Brooke Tucker Photography Blog

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on here.  I’m not quite sure why that is but if you’ve been keeping up with me on instagram (kbrooketucker) you know that back in January I decided to join my friend Alli’s virtual gym and start a beachbody program called 80 day obsession.  To be honest, I wasn’t sure WHAT was going to happen.  I had no expectations going in back in January because I wasn’t truly a “fan” of beachbody.  I had tried Insanity when Tuck was deployed a few years back and that was, for lack of a better word… insane!

But in January, I knew I needed to do something different.  I was recently diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and I had noticed some things about myself that needed to change.  I wanted to be able to carry my son who is 5 up the stairs to bed without pain.  I wanted to be able to carry him around the Disney parks without having to put him down after 10 minutes.  I wanted to be able to carry him for as long as he will LET ME!  As it stood back in January, I could barely muster up the strength to hold him for any length of time and he’s kind of a little guy for a 5 year old.  I also knew that I wanted to make sure that I could keep up with him on the weekends for a very long time.  Linc is ACTIVE!   Our weekends are filled with sports and activities and I need to be able to keep up my stamina so I can just PLAY with him.  I knew if I didn’t change what I was doing, I wouldn’t be able to continue playing with him at his level for very much longer.

So in January, I said YES.  What’s funny is that I had no idea what exactly I was saying yes to!  I didn’t truly realize how much I was going to gain from this simple “yes.” I know to some of you all this will sound silly.  It will sound crazy even, but the honest truth is that I was just in the right place at the right time and in the right frame of mind for this to “all work.”  Sometimes that is all it takes!

I changed my life by saying YES.  I decided to join a virtual gym and do a program called 80 Day Obsession but what really happened is I agreed to SHOW UP FOR MYSELF!  That’s the power and the truth behind why this transformed my life so much.  I learned and am still in the process of learning so many amazing things because I decided that I WAS WORTH IT and my FAMILY WAS WORTH IT and I MADE A COMMITMENT and I am seeing it through!

Today, I wanted to share with you some of the pretty amazing things I have learned on my journey so far because they have been so life changing for me and for my little family of 3.  They have taken me from a mom who back in January (which wasn’t that long ago) was exhausted all the time, sick from migraines and other things, and pretty frazzled to a mom who is excited and energized and providing a LIFE GIVING home and environment for those I love!  I used to be a mom who just wanted to be lazy and watch TV to a mom who has her life together and is excited to do “all the things” and I’m not talking task after task, I’m talking actually living my life present in the moment.

Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

1. Fill Your Cup So You Can Fill Other’s!  You deserve to fill your cup!  As mother’s we spend so much time pouring into the cups of those we love and sometimes our cups run dry, but guess what… we can’t pour from an empty cup!  We absolutely HAVE to fill our cups each and every day in order to pour into other’s!  This begins in the morning right when we wake up!  We need to take a few moments to set our intentions and speak kindly to ourselves.  We need to breathe deeply and take a few moments of peace so we can go into the day without feeling behind, rushed or “lacking.”  Our cups need to be filled first thing in the morning so we aren’t trying to rush around and fill our kids cups and our husbands cups before they go off to work and school when ours are already bone dry.  This is why I have come to LOVE the Miracle Morning!  It can take as long as 5 minutes or 60 minutes depending on when you DECIDE to wake up;  but this fills my cup so much that I am able to come downstairs with a full and happy heart and spread that joy and love to my family!  I’ve noticed that whenever I do a miracle morning before I come down the stairs to start the day, breakfast runs smoother and the mood feels calmer!  I have a lot more patience and that trickles down to the rest of the family!
2. Actions Of Gratitude:  Often we hear that we need to practice an attitude of gratitude and that’s great but to be truthful, gratitude needs to be actively practiced as a daily habit!  Gratitude is more than just a feeling, it’s something you actively seek out as much as you can and when you can do that it will bring you a sense of peace!  My favorite way to do this is something I learned from reading The Positive Dog.  I like to change my “Have To’s” into “Able To’s” .  I first started this with workouts!  I hate cardio.  I’ve always struggled with cardio because I have asthma and it takes me forever and a day to build up the stamina to feel like I can breathe during cardio workouts.  The first couple weeks of cardio core had me in tears and I could never finish it.  I would let the program beat me every time and I felt miserable.  Then I read the Positive Dog and I realized it wasn’t about the program or my asthma even.  It was my attitude going in to the workout that was harming me.  Once I started to practice gratitude and start waking up on the days we had cardio core and instead of saying UGH I have to do this horrible workout again, practice saying over and over (out loud) I GET to do this workout because I have an amazing body that is strong and healthy enough today, my mindset shifted and I was able to get through the workout with excitement.  A really great playlist helped too!  I also started to do this when it came time to pick up Linc.  Linc goes to school in another part of town and driving him to and from is kind of a pain.  The traffic is horrible and it makes me nervous.  I catch myself all the time saying ugh time to get in the car and pick up Linc.  Sometimes we sit in the car an hour there and an hour back.  Now I am a little sad at the way I used to think.  Now I say to myself, wow we chose this school for Linc and how amazing is it that we are ABLE to chose the school that is right for him.  How great is it that I GET to pick up my son when just 5 years ago I was praying for him!  I get to pick him up and then we get to play and I know it won’t always be like this!  I’m grateful for this time we have right now!  It’s little changes like this, actions of gratitude that can totally rock your world and change you from a negative mindset to a positive mindset.  It can take you from feeling really crummy to feeling really amazing in just a few seconds!
3. You Can Do Hard Things! If there’s one take away from the trainer Autumn Calabrese in 80 Day Obsession, it’s this phrase and this mantra:  You Can Do Hard Things!  It’s amazing what the human body can do but even more, what the MIND can do! You can do absolutely anything you tell yourself you can do as long as you BELIEVE IT!  If you start focusing on what is right in front of you, not what’s ahead, not what is behind but what you are doing right now in this moment to achieve your goals… you can do absolutely anything!  What you think is hard today, won’t be so hard tomorrow!
4. Personal Development Is Everything!  We are constantly changing and growing things in our lives.  We strive to get better every day but the one thing we often forget to develop or grow is our mind!  We tell ourselves we just don’t have the time because we have so many other responsibilities, but here’s the truth:  if you aren’t changing and getting better than you are stagnant!  You can take 5 minutes out of your day to read.  You can listen to a book on your way to work in the car or on your way home or during your workout.  Don’t like books, listen to a podcast!  None of those work for you, log on to spotify and find a playlist of motivational speeches!  There are a million ways to learn new things and to better yourself!  We are always trying to “get better things” but why not try to BE better people!  “Strong Mind, Strong Life”
5. Never Give Up:  Don’t stop!  Don’t stop at ANYTHING!  Press pause if you have to during a workout, but finish the reps.  Take a breather or a break if you feel pulled and pushed down by the pressure of comparison but once you reconnect with YOUR WHY come back to your passion with a renewed sense of fury.  Don’t give up!  Don’t quit.  When you give up and quit, you only give up on yourself!  It doesn’t hurt anyone except for you.  There are a million ways to succeed but only one way to fail and that’s to GIVE UP.  There’s no shame in failing, just get back up and try again.  There’s no shame in having to figure out a new way or taking a break or modifying!  As long as you KEEP GOING!  PRESS PLAY, GO FOR IT, KEEP MOVING FORWARD TOWARDS YOUR GOAL!
