I am so mad right now...

I hate reading people's venting and ranting on the message boards. If you don't like reading that kind of stuff, then please, click out of here now. I just am insanely mad right now about a private message that I got, and I wanted to post something about it...just to get it off my chest.

First of all, I would like to say that I would never send any of you a private message telling you that I don't think that your goals can ever be attained, especially since I don't personally know you outside of a social website. I don't know what your underlying goals are, and I don't know who you are working with or even how hard you are working to attain your goals. What I do know is that if you are trying to lose body fat, I will cheer you on. If you are trying to lose pounds, I will cheer you on. If you want to gain muscle, I will cheer you on. Tearing people down for their goals is totally against what this website is even here for!

Secondly, I shouldn't even have to explain my goals to you, or anyone else out there. They are MY goals, not yours. But since I am riled up because of the message I was sent, I guess I will do that so perhaps one person can be prevented from writing me a private message and trying to ruin my day. Yes, my goal is to have 12% body fat. Yes, this is perfectly acceptable and attainable, no matter what YOU tell me. I've told numerous people that I don't want merely to lose weight and be thin. I've told people that I want to be lean and athletic. But what I haven't told people is that I want to walk across the stage competing in fitness and figure competitions. It's not explicitly expressed on my page, but then again, you won't be reading about my whole life's worth of goals, dreams, and aspirations in a 2-3 paragraph blog on my MFP profile page either!!!

I don't think 18% body fat is a bad goal for anyone to have! It used to be MY goal before I decided that I wanted to compete. You can be very slim and lean at that body fat %, no doubt! In my picture, I was 20% body fat. But, you couldn't see the muscle definition that I was looking for, and there wasn't even a hint of a six pack even starting to show up at all. Sure, I looked great in my size 6 clothes and I was rockin' those bikinis on the beach. And that's all wonderful, but my goals are bigger than just losing weight to look good in small clothes...

As many of you know, I am a police officer. One fellow police officer that I have worked with for 3 years (her name is Alison) is a fitness competitor. She is absolutely gorgeous. She has...guess what? Size 2 clothes and 12% body fat. She's slightly taller than me (by only 1 inch). If she can do it, SO CAN I. I've received a lot of help and motivation from her.

I found a friend here on MFP who, oh my goodness, has 12% body fat and wears size 2 clothes. She's also just 1 inch taller than me. You can check out her MFP page if you like, she is stephanielynn76. I hope she doesn't mind, lol! But she started out...at guess what? MY CURRENT SIZE AND WEIGHT. So, don't you dare tell me that I can't reach my goals, when this woman, for example, has achieved the body that I want starting out exactly like I am starting out!!! And just look at her profile picture...abs and other definition poppin' out everywhere. Just like I want.

I joined Tom Venuto's website earlier this year and made friends with people who have read his book "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle" and went through his program. They started out like me, not really over weight in an unhealthy way, but looking to improve their physique anyway, and you know what happened after they following his recommendations? They ended up with, you guessed it, the same look that I am after and a low body fat % and smaller clothes. Look at his website, for crying out loud! The women that go through his program are not looking to lose weight and look like Jessica Biel (not that it's a bad thing, just not MY personal goal) then end up looking like figure competitors and often times that's exactly what they become!

If you don't like my goals, don't message me about it. Just cheer me on and keep me accountable. I am certainly not starving myself by eating between 1500 and 1800 calories a day. I am also not overtraining by spending less than 1 hour per day in the gym, and no more than 5 days a week. I am losing body fat, but I am retaining lean muscle. When I get low enough body fat, then I will work hard to build muscle by adding more calories and cutting out some cardio so I can concentrate on heavy lifting. You might think that my goals are unattainable. You might think they are impossible. But that is exactly what limits YOU, not me. Because I WILL REACH MY GOALS!!! I have seen multiple other people reach my goals, and now it is my turn. If I were to send that personal message to any one of my bodybuilder friends, they'd laugh at it wholeheartedly.

Perhaps goals like mine are more suited for Venuto's Inner Circle website or Bodybuilding.com. But I thought that since this is My FITNESS Pal, they'd be appreciated here, too. I am not crash dieting, fad dieting, over training, taking steroids, or anything else ridiculous like that. I am not belittling your goals, you shouldn't belittle mine.

I am sure there are others out there like me...other healthy people who are made fun of for having healthy goals...but I suppose I was wrong to assume that I wouldn't meet such negative people on this website. I hope it doesn't happen to any of you.

If you read this whole rant, I appreciate it. I certainly don't like reading most other rants on these boards, but then again, mine is different from theirs...I am not trying to tear anyone down. I am trying to prevent me, or anyone else, from being torn down simply for posting goals that are different than most other people's goals. Sad that I even had to add a paragraph to my profile explaining this.

Yes, some people ARE at a healthy weight and BMI trying to become more fit. Since when did this website only become a place that can only be used by overweight people whose goals are to be at a healthy weight? Can the rest of us not track our food intake? Hmmm...