I have actually struggled with being both overweight (2 different times in my life) and also with being underweight (2 different times as well). When I was in middle school, I got told that I was fat. When, in reality, I was not fat at all. That remark ended up sticking in my head, and over time, I became anorexic and then eventually bulimic. I struggled with the disease for about two years, and finally overcame it through the help of my parents. Throughout my high school years, I was able to maintain a healthy weight and eating habits. My senior year of high school I married my high school sweetheart. Right after we got married, I started eating very unhealthly. My husband and I got take out food all the time, more than we cooked at home. It was just something we enjoyed doing together.
A while after we got married, I was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome, along with endometriosis, and scoliosis. I started to gain weight pretty fast, and began to get very depressed. Before I new it, within the first 2 years of my marriage, I had to have about 3 different surgeries and I was 40 pounds overweight. After I healed from one of my surgeries for an ovarian cyst, I sat down and had a long talk with my mom about how I new it was time for me to try to get healthy and exercise, and lose the weight. I got a gym pass to Gold’s Gym, and started to eat healthy. I kept a food journal every day of what I ate, and how it made me feel. I put a lot of hard work in and I was able to lose the weight. I got to 114 pounds. I felt so much better on the inside and out. I kept the weight off for about a year, and then, a miracle happened (I was told I may not be able to have kids because of my endometriosis) and I discovered I was pregnant with my little girl.
Throughout the pregnancy I had many complications, and was put on partial bedrest for almost 5 months, and was not able to exercise. Once again, I developed the same bad eating habbits, and became very depressed. I ended up gaining 50 pounds throughout the pregnancy, and the week before I delivered I weighed 164 pounds. After I had my little girl, I developed post-partumdepression, and only lost about 10 pounds. For a whole year I weighed 154 pounds. That is the biggest I have ever been, and I felt like a stranger in my own body. I new I needed to do something about it. In the back of my mind I kept saying to myself…I have done it once, and I can do it again!!
I started eating clean and exercising and was able to lose all of the weight..most of it in about 5 months, and then was able to maintain it. That is when I did my very first photo shoot, to get myself some before and after pictures. I wanted to share my story with others, so I wrote an article to Hers Muscle and Fitness Magazine, and they published my story in the letters section of their magazine. I bought two of the magazines and cut my article out and framed it on the wall so that I could see it every single day, to remind my self how far I have come, and how hard I worked. I started to get very interested in modeling, and in the back of my mind I dreamed about (and still do) being on the cover of a fitness magazine! I decided to take a model workshop, to learn how to be a model. I never thought it would happen, but through the process, I ended up having a relapse of the anorexia (this was a little over a year ago). I got the help I needed to recover and overcome it once again and for good!
I got back on a good clean eating plan of eating 6 small meals a day, and I drink 3-4 liters of water a day, get plenty of sleep and take my vitamins. 11 surgeries altogether and 10 years later….I am at a healthy and happy weight, and more lean, toned and stronger than ever before. My modeling is taking off and I am now a promotional model and loving every minute of it! I still have many goals and dreams that I would like to achieve, one of them still being to be able to be on the cover of a fitness magazine, as well as competing in a fitness competition, which I am going to be doing in less than 6 weeks!!!! I ran my very first half marathon in June of 2010 and I continue to push hard every single day.
I work a full time job (3 twelve hour shifts a week), take care of my family, cook and prep 7 days worth of meals at a time every Sunday, and I never miss a workout. I love being able to inspire others in whatever journey they are on, whether they are trying to lose weight, or gain weight because I have been there, not once but twice. I always tell them a quote from one of my favorite fitness models Ashley Horner, “I have felt the pain, the aching muscles, that voice inside your head that tells you to quit. The one that makes you question your dedication, your hunger, your drive…and that it’s in that moment I turn up the music, pull my hat down low and dig deep. For I know, the feeling of exhaustion is temporary but the feeling of success is forever.”