Ashley Mills Bennet Story

Ashely has an incredible story and I love hearing the success she is having...enjoy this good read!

It has been 2 1/2 years since I decided to change my outlook on food, exercise, and health. When my daughter was 5 months old, I knew I needed to make a change. I had gained a good 40 lbs (wasn't baby weight) that I needed to loose and gain a better self esteem. I joined a gym and worked incredibly hard. I changed my eating and in the course of 11 months lost 49 lbs. I was in the best shape of my life.

Shortly after that, I found out I was pregnant with my son. I continued to workout and started participating in clean eating groups. Once again, I took the correct steps of exercise and healthy eating to keep in shape. I exercised until the week my son was born. When he was 3 days old, I only weighed 5 lbs more than before I got pregnant!!!

I now run free exercise groups and have an amazing support group with other moms who workout from home!

It takes time and effort to reach your health goals. They won't simply come if you don't apply yourself. It's not a quick fix, but a lifestyle change. I have not counted a single calorie and have never felt deprived. Clean eating and exercise has changed my life.

My life has changed for the better, my self esteem has improved, and I have energy to run around with my kiddos. It's never too late to start. I'm so grateful I took that first step and couldn't imagine my life any other way.

Truth.

Saturday Shenanigans

I'm sure you are starting to wonder what we look like and what we do...because, well, it's not every day that I post pictures of our life.
So, here you go.  Have fun taking look into our life.  Sorry there isn't more...I really need to be better about taking pictures.

Having a good time together at the State Fair.  Nothing beats spending time together, enjoying some good eats, and having fun.  

With the changing weather the past few weeks there have been more rainbows than usual it is always such a beautiful surprise.  I love the view of my school with the rainbows...there's no better way to remember our childhood than school, playgrounds, and rainbows.  

We went to the Farmers Market in Salt Lake City with Jody, Peder, and their girls.  Not only did we find some delicious local fruits and veggies, we found fun little toys and trinkets like these bubbles.  Oh and I might have spotted my dream dog...the cutest golden-doodle! One day we'll have one of our own and give you an overload of pictures.  

Tasty breakfast for General Conference weekend.  We loved hearing the messages that were shared and the testimonies that strengthened our own.  What a blessing to have a living prophet and and receive guidance and direction to better ourselves and live better lives.  

Fall and Football games are always a must do!  We love watching the games in the comfort of our own home, but we also love going to the games to cheer teams on with the fans.  

Yep...that's all mine, except for the little bit of white that's in there too.  Haha.  

Chop chop time.  I loved having my hair long agin, but I missed having it short.  So, it's back and I'm LOVING it!!!  

We've been working slowly on the yard, and we finally got rid of the weeds and laid down a temporary patio.  It's not much, but we'll at least get things going so come spring we can enjoy spending time outside.  We've still got a ways to go, but it's something!

We've been up to a few surprises around the neighborhood and spreading a little Halloween cheer!

Hope you're all enjoying this Halloween season and getting ready for the Trick-or-Treating fun.

Meet the fabulous Marci!

Hey guys! Marci here visiting over from The Wallace House! Ali and I go way back, she's the cutest, right?! She contacted me the other day and asked if I would share the story of my fitness journey throughout & after pregnancy. Let me just start by saying I'm in no way an expert, not at all! But I know the basics and I've learned a lot over three pregnancies/post-partum periods. Today I'll share with you my basic fitness regimen during and after pregnancy!

I really neglected fitness during my first pregnancy and, luckily, I learned from it. I started my first pregnancy around 110lb and gained somewhere near 45lb putting me over 150lb by week 40. Doctors recommend gaining 25-35 pounds so I was well over the recommended weight gain.

I justified not working out because I had a torn ACL throughout my pregnancy but, honestly, that was an excuse. I used pregnancy as an excuse to be pretty inactive and eat whatever I wanted. Because of that, I seriously paid for it after I delivered my baby boy. It took me months and lots and lots of work to burn all that fat. I eventually got down to 105 pounds (5lb less than pre-pregnancy weight!) and I was really proud but I knew I never wanted to do that again.

