Part of my training.  Anyone can do a pullup. Here is a chin up with a resistance band. These bands are fantastic, you can use them  for anything. They are a great training tool!

Before & After Front View:

Taken 4 months after having my 2nd baby at age 42:

I look blocky and thick - you can tell I workout because I do have muscle, it's just covered in extra fat. This is when I decided to hire a trainer, Tyler English, and started working out 3x/week with a trainer and doing Bootcamp the other 3 days, running on the 7th day and then adding in either walking, running or spinning in addition to my training - depending on how I was coming along.  I took pictures weekly of my progress.  You can see just how thick my arms and stomach were.  Those of you who know me from my pre-baby days and my videos know what I looked like before babies.  My goal was to look better.  You be the judge:

So if people ever tell you there is no way you can get your body back after kids just come to this post and know that with hard work and determination you can do anything you want. I had back to back kids in my forties and two c-sections - no plastic surgery.  Hard work pays off!

Before & After

This picture was taken four months after I had my son.  I was 42 and decided I needed to do something different to get my pre-baby body back.  So I started training with Tyler English 3 times a week and doing Bootcamp the other 3 days a week.  I ran hills on the 7th day and if I felt like I needed more cardio I'd add in 30 minutes of spinning, walking or running in addition to my training 4 or 5 days a week.

Here is the after picture without the spray tan:

With the spray tan:

This picture is 3 weeks out from my last competition. As you can see my legs have come in. For bikini I may be too lean, it just depends on the judging, sometimes they like a softer look, sometimes I can get away with being more lean.  I have pretty muscular legs for a small person. With this particular competition I was also going to compete in Novice Figure for my first time so I wanted a harder look. I still had 3 weeks of diet and prep to go to get leaner but the key is to take pictures every week to access how you are doing.  There is nothing like a picture to open your eyes to how you truly look.  I don't pay a lot of attention to the scale but I always have a # in my head of what I want to hit and I always hit that number.

I have decided not to compete again this year and to take the much needed time off from the contest dieting to spend with my family and to really get back in touch with being good to myself.  I don't want to be a slave to the scale and feel like I can't eat normally unless I'm training for a show.  My goal is to be healthy and feel good about myself, contest or not!