35lbs Gone and Competition Ready at 45 years old!

My journey started 15 months ago.

I struggled with weight my whole life. In my teen years I was sickly thin as I suffered from Anorexia. After a brief marriage at 21 I met my current husband Chip. He helped me overcome my issues with food and taught me how to work out with weights. After we married and we had our child, I started to struggle with my weight as it slowly started to pile on. Increasingly I shifted my workouts to cardio and I tried every diet out there and even exercising myself to death. However, if I lost weight it was only temporary. I got caught up in the “fat free” and “sugar free” dieting. I worked out 6 days a week for more than an hour a day primarily focused on cardio – I had been an aerobics instructor and ran many races including a ½ marathon. But I usually rewarded myself with food because of the time I put in at the gym. I was never happy with my body, considered myself a “big girl” but I desperately wanted to be lean.

July 2013 I decided to break the cycle. I was surrounded by females at the gym that were going through their own transformations and competing in fitness competitions. Having reached my breaking point I was inspired to make a change. I started my journey on July 8 2013 – I weighed 160 lbs., wore a size 10 and my body fat was approximately 30%.

Three months into my journey, I watched friends compete in a local fitness competition. Again, I was inspired. So I decided I was going to compete. I set a goal to compete in a regional competition in May 2014. I signed with an online coach who introduced me to macro-based nutrition, MyFitnessPal and a monthly workout rotation that included a 5 day split routine, 1 full body day and a rest day. And so it began. I had a lot of work to do.

Slowly but surely the weight started to come off. I was very committed to both the nutrition and the exercises. 10 months and 1 week from the day I started I stepped on the stage at Fitness America 2014 in Hartford, CT in the Masters Bikini and Model divisions. The day of the show I weighed 122 lbs. – 37 lbs less than where I started. My body fat was around 10%. It was a great experience but it also provided me an opportunity to rethink my goals. Two weeks after the show, I decided I really wanted to compete in the Figure division and in a different federation. I signed with a new, local coach and started phase two of my journey. Today, I weigh 135lbs, wear a size 2 and my body fat is 13%. I am now in the building phase and planning to compete in the Figure division in the Summer 2015 and have a Facebook blog: 40SomethingFitness.

I have always been athletic but when I got control of my nutrition and started really lifting properly it all clicked for me. MyFitnessPal was a critical part of my success. I never missed a day of logging from when I started until my competition. I missed logging that weekend but the following Monday to present I have logged every day. I have shared MFP with many people and provided tutorials on how to use the app. I can’t live without it!