Another Reason to Love Burn Boot Camp

As you know, I’ve been posting all about Burn Boot Camp for months. This month I was trying to think of what I haven’t mentioned before. There are so many reasons that Burn is just such a positive community to be a part of. So what else could I possible have to say? Two words.
Floating Floor.

That’s right, a gym with a floating floor uniquely designed to protect your body as you do challenging workouts each day. Working out on a hard surface can definitely wear on your body over time. At Burn, the floor has just enough give to protect your joints and helps keep you safer from impact related injuries.
Things like broad jumps, sprinting, and jumping rope are much safer on the floating floor. It is reassuring to know you will not be landing on a hard surface when performing moves of this sort.
I hate to age myself, but as I near 40 I will say that I tend to consider possible injuries way more than in the past. Achey knees and even plantars fasciitis don’t keep me out of the gym, because I know I have the added protection of the floating floor to help me complete my workout with an overall lower impact than other gyms can provide.
It might sounds simple, but trust me, the floating floor is a game changer. Come see for yourself! You can always try Burn Boot Camp for free if you haven’t been in before, and many special rates are offered throughout the year.
Visit BurnBootCamp.com to checkout Burn Bentonville or another location near you.

Every week is different at Burn. You’ll never get bored doing the same workouts week after week. This week’s protocol below is a great one. No better time to give it a try!

This is a sponsored post, but reflects my honest feelings about Burn Boot Camp after four years as a proud member

 

 

How is he 14?

 

Happy 14th birthday to the boy who now looks me in the eye at 5’9. I feel like I always say the same things about him but he is genuinely just the kindest, most loving, team player, hard-working, smartest, and funniest kind of kid. I had a few tears tonight watching him read his birthday cards out loud with that deep voice that still catches me off guard and reminds me that he’s more of a man now than my little boy.

It’s the strangest thing to look at your child and realize that your role in their life is so drastically different than it was when they were little. He still needs me, but in such a different way. We talk about sports, his friends, math class, and how to be a good person. I look forward to our nightly check-in before I head off to bed. I ask him every night if there’s anything I can do to help him. The answer is usually no, but I secretly live for the nights he asks me to wash a certain hoodie sweatshirt he forgot to do with his laundry or to go over a tough math problem together. It’s great when your kids are independent, but it always feels good to be needed.
14 is awesome and hard. He’s doing so many cool activities, has big thoughts on the world, a great sense of humor, and is just a cool person to spend time with. I can’t help but count how few years we have left with him at home though. How does any parent ever get right with their babies growing up? It breaks my heart all the time when I become aware that he’s starting high school soon and that the time is just slipping away. I think somehow the excitement for all he will do and experience over the next few years will help to balance the sadness that comes with missing the little guy he once was. Today I’m just thankful to be his mom and for a few more years to keep him in the nest.

How do you find the time to workout?

When I talk about my Burn Boot Camp workouts, the most common questions I get are about how I find the time to get to the gym. I’ll admit with four kids and a full-time job as an administrator at an elementary school, it can be tough. There are some weeks where I can commit more days to working out than others, but the short answer is because I just feel better when I’m getting to the gym regularly.

Most of the time I like to get my workout done at 5:00 am before the day starts throwing things at me that might derail my workout time. Other days my afternoons are free of meetings and all of the boys’ activities and I can catch a late afternoon/early evening camp. Burn Boot Camp offers tons of times in between too. So whether you work at home and like to do a mid-morning workout or like to get out of the office for a noon camp, you have plenty of options. Burn Boot Camp Bentonville offers 10 camp times each week day and three times plus yoga on Saturdays.

I am more consistent with my workouts when I look at the week ahead and decide which days I will get it done. Burn headquarters releases the workouts for the upcoming week each Sunday. I look at my calendar and the types of workouts they are offering that week and decide on a plan.

I’ve learned that I feel better and have a lower stress level when I get to the gym regularly so I prioritize it. Having a gym like Burn that offers flexible camp times, no cancellation fees, and has the creativity to keep it interesting and fun makes it a lot easier to be consistent with workouts.

Check out Burn Boot Camp Bentonville, or a location near you, today!

This is a sponsored post, but reflects my honest feelings about Burn Boot Camp after four years as a proud member. 

Why Wait Until the New Year?

