Guest Post: My Journey from Obese to a Figure girl

Ahh, another guest post. This one JUST as good as good as all the others. This is my friend Becca. We met on a Fitness Forum about 2 years ago and have actually had a fun meetup in New York City before. She is truly wonderful person who has a work ethic like NOBODY I know. She has gone from an obese teenager to a soon to be figure competitor! Read her story and be inspired just like I am.

Last week Lisa asked me to write a guest blog for her, and like the good friend I am how could I say no? We met on a fitness message board about a year and a half ago and actually have met in person, taking a trip to NYC with another friend we met on the board. A little crazy sounding, but definitely the best trip I’ve taken and one I’ll never forget. Lisa has been there for me through a lot of ups and downs since we met, and for that I’ll always be so thankful for meeting her! The reason she asked me to write this blog was (I think!) because I’m prepping for my first figure competition, but I also am overcoming seriously disordered eating. So here goes.

Obese my whole life, probably more like morbidly obese but I often don’t like to think of that. I like to think of how far I’ve come, not what I had let myself become. By high school I was pushing 250 pounds, suffered from severe asthma and could barely walk up a flight of stairs without getting out of breath. Sadly, I was a VERY active child growing up, I played just about every sport and did a lot of activities but we were a very clean your plate, have seconds and dessert kind of family and obviously that doesn’t bode well with a slow metabolism.

Highschool Prom

I started rowing in high school and the weight “fell off”. While dieting to make lightweight classification for nationals I slowly began my ventures in disordered eating and even after I stopped racing it has followed me, and if not intensified. My disordered eating has ranged from mild anorexia, to binging (although never purging), added to excessive exercise. I’ve worked with several trainers over the last two years trying to find a good fit for me. They have ranged from only allowing me two egg whites as a snack, to excessively limited food choices (I lived off chicken and green beans for MONTHS!), to an ill advised building period to my nutritionist now whom I love and adore and credit a lot of my sane approach to contest prep with.

Prep began back in January and I’m currently ten days away from stepping on stage. I was finally able to commit to doing this show and being completely selfish for once, I was single, mentally ready and feeling good. Nothing was going to stop me. I would be in bed by 9 every night, eat my meals, do my workouts and live and breathe prep. Well… How often do best laid plans workout? I had my first date with my boyfriend the day I got my macros and cardio plan from my trainer. So much for being a hermit. We eat out a few nights (sometimes EVERY night) a week, we’ve gone on two weekend trips, dinners with his family, and was it always perfect? No, but this prep really showed me you can compete and be “normal”. Admittedly I am lucky that he trains just as much as I do, eats fairly well, and actually dragged me to an outdoor bootcamp with him last weekend. Having support and understanding is so important when you commit so something very selfish like a show.

Has it all been easy and fun? No, there is meals to plan, tracking macros on my phone when we eat out or run around on weekends, I’m often running just a bit late because I was at the gym, I get tired, worn out, sad and stressed, but there’s also a lot of good in there too. Prep has definitely taught me more about myself and who I am and what I want than I ever expected it to. Do I still have eating issues? Sure. Sometimes I just want to open the cupboard and stuff myself with cookies and icecream. But is it really worth it? How will it make me feel? Will it get me any closer to my goals? Not really. I have worked in an organic cookie here and there into my macros, best option? Nope, but it definitely satisfies me and keeps me moving forward. At about three weeks out I wanted to quit. I felt like a fat, bloated, gross mess who would never be ready, there was a lot of tears and long talks with friends and I decided to keep pushing through and I’m so glad I did. Everything is falling into place now, final diet changes, the last week of cardio, I picked up my sparkly suit, tried out my (very) fake tanner, practiced with my fake eyelashes and makeup. I feel READY and to be honest, very very excited and proud of myself for not giving up and finishing this long time goal of mine.

A very real problem I had with deciding to do this show was something called the “rebound”. Basically you restrict your eating for so long then when you are free of the diet and strict training you just go crazy and eat everything in sight. With my history of binging this was a very real fear for me, so I was sure to develop a plan to best prevent this from happening. No foods are off limits with my coach, so that is a very good start, I’ve also commited myself to a second show 8 weeks from my first one to keep me on track. Yes, a rebound could still happen, but having a plan in place should really help prevent it. I never set out saying “I’m going to win my first comp”, in fact if you look in my little notebook I carry around with me you’ll see my scribbled list of goals. The main two are:

1. Follow through, get on stage and look like I belong up there (aka not completely embarrass myself!)
2. Not come completely dead last. (I’ll be happy with second to last place!)

I guess that’s my little prep story. A week and a half I’ll be slapping on my tan, glueing my teeny tiny (but very pretty!) posing suit to my behind and walking on stage in my 5 inch heels. I’m scared and excited, but so ready to do this and keep improving myself for future shows. I’m definitely hooked on the competition lifestyle!