"Be the Change You Wish to See in the World" Gandhi
First I would like to say
THANK YOU! After being
apart of this transformation challenge, I know this has, not only changed my
life, but the life of thousands of people. I admire and appreciate the
motivation bodybuilding.com brings to the world. I will forever be grateful for
this experience because bodybuilding.com has lit the fire under my tail to be
the change I wanted to see in the world. I now live my life with purpose,
meaning and inspiration. I look at life through the scope of being a FIT
(female in training: mind, body and spirit) Mom and realize its my mission to
give back (oh and just fyi I tried reading this to my fiance and he said...
you are such a cheese ball. I guess I should take that as a
complement since he said when we first met he had no clue I would be such a
cheese ball and sweet him off his feet) haha!
Why you should win & how do you stand out?
It’s hard
for me to say that I should win over someone else since I know for a fact that
there are hundreds, if not millions, of people that dominated this
transformation. However, something that may be different about me is that
I did this transformation while being 2 weeks postpartum and breastfeeding.
For anyone that is a new mom this is a challenge! I had to determine how
I ate, not on weightloss, but on nourishing my baby and hope that in the
process I could still transform my body. I had to let go of my prior
expectations to be extreme so that my transformation would
be noticeable and just listen to my body. This was a HUGE blessing because it taught me that I
could be intuitive and still make progress as long as I was consistent. I
had to ditch the scale since that was not accurately showing my progress and
take pictures because we all know... unedited pictures don't lie. ;p
So before I get started in telling you what I plan
on doing with the money prepare yourself... I AM a certified Cheese ball!
I have always been and always will be. I didn't realize it until I
met my fiance (who has let me grow into my true self without any expectations
or limitations) that my inner self is pretty darn mushy. I was raised to
speak my mind and I guess my mind has a lot of sensitive things to say. I'm the
person that will tell a stranger they are beautiful or walk up to someone on
crutches in the gym and say great job... why the heck not tell people
they are awesome!?!? ;p So here it goes... these are the things
that I plan to do with $50,000 if I were the one to be chosen.
1.Pay it forward and sponsor a child
I HAVE
ALWAYS wanted to sponsor a child. I can remember wanting to do this
when I was like 8 years old. Unfortunately as a child I got distracted and
ended up using my allowance that I had saved up to sponsor a dolphin
instead. I guess its good that I spend my money in a good place but
I still have a small void that I hope to fill by sponsoring a child.
I would
have done this by now but over the years I have taken in a few lil orphans of
my own (my brother when no one else would take him, my fiancés friend who lost
everything he had to a relationship and a friend of mine who was living in
hotels because he had nowhere else to go). I currently am still
helping a friend but with this money I could fallow my childhood dream to
sponsor a child. I think that would be SOOOOO COOL!
2. Donate more to klove
This is
another situation where I feel like every chance I get to donate something
comes up financially or someone needs help. Don’t get me wrong I DO
NOT allow people to walk all over me but when I know that I can help someone that
is in need I will do what I can.
WOW! For
anyone that has not listened to Klove I highly recommend it. This
station is nation wide and runs purely on donations. Every time I
get into my car I listen to Klove and it doesn’t matter what kind of day I am
having I just sing, let go and feel grateful! I would love to give back to
something that impacts me (and the world) so much!
3. Give back to The Center for Change
On March 23, 2012 my entire life was about to
change. I was sent to the Dr. Phil show for being a professional athlete (WNBF
[world natural bodybuilding federation] Figure Competitor) with self
destructive behaviors. Now I tell you what... if you are dealing with an
addiction, mine was an eating disorder triggered by competing for 2.5 years and
my ex fiance at the time being my contest prep coach, and decide to go to Dr.
Phil he will call you out! He is really good at what he does and the
entire experience forced me to get real with myself.
After the show Dr. Phil asked me if would I be
willing to get treatment if he would pay for it. I took the offer and had
1 week to file for short term disability, hope that my job would be okay with
it and leave for 8 weeks of intense treatment. This was the most influential
experience of my life and I owe my entire healthy mind and body to them.
They gave me the tools to dig deep in order to unlock my happiness.
While I was there, I saw several women be forced
to leave (by themselves) because insurance would stop paying. It is my
goal to give money where I can to help sponsor other women looking to change
their lives. The Center for Change is the place where I learned the quote
"Be the Change you Wish to see in the World" which was re-embedded in
my brain while doing this transformation.
4. Build True Strength of a Fit Mom Business
Now here
is my baby! I have created True Strength of FIT (Female in Training: mind, body
and sprit) Mom January 1, 2014 because I felt like there was not a lot of
support for moms in the fitness industry. When I was pregnant I felt isolated
to an extent. I’m sponsored by an amazing supplement company but
still felt like people did not appreciate fit pregnancy, fit postpartum and fit
moms. I wanted to create a fun place for women to go where they
could feel safe, connected and inspired. I put together a proposal
for my sponsor to create this FB page in hopes to eventually have enough
followers that they would want to create a market for FIT mom
Motivators. My goal is to get my own certifications, to have FIT Mom
Gear, nutrition plans, workout plans and therapy sessions. I also hope to have
several moms that specialize in these different fields to contribute to the
site. Right now I have a sponsored athlete who owns a crossfit gym
(new mom) and another sponsored athlete who focuses on Spartan races (new mom).
