With Love, Ashley

Why hello there! You all look lovely :) My darling friend Rachel is still galavanting across Asia so she asked me to do a guest post on her blog. After I squealed with delight at the idea I then came to the sudden realization that I was going to have to write something funny, nay witty even, for a crowd of people that I don't even know! After the initial shock wore off I decided that I do that already on my own blog, I recovered fast,  and ...well...here we go. 

First of all, I would like to explain how Rachel and I know each other. It was a warm September day, just kidding, I actually have no recollection of the time of year, but before we became friends, I had known Rachel for many semesters. We were in the same major in college and we had a few classes together. I always thought her to be an incredibly well spoken, articulate, super hot, mucho talented person, but, there was an issue. She was friends with someone that I had an issue with. To use the word "issue" is to put it mildly, but I digress. A while later, I heard through the very gossipy grapevine that she and this toxic poisonous person were no longer friends. Let's just say, I didn't even hesitate. I pounced and snatched her up into my friendship net and we have been friends ever since. You guys, she has literally changed my life. I have very few friends who mean as much to me as Rachel does, I love her dearly and while she lives her fun adventures in D.C. I am 3,000 miles away missing her madly. Those of you who know her, I hope you feel as blessed as I feel. Those of you who get to see her regularly, *Devon*, I am more that jealous. She is a gem. 

Now enough of this mush, let's move on. 

I recently found this quote on Pinterest. You all know what Pinterest is right? I mean, you surely have been following Rachel's blog long enough to have read about her love affair with this website haven't you? Well if you haven't, Pinterest is AMAZEBALLS. It is a website where you have a virtual pinboard and you can post photos, recipes, DIY goals, ideas for homes, quotes, good books, etc, etc, etc. It is wonderful and if you are not on, you dang well should be. Back to the quote....

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I know recently Rachel posted about excuses, if you want something, truly, honestly, deep in your gut want something then there is no excuse. I felt like this went hand in hand with the post she had. We has individuals, as people, have so much potential. We have been given limitless opportunities to learn, grow, succeed, and really be amazing, we just have to be brave enough to take up the challenge. For myself, this quote applies to numerous aspects of my life. I am what some people like to call a "quitter", I will use that term loosely, but really it means that I tend to give up when the going gets rough. I will say that I want to run a marathon and then I will run a 10k and call it good. Well recently I determined that I was gonna kick the old, silly, quitter that resided in me to the curb. Peace out Ashley McQuitterson!

I started to push limits in my physical routine, and by that I mean good old exercise. Exercising was not always my strong suit. I would much rather be curled up on the sofa with my husband and a pint of Ben and Jerry's(Rachel and I are soulmates, are we not?).  I was starting to get a little, well, soft and squishy and I just simply couldn't take it anymore. So I started working out. 6 days a week. Every single time I went to the gym I swear I was pushing limits. It was either continuing the workout a few more minutes than I told myself I could, or participating in a dance based workout, when I am definitely NOT a dancer, or just getting up off of the couch and going. Somedays it was so hard to get the motivation to go through with it, but 4 months later, I am 24.7 lbs lighter. You guys! Limits were pushed, sometimes I cried, ok a lot of times I cried, sometimes I was mad, sometimes I struggled and felt like I was acting a fool, but success came because I willed myself a little bit further each time. So that moral of that story is basically:

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No matter what your limits are, no matter what you want to do, what you dream about, you CAN do it. Stop dreaming and start doing. It's up to all of us to achieve our dreams, and we have no one to blame but ourselves if our dreams fall short. So keep dreaming, dream hard, dream amazing, seemingly unattainable dreams, and then go conquer those dreams. Do it for you, because you deserve to have your dreams come true. :)

Hugs