Life is a crazy roller coaster ride. It has been a very long time since I have written anything. I am not one to make excuses in life, but I honestly lost all of my motivation about a year back. I was told I had herniated discs in my lumbar spine, a degenerative disc, bursitis in my right knee and bursitis in my left hip. Basically I was in an extreme amount of pain for a very long time and just recently have I been able to start training again. During these lowest moments in my life I had to force myself just to get out of bed and go to work. That was if I was even physically able to do so. From my decreased activity level my immune system became extremely weak and I became ill very often. In December, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, but the only way to help with that was to actually workout, although it was so painful to do so. I began physical therapy as well as psychological therapy just to get me through my days.  I finally came to realize I was being ridiculous and everything I had always preached to not be. There are many people out there that had it far worse than I. I needed to pick myself up and start living my life, instead of running from it. Back in December I started Pilates and yoga on top of my physical therapy. About 2 months ago I started back in the weight room. I am now going strong and have not had the chronic pain I had the previous year.  I have learned an enormous from the last year and the main thing being that life is short, pain is pain and sometimes you need to be stronger than your pain. You need to turn to your own faith (whatever it may be) to help you through challenges and ask for help because we cannot do everything on our own, regardless of how independent you are! Today I am better than I ever thought I would or could be. Stronger, not physically but mentally, more than ever! My life is not perfect, but I don’t sit around and complain about it, I look in the mirror everyday and ask myself, “What can I do today to be even better than I was yesterday?” I am literally living life to the fullest. I choose what I do with every moment of my life; I no longer allow others to do it for me. That is no way to ever live your life! The message here is this, life can suck really bad and sometimes it can suck for longer than a day or a month, but eventually the sun will rise and you will always be stronger, more beautiful, more happy, and more YOU than ever before! These challenges in life help shape you into the person you were always meant to be!

Thank you for reading,

Jessica Ryan Jordan