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Well, here I am. Ready to begin my first blog. I have always enjoyed expressing myself and sharing my thoughts and feelings through writing. After having an online fitness journal, playing around on Facebook, etc. I decided it was about time to start a blog where I can easily combine all of my interests into one place and make it easier for others to follow along with my ramblings. You will come to see I can ramble a lot. Haha!
I figure in this first post it will be best to share a little bit about me. Here's the brief version - I am a wife and mother, I am a Christian, I am a fitness enthusiast, I am a book lover, an outdoor girl, a UGA fan and alumna, and so much more. Now for the longer version....
I graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in Spanish Education and went on to teach high school Spanish for a few years. During that time, I got married to my husband Peter. We have been married since June of 2007 and I am thankful every day for being blessed with such a caring, supportive, and determined man. In February of 2008, we found out that I was pregnant and was due to have a baby girl in early November. With that news, we decided as a family that I would become a stay at home mother to raise our daughter. Well, I had my precious little Makenzie on October 21, 2008 and she has been the light of our lives since then. She is a very fun, happy baby and we have loved every moment of watching her grow. She is now 10.5 months old and is learning new things daily it seems. Her current "tricks" are waving bye bye, blowing kisses, blowing raspberries (her FAVORITE), clapping, and doing a big big smile with her face all scrunched up.
A few other things about me. I am a big believer in the Christian faith and do not know what I would do without it in my life. I will share thoughts related to that here but I promise not to be preachy. I just enjoy the hope and peace that my faith brings me throughout even the most difficult times. I like to learn and grow and have recently taken up leading a Sunday school adult Bible study to do so.
My other big passion is fitness. I have been avidly working out for about 6 or 7 years now...and yes, I even did so during my pregnancy. I like how it feels to go into the gym and bust out a great cardio session (spin is by far my favorite) and a high quality weight workout. Bring on the heavy stuff - no pink dumbbells for me! I love to share my passion for fitness and am always willing to give advice and support on anything pertaining to it. I am not a certified expert....yet. I do plan to go into the personal training field when I am ready to return to work. And while I am really into working out, I am motivated by being healthy and accomplishing new goals. It is honestly fun to me and I do not promote unhealthy approaches to dieting and training. I like to workout and eat healthy because I feel good, not to see the scale drop or something trivial like that. I am a firm believer that if you eat moderately and do exercise you enjoy then you can love your body and look and feel great. That doesn't mean you can't have goals though. After all, I am currently working towards a big one for me - my first figure competition! It is on November 7, 2009 in Marietta, GA. I am really looking forward to it!! And then of course after it, since my diet and workouts do have to be more intense than my typical right now.
Other interests of mine are reading. I read at least a book each week - usually a chick lit, suspense, or vampire inspired novel. I like to read for pleasure so it isn't often that you will see me reading something serious. I also like to get lost in a good TV show or UGA football game. Or go on a hike or to the lake with my family. Honestly, anything with friends or family is great in my book.
So I have rambled on enough now.....I look forward to sharing more in depth through the weeks, months, and who knows, maybe years. Thanks for stopping by! And let me know where I can come find you :)
Tina
Well, where do I begin? I grew up as an active child and teen being involved with gymnastics, cheerleading, and running and ate a balanced diet at home. I never really experienced weight struggles and was never uncomfortable with my body. Then, I went to college and my freshmen year started being less active and eating the campus food didn't help me. Yet, I still didn't feel too poorly about how I looked. My sophomore year of college I moved home for money purposes and because I was doing substitute teaching at the schools of that area. The work, commute to college, and continued habits of eating more poorly, as well as picking up a daily dessert habit, really started to wreck my appearance, health, and confidence. I had a true wake-up moment when I started my college PE class spring semester that year. Our first day of class was a fitness test and measurement/weight tracking to see what progress we made over the semester. I quickly realized I was a) not near as fit as before and b) almost 20 lbs heavier than I thought I was. Ouch!
So, then started my fitness quest. The class was an aerobics and weights fitness class - similar to the types of things you would see in a gym fitness group schedule. It was fun and really got me motivated once I started seeing small changes in my body. After that class ended, the following summer my mom, sister, and I invested in some Tae Bo, Cathe Friedrich, and Turbo Jam DVDs that we started doing religiously 5 days/week at home. The exercise was fun and challenging but after awhile I felt like I could do more.
In January of 2005 I discovered Tom Venuto's E-book Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. I began reading it and dove headfirst into applying his techniques. Around that time I also found Oxygen magazines and was inspired by the fit bodies of those women. These 2 discoveries led me to a passion in working out at the gym and eating a relatively clean diet. I got in the best shape ever at that time....up until now of course ;)
My passion continued from there and grew until I was motivated to attempt competing in a figure show the summer of 2007. I was excited about it and hired an online training program to help me achieve this goal. I never reached that stage, however, because the training and dieting principles employed were very old school and messed with my metabolism, bloodsugar, health, sanity, and overall happiness. I had to pull out about 2.5 weeks from the show to ensure I didn't mess up my hypoglycemia. The sudden stop of prep combined with how deprived I was up until then led me down a road of binging. Once I could eat more than chicken, fish, broccoli, asparagus, oats, and sweet potato my body wanted EVERYTHING and in LARGE amounts. Seriously large. I remember moments where I would polish off 6 Krispy Kreme donuts, a dozen Lofthouse cookies, AND some cake or pie from the grocery bakery or bags of candy...yes, at once. And yes, I was sick to my stomach but couldn't STOP. I seemed to do this at least once a week and then would punish myself by trying to be "good" and overly restrictive afterwards...until the next binge. I gained about 20 lbs AGAIN at this time - putting me at around 140. Luckily with keeping up in the gym I still didn't look too terrible at that weight.
Well, in late 2007 my husband and I started talking about starting a family and I knew I needed to get in control of myself. I finally shared with him my battle (I had kept it a secret until then, which was a HUGE mistake) and we really worked on getting me through it. I decided to turn it over to God at this time. Every day I would wake up and say a prayer of thanks to God for blessing me with health and the ability to care for myself and would decide to honor Him by eating healthfully. I didn't lose weight at this time but I really started regaining control and although it was hard - I made it through weeks and then a couple of months binge-free. Then, I found out I was pregnant in late February 2008! What a blessing! Being pregnant and then nursing totally changed my relationship with food. I had to eat for health and be an example to my baby girl. I HAD to eat more for the pregnancy and then for my milk supply and in that time I realized it is still possible to achieve fitness goals with a more moderate approach. I lost weight MORE easily and consistently during that time because I was able to stick to my diet. I wasn't overly deprived, I incorporated foods I enjoyed, and saw the progress. I learned it really is about consistently making better choices.
Once I made some great progress post-Makenzie, that old competition bug started to bite again and I couldn't quite get it to go away. I kept trying to convince myself it wasn't for me, but I KNEW in my heart that if I didn't go for it I would always regret it. Fortunately, while pregnant, I saw some friends compete under the guidance of someone very knowledgeable who didn't enforce such strict training and dieting techniques for a comp. And they had amazing results with such an approach. I knew then, if they could do it, then so could I and I just HAD to. So in late July, early August of 2009 I set out to finally achieve the goal of my first figure competition. I decided to prep myself so I could truly listen to my body and do what worked for ME. I am currently enjoying the process and cannot wait to get to show day and see what I have achieved.
