Fitness Story

Well, hmmm? Where do I even begin? I guess I will venture back aways….

High School: I was always active in my teen years. I participated in competitive cheerleading and ran cross country. I didn’t always eat the healthiest, but I didn’t have any worries about food or body image either. I worked out enough that it wasn’t an issues. Such a simpler time. In so many ways, eh?

College Freshman – Sophomore Years: My eating habits stayed the same as when I was younger. Sadly, the activity level did not. Extra poundage ensued. Not a ton, but enough to where I realized I was a bit bigger than I thought. I still wasn’t upset about it, but I decided to start being more active. In the spring semester of my sophomore year, I began doing some aerobics classes at our university that were pretty basic but enough to get me going. The summer following my sister and I got into Tae Bo videos and a newfound love of regular workouts was born.

College Junior Year: This is when the big guns started coming out for me fitness wise. I heard about this online book called Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle by Tom Venuto. I read it. Thought it was neat info. Followed it. To a tee. Like, didn’t have a life because I was following it so closely. It was a way of controlling my life. This was when I was slipping in a dark, dark place due to a very troubled relationship with my dad at the time and other stresses. I used my discipline with weight loss to cheer me up. I don’t recommend it. It backfired immensely. Once I finally took things easier, I ended up going on binge sprees with junk food and got into an all or nothing mentality fast. Bad year. Although, one good thing about it was I discovered Cathe Friedrich DVD’s during this time. To this day I still love her and her workouts. You will hear me rave about them a lot.

College Senior Year: I was over the dieting, the stress, the tough times with my dad. Just over life. So I decided to do the opposite of the previous year. I partied HARD. Like going out every night except for Sunday hard. Like don’t remember 6 months of my life hard. Like waking up wondering what the heck happened and why am I with this dude hard. Thank the Lord he washes us off of our sins and allows us to leave the past behind us. This year fitness was not on the top of my list. I finally came out of my black hole, though. Faced reality. Part of reality was that I was not healthy in the least and wanted to get back to that place.

The Following Years (Pre-Makenzie): I met Peter. Fell in love. 13 short months later got married. He helped me realize I could be loved, helped bring me to a closer relationship with Christ, and helped revive my energy to regain my sense of self. I started working out again with a passion. Sadly, the food part was not clued in yet. I still was very all or nothing and would binge and restrict. When we decided to try to get pregnant I realized I had to let that go. I knew my eating habits would not help our efforts and would not benefit my baby when the time came.

Post-Makenzie: Once I was pregnant, my relationship with food changed completely. I wanted to eat healthy to provide the best things for my body and my baby. I wanted to get in good habits, so my child could grow up with good habits. I ate well throughout my pregnancy and nursed her well for 7.5 months. I lost all the baby weight and then some very easily because nothing was off limits and it was all about balance. I even went on to compete in a figure competition, without following a fish and asparagus only diet 😉 The competition was a bit tough and did have me backtrack for a few weeks with my mindset on food and body image, but I have overcome it much better than I would have previously. Now, I have put back on some weight to be at a healthy and happy place. And to go for baby numero dos, of course 🙂