Catching up with 8-Weeks-to-Awesome-Self Winner, Leigh Ann

By Leigh Ann Kelley, the winner of the “8 Weeks to Your Awesome Self” Giveaway

Wow! What an interesting experience the last three weeks have been. It started with looking at Adri Warrick’s website, the Whole Tulip (which I strongly recommend!). The first thing that came up was green smoothies, and my first thought was, “oh my, what have I gotten myself into??” I continued to look over the website and then talked to Adri on the phone. She recommended writing down everything I ate and emailing it to her and she followed up with lots of suggestions. The two biggest changes for me have been adding more grains and greens. Even over Thanksgiving I kept repeating, “grains and greens, grains and greens, etc.” And I will admit, I’ve starting adding spinach (see, more green!) to my smoothies. I can’t even tell its in there, plus I feel awesome knowing that I’ve already had a serving of veggies at the start of my day. The kids really like smoothies and will drink the spinach ones if their cups have a lid and they can’t see the color.

My family has been supportive of this experience. One day I told the kids we were going to make Kale Chips and they seemed excited. They helped clean and prepare the kale. When it was cooking my son said, “mommy, those don’t look like chips,” so we decided to rename them Froggys Greens Crunchy Bites. The kids both tried them and although they didn’t like them I was proud of them for trying. My husband has also been supportive. He opened the trash can to find the Halloween candy I had thrown out(don’t tell the kids!!) and just looked at me with confusion-why would I throw out candy? I know that if I have it sitting around I’ll eat it so some stuff has been purged. He has tried several of the new recipes I’ve made off the Whole Tulip website and we like most of them. It’s nice to have some new recipes to throw in our dinner repertoire.

Next, I was off to SouthPark Boot Camp with Susan O’Neill. I wasn’t sure what to expect but it has been a wonderful experience. The first two weeks I was constantly reminded of this experience because I couldn’t take a step without some part of my body aching. I enjoy the workouts because its always something different, I don’t do well with repetition. I’ve been able to bring my daughter and she watches us from her exersaucer; last class she would even clap as we came running back over to where she was. Sometimes we go to a playground but with Susan you don’t use the swings to actually swing, they are for one legged lunges, balls are used during crunches, and the benches are for tricep dips, not for sitting! Another benefit of boot camp is all the money I am saving. I go m/w/f at 9:45, when my older two kids are in school. This is time that I would spend at target, home goods, starbucks, etc. I do miss some of my “free time” but the classes have definitely filled in those unnecessary but pricy shopping trips.

Week three has been a turning point for me. The first two weeks it was hard to change what I ate and drank and I went to the workouts but didn’t really look forward to them. Then came week three. I actually look forward to the workouts, even though I have noticed that I am no longer given modifications for the exercises like I was in the beginning. I have also started to lose a little weight, which always helps boost my confidence. I am adding more salads and grains to my diet and also watching what type of foods I put into my body. Adri reminds me to check food labels and choose foods with the least amount of ingredients added to them. If you look at the labels of some common foods at the grocery store its amazing what we are putting in our bodies and into our children’s bodies.

I am so thankful for this opportunity and what I have learned so far. I’ve meet some motivating women that are pushing me in a positive direction and I can’t wait to continue the journey.

Looking forward to updating you in a few more weeks, Leigh Ann

TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO REGISTER FOR SANTA’S SMARTY SWAG BAG GIVEAWAY!! It’s our favorite time of year in Smartyland ~ that time when we give and give BIG we will! This one will put the swag in your swagger this holiday season as we kick off Santa’s Smarty Swag Bag holiday giveaway. That Claus dude and his pink & green elves were fiercely Smarty this year and put some of the B-E-S-T swag in the ‘ole holiday bag for one lucky reader. Make sure you are signed up for our e-newsletter for your chance to win $600 from our coolest Smarty friends in town! Click here to read ALL the details on this merry treat!