#relentlesslybeautiful

I broke up with short term fitness goals and got into a long term relationship with my body and myself. And you wanna know what I learned? That no matter what my size is, my weight, my BF% I am loved and worthy of love and belonging. #bodydiversity - At one point in my life I was 34% BF and in a little over a year I got down to 14% just before I stepped on stage for my first competition. (swipe to see more) That year was crazy and it was a year I tested my myself physically and mentally. I was so focused on fitness and mastering the tools I needed to fight my depression (healthy eating and exercising). These days I’m more focused on loving my whole self as a whole rather than focusing on improving my physical self. Yes, fitness took a back burner, but my well-being was always first. I was just too high off endorphins at the time to realize that my wellness was more than just what I ate and how I exercised. ✨🌙 Fitness is the physical part: nutrition, strength, performance, body composition. Where as wellness is all encompassing mind, body, soul, and all the other parts in our life that make us live a better life. 🌙✨ Society might look at me and say “you need to tighten up, lose more weight, and do more with your workouts”. But that’s a societal value. ✨I value my body that has birthed two daughters, my mid section that has stretched to house two growing humans, and has shrunk to a size I’ve never seen in my life. But most importantly I value my most authentic self, a woman who is perfectly imperfect. I’m a woman who can be messy and beautiful at the same time.✨ - This week take a good look at your whole self and acknowledge the greatness that can’t be found in a dress size, body fat percentage, or number on the scale. You are a #relentlesslybeautiful soul, let the world see how brightly you shine. 😘 (at San Francisco, California)

Does ‘happiness’ ever feel fluffy or unattainable? When I started this account my profile read “An everyday woman on a journey for health and happiness one rep at a time.” Just like most of you I followed women who were my fitspiration, had the body type I wanted, the work ethic I admired. I would look at them and think “I want THAT!” I quickly realized I was not them and they were not me and some were not showing parts of their story that I so desperately craved to see. ✨TRUTH: REAL JOY is embracing all of you✨ the good, the bad, the ugly, the unsexy parts that are often dismissed and not shared to the public eye. But that’s not me, that’s never been me. I’m a woman who struggles to get up every day to go to the gym. I’m a woman who chooses to eat pizza for dinner from time to time instead of my prepped meals. I’m a woman who will not always feel beautiful in her own skin. I’m a mother who occasionally finds her self yelling at her kids and then cries at night feeling like she’s the worst mom in the world. I’m a wife who sometimes puts her husband last on her list of priorities. I am NOT perfect, we are not perfect and that is a beautiful thing. Because true joy is learning how to lean in and love your whole self, all your flaws, and mistakes. True joy is looking at all those shortcomings embracing it and still moving forward with a smile because life is a beautiful mess. This is #relentlesslybeautiful this is #relentless living. #gofitjo (at 24 Hour Fitness - Pleasanton Willow, CA)

Kiss your own fingertips and hug your own curves. You are made of waves and honey and spiced peppers when necessary. YOU ARE A GODDESS, I hope you haven’t forgotten. - words by Emery Allen 〰️ How long have you been at war with your body? How many years have you been trying so desperately to learn how to love your most authentic self? ✨I know how hard the journey is, I’ve been there and I’m still on this road. But I’ve learned that the first step to loving myself is to stop seeing myself as broken parts and to start seeing my SELF as whole. The moment you can open your eyes to the greatness that you are, you’ll see that the things you were trying to fix were never broken in the first place. They were just parts of your story. #selfloveisthebestlove #youareenough #relentlesslybeautiful #mytinycorner (at San Francisco, California)

“I’ll love myself when __________.” 〰️ Oh darling, ✨LOVE YOURSELF NOW✨ Because as fast as we’re learning to accept ourselves, society will always continue to invent new things to hate. #relentlesslybeautiful #lafemmeforte #selflove 〰️ 📸 by @tonhyakae for #lafemmeforte mua: @gaylinyet (at Oakland, California)

It’s the last day of the year and we’ve talked so much about what we’re leaving behind, the lessons learned over the past 365 days, the pain, the joy, and all the goals we’re looking forward to in 2018, but the one thing we haven’t spoken much about is ✨what or how we’re going to give in 2018.✨ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Dear 2018, I promise to give you all of me: the good, the bad, the raw, and all the authentic sides of my soul. ⚡️I promise to give others space to grow to help them see the potential that I see in them.⚡️ I promise to use my words to spread kindness and truth. I promise to give it my all despite my fears. Fear of not being enough, fear of not being heard, fear that my words might hurt, and fear of failure. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Over the next 365 days I’m giving more gratitude. 💫I will do anything I can to empower those around me, especially young women like my daughters. To help them see love and beauty in the smallest most mundane things in life.💫 I’ll try my best to not procrastinate in my creativity, in telling the people I care about that I love them, and in sharing my heart with others. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Most importantly I’m going to give less fucks about the things that don’t matter 🤷🏽‍♀️ and give more to the things that do. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ✨Your greatness is not what you have, what you can achieve, it’s what you can give.✨ Let’s not forget that heading into the new year. And if you forget its ok, we’ve got #365days to remind one another. ✨What are you giving in 2018? ✨ #letsdothis - pc 📸: @tonhyakae #relentlesslybeautiful #hello2018 #betterthanyesterdaystrongerfortomorrow #bettertogether #strongertogether #theartofslowliving #thatsdarling #darlingdaily #tellon #theauthenticwoman #unapologeticallyme #lafemmeforte #happynewyear2018 (at San Francisco, California)

