In high school I was a three sport athlete with a complete active lifestyle. I competed in several beauty pageants, local and state wide and in 2005 I won my first. From there I entered college and the game changed. I had next to no activity in my life. My life was revolving around studying and quickly went from 60 to 0. I quickly saw my weight increase. Within 2 years I packed on 30 pounds plus. I steadily became more depressed as time passed. I hated where I was and who I was becoming. When someone would comment on me winning my pageant title I could see on their face what they were thinking� �Really?! You won a pageant looking like that?!� I was so ashamed of myself. I turned from this confident woman to someone I didn�t recognize and loathed. My depression eventually worsened to the point of medication and thoughts of suicide. With a semester and a half away from getting my degree I left school and returned home. The change helped but it wasn�t the solution. I wanted to be different, I needed to be different. I began eating better and lost some of the weight. However, I didn�t make time to exercise. Over the next couple of years the eating habits were lost and I continued to not exercise so the pounds started creeping back. It didn�t click how bad my condition had become until May of 2010. A friend of mine, a teacher at the local high school, had asked me to help chaperone their prom. I accepted and looked forward to the occasion. I had tons of dresses from my pageant years so I didn�t worry about what to wear. Getting ready I tried on dress after dress and couldn�t zip up one. I was mortified. How did I let this get so bad? A few weeks later I was saved. A husband of a close friend had started training for MMA and told me to check out bodybuilding.com. I instantly soaked up as much information as I could. I learned about training, nutrition, and supplementation. Immediately I changed my eating habits, started taking supplements and hit the gym. I stayed strong to lose 10-15lbs, but the change was too drastic. I fizzled. I put half of the weight back on. I had yet to have something click inside me. Then I saw the 2011 Transformation Challenge on bb.com and signed up. It was the tip of the iceberg. I got Kris Gethin�s Body by Design and followed his plan. I started lifting and it was amazing! Before I was too scared to touch a free weight and stuck with cardio. Well, not anymore. I found it empowering to be the one of the only females in the weight room. Eating clean, doing cardio and lifting 3 times a week helped me shed over 20 inches and 10% of my body fat. I feel great and my confidence in my body has sky rocketed. I have a long way to go and I know it will take some time. It�s a fight worthy of my effort though.