Have you ever just had this electric energy inside of you? It’s the same thought running through your mind over and over again and with each passing day your feelings get stronger and stronger? Things you never wanted to do before, are now what you look forward to the most. You think about the future and everything just seems to be falling into place. Have you fallen in love?
WHAT on earth am I talking about?!?
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!!!
I want to tell y’all about how I have started to fall in love with getting healthy. 😀
Here are a few things about me
- My name is Natasha and nope I am not Russian but I have watched Rocky and Bullwinkle.
- I am a long distance runner
(Most recently completing the 17K San Tan Scramble in Queen Creek Arizona in January 2020)
- I have lived in 6 states in my life and call Nebraska home now
- I have two dogs Pete (golden/lab mix) and Owen (lab).
- I hold two Bachelor’s degrees
- Business Sport Management
- Fitness & Wellness
- I am an NCSF certified personal trainer
- I love to watch hockey, college basketball, college & NFL Football
This blog is going to give y’all a sneak peek into this journey. This has taken me several years to prepare for but I am ready to rock it. While I was preparing I read a number of books that gave me just the right kicks in the butt to stop throwing myself pity parties and to put the excuses away. The first one that really started it all was Girl Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis. That led me to other books like You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero, Bossypants by Tina Fey, Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins, and back to Rachel Hollis for Girl, Stop Apologizing.
All of these people taught me in different ways, but here are my big takeaways
- If you want something, you have to DO SOMETHING! Sitting around wishing, hoping, dreaming and praying won’t actually make your dreams come true.
- If you have a dream, MAKE IT BIGGER!
- Expect that whatever journey you are about to go on, you are going to having amazing days and crappy days. Don’t let the crappy days make you quit.
- Growth is hard stuff but it is always worth it
- Be specific about what you want, your dream is not going to accidently come true
So what is my dream?!
My HUGE outside of the box, my heart could not be happier, dream come true, would be to have a training business where I can geek out and teach others about health, fitness, running, swimming, biking, nutrition and everything that goes with that world. (I am still working on making this dream BIGGER and adding clarity to it) This year what I am working on is getting myself where I need/want to be. I do not want to be the “do as I say, not as I do” trainer.
As I mentioned this journey has taken me a few years to prepare for. I graduated from college back in 2014 and I only had a tiny idea for what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be a personal trainer, but I was not certified. It took almost another two years before I believed in myself enough to go and take the personal training certification exam. Right after college all of the people closest to me were smokers and I started to smoke myself as a way to deal with stress from the various jobs I had. I developed lots of unhealthy coping mechanisms to deal how unhappy I was in life, which only helped to grow the unhappiness. That was my bottom.
A turning point for me was May of 2017. On a trip to Chicago I got my very first tattoo. It is the word Freedom with three birds and it sits above my heart. I started to ask myself so many questions. Who do I want to be in life? What makes me smile? What is my dream? What is the point of all of this anyways? At the end of my life when I’m looking back, am I going to live a life full of regret or will I be able to say I lived fully? I wanted to be free mind, body and soul.
I’ve done a lot of work on my mind and soul in the past few years. I gave up those bad habits and started to develop new ones. What I read, what I look at on social media, and what music I listen to, it is all intentional. Now it’s time to add focus to training my body and getting closer to my dream.
Here are my goals for the next year
- Run a half marathon
- Run a full marathon
- Keep a gratitude journal
- Bench press by body weight
- Be able to complete 10 full pulls ups unassisted
- Be able to complete 50 pushups without stopping
- Decrease my body fat to 18-20%
If you are still here with me, THANKS! I just wanted to give y’all a little background so you know how important this is to me.
So what kind of content can you expect to see on here?!
Type of Posts
- Running tips
- Product reviews on gear I have or will be getting
- Training updates on both my weight lifting and running
- Event Day posts!
- Dog stories!
- My nutrition overhaul as it takes place
- Stuff that motivates me and hopefully will motivate you in return
Running4 Mind Body & Soul 