 Every year about this time, I start thinking about what goals I want to accomplish in the upcoming year. January always feels like good time to “get back on track.” The new year brings a renewed motivation and hope for things to come. As the year goes on, life happens. Often resolutions are set aside and goals seem harder to meet.
This year I’ve decided to commit to myself during the busy month of December instead of waiting for 2022 to roll around. I feel like if I can get into good habits now, when life is more hectic, I will be setting myself up to actually stick to my plans for the new year. I’m just really getting back to the gym after a long recovery from surgery. It’s been hard to be mentally focused when my body just hasn’t felt normal yet. I’m tempted to say, “I’ll get back at it next year” but there’s no better time than now.
If you are looking for a way to commit to your health and fitness and put yourself first for a change, I encourage you to do a free 7-day trial at Burn Boot Camp Bentonville this month. You can try out all the member benefits (like unlimited camps, free child watch, and focus meetings with a trainer) and see if it’s right for you. If you love it as much as I do, you can put a membership on your Christmas list this year!
You can check out Burn Boot Camp Bentonville’s social media pages to learn more about what the gym is like. You will see lots of celebrating members, encouraging advice from trainers, and a gym family that is obviously so fun to be a part of.
Make this a December to remember by getting an early start on your goals for the new year. Check out Burn Bentonville or a location near you today!

This is a sponsored post, but reflects my honest feelings about Burn Boot Camp after four years as a proud member. 

Because Sometimes Babies Don’t Come Home

It’s National Rainbow Baby Day. It’s a day to celebrate the babies that came after the storm. We have three in our family. Three boys that came after three went to Heaven.

In the summer of 2010 we said goodbye to our triplet sons. We had our beautiful 2-year-old son, and tried to deal with the news that he would most likely be our one and only. But our story didn’t end there. Through the power of prayer and medical intervention I was holding a beautiful baby boy again in the summer of 2012. I looked into his eyes and felt pure joy and unimaginable pain in the same moment. I have grieved that moment over and over for the last eleven years.

I never want Gavin to feel that I experienced anything but pure love and thankfulness for his life. But it was so complicated for me. Welcoming him was a kind of hard I never expected. I knew I was suppose to be so happy to have him in my arms, but the grief knocked the breath right out of me.

I missed the three babies that came before him. He was beautiful and amazing, but there I was sobbing and hurting so very much.

I haven’t shared much about the weeks following his birth, but I can admit now that I shut down. I sobbed while I nursed him, I cried alone in my closet, and I sat on the edge of the bed at night wondering what was wrong with me. Wasn’t this exactly what I had prayed for every single day since the boys passed away? I was given the chance to carry a baby and to hear his cries at birth instead of deafening silence. I had been given a rainbow baby and everyone said that was going to be magical. Instead I was depressed, anxious, and felt disconnected from my sweet baby.

Having a rainbow baby isn’t, well, sunshine and rainbows at all. It’s more like a tornado that brings every emotion at the same time. I realized in the weeks that followed Gavin’s birth that I was almost paralyzed with the fear that I would lose him too and that was what was causing so much of the emotional turmoil I was feeling.

I realized I was living in a different world than most people I know. In my world sometimes a mother’s love isn’t enough. In my world, babies don’t always come home from the hospital. In my world sometimes grief sneaks into the most beautiful moments.

When I realized it was normal to experience the grief alongside the joy, everything changed. I could honor our loss without taking anything away from the deep love and joy I was feeling for my beautiful, new son.

In the summer 2015 we welcomed another rainbow baby and I was better prepared. Pregnancy and birth still brought the big feelings, but I was in a place where I better understood what it meant to be parenting after loss.

In the summer of 2018 we once again welcomed a healthy baby boy into our family. This time through adoption. It was July 25th, the exact day that we welcomed our first rainbow baby six years earlier. Our double rainbow day. That first rainbow baby moment back in 2012 had come full circle. I was in an entirely different place and was no longer battling the delicate balance of our loss. I was confident in the way I was parenting our boys and actually thankful for the perspective our loss has provided. I truly appreciate so many seemingly insignificant moments with my children because I will never get to experience them with three of my boys.

I love that parents like myself can celebrate our rainbow babies, but I feel it’s important to share about the tougher parts of falling into this category of parenthood too. It’s okay to remember the ones we lost and celebrate the ones we hold at the same time.

I will forever be Mom to seven. Four in my arms and three in Heaven.

