Author: thehealthyagvocate

The Importance of my Sweaty Selfies
Fitness

The Importance of my Sweaty Selfies

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Three photos of a girl in different stages of life. Two of sweating it out and one of her working hard.

Can I just share with you the importance of my sweaty selfies real quick?

Now, I am in no way shape or form perfect or think I am perfect. Perfect doesn’t exist. You know why? Because hard exist. Jobs get hard. Working out gets hard. Eating healthy gets hard. Life gets hard. Throws challenges and mishaps at you. Causes you to get off track and frustrates you. Well I am here to tell you, none of that matters. It doesn’t. As long as you continue to show up, for yourself, you will see great things. You will experience doubt and feel like you’re failing but remember, every step you take forward is better than where you were.

My job has seasons that require a lot from me. I knew this from the start when I decided this is what I wanted to do several years ago. It’s hard. It gets long and draining but I signed up for this and I am stronger than the seasons. My job requires a lot from me certain times of the year which is okay. I allow myself to basically “take a break” and focus on keeping myself healthy and get the job done. Now this means I am unable to do my morning and evening routines because quite frankly, there is no routine during the busy times (very chaotic). But you know what I do when the season is over? Pick up right where I left off and continue to create the best version of myself because it is something I am extremely passionate about. I don’t want to live my life wishing I could do or be someone or something else. I want to be me and love myself wholeheartedly.

In my opinion you should be at the very top of your priority list. You are all that matters when it comes down to it. So why be unhappy with how you feel or think or look? You have full control on changing and forming your life into something great and powerful. You can want to change lives but if you don’t change your own first, it’ll make it hard to change others.

The importance of these sweaty selfies is to show that I still show up for myself even when life gets tough. I don’t let one mishap or bad day ruin the rest of them. I may not look consistent with my workouts or nutrition to anyone else, but I am doing what is best for me and that is all that matters. Show up for yourself.

With love,

Victoria

Food

Snacks: Healthy Edition

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I don’t just eat 3 meals a day and call it good. I would be extremely miserable if I did! If you have been following me on Instagram for while, you knowI have at least 2 snack breaks throughout my day. I usually like to keep my snacks light and healthy. I love to have a serving of veggies, fruit, and either a protein or carb. Some of the things I always try to keep on hand would be cucumbers, carrots, peppers, grapes, blueberries, strawberries. My new favorite form of carb has been either sweet potato chips or rice cake crisps! I just follow the serving size and they are both amazing!! For a protein I will try to have some sort of lunch meat or sometimes beef sticks! I really try to not complicate my snacks because it’s hard enough trying to plan out meals and what to make.

It does not need to get complicated. Just starting with one fruit, one vegetable, one protein, and one carb prepped and easy to grab and go will help with your planning all together! When I get home from the grocery store, the first thing I do, before I even put anything in the fridge, is sort out my fruits and veggies into proper serving sizes into ziplock baggies. Then they get put into my crispers and are ready for a quick grab and go! Of course hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! Drink that water!!

Make it short, make it sweet! Let me know if this was helpful!

With love,

Victoria

Finding your passion
Fitness

Finding your passion

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Passions

I feel lately that as a whole society, we are struggling to find our own passions. It is always a well so-and-so is doing this or that so I need to do that too and do it better. We live in such a judgmental and almost robotic society. Everyone kind of follows the other and not many people are reaching for their full potentials and aiming for more. I don’t want to be that person. My guess is if you’re reading this, you don’t either. I follow a lot of motivational and inspirational accounts on every social media platform. I enjoy following accounts like these because 1) they’re usually not one person focused and are more life focused and 2) they help me out by getting the wheels turning in my mind and keep me in line with my goals.

