Bitten....

I love working in the health and fitness industry.

All kinds of people walk through the doors at Goals in Motion. We have people who have never worked out, people seeking cross training, people who are overweight or underweight, and people who don’t know where to start…….

I love that anyone can benefit from exercise and healthy eating and I love it even more when people catch the bug and become health addicts! It’s our goals to help people make long lasting lifestyle changes.

Yesterday I experienced a whole new kind of health addiction. I attended the USA Super Pro Qualifier and Bluffs Classic Body Natural Bodybuilding Show to watch my friend Kylee compete in her first figure competition.

Kylee joined Goals in Motion midway through her senior year at Iowa State. She works for my good friend Anne who owns Dogtown University in Ames. Kylee was a design student who spent some time in the gym, but had really abandoned cardio since she left high school sports. Ky was unsure of her career path and was considering the fitness industry. Anne convinced her to come to Goals to get a taste of group fitness.

Kylee Initial Picture



Kylee End of 9 Week Challenge

Kylee was on my team. From day one I knew she’d do well. I’ve been teaching a long time and I know the “give-up look”…she had it more than once that day but she refused to quit. She pushed through kickboxing and resistance classes day after day until it became a way of life. She quickly became hooked on the Goals way, eating right, working hard and making friends. She is perhaps the most disciplined eater I’ve ever coached. She had some great changes during her nine weeks and shortly after joined my team of instructors.

Kylee was bitten by the body building bug a while back ~ she’s been a fan of several professionals for a long time. Shortly after her challenge, she started sending me training videos from figure competitors such as Dana Linn Bailey, Nicole Wilkins and Erin Stern. I could see the hunger in her eyes and hear the excitement in her voice…. She was ready to take the next step in her fitness journey.



I didn’t know anything about training bodybuilders and knew at one point I’d have to let her go to another coach, but I was determined to help as long as I could. If anything, I could push hard enough for her to figure out if this is what she really wanted. The next few months were crazy. We read everything we could on nutrition and workouts. She spent more time in a traditional gym, lifting to enhance her Goals workouts.  She made some great progress.

In May the unthinkable happened~ Kylee was in a horrible motorcycle accident. She was weeks from her first planned show. Her bike was destroyed and her body was bruised but her spirit as never broken. It took several strong willed men and women to hold her down long enough to let her body heal. One of the hardest days in my coaching career came at that moment when we decided she couldn’t compete in the show she had trained so hard for.



Kylee April 2012

Over time, she fought through the aches and pains and made her way back to the gym. She set her sights on a new show in November. She went back to the original workouts and meal plans for a while, but eventually it became obvious that I couldn’t help her. I know how to teach people to eat healthy and reshape their body through fat loss and muscle gains, but I have little knowledge of how to sculpt a body the way she wanted to be sculpted.



She sought out the wisdom of those who had competed before and spent less time with us at Goals and more time in the gym, lifting heavy and perfecting her craft. She teaches two classes a week and still popped in for occasional cardio. Her smile and her excitement is captivating. Each time she left the studio she had a new fan!



I’m not sure of all of the details of her transformation. I had a hard time watching her dive into a sport that scares me. I have a great appreciation for beautiful, healthy bodies and I’ll believe until the day I die that bodybuilders could create themselves without omitting nutrients, if the industry encouraged it. I don’t feel comfortable with the rapid change in weight and body fat. I couldn’t bring myself to hear about the deprivation or the countless hours in the gym. I live in a world of long term life style changes. I’ve seen too many people deprive themselves for a short time to reach a desired outcome and then realize they are miserable. And ultimately, it came down to the fact that I love her like a daughter and I worry about her long term health. But, like my own children, I had to come to terms that she has to follow the path that makes her happy. And like my own children, she set out to prove me wrong…. She can be strong and healthy and achieve a goal that is important to her. I found myself watching from the outside and admiring the work she was willing to do.

So….. that’s the history.



Kylee November 2012

Today, I’m pleased to share that she successfully completed her first show last night and I was there to watch. She competed in four events and placed in 3~ winning the novice division and taking 5th in open figure and beginning figure. I found myself analyzing the competitors’ walks and critiquing their bodies. Then she walked on stage…. She was beaming, she was beautiful. She was mistake free- working the floor like she was meant to be there. I had little to do with her reaching this goal, but I am pleased to say I was there when she caught the bug…..

1st Place Novice Figure



Tonight we will be celebrating the end of another challenge at Goals in Motion. The men and women I’ve worked with have been inspiring. Just like Kylee, many of them have been bitten…. they have decided to continue with maintenance at Goals. They have decided to keep fitness in their lives. How far they will go is yet to be seen but I’m excited to be a part of it.