I grew up eating really, really, really bad. Literally, I never ate fruits or vegetables or unprocessed foods. Our pantry was stocked with stuff from Sam's and the freezer was full of frozen, processed foods. Typical food growing up was personal pizzas, moon pies, thin mints, burritos, honey buns, fast food, chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. Not even juice!! Throughout middle school into college, I never ate breakfast, ate fast food or hot cheetos and a big cookie for lunch and maybe a taco bell burrito at nighttime or nothing at all. AFter graduating, I missed the competition and I also didn't feel good about my body. I was in Japan and felt HUUUUUGGEE amoungst the tiny Japanese women. I started looking up how to work out and found bb.com. When I found Monica Brant, I knew what my future was going to be!! I just stared in astonishment saying that's MY body type! That's what I'm MADE to look like!! I started researching like crazy. I typed up lists of fruits and vegetables, learned what carbs and proteins and fats were, learned what meats were, etc. I carried around a laminated list of foods with my everywhere because I literally didn't know what constituted a C, P, F or what fruits and veggies were! I started preparing for a contest with the help of Layne Norton. Throughout my prep I had a diet downfalls.... it's mega hard to switch from eating chocolate 5 times a day for 24 years to eating a strict, clean diet. Despite my downfalls, and busy schedule, I made a pretty big change. But then... things took a turn for the worst. I began binging, BAD. I had always been 145 lbs, gained some muscle for contest and walked at 155 lbs in Nov 2009. I started to have a very unhealthy obsession with food. Partially it came from the idea that "omg I better eat this bad food now because this is my only chance, then I have to eat clean again". Also, because I was finally making money and ate, ate, ate because I was scared I wouldn't be able to buy things later. I ballooned up to 190 lbs in Spring 2010. To myself, I denied that I had a problem. It was terrible though.. for example, one day in between teaching music lessons I went to Sonic and got a #5 and Shake. Then I stopped at the store and ate donuts while I shopped, followed by going out to the car and eating a whole pie... with my hands. At the store I had bought ice cream and frozen pizza, so I went back to the school and ate that. Then that night I drove through Wendy's and ate it while I drove to Schlotzsky's to get a meal and a Cinnabon. Yep, really bad. So last summer I stopped watching my eating and stopped training so that I could realign myself and lessen the stress of telling myself I had to eat uber clean 24/7. In August I took up training again and semi watched my foods. This Spring 2011 I started working on my Masters in Exercise PHysiology - Sports Science and Nutrition and working as an intern coach with UT. Time was impossible to come by (believe me, you think you know busy? you don't!) but I still managed to pack my food and I worked out with the other interns and the football team. I was depressed and unhappy with the way I felt with my body. I was weighing in at 174lbs and although I still looked great, I was NOT happy. I started working with Mike Davies to prepare to compete in Women's Physique at the NPC USA's. Once the semester ended and football went on break, I was able to really focus on training and diet. Currently I'm down to 153lbs and I FEEL AMAZING!!! I love my body, I love the way I feel and most of all I love my athleticism. We changed the way I train and although, I *hated* plyos and cardio, it's changed my body and I'm actually starting to like them :) My hope is to continue to maintain my fitness level, maintain a healthy, happy body and most of all, maintain a healthy mindset to be able to eat clean in order to have a healthy body and not feel like i'm depriving my self of something.

I love the challenge!! The sports and fitness community is a great group of people to be around as well. When I started out, it was a struggle to go to the gym and I had to amp myself up. Now, I look forward to seeing my friends, challenging myself and gettin sweaty!!