Since January we are at 980 followers and I’m amazed how many people feel
connected to the site already.
5. Give
money to my fiancé to build his business (I believe he will change the world)
My fiancé and I had the discussion after I was 3 months pregnant
if he could quit his job and peruse his business. This was probably
one of the biggest steps for me because I let go of my ego, allowed myself to
be vulnerable and trust in him 100%. This meant that I would be the
one to support our family while he got his business running. I think
in order to have meaningful relationships you must be able to put all of your
faith in each other without fear. His business is human performance
coaching where they believe integration drives performance… the more complete
or whole you are the better. In order to achieve sustainable high
performance in anything you not only need moral integrity, but you must find
integrity between all it’s parts. It’s not balance you’re looking for,
it’s seamless integration. With integrity you don’t have to search for
stability because there’s already a strong, durable foundation set to construct
the life and business you truly want. (there mission statement)
He is one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met and I have no
doubt he will change the world. I didn't know what
believing in someone entirely meant until I met him. He is the first
person EVER…. To let me find me… and be okay with that.
6. Have a
wedding
Okay here
is the splurge. I kind of feel guilty even saying this because it’s
hard for me to say I would spend money on a wedding when ultimately we could
just go to the court house. Although, a small part (maybe medium
part) of me would be overwhelmed to think I could have an entire day to
celebrate us, our future and our commitment. When I was the maid of
honor in my moms second wedding the emotions were priceless. My mom
was the most beautiful lady I had ever seen.
*Remaining
money I hope to pay off our cars, invest or will keep my eyes open to whatever
god has in store for me to use it. I tend to be the person that helps people
out. I feel like god either gives us enough for ourselves or enough
to help others.
What did you do to
accomplish your goal?
Support:
The love and support from my faith,
family, fiancé, friends and of course bodybuilding.com. There was an awesome
support between everyone that was doing the challenge and the weekly videos
from bodybuilding.com where fun, motivating and genuine.
Mind Prep:
As strange as this might sound prior
to the challenge I decided to have a natural childbirth (no epidural). It was a choice I made because I felt like 1.
It was healthier for baby and I, 2. I needed to do something so mentally challenging
that it would propel me into a place of knowing I can do anything and 3. The
recovery was faster so that I could get back to kicking butt in the gym
(started lifting 2 weeks postpartum which was approved from my OB)
*Just a side note I am the kind of
girl that is terrified of pain and needles.
I think I was 18 when I called my mom to talk me through getting a TB
skin test shot. It was in that moment
that my embarrassment trumped my fear of needles but still to this day I have
to psych myself up to get shots. Not
very many people believe I could go through with natural child birth but I tell
you what it has made me extremely tough, mentally.
Fitness:
Workouts:
Mon: Glutes/Hams
Tuesday: Back
Weds: Shoulders
Thursday: Off/Cardio
Fri: Legs/Calves
Sat: Arms
Sun: Off/Cardio
Nutrition:
I tried to fallow a
plan several times just to realize that I would lose my milk supply or I would
constantly need to increase my food. I decided to do this challenge
100% on intuition which has been extremely hard. It’s hard to be
aware of your mind vs reality when it comes to cravings, mood changes and
hunger. It was nice to have something like my milk supply to help me
pay close attention to what was true hunger and what was a craving because if I
fallowed my hunger pains my supply would be fine and if I fallowed cravings (I
ate nutrients based foods and 1 indulge meal per week) then my supply would be
overboard and I would not lose weight. After 2 months I felt like I
had finally found a happy place where I was able to have a supply and still
lose weight. I hope I can be an advocate for other moms going
through a similar journey. I can teach women the importance of mindfulness and
give them the tools to find their balance.
*I steadily started
adding in more cardio but paid close attention to my milk supply.
Supplements:
Optimum Nutrition
Multi Vitamin
Optimum Nutrition Fish
Oil
Optimum Nutrition Gold
Standard Whey
Optimum Nutrition
Casein
Probiotic
Phylum Husk Fiber
Overall, this was such an incredible
experience and it would be an honor to represent bodybuilding.com as a fit mom
transformation so that together we can inspire, motivate and encourage moms in
all phases to be a FIT (female in training: mind, body and spirit) mom.
*I can
totally help motivate guys too. What guy doesn’t think it’s
impressive that a woman can squat 135 pounds while being 37 weeks pregnant,
going through natural child birth or showing the entire world her journey from
200+ pounds to where I am today? :p
“At Bodybuilding.com, we change lives. We
empower, facilitate, and cultivate positive change. We are more than a site,
more than a store, even more than information, motivation, and supplementation.
We are your personal trainer, nutritionist, supplement expert, lifting partner,
and support group. We are the technology and tools you need to burn fat, build
muscle, and become your best self. Join us! I WANT TO HELP YOU CHANGE THE WORLD!!!!!” ;p
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