Celebrate BIG with Pinnacle Pop Up Cards

Birthday week is one of our family’s favorite times of the year. Three of our boys and my husband all have birthdays during the last week of July. Two of our boys even share the exact same birthday! I love birthdays so much, so by the end of the week I’m usually completely exhausted from trying to make sure all four of my guys feel extra special with little surprises here and there.  It’s always totally worth it to see how excited and loved they feel.

Every year I try to come up with new, fun ways to make birthday week exciting for the whole family. This year I found the coolest way to celebrate, and it was so easy! I contacted Pinnacle Pop Up Cards about doing a yard sign for the boys and it was a HUGE hit! We woke up on the day of the double birthday and the most perfect display was waiting in the front yard. The boys were over the moon excited to know that the whole neighborhood knew it was their special day. They couldn’t believe that they got a “giant birthday card.” My husband loved it too and we had a great time taking pictures of our four birthday boys with their special yard greeting.

Of course I have seen other people celebrate with yard signs, but I had no idea how much fun it would be. Hannah, the owner of Pinnacle Pop Up Cards, was amazing to work with. I have no idea how she picked out such perfect pieces to add to our display, but each of the boys were represented well by the decorations she put together.

Hannah has been in Northwest Arkansas for 10 years. During the pandemic she heard about yard display businesses and thought it would be a great way to express herself creatively but also safely during a pandemic. Her favorite part is being able to truly customize setups for clients to give them exactly what they want. Pinnacle Pop Up Cards can do birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, baby showers, events, and whatever other special occasions you might have.

Pinnacle Pop Up Cards is an affordable option for anyone wanting a way to celebrate big without breaking the bank.  I loved the fact that I didn’t have to do a thing. Hannah came up with the great design, and set it all up. We enjoyed the display for a day and then she came back and took it all down. So easy for such a cool way to celebrate!

You can do any sort of personal message you’d like to order, and they just added an inflatable you can reserve as well. What a great way to add some extra fun to your celebration. No matter what you are celebrating you can be sure that Hannah will help you bring a little extra joy and a bunch of big smiles to the special day!

You can check Pinnacle Pop Up Cards on Facebook or Instagram or head over to their website at www.pinnaclepopupcardsnwa.com to get more information or book right now. Happy celebrating!

This is a sponsored post. My review reflects my honest opinion after using the service provided by this business. 

Chosen Brothers

I look over at the couch and see a typical “oh my gosh they are so adorable” parent moment until I think about it for a second longer. Three more seconds and the tears pool at the corners of my eyes. The delicate path that lead them to be brothers could have turned another direction. The hundreds of hugs, kisses, and belly laughs they’ve shared over the last almost three years might have never happened at all.

It’s hard to think about adoption and say it was “meant to be.” A child losing his birth family is never the way it is suppose to be.

But a child finding a forever family to love and cherish them is a pretty amazing thing. Out of all the families in the world, God led him to us. And sometimes that knocks the breath right out of this mama.

Join the Burn Boot Camp Family

You’re too thin. You’re too heavy. You haven’t run since high school. Trust me, I completely understand. Walking into a gym is intimidating for most of us. There are so many reasons that starting a new workout routine can be hard to commit to.

When I first considered starting Burn Boot Camp Bentonville I was more than a little nervous. I hadn’t worked out in years and the thought of anyone seeing how out of shape I was almost stopped me from walking through the doors. I worried I’d be the biggest or slowest person there. I had no idea how to lift weights properly, how to use any other equipment, or if I could even do one push-up.

I’m not really sure what I thought would happen. Maybe that people would look down on me for being overweight. Maybe that I would embarrass myself by not knowing how to do the movements correctly. Maybe that I would just plain fail and give up the idea all together.

Well, friends let me tell you…all of those worries were put to rest the very first time I stepped onto the floating floor at Burn. I can honestly say that in four years I have never felt anything but complete acceptance and support when I’m there. It really is a judgement-free zone.

The support I’ve received from the trainers and other members is remarkable.

Burn members are wonderfully diverse. We all have different goals. Some of us would like to lose weight. Some are hoping to gain some by adding more muscle. Some are hoping to increase overall fitness to help accomplish running goals or to manage health conditions. The best part is that even though our goals are unique, the guidance and support we get at Burn meets all of our needs. Every member has access to focus meetings to discuss diet and lifestyle factors, skilled trainers to guide them through the workouts, and a community of positive people cheering them along the way.

I can’t believe that my insecurities almost kept me from joining the Burn Bentonville family. I would have missed out on one of my favorite things. I look forward to going to Burn every time because I know what’s waiting for me there. I know I will be encouraged to push through even the most difficult workouts by smiles, high-fives, and a so much positivity.

