If It Doesn't CHALLENGE You, It Doesn't CHANGE You!

It was a year ago today, Feb. 6th, when I made the decision to join the Body By Vi Challenge. I can’t believe it’s been a whole year. I can honestly say it’s been one of the best years of my life. I had several reasons for joining the Challenge; I wanted to be healthier, lose some weight, have more energy. I had successfully lost weight in the past, but like many people I had trouble maintaining my results. I found my weight varied 5-10lbs based on the time of year (winter was the worst). I knew food controlled me way more than I controlled it which led to a lot of guilt and then more eating! It was a very unhealthy cycle and I wasn’t feeling good about myself. I hoped and prayed the Challenge would be my answer to ending the cycle and God didn’t let me down!

I have accomplished so much this year: I’ve lost 13.5lbs and 9 inches! In the process I earned my cool “I LOST IT” t-shirt and best of all I got to donate 30 healthy meals to a child in need in my very own community through Project 10 Kids. I completed my 5th Half-Marathon with a personal best time of 2 hrs 31 minutes. Beating my previous best by 13 minutes! I trained the same way I always have only difference was I was getting the right pre- and post- run nutrition through the Challenge products. I joined the YMCA overcoming my “anxiety” about working out in a gym. Now I LOVE the gym! I also made it through the holidays without gaining weight. I don’t think that has happened since high school maybe? The outward transformation is something I was anticipating, but the internal transformation I have gone through was somewhat unexpected. Before the Challenge I was very good at making excuses and doubted myself a LOT. I was my own worst enemy. My insecurities always got the best of me. NOW I feel so much stronger and more confident. I am full of positivity and rarely find myself feeling sad or stressed. I have way more self-discipline and focus. As a result so many areas of my life have improved. I have a long list of goals I still want to accomplish and I KNOW I can achieve all of them through the Challenge! Yes it has been a year, but I feel like I’m just getting started :-)

I would feel very selfish to keep something this good all to myself so I am glad I decided to promote the Challenge and feel proud to have helped others reach their goals. I attended 3 National Success Trainings (Los Angeles, Orlando, Atlanta) and have been moved by the passion and heart behind the Visalus company that created The Challenge. It feels so good to be a part of something that is truly making a difference and saving lives. I have made some awesome new friends and really just had a blast this year! One of my friends recently posted this on Facebook and I couldn’t agree more. “Before the Challenge I was living and with the Challenge I am alive!”

Fifth and Fastest!

On October 5th I participated in the Evansville Half-Marathon. This was my 5th Half-Marathon! That alone is so hard for me to believe. I can still remember my first half, I walked the whole thing. I decided back in July when I started training that I wanted to finish this race with a personal best time. My previous best was 2 hours 44 minutes. I felt confident I could reach my goal because I made it part of my Body By Vi 90 Day Challenge! I started The Challenge back in February after a friend introduced me to it. I have lost 10lbs and 7 inches since then! I am feeling great and I have more energy. I have also attended several Challenge events allowing me to travel and make some new friends! So when it came to training for this half-marathon I once again joined the YMCA's Team 13 training group. We ran three days a week and gradually increased our mileage. Despite sticking to a training routine I had used before my times got faster and faster. The only thing I was doing differently was using the Body By Vi products. I drank my protein shakes, used my Vi-Pak vitamins and before/during runs I used the Go Instant Energy and Pro-longed energy. So when it came to race day I was feeling very confident, but the was an element I didn't really plan on - RAIN! It started out as a sprinkle, but quickly became a steady rain and often was a downpour. By the time I was half way I was completely soaked, and could feel the blisters starting to form on my feet. My I-pod stopped working so for a good 6 miles I had to struggle to keep the negative thoughts and pain I was experiencing from slowing me down. I kept thinking of how I would feel once I reached the finish and just kept putting one foot in front of the other. So when I crossed the finish line after 2 hours 31 minutes I was ecstatic!!! I beat my previous best time by 13 minutes!!! In the running world that's huge. I owe it all to the Body By Vi Challenge and am looking forward to seeing what else I can accomplish on my future challenges. Here is my before and after picture! If you want to know more about the Challenge check out my website www.dembrey.bodybyvi.com

World Youth Day Pictures

Reflections on World Youth Day

This post is long overdue, but I have struggled with how to put my World Youth Day experience into words. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I will try to summarize what the highlights were for me, but know that I could go on for hours about the trip. I went into World Youth Day not knowing too much of what to expect. Our group had gotten together on a few occasions leading up to the trip as a means of organizing ourselves and trying to prepare for our journey together. I wasn't nervous about spending the week with everyone, but I was wondering how we were all going to get along and function as a group. God definitely knew what he was doing putting us all together! We quickly formed close relationships and fell into an easy routine with one another. We had so much fun together no matter what we were doing. One of the highlights for me was simply OUR GROUP! I feel so blessed to have shared this journey with them and I cherish the friendships I have with them.

