Conquering Fears of All Kinds

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Celebrate with me! I conquered two fears this week (1) Driving Long Distances alone with kids (12 hours RT) and (2) Getting “Judged” in a Swimsuit (my choice, breakthrough any anxieties early I figured!)

Why Vegas? To meet up with my new friend, former Mrs. United States 1997 and Mrs. America 2002, Laurett Ellsworth Arenz. How did I meet Laurett you might wonder? To be honest, it was one of you… a blog reader/online friend who introduced me to his mom via a comment on this site! CRAZY. He likes to be on the downlow about his famous mom, so I won’t tell you who it is, but those of you who know any Ellsworth bloggers, you might figure it out! Ironically Laurett is a member of my church and we have mutual friends, including Cherie Burton who is also mentoring me for the pageant. Laurett grew up in Utah although competed in Maryland for their titles. Before we decided to meet in Vegas we had a couple of phone sessions where we worked on my platform, preparing for the interview, and she gave me a lot of resources for where to find my wardrobe too.

Conquering Fear #1 -Driving 12 Hours on my own
Laurett was in Vegas for a conference at the new, hip and modern Red Rock Hotel so it worked well for us to meet there since I have family in St George (1 1/2 hours north of Vegas) and could stay with them and they could watch my girls while I traveled further to meet with Laurett the next day. I was determined to make it there so I pushed forward any fears of driving the distance alone with my two girls (ages 2 and 4) and set myself up for success. I made sure we always said a prayer before traveling, and made sure I had enough rest before, drove in daylight mostly, wore my sunglasses and then my prescription ones when my eyes got tired, I brought lots of great healthy snacks to eat along the way, I brought my iPod to keep us all happy (we listened to a ton of children’s audio stories) unfortunately we had no movies because I drove our Ford Focus Wagon and there’s no movie screen, but I tried to work it so my girls would nap in the car for part of the time. We survived with few breaks, however, my 2 year old learned out to get out of her car seat and I had to be Macgyver-like and use a pair of pantyhose to strap her in (works wonders because it’s tight enough but easy enough to loosen it up for getting in and out). I was certainly tired from driving but I felt more confident after the successful trip so, I’m likely to venture again, but with all 3 kids seems really overwhelming (my son stayed home with Dad to go to school).

I got all dressed up to meet with Laurett as we were to do a mock interview and then also practice the “walk.” All in all the interview went fine, we filmed it so I can watch and learn how to do better. It is a bit nerve-racking to have no clue what you’re going to be asked, but I’m creative enough and a good impromptu speaker, just when she asked me to stand in a “pose” my brain started to freeze up because I was concentrating so hard on the pose she recommended I take while being questioned I wasn’t as sharp with my answers. Hmmm! More to practice.

I was also a bit overconfident about my ability to “walk”, honestly, how hard could it be? I had a lot of theatre/stage/modeling experience from my younger years, but this kind of “walk” was more like graceful Chinese-acrobatics or something! Seriously, my feet have never cramped so much, plus wearing the 4 inch heels didn’t help since I’m still getting used to those. Don’t get me wrong–I appreciated the opportunity to train with her, it’s just that my feet were completