To the best version of yourself

My boys 🙌🥰the ones that call me ma!! 😅Happy Son’s day ❤️😎

I felt this in my soul and i thought I should share with you ❤️

It’s all about that constant growth.

We are meant to expand our lives , we just tend get carried away with life ( not in a good way ) and put ourselves last to anybody else 🥺
.............................................................................

Esta frase me tocó el corazón ♥️

Hay que trabajar en el crecimiento personal 🙌

Todo el mundo debe tener la oportunidad de crecer nuestras vidas , pero sucede que lo ponemos de lado , y nos olvidamos de cuidarnos primero que nadie más 🥺

“No seas tan dura contigo misma cuando te sientas perdida y confundida porque no haz alcanzado la meta que tenías .
La vida seria bien aburrida si lográramos alcanzar todas nuestras metas de una vez , y sin tener más oportunidades de aprender algo nuevo 😕

Ten paciencia❤️Ya te llegará tu momento y entonces tendrá sentido to jornada.

Cada experiencia te ayudará a llegar a tu destino final 🙏

No tengas miedo de fallar , y no esperes alcanzar tu meta de un día para otro . 😜

Cree en ti misma y olvídate de la opinión de los demás 😎

No dejes de hacerlo hasta que te sientas orgullosa de ti 🙌

Going back into last year posts, it stills applies where I don’t which day it’s anymore ( I am sure you can relate )🥴🥺

Today is Sunday , or is it ? The last few weeks have been a blur and a mix set of emotions, anxiety and a lot of unknowns for everyone.

I found myself in the second week of March ( when the quarantine started ) going back into negative thoughts that would bring my mood down for days; I am sure I am not alone .

The old me a year ago would have ate her emotions away and then feel bad about it and eat some more .

This new version that I am working on decided to get up early 7 days a week to dedicate time to ME : workout, meal prep, meditate, read ( currently reading : Get out of your own way by Dave Hollis)

❤️

Thoughts are what we can control , and if you are telling yourself that bad things are true or that you won’t get far or won’t be able to do certain things , you best believe you won’t ! Because we are what we believe we are.

So here I leave you with what’s worked for me so far :

✅ knowledge how you are feeling ( sad, angry, anxious) this will release the energy that you are spending in those feeling a into working towards a positive mindset.

✅ interrogative self talk ( am I willing to chance my negative thoughts?
What’s the worse case scenario if( whatever you are thinking ) happens ?
How can I move into a better state of mind ?
This way you are working into the power solving areas of your brain. You are now able to counterattack the negative thoughts with curiosity instead of being afraid of them 🥰

Lastly but more important :
Positive affirmations ❤️but make sure that they are words you actually believe : I am working in myself and I will get better at loving myself. This way you will knowledge the fact that you are not there yet but you are taking necessary steps to achieve it.

Oh man ! What a year eh ? But I am feeling so thankful and blessed for what I have learned so far and excited to see what 2021 will bring .

Have you ever thought that the way you speak to yourself will make you believe whatever you tell your mind it’s true ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JR8kRbF3aA&list=PLcWa6kvxTA3PgxUvMBPktpRYJbeSUr4al&index=22

Change The Way You See Yourself & Reach Your Potential | Ashley Graham | Inspiring Women of Goalcast Body Positivity - How to love your body and yourself. An inspiring speech by model Ashley Graham. Be You speech - Model Ashley Graham reveals that acceptance...

“Dear Me :
I know there have been days were you look in the mirror and you don’t like what you see .
It’s not the 23 years old body you had before to growing and giving birth to two beautiful babies, and it will never be .
I know that while you stare and the stretch marks and the cellulite, you are telling not very nice words to yourself , because how come you let yourself go and now you look like that?

There was a time we’re you decided to give up and just try to eat your feelings away and then you hated yourself some more 😭☹️🥺

Until about year ago where the love of your life gave you the most real and hardest talk of your relationship ( either you would take charge of bettering yourself of there wouldn’t be much left of our family and our kids wouldn’t have a happy mom to grow up with )

Little by little , you started working on your health set and mindset together with your souls set and look how far you have grown !

You are wearing shorts again !!! 😅and you are being kind to your reflection .”
Sincerely ,

The Rachel that’s working towards being the best version of herself ❤️

What I have learned so far :
Write down your goals ( break them into very specific points and put a WHY behind each one ) so when you feel like steering away , you read them and REMEMBER WHY STARTED )

We aware of your thoughts , and think : would I say this to someone I love ?
If the answer is no, then why would you say it to yourself ?

Let go of the scale ! Workout at least 3 times a week , start by making a promise to you, and KEEP IT !! I can even begin to express how much this has changed my life.

