How my journey began:
Growing up I always was health conscious but had never set foot in a gym until 1993 when I enrolled in a weigh training class as part of my College prerequisites. Never really thought about it since then but I remember now looking back that my classmates & professor always took note & made comments about how hard I worked. I guess it was just in my blood.

After college ended, I decided to join the gym & have never looked back! It has to have been one of the greatest decisions of my life. I trained on my own based on what I had learned from my weight lifting class and when you are 19 years old of course you look great!

One day on the bike, I began talking to the guy next to me who was very well built but could be perceived wrong because he always worked out in headphones & rarely talked. Now, I understand why - talking is not conducive to a good workout! He shared the same interest in working out and took pride in his physique. We began to train together and I learned a lot about the basics. That's when I really got hooked (on training....) and began to realize this sport was more than just lifting weights, it was about nutrition, there were competitions, it was a thinking man's game. Being a Civil Engineer the nutrition & calculations involved were fun to me. Total calories, percent protein, percent carbs, percent fat. How the variables could change your body. All so exciting & so much science. A CHALLENGE! Yep! Never could back down from a good Challenge!

At that point I began to read about nutrition, devised a basic meal plan, and began to have ideas of wanting to compete! This friend & I actually took some bodybuilding photos together & I wish I still had them because that was a real starting point with my physique and even more importantly in my journey. Unfortunately, the photos were lost in a move.

On to the next chapter of my journey, another year or so gone by. Now 1997, I was training in the gym when approached by my now husband. He had heard that I was interested in competing and had competition experience in his past. We began to train together and in July of 1999 we did our first competition together (my first ever competition) the Jan Tana Classic & in October 1999 we got married.

I still remember how fast the competition occurred. One minute you are behind the stage, next minute you are on stage and then next minute there is a trophy in your hand! Still didn't know what had hit me. For my first show I was very happy in placing third. I was Joy Colfelt at the time and weighed 115# the day of the show.