What's going on at age 26?

Today is my birthday. Yep, one of the world's greatest wonders was born on this day 26 years ago. You can thank me below in the comments. I figured what better way to commemorate such an occasion than by giving everyone an update on where I am in my boring, uneventful meathead life. I'll bore you with the powerlifting stuff first and then brief you on the rest of my life further down which you probably don't really care about either.

So where am I? Where do I start? Honestly I don't really know. Last year I updated you along my 10 month long prep for USAPL Raw Nationals and since then it's been just a weird period of monotony. We worked through some technical issues/muscle weaknesses at Team Pro Physique Camp in Tampa the weekend after Nationals (we being my Coach Ryan Doris & I) and since then it's been those terrible blocks of excessive amounts of reps that feel like cardio and/or death. I played around with some things with my diet and was supposed to do a mini-cut that never happened because #holidays #yolo. So now, we're finally past the really terrible blocks of excessive amounts of reps (I.e anything over 5 :P) and we're looking to 2018 meet prep. 

The plan for now is to get through these birthday celebrations and then start an actual real cut next week. I really don't have much weight to lose but It'd be nice to not feel like I'm going to pop my belt every time I put it on. Several people have asked when my next meet is and right now it will be March 31st. Rhino's Gym in Fayetteville started a really great "Fayetteville's Strongest Gym Meet" last year between several gyms in the area and and it's basically a non-sanctioned powerlifting meet. It was ran so well last year and after sitting it out I vowed to not do that again so I'm planning to use it as a benchmark meet before competing at the USAPL NC State Championships again in June. And then, Lord & budget willing, I will be heading back to USAPL Raw Nationals again in October, this year in SPOKANE, WASHINGTON (THATS WASHINGTON STATE IN CASE YOU DIDNT KNOW OMG I'M GOING TO HAVE TO LEARN TO LIFT ON PACIFIC TIME). 

Beyond powerlifting, life has been weird. October was such a roller coaster of a month that November just felt like limbo. My brother married one of my best friends December 9th and we crashed their honeymoon so November was one big countdown until Mexico (which was wonderful by the way) and finals. Finals? Oh yeah, that's right I haven't told blog world that I'm officially a student again. 2017 was a weird year because I kept getting these feelings like I was supposed to change something professionally. I looked into several graduate programs and even looked at getting a completely different degree in something healthcare related. If you had asked 16 year old me I would've said "Eww gross I could never work in healthcare" but the more I've become involved in fitness the more I've realized just how interconnected fitness, nutrition and medicine are (duh).  I was back and forth about a lot of things when one day someone mentioned Nursing to me. My mom is a Nurse Practitioner and I just never thought about that career path for me but the more I researched and thought about it the more it all started to make sense. There are so many potential career avenues for a nurse in so many fields. I decided to just start knocking out pre-requisites that I would need for any healthcare program at our local community college in order to prevent wasting any more time, so I became a full-time student on top of everything else. I got my Certified Nursing Assistant Certification on the weekends and that surprisingly helped me realize that this was something I really wanted to do. Want a new found appreciation for your physical and mental faculties? Become a CNA.

As of December 1st, I was no longer working full-time in marketing and was trying to figure out what to do next for most of the past month. Right now, my priority is my training business until the Nursing program begins in August. I am hoping to be able to offer more services to more people in more locations than I was previously which is really exciting. I've had some people help me bounce around ideas and give me some opportunities to grow which I am so grateful for. Hopefully, as those things start to happen I can share more of it with you here! Also, I'm hoping to be able to expand my online business and make online coaching more accessible and more accountable than it has been up until now. I also want to post more content on here that is helpful to those of you that actually read it, including workouts, recipes and information that will help you on your fitness journey. 

While it all sounds great and exciting in print, December was a really scary month for me. No longer having a steady income and more or less being self-employed terrified me, but sometimes you just have to be pushed off of the ledge to take the leap (or in my case, the fall). And I'm grateful for those that pushed me and have helped me navigate this territory over the past month. Helping people and sharing the fun of fitness and the joys of self-love is my passion and nothing gives me the warm-fuzzies like helping someone accomplish their goals. 

That being said, be on the lookout for more stuff from me and I hope to be able to keep you posted on the things to come. Thank you to everyone that has tagged along on this little journey of mine and continues to read these long, boring blog posts about things that are probably irrelevant to them. Here's to 2018 and year 26 of life!