How a bunch of Diva's Changed my life!

This morning I was going through my phone and backing up all my pictures and saving things to my  computer. As I was going through some pictures, I stumbled across some photos I took of myself at the end of may. They were before selfies I was encouraged to take before I started on a journey  that would begin to change my body and my health. I forgot I took those photos.
My eyes instantly started to tear up. Today was the first time that I truly saw with my eyes how far I have come in just a few short months. They were not tears of disgust of where I was then, but tears of  excitement, because I think I finally found something that is working! Even more importantly I am excited to keep it up and pass that excitement on. This all started because of a bunch of Divas.

Before I go any further lets take a quick look at my past before we dive into the present and the events leading up to some exciting changes. If you didn't already know I come from a pretty athletic family. Anytime we pick up a new sport , we tend to somewhat naturals at the sports. We have to work to be great, but I don't think we have ever really stumbled across a sport we were awful at!

Growing up in our family, we stayed relatively healthy and active. I was always sporty and fit. Then..... puberty hit. At that point I became the "DUFF" ( Designated Ugly Fat Friend!) I do not really think I was ugly, but that was the phrase I found help categorize me. Through high-school and college I was still always athletic and strong, but I was always 40-80+ lbs heaver then the average girl my age. My gym teacher did my measurements in health class one day and categorized me as MORBIDLY obese! (What!!!???). I couldn't help but look down at her jiggly body and think, " Hey kettle your black!!"

I tried to not let my self image issues define who I was. I had a great support network at Church, school and camp. We even jokingly had a club at the beach called BLIBS ( big ladies in bathing suits). All the skinny girls wanted to be part of our club, but they were TWITS ( Teeny Weeny Individuals in Tankini suits). Though I am pretty confident in my body, it still has times of hate and disgust.

IT escalated pretty badly when I was teaching a Zumba Gold class in Gloucester. One of the old women came up to me and said to my face, " We hope you know we don't like your class. We want someone who is going to motivate us and you clearly don't know how to take care of yourself. You are far from motivating!"  As you can imagine I was shattered. It took many years to bounce back from that comment.

Now let's fast forward to this Past May. A couple of job changes, a start of a new marriage and now in my 30's  I had maxed out the highest I have ever weighed. I had tapped out at 250 lbs.

My Dr. who did my surgery informed me that I was caught in a vicious cycle. I was diagnosed with PCOS, which causes women to gain weight due to hormone imbalance. Its a nasty cycle because it causes you to gain weight, be infertile and be the grounding factor of a lot of issues. But there is no cure right now, except loose weight.... that is added on because of the PCOS.

But then something happened at work that would begin to change my body ( hopefully forever).
As an aquatics director we field all the complaints for everything in our job. I had been hearing some mumbling from our morning water fitness crew, that they were ready for a fitness change.
I haven't taught fitness since the mean lady in Gloucester attacked me back in 2011. But I looked at my Zumba Background and took my water certification and meshed them together and offered to teach a Zumba Gold Class in the water.  I will be honest, I was SCARED SPITLESS to teach this group. There was a need in our pool and I wanted to meet it.  Well it turned out that one of our instructors decided to leave and I had 3 classes to fill weekly. So I pulled up my big girl panties and I taught my first water fitness classes. THEY LOVED MY CLASS! Oh my we had so much fun!

This group of women stepped up to the challenge of the new classes and accepted me for who I was. An overweight but willing to work instructor. They call themselves the AQUA DIVAs. I call them my favorite part of the day! As the popularity of the class grew, my excitement for teaching also grew! We added a boot camp class. This was met with a lot of nerves, but the women trusted me it was worth a trial run , and now it's one of their favorite classes!

 I started teaching 3 times a week. At the same time my mom had me read the following book:

SO during the month of June I was resetting my hormones and working out with the  Aqua Divas!  Then out of no where... I was getting compliments from the ladies that I was loosing weight! Then to add fuel to my fire, they were telling me THEY WERE LOOSING WEIGHT! All while our class kept growing. One day we even tapped out at 62 women in the pool! That is a lot of women in spandex!!

So as I started to gain strength back, I remembered a product I once loved last year. I found a Beach Body Coach that I had met through a friend online, and ordered a challenge pack of Shakeology and 21 Day Fix.  I forgot how much I LOVED Shakeology! The taste and health benefits are worth every cent.

During this time I  challenged the Aqua Divas to a a 21 day food cleanse. We brought in a nutritionist to speak with the ladies. I got so excited about what was happening I found myself up at night youtubing videos of how to challenge my ladies in fitness. The more they told me about their successes the more I wanted to keep challenging them.  So I bit the bullet and decided to become a beach body coach! I loved the products, I wanted the discount and I loved learning the routines to pass on to the ever growing population of Aqua Divas!

SO hear I am and its the end of August. This summer has been harder then any other summer before this. The combination of Work, moving in with my grandparents, emotionally dealing with the foster care program coming to a halt, buying a house ( did I forget to mention we are buying a house next week?) and having our lives flipped upside down completely! But the excitement of working with these women and have God use me to speak truth in their lives!? Its been amazing. I am starting to see this might become more of a future for me. Who knows ? Stay home mom / water-fitness extraordinaire? Beach Body coach who reaches Diamond status?  I don't know but they are all exciting options.  I HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO.  But sometimes you have to stop and see the little results to help be encouraged to continue to move forward.  So here is my vulnerable before and after shot.I am down 14 lbs in about 2 1/2 months. It could be a lot more, but I have had some weak moments and poor food life choices on days I am exhausted!

So won't you join me for the ride!? I need accountability. I need friends to continue to make good healthy choices with me. I need adventures that keep us moving and laughing.  I am strong like bull and worth many cow ( as told by the Kenyan men), but I need accountability to keep going!

If you have weight issues or bad self image, I hope you reach out.
I hope you take encouragement from all of this. I hope you realize that all it takes is a little positive encouragement , and you too can start your journey. I will gladly share the love of my Aqua Divas with you! In all, remember that in Psalms we are told, " The King is enthralled with your Beauty".
" We are created in God's image!"  That is always worth remembering!!!