^Comparison of what I looked like a couple weeks after Jack was born and then what I looked like 8 months later after lots and lots of hard work.

When I got pregnant just 8 months after my first delivery (fun fact: I found out I was 5 weeks pregnant with my second later in the afternoon on the day picture 2 above was taken!), I had a pregnancy fitness plan. It was super simple and easily achievable. Want to know what it was?

do
something
every
single
day.

That's it. I had to do some type of "workout" every single day (well, 6 days a week...Sunday is always my rest day!). When I first found out I was pregnant my husband and I had been planning to start C25K. If you aren't familiar with it, C25K stands for Couch to 5k and is an app that works you from couch potato to running a 5k ha! I definitely was not a couch potato at this point but I love the program anyway.  It was my second time through the program and because I had a healthy pregnancy and the OK from my doctor, I started and finished the program as planned and completed my last run somewhere between 18 and 20 weeks of pregnancy.

After my 20th week it was too uncomfortable for me to run long distances so I started taking Jack on walk/run combos with the jogger. Most days we took a 5 mile route, walking most of the way but occasionally jogging (I would tell myself...okay, just run to that sign ahead and then I can walk again!). Some days if we were short on time we would just go 1 mile. Some days if the weather was bad or I was bored of my walk/run combo I would get on my exercise bike and pedal while I watched a TV show. If we were going to do a lot of shopping one day I would count all the walking as my exercise. Occasionally I lifted weights to keep my strength up. Sometimes I used prenatal workout DVDs or followed a Blogilates workout (if you're unfamiliar with Blogilates, look it up on YouTube. You will fall in love with Cassy! She is so fun to workout with!) and modified it to be safe and/or possible while pregnant. Oh and chasing littles definitely counts! That is one of the ways I stayed fit during pregnancy #3!

Like I said, I just did something every. single. day! And guess what? I gained a grand total of 28 pounds in pregnancy #2 instead of the 45+ I gained in my first pregnancy. I looked better, I felt better and my delivery/recovery were so much better! Disclaimer: the easier delivery & recovery was also owed in part to it being my second delivery and my baby being a whole pound smaller :)

The real proof is in the pictures!

Left: 25 weeks pregnancy #1, Right: 25 weeks pregnancy #2

Left: 32 weeks pregnancy #1, Right: 32 weeks pregnancy #2

Left: 35 weeks pregnancy #1, Right: 35 weeks pregnancy #2

Left: end of pregnancy #1, Right: end of pregnancy #2

Exercising during pregnancy works. Unless you have an order from the doctor to not exercise, pregnancy is no excuse to be a couch potato. Get up & get moving! Take a walk, do lots of chores, play non-contact sports, go swimming! And try to have only one serving of dessert...I'm still working on that one haha!

After you deliver, you WILL have leftover weight to lose no matter how careful you were during pregnancy to eat right and exercise. It's inevitable and it's healthy. Before I ever experienced post-partum I never had to actively purse a workout regimen. I lived a moderately active lifestyle being a soccer coach and doing things outdoors with my husband and as a nanny but I never actually "worked out" in the sense that I was working out to lose weight.

I learned that I love following a program. There are TONS of apps out there that are awesome. My favorites are C25K, 10k trainer and 30 days. I've done Jillian Michaels' 30-day Shred after each pregnancy to get my post-partum workout habits started. I love following the Blogilates calendar and Kayla Itsine's BBG program is a great option if you're OK spending some money to buy the program. I follow basically the same motto post-partum: do something every single day! But I push myself a lot harder post-partum than I do during pregnancy :)

I haven't shared these anywhere yet (I'm definitely self-conscious!) but for the sake of being completely transparent...here are my current before & afters (I had baby #3 almost 4 months ago)! The left pictures are before I started any workouts (about 6 weeks post-partum) and the right pictures are from about a week ago after one round of 30-day shred, the start of C25K, and a few weeks of BBG. I'm still 10lb away from my pre-pregnancy/goal weight but I'm happy with my progress and I feel great!

