How I Fell In Love With Fitness

I honestly can't pinpoint when I fell in love with fitness, but I've always been oddly strong with great muscle definition (I say that as humbly as possible).  

As a third grade little girl, I owned the record for the most pull-ups in the whole elementary school (including the 5th and 6th grade boys).  

One time, at a waterpark with my mom, when I couldn't have been older than 7, some guys approached her and asked if I "worked out."  Isn't that strange?  How many 7 year old girls do you know who work out?  

I started gymnastics when I was ten because a coach saw me at a summer camp and told me I should join the team.  

I became a pole vaulter in high school because the track coach saw me in the hallway, thought I looked "strong", and told me I should try pole vaulting.  Curiosity got the best of me, and I said, "Sure, why not?!"  

But even as a successful high school pole-vaulter, I really didn't work out very intentionally.  Sure, I would go to the YMCA, jump on an elliptical, and feel immense pride when I burned 400 calories (supposedly). 

So to narrow it down, it must have been at the University of Florida, where I truly fell in love with fitness, not just sports or pole vaulting, but intentional, purposeful, strength and conditioning.  

I had chosen to study Exercise and Sports Science with a specialty in "Fitness/Wellness", but to be honest, I chose that because yes, it certainly made the most sense for me, but most importantly, it didn't require calculus or chemistry or any of those math/science subjects that I despised.  So naturally, that's how I picked what I would "do" for the rest of my life.  

But in the weight room is where I fell in love with fitness.  I was introduced to power lifting and plyometrics and agility training and truly enjoyed all of it, though box jumps were my absolute favorite.  

I got a lot of fulfillment out of going in with a plan, setting goals, pushing my body to its limits and sometimes reaching or even exceeding those goals.  I think it's also easy to really enjoy something when you're good at it.  And I was really great at working out!  : )  

After college, I became a personal trainer and I loved working with my clients, but it wasn't long before I became bored with my own workouts.  I missed the accountability of working out with my strength and conditioning coach, I missed the social aspect of working out with my friends and teammates.  It just wasn't as much fun to create my own workouts.  

After marrying my husband and traveling the country, I worked out religiously because I really didn't have anything else to do.  In 2009, bored with my day to day life and hungry for a challenge, I decided to train for and compete in a figure competition.  I loved that I had someone creating workouts for me again (though 3 hours/day was a bit much), I loved that I had a personal goal and challenge again, but I did not love the rigid nutrition program.  

I've always taken the view that I workout hard, so I can eat whatever I want.  In the fitness competition world, that is not the approach.  You work out really hard and you eat ridiculously healthy.  Truthfully, it wasn't the amount of food that was the problem.  For the most part, I was getting enough calories, but I was so bored with the food.  

After 3 months of training, I won my first competition, and I was encouraged to keep going and compete in another competition two weeks later (which I was not mentally prepared for). I didn't place, and I decided fitness competitions weren't for me.  I respect those athletes immensely, but I enjoy food way more than winning fitness competitions.  

I was disappointed, though, because I just knew I wanted to do something with fitness and I thought these competitions were going to be my thing.  Traveling around the country so often for Matt's baseball career didn't make it easy to pursue a traditional career in fitness or strength/conditioning.  I continued to hope and pray that something would fall in to my lap.  

Finally in 2014, after having twins, I decided to give the Beachbody thing a whirl. I wasn't too invested in the coaching part, but I figured I might as well try it, because as much as I loved the gym, I wasn't going to make it back there any time soon (with 3 children age 2 and under).  

I started with P90X3 and I fell in love with fitness again.  I felt like I had a trainer right there with me, coaching me, challenging me, telling me what to do.  As a person who knows a lot about working out, this program introduced exercises to me I had never done before!  In thirty minutes at home, I was working way harder than my 60-90 minutes workouts at the gym where I would do my cardio, a few lunges and push-ups and call it a day.  

Tony Horton helped me explode out of the "workout box" I had put myself in and it felt amazing.  Not only was my body changing significantly, but I felt athletic again.  I felt strong again.  As a former athlete, that meant way more to me than just getting rid of my baby weight.

For over 18 months, I did one Beachbody program after another, and went in to my 3rd pregnancy with my 4th child in the best shape of my life.  I was able to keep up my workouts through most of my pregnancy, and in just a few weeks, I will begin my 3rd post-baby transformation. I hope you will join me : )