this one body that God has given us.

It's been a spiritual journey for me as much as a physical transformation. My perspective has changed so much since I first started in April 2013. You know what did it for me? I saw myself in pictures after Ava's birthday last year and I didn't like what I saw. I had a 3 month old baby, I was breast feeding too. I had already lost the baby weight that I gained with Zane by this point, from 190 to 158 pounds. I was still very over weight at 158 pounds on my 5'2'' frame. I knew things needed to changed. I knew I wanted to feel better about myself, I wanted to fit into clothing again and feel good about it. 

Before April 2013 on the left and on the right after the first 3 months (July 2013) of working and eating well consistently.

I wanted to rid my body of the sugar cravings I'd been having, I wanted to exercise more and learn to love it and enjoy it! I've never loved to exercise, it's never been a priority either. And I knew that needed to change. 

So I started. I started doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred everyday, from my living room. Sometimes with my kids screaming in the background. I remember how hard it was when I first started I could barely do the jumping jacks she wanted me to do. And I was cursing her the whole time. After 6 days, I thought maybe I can do this. It's getting easier. 

I also began to clean up my diet. I cut out all refined sugar, dairy and started to eat clean. I gave up a lot at first because I needed to. I just cut it out cold turkey. I started drinking massive amounts of water and gave up soda. I knew I needed to give up some time and retrain my taste buds. Can I tell you something? I don't even crave the same things any more. I don't even miss it.  

I did the 30 Day Shred for about the first 5 months and had great results with it in addition to my change in eating habits. In August 2013 I started running. I used the C25K app on my phone and started running. Three times a week and also still doing the 30 Day Shred on the other days I wasn't running. 

I kept pushing my body and trying new things. My body started changing. When I started this journey I wrote down some goals. At first all I wanted to do was fit in my size 8 jeans that had been sitting in my dresser for almost two years and I couldn't wear them, I wanted to wear them again and thought that was a good goal to attain. I wrote down some simple goals and now one year later I'm so excited that I've surpassed those initial goals I set for myself. 

The picture on the right is October 2013- back into a size 8. Today those pants are too big and I've surpassed my original size 8 goal!

I remember the day I slipped them on and couldn't believe that they fit. It was like a small miracle to me and a big thing. July 2013 I had finally been able to fit into my size 8 jeans down from my size 12s that I was wearing when I started this in April of that year. That motivated me to keep going and trying new things and pushing my body to do what God created it to do. 

I learned that God created my body to do amazing things. This machine that he created to be able to hike, run, walk all with ease. I decided that I have this one body and this one life and I needed to take care of it and honor God with my physical health and not waste it away and treat my body badly. This changed my mindset as well. It changed my outlook on myself and my confidence was boosted. 

One of the biggest high lights for me this year was running my first 5K with my husband. Something I never thought I'd do, I did it! 

On the left Before, on the right one year later. A work in progress but I'm so happy with the direction I'm taking.

I almost hesitated to share and talk about the numbers and results here publicly on the blog. But then I remembered how motivated I get when I see others results and how encouraging it is. I'm also very proud of what my hard work and discipline has done for my physical body.

Starting weight 190 pounds, current weight 124 pounds: 66 pounds lost

Starting size 12, current size 6

I've lost 4 inches and 1 cup size in my bust. 

I've also lost 10 overall inches. 

If you're on the fence about your own healthy journey I encourage you to JUST START! Start small, start somewhere! You'll never wake up and regret getting in that work out, never! I'm so thankful for the overall health journey I've taken this last year, it's made a huge impact on my life and my family's life as well. 

I love teaching my daughter healthy habits, I love that she likes to work out with me. My family is as much involved as I am in this journey. They have been supportive and encouraging and it's been a ripple effect on others around me. Let's do it together, encourage one another to reach our goals and live our best life. 

Girls Trip to Chicago

Last weekend I met my three friends in Chicago for a girls weekend. With 8 kids, husbands, careers, ministry, and lives that have a million things going on it was so fun to just get away together for three days. I met these girls when I was in college and we've been friends the last 13 years. We've seen each other through so many things; getting through college together, weddings, pregnancy, death of parents, I'm so thankful for each one of them. We haven't all been together for about 4 years. This time was overdue, welcomed and so needed. 

Three of us flew into Chicago and met at the airport, the other rode the train. And we all met downtown Chicago and an awesome hotel I found for us. Within walking distance to tons of food, shopping and the Pier. The first day we sat around a lunch table and talked for the longest time. Our day was filled with coffee, eating and talking! Chicago deep dish was on the must have list! 

