Athletes ready…set’..(sound of a gun) to start the race and I was off. All of my life I have been an athlete. At the age of 5, I started competitively swimming. Born and raised in Florida, The Sunshine State…swimming was my life. When I arrived at high school, I hit a ‘wall’ from both improving my times and lost passion with the sport I always loved. I was ready for a change and decided to try out for the high school track team. With a developed efficiency from endurance training, I easily made the team and became the school’s top distance runner. By my senior year, I had earned the Florida State Champion Title in the 1600m and had offers from colleges around the nation for scholarships. I accepted a full athletic scholarship to the University of Kansas where I successfully competed in the Big XII as a Jayhawk. I held a KU record in the 1000m for six years and was ranked 9th in the entire nation in that event in 2003.
When I graduated college in 2006, life took its turn and I was no longer a Divison I college athlete. I didn’t have scheduled two a day practices or competitions on the weekends anymore. Working out and staying active was my lifestyle but without a coach telling me how and when to do something, it quickly slipped away. In 2007 I married the love of my life and in 2011 we had our first child. I had always been the ‘naturally skinny endurance athlete’ and never struggled with weight. In the 9 months of carrying our son, I had gained 51lbs. For the first time in my life, I tried to loose weight. It was very emotionally and physically draining. It didn’t just go away when the baby was born…seemed like it was there to stay. I have never been one to compare myself to others and had always been told ‘You can do this!’ but this challenge was one of its own. I made it my own personal goal to get my body back into shape. Motivating myself to workout and eat healthy. My daily routine shifted from college student- athlete to being a wife, mother and full time employee. I felt like the priority of taking care of myself became nonexistent.
As mothers/wives we tend to lose sight of our own needs and always put ourselves last to make sure the family is cared for first. Working out after having our son became my alone/me time. I started to crave the focus on one thing and that was ME. After about a year..the pounds from my first child shed and 2 years later it happened again with the pregnancy of my daughter… 51 lbs of all baby was back! So that made for Challenge 2.0 to be in full force. I learned to embrace the tiger stripes and loose mommy tummy skin with the shedding of those extra pounds. After all…that was the vessel for two beautiful babies! I ran my first half marathon (May 2017) and felt like it was the best race of my life because it was something I never thought I would do!
My reason to always strive to be the best me is for ME, no one else but ME! I workout for ME, eat healthy for ME and set crazy goals so that I can challenge MYSELF physically and mentally to be the best ME! Competition is all I know and I choose to compete with the strong beautiful woman inside of ME!
