Thick Faith - Even Through Thin

Hey there! A few things have have happened since I last wrote to you guys: I signed with a team called Pays d'Aix Venelles, a professional volleyball club in France, I survived being in a house with 6 other crazy Italians for a whole month and a half due to COVID-19, and I got married!! :) sooo many blessings in one sentence.

The pandemic has really taught me the weight and importance of small gestures that are, in fact, not small AT ALL. Every text, call, message, and letter just means so much. I really was so surprised by the amount of love being exchanged while everyone was separated and it was just so amazing to see.

The biggest lesson I learned during COVID:

Spending so much time with my amazing husband has taught me so much about making sure people know how special they are to you.

Daniel and I would be talking and he would bring up a funny story about an old friend he used to spend a lot of time with. After our conversation, sometimes even during, he will literally pick up his phone and text them. Not anything crazy, just something like, "Hey man! It's been too long, how have you been?" This has always amazed me and has made me realize how many amazing people I have in my life. Just a small text can mean the world!

Our ministry, called the Huios (mature sons of God) has been such a huge blessing to us. We have been able to really dive into the word during pre-marital counseling, bible studies, and small group sessions. Getting deep into who I am through Jesus and what He says about me as His child has brought me to a place where nothing can steal my joy. I have eternal joy because I was eternally loved when I wasn't even born yet. What a story that is. Please reach out if you need help with this in your life! I am all ears!

The pandemic has really taught me the importance of working hard no matter what the future holds. When everything started in early March, I wasn't signed to a team. There was a very high possibility that international volleyball would not exist for at least this next season. I could have given up, stopped training, and waited for the worst possible situation to happen. Instead, I have been grinding.

I train almost every day, aiming for one rest day a week (lots of stretching). For a lot of those days, I DID NOT HAVE A GYM TO WORKOUT IN! I did a ton of home workouts (Daniel (professional athlete performance trainer) and I created a training program available for anyone wanting to get some solid strength and mobility work in! dm me for details!) and used what I had to really stay on track and ahead of the training curve of most other professional athletes.

Now, sometimes I have a gym and sometimes I don't. Regardless, I am still maintaining my 6 day/week training regimen with some hard work and creativity!

THE GYMLESS WORKOUT I HAD FOR TODAY:

• 1 min plank

• 15 squats (if you have a bosu ball, use that for added balance work)

• 30 sec side plank (lift your upper leg and arm for added difficulty)

• 15 sec Single leg squat hold (reach in different directions with other leg)

• 10 burpees with jump (jump high!)

• 30 yard sprint x 6 (about 20 powerful steps) (find a hill for difficulty)

• 6 ROUNDS! (took me an hour and 18 minutes! Beat my time!)

If you want to try the workout, post a story of you killing it and tag me so I can repost it! ;)

Food has also been a huge factor in my training. I mix it up a lot because a lot of performance people get so boring with their nutrition... Broccoli, white rice, chicken on REPEAT! Definitely not about that life.

I do, however, eat extremely clean and fill my days with tons of nutrients!

Here are a couple nutrition tips for you that I follow:

1. If I'm going to eat bread, pasta, or any wheat snacks, I try to have EVERYTHING be WHOLE WHEAT! Don't get tricked, some things say "enriched wheat flour" and stuff like that. Anything besides whole wheat involves someone taking nutritious parts of wheat out and leaving you with slightly empty calories.

2. I am obsessed with fruit and try to have most of my carbs come from fruits and veggies. I LOVE: watermelon, cherries, strawberries, apples, peaches, raspberries, blueberries, oranges, pears, etc. I probably eat enough fruit per day to cover 5 whole recommended daily servings for a human being, and I'm not sorry about it hehe I also love filling myself up at dinner with high quality protein and lots of veggies! My favorite way to prepare them is to just throw some huge veggie chunks in a medium pot, throw sone water in there, and boil the heck outta them until they're soft :) veggies for dayzzzzz

3. I really stay away from added sugars and oils. Even the peanut butter I use has 100% peanuts as the whole ingredient list. That's it! Not saying this is how everyone should live, but I absolutely love the challenge and reward of eating foods the way God meant for them to be eaten!

4. Don't overthink deviation. Sometimes I eat 5 whole spoonfuls of almond butter or like literally half a watermelon in one sitting. So what, my body was HUNGRY. As long as I'm eating for the right reasons and not because I'm bored, I let myself eat.

5. DRINK TONS OF WATER! This has helped me exponentially! A lot of times I'm not hungry at all, just super thirsty! If I just ate and I'm feeling oddly hungry again, instead of grabbing something else, I try to grab my water bottle and chug some water. You would be amazed at how often you're just kinda thirsty and your body wants water.

There ya have it! That's how I've been prepping my body for the last couple months! I feel the strongest I've ever felt and I feel as though I have more endurance than I ever have, even during volleyball season! Crazy what consistency in training and eating can do.

UPDATE ON FRANCE:

As of right now, I am awaiting a call to schedule my appointment for a visa to go over and start the season. They are starting training the 10th of August, so I really want to be there by then. If I'm not, I could risk losing my contract with this team. I will do everything I can to get over there, but some things are out of your control. Until I know for sure that I can't get over, I know for sure that I can. I will keep training and it will be as though I am going to the olympics!