In the Raw

Hi! My name is Kelley. I am a thirty-four year old mother of two wonderful children. My daughter, June, will be four in March and my son Tommy was just born in November of last year. They are the fuel of this blog, my amazing husband too of course. I am new to blogging and I actually have never even had a social media page, except for MySpace back in the day. I figure go big or go home, right! I have always envied mom blogs and never thought I could do it, but here I am, giving it a go! My 2.5 month old son is literally sitting in my lap as a write this. This just seems right! I want to include my ups and downs as a mom as well as suggestions to my readers in regards to Mom Life, Traveling with children, Feeding children and properly fueling the Mother’s mind, body and soul in regards to health, fitness and spirituality.

My inspiration of this blog also came from my passion for health and fitness. When I had my daughter I was in okay shape, but I let myself go after she was born. In 2020 I got myself into shape and lost about 35 pounds and was in the best shape of my life. I got really into running, HIIT workouts and of course eating healthy. Then I got pregnant with my son in 2021. I continued to stay in great shape all through my pregnancy. I was literally doing burpees until 8 months pregnant (obviously not lowering all the way down to my belly). I went to the gym up until the day before my scheduled c-section. But, you get the point… I’m kind of addicted to staying fit and I didn’t want to get out of shape because of pregnancy. The six week recovery period after the surgery was brutal! I mean it wasn’t that bad because I was spending every waking hour with my beautiful baby boy, but working out is my idea of self care and brought me serenity so I really missed it. I did not know how OUT OF SHAPE you can get in just 6 weeks. Before I was pregnant I was running 8:00 miles, my first run back I did 11:00 miles. I literally thought my running app was broken! I also could not even make it through 50 seconds of sumo squats, which was a cinch to me, even when I was pregnant. Yikes! I legit wanted to give up. But, I didn’t and I am not going to. Instead I am going to blog about it. I am going to track my journey of getting back into shape and reach my goal! I will share my workouts every day as well as my eating habits in order to reach my goal. I want to give moms motivation to get back in shape after childbirth. Yes, it’s hard, but it’s possible!

Another fun fact about me is I am a sober mom. My sobriety date is February 16, 2020. Up until this date I was in a very dark place. After I had my daughter, I was very overwhelmed; not to the point of postpartum depression, just the new mom feels of anxiety and stress. I had always been a heavy drinker, working in the restaurant business through high school, college and after. After I had my daughter, my drinking picked up right where it left off and got worse after she turned one. I ended up checking into rehab and that was the day my life had changed forever. It was a transformation of mind, body and soul that I needed in my life. I was able to tap into a spiritual side of myself that never existed before and in entered a Higher Power that will now guide me through life. This turning point pushed my focus to #1 Being the best wife and mother I could be, #2 Staying fit and healthy, #3 Inviting spirituality into my life through prayer and meditation, #4 Being of service.

I am so excited to share my journey with you, stay tuned!