With ALL of that said, good luck in your fitness journey during & after pregnancy (or in general!). And remember to be kind to yourself. Weight loss progress is always slow. Take monthly pictures & measurements so you can more easily track & see your progress. If you're pregnant, remember that some weight gain (25-35 pounds for a singleton pregnancy on a woman who started at a healthy weight) is healthy & good! And if you're newly post-partum, remember that it took 9 months to put all the weight on and you won't lose it overnight and that's okay. Just stay motivated and keep at it! All those little babies are totally worth it, right?!

Pop on over and visit us at The Wallace House blog to keep up with my fitness & baby journey and all other things babies & family. Thanks for letting me stop by, Ali!

xoxo

Sacrifice

Have you ever noticed the sacrifice that your leaders make for you?  What about your parents?  What about your friends? What about your co-workers?  

Today, I recognized the sacrifices that some great people in my life make.  As Scott and I had the opportunity to attend Stake Conference today I witnessed and saw many individuals that have made so many sacrifices in their lives to serve others.   (Stake Conference is a meeting where local members join together to hear local leaders share messages)

Several individuals were called to serve in callings that require a lot of time, service, and dedication.  As these individuals spoke, I recognized one thing that they all have in common.  They all knew that they were called by God to serve in their new callings.  They also had a love for those they have the opportunity to serve.  

There have been many times in my life when I have had the opportunity to serve others continually.  And can I just say that those have been the happiest times of my life.  When you serve others your forget about yourself, but surprisingly you learn more about yourself and find yourself than you would imagine.  You learn to love those you serve, and at the same time, you learn to love yourself.

  

If you want to find true happiness in your life, I would encourage you to find a way to serve others.  No matter what, serving others will always bring you greater happiness. I have experienced it, and I have seen others experience it as well.  

Meet Beki!

I am so excited to introduce you to Beki.  She and I met while playing soccer together at BYU-Idaho.  She has a passion for health and fitness and I love hearing her story.  I hope you enjoy hearing about her journey and learning about how she got to where she is today.


Growing up, I was always super active, and relatively in shape. I am passionate about soccer, and as a teenager, I played every single day. However, a lot of my immediate family has struggled most of their life with weight issues all of their lives. I have seen obesity, and how it affects the individual themselves as well as their loved ones. 

A couple years into my marriage, things started to go down hill. They started to go down hill fast. In my first two years of marriage, I really wasn't super active. I played soccer a couple times a week, but that was about it. I also had an issue with binge eating. I LOVE food to this day! Any food. If it tastes good, I want it in my mouth! Everything seemed fine and dandy until one day I realized that most of my clothes stopped fitting they way I wanted them to. I could tell by the way that I felt that I had gained weight, but I was too scared to step on the scale.

When I finally gained the courage to face the scale, I realized that I had gained 25 pounds in 2 years. This was scary to me. I had seen weight problems in my own family, and I knew at that moment that I was probably going to have the same issues. I began to have terrible self image problems, and a severe lack of confidence. I just kept packing on the pounds. My husband can attest to the fact that I began to fall into a state of depression. I used my free gym membership I had at the time to try to get back on track, and I would have some success - a pound here and there - but nothing like I had hoped for, and nothing what I truly needed. 

One morning my husband told me he wanted to work out with me. I was so excited to think I would have a little support! But we did not have time to go to the gym. So we searched YouTube for a workout video we could do at home. We stumbled across a clip from a T25 video. We tried it out.... and I COULD NOT BELIEVE the amazing workout I was able to get in such a short period of time!

We were hooked. We immediately ordered the full T25 program. I followed that program completely, with the help of my husband, and I was able to shed all of the weight I had put on in just a matter of a couple months. I was thrilled!