Another huge highlight of course was getting the chance to see and pray with Pope Francis! He arrived on Thursday evening and we were fortunate enough to get very close to the him and he even stopped in front of us to kiss a baby! It was one of the most thrilling moments of our week. The crowds just got bigger and bigger after he arrived in Rio. When he spoke it was never in English, but it didn't really matter to me. He is such an engaging, warm, and passionate speaker. Luckily we were able to look up the translations of what he said later. He had very strong and simple messages for us about the WYD theme; Go and make disciples of all nations. I have printed off copies of all his speeches and I continue to reflect on his words.

The culmination of the week for pilgrims is intended to be a day long walk to a site chosen for the final events at WYD: an overnight vigil and closing mass Sunday morning with the Pope. Due to a lot of rain the first three days we were in Rio the original site chosen for the vigil was extremely muddy and not suitable for use. The overnight vigil was instead moved to the Copacabana Beach where we had been attending other major events. We made our way down to the beach Saturday afternoon and got a spot near one of the big screens. As we settled in the crowd just got bigger and bigger. By dark there were so many people it was a little scary. The space was not very organized and getting yourself from the beach to the street where the bathrooms were was a huge ordeal. People were extremely friendly, but it was a little overwhelming. However getting see the sunrise on the beach and having mass with the Pope and 3.7 million other Catholics from around the world was probably my favorite thing of the entire week.

It was an adjustment coming home and I was concerned about losing the feeling of WYD once life returned to normal and our group was no longer together. Over a month later though I am still experiencing what I think of as the ripple effects of the pilgrimage. Every part of my faith life has intensified in some way. I also now have a strong desire to learn more about Catholicism (it only took me 33 years). So to sum up this long post World Youth Day was amazing and life changing for me. The next WYD will be in Krakow, Poland in 2016! I hope to go again. I have posted a slide show of my pictures on this blog so you can see all of the cool things we got to do and see! Thank you to all of you who supported me financially or in prayer during this journey. God Bless! Dena

World Youth Day

I am very excited to share that I will be attending World Youth Day, July 23 – 28, 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (pictured below). This international event is held every 2-3 years and attracts millions of youth from all over the world!! During World Youth Day I will learn about my faith, attend cultural events, and share my faith life with the worldwide Church. There is also an agenda of major events such as Opening Mass, Papal Welcome Ceremony, Stations of the Cross, the Vigil of Youth with the Pope, and the Final Mass. World Youth Day is far more than just another trip for me. It is a pilgrimage, a journey one makes to a sacred place for an increase of faith, hope and love. I am anxious to see what God has in store for me and anticipate the experience to be deeply meaningful. I will be making this pilgrimage with 13 other youth from my church and surrounding parishes. Lucky for me youth is defined by anyone 18-35 years old! Our team has begun fundraising and I ask for your prayers as I prepare for what will be a tremendous blessing.

Another Half-Marathon!

I participated in my 4th Half-Marathon this past Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012. It was the Women's Half-Marathon in Indianapolis. This is the first out of town race I have done. Friday night when I went to bed I was expecting to wake up to rain from hurricaine Isaac, but to my surprise the rain held off and we were able to complete the whole race with no rain! My training began at the end of May and continued through the summer. Instead of training with a group like I have done in the past all of my training was done independently. I was worried about keeping myself motivated, but it really wasn't as hard as I thought. The one drawback of not training with a group is that I didn't push myself to keep up with anyone so I found that my mile times were slower than in the past. My goal is always just to finish the race and I did, barely :-) My legs started to give out on me after mile 8 and once I got to mile 10 they were pretty much numb so I had to walk the last 3 miles which really added on to my time. So I finished in 3 hours and 8 minutes. I am still quite proud of myself and would never have dreamed I would compete in 4 half-marathons!! I plan on taking a break from half-marathons because the training is so intense. My goal is to keep running and participate in some 5K races. Here is my after race picture - I couldn't even stand up at this point!

Rome & Paris 2012

Here are the pictures from my spring break trip to Rome & Paris.  I went with my good friend Andrea.  We had a really good time.  The weather was fantastic and we were able to see everything we planned on.  Rome was just as special the second time around for me :-)  I also really enjoyed Paris.  The city was very easy to navigate using the underground metro.  The people were friendly and there was no shortage of delicious pastries and crepes :-)
I can't really pick out a favorite place, but I did enjoy touring Versailles and learning some of the history behind it.  We also went to several museums and saw some very famous paintings by Monet, Picaso, Renoir, etc.  Most of those pieces we weren't able to take any pictures of.
Overall, it was another very successful and exciting travel adventure for me!!