"Most Inspirational"

The past seven months I have been working really hard at becoming more healthy. As some of you know I was involved in a 12 week challenge at my gym to help give me even more motivation. It has been an amazing experience for me. It has completely changed my life in soooo many ways. Also for the record it was about so much more than just losing weight to me. Yes it started out as losing weight but I have gained a lot of other things from it. I am ten times happier, I actually have energy to keep up with my crazy life, I have learned a lot of great knowledge, I have my confidence back, I have met amazing people, and so much more! I love life!

After a month of waiting for judging to be finished, I finally found out the results last Monday. First off the judges went through and picked top three finalists in each category just based off of pictures. In my category of 18-29 year old females I was able to make it through the first round of judging which was exciting. Then they went through and picked a winner in each age group. On Monday I found out that I won my age group.... which feels amazing. There were 10 different age groups/categories. From the ten winners the judges then were to pick a "Most Inspirational" winner. They read essays we wrote and looked at all our numbers of weight/body fat loss and whatnot. Earlier that day my trainer had led me to believe that I hadn't won. I knew that it was a close competition so I knew that I had a chance, but I thought that some of the other essays were probably pretty amazing (which they were). When I went to the celebration to find out who won I honestly wasn't expecting to be the winner. I was freaking out and all nervous because they made us read/summarize our essays in front of everyone and only gave us like a two minute notice. I hate public speaking! Yeah I was a little embarassed... ok a lot embarassed. When they were getting ready to announce the winner my heart was racing like crazy. Finally they called my name! I was completely shocked and super stoked. I have never done anything like this. This is a huge accomplishment for me to win over like 200 people (about 300 signed up in the beginning). It seriously feels awesome to win $3,000 and I have been blessed a number of times throughout this process. Now my stuff is being sent in for national judging.... crazy right?! I don't have any expectations at that level but still I think it's pretty cool.

Here are my stats from the 12 week challenge (not even the real stats of when I actually started losing weight) When I started the challenge I weighed 141 lbs and my body fat was at 27.9%. At the end I weighed in at 118 lbs with my body fat at 15.9%. I lost 7 inches on my waist, 2 inches around my thigh, and 4 inches around my hips.

Also I told some of you that I would post pictures when I got them from the gym. My before pictures are really embarassing so please don't judge!! ha It's way difficult for me to post these! I seriously wasn't going to post them but I know I promised some of you that I would. So here goes...


I just wanna thank everyone who helped and supported me throughout this process. Phil put up with a lot and kept me going when it got difficult. Courtney you were a lifesaver and I appreciated how you helped (you know what I mean lol). Chance, my trainer, had a HUGE impact on this and I couldn't have got here without him teaching me what to do. My family and friends are awesome and I love you all! Thanks! Now I need some new goals... anyone wanna run a half marathon with me this summer?! :)