I remember when I first contacted one of the girls on the team to ask her about what she does, why she’s doing it, and how she is so commited. She told me all about her journey, and gave me Tayler’s contact info. I immediately was super excited, so I grabbed my laptop and messaged her asking how a girl is to go about maybe competing in a show. The first time I went and saw Tayler, I was a little nervous, cause I knew she had been on stage tons of times before, and she looked amazing. I got to the gym and she was super nice and welcoming, and she made me feel welcome. We talked through workouts, and dieting, and she ran me through a quick workout to show me what the next 12 weeks would be like on a smaller scale. It wasn’t too bad, but I was excited and ready for the workouts to kick my butt and get me into gear. I was told it was a journey, and I would know and understand myself and my body so much more by the end. The next 12 weeks included going to the gym 7 nights a week, doing weights and minimal cardio. The workouts weren’t that bad, the dieting was probably the hardest for me. I’ve always heard that dieting is 90% and the gym is 10%, I believe that is true after what I went through. I ate chicken, egg whites, veggies, Ezekiel bread, fish, and turkey for 12 weeks. I’ve never seen my body change so much so fast. I had been going to the gym before that a few times a week, but I hadn’t changed my diet. Once I changed my diet,  I started noticing everything starting to change and get leaner. I loved it, I wanted to keep going to the gym and pushing myself to see what my body could do. The day I went on stage, it was an amazing experience,  I never would have thought it would have given me that rush and that happy all over feeling. I was so proud of myself for getting up on that stage and showing off all my hard work. Tayler always says its about the journey, not about the award you get if you win, that’s just a bonus. It was an amazing journey and I can’t wait to do it again next year. Here I come 2014! Team Taylermade coming full force, and ready to get clean and get mean!