Follow Theresa as she makes her WBFF Diva Bikini Debut!

Family, the tie that binds...

34.  4.  11.  5. My age.  The age of my youngest daughter.  The age of my oldest daughter.  How many years I have been married to my husband. 

176.  The number of days it took me to transform my body.  

2112.  The number of excuses I had to  defy in my head because I was tired, sick, didn’t feel good or was just out right sick of competition prep and wanted to stop.  

Countless.  How many people doubted me or told me that I was attempting to do wasn’t possible or reasonable.

   

For every minute missed with my kids and husband, for anyone who doubted or disagreed that I could make it, for every tear shed and ounce of frustration spent, for every day physically exhausted and hungry for tasty food….these are the reasons why I refused to quit – I was hell bent on defying the odds.  I originally started competition prep for vain reasons….I just wanted to see my abs.  I never had abs of steel but spent countless hours seeing  people with them and thought it would be great to have them (I still laugh when I say that about abs like you can purchase them from a local store).  About three months into competition prep, I had reached my goal, my stomach was flat and my body was toned – I was tired and missed “regular” food – why keep going?  I had to reassess my purpose for attempting to complete this endeavor and I realized there was a deeper purpose than myself.   Any active mom can tell you that your kids mirror your thoughts, actions and behaviors.  My daughters watch everything I do, from the way I resolve conflict to the way I process daily life and speak to other people – if I had quit then, I realized I would only be teaching my daughters that it was okay to “quit when things get hard”, or when you “don’t feel like” continuing even though you committed or “do what was easiest”…and I found myself being hypocritical and violating my own principles.   

Everything my husband and I have tried to teach our girls would be completely undermined by me stopping.   One of the hardest things I’ve ever done is continued something so physically, mentally, emotionally and physically grueling out of principle and prayer (those were the only things left to keep me going).  Both of which have no immediate results….they are both long term investments that will only show returns with prudence, care and patience (all of which I am not the best at).

I am officially three days out from walking across the stage in my first WBFF show and each day is still grueling as the one before but I am at peace, content and full.  Full of gratitude.  Full of grace and full of love.  I do not care if I do not place – I never started this journey for that.  I do not care about the competitive spirits that I will encounter.  I do not care about my body compared to others.  The ONLY thing I care about is making my daughters and my husband proud - for them to see me walk across the stage knowing, they are my reasons for finishing and without them, I would not have finished.  I learned in six months what some people take a lifetime to learn….without LOVE, you will never have purpose or be fulfilled. 

WHO I AM

I am originally from Oakland, California.   I completed my undergraduate work at U.C. Berkeley and my graduate school work at N.Y.U.  I lived in a third world developing country for six months and traveled to over 11 different countries.  I stayed in New York after graduate school and met my husband the same year.   I currently work in the affordable housing sector and have a background in finance and analytics.  I am the youngest of eight kids to immigrant parents and it has definitely shaped my strong and defiant personality.  I love hosting, cooking, baking and all that Martha Stewart, Ina Garten, HGTV stuff! =) As you can tell, my kids and husband are my daily dose of happiness and the small things like ice cream on the stoop with them on a warm summer night is everything to me.

Follow Dani as she makes her WBFF Diva Fit Model Debut!

Reflections of a Competitor...

I have always been a competitor. As far back as I can remember, I have always loved a challenge.  It is motivation for me.  My parents always encouraged me and my siblings to push and rise to a challenge. As an athlete, fast pitch softball was my sport of choice from 7^th grade through college and that satisfied my need for competition. In college, I chose to study nutrition as I have always had an interest in health, and wellness. One of my professors made a comment one day in class that impacted me.  She said, “No one would take a Nutritionist seriously if they don’t look the part. Your appearance is your biggest marketing tool in this field. Do you look like what you teach?” No matter how shallow that may have come across to some, and feelings it may have hurt in class that day…It stuck with me and I have always striven to find ways to “maintain my marketer”. Not solely for business purposes, but so my clients would listen and be open to what recommendations I had to offer to help them.

After college, I tried various types of activities to challenge me. I stayed in the gym, looked into various sports leagues and fun ways to keep me active and eventually taught pole fitness classes. Once in my career as a maternal and child health nutritionist, life took over. Life happened, stress increased and metabolism decreased.   I saw changes in my body that I have always prided for ”looking the same way in clothes as it did out of them”.  Up to this point, I never really had an issue with my weight or eating well, and took extra liberties with food because of it.  The truth is, clothes can hide a lot. I felt weighed down. While others thought I looked good, I hold myself to my own standard, a critical one…and I was not happy with what I saw. 

