What I learned about myself at BlogFest

Hi everyone!

It feels good to be back home in good ol’ Maryland 🙂 I missed my family and Phoebe TONS, but Tony and I had a great time in California for the week.

I have a lot to recap, and I’ll get there next week, but for now I wanted to talk about what I learned about myself while I was gone.

I’ve changed a lot in the past two years

When I last went to blogfest, I was single, had finished my first season of bikini competitions, I rarely had treat meals, and didn’t have much of a social life. After sitting with a group of mixed bloggers (mostly young), I realized the commonalities I once had were not as present. Yes there were women married, those who had children, etc. For the most part fitness was their full time job, if not blogging. Unfortunately it’s not that way for me. This past year I have worked A LOT as a PA and blogging took the back burner. I met Tony, we bought a house, and now we are planning our wedding. Basically I grew up and my responsibilities and focus has shifted.

My passion and interest changed

I once had a lot of excitement blogging about fitness and my life, but something shifted. I feel like my lifts, my blogs, and what I share with you guys is a broken record- so it’s no longer fresh and I want to feel that way again. I realized the focus of my blog needs to change, or a new idea needs to come into play to get me excited about blogging again. Any suggestions on things you’d love to read about or see are more than welcome! Brainstorming has kicked into gear…

But I want to make a difference in fitness

One of my goals from day one with this blog was to make a difference in someone’s life; to reach out to someone struggling and help them lead a healthier lifestyle. I don’t see myself throwing in the towel completely, but again I think I need to go about it in a different way than I have in the past.

I probably won’t compete again

I’ve reported hanging up my heels in the past, but of course once you’ve competed, you always toy with the idea of doing it again. It was REALLY NICE to go on vacation and workout, eat healthy, then enjoy dinner with my fiancé without worrying about staying on a strict plan.

I want recipes to make a comeback

My favorite session I attended during blogfest had to do with food photography. While my early recipes definitely were not the best photos, I loved doing it and I really want to sharpen my skills and bring more for you guys. Since I have no plans to grace the stage again, being able to make healthy recipes is something more feasible right now, if I could just squeeze in some spare time 😉

I miss certain aspects of my old life

21 year old me vs 31 year old me 

I wouldn’t trade my current life for anything in the world, but I sometimes miss the old Katie that didn’t focus on specific body part training and enjoyed group fitness. During one of the blogfest workout sessions I did a beachbody workout that included “Turbo Kick” which is basically a cardio kickboxing class. My best friend Sarah turned to me and said “wow Katie I’ve never seen you like this! You are SO INTO IT!”. I felt like 21 year old Katie teaching cardio kickboxing. Teaching group fitness was probably my favorite part of college and it’s a part of my past that I wish I still had time for.

My bond with Tony is unbreakable

During the first half of the vacation I did blog related things while Tony traveled to the gyms in California that he had been dying to go to. Like I said before, at night we went to dinner together, enjoyed one another’s company, laughed, and explored southern California. The second half we did tours, hiked, and saw the beach. Every moment was amazing. It’s rare that we see each other a lot during the week so we lived it up!

It was a great vacation and I have a lot of self exploration to do in between working full time and getting my life back to normal. I’ll see you next week with recaps of my trip 🙂

XOXO With a Cherry On Top,

-Minnie