Welcome to the Muscle Mama Blog! My name is Megan and I am a new mom trying to keep my sanity and my waist line in check as I navigate the crazy new world of motherhood.
In order to understand who I am now, I think you ought to know a little bit about the path that brought me here.
I grew up running barefoot on a farm along the Rappahannock River in rural Virginia. My family lived off of the land raising beef cattle and chickens, fishing for rockfish and “croaker” on the river, and growing a garden each year that could have fed our entire small town from June to September.
My sisters and I were quite the trio of wavy hair, big smiles and tan skin. You almost always heard the Packett girls before you saw them, but we could weed a garden, shovel manure and shoot a basketball better than most of the boys in our small town.
My parents are what people in my hometown like to call “salt of the earth.” They are kind, generous and quite simply the most lovely people I know. They taught my sisters and I how to be self sufficient, how to love fiercely and that family trumps pride every single time.
I went off to study at the College of William and Mary in 2003, and after taking a class in almost every department, I finally settled into a major in Hispanic Studies and Education. As I started my senior year I had decided that I was not interested in dating and was going to spend my final year at W&M completely disengaged from the male species. And then I met Forrest.
He was smart, handsome, kind, funny and just a lil quirky. He was God’s perfect provision. We dated for three years while he traveled across the US playing baseball in the minor leagues for the Arizona Diamondbacks and then one season in an independent league for the Lincoln Saltdogs. We were married at the Wren Building at the College on October 17, 2009 and started our life as husband and wife in the sweet colonial town of Williamsburg.
In 2011 he was offered a job in North Carolina, so we packed up our little home and mosied on down to settle into a new life in Raleigh. I was teaching full time and working on my MA in Instructional Technology at nights when I was asked to coauthor a high school Spanish textbook with Wayside Publishing.
Just a month or so into the project Forrest and I found out we were expecting our first little bundle of joy - a sweet baby boy. On January 21st I submitted my final pieces of the textbook at 11:30am and my contractions started at 2:30pm. Forrest, IV joined us bright and early on his due date, January 22nd, at 8:39am.
I absolutely love being a mom. It isn’t easy, especially working outside of the home and dealing with the guilt of being away from my handsome prince all day, but I thank God for the opportunity to raise up a son, and I pray that he will love and serve Him all of his days.
So - why did I start this blog and what is the deal with Muscle Mama? Well, I am an AFAA certified group fitness instructor and I have been teaching Les Mills and other group fitness classes for 5 years now. I taught Barbell Strength and Step Interval until I was 39 weeks pregnant and did my first post-baby workout three weeks postpartum.
I really struggled with the changes in my body in the aftermath of pregnancy and birth, and was struggling to find my place in the fitness industry now that I don’t have time to get to the gym like I did before my son was born. That was when a friend of mine introduced me to BeachBody. I purchased the Les Mills Combat Challenge Pack and within 60 days had lost over 11 lbs and was under my pre-pregnancy weight. I was so in love with the BeachBody products that I decided to share my passion for health and fitness with others as a BB Coach.
Muscle Mama is part of that effort. I want to share with others what it looks like to be for me to be a Jesus-loving mom, wife and teacher who makes health and fitness a priority in my family’s life. I will be sharing snapshots of our daily life, along with recipes (for adults and babies!), workout tips and keeping followers up to date with information on BeachBody products.
I’m so glad you found Muscle Mama, and I hope you will find that my little tale of motherhood and fitness encourages you in your journey to better health!
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