New to my blog? Hi, I'm Stephanie! 
I graduated high school with the sole plan of just getting out of town. I went to a junior college in Washington, and lived there for a year.
I came home, again with no real life plan, started a new junior college back home in Southern California.
I started dating my now husband at the age of 19.
I worked several jobs through my time in college, ranging from front desk salon receptionist, to corporate secretary, to nanny.
Before I really figured out what I wanted to do "when I grew up", I was engaged, whisked off to Cocoa Beach, Florida where my now husband was participating in his first season in the MLB.
Before I HAD to make anything happen on my own, I was living a fairy tale at the age of 22.
We traveled all year, I watched my man play major league baseball {his DREAM} all over the country, and then we returned home to have our fairy tale wedding that matched our fairy tale life.
By 23, I was a full fledged "baseball wife", living in a dream home on a golf course in Florida, and pregnant with our first baby, after just a month of marriage.
By 24, I was pregnant with our second child.
By 26, I had had our 3rd baby in just 36 months, had given up our dream home back to the bank, we had moved back West to be closer to family, and my husband's dream of playing baseball after 10 professional year, was coming to an end.

Everything felt unrecognizable.
It felt like we had just dreamed everything, and yet there we were with three little babies to take care of, and NO idea how to do it.

Matt took a coaching job out of state, and I got creative.

I was the LEAST qualified to do ANYTHING remotely "great".
The girl who had fumbled through three different junior colleges, not one degree, no professional training or certifications of any kind, and NOTHING to put on a resume, I was the most under qualified for entrepreneurship of anyone I can think of.

But I felt a fire.
And I had no other options, and to me… this was life or death.
My husband had provided such a beautiful life for us, and it was my turn to take care of us.
I didn't know HOW to do any of this, but I was tired enough of wondering how we were going to pay our rent, and just crossing my fingers that my debit card would work while I was checking out at the grocery store.
And that's when I decided to just TRY, and figure it out along the way.

I was judged. I was mocked. Made fun of behind my back. Choosing a path that isn't traditional is often followed by those types of things.
I heard the word NO a thousand times, and found out who my real friends were.

And I would go through ALL of it a hundred more times, for the rest of my life, just to feel the CONTENTMENT in my soul that I feel today.
I thought I needed certain things to be happy. I thought we'd never survive after my husband's dream ended.
But now I know that when one dream ends, there's quite a few other dreams that you haven't even dreamed yet wink emoticon

This little family overcame TOGETHER. We took that perspective change that God knew we would be bettered from, and embraced it.

I had no idea what I was capable of until I was left with no other options. And I say it all the time, but if I can do it… literally ANY one can do it.
You just have to feel that fire, because when your WHY is big enough, you can endure any HOW.

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If you're feeling that fire too, I've made it my PROFESSION to show others how to overcome just like me. Does it take some work? SURE. But it's the kind of work that doesn't feel like actual work because it fills your heart up so full, you're pretty sure you're the luckiest person on the face of the planet. heart emoticon

I'm currently taking applications for people who would like to work side by side me, and learn the ropes on how I turned working out from home just for fun, into a full blown, 6 figure annual career.

Apply here --->
http://goo.gl/forms/3OSeKYqJDW

Shine On, Moms.

From the time I was a little girl, I knew that becoming a mom was it. That was truly my ultimate life goal. I struggled to find a career choice I loved because I wasn't sure of anything like I was sure about motherhood. That's a good solid way to find out which of your college boyfriends were serious ;-) Tell them you just want to have some babies and raise them up, and you'll definitely weed out the weak ones pretty quickly.

I started dating my husband at the ripe old age of 19, and I knew he'd be the father of my kids right away. People thought we were crazy, I'm certain. But when you know, you just know, no matter how old (or young) you are. We made it one month into married life before our daughter was on her way, and I could hardly grasp the depth of that blessing. My ultimate dream was coming true right before my eyes.

I believe you're a mother as soon as a baby starts forming inside of you. Our bodies do the most precious work I could ever think of. So selfless and effortless. Like it's just waiting forever to grow that first human. So my first Mother's Day fell in my 4th month of my pregnancy. Every bit of my energy and identity became that growing girl inside of me, and I was sure with every ounce of me that that was  how it should be.

Something happens when you see that baby's face for the first time. Your reason for existing changes in that very instant, and life is never the same. Not just because that tiny little creature prevents any kind of normalcy with the schedule you once knew, but because you've never loved anything quite so deep. You've never known what it felt like to just look at someone you just met and feel an aching pain in your heart because you couldn't imagine life before your eyes saw that face for the first time. You've never known that, without a shadow of a doubt, you'd give your life for someone. Or kill for someone. You've never sacrificed like that before, and you've never been so grateful for the overflow of emotions of it all. And you've never had something so precious and powerful to fight for.

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I didn't picture my life turning into the one it's turned into.

When Matt and I first got married, I was very certain about where our lives were going. He would have at least a 10 year Major League baseball career, and retire when he was ready. I'd be the doting wife and mother, who followed along merrily, and then we'd live in a big beautiful house, without a care in the world.

But that's not how it happened, because life isn't supposed to be perfect. It's supposed to be messy, and it's supposed to test you, and then you're supposed to come out on the other end a little tougher and smarter than you were before.

And what's funny is that I am SO GLAD that nothing worked out as we had planned. Because of things NOT happening the way I had imagined, I got to see what I was made of. I wouldn't have known who I really was. That person inside of me that I hadn't met before, who was willing to do whatever it took to take care of her family.

I realized how much I really kind of liked her.

Somebody once told me, "I could never do what you do. I just couldn't take time away from my kids like that." What? My stomach turned a little bit, and I wanted to scream at that person, and tell them that they'd clearly never seen rock bottom. Never had to fight for their lives for something that scared the hell out of them, but also made them feel really alive all at once.

