Guest Blogger: Author Jenn LeBlanc from Team Tenacious (Team 10)

Hello fellow winners!! My name is Jenn and I am on Team TENacious. I’m a new author and a photographer, actually, I illustrated my novel because, well, why the heck not. 

I love what I do. LOVE LOVE LOVE. The problem is that it can be difficult to do sometimes, because of my weight. I recently attended RomCon and while it was incredibly fantastic and fun it was difficult to run around willy nilly and not notice how much work needs to be done. I am a fairly active girl, I’ve never let my weight get in my way, but it does rear it’s ugly head at times. 

It didn’t much help that I spent the weekend with the 24 year old hot model from my book, in my room, going to events with me, taking pics, running helter skelter. It was an awakening though this past weekend when I went out to California to do some work with him on his modeling portfolio. 

We went up the coast on the PCH climbed mountains and beaches, ran the city, went non-stop for 12-18 hours a day (once 24 hours) for five days. It was insane, and fun, and just incredible. What really opened my eyes was the food though. I’m used to being the slow one, the last up the hill, the one out of breath, whatever. But sitting down to meals with a fitness model will change the way you think about eating. 

Not once did we buzz a Mickey D’s because we were in a hurry. Nope. Never. Meals were sit down and think about your food. Read the menu. Figure out what you can eat and then how it needs to be prepared to be even healthier. I learned a LOT from Derek. He would order our food and explain the reasoning behind certain choices. He would read menus before we walked in to a restaurant. He was AWARE of what was going in to his body. I have never in my LIFE been aware. 

The funny thing is I also felt better because the combination of extreme exercise and healthy eating had me feeling better in days. It didn’t take a long time. It took hours. HOURS. The second day I was stronger, though feeling every inch of my muscles, and more resilient. The third day I was climbing down inclines and not complaining, and the fourth day I didn’t take any pain meds for my back which I injured years ago. 

So here I am back home looking at these images of Mr. Fit and thinking about what I learned. I’ve already texted him five or six times with questions, because the last thing I want is to fall back into my speedy who cares routine and lose all the hard work of the last two weeks. 

As I drove around town today trying to think of ways to eat better in my regular life, not my extended life, I realized why it is so difficult. My life is GOGOGO. All the time. Transporting kids, taking care of my dad, handling our household, writing, photographing, everything. But I’m learning, and I will find ways to stop and to be aware.

I realized the best part of the weekend was I never thought about food, not once. I was excited, having fun doing what I love to do. I decided today that I will not be fulfilled by food, but by LIFE instead. 

As a little incentive...here are the abs I was staring at all week, and continue to stare at in my edits. I’ll never have these abs, but mine will be my own and I will have worked hard for them.