Ingenious Life {Captured} Photography Blog

I want to give you a window into who I am, as well as post about wedding stuff… This is the first of  many posts to give you a peek into what makes me, ME

I stay pretty busy like most people, but I do have some time in my life that I chose to use in ways that I want to. It’s my “ME” time…

I like to do all kinds of different things in my “ME” time… Photography, scrapbooking, spending time with my friends and family, traveling, enjoying nature, shopping… I am really across the board on the things that I like to do.

About 11 months ago, I started thinking about getting back into shape. I have always been kind of athletic and have always had the hunger to improve my health and body, but I had gained weight and was very uncomfortable with myself. I started running several years ago. I trained for and ran in several races up to and including the 2011 Kentucky Derby Mini-Marathon, but all of that never seemed to improve my weight or my health. I started thinking about and researching women’s bodybuilding.

Through this research I learned that there are several different divisions of women’s bodybuilding. These divisions are all pretty different, but I still didn’t know very much about them. I knew I didn’t want to be really big and that I wanted to see all of the divisions in action. I took a trip up to the 2011 NPC Northern Kentucky Body Building Competition last Feburary. I drove up by myself and sat off to the side of the stage and graded papers. There was a very nice couple that sat in front of me who were patient enough to answer all of my silly questions about why one person placed higher than another, but the most important part of my night was when I met Julie Lohre. 

Julie had a booth in the lobby of the competition and her husband Rick was manning the booth the first time I strolled by. I took a card, looked around, then went back and sat down. I went out later and Julie was there, I talked to her for a few minutes, she suggested online training, but I thought pssssh, online training, I can do this, I’ve been doing it for years… right? WRONG!

I came home, decided that I wanted to compete in women’s bodybuilding and told my family and friends my goal. I scrounged up a diet or two from different people in the gym, went to work at 12 weeks and counted down. I got down to 8 weeks out and realized that I was NO WHERE NEAR READY to walk on a stage in something that tiny in 8 WEEKS, but I couldn’t just quit, I had told people that I was going to do this, I had publicized this goal of mine. I COULDN’T QUIT!

Julie’s card had sat in my key bowl, next to the garage door, since I came home from the Northern Kentucky. I saw it everyday when I left the house. I knew if I was going to achieve my goal, I had to change something, and that something was going to include Julie. I remember getting my first phone call from her sitting in the parking lot of the gym. She was so positive and encouraging about everything. I thought, “Heck Yeah, I can do this.” A week or two later I had my first meeting with her. We found out very quickly that my goal date was not going to be doable… I cried… a lot. I had no idea what kind of commitment I was making, but I had already made the decision I was going to do it. The only thing I could do was move forward. So I did.

I worked with Julie and then joined her Team Fitbody to have support and training for my very first competition, and let me just tell you, this was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my entire life. Very few things in my life can compare to the experience and the people I have met along this journey….

Journey details coming soon…..