Growing up competitive sports were a huge part of my life. It was who I was, it defined me.
I began as a competitive gymnast.
When I went to high school I became a competitive cheerleader.
When I went to college I was a competitive cheerleader too.
After college my cheerleading days were over. So was competing.
When I got my first teaching job I began coaching gymnastics. I was no longer competing but my girls were. It wasn't what I was used to, I missed competing.
A few years later I got into competing in half marathons and sprint triathlons. I felt as though I needed to set goals in my life. When I was younger they were all about fitness, so that felt most natural to me and that's where I focused. Somewhere along the way I lost my focus of what healthy competition was. That is when I struggled with an eating-disorder. My goal became a number on the scale. I weighed myself every day, usually 2-3 times each day. The goal was to be the lowest number I could be by means of exercising more and eating less. The competition was between me, the scale and ED (the name I gave to my eating disorder which is very common among those who have struggled with any type of eating disorder).

When I first began my road to recovery I questioned why I was going through this.
Why me?
Why did I have to suffer?
It wasn't until I began to search for the answers to these questions that I found God. He had them all. i began to realize what having faith in the Lord could do for me. The competition needed to end. My focus needed to shift from a number on the scale to focus on God's love for me. Some people might think that I would be "mad at God", not me, I am so blessed and so thankful to Him. All those years of struggling, He has brought me to where I am today!
Encouraging and motivating others to live the healthiest life they can, including myself of course <3

I found this shirt on pinterest today and loved it! It has made me realize how I can have the competition I love back in my life. I want to compete for my life. Compete for the best of me in all aspects listed on the shirt:

FAITH

WORK

HEALTH

DREAMS

RELATIONSHIPS

Now do not get me wrong, competition is good as long is it is healthy and it doesn't become destructive to who you are. That is where I got lost. God has helped me see that I can encourage, motivate and support others to compete for the best life they can live! That is awesome. God is amazing! I can only thank him for all that he has done for me.

<3 Veronica

Five Minute Friday--JUMP

Timer is set...GO!

When I first began my personal relationship with God I jumped right in!
I wanted to know everything.
I wanted to figure out why God would choose to save me. Choose me to pick up every time I fell.
I jumped, head first. Literally dove my head into the Bible, many Christian living books, Christian music and surrounded myself with Christian friends.
I am so happy that I took the biggest jump of my life :-)
I don't know where I would be if I didn't.
I truly do not want to think about it either.
This jump saved my life. It was a very scary jump, but I knew that it was the right one.
I knew that God would catch me and never let me hit the ground.

Jump for His love!
Jump into the arms of God!
Jump and trust that he will be there to catch you!
I did and I couldn't be happier!
This was the best jump of my life!
Thank you Lord for catching me!

God is awesome!!

<3 Veronica

Sometimes it is so hard to get yourself to the gym, get outside, or do a DVD at your house.
Other things come up, you get side tracked, or you are too tired.
I was doing Turbo Fire today and Chalene from Beachbody's puts it the best.
She says "I have energy because I workout!"

If you ever feel like you don't want to workout because you are tired remember that exercise fights fatigue and boosts energy :-)

Our body is a temple. God wants us to treat it that way! I never thought about my body like this until recently. I always worked out to try to stay thin :-( It's not at all about being thin.
It is what is on the inside that is most important!
We need to respect the body that God has given us.
Eating healthy.
Staying active.
Treating your body with kindness.
Talking to yourself with positive words.
Loving yourself from the inside out!

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,
whom you have from God?
You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.
So glorify God in your body.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Every Wednesday morning I have the extreme fortune of spending time before school with fellow Christian teachers and students at our Fellowship of Christian Athlete (FCA) meetings. It is not strictly for athletes, but for any christian that wants to be with like-minded people and have fellowship together, before school, as Christians. We are all so blessed we have such a strong community together. All of our messages are created and presented by our students. They drive the message, they lead the lesson, and they are the inspiration for all of us in the room to go out and live a Christian life in a world that makes that so very difficult each and every day, especially in public school.

This morning one of our senior girls blessed us with the message that God loves you, no matter what! She shared a song by Matt Maher, Hold us Together. The chorus really struck my heart:

Love, will, hold us together

Make us a shelter

to weather the storm.

All I could think about all day was love, and the love that God has for each and every one of us. Her message brought me to tears. After finally being able to finish writing my Faith Story, being reminded by a 17 year old how strong God's love is for all of us was amazing. He will protect us.

