Dedication time. Now that the school year is over and I am SAHM’ing it, I am going to faithfully blog my journey into my next NPC show. That says it all. I wrote it, now I have to compete 
Short Version of Me:
I took an interest in bodybuilding at the ripe age of 13 when my mom purchased an all-encompassing weight bench at a garage sale. Lo and behold, along with said weight bench came an Arnold book. I carried that book with me everywhere I went for three years: sleepovers, cheer practice, track meets. Eventually the weight bench became a part of my bedroom and we were best friends. At age 14 my mom enrolled me at a local fitness club and I would lift weights three days a week. In high school I took weight training courses, ran track, cheered, you name it.
My life was pure fitness. I lived and breathed the energy everyday. I also sang the eat-what-I-want-because-I-am-lean mantra to the T. That worked for me, at least in my own little head, up until I hit the nice age of 25. I never really taught myself about nutrition or supplements because I thought my gift of lean-genes was enough. I didn’t eat 6,000 calories of fast food everyday, but I could down a milkshake and pizza like no one’s business without even thinking twice.
I had my first child at 23. Two weeks after I gave birth, my belly was flat my size-5 jeans were back on. I never really gave much thought to working out as a busy mom, but lost a ton of weight from stress. When my daughter was 9 months old, I weighted in at an unhealthy 115 pounds. I was sick. Four months later I ended up in the hospital with near kidney failure. After lying unconscious in that hospital bed for two days, I woke with the realization that I had to change my lifestyle.
Drastic measures were not taken. However, my diet improved and I slowly eased my way back into the gym. My largest set back was how uncomfortable I had grown in my own skin. I packed on a few pounds, but nothing to cry about. The changes I saw physically were those eery love-handles that tend to creep up on women near their twenty-fifth birthday, and some saddlebags to go along with it. Nice package, huh?
Try as I might, I could not drag myself into the gym knowing I was completely out of shape. I felt like a frump, thus I behaved like one. This yo-yo game of "get your butt in gear; but I’m too fat" last through my second pregnancy. I ate whatever I wanted and sat on my rear behind a desk for the entire nine months. My pregnancy was not an easy one to say the least. I was in and out of the hospital with preterm labor and eventually ended up on bed rest. Never in my pretty little head did I think that my lifestyle was the contributing factor.
I gained a whopping 50 pounds with my son. It slowly came off, but I stayed in the 140’s for quite a while. I was your typical skinny-fat girl who looked great in clothes and with the lights off. I ask myself a million why’s, but can never conclude a rational explanation as to how I got there and why I stayed that way. Eventually something clicked. Two years ago I joined the YMCA. I started going to Body Pump classes. At first I hid in the back of the class, ashamed that I couldn’t even do a lunge with weight on my back. Shortly I moved up to the front of the class and began enrolling in yoga and Zumba. After three months, I ventured out into the actual gym. I saw changes in my physique as my muscle grew. I began feeling more and more comfortable in my own body and even ventured onto the beach in a bikini for the first time.
After a year of the Y, I grew tired of the high school musical that went on there at night. I taught teenagers all day and didn’t want to put up with them in the gym: my sanctuary away from teenagers. My husband and I enrolled at World Gym and I took off from there.
On my 29th birthday I vowed to be in the best shape of my life by age thirty. I turned 29 in October and by New Year’s Eve I thought my goal wasn’t big enough. I wanted something on a grander scale, something that at one time seemed insurmountable. I resolved to enter an NPC figure show by fall. Once I started talking to girls at the gym who competed, I was introduced to many local competitors who inspired me to compete in the spring rather than the fall.
I was totally overwhelmed. Training was intense, especially since I was going at it alone. I was lost in the world of dieting, training, building muscle while losing fat. I literally felt my world was caving in when I stumbled upon Figure Athlete. That sight was a lifesaver. I gained so much knowledge and support from those with experience as well as those who were on the same trek as me. Eventually I began working with Bev Direnzo, an IFBB BB Pro, and her husband Matt.
At 9 weeks out I was lost. By 7 weeks out I was molded, reformed, and refreshed into a whole new physique. My diet coach cut out my carbs complete, manipulated my fats, and kept me on a low calorie diet for the next several weeks until the show.
I did it. I got up on the stage and competed for the first time. It was so easy to get up there. The energy from the crowd was electric and I felt like a force of nature because I had done what not too long ago seemed impossible. I didn’t place where I wanted. I didn’t have the perfect suit, the perfect tan, hair or make-up. There are many things I would have changed, but that doesn’t matter. When looking at the grander scheme of it all, this was the smallest stepping stone into a world so huge my eyes can barely consume all I am to see.
The day after my show I did my first photo shoot. I had never done any modeling before. If you knew me in real life, you would imagine this shy, introverted teacher in her khaki pants writing stories in her journal or shoving her nose in a James Baldwin novel. You would not have imagined that girl on the beach in her itsy-bitsy bikini posing for the camera. My photog was very please with my work and the outcome of our shoot. He shot me for 2.5 hours and took over 400 photos. It was the ride of a lifetime.
So, what’s next? I have several photo shoot opportunities and plan to compete in the November show here in Phoenix. I also entered the Flex Magazine Bikini Model Search. I know it’s a shot in the dark and there are some heavy contenders up there, but hey. What have I got to lose?
Kellie
I shall end with an appropriate quote:
"I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do, provided he keeps doing them until he gets a record of successful experience behind him."- Eleanor Roosevelt
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