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Liz is hosting a fearless link up. It isn’t just a today thing, you can link your story up at any time. You see, Liz is one of the most motivational bloggers I know. She keeps it real, shares her struggles, her victories, and her story with the interwebz day in and day out. She stays true to herself and has so much passion and drive. To me, she screams fearless.

I knew I had to link up, but to be honest, I didn’t think the word fearless described me at all. In fact, fear tends to hold me back sometimes. Fear of failure, even fear of success are very real to me.

But then I started thinking, and I am fearless in some ways. As a blogger, aren’t we all a little fearless? Coming here every day and sharing our lives with the world wide web. We tell stories, we laugh, we have our serious moments. We are completely vulnerable to criticism and mean comments.

If I hadn’t started blogging, I wouldn’t have “met” all of you amazing people! I interact more with my blogging friends than I do my IRL friends! And you know what, some of my blogging friends are becoming my IRL friends!!! I have overcome some of my social anxiety and have actually met a few wonderful people in person!

Then I got to thinking more. When Chris and I started dating, he lived in Birmingham and I lived in Atlanta. After one month, we were engaged and I made the decision to find a job in Birmingham and move. Some people might have thought that was crazy talk, but the fear of taking the chance was squashed by love and the hope for true happiness. If I weren’t fearless in that situation, I would never have found true love.

Then there is this journey that I am on to be the healthiest me that I can be. For months I would say that as soon as this happens or as soon as we get some exercise equipment in the house, I would start working out. It was always something in the future. The truth is, you don’t need anything to work out. Just open your front door and get moving. Get down on the ground and do some crunches. Do what you have to do. Hell, Meighan picked up cans of squash and started lifting weights the other day. The thing was, I was afraid to start.

What if I started and didn’t see results? What if I gave up and quit? What if someone saw me struggling during the work out? There were so many thoughts that flooded my mind that it crippled me from starting. One day I woke up and said enough!!!! I can’t keep wishing for something to be to actually happen if I don’t actually put the work in. I got up the very next morning and started the Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred. A program that I had started and quit two times before.

I just did it. I woke up every morning and did the work outs. I hated every minute of it, but I felt so proud when 6:00am rolled around and I had already had my work out in for the day. Once I finished that program, I moved on to RIPPED in 30, then T25 and today I started the last phase of Body Beast. I can’t believe that a year later I am still waking up every morning during the week at 4:30am and working out. That I am seeing definition in my arms, my back and my legs that I haven’t seen since college. That I am getting stronger every day. That I cut the entire back yard last weekend without struggle. I can’t believe that I joke around with Kathy and a few others in “bro talk.” I am freaking lifting weights every morning. Who am I?

That my friends, is what fearless means to me. To be able to do something that you didn’t think was possible. To overcome the fear and doubt that you have and put your heart in to it. Am I completely fearless? Hell no. But you know what, it is a start. I have determination my friends. I have the drive to want everything that I could dream of. I think if we take baby steps, we can do anything that we dreamed we can.

Now that I am fearless in love and on my journey to be healthy….I hope that I can channel that into other aspects of my life. I have dreams my friend, and I am going to over come the fear and make it realty!

If you need some inspiration in your life, or want to read some motivational stories, go hop over to Liz’s Fearless page. I have a feeling that we are going to read some incredible stories today.

Whale, Whale, Whale (spelling is correct, look below) what do we have here!? Apparently it is time to link up with Kathy and spill all of the secrets.

–Whale Whale Whale is one of my favorite memes ever. I can’t help it. The first time I saw it, my husband had sent it to me and I couldn’t stop laughing. It makes me smile every time!

–I told you guys last week I get on a food kick, and right now it is peaches. I have been snacking on peaches like crazy business. I can’t eat a peach without singing the peaches song though!!!! Please tell me you know the song!!! (I am not talking about Peaches and Cream by 112, as good of a song as that is.) I am speaking of Presidents of the USA Peaches.

Millions of peaches, peaches for me. Millions of peaches, peaches for free. You know it is stuck in your head now!!!!

–Speaking of Peaches and Cream by 112, I was senior in high school when that song came out. I had no clue what it meant and sang those lyrics loud and proud all the time. It is crazy to look back on songs that I used to sing along to when I was younger and had no clue the meanings. Just a young, naive Nadine. What did my parents think? Probably that I was an idiot. Ignorance is bliss.

–It made me feel really good last week when I admitted that I had to Google what turn down for what meant…and all of you had no clue either!

–I was getting dressed Monday morning and i thought to myself, this outfit would look so cute with my nude Michael Korrs wedges! I put them on and looked in the bathroom mirror. These wedges are like 4 or 5 inches tall. I said to myself out loud, of course, “Nadine who are you kidding…these shoes are going to have you cursing yourself in about an hour…go get the fancy flip flops and stop pretending you care.” I listened to myself, thank God.