At some point during her message she mentioned the world EVIL. 

I wrote it down.

EVIL.  

I stared at it.

EVIL. 

Then read it backwards, LIVE. 

God want's us to LIVE against EVIL

He shows this through LOVE.

Flip EVIL around and you get LIVE. 

Change the I to an O, you get LOVE. 

LOVE is stronger than EVIL. 

"God demonstrated 

his own love for us: 

While we were still sinners, 

Christ died for us."

Romans 5:8

<3 Veronica

Today I am joining the lovely God-sized dreamers! We are given a prompt and then link up with Holley Gerth :-)

Here was the prompt:
The most important part of any God-sized dream is the Giver of it. Set aside a particular time this week to be with Him–to pray, journal, take a walk or simply sit quietly and listen.

My brain has been going in circles the last few weeks. I have made the decision to declare my love for Jesus Christ by being baptized on April 28th. It is a huge step of faith for me.

Now to write My Faith Story. This has been so hard for me. My story is being read during the service at which I am baptized and I feel as if there is so much to tell.  I have told my faith story to small groups before, but have never written it down.

As I sit and try to write it is apparent to me that every little detail plays a role in who I am today.

I don't want to leave anything out.

Today I have chosen to list all the times that God picked me up when I was down.
I have set aside time, just to be with Him.
To thank Him for leading me to where I am today; being a God-sized dreamer.


In the past, I turned my head to the mention of God.
I thought nothing of His name or what He had done for me.
I never thought I needed Him.

Through depression and anxiety my first year of college.
Through battling with my weight through four years of college cheering.
To getting my first job and battling my weight again.
Through my marriage ceremony during which I shunned Him with no mention of His name.

Through months of not knowing what was wrong with my throat causing me to have three different surgeries on my vocal cords.

To admitting to having anorexia and over-exercising out loud to family, friends and doctors.
Through my separation, depression and anxiety.
Through my divorce.
Through finally being "in recovery" form an eating disorder.

All the years of pain and heartache that I suffered, He was forever by my side.
Faithful and true to me. The woman who wanted nothing to do with Him.

Until finally, I continued to go to a place that I felt safe and comfortable and the tears would flow of joy because I opened my heart to God's voice. He was talking to me and I was finally listening.

I am forever grateful to the Lord for never giving up on me.

When I say never, I mean never.

I have not written in a few days and I am a little late with "Five Minute Friday" but I wanted to make sure I got it in. So...

Here.

So here it is, Sunday afternoon and I haven't yet gotten to the prompt from Friday. I was beating myself up inside for neglecting what I have committed myself to writing on my blog. Then I realized that I am not going to get anywhere by doing that. Instead, I need to sit down, no matter what day it is and commit to the prompt and never let it happen again.

Here I sit on the couch listening to the birds chirping.

What a lovely noise during spring time.
I am here because this is where the Lord has brought me, Dillsburg, Pennsylvania. Who ever would have thought I would be in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania.

Not me. I had no idea where I was going, but I know the Lord does. I know wherever here is, is where he wants me to be.

Sometimes we want to question it, and sometimes we are so ecstatic that the "here" is where we wanted to be.
Here, I am happy.
Here, I am blessed.
Here, I know I belong.
Here, I know I am loved.
Here, I am comfortable.
Here, I know that He is with me.
Here, I know he has guided me.
Here.

Stop.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and all the other fruit of the spirit are characteristics of the Holy Spirit that we have within us when we accept Jesus as our Savior. And we can release them if we do it on purpose. Make a choice to let the good things God has placed in your spirit flow through your soul and body so others may be blessed and God will be glorified. -From Joyce Meyers Bible

Walk by Faith, live by the fruit of the spirits. The fruits are all flowing through my soul and my body and I have made it a goal to spread the word to others. By living a Christian life I know that others can see me shine with all of the fruits of the spirit and will hopefully join me in my walk of Faith.

My life has changed so much since I have accepted Jesus as my Savior and have made the choice to give my life to Him. I am declaring this through baptism on April 28th. It is only a few weeks away and I anxiously await this opportunity. I am so blessed with the fruits of the spirit and now I can publicly share it with my church community<3

This journey of Faith, Food and Fitness is just the beginning. It's my foundation to build on. I can only imagine the lives I can touch. I know that it may take a while, but I also know it is going to happen. On his time with patience.