The awakening!

Most people have an awakening at some point in their lives. Sometimes it involves a relationship, or work and such. Some people have many awakenings darning there life, I like to think I am one of these people! My fitness awakening came in December of 2008. I was in my kitchen cleaning up after feeding my family take out for the 15th time that month. As I scrapped the plates I felt a knot in my stomach. I knew what I was feeding myself and my family was absolute junk with little to no nutritional value. Yet I allowed myself to do it over and over because “I didn’t have time to cook”. Mind you at this time I was going to the gym and telling everyone I was going to do a fitness competition, I just kept moving the date! I wanted to do better than this and I knew I owed it to my children to help them establish better eating habits than I did when I was their age. But did I really have the dedication, strength, and resolve to be the EXAMPLE. The mere thought of this make me tremble with fear right there in front of the garbage can!

So I did what I normally do when I am faced with having to take the tough path, I tried to ignore it and hoped it went away! ; ) But it did not go away, in fact the feeling got worse. Every time I fed my children something processed or loaded with sugar, I would have visions of their life as teenagers or young adults struggling just to be healthy, be competitive in sports, or for my daughter, fighting the body image battle that most women face and constant dieting to change habits I helped create! It was all to much for me! Then came “The Awakening”! I realized I did not have a choice. I had to change, if not for my health, for the health of my family.

On Jan 1, 2009 I changed. I resolved to give my body the nutrition it deserved and the consistent exercise it so desperately needed. I resolved to commit to a competition date, and if I did not look the way I wanted I was going to force myself to do it anyway. With the support of my husband and a very dedicated workout partner who drove me to the gym at 4:30am, I did my first competition in May and my second in June. Living a fit and healthy lifestyle is now ingrained in me. I’m a believer, as my husband says, “I drank the Juice”. Now I’m hooked and living a fit life.