I've been training for 6 years now. I started out doing Body for Life to lose weight and it taught me the basics of training and nutrition. From there it just exploded as I discovered that I'm just a natural in the gym and my body was meant for muscle and strength!

I gained inner-strength and self confidence I never knew was possible. The next thing you know, I'm hitting the stage. I started competing in the obstacle course and fitness competitions through the Women's Tri-Fitness.

After my second year of competing, I placed Top 10 Overall, with my strongest showing a 1st place finish in the bench press (51 reps with 75 pounds, 60% of my body weight) that helped me achieve a 2nd place finish overall in the fitness skills portion of the competition.

In 2004, I started competing in the INBF natural figure shows. A year later I won my pro-card by winning the figure overall at the INBF Northern States Super Natural in Buffalo, NY. My pro debut was only 2 weeks later in Worcester, MA at the WNBF Pro Northeast Classic.

It is an amazing feeling to stand up there with all those perfect, tight, muscular bodies. I felt so out of place at first, until I saw the group pictures and realized, "Hey, I fit in pretty well." Later that year I put some serious effort into training and refining my look and placed 6th at the WNBF Pro International in Kansas City, MO. And then continued dieting down for the 2005 WNBF Pro World's in New York City, where I made the covetted Top 5 by placing 4th. Just amazing to go from amateur to Top 5 Pro all in one year! Kepp in mind, only 6 years ago I was fat and a size 14.

I'm really proud of my strength. It magnifies my inner strength as a survivor of domestic violence. My accomplishments in the gym include 12 dead-hang chin-ups, 60 pound dumb-bell bench press for five reps, 135 pound bench press (more than my body weight), six plates each side on the leg press for six reps, six one-arm push-ups on each arm, and a combination of press holds: L-press to V-up then tucking my legs between my arms and in back of me, then putting one leg on my arm and one in the air, then tucking back down to a straddle press. You gotta see it, it's pretty cool!

In addition to all this work I do on my body, I still find time to give back to my community through the Make a Wish Foundation, Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, and Holt International (Korean orphans).