Drink lots of water 💦 and let go of those damn sweets and breads ( still working of this one )

Take pictures weekly to see how far you have come: because I got obsessed about the scale for while , I forgot to celebrate the small victories ( loosing inches from my waist and my arms and fitting in a pair of shorts I hadn’t worn since after having my first child ).

FIND A FRIEND OR ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER AND LEAN ON A SUPPORT SYSTEM 💪🏼🥰❤️this right here 💯

Happy Mother’s Day to all ❤️
I feel so blessed to have amazing moms in my life that have taught me and showed me what a Mother’s love means .

My grandma : the best role model of tenacity and strength in my life ❤️

Vivian ( my second mom ) Took me in as her own when I was just 7 years of age and has helped and shared many important moments in my life 🙂 We don’t share blood per say but the love and teaching thru 23 years of my life have more meaning that anything else to me .

My bonus Grandma ( Lupe) : I became part of their family when I was almost 7 and she always makes sure that I know , I am loved their own grandkids. ❤️

And so many more amazing mommas ❤️to all of you , HAPPY MOTHER’s DAY!

Good morning and HAPPY FIRST FRIDAY IN MAY!
Today I wanted to share a part of my morning routine in hopes that you can make adapt it to you :
Gratitude❤️
We are living in hard times were sometimes it’s hard not to fall into dark places ,feel sad and overwhelmed .
It’s a choice to practice some gratitude daily to help to you stay in a better mindset so I am going to share some thoughts that I look at every morning before I work out and every evenings as I get ready to sleep:

Morning gratitude ( I know it’s not always easy to turn your mind towards the light but as any other great habit , you have to practice to make it perfect ) and trust me: you will see and feel the difference 🥰

Yesterday my 6 years old son Rafael reminded something very powerful : how kids are so resilient and how we, as adults tend to give up a lot easier as we grow up .

Rafael just started using his bike without training wheels and let’s just say that he thought he could go faster than “The Flash” and.. he met the pavement with his knees 😞

He cried for a bit but then ... he got up on his bike and went off !

I remember then that when I started my journey , I wanted to quit so many times( and I did ) because I just thought I couldn’t do it or I wasn’t worth it .

Having a support system that cheered me on has been what has kept me going towards a better version of myself : my accountability group and my amazing partner were there to help me get up when I fell off the wagon .

Today I cheer for you ! Whatever it is that you thing you can’t do anymore or you can’t do better , I BELIEVE IN YOU AND I KNOW YOU WILL LOOK BACK AND THINK THAT IT WAS DEFINITELY TO GUVE IT ONE MORE TRY 🤪

Today is Sunday , or is it ? The last few weeks have been a blur and a mix set of emotions, anxiety and a lot of unknowns for everyone.

I found myself in the second week of March ( when the quarantine started ) going back into negative thoughts that would bring my mood down for days; I am sure I am not alone .

The old me a year ago would have ate her emotions away and then feel bad about it and eat some more .

This new version that I am working on decided to get up early 7 days a week to dedicate time to ME : workout, meal prep, meditate, read ( currently reading : Get out of your own way by Dave Hollis)

❤️

Thoughts are what we can control , and if you are telling yourself that bad things are true or that you won’t get far or won’t be able to do certain things , you best believe you won’t ! Because we are what we believe we are.

So here I leave you with what’s worked for me so far :

✅ knowledge how you are feeling ( sad, angry, anxious) this will release the energy that you are spending in those feeling a into working towards a positive mindset.

✅ interrogative self talk ( am I willing to chance my negative thoughts?
What’s the worse case scenario if( whatever you are thinking ) happens ?
How can I move into a better state of mind ?
This way you are working into the power solving areas of your brain. You are now able to counterattack the negative thoughts with curiosity instead of being afraid of them 🥰

Lastly but more important :
Positive affirmations ❤️but make sure that they are words you actually believe : I am working in myself and I will get better at loving myself. This way you will knowledge the fact that you are not there yet but you are taking necessary steps to achieve it.

Hi all:
Today I want to share with you some of what has worked for me so far in my journey , in hopes that it might resonate with you and perhaps you will decided to take that extra step ❤️

Writing down my WHY :
Often enough we believe that just by thinking about why we are working out , trying to eat better or any other goals will be enough for us to actually achieve it .
I know because I did , I was one of them and thanks to my amazing partner in life and his resilience to not leave me behind and push me to work at my full potential( not there yet) , one day I understood that until you physically see it on a piece of paper or a poster and read it many times a day, nothing would ever come to happen .

Here is my WHY :
1-MYSELF : because i wanted to look at my reflection in the mirror and not say to myself words that I would never say to anybody else ( I am sure we are all guilty of doing this )
2-MY Relationship: because if we aren’t both working on ourselves together to grow into better versions of us , then our family can’t survive ( it could but I would never put my kids thru living in a household where their parents are there but not together )
3-To be Happy : it’s one of the many things I have learned so far in this journey ; no one can do that for us, but only ourselves as we are the ones that can decided what it means to be happy 😊
4-For my kids - because they deserve happy parents and healthier ones , too because how can I keep with their insane amount of energy 😂and because they do what they see , not what we tell them to do . I want to be that role model for them .

I read these every day as part of my morning routine ❤️

Part 3
In 2017, after we moved back to Ottawa , Raffy was working on his own dreams and growing our business .
I felt left out and useless 😢yep , I went there .

I had so many negatives thoughts and so many bottled up feelings that made me justify to why’s I wasn’t taking care of me anymore .
I saw my life partner becoming the best version of himself and he tried to hard to get to go along with him , but I resented him at first and then avoided whatever “self development “ talk tried to get me into , until one day .

He sat me down and he gave me the hardest talk I have ever had in my life : he essentially told me that while he would go for me to the end of the world , he couldn’t do what I needed to do for myself , because I had to make that decision for ME .
He told me that if I wasn’t willing to take care of my mental health for me and our family , that in a few years in time , there wouldn’t be much left of us at all .

That was a wake up call ! And I just made the decision to put myself first so I can be a great Mom for my kids and be there whenever they need me ❤️

Part 2 ❤️😓😢🥰
After having my first son , I saw my body changed so much ( like it normally does ) and I started to go thru many mental challenges to accept the “new Me “ while being a first time mom( yeah, we all have been there after having kids )

I wanted to workout but I found every excuse to not follow thru with that thought of wanting to take care of myself . Until Raffy’s niece : Stephany introduced me to Insanity with Shaun T .

Let me tell you : I watched Steph complete one of ten workouts and I told her : you are out of your mind and I am out 😂

Raffy saw how much I was struggling with myself confidence and how much weight I had gained and encouraged me to give Insanity another try , plus Steph wouldn’t stop bugging me to work out with her .
So I did it , I worked out for a whole week 😂and then I gave up. I had all the excuses : new baby, lack of sleep and so on ...And then I found out we were expecting again , when Rafaelito was 10 months old so I gave up entirely .

After Marcos was born , a lot more had changed in our lives and now we lived in Gatineau in a very small apartment and I had to take care of two small humans instead of one 😳

I started looking into home workouts and I came across Beachbody .The fact that I didn’t have to think about daycare for my kids and I could take care of ME first from the comfort of my own home was very exciting so there it began my fitness journey with a Program called 21 Day FIX.

I had an amazing support group within the Beachbody community and my coaches Jamie & Kim Fitzpatrick Fitness and the fact that they were there daily to inspire me and cheer me on every day was one of the reasons why I kept going .

Once my Maternity leave was up , I went back to the retail world which was all I knew since I started working in Canada .

Long hours , not seeing my boys grow , commuting from Ottawa to Gatineau daily with two small kids , again , I had all the excuses to quit or to give up and just go with the flow .

Yes , I fell off the wagon many , many times and As I was just trying to keep up with work, being a mom and trying to take care of myself for my family .

Fast forward to 2017 , we moved back to Ottawa , to a place closer to my parents and a lot closer to my work , Yeih ! Right ? No more excuses ! 👎 nope , I kept them in my head because that’s all I could use to hide how I truly felt 😢

Part 3 coming 😎❤️

Hi all :
I have decided to create this page to keep myself accountable and to share my fitness and self development journey.
To highest desire I have for this page is that I bring value to those that decide to follow my journey, so here it goes: it’s quite a bit long, hope you don’t get too bored 🤪😂

My story for those who don’t know much about me:
I am 30 years old and I was born in Florida , Camagüey,Cuba 🇨🇺.

For the first 7 years of my life , I was raised by my paternal grandparents and my dad , and then my dad got married to the best woman I could ever have the blessing to call “ my mom” :Vivían and her entire family came into our lives to add more amazing humans that helped become the person I am today ❤️

I emigrated to Canada in 2008 soon after my parents and my siblings had arrive a few months before .

It was definitely a huge challenge for all of us, especially because we left behind our loved ones to look for a better future for ourselves.

I met the love of my life and father to my children in October 2008.

We welcomed our first son in 2013 and soon after , in 2015, we welcomed our second child into our lives ❤️
Part 2 coming soon 💪🏼😎❤️😀