In 2008, my friend Ron invited me down to Trinidad and Tobago for Carnival.  It opened my eyes to this amazing celebration of life, energy and beauty.  Bikini’s and Beads….which is NOT what Carnival is all about, but a segment of costumes that I adore. They allow me to feel sexy, free and confident.  These are areas that have for some time made me anxious.  Since discovering Carnival, it has been my annual therapy. An extra benefit is that it pushes me to stay fit because when carnival comes around, you want to fit into whatever costume you choose. Which, will most likely be smaller and skimpier than the one you wore the previous year.  It forces you to be comfortable in your skin…something I have not always been.

I was introduced to my sorority sister and coach Malenna by my friend Sharilyn who had competed previously and was treating her Carnival 2015 preparation as a competition prep.  What an excellent idea!  I began to work with Malenna through online coaching and saw changes in my body I had not seen in years of working with personal trainer’s standing right next to me.  During this time, I branched out as a Nutrition Consultant with NutriDS, LLC, got a website and began to ponder ways to market myself outside of maternal and child health.  While following Malenna’s program I started playing with the idea of competing due to another friend’s encouragement. Gabbie had also competed and looked amazing. After Carnival I decided to go for it.

  I attended my first fitness competition, Fitness Atlantic in 2015 to get an idea of what to expect.  My stomach was in knots watching these women of various ages and from different walks of life that had prepared for differing lengths of time, strut with confidence across this stage, opening themselves up to judgement on their appearance. It takes a lot of nerve and every one of them deserve applause!  When I saw Malenna’s team “The Elite Heat” on stage, their ease and confidence just stood out.  2 of the team members won their pro-cards that night.  I was sold.

I did not know what I was in for….definitely under estimated the toughness of this task.  This journey has been full of highs and lows, self-doubt, lots of faith, tears, frustration, breakthroughs, breakdowns, cravings, boring meals, research, observation, comparisons, shaky moments, lots of sweat, LOTS of laundry, compliments/criticisms, patience, get off your ass-ness (lol) and learning to “Trust the Process”. I am proud that even in my weakest moments, I was able to keep my corny sense of humor. 

Choices that supported my goals had to be made on a daily basis. Prepping meals multiple times a week to not be swayed at work by doughnuts, chips, pizza, etc.  I chose to miss out on social events where I knew I would be tempted to eat and drink things that would not help achieve my goal.  That is not to say that I did not fall short at times.  Being located in Connecticut, I drove at least 4 hours a weekend for this.

Surprisingly, the hardest part to swallow has been opinions. I was told before I began to listen to your coach.  Everyone is going to have something to say, different philosophies, different ideas of what you should look like, but you have to stay the course.  THAT WAS THE TRUTH and it caused for a lot of frustrating days for me.  Days I would stare at myself in the mirror.  You have no idea what your body will do or how it will react to things. What works for some, may not work for all.  It is a lot of trial and error.  Working in a health care setting, I was looking at and counseling on Body Mass Index’s (BMI) and Body Fat charts on a daily basis.  I was forced to throw the idea of that out the window because in this sport, NO ONE CARES. Those numbers means NOTHING on the stage. What matters is the package you present.  As much as I teach “the scale is the devil” and not to allow what it says to weigh so heavy on your shoulders, it took a long time for me to walk that talk.  Acceptance of this has helped improved my counseling and my clients love me for it.  There was so much I did not understand as Sports Nutrition is a different monster than Maternal and Child Nutrition, that I even took a Sports Nutrition course.  It helped my sanity.

As I approach my debut as a WBFF Fit Model competitor, I’m excited, nervous, proud and stronger mentally than when I began this journey.  Competing requires sacrifice and is a team effort. I couldn’t have done this alone. I thank you all for your support, encouragement and a listening ear when all I could talk about was competing.

As challenging as it has been, I have learned so much about myself and I am already proud of me.  I feel like I have done what many others have opinions about but will never do. As I approach my 40’s,  I am the fittest I have been since my 20’s.

 

Thank you to my family, LPTS, Shorblu, Malenna and The Elite Heat, Crystal Marcus and YUMA AND my support system near and far!

It’s me against me.  I’m ready for the stage!