6. Take Action:  Someone once told me that the difference between a DREAM and a FAIRYTALE is only one simple thing… action!  You can do absolutely anything, ALL THINGS EVEN, as long as you are willing to take MASSIVE ACTION.  The people that you see that you deem are most successful in this life are that way because they took massive action.  They didn’t just wake up and have success.  Nope!  They took massive action and had massive failures time and time again!  They continued to press forward never giving up.  So many times people told them NO or shut doors in their faces but they refused to give in and kept taking ACTION.  They continued to put one foot in front of the other and go again and again and again.  They got up every time they fell down and found another way.  Massive action produces massive results.  It doesn’t have to be BIG to be massive, it just has to be consistent!
7. Trust The Process: This is a big one for me and I’m still struggling to come to terms with it.  This one leaves you so vulnerable because you have to step outside of your control and let’s face it, we all love control.  When you start something big, you have to have FAITH that by doing the steps, taking action and following through it will bring you closer to your goals.  You have to trust in the process and ultimately have faith in yourself.  You have to make that commitment that NO MATTER WHAT, I will stay the course.  I will stick with this EVEN IF I don’t see results right away.  I grapple with this on a daily basis.  When I find myself struggling to trust, I just go back and remember my WHY, which bring me to…
8. Have A Strong WHY: Before you set out to do anything, find your WHY that drives you.  Why do you want to do this?  What drives you to accomplish this specific goal?  What will you GAIN from doing this and really truly think about what you want to gain.  I wanted to gain strength, I wanted to gain health, I wanted to gain stamina so I could play with my family.  I wanted my family to gain a mother who could provide a life giving home for them.  My why is my family and whenever I start thinking about giving in or that “this is too tough” I look at their pictures around my house and laser focus on them to push myself through it!  I have a why for my business in photography and in for beachbody coaching as well, because when the days get long or things get tough (because they always will) I need to look back at that reason and remind myself there is a GREATER GOOD that I do this for!
9. Thoughts Become Things:  Kids intuitively know this but somewhere between school age and teenage years we either forget it or it’s just “taught” out of us.  Our thoughts become things, our feelings become things.  What we believe and put out into the universe comes back to us and we will achieve.  When you ask a kid what they want to be when they grow up, they will tell you some beautifully crazy things, but they believe with their whole heart they will become that.  Some rare ones do because they continued to believe with all their hearts.  Other’s will be told no it’s unrealistic.  When children think something or believe something with all their hearts, it is truth and it comes true!  They are able to achieve the most marvelous things.  What we think either positive or negative is absolutely the truth.  Whether you think you can or can’t, either way you are right!  Just let that sink in for a moment.  Whether you believe YOU CAN or YOU CAN’T, either way YOU ARE RIGHT!  There are no limitations friends, limitations are what we set upon ourselves when we have stopped believing in ourselves with our whole heart!
10. Change Happens Beyond Your Comfort Zone:  Whether you are working out and changing your physical body or whether it’s just LIFE, change happens beyond our comfort zone and we have to just LEAN IN!  You have a choice:  you can either embrace this, celebrate it even and push through it knowing that this is YOUR OPPORTUNITY to grow and change for the better!  That this is how you succeed at all things and find the positives! You can RISE UP to meet life and know that what you are working for is going to make YOU BETTER.   Or you can sit by and allow life to come at you and push you into your uncomfortableness and play the victim of circumstance.  You can allow yourself to be forced into change bit by bit kicking and screaming all the way.  Discomfort doesn’t have to be a negative thing friends.  It can be exciting!  It can be FUN as long as you CHOSE to make it that way.  I don’t know why or when it happened but somewhere along the way I forgot to take adventures.  I forgot to get up and be brave and meet life head on.  I was hiding out and trying to stay in my comfort zone and do you know what that got me?  NO WHERE.  It led me to play the victim, exhausted and scared and worried all the time!  But in January when I said yes to a simple workout program and a community of people to support and rally around me, something changed.  I remembered how to LIVE UNCOMFORTABLE again!  I remembered how to push myself and BE VULNERABLE and not be afraid.  I remembered that life is FUN.  Life is meant to be LIVED and LIVED WELL!  We are meant to THRIVE not just survive day by day.  That’s what this means…. change happens when you push beyond your comfort zone!

January-March that’s where we are in this journey so far and when you really think about it, it’s not that long of a time.  In terms of an awakening though, gosh ya’ll it feels like I’ve taken YEARS off of my life.  I feel like I’ve learned so much in that short amount of time but I have GAINED so much of my life back!

I know those 10 things might be pretty obvious for some of you and just saying them is one thing!  For me, these are actually things that I have learned to LIVE each and every day for the past 3 months.  I put them into actions and I’ve created habits that now has created this lifestyle for me and for my family.

I wanted to share these with you today because if you are like I was back in January, I hope that this helps you to see that you can have so much more!  You can have EVERYTHING YOU WANT even… you just have to take the first step!

I don’t know what that step is for you:  maybe it’s Beachbody (if it is, e mail me!!)  maybe it’s starting that project you’ve always wanted to do.  Gosh maybe it’s just picking back up that book that you started to read but put down because you haven’t had the time.  Maybe for the first time ever it’s carving out some time for yourself every day to fill up your cup.  Whatever YOUR step is, I hope this encourages you to take it and do what I did back in January… SHOW UP FOR YOURSELF…

Because you deserve it!