Surround yourself with like-minded people for success!

The fastest way to reach your goals is to surround yourself with like-minded people. People who are successful at what you are trying to achieve. 

This is my soon to be Sister-in-law, Rachel. Gorgeous, yes? 

We recently took a road trip to Cali to help her and my brother-in-law with a convention they were putting on. Prior to this road trip, I allowed stress to get the best of me and my healthy eating became less consistent than I would have liked. As a result, I put on a few pounds and was feeling a bit sluggish. 

Road trips are goal busters for me!! Try as I might, inevitably I end up munching on all the wrong stuff and lots of it, just to stay awake on the road.  I knew I couldn't afford to do that this trip. 

This road trip was a success. All good food choices and knowing I needed little calories to sit in a car all day, I did great with raw fruit, vegies, and nuts!

Next challenge? Eating out!! 

We were so busy working on this convention, there was little time to cook. This is where Rachel taught me a lot.  Rachel has many food restrictions due to food sensitivities and her quest for better health. Watching her order, it dawned on me that now-a-days, most restaurants will modify and allow you to special order to fit your needs.

Going out to breakfast, the diner's menu options looked terrifying to my health and waist line. Following Rachel's lead, we ordered oatmeal, poached eggs, and a side of avocado, with lemon water. PERFECT!! So simple, yet special ordering for some reason didn't dawn on me before. I would have always picked the least offensive thing on the menu, knowing it was still unhealthy. 

Through out my entire stay, I watched the choices Rachel would make and allowed it to inspire me to make healthy choices, even when away from home. Funny right? It's simple common sense, but sometimes it takes watching someone else doing it for the connection to be made. In addition, Rachel's house is full of organic, whole foods. My house is pretty healthy, but I'm pretty sure her's well outdoes mine.

In addition to healthy eating, Being around Rachel is very calming. 

By nature, I am a high stress person. This trip was as high stress as it could be. So much to do with a tight deadline. To top it off Rachel was sick, and I was consumed with phone calls to the hospital my Mom was placed in due to serious illness. Through out all of the pressure to get so much done, I never saw Rachel get frazzled. I'm not saying she didn't feel stress, but she vented about the annoyances, and moved on, never losing her cool.

The last thing I want to do is paint a perfect picture here. Far from it! 

The thing that inspired me the most is all she has been through to get to this point. Rachel hasn't always been this healthy. In fact, it was her severe depression, endless health issues, and a wide variety of medications, that finally made her decide to change her life. Through cutting processed foods, as well as spending a lot of time finding which foods were affecting her health through food sensitivities, and taking up Bikram Yoga, Rachel has done a complete overhaul of her mental and physical health and has decreased the amount of medication she has to be on.

It is this perseverance that makes her one of the most inspirational people I am fortunate to know. Whenever we visit, I always find some inspiration to take home and apply to my own life. 

When you surround yourself with like-minded people who go above and beyond what you do in your own life to meet their goals, you learn more and are inspired to do more yourself.

I'm only just now really getting to know my sister-in-law, but I am so grateful to have her in our family!

It's the people who are willing to push through, no matter how hard, that inspire me the most. Those are the ones I seek to spend my time with. 

Who inspires you?