Our second day Sara, Eunice and I got up early headed to the 27th floor workout room and go our sweat on. I loved having workout buddies! We spent the rest of the day shopping on Michigan Ave and ate lunch at Grand Lux Cafe'. 

Our third day we got up and spent the day at Navy Pier. We walked around, bought treasures for our kiddos, ate lunch and walked back to the hotel before it was time for us all to depart later that afternoon. 

Each evening we stayed up late chatting and playing Rook. I haven't played in years and needed a few refresher hands! I'm pretty sure my partner hated me those first few rounds. 

I can't even put into words how much these ladies bless me! I am so thankful for each of them. Our friendship over the years has seen its highs and lows. It's seen conflict, fun, laughter, peace and grown. I wouldn't be the woman I am today without them. They stretch me, challenge me, make me laugh and I trust them. A 13 year friendship that I know will go on and on. 

A weekend away with some of my best girlfriends was just what I need! I learn so much from them, and it was a great time of re connecting and laughing a lot! There are so many days that I wish that we could all just be together again in the same place, the same state and how much I miss those times. But I'm also so grateful that God has kept us together and kept our friendship over these years that when we see each other after a long time, and life takes us in all different directions we pick up right where we last saw each other. 

Common ground in the Lord is so sustaining for a friendship and I am beyond blessed by these friends! 

Have you taken a girls trip recently? Where did you go, what did you do? I'm already thinking about our next trip and declaring NOW that somewhere warm is a must! 

Living a Less Distracted Life Part II

In part 1 I talked a bit about the desire to live less distracted and what does that mean. Today I wanted to take some time to share with you some practical ways that I'm trying to live less distracted and how I'm accomplishing this.

This is going to probably look different for everyone but I just wanted to share some of my own experiences and I think it's good from time to time to ask ourselves these types or questions and examine our motives for things as well. 

A few practical things I've done in the last couple weeks to help me live less distracted and more open to what God has for me. 

Social Media Break: I decided that on the weekends I would take a break from social media. This has been so good for me, stepping away to look at other things in my life.

Month Spending Freeze: In March we took a family spending freeze. We only bought things that were necessary for living. We didn't spend money on entertainment, eating out, or clothing, etc during this time. We really wanted to take a look at our finances and see how much more we could save, and did a freeze to be un distracted during this time. 

Spending my time wisely: There's a lot of things that can easily take up my time if I let it. Recently I've been trying to be purposeful and intentional about what takes up my time. Saying "no" when I need to and really evaluating what things are taking me away from home, family and what matters. Making sure what I am doing is focused around my priorities and not becoming a distraction. 

Daily time with God: This is not something new for me, but I do believe that it's vital for me to live less distracted by having time in God's word, and spending time in prayer with Him. It helps keep me focused. 

Getting Rid of Clutter: I've been de cluttering the past few weeks. I've been participating in the #40Bagsin40Days challenge with White House Black Shutters. I hope to do a hole post about my 40 bags experience, but so far I will say that I think physical clutter has a lot to do with emotional clutter in our lives. It's freeing and less distracting to get rid of things and live simpler. 

The biggest thing I've learned during this time is that it's necessary to take a step back at times and evaluate life. Slow down even. Sometimes we get caught up in the busyness of life and it takes over and we can forget our purpose and priorities. Living life less distracted opens me up to hear God more and to see more of what he wants to teach me during this season of life.

Living A Less Distracted Life Part I

I've been feeling for a while now that God is showing me things about living with less distractions. I've felt him pulling at me during times in my day showing me that this or that is a distraction. 

A distraction from my relationship with him. 

A distraction from my kids at certain times. 

A distraction in my focus. 

So for the last couple weeks I've spent time praying about these things and asking God what does that look like? 

Are there things that are distracting me?

Is it people? 

Is it the things I am putting my time into?

Asking God these practical questions. What are the things in my life keeping me from living a less distracted life? And how can make more time for the things that matter? And as I've been working through things God is really showing me some awesome things.

He's showing me that I don't want to just be "busy" for the sake of being. He's showing me some things that I need to let go of in order to live life less distracted. 

He's showing me where my focus, time and energy need to be and where they do not need to be. I'm refocusing my priorities, and making new ones too. 