Take aways I have picked up and implement into my everyday life to help find my passions:

  • Stop comparing yourself to others. Each one of us is on our own journey and will be in different chapters of our journey. Don’t compare your day one to someone else’s day 300. That is setting yourself up for failure.
  • Other people’s opinions of you, has nothing to do with you. You can not control what other people think of you. So be you. 100% YOU! Show up for yourself each day and live your life how you want to, not how someone else thinks you should.
  • You will not always be motivated to do a task. I think for a lot of people, especially me, when they think motivation they associate it with working out. It’s a good association but motivation is needed in a lot of other aspects as well. I am not a huge fan of motivation in general. You will not always have motivation to complete a task. That’s where discipline and dedication comes into play, because you know deep inside of you if you don’t complete that task, you won’t be happy with the out come. If every time you didn’t have the motivation to workout, you would quit wouldn’t you?
  • Stop letting your fears control you. What is the worst that could happen? No, seriously. What is the worst that could happen? Chances are, nothing but goodness would happen to you if you would get over your fears!
  • No one’s coming. Maybe you’ve heard the auto, no one’s coming. “No one is coming. No one. No one is coming to push you. No one is coming to tell you to turn the TV off. No one is coming to tell you to go out and exercise. Nobody is coming to tell you to apply for that job you’ve always dreamt about. No one is coming to write the business plan for you. It is up to you.”

Be you. Shoot for the stars. Write out your puke goals, your visions, and start working towards them. No one is going to do it for you. You have to do it yourself. My favorite new quote, “If people aren’t laughing at your dreams, your dreams aren’t big enough.” Find your passion. Chase it and keep working on it. Don’t give up on your dreams, goals, passions, visions, whatever it is. Don’t give up.

With love,

Victoria

Farming

Hazardous Materials

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2021 Anhydrous Season

Someone asked me this question once. “Does working with hazardous chemicals and products at work cause you more stress?”

Until I was asked that question I never gave it much thought. Part of the reason is because I have always been taught the proper handling protocols and safety factors and what to do if something does go wrong. So when asked the question I thought on it.

My short answer, no. Nothing scares me. (okay except snakes, lol)

The truth is some products I handle could easily kill me, if I don’t handle them properly. That is why company’s are always preaching safety and we are always having to sit through safety meetings and, even though it seems like we’re sitting through the same slideshow or movie time and time again, those meetings are powerful. Safety doesn’t happen by accident. It has to be taught. That is why it is so important to go to those meetings and watch those clips and slideshows. Some of those situations are ones you hope you never have to encounter, but if you were to, you need to be prepared.

The reason this whole topic came to mind was because we are entering the lovely anhydrous season. Ahh yes, anhydrous. I can not wait to fill tanks all day and have dreams of filling tanks all night. All jokes aside. Anhydrous can be a monster. It is by far one of the most dangerous products we handle in this industry. You have to follow all the safety protocols and wear personal protective equipment (PPE) because (like any accident) things can happen in a heartbeat. The best way to protect yourself is to practice safety. Our PPE is very important and should never be taken as a joke or thought of last. Should be first thing on your mind.

  • Long sleeve shirt
  • Sealed goggles
  • Rubber gloves with the ends folded up
  • Long pants
  • Boots
  • Absolutely no contacts!!

Maybe you don’t actually handle anhydrous yourself, but chances are if you live in rural America, you have seen an anhydrous tank being pulled by a pickup or even being applied in the field. Just with farming in general, please be patient. I know it can be hard to be stuck behind large moving equipment. Just take a deep breath and know they most likely won’t be on the road for a long stretch. If you do pass, please pass safely. No one wants an accident to happen.

Here is a little excerpt from a recent social media post of mine:

Anhydrous Ammonia (NH3) is the foundation of all nitrogen fertilizers.

This probably doesn’t mean much to many people but for agriculture it means everything. Without anhydrous, we would have a hard time finding sources of nitrogen to feed the plants. Especially our staple crop in the Midwest, corn. If you are aiming for 250 bushels per acre, did you know you’ll need 250 pounds of nitrogen for those plants to grow?

Many farmers use practices such as crop rotation to help with the high demand of nitrogen. Soybean and corn rotations are popular in my area.

Soybeans do this cool thing called nitrogen fixation where the plant can actually take nitrogen out of the atmosphere and fixate it to nodules in the soil that will be available to plants in the future.

