Welcome! I’m extra late to the blog party but I have a passion for health & fitness and I’m on a mission to share a little bit of that with you! I don’t necessarily enjoy talking about myself and feel as if a whole “about me” page is a little self centered; but I’m sure at least one of you reading this is interested in who I am and why I felt the need to start this blog thing we’ve got going on here.

For starters, thank you for taking the time to read this, I’m honored to say the least. My name is Ashley. I’m a 24 year old fitness junkie who’s been on a long journey of yo-yo dieting, weight loss, setbacks and achievements. I’m a registered nurse, delivering babies by night, focusing on my health by day. I’ve worked as a cardiac nurse, have had cardiac problems in my past and intend to [attempt] to hold them off in the future. Working as a cardiac nurse has really showed me the importance of taking care of the body we’re given. Since graduating with my Bachelor of Science- Nursing, and even before that, I took a focus on my health and tried, to the best of my ability, to put it as one of my top priorities.

Branching off of my fitness life, I live with my amazing boyfriend as we build a life together. I’m a fur mama to two rescue pups, a catahoola mix named Axle and a black lab/mountain curr mix named Tandem. I spend my days off work exploring Wisconsin on my Harley Davidson motorcycle along side my one day hubs. I drive my own, strong independent woman, ya know?

Now don’t get me wrong, I am by far in no means perfect, a professional or anyone you have to listen to. I’m just here to share my journey and maybe help a few others along the way. My ‘diet’ (nutrition people, I don’t consider anything I do for my body as a diet, its just not a pleasant word!) has come an extremely long way in the last 5ish years. This body is fueled by a [mostly] balanced diet, diet coke, Bang energy drinks & the emergency stash of chocolates hidden in the kitchen drawer.

I grew up a bigger kid. When I graduated high school I was over 200lbs. Didn’t think much of it, didn’t even realize how bad my health was getting. I hit my heaviest during my sophomore year of college weighing 219lbs. After standing on the scale at the doctor’s office and seeing that number I knew I had to do something. I would NOT let that number reach 220. If that wasn’t enough, my boyfriend of nearly 3 years dumped me through text message after I texted him I had finished my last final. I was devastated (looking at my life now and my life back then, it was no loss my friends). I could’ve taken that break up one of two ways. Either I sit and let it eat me alive or I turn it into my fuel. Now HONEY, let me tell you, that is the biggest fire I have ever had lit under my ass to get my ass into better shape. You take that hurt and RUN WITH IT. That breakup was the final straw. I was going to lose the weight, I was going to show him. Do it for the “wow, you got hot!” Am I right?

That very week, I sat down with my mom and told her I needed to change something. I looked into weight watchers, started the online membership and taught myself how to use the online app on my phone. I had no intentions of going to a meeting, I was initially embarrassed to say I was on an “old lady plan” and when people would ask me what I was doing to lose weight i’d just say “watching what I’m eating.” Eventually I got over that and proudly announced I was doing Weight Watchers. That summer I lost 40lbs! I hit my low weight of 179lbs by the time I went back to school. A family trip to mexico shortly there after also helped with that motivation. After that trip I stepped back from weight watchers and tried to just inuitively eat, fuel my body with good food. Then the holidays hit and I managed to push through just fine. I met the love of my life the next February (2016). You know how new relationships go and how that can affect your nutrition. I was so in love, we went out to eat a lot, I began to socially drink more being newly 21 at that point. That May i stepped back on the scale and was 184. Not too bad for being off weight watchers for around 6 months at that point, but it was still a gain. I tried to reign it in a little and have watched what I eat pretty closely since then. I tried to cut carbs, thinking that would be the answer, 21 day fix, Whole30 some time after that but these are all stories for another day. I found my way back onto a better plan in January of this year (2019) and have continued to lose body fat and gain muscle. I currently weigh 163.4 lbs. Not that these numbers matter but they’re part of my journey. I’ll preach numbers and weighing yourself later on, don’t worry 😉

Whether you’re a fitness junkie like me, a health food fanatic, just starting your journey or have completely changed your life over the years- Join me on the road to a healthy lifestyle. I’m here to provide information, my trial and errors along with success stories of myself and others. Just another resource and motivator for anyone who needs it!