A few months later, we were FINALLY blessed with expectation of a baby. After 9 long, and highly anticipated month of waiting, I gave birth to my beautiful baby girl, Ellyse (Ellie). Unfortunately, though, I didn't care at all during my pregnancy about what I ate. I basically lived off of Beefy Five Layer Burritos from Taco Bell. During the course of my pregnancy, I gained 50 lbs. 20 lbs of that came off easily in the first couple months, but then I hit a brick wall.... 30 lbs over weight. Once again, those terrible thoughts of negative body image and lack of self confidence and self worth crept in. I was desperate to lose weight - not necessarily to "get my body back" but to get my confidence and my life back.

This is where round 2 of my fitness journey began. I started a program called Insanity Max:30, and signed up as an online fitness coach through Beachbody. I knew that becoming a coach would help me remain more accountable, especially if I was trying to help others reach their fitness goals as well. I began using a portion control eating plan, so that I was giving my body the BEST nutrition possible. I was working out every day, doing a program that was really really hard for me. It was incredibly humbling. I began helping other women start their fitness journeys as well as I held online accountability groups to help motivate and inspire people to stick to a health and fitness program.

These past 4.5 months have completely changed my life. It has completely changed my perspective. In the past 4.5 months, I have lost 30 pounds, and for the first time in my life, I basically have a 6 pack. But beyond all the inches I have shed, there is a lot more to say in regards to all of the negativity I have shed from my life. I have gained a greater appreciation for the body Heavenly Father has blessed with. I have allowed people in my life who are positive, amazing examples of trying to live healthy lives. I have been able to help others start and stick to their fitness journeys. Through my efforts to get and stay healthy and help others, I have been able to provide an income for my family.

Looking back, I wish I could take away all those tears. I wish I could take away all those negative thoughts about my body image. I wish I could take away the helpless feelings I felt before I started my fitness journey. But truth be told, those experiences have allowed me to grow into the person I am now. A better, healthier, happier version of Beki Call.

Stomping Grounds

This is one of my favorite times of the year, as it is for many others as well.
Every six months, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gather together to listen to the living prophet and the 12 apostles.  All are invited to watch or listen, members or not.  The messages that they share are messages that can bless all lives.
What a great opportunity it is to continue learning and coming closer to the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, as we listen to the messages shared.  To give you and idea of what we hear, here are a few things I learned.

We all have the opportunity to learn and grow in the circumstances we each go through.
We need to stand tall, be courageous and share the message of the Restored Gospel.
Women need to speak up, share their feelings, and help others better understand what we need to do, because we also receive revelation and promptings of our own.
Mothers take on one of the greatest responsibilities and sacrifices of their life when they have children.  They give their lives to provide, teach, and love their children.

There are so many more, but the best way to learn of them is to listen or read them on your own.  We are blessed with receiving promptings that are for each one of us individually.  Something that I heard or got from a talk, might not be exactly what someone else got.
Go for it, check it our for yourself here...

One more thing.

I love being able to see the different parts of Temple Square and how many people are gathered there to listen and watch General Conference.
A Little over five years ago, I began my journey as a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Temple Square.  When I received the call, I did not fully understand what my mission would be.  After a few weeks in the Missionary Training Center I learned that my mission experience would be very different from what I'd heard of others experiences.
Every day of my mission, I had the opportunity to meet individuals from all over the world.  Their stories and experiences in life amazed me and taught met so much.  I prayed day in and day out that the message I would share would bless their life in some way.
Being a missionary during General Conference was unbelievable.  We would have 14 hour days of talking to others, sharing our testimony, and hearing the testimony of those we met.  Yes, those were very long exhausting days, but some of the most rewarding days.
I wouldn't change the days I spent as a missionary for anything.  I met some of the most wonderful people, who taught me so much.  They helped me gain a stronger testimony and understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  They have helped me become the person that I am today.
I am grateful for the opportunities I am blessed with in my life.  I am grateful to know that there is a living prophet on the earth today.  I am grateful to know that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored in its fullness, as it was when Jesus Christ walked this earth.