3 facts about Anhydrous Ammonia:

  1. -28 degrees F anhydrous is a liquid. When the temp is above -28, anhydrous is pressurized to keep it in a liquid form. (Which is 95% of the time😂)
  2. Anhydrous translates to “without water”. That is why water plays a huge role in the safety of handlers and applicators. If there were ever an accident, water will help with drawing the anhydrous away from skin (since it is water seeking). 
  3. It is a colorless, highly-potent odor gas that is lighter than air. 

Anhydrous is no joke and should always be used with caution and taken seriously. Proper PPE (personal protective equipment) and training will ensure everyone is kept safe. Professionals only please 👩🏼‍🌾👩🏼‍🔬🥽🧤

With love,

Victoria

Farming

My Sixth Harvest: Six Lessons I’ve Learned

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Six harvest photos

This year marks my sixth harvest with Petersen’s. Now, I know I am not a farm wife. But trust me, I cannot wait for that day. (I have spent many years in training;) also this is not a jab at Hunter, I just idolize farm wives and can’t wait to be one, someday) I would like to think of myself as a seasoned farm girlfriend. When I think back over the last six seasons I’ve spent with Hunter, watching and learning from his mother and aunt and all the ins and outs throughout harvest. If you ask me, the whole farm would be lost without those two. They pretty much run that place in my opinion. Getting to watch and learn from them has been such a blessing and I am always so eager to be around them and help out. They are both such strong, independent, hard-working women who are definitely role models of mine.

I also follow lots of farm wives on Instagram and Facebook who are role models of mine as well. My two absolute favorites are the hosts of Midwest Farm Wives podcast, Whitney and Kylie. They always talk about whatever your role is on the farm, big or small, on or off the farm, your role is so important. Just because so and so is doing more than you or doing this or that, that maybe you are not, does not mean your role on your farm is any less important. Let what you do be enough. Another huge lesson of theirs is you are never alone. Even though the seasonal singlehood makes it seem like it, you are not.

On to the whole reason for this blog in the first place. Six lessons I’ve learned from going through six seasons.

  1. Space. Give them space. I know it is a hard time for both you and your farmer but they have a lot on their plate right now and space is one thing they need. I’m not saying completely ignore and leave them to fend for themselves. What I mean is be there for them when they need you, don’t take it personal if they don’t notice you.
  2. Limit your questions. Highly do not recommend asking them question after question because a lot of the time they don’t know the answer either. One question I suggest you NEVER ask is “What time will you be home?” because even if they give you an answer, most likely something will break or needs to be moved and that time will pass by.
  3. Have a hobby. You will drive yourself crazy if you sit alone at home and feel sorry for yourself because your significant other is out farming. Find something to occupy yourself with.
  4. YOU ARE NOT ALONE. I cannot stress this enough. You do not have to go through this season alone. Find other farm wives or girlfriends. Go out with friends, go shopping with your mom or sister, video chat with long distance friends, help with making supper or packing lunches for the guys, doesn’t matter what it is, don’t isolate yourself. You don’t need to do this alone.
  5. Appreciate each moment. Rain days and heat shutdowns will happen. Sometimes we forget Mother Nature is the real one in control. Appreciate all those extra moments you get with your farmer at home with you. Don’t expect them to want to go out somewhere out and about. Be fine with chilling at home and soak up those moments with them, even if it is just sitting on the couch watching tv or making supper for them.
  6. Have a positive attitude. Like I said before Mother Nature is the real one in charge. That being said sometimes we don’t agree with her but having a crappy attitude won’t make her change it. Sometimes things break down, sometimes the stress gets to you. Keep that positive attitude, because having a crappy one won’t get you very far.

Fall and harvest are by far my favorite time year. It is definitely the longest season but after a long season of putting in the work and praying the crops make it through, it is so rewarding to watch all that hard work pay off. Weather cools down FINALLY (ps I LOVE WINTER) and it is a season. There will be starts and stops but all in all once the ground freezes it’s all over with for as long as Mother Nature decides. Embrace it.

With love,

Victoria

Food

My favorite go-to breakfasts

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Overnight oats!
Breakfast quesadillas!

