FAT GIRL WALKING: Sex, Food, Love, and Being Comfortable in Your Skin…Every Inch of It

Brittany Gibbons’ is a popular blogger and in her memoir, FAT GIRL WALKING: Sex, Food, Love, and Being Comfortable in Your Skin…Every Inch of It (Dey Street Books, May 19, 2015), she discusses the often funny and often painful true stories of her life as an overweight girl growing up in the Midwest. {Book provided for review/feature consideration}

KETTLEBELL KICKBOXING: Every Woman¹s Guide to Getting Healthy, Sexy, and Strong

Celebrity trainer and fitness expert Dasha Libin Anderson, the founder and creator of the Kettlebell Kickboxing method, has written her first book. This must read for summer is titled KETTLEBELL KICKBOXING: Every Woman¹s Guide to Getting Healthy, Sexy, and Strong (Skyhorse Publishing; $19.99) and is out just in time to get ready for bathing suit weather! {Book provided for review/feature consideration}

Keep On Track with Your Goals this Blue Monday!

Many of us have fallen victim to the wrath of winter and already have let our cold weather blues bust our goals for the New Year. The first ever Blue Monday – January 24, 2005 – was established as a marketing idea for a travel company to boost sales during the winter. Psychologist Cliff Arnall produced a formula based on factors such as weather conditions, debt level, time since Christmas, time since giving up on our New Year’s resolutions, low motivational levels and feeling of a need to take action. Some argue that there’s no such thing, but there’s no doubt that this is a tough time of year and - this year’s Blue Monday - January 26 - is a great time to talk about the things that get us down and how to get back on track.

Regaining Your Pre-Baby Body (Yummy Mummy Fitness)

The battle to regain your pre-baby shape can be a tough challenge for any new mom who has gained weight during pregnancy {I've documented my struggles with it here}. New parents have a lot of demands on their time, even when they would normally be sound asleep. While celebrity interviews often claim that the weight ‘dropped right off once the baby was born’, many new mothers find that this is far from the case.

When people are tired, stressed and extra busy, they often turn to comfort or junk foods {raise your hand if you're a stress eater like me} and end up piling on more ‘hard to shift’ pounds. New mommies are particularly susceptible to this trap and often find that their self-esteem can plummet as they get further and further away from that target of fitting back into their ‘pre-baby jeans’.

So what can you  do?

A New Beginning: My Journey to a Better Me

I've seriously debated over whether or not to share all of this here, and even once I decided I would document my journey on the blog, it's been hard figuring out how and when to start. I don't know how much to share and what sorts of things will be of interest and helpful to someone {anyone} out there reading this. But I guess it's time to stop agonizing over it and just get to it...

One of my senior portraits; HELLO collar bone!