How it started...
Last fall, the end of September to be exact, I lost my second job due to the contract not being renewed. It was shortly after that I had this revelation to really get serious and disciplined on my exercise & diet. I did really good & had several people tell me that they noticed a difference and thought I looked leaner. Between losing my second job and Brandon, my husband, getting his job with the fire dept, I had a lot more free time to spend at the gym. In January I thought it would be a good idea to sign up for the Lean Body Challenge (LBC) beginning in at the end of January and ended at the end of April, a 12-week program. The winner of best transformation received a cruise. So we signed up for that and exercised, cooked the right foods, etc. In February I went skiing with my family and at first thought my skiing had improved 200%. Which, yes, it did improve a LOT since the previous year but I soon realized that what REALLY made it easy for me was because of the shape I was in. It was so rewarding to know that all my hard work, time, & sacrifice in the gym paid off on something. Skiing was a blast for me this year!
Still continuing on the LBC was not easy but I tried my best. I had my birthday, valentines day, and Easter. I never gorged on these holidays but I did indulge some while still trying to stay on track. It was defiantly difficult at times when Brandon had a hard time staying on track between eating at home and at the fire dept and that time of the month has also been the cause of sweet food binging at times. The deadline arrives for the LBC and I know that I'm in no way transformed enough to win the challenge so I did not bother to do my final measurements & pictures. I also noticed that I found myself eating more and more things that would hurt and not help my fitness "goals"/lifestyle. I quote goals because I never really had any actual goals like specific measurements or weight. I just knew that I wanted to be toned & defined.
Since I didn't have a regular second job now I would work different ones here and there. In March I worked a marathon that ran through The Woodlands in which one of the competitors was the wife of one of the guys I work with. I had followed her weight loss journey & training journey to this marathon (half). Of all the cardio I had been doing I thought to myself that I could compete in a run! I was not fooling myself thinking I do a marathon or even a half but I thought there was surly something I COULD do! So I take some time to think about this and in April I do some looking and actually found a 5k Trail Run being held at my local YMCA on the second weekend of May. Luckily Brandon was not scheduled to work & he said that he would run it with me. As much as I don't like cardio, especially running, I couldn't believe that I was signing me and my husband up to compete in a 5k. I was ready for the challenge.
I worked the CBI marathon in The Woodlands the weekend before our 5k and it just had me pumped up even more!
Well, we did it!! It was so rewarding to complete! I was so proud of us!
The week after our first 5k I was searching online for another one. Brandon & I decided on an obstacle mud run in Dallas in Sept. The Dash of The Titans. It is a 5k and is timed. I also found a female only obstacle mud run in Galveston the beginning of Nov. that I signed up for. WHOA! Who is this person who is signing up for all of these fitness challenges & where did the Elizabeth go that liked to stay in her comfort zone!? I really got into the all female run and got several other friends to sign up as well. This run is not timed and you can skip over obstacles that you dint feel comfortable doing but will be a HECK of a good time!
The following weekend I worked the Iron Man Triathlon in The Woodlands and it reminded me of my accomplishment the weekend before but left me ready for another challenge.... before September! So the next week I was looking at local runs again and found a 5k in Sugar Land the first weekend in June. Brandon was off work but when I talked to him he told me that he would be out of town for training. Hmpt... So I signed up anyway!
So the week before my second 5k I am still having this feeling inside of me for something bigger, more challenging. I'm on FaceBook and one of the pages that I have followed a while is YourFirstFigureCompetition. So I see posts from that page a lot. The administrator of that page, Kimberly, posts about her preparations for her competitions and miscellaneous tips for training and eating. I've always read what she has posted but NEVER considered even thinking about competing in a figure competition. . . Until now! I'm not sure that I could muster up the courage to present myself on a stage in front of judges but knew that there was no way I could do it without my husbands solid support.
I'm reading a Muscle & Fitness Hers magazine one night in bed and show a picture of a competitor to my husband and say that I was thinking about doing a figure competition. So he says, yeah, that'd be cool. You can do it. That gave me a little push but wondered if he said that thinking that I wasn't that serious so the next morning I sent him a text that said I was kinda serious about doing a figure competition and he responded with, "I didn't think you were serious." After telling him that I really was serious, we talked about it a little bit but I never got an affirmative answer from him until late that week. Two days before my second 5k he let me know in his own way that he was okay with the idea of me doing this. We went for a run that evening and I told him that if I was going to do this that the most important thing for me was to have his support because I could not do it without him. I told him that I wasn't fooling myself and know that it will be a hard and difficult challenge but it was something I really wanted to do.
The next day I purchased Your First Figure Competition training program! http://www.yourfirstfigurecompetition.com/
Then I ran in my second 5k race! I thankfully got my mom to tag along with me and even complete the 2 mile walk! I just as happy if not more than the first 5k! It was still difficult for me so I was happy to have completed it. My time was 20 sec faster than the first! Ha Ha! I didn't train well for it due to the lack of time and being in the process of moving.
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| 34th in my age group, 541st overall out of 937 |
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