I have a couple of my absolute favorite go-to breakfast meals. My absolute favorites are breakfast quesadillas and overnight oats.

I found a recipe for breakfast quesadillas when I was in college and started making them during my time there. They are a super easy quick simple breakfast that you can make your own anyway you want. Even putting them together and getting them prepped for the freezer is simple, a little time consuming, but still simple and easy!

  • Brown up one pound of breakfast or Italian sausage
  • Crack your eggs into a bowl and whisk, add how many ever eggs you want!
  • Once your meat is browned, drain it and get your eggs cooking
  • Once eggs have made a good start in cooking, add your meat back in
  • Cook eggs all the way through and set aside
  • I like to have bacon with these so I usually do two pounds of bacon (LEFTOVERS!!)
  • Get your tortillas ready to stuff
  • Start your assembly line of egg mixture, bacon, and cheese
  • Close them up and fry ’em until browned
  • Wrap in tinfoil and freeze
  • Reheating- unwrap tinfoil and wrap in a paper towel, microwave for 2 minutes- ENJOY!

My second favorite is overnight oats. I love how you can make them your own and make different variations each day if you wanted to! My favorites include pumpkin pie, blueberry, and apple cinnamon. The options are endless! I have now gotten into adding a scoop of cheesecake jello and WOW does that add to it! My other favorite ingredient to add is chia seeds. One thing I have been trying to focus more on lately is gut health, and what foods are awesome for your gut. (I’m sure that will be a whole blog post in itself one day) After some googling, chia seeds are actually a very good probiotic, packs a lot of fiber, and tons of other great health benefits! Flax seeds are also another favorite that have great health benefits. I also like to add in some nuts, my all time favorite nut are my Missourian raised pecans. (shoutout to my Missouri family!) Pecans are actually counted as a healthy fat, plus they’re super delicious!

  • Get your jar or container ready
  • Add your oats and what other dry ingredients you want to add (nuts, seeds, powders)
  • Add some milk and stir
  • Add in fruit
  • Refrigerate overnight and enjoy in the morning!

If you try either of these quick breakfasts, let me know how it goes!

With love,

Victoria

Fitness

How I get back on track after I fall

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Sweaty selfie along with my favorite breakfast (overnight oats) and my morning cocktail!

If you have been following any of my social media platforms you may have noticed that I go MIA every now and then. And by MIA I am talking about getting my dang workouts done. I will be the absolute first to admit to anyone and everyone that sometimes I fail and lose the will and motivation to get my workouts in. I let my excuses get the best of me. BUT I always find my way back and jump right back in where I left off. I have my very own routine that I fell in love with when I started, and that routine is very strong. Once I start getting back into my morning routine everything else follows and I begin to feel so much better.

My solid morning routine

  • Wake up around 5AM
  • Mix up my energize along with Emergn-C and collagen
  • Get in a comfy spot in the recliner or couch
  • Grab my personal development book, inspirational book, and journal
  • Spend at least 30 minutes drinking my morning cocktail and reading spending time with myself for myself
  • Then it is time to change and get ready to work out

I do a ton of different kinds of workouts throughout my Beachbody subscription. I love Beachbody and all the opportunities and people I’ve met. Along with tons of different workouts with different trainers. I don’t think I could ever get bored. I think that is another reason why after I fall off plan it is easy to get back on track again. Because all these programs are easy to follow and if you put in the work, you get killer results.

There will ALWAYS be people who will secretly, or even out loud, hoping you will fail. Because it will make them feel better about themselves for not doing anything. Doing something is better than doing nothing. Modifying is better than doing nothing.

Nutrition is another huge part of my fitness journey and that is why fitness and food go hand in hand. I try my best each week to plan out meals and have my food ready to go and prepped. I still struggle with it time to time, but I am making progress. That is why I want to share my tips and tricks that I use to maybe help someone out there that is looking for answers as well.

This is a judgement free zone. If you ever feel like you need help or want to start a morning routine of your own but not sure where to start, LET ME KNOW! I would love to help you out and give you tips!