–I am way to exciting and impatient every week for Pretty Little Liars. Why must I like that show?!?! It is absolutely ridiculous and we never get any damn answers!!!

Confessions in ecards:

We all have our happy place. The place where all is right in the world. The place where you can clear your mind and just enjoy life. The place that brings a smile to your face. The place whose beauty you never take for granted. For me, that place is the beach.

Atlantic Ocean, Georgia

Growing up in Pennsylvania with not a lot of money to take big vacations, the beach was just a place I saw on TV or in pictures from my friends. The ocean was just a picture, the sound of waves something I only heard when I put my ear up to this huge shell my grandmother had at her house. The first time I ever saw the ocean was when I was in high school, after we moved to Georgia where the ocean was about five hours away.

My first experience was at Savannah and Tybee Island.

My mom, sister and I(me in the pink.) Savannah, GA

I will never forget the first time I stepped out onto the beach and felt my sad under my feet as I walked towards the waves crashing in. It sounds cliche, like the song, but it is amazing how small you feel standing next to the ocean. How truly beautiful and amazing it all really is.

I fell in love with the beach and the ocean on that trip, and my love for it has only grown stronger over the years. There have been several beach trips since then. My mom and I took a trip to Orange Beach on summer when I was in college, just the two of us. We had such an amazing time. I remember laying on the beach with her, dreaming about how one day we wanted to own one of the houses down there and we could visit as often as we liked.

One summer, I went to Destin and Panama City with some friends. We spent all of our days beach side and all of our nights scoping out the cool restaurants in the area, listening to Matt Nathanson in the car as we drove around. Every time I hear a song off that album, I am instantly calmed by thoughts of the beach.

Perfecting beach selfies before selfies were a thing.

Chris and I try to visit Gulf Shores Alabama every summer….at least once.

Yup. The beach is my happy place. I love to just get away for a few days, hear the waves crashing in, watch the sun rise, and sit in the pool and think about absolutely nothing,

Where is your happy place?

Somehow we are back at Monday already. Is it just me, or is this summer flying by? Oh wait…it isn’t even really “summer” quite yet. My bad.

Friday – I met with my Friday Lunch Club, we decided to go to Which Which, can’t really go wrong with a sandwich…ya know? After work, Chris broadcasted live from our basement, so I spent the evening cleaning house whilst dancing around to his tunes.

Saturday – We tackled the jungle backyard. All that rain we have had over the last two weeks really got things growing back there. I am pretty sure the grass was like a foot tall. I learned that I am in better shape than I thought I was, which is always nice. Usually it is the other way around for me. Last summer when I cut the backyard, I was out of breath pretty quickly, but I was totally fine back there. It wasn’t til I hit the side yard that I had an asthma attack….which was due to my allergies and had nothing to do with the physical labor. So yay for non scale victories!

After all that labor in the hot sun, we headed down town to meet up with some of our friends for a well deserved beer! We met up at On Tap, and I ordered the Fox Barrel Blackberry Pear Cider and some Irish nachos. It was delish!

Our friends had to head back to Huntsville after awhile, so Chris and I went to World of Beer and chilled on their patio for a bit. We made friends with some soccer fans. (I dont really give two shits about soccer, sorry NOT sorry.) And one of my new favorite summer brews, Tim Tab Raspberry happened to be the beer of the month. Score!!! Our WOB finally opened their kitchen, so Chris and I snacked on their shrimp appetizer. I thought I didn’t like shrimp, but Chris informed me I do like shrimp…just good shrimp. Theirs was DELICIOUS and I know it will become our staple when we need a snack there!

Sunday – I meal planned and grocery shopped, then came home and made this salad for lunch with kale and broccoli slaw. It was so good!

I learned that you have to watch your water glass, or you will be sharing with Olivia.

And that Olivia is well aware of what our Sundays usually look like:

And so went another weekend! What did you do this weekend? I hope everyone has a great week!

Favorite Song:I spend way too much time picking my song every week. There is just so much awesomeness that it is hard to pick just one! Yesterday I listened to Baby Bash on my way to work and it reminded me of UWG and torturing Jamie and Justin into listening to the song over, and over and over again!

Favorite Purchase: Bracelets for 75% off! When I was shopping with my mom last weekend, we stopped in Private Gallery. I love looking around in there because they have such a great selection of jewelry as well as some cute clothes from time to time. They were having a 75% off sale on a lot of accessories and I found these two bracelets! Combined, I spent $10! The gold one alone was $24 full price, so getting both for $10 was a huge win for me!

Favorite Olivia pictures: Chris downloaded a cat app on his iPad that has interactive fish swimming around. Livy was so freaking adorable trying to catch the fish on the iPad!!! Favorite Funnies:       Go link up with the ever fabulous Amanda and tell me some of your favorites!!!