POST: MARCH 7, 2011 | BACK TO OTHER POSTS

This year my competition prep includes a 12 week diet. However, my journey can’t be counted in weeks or months. My passion for the sport was born several years ago. To fully understand where I am today, I’ll have to take you back to where I started. My story begins in front of the camera. For more than five years, I worked in the TV news industry. I started at an NBC affiliate in San Diego, and then worked my way up to Central Oregon where I was a news reporter and anchor for three years. Despite building my life around what was turning into a promising career in television, something stronger than me was pulling me in another direction. I’ve always been involved in sports, and for many years I dreamed of getting in front of a different set of bright lights. I wanted to take my fire for fitness to the next level; I wanted to compete on the figure stage! However, at the time, some colleagues told me competing would destroy my credibility, and many peers would ridicule me for even thinking about getting into a bikini on a stage. So, since I couldn’t compete, my boyfriend Josh Field and I opened an outdoor fitness program called Adventure Boot Camp. Our business helped me stay connected to my fitness roots, and allowed me to help others make their goals a reality.

For two long years I ran a fitness business full time, while delivering the news. I felt like I was living a double life, and competing was forced to take a back seat. However, during that time I still managed to pitch and cover many health/fitness related stories, connecting me to a world I longed to be a deeper part of. One story in particular allowed me to meet the owner of our local Max Muscle Store. He later introduced me to IFBB Professional Tami Ough. To my knowledge she’s the only fitness pro in all of Oregon, and she just happened to live in little ol’ Central Oregon. I truly believe this meeting is a big reason my career path took a 180 degree turn. Not long after we met, I asked my news station if I could follow her journey to her next pro competition, and turn it into a news series. I couldn’t believe it…they said YES! Over the next several months, I was lucky enough to get an inside look into what it took to be a pro in the world of fitness. I documented what she ate, her training, and how she maintained her family life while working as a full-time nurse. It was an eye-opening experience, one that made me question my own path. Tami encouraged me to think about competing as she could tell this was more than just another news story to me; it was personal. Like many competitors, all that ran through my head was: I could never get on stage, I don’t have the body for it, or what would my co-workers think?! She told me to throw all of it out the window, and do it for me, not anyone else. That competitive itch I tried to suppress for the sake of my TV career…was back. Back with a vengeance! So that year my boyfriend (who had also never competed but wanted to) and I began a 16 week diet to see what would happen. My plan was to see how my body responded, and if I felt I was ready I would maybe, just MAYBE, ask my news station if I could compete in Central Oregon’s local competition, the Bill Pearl High Desert Classic.

Fast forward through 11 weeks of intense training, and with Josh’s help I managed to hit 8% body fat (and I was still five weeks out)! It was too late to turn back, and all I had to do now was get approval to get on stage. I asked, and was told it wasn’t a smart choice, but that it was a choice that was ultimately up to me. It was strange…all of the dieting, training, blood, sweat, and tears had made me stronger, and that year I listened to my heart. I got on stage, regardless of what anyone else thought! I won 2nd in my height class in figure at the Bill Pearl High Desert Classic, and 1st at the Oregon Ironman. I was hooked! It was an empowering decision, one I will NEVER regret. It changed me, not only on the outside, but even more noticeably on the inside. I had found my confidence, my spark, and my new direction in life. A year later, I left the news industry, and I’m now pursuing my dreams of becoming a fitness professional.

Since then, our fitness program has doubled in size, and I’ve made the switch from figure to fitness, again, with Tami’s encouragement of course. Like I said, my journey didn’t start during the first week of my competition diet. My journey began the day I made the decision to believe in myself, and stop listening to what everyone else thought was best for me. Since then, it’s always been a work in progress. There’s no “on” or “off” season in my eyes. It’s a daily process that I’m thankful for, and one that I enjoy. I take it one meal, one workout, and one routine practice at a time. The struggle, the triumph, and the defeat make me tick, and allows my love for the sport to grow stronger by the minute. Being a storyteller for many years, it’s only natural for me to share my new path with you. However, on this path there are no teleprompters, no scripts, and certainly no one telling me how to word the story. This is me: raw, un-cut, and un-edited. This year, I’ll be taking on one of the biggest shows in my short competitive career. Here is my journey to the Emerald Cup….