My Transformation Story

The theme of BodyBuilding.com's Dymatize Total Body Tranformation Challenge was "what will you become?"  At the beginning of my 12 weeks I thought of who I wanted to become of course I thought ‘the lean, toned me I’ve always wanted’.  However, I’ll admit it wasn’t without a little doubt.  Though, never in a million years did I imagine all that I could become in 12 short weeks.  I became stronger; physically, mentally, and spiritually, transforming my body to the leanest I’ve ever been, identifying, dealing with and overcoming my sugar addiction, and learning to lean on God for the strength that only He can provide.  I became determined to excel at this transformation without the luxuries of a standard gym and succeed with what I had, most of which fit into the back of my coat closet.  But most importantly, I became an inspiration to some.  Friends and family began to ask me about my transformation and wanted to learn more about a healthy lifestyle.  And I became a role model for my children, nieces and nephews, showing them that good health is a choice and has to be worked hard for, in hopes that they’ll grow up healthy and fit. 

This challenge was the perfect push to get me to where I am now.  I discovered my senior year of college that I was not naturally skinny after all, I had just been very active and a sedentary lifestyle would put the weight on fast.  I learned that I had to keep my meals in check and be active every so often to keep my weight at bay, but I was never consistent with a healthy lifestyle or good eating habits. There were times when I’d lose track and would gain quickly, and I had significant weight gain with both of my pregnancies.  I’d get back into it for a while and tried to keep my weight down to a certain number or jean size and then say, ‘ok, good enough.’  I always appeared skinny in clothes, but underneath it was not the body I wanted.  I wanted that slim, toned, fit body, but actually didn’t think it was possible, especially after having 2 babies.  Though, after reading all of the transformation stories and seeing pictures of other women who have made it, I began thinking it might be possible.  When I saw the BodyBuilding.com Transformation Challenge I knew that it was exactly what I needed to finally give me the drive and motivation to see what I could actually become.  I was tired of being ‘good enough,’ I wanted to become GREAT!

My job and life, first and foremost, is being a mom.  My world revolves around my 2 little ones and my husband.  I wanted to become a role model for them and be an example of healthy living.  However, I also was not going to lose hours of my time with them (or my sleep for that matter) to a crazy training schedule and live at the gym for 12 weeks.  So it was important to me to create a training schedule that revolved around my family and our daily routines.  This kept my program maintainable, so that I can continue training at this level on a daily basis.  I would do my cardio mid-day during naptimes and then my strength training at night after they went to bed.  Of course there were some days when the workouts were thrown off because of family matter, but that’s just life and you make up for it when you can.

Without a gym membership or the help of a trainer, I turned to BodyBuilding.com and several other fitness magazines to learn all that I could about fitness.  With that I was able to build me a routine that I could do in my home with what equipment I have.  Of course, there were several things I would usually have to modify but I always found a way to make them work safely.  I broke my 12 weeks up into 3 different 4 week programs, starting with full body circuits, then workout splits with mostly supersets, and finally switched my splits around and performed more straight sets 5 days a week.  I performed cardio on the treadmill 5 days a week for 30-60 minutes, alternating jogging, HIIT, and inclines, and then did a light cardio on the 6^th day, usually Zumba or something fun that still got the heart pumping.  I would always try to have a full rest day, but seriously, there’s no ‘full rest day’ when you have two toddlers.

Learning new eating habits was the hardest part of this challenge.  My meals that I regularly used to eat were not that bad.  We had a lot of clean dinners and very rarely ever went out to fast food.  But it was the sweets I couldn’t resist!  I have a very large sweet tooth and it was taking control of my brain, and my body.  It wasn’t until I learned to look at food as fuel, and really pay attention to the stuff we are putting into our bodies that I started overcoming my desire for sweets, and clean up all of the other stuff as well.  I discovered hundreds of clean eating recipes and each week I would make up a menu of everything I was going to eat that week.  I couldn’t just stick with grilled chicken and broccoli, so I mixed it up often, just making sure I ate 5-6 meals a day (every 2-3 hours) and paired my meals up with a lean protein, complex carb, and sometimes a healthy fat.  Too help with my sweet tooth, I would allow myself 1 square (about ½  oz) of dark chocolate after dinner each evening.  When I had a chocolate craving I would know that I was going to get my piece after dinner and that would cool down the cravings.  If I had a really big craving that my little square wouldn’t suffice, I’d find a clean, healthy, usually high protein recipe for a sweet dish, like protein peanut butter balls.

And of course I had cheat meals (and occasional weekends), but I learned to control portions.  When my families’ around, it’s very hard to eat clean 100%.  I had to learn to be ok for the little slips ups here and there and just enjoy my time, and then work it all off later.  However, I knew I had become the strongest and most determined when I was able to walk down the Easter candy isle to fill my kids’ baskets and I didn’t get any anxiety or cravings that I used to be overwhelmed with.  Granted, I still have cravings from time to time, but now I have discipline and the mindset to stay on a healthy eating track.

My supplements were an important factor in my transformation.  I’ve used whey protein in the past when I worked out, but that was about the extent of my knowledge and experience with supplements.  I used BB.com to learn about many different kinds, what they were for, and what would benefit me the most.  Shortly after the challenge I started taking Dymatize Elite Whey Isolate Protein, in chocolate of course, for my post workout meal.  I also would take ON Amino Energy for my pre-workouts and sometimes recovery.  I was taking an off brand multivitamin, though after a few weeks in and learning that I should be taking one that’s more specific to my needs I began taking ON Multi-Women.  I also started a fish oil supplement that I have been most impressed with.  My body definitely wouldn’t have made such a good transformation without the help of these supplements.  I’m still learning about other supplements and know that there’s more that I can benefit from to continue to transform my body even further.

I want to thank BodyBuilding.com for the opportunity to compete in this challenge and the insight, motivation, and knowledge I’ve acquired through your site.  It became a daily habit to get on here and check out all of the new motivation and information, find new recipes and workouts, and see how my BB family was doing on BodySpace.  You’ve given me the information and motivation to live a happier and healthier life, and to try to pay it forward and help others start living happier and healthier as well.