Let me introduce myself.
My name is Rebekah. I am a 38 year old stay-at-home mom of four amazing kids. I work part time as a personal trainer and softball pitching coach and running my business, Train with Rebekah, LLC. I am also a Consultant for Rodan and Fields. I am a fitness enthusiast and have been for more than 20 years.
I have always been active. I participated in gymnastics, soccer, swim lessons, basketball, ballet and softball at various times during my childhood. My mom liked to tell my brother and I to go play outside and so we did...a lot. I think I spent more time outdoors than in as a kid. My mom spent most of her time indoors cooking. So, I grew up eating healthy foods as well.
Once I got into high school I narrowed my focus down to two sports: basketball and softball. When I was a sophomore, my dad started weightlifting and running with a friend at 5:30am three times a week. He asked if I wanted to join them, so I did. Several days a week I would get up at 5am to workout before going to school and then to sports practice for two hours. And I loved it! I fell in love with weight training at that time. I also started paying attention to nutrition for the first time between my senior year in high school and freshman year in college. I was athletic, but a little on the heavy side, so I tried various diets and started running. I lost 16 pounds that summer mostly following the South Beach diet and running nearly every day. I gained it all back less than 6 months later during my first college semester.
It was then that I decided I wanted to get serious about weight training, joined a gym, hired a personal trainer and entered myself into a bodybuilding/figure competition. I worked hard for almost a year and took third place in that competition. And, with the exception of during my pregnancies, I have never weighed as much as I did before entering that competition again. That experience opened my eyes to a whole new world of fitness. I decided at that point that I wanted to study Kinesiology, become a personal trainer and maybe, one day, operate my own gym.
I attended Virginia Tech and earned a Bachelor's degree in Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise and became an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, but I have decided that owning a gym might not be my big goal after all. Running a personal training business out of my garage gym is perfect for me right now. And I have expanded to giving softball pitching lessons, which I love!
Since that first competition, I have competed in several more and have learned and improved with (almost) every one. I have worked with other aspiring figure competitors and helped several step on stage for the first time. Many that I have trained alongside have gone home with trophies and two have become eligible to complete as professionals. I have also become a mom since then, which changed my body, mind and emotions a great deal. It's the best thing that has ever happened to me! And despite the trauma of pregnancy and natural childbirth, my body is better than it has ever been before. Staying active through it all made a huge difference for me.
At this point in my fitness journey, I am maintaining and enjoying the process. I love to lift weights and show my kids how to be fit and active and healthy. If you can relate to anything in my back story, come along with me on this journey and maybe we can learn something together!