Hello! My name is Narah Valenska Smith. I am a 44 year old mother of 3 – 2 boys from my 1st marriage named Ian (almost 13) and Dylan (10) and a girl named Faith (almost 2) with my husband, Scott. I also have a stepson named Brannon (20) and these 4 kids are the main reason I began a journey back to myself through fitness on February 15, 2016. Although I only needed to tone up and not necessarily lose weight, what I really needed was to get myself and my life back through dedicated time to taking care of me.
I’m going to let this Facebook post from Friday, May 27th, 2016 tell you the story…
So, I’m a little bit scared and nervous to put this picture out there not because of what you might say or think but just because it is a BOLD, GIANT STEP in SHARING MYSELF. I am REALLY good at sharing my heart but I don’t share a whole lot about my process. I’m 100% committed to changing that starting right now.
This picture right here makes me want to cry because I didn’t plan it AT ALL. I took the picture on the right a few days ago, on the 24th, for my self-care health & fitness group as proof of my daily workout. Today when I went to update my profile on my fitness account, I noticed that the last picture was March 24th so I thought I should update it and that’s when I realized this picture was not just 2 months exact to the day of that last one BUT 100 days from when I first began my fitness and transformation journey.
Once upon a time, some years back, I was very fit. I had a personal trainer. I trained and ran a marathon beating my time and doing a negative split (running the 2nd half faster than the 1st which is quite an accomplishment). I was very well off financially. I had BUSTED my a** for 20 years creating the life I had. But I was called to something by God and I answered that call and, in the process of that, I lost EVERYTHING and then some.
The last 7 years have been a whirlwind of tremendous highs in the service of God and tremendous lows in utter grief, betrayal and loss. By the GIANT Grace of God, I’ve had a partner by my side for 5 of those years – my Hubby Love, Scott. And I’ve had my kiddos too, thank the good Lord, including baby Faith between us (aptly named for the times we were enduring and for our overall belief that we have individually and together in the same thing). My family is back in my life as of late as well which is part of my turnaround and redemption after so much pain and now this…
Fitness for me has NOT been about getting my abs back or any of that. It has been about TAKING CARE OF ME and returning to self. It has been about conquering fears, doubts and TAUNNNNNTING little demons – real ones as well as those in my own psyche and of my own imagination. The struggle has been VERY REAL.
But this year I decided I was gonna take matters into my own hands. I KNEW that I needed to TAKE CARE OF ME, to VALUE ME, to ignore the haters in my life and focus on the lovers and supporters. I knew I needed to start my journey back to that girl I left by the sidelines SO long ago.
I moved in January under extenuating circumstances, got settled and took action on this self-care thing mid-February. I’d had ENOUGH of not doing so.
I then tip-toed around it. I worried a client would be upset that I’d partnered with the company I’m partnered up with and chose not to do what I really wanted to – which was to offer my health & fitness coaching along with my life coaching to others – for 3 months!
Earlier this month, however, I FINALLY shared with my client what I needed to do for me to thrive and for me to help others thrive and my wonderful client gave me her blessing. She said that although we would be serving people in the same industry, knowing me she was not worried I would be unethical one bit. Thanks be to God for being known as who I really am. It is an amazing blessing.
And so here I am now, on the 103rd day of my journey. After several breakthrough days this week, including starting my 1st self-care through health & fitness group on Monday, I thought “I’m gonna go ahead and break through ANOTHER one of my fears and barriers. I’m gonna share this picture of my before and after. I’m gonna really put myself – and what’s fully, really so – out there.”
I had NO idea I would share more of my story and process as I just did above though. I just sat here and wrote. And you know what? I’m gonna go ahead and add this picture now and post this just because.
Just because of no reason other than I’ve had enough of not. 😉
I love you all so much and pray you accept and receive this as I mean it to be – an encouragement that you are also not stuck anywhere in your own life, that you can decide too, that you can choose to change yourself and your life whenever you want to.
May you have an AMAZING Friday night and Memorial Day weekend. After sharing all this, I really know I will. 😉
All my love to you always,
Narah ❤️
The willingness to go forward towards your goals is really where it’s at. All you have to do is start and do the work one day at a time. That’s it. Start up and show up!
You don’t have to do it perfectly at all and, in fact, you’ll often feel like you’re COMPLETELY off the mark but, little by little, you’ll see the results do add up after all and you’ll be SHOCKED at how far you’ve come! 😃
You don’t have to be perfect in life; you just gotta be real. Always remember that and just start your journey right from where you are right now.
All my love to you always,
Narah ❤️