With love,

Victoria

Farming

Where did my passion for farming come from?

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Petersen's beet lifter
Petersen’s beet lifter

If you have known me for a while, I don’t think you would question this at all. You’d probably say, “she’s just always had a passion for it.” Which is 100% true, but sometimes I do ponder why it became such a passion of mine. I remember from a young age always being outside and soaking up the bright sunshine and vibrant colors of growing seasons. When I was younger, my love for animals, specifically cattle, was strong. I started 4-H from the young age of 5 and when I got to 3rd grade (how old is that? 8-9?) my mom finally let me get into showing my first bottle calf. For me, showing was always a fun outlet. I know I didn’t have the best-looking show stock, but those calves all had special places in my heart. It wasn’t until 8th grade when I decided, cattle involved too much science and you had to keep their heart beating 365 days of the year. Don’t get me wrong, I still love cattle and I continued to show through my senior year of high school, but since 8th grade I made up my mind to move into agronomy and learn more about crops, weeds, and soils. Once in college I knew I was in the right program. Never once questioned if it was what I wanted to do.

Now my senior year of high school, I earned a scholarship through a local dairy. To receive this scholarship, I had to become and advocate for agriculture. An Agvocate. I spent the summer months before school started to prepare and learn about hot topics in agriculture. You know, GMO’s, sustainability, antibiotics in livestock, and the safety of our food. Throughout the school year, I was to give 9 elementary classroom presentations or projects, 1 high school classroom presentation, and 1 adult meeting presentation. I grew so much my senior year learning how to speak and present in front of a crowd and I think what made it so easy was it was topics I held close to my heart and found important. In any speech classes I had throughout my high school years, I always found a way to include agriculture and talk about it. Growing up in what I would consider a farming community, I still felt there was a lack of connection to agriculture. It was like no one wanted to talk about its importance and people just wanted to believe what some celebrity had to say (even when what they were say wasn’t true).

My biggest goal with my blog is to hopefully share my side of the agricultural world. I work first hand with it everyday at my job. I also have a front row seat for it because of my boyfriend’s family farm. I have had years of exposure from my own family’s hobby farm. My great-grandparents made a living off of farming (the farm that is still operating today by my mom’s uncle and cousin!) Farming and agriculture is all around me, and it’s all around you too! No matter what role you have or even if you don’t have any relation to the direct farm, you still depend on agriculture. One of my favorite sayings, “Remember, without farmers, you would be hungry, naked and sober!” Welcome to my story.

With love,

Victoria

Fitness

Podcasts you need to listen to

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I am a huge podcast listener. I am always open to listening to new ones. I love how I feel after listening to FIRE podcasts. Trust me. There are TONS of fire podcasts out there, I couldn’t even start to list them all!

My top two absolute favorite podcasts to listen to are the Live Boldly and the Midwest Farmwives. Both are very real life and always make you stop and think, “oh yeah, maybe I should start doing that” or “stop doing that” or whatever they are throwing out there. These two both leave me urging to do more in my life all while being grateful and happy with what I have. Both podcasts have amazingly strong, caring, compassionate women behind the microphones. Every episode leaves you wanting more and feeling more valued.

The Live Boldly podcast is more of a faith based, self-love podcast. They talk about everything from what it takes to commit to being the best version of yourself to how God has changed and impacted their lives and how He could impact your life too. They are really real with you and tell you how it is or how it’s going to be. That you have full control over every aspect of your life and if you’re not happy with what you’re doing, they do something different!

The Midwest Farmwives podcast is more farm wife life related. They get real about the fun and not so fun times of farming and being a farmers wife. They discuss everything from how they cope with seasonal singlehood and handling kiddos on their own to how keeping uplifting spirits and cheering on other women in Ag is important. Your role on your farm or partner’s farm is important and everybody’s situation is different. Let whatever you do be enough.

All-in-all HIGHLY recommend these two podcasts. They both impact different areas of my life and whenever I feel off or need a boost, I go listen to these podcasts. 🙂

With love,

Victoria

Live Boldly
Midwest Farmwives