It’s the last day of the year and we’ve talked so much about what we’re leaving behind, the lessons learned over the past 365 days, the pain, the joy, and all the goals we’re looking forward to in 2018, but the one thing we haven’t spoken much about is ✨what or how we’re going to give in 2018.✨ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Dear 2018, I promise to give you all of me: the good, the bad, the raw, and all the authentic sides of my soul. ⚡️I promise to give others space to grow to help them see the potential that I see in them.⚡️ I promise to use my words to spread kindness and truth. I promise not to give it my all despite my fears. Fear of not being enough, fear of not being heard, fear that my words might hurt, and fear of failure. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Over the next 365 days I’m giving more gratitude. 💫I will do anything I can to empower those around me, especially young women like my daughters. To help them see love and beauty in the smallest most mundane things in life.💫 I’ll try my best to not procrastinate in my creativity, in telling the people I care about that I love them, and in sharing my heart with others. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Most importantly I’m going to give less fucks about the things that don’t matter 🤷🏽‍♀️ and give more to the things that do. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ✨Your greatness is not what you have, what you can achieve, it’s what you can give.✨ Let’s not forget that heading into the new year. And if you forget its ok, we’ve got #365days to remind one another. ✨What are you giving in 2018? ✨ #letsdothis - pc 📸: @tonhyakae #relentlesslybeautiful #hello2018 #betterthanyesterdaystrongerfortomorrow #bettertogether #strongertogether #theartofslowliving #thatsdarling #darlingdaily #tellon #theauthenticwoman #unapologeticallyme #lafemmeforte #happynewyear2018 (at San Francisco, California)

It’s easy to love yourself when your body is changing in the direction that society deems “best”. @positively.megan you said it best. 🙌🏾 I love having goals. I’m a results driven person and having goals allows me to feel like I’m moving forward and when I don’t feel like myself. Self-love, when losing weight or making progress towards a certain aesthetic goal, is easy to talk about. 🤔 But what happens when you stop making that progress and when your body no longer fits the mold that society deems you to be “fit”. What happens when your beautiful body starts to hang out comfortable over your pants, can you love yourself then? Self-love seemed to be the number one term tossed around all of 2017 but do we really know what it means? ⚡️ #selflove involves treating yourself with the same compassion, kindness, concern and support you would show a good friend. When faced with difficult life struggles, mistakes, and failures its responding with kindness rather than harsh self-judgement.⚡️ I exercised that to the fullest this year and some days was a harder practice for me and other days I was a warrior armed with self-love and grace. - When I started this #fitnessjourney, my intention was to become a healthier and happier version of myself. However for a period of time my training was no longer for me, it was to keep up and maintain a certain body image and the pressure I placed on myself to keep this up became all consuming. It started to become aesthetic driven (the opposite of why I started this journey) and that’s 💯 OK…it happens to the best of us. We learn, we grow, and we evolve and become better versions of ourselves because of these lessons. They mold me into who I am today. - ✨Accepting my body for where it is today and creating harmony in my beautiful messy life is my biggest goal of next year.✨ Reconnecting with my creative side in the kitchen, eating more plant based meals, and getting outside more are also on top of the list! I’m leaving 2017 extremely grateful for the truths it’s shown me and 🎉 walking into 2018 feeling powerful beyond measure. 👊🏾 || read more about my 2018 goals on www.gofitjo.com #gofitjo #relentlesslybeautiful (at San Francisco, California)

It’s easy to love yourself when your body is changing in the direction that society deems “best”. @positively.megan you said it best. 🙌🏾 I love having goals. I’m a results driven person and having goals allows me to feel like I’m moving forward and when I don’t feel like myself. Self-love, when losing weight or making progress towards a certain aesthetic goal, is easy to talk about. 🤔 But what happens when you stop making that progress and when your body no longer fits the mold that society deems you to be “fit”. What happens when your beautiful body starts to hang out comfortable over your pants, can you love yourself then? Self-love seemed to be the number one term tossed around all of 2017 but do we really know what it means? ⚡️ #selflove involves treating yourself with the same compassion, kindness, concern and support you would show a good friend. When faced with difficult life struggles, mistakes, and failures its responding with kindness rather than harsh self-judgement.⚡️ I exercised that to the fullest this year and some days was a harder practice for me and other days I was a warrior armed with self-love and grace. - When I started this #fitnessjourney, my intention was to become a healthier and happier version of myself. However for a period of time my training was no longer for me, it was to keep up and maintain a certain body image and the pressure I placed on myself to keep this up became all consuming. It started to become aesthetic driven (the opposite of why I started this journey) and that’s 💯 OK…it happens to the best of us. We learn, we grow, and we evolve and better versions of ourselves because of these lessons. They mold me into who I am today. - ✨Accepting my body for where it is today and creating harmony in my beautiful messy life is my biggest goal of next year.✨ Reconnecting with my creative side in the kitchen, eating more plant based meals, and getting outside more are also on top of the list! I’m leaving 2017 extremely grateful for the truths it’s shown me and 🎉 walking into 2018 feeling powerful beyond measure. 👊🏾 || read more about my 2018 goals on www.gofitjo.com #gofitjo #relentlesslybeautiful (at San Francisco, California)