If you’re ready to step out of your comfort zone and see if Burn is what you are looking for, head to burnbootcamp.com to try out Burn Bentonville free for 7 days, or to find a location near you.

This is a sponsored post, but reflects my honest feelings about Burn Boot Camp after four years as a proud member. 

Parenthood in One Picture

Let’s be honest, raising kids is amazing, but there are times it feels like you’ve been hit by a train. I’ve been feeling like that a lot lately navigating four kids, and balancing their needs from toddler to teenager. So when I was literally hit by a train yesterday I wasn’t too surprised. In an instant it drove up my hair and wound it tightly into the wheels. As I sat for 30 minutes waiting for my hubby to get home so he could take the train apart to release my hair, I was able to see the humor in the situation. I’d been praying for clarity and peace with some tough parenting decisions this week. I have been stressed and anxious, sleeping poorly, and just more grumpy than I’d like to be. The train was kind of like God was answering by showing me that even when the random, tough moments happen there is always a choice to laugh and smile through it. We can dwell on the tough parts of parenthood (and life in general) or we can embrace them and seek out the joy in the chaos. The pain and trials are short-lived and I’m reminded once again that there is always something beautiful to be found in the messy parts of life.

Burn Boot Camp Bentonville Turns 4!

Burn Boot Camp Bentonville has been changing lives in Northwest Arkansas for four years. When you walk into the gym, one of the first things you will see is an entire wall devoted to sharing the transformation stories of people across the country who changed their lives with the support of the Burn Boot Camp community. Over 20 of the transformation stories you’ll see on the wall happened right here at the Bentonville location. It’s truly inspiring to read each unique story.

Ericka says, “I have lost 33 pounds, down 6 inches in my waist and down 9.5% in body fat. I now have definition in my body. I feel stronger, my clothes fit differently and I now have confidence in what I am able to do. Most importantly, I now feel that I can be a role model to my daughter and teach her how to become a confident, strong and healthy woman.”

So what is it that makes members of Burn Boot Camp decide to keep coming back week after week, month after month, year after year? I think the answer is that it’s different for every person. You can use the resources provided to you at Burn to reach the goals that matter to you.

Here’s what some fellow Burn Boot Camp Bentonville members had to say about what this gym community means to them:

What is your favorite thing about Burn?

“I love the friends I’ve made. The support they give on and off the floor. Getting messages when I’ve been absent to check on me.” Lisa, member 18 months

“I love everything about it. It’s changed my mindset and I feel healthier and happier.” Kate, member for 7 weeks

“I love the challenge of the workouts and I am amazed I remain focused doing virtual Burn workouts in our garage for the past 14 months.” Lynelle, member for 2 years

Celebration is a huge part of the community at Burn. Whether you are reaching a camp milestone, setting a new PR, or you have great focus meeting results, you are always recognized and celebrated by your gym family.

What are you most proud of yourself for accomplishing in your Burn journey so far?

“Most proud of continuing camp through my entire 2nd pregnancy! The encouragement and modifications made a huge difference for me, mentally and physically.” Christina, member for 2 years

“I am proud of my physical transformation during my time here, but most proud of my mental transformation. I came into Burn wanting to lose weight and now I don’t focus on the weight and my goal is to be strong and be a good example for my children.” Shelby, member for over 2 years

“For the first time in my 40 years of life, I have a mindset of being strong rather than skinny.” Alison, member for 2 years

If I’m being honest, when I first joined I wouldn’t have ever thought I would still be at Burn Bentonville four years later. Sticking with a gym routine never seemed like something I could do. I’ve had to be out of the gym a few times with injuries and surgeries over the years and I’m always amazed at how much I miss it every time. There’s something so exciting about being able to push your body and relieve your stress while surrounded by people who genuinely want you to reach your goals. Who knew that a gym could turn into your happy place?

Here’s to four years of the best gym in Northwest Arkansas, and to all the people who have put themselves first and worked hard toward their goals. If you are looking to make a change, stop by Burn Boot Camp Bentonville to check out the transformation stories on the wall and start imagining your picture up there next to all those amazing Burn members. You just never know who might be inspired by your story.

Visit burnbootcamp.com today to get started with a free 7-day trial!

This is a sponsored post, but reflects my honest feelings about Burn Boot Camp after three years as a proud member.