See, my children weren't sent to me to be my identity, but to give me reason to find my own.

I know that now. And I owe that to my children. 

Had they not been sent to me, I would have never known that I was brave. For them.

To my children. You're my reason, and my fight. Thank you for teaching me that it's okay to want more, and to shine a little bit for you. 

Shine on, Moms. Don't be afraid.

Is This Real Life?

I know most of you started following this blog of mine back in The Fall when I first "came out" about my surgery that I was planning. It was a nerve-wracking time for me, since I felt like my whole life was going to be changing. And it was! In SO many ways. It felt like the clouds parted, and I could just breathe again. It's felt like SUCH a long process since December 12th 2014, but at the same time… it kinda flew by! I feel so good, and will blog all about my progress this week!

But there's something else I have to talk about too.

It's the ENTIRE reason I was even ABLE to make that huge transition in my life possible.

If you follow me on social media, then you probably hear me talk a lot about coaching, and all of the things I love about it. It's changed everything for my family and me.

But social media is funny. People talk about how "AMAZING" things are all the time, and it CAN be a lot of smoke and mirrors.

I personally like PROOF. EVIDENCE that things are legitimate, and are what someone says they are. So in the name of TRUTH, I'm going to get wayyyy out of my comfort zone.

{The last time I posted anything like this was on my Facebook page, and it was met with incredible support, BUT I still felt weird about it. SO on the blog it will go} :-)

I'm not sure what your reaction to that photo is. I'm not even sure if I know what MY reaction to it is.

THREE years ago, the phone stopped ringing with opportunities for my professional baseball player husband. We had just had our 3rd child in a 3 year span of time a couple months earlier, and had just moved across the country from Florida to Arizona. We had a massive mortgage payment for our home in Florida that wouldn't sell {thank you, recession}, a rent to pay for the condo we were living in, and ZERO income. We started to tap into our life savings, and even our 401k. It was a VERY scary time for us.

TWO years ago, I was just months into this new "coaching thing" that I was still not fully understanding, but saw my friend find some success with it, so I thought… why not? I was making pennies at this point, but something in me was coming alive. I had fallen in love with fitness, was actually ENCOURAGED to grow personally {and DID!}, and was meeting people who actually GOT ME. I never knew friends like these, a community like this, and so… I was hooked.

ONE year ago, I had just become a "6 figure earner" within Beachbody, which is when a coach starts to earn $2,000 WEEKLY {we get paid every Thursday}. My team and I had just wrapped up the year as an ELITE team, which means as a group, we helped A LOT of people get fit and healthy, AND start coaching businesses of their own. Last Summer, we also were able to take our VERY FIRST family vacation together. And after a couple years of COMPLETE rebuilding… that was a treat I'll never forget. Our oldest daughter also started ballet lessons for the first time, I could SHOP again a little bit {lol}, and we were paying down debt, and paying our savings accounts back for all the depletion we can caused.

TODAY, my WEEKLY income is what my MONTHLY income was one year ago. {WHAT?!?!}, we are saving MACHINES, will be buying a HOME within the next couple of months, our son is going to play his first season of t-ball, we'll TRAVEL as a family, and most of all… we'll live FREELY to do whatever it is we feel in our hearts we want to do.

Some people look at money as "material", and that's true, that it buys THINGS. But it can also buy precious experiences and memories, and also {and maybe most importantly} PEACE OF MIND. We no longer have to go to bed stressed, bickering, and tense because of our financial issues. Our children will know what it's like to have a HOME that is theirs, where they can pick the color paint on their walls. They'll have a backyard that's safe to play in, and a neighborhood they can grow up in. Money isn't just material… it's freedom.

Before you jump to the conclusion that this is "too good to be true"… listen to that little whisper in your heart telling you that this would be just as life changing for you as is has been for me.

And if you hear that little whisper too, take my advice and don't wait 8 months to say YES like I did ;-)
You can apply HERE for more information. <3

Spiralize All The Things

Have you heard of these interesting little contraptions that allow you stick a vegetable in them, and turn them into VEGETABLE PASTA? I know, I know, who would've ever thought of something so clever. Actually, I think I'm really late to the party on this one. My friends have been talking about "zoodles" forever now, and since I don't do a TON of the cooking anymore (Hubs has taken on most of that since my business really took off), I didn't jump right on board because I figured this was something I'd have to slave the day away to achieve NOODLES MADE OF VEGETABLES.

But thankfully, I stumbled upon one of these Veggetti things at Target the other day, and decided I needed to woman up and give it a shot. I loaded us up on some fresh zucchini, ground turkey, and some organic pasta sauce, and was off to the races.

And here's my findings:

This thing is friggin' genius.

SO SIMPLE, SO FILLING, SO GUILT-FREE, AND ZERO "PASTA BLOAT".

Here's what I did…

• Spiralize 1 large zucchini
• Brown your ground meat (I prefer to use organic ground turkey)
• Heat a couple TBSP olive oil in a separate pan, while meat is browning
• Dump spiralized zucchini (aka "Zoodles". Get it?) into heated olive oil
• I seasoned my zoodles with some ground black pepper, a little pink himalayan salt, and some garlic powder, while they were sautéing 
• Once zoodles were cooked through, and took on a "soft" appearance (cook to taste), I pulled them off the burner
• Dump your pasta sauce into your browned ground meat
• Serve yourself up your hot zoodles with some quick and easy meat sauce on top, and even sprinkle with a little parmesan!

Obviously, you can go above and beyond what I did, and make your homemade pasta sauce from scratch, BUT when you're in a pinch for a quick and healthy meal, THIS was the jam.

I even made you a video!