Hi all! Welcome to my new fitness and health blog! Lets begin at the beginning of my journey with a quick review, and then talk more about why I have started this blog.
 I have been going to 24 Hour Fitness for the past 3 years, I started out just doing Zumba classes, then gradually began branching out. When I first started coming to  24 I was in the early stages of recovery from an eating disorder. I truly believe that exercise done right can have a healing effect on the body. I have had to learn that moderation is key, and it has been a long process but I am definitely in a healthier (although not perfect) place mentally now. Anyways, as I began to learn more about fitness, I started trying out lifting weights. My first forays into the weights section were terrifying! Anyone who has been to a typical gym knows that generally women are in the back on machines and the dudes are in front on the weights. I had no idea where to start, so I began pinning weight lifting workouts to try on my Pinterest Boards. Every week I would try a new workout, I was loving it! Unfortunately, many of the popular fitness sites that I pinned workouts from encourage women to stick with the light weights, any higher than a 15 and you might bulk up... hmm.. . well after more research and observing the women at the gym who did lift heavy, I decided that was bunk. The women who were lifting heavy weights looked awesome, the women who spent hours doing steady state cardio and lifting puny weights... not so much. I began incorporating heavier lifting and high intensity cardio, and I was loving the results. But as hard as I was working and do work in the gym, I wasn't seeing the results that I wanted. Having had a severe eating disorder wreaked havoc on my metabolism and I have worked hard to reverse that damage. I am NOT willing to starve myself again to get where I want to be. I have tried every diet out there, Atkins, Dukan, South Beach, etc. and none of them worked for me. I had tons of trouble sticking to them too, I had deprived myself of food for so long while I had an active eating disorder that my body and mind rebelled whenever I tried a new diet. If I restricted my intake I would get horrible cravings, be in a terrible mood, and be so preocupied with food that I was taking up all my time dreaming about recipes and the food I would eat once I got off the diet. So that leads me to this blog. I recently started going to the new Grit classes at 24 hour, I began talking with the instructor Holly, and she shared with me the nutrition program she uses. She looks amazing and has tons of energy (you have to to lead a 5:30am Grit class), so I though, why not try it? I reviewed the information on the 21 Day Fix website and scoured the internet for details and additional reviews. I did not want a program that feeds you processed pre-made crap instead of real food. I am a big advocate of eating whole foods with as few ingredients as possible, so I wanted something that would work with that. I also eat a mostly paleo diet, I became a paleo advocate after watching the documentary Fed Up, and reading up on the philosophy behind paleo. I am not 100% die hard paleo, as with my history of ED I need to allow myself flexibility, being to rigid is not a good plan. So after all the reasearching and thinking and going back and forth, I decided to give Holly's program a try! This blog will not be only about the program I am on though, I want to share the health and fitness tips that have worked for me with all of you. Hopefully I will be able to contribute to the
greater good and help others get healthy. I hope you enjoy the blog, and if you have any questions or need to talk, always feel free to email me. 

Also, you may also see some posts and pics of this little nugget... Her name is Frida, and she's my fave. 

You can reach me at erswain@gmail.com