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I was introduced to Personal Development in October of 2016. At the time, I was sitting in my car on my lunch break at work scrolling through Facebook. I came across a post by a fitness coach, Foodie Girl Fitness who was talking about self-love.

The coach had posted two pictures of herself, side by side. One picture of her standing up, posing in shorts and a sports bra, and the other of her sitting in a chair with her leg up with a couple of belly rolls. The post talked about how you need to love yourself in all shapes and sizes. That it’s all about perspective, she was the same girl just in different poses and should love herself either way. Loving yourself is what changes your perspective of life.

When I saw the post it instantly got me thinking and feeling motivated to make a change in my life. Surprisingly, the change ended up improving my life in different areas of my life then how I thought it would.

At the time, I had been pretty hard on myself for not treating myself well. Five years ago, I started my fitness journey. I lost 36 pounds and felt great! Over the years I slowly started to decrease my workouts along with my healthy eating habits, and gain some of the weight back. I had just switched jobs that year from a very stressful company that wasn’t right for me. It resulted in a very rough patch in my relationship with my then boyfriend, now husband. The new job I had just started was also turning out to be pretty stressful and I was doubting myself for making the wrong career choice. I was not loving myself and unhappy with my life. I subconsciously knew I needed to make a change but wasn’t sure where to start.

When I came across the post I realized that it was exactly what I needed, self-love! I got introduced to podcasts and started listening in frequently. I listened to them multiple times a week and fell in love with them. It was the perfect resource to get useful everyday information that I could apply to my everyday life while just driving to work or sitting at my desk, and still do!

The main area I wanted to work on, the most important to me, is my relationship with my now husband. I searched marriage podcasts and came across my favorite “One Extraordinary Marriage“. It is a podcast about all things marriage; communication, commitment, sex and love while being intentional in your marriage. My now husband and I have been together for over ten years and we just recently got married this past October so, we’ve had our fair share of things to overcome and miscommunication. This podcast has been a God send for us. It has allowed us to communicate on a deeper level.

The creators of the podcast, Tony and Alisa, speak so openly and honestly about what goes into a marriage/relationship. They provide ideas of how to get through the difficult topics and share about issues that many people don’t talk about. The podcast has helped improve our relationship so much over the last year. It often discusses topics that my husband and I have argued about and yet, just hearing their perspective on the topics somehow helps shed light on the issues. It helps me to take a step back and change my perspective or look at it though my husband’s eyes. Sometimes simply hearing things from an outside perspective can help so much.

Fast forward to a little over a year later since I found their podcast and so much has changed, see Happy New Year! post for details. I couldn’t be happier with the way life has changed. My husband and I are in the best place we’ve ever been in our relationship and I can honestly say I feel that finding that first Facebook post was the spark to it all!

This past year I have felt so blessed and grateful to have the life I do! So much so, that I feel the need to share it with others. I’ve thought about starting a blog for awhile now and after this past year, I decided to finally make it happen. I’ve learned so much when it comes to relationship, personal development and fitness, and have always loved the art of photography. So, what better way than to share with the world what I’ve learned and maybe be that “post” that changes someone’s life for the better!

Do you listen to podcasts? Which ones are your favorite? I would love to hear about them and check them out!

xoxo- Katie

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“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.” – Charles Dickens