When I opened up the forum for you to openly ask questions, I quickly received quite a few relating to my fitness competition. You asked, and I will tell. In one comprehensive post just for you!

Why did you decide to start figure-competitions/lifting? Was it to eat more without gaining weight?

In the fall of my junior year of college I went to the Auburn/UGA game. We had to take a shuttle to the game from a strip mall. While waiting for the shuttle, we stopped in a store and flipped through some magazines. Oxygen Fitness Magazine caught my eye for some reason, so I picked it up.

I got hooked on the magazine and the thought of weight training intrigued me. At that point I enjoyed doing cardio workout DVDs at home, so I opted to branch out my collection. I bought some Cathe Friedrich DVDs with weights and fell in love. Eventually, I joined a gym to challenge myself in new ways and try out some of the workouts in Oxygen. I loved the strong feeling from working out with weights and the changes I saw in my body. I began reading everything I could about weightlifting.

I also originally became interested in fitness competitions from reading Oxygen. I began wondering if it was something I could do.

I noticed the magazine had a fitness forum and joined. I got to know other women who competed through the forum and began working towards entering one myself. I decided to work with a coach and train for my first show. It did not end well, thanks to the old-school methods of training and dieting. I even passed out a few times from blood sugar issues thanks to the prescribed diet. Finally, I determined it was in my best interest to not compete in that show.

That competition always hung over me and I knew I would regret if I never trained for another and made it to stage. When I got in better shape than I expected after Makenzie, thanks to finally learning how to respect my body, I figured that was the time to just go for it. So I did, but with my own plans and workouts to take care of my body. As for being able to eat more without gaining weight? That actually never entered my mind. In fact, I knew the opposite would be true with the competition. I knew I would feel hungry all. the. time!

What do you like and don't like about them?

I will be blunt and say that I disliked a lot more than I liked about competing.

• I hated reaching a point where workouts felt like an obligation, instead of something I enjoyed doing for myself.
• I did not feel like myself the majority of the prep because it took so much time and energy. I couldn’t enjoy simple things, like my daughter’s first birthday, without thinking about workouts, the food, or scheduling. I was moody, cranky, and unhappy. I didn’t feel like I was living.
• While my body looked extremely defined, I physically felt like crap. Why wouldn’t I? I was starved and exhausted.
• I feared that old eating issues would come back. I did binge a couple times after the show, and thankfully got a grip on it very quickly. I don’t know what I would have done if I lost the healthy relationship with food and workouts I strived so hard to achieve. It was still a great mental challenge post-show having to gain weight – not only to get back to a healthy place, but also extra in order to get pregnant sooner.
• The judging is completely subjective. I competed more for myself and did not hope to win, but it still hurt to place 4th out of 4. Especially after going through all of the above emotions and realizing exactly how political things were at that show. The women who placed ahead of me? They all trained with trainers from the gym whose owners head the federation. Yea.

I did like parts of the show as well. The actual show day was a great time! The women were all so nice and it literally felt like one big party backstage. We laughed, ate, shook our groove thang, and got to know each other well gluing one another into our suits. Yes, you glue the suits so they don’t slip and show something extra.

I also really loved the feeling of accomplishment. Training for a show is extremely hard work. I knew I did my very best and took my body to places I never thought possible. I knew I would never have to wonder “what if” again. I learned a lot. Plus, I had fun being up on stage.

Would you consider doing another fitness competition in the future?

No. The negatives of competing far outweighed the positives for me. Some people thrive in prep and really do enjoy the cycle of training for shows. More power to them! I also never discourage someone from attempting to do a show, as long as it is a goal they know they would regret not achieving. I don’t recommend it for those who think of it as a cool way to get in shape or lose weight.

• Have you ever done something you thought you would love and now never want to do it again?

FFF Featured Blogger (chosen from your comments): Keeping Slim and Getting Stylish – I think the title says it all! Laura blogs about excellent healthy dining ideas and has fun fashion favorites mixed in here and there. She had a great post earlier today about food choices too.

Today I have really just gone with the flow. It all started after Power class. I had a sudden urge to come up with workout split ideas for after the baby comes. I know I still have around 12 weeks left, but I couldn’t help it! I sat down at my computer and typed up the splits I found myself brainstorming during Power class.

I cannot wait to get back to my favorite workouts and plans! And please note that this is just a random list of rotations and plans I have used before of varying difficulty and set-up. I have no order whatsoever to the above. I simply felt inspired to jot down possibilities of things I’ve done before that I enjoyed for me to pull from when I get back in the gym after this pregnancy. You will just have to wait with me to see how these play out in my future workouts. 😉

Moving on. I maintained that go with the flow attitude for my food today as well. At lunch I felt a tad bit of nausea again, which leads me to think its just a part of this pregnancy. I craved a simple lunch and a few things leftover from the birthday party this weekend. I had a throwback to school days with a PBJ sandwich, sliced apple, handful of chips, and a soda.

Then, a few hours later I craved something sweet. Dang you artificial sweeteners! Luckily, I still had my small square of pumpkin bread from the pumpkin patch on Saturday. Who am I to have saved such a delectable treat for 4 days?!

And who am I to have only eaten half because I realized I wasn’t really hungry and wanted to save some for later?

Lastly, I felt inspired to go with the flow on a topic tonight as well. Quite…literally. Meghann posted about not having her cycle for the past year on her blog today. It really touches close to home for me because I didn’t have my cycle for awhile as well, thanks to nursing and then jumping right into the intense training for my fitness competition. It bothered me greatly that my body did not function properly, especially knowing we wanted to conceive another child.

As soon as my competition ended, I took steps to try to bring my cycle back. For me, that meant not working out at all for a month and then limited workouts for awhile after that. I had to gain weight, which I would have done regardless coming off of show weight. It went further than that, though. Due to wanting to conceive right away, I had to gain weight to get back to the size I was when I got pregnant with Makenzie. A huge mental battle ensued, but I now feel so blessed that I took care of the problem sooner rather than later. Only a few months of competition training affecting my cycle caused a lot more trouble conceiving the little man than we likely would have faced otherwise.

I leaped for joy when my cycle returned. In my opinion,a functioning menstrual cycle is an immense blessing and something we should not ignore or gloss over. Also, we should not wait to consider it an issue until trying to conceive. I can tell you right now that waiting that long is waiting too long. I have many friends who have been through so much to figure out their fertility and the thought that some women out there simply don’t care about it breaks my heart. Also, fertility is not the only reason to be aware of our cycles. They can signal a hormonal imbalance or other issues that affect so much more.

I do not intend to share the steps I took to regain my cycle as advice, because different people face different issues with different remedies. Nor do I post this as a way to say Meghann isn’t doing enough. I commend and admire her for sharing her struggles and can tell she whole heartedly wants to resolve them. I desired to post my experience and thoughts on this topic simply because I want to declare the importance of this aspect of our health as women. If you face this, please work hard and act proactively for an important part of your health. You don’t ever want to wish you had done something sooner.

• Do you consider your visits from Auntie Flo a blessing? Have you ever seriously thought about your cycle or considered reading books like Taking Charge of Your Fertility?
• Do you like creating workouts or does it stress you out? It’s one of my biggest hobbies. I love it!
• Don’t forget to ASK ME ANYTHING for the Q + A series I’m doing in Nov!