In middle school, I was active in Velocity Sports Performance, which is where my love for competing began. I hung pictures of Katie Uter, Monica Brandt, Kim Lyons, Kelly Ryan all over my room--aspiring to one day be like them--Oxygen cover model and fitness competitor. I then started high school and went onto Auburn to begin my marketing degree. My dream for competing went down the drain when I started drinking regularly, partied late hours, ate fast food often then starved myself once a year for Spring Break. I had no concept of clean eating or lifting for a good 5 years. I even got up to 148 lbs at one point.
In 2009, I moved to Colorado and met my amazing boyfriend who got me back into the lifting scene. We both decided to compete and started our contest prep journey on March 14th. 12 weeks later we both placed very well at our show. Ryan got 2nd. I placed 1st Novice B, 1st Overall Novice, 1st Open C and 1st Overall Open. Competing changed my life. At one point I thought I knew what it took to eat clean, but competing taught me so much more about different food, condiments, types of cardio and so on.
The downside to competing is that a lot of people can use it as an excuse to eat like crap when they aren't prepping for a show. After my show I had ZERO motivation to go to the gym, ate whatever I wanted and I gained 20 lbs. Granted contest weight is never a healthy weight to maintain and 10 of those were much needed, but I didn't have any control. It is so unhealthy to go to both extremes (eating like crap to eating super clean) I didn't want my weight to keep fluctuating so I decided not to focus on a show, but on my lifestyle.
I started a good improvement season in November. I ate a lot of whole wheat pasta, white potatoes, red meat and did minimal cardio. I put some needed size on my arms and had a good break from cardio.
I now have 1 local show, 2 national shows and a FLEX Online Bikini Model search win under my belt. I would say that 2012 was a great year for me in the fitness industry as I did 3 shows, signed with ALLMAX Nutrition and made it in FLEX Magazine! So cool. But what I have REALLY found to be my biggest motivation is how much I inspire others to live a healthy life!