I grew up thumbing through my Dads Arnold book that had pages of pages of pages of workouts and I'd perform them with these green plastic dumbbells that my parents had. I'm polish and my family loves to eat and they love their food. I tended to keep relatively in shape and smallish during high school because I always played some sport whether it was basketball, cross country running, or softball. My senior year of high school I started developing eating disordered tendencies where I would try my hardest to eat next to nothing because I believes that thats what it took to lose weight. I thought I needed to lose weight because, well, I had no idea about portion control and had no idea about what I should be eating vs what I shouldn't be eating and I had unhealthy fat that I caught a glimpse of in the mirror one day. I went to college with the fear that I would gain the dreaded freshman 15 and so I immediately hit the gym because calories in vs calories out right? I did tons of cardio and by tons of cardio I mean I would plan two hours of cardio through out my day which was hard because I was a nursing major and nursing school is ya know sorta time consuming. I didn't start lifting weights until 2011 when I joined anytime fitness novato. I was still super into cardio, running half marathons was my excuse to do lots of cardio. The first body building workout that I did was Jamie Easons LIvefit Trainer starting December 16th, 2013 and I had no idea what I was doing, but I knew I liked it. After I gained some confidence in the gym everything just fell into place. I started lifting heavier and heavier, squatting being my all time favorite move to perform. I still remember the first time I squatted in a gym, it was when I was working out at 24 hour fitness and I can't even remember how much I squatted I just remembered how proud I was of myself for working up the courage to actually perform that movement. It wasn't until I decided to compete in my first bikini competition that I realized the importance of nutrition and that I couldn't outtrain a bad diet. My first competition was humiliating. I did not look like I belonged on stage and I am honestly still very hurt that the "online coach" that I trust didn't give me proper guidance and let me step on stage with a physique that was not quite ready. But none the less it made me respect the process a million times more and the second time that I competed it went much better.

I love bodybuilding because it is my life. I love being able to identify as a body builder. I love the regimen, the routine, the discipline that comes along with it. I am a very extreme person, I either give it 100% or not at all and body building allows me to be extreme but put it towards something productive and healthy like competing. My first figure competition was May 9th, 2015 and although I did not place and took second to last I still stepped on stage with a physique that I was proud of. I love having muscle and I love the process of building it while trying not to gain to much fat. I am not going to compete this year but I know what I need to do between now and next year to get to where I want to be. I love body building because I love being a body builder.