It's amazing the clarity that comes when you just dig in with you and God. And isn't that the way that it always should be? But the truth is, (at least for me) we should always be this in tune. Shouldn't we?

But sometimes we let other things cloud our time and we don't make time for God. There's no room for Him. And he wants to do these awesomely amazing things in our lives but we need to make time for Him. 

He wants to speak to us, but we need to speak to him too. 

He wants to pour down amazing blessing on us, and we need to make sure we have our buckets ready. 

But we can't do that if we're distracted and not ready. 

So I've been refocusing so that I can be ready. So that I can be present more in my relationship with him, in my marriage, as a wife, mother and friend. 

It's time to slow down, it's time to put what matters first. 

So let's ask ourselves (me & you) some tough questions.

Is there any areas of life that you feel are away from the Lord?

Do you feel like there are things tearing you away from who God created you to be?

Write them down, pray over them and ask God to help you let go of what your distraction is. Ask him to come into those deepest parts. 

Today, is the start of Lent. I am not Catholic but I love the value and heart behind the observance of Lent. Taking time to give up something in order to have more of Christ revealed in your life. I believe the heart is to live less distracted and focus on God more during this time before Easter. 

So this lent season I'm thinking of the different distractions God is showing me and focusing on the Lord more. I want to challenge you today to think of the areas of your life that may be distracted and how God can help you lean more on Him. 

On Being Brave & The New Blog.

When I talk about the desire to thrive in my life this year, I don't just mean in one area. God has asked me to thrive in all areas of my life this year. Towards the end of last year I felt a stirring God was doing in my heart. He started stirring up all kinds of stuff, and in my flesh I was kinda like 

"No, not that God."

Have you ever been there? You want God to do something in your life, you think you're ready until God starts speaking to you and then you realize;

"Woah, wait a minute God. Maybe I'm not as ready as I thought!"

When I started to feel the same way over and over again about certain areas of my life, I knew God was trying to show me something. So finally I surrendered to that and really dug in, prayed a lot and asked God to show me what He has here.

Part of that process was about letting go of somethings. Re purposing a few things, re prioritizing a few things too. Let me tell you some of those things are scary stuff. But being brave is not about writing fancy blog posts, or doing things we think we should do. 

Nope, it's about doing what God has asked us to do. And willing to step out in that and follow through because we have his peace to do so. That is brave. 

When I felt like God was stirring in my heart the desire to re focus my blog let me tell you at first thought that was scary. 

Most of you know me in the online world through my blog Worley House. I've been blogging since 2008, that has been my online home. That is where I shared about my first news about becoming a mother, that is where I shared every creative project, that is where I grew as a writer and my heart grew for my desire for my blog to be used by God.

But, if I'm being honest my blog started to become something that I wasn't proud of. And I wasn't proud of myself with some of the attitudes I was having towards blogging. I wasn't excited about how driven I'd become about numbers, stats, page views and all that. I soon found myself posting because I thought I had to or needed to. It wasn't even great sometimes.

I threw myself into creative projects one after another and showcased them on the blog, because sometimes I didn't know how to put my feelings into words. And because much of last year I was going through a lot but you'd never know it because I didn't know how to show that side. 

Everyone is different and every blog is different when it comes to that and I knew that for myself I got caught up and borderline obsessive and I knew I didn't want to be that any more.

There's some scary sides to starting over.

Will I loose all the followers I'd built up over the years?

What about all those projects? 

What if people don't like the new direction? 

All these things went through my mind. And at first they made me just wanna stay right where I was. Comfortable in my own little space I built. 

But, when God calls I needed to listen. Once I did, once I really felt clear direction you know what happened?

I got excited. 

All those fears went away. 

I started thinking and dreaming about this new online space and how God could use it to inspire women and encourage. How he could use me in ways I didn't know. I got excited about getting back to writing and inspiring others. Excited about sharing experiences that I was going through in hopes that just maybe you were going through them too and we could dialog and pray for one another, and encourage each other.

So the name? 

Andrea Worley. It's just me. Giving all of this, and letting God do something amazing in this online space.

Celebrate the Everyday?

Yes, every little moment that no one sees but you, and God. Every big dream that's on your heart that you're not sure when will come true. The highs and lows of parenting, being a wife, mother, daughter and friend. 

The joy that life brings, let's celebrate that. Let's celebrate what God wants to do in your heart and in your life.

I hope you'll take this journey with me. 
Welcome to the new blog. 

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