Well, thats 2 dumb questions within a week for me (@moderators you can't get mad at me for being rude to myself) After messing around a little more I found my original action strip is still in tact and I'm assuming now its a matter of deleting Keyframes (unbaking) and then starting over once I create the new actions I want to mix in. For some reason before I posted this I was unable to see the Walk_Cycle action I had created before and I'm not sure what fixed it but I am currently in pose mode with the armature selected and the NLA editor open and it just showed up. Now I feel confident that I can delete my keyframes and I won't be left with a lifeless T-pose. Leaving this here in the hopes it helps someone else.

After messing around a little more, I found my original action strip is still intact and I'm assuming now it's a matter of deleting keyframes (unbaking) and then starting over once I create the new actions I want to mix in. For some reason before I posted this I was unable to see the Walk_Cycle action I had created before and I'm not sure what fixed it but I am currently in pose mode with the armature selected and the NLA editor open and it just showed up. Now I feel confident that I can delete my keyframes and I won't be left with a lifeless T-pose. Leaving this here in the hopes it helps someone else.