How One Book Revolutionized My Year

There is this one book I read recently that has greatly helped me to improve my exercise level, nutrition, and general well being. And honestly, it was kind of an unexpected source. It was just a book I picked up on a whim while out Christmas shopping.

I was at Barnes and Noble, Christmas shopping. Somehow I ended up leaving with more presents for myself than for all the people on my list. Ooooops…I handed most of the books I picked out to my husband to serve as my Christmas presents, but there was one book I just couldn’t wrap. No, I just HAD to read it right away.

***The photo above is an Amazon ad, so if you do purchase it, I will collect advertising fees. This is not a sponsored post. I just really benefitted from this book.***

I don’t know how much you know about Carrie Underwood, but it turns out she’s REALLY into fitness.

If you haven’t already noticed, from the title of this blog, I’m basically ALWAYS on a quest for self-improvement. Now please note. This does mean I want to improve myself, but it does not mean I’d like to collect suggestions from friends and family on how they think I should improve myself. That kind of hurts my feelings. I get enough criticism from my own self. Thanks.

What Find Your Path has that was helpful:

• Recipes for Healthy Meals
• An entire workout program that can actually be downloaded as a highly useful exercise app
• Stories from Carrie’s life about getting healthy and maintaining that

The first part of the book is in regular chapter book format. Then there’s a section of workouts and a section of recipes.

My Favorite Part was just reading her stories of her own path.

I read this back in December. We had Christmas stress, etc., etc. It was cold outside, and I was not working out ever really, and I was at my heaviest weight I have ever been as a non-pregnant person.

Getting Back to Writing

Carrie talks a lot about journaling. She even had journal prompts in there, and also I’m a writer who wasn’t writing.

That’s a whole other long story, but I needed some kind of turning point, whether gradual or sudden, to snap me into a better frame of mind.

Yes, I read my Bible, and I have faith, and I am so thankful for all that I have. I am ridiculously blessed, but sometimes life is hard and the cumulative hard things just add up and leave you feeling sad or just apathetic.

This book just motivated me to write again, exercise again, and just flat out care about myself again.

Sometimes we all need a little motivation and inspiration. It may sound silly to think a celebrity country singer could have had such an impact on my whole year and everything that I’m doing, but it did. I think God used this book in my life to help wake me up.

I mean look, I even have a blog again.

Another thing I like is that the whole Fit 52 plan is also accessible.

If you make something hard to do, I’m lazy about fitness, and I just won’t do it.

The best thing about the recipe section is that they are healthy foods, but they aren’t foods that you have to travel to some special store in a city an hour away to find the ingredients. She uses ingredients you’ve actually heard of before, and that is a relief.

At first, I was doing the exercises according to the book, and it was taking me forever because I’d have to study the directions and the pictures to figure out what they were doing exactly.

Thankfully, the app makes it a hundred times easier.

The app is more like a work out video. They demonstrate every single exercise and run the timer for you at the same time. I get my work out done in half the time using the app. It was taking me forever using the book, especially since I like to give myself extra rests. Ha! I’m so not a big exercise person.

You start with a free trial and then there is a fee of $1/week or $52/year. That is far cheaper than all of the other workout apps that I have tried and not stuck with in the past. I have actually stuck with this for THREE MONTHS. If you know me at all, you know that’s highly unusual.

Have I lost weight? Not really. Well, a little, but I have hopes…

You see, one does have to not drink one’s sodas or eat so much chocolate if one wants to actually lose weight, and sometimes a person is a stress eater who is planning a move and trying not to have a brain aneurism….

However, I’m exercising again, which I had not done much of in years. Having a blog again to work on and build and grow and pour my thoughts into has given me a spark of something to look forward to. And the food….well…..it’s a work in progress…I already have to eat gluten free so that my body doesn’t restrict me to my bed, so also eating less sugar and fun stuff is ……well, it’s challenging. I’m working on it.

I cannot promise that this book will light a fire under you like it did me because you have to also be mentally in need of a change.

You know what I mean? Different things speak to different people, but if you are looking for something like this, I highly recommend both the book and the app.