THE WAY IT WAS: Before I lost the weight I would get the double cheeseburger, biggie fry, biggie Coke. I would eat it and then I would throw away my garbage, and get a big waffle cone because at the time my husband was a trainer and I didn’t want there to be any evidence of what I was eating. I typically ate really, really unhealthy during the day. At night I did great. I ate chicken, I ate broccoli, I ate salad just like I was supposed to, and then after everybody went to bed I would eat a half gallon of ice cream.

THE TURNING POINT: The trigger for me was going on spring break with my family vacation and my husband received a text message from a female. What really was the problem was that it wasn’t a bad text message. “Have a great time with your family on vacation.” However, she signed her name and the contact was listed as a male. I knew at that moment that if I was going to be the single mom of two, I better be the hot single mom of two.

THE PLAN: I used a tape measure to measure my waist, my chest and my neck. It was something I could do by myself. I didn’t have to have anybody helping me. And so when the scale wasn’t always my friend, I would take this out and I would measure every week, every two weeks and see if I’d made progress. That’s what derails a lot of women is that they don’t see the scale moving but they’re busting their butt in the gym or at home and they’re eating clean, eating healthy, and then that’s enough to trigger you to go off.

THE REWARDS: It’s incredible. It has been a journey for me and I have inspired people that I had no idea. Things have just sort of happened as a result of it. I’ve started my own business now training moms, helping them with the mental aspect as well as the physical changes as well, and it’s just an incredible journey and being able to meet additional people. And now I compete in fitness competitions.

WORDS OF WISDOM: As moms we feel we’ve got to be everything to everybody else and we put ourselves at the very end of the list. And in reality we need to be at the top so that if we feel good about ourselves then it’s going to show with our family, it’s going to show in everything we do every day. And so that’s why my workouts happen at the beginning of the day versus the end of the day because if I had to wait until the end of the day, there wouldn’t be any energy left.

TOOLS OF MY SUCCESS: A pair of black pants that go everywhere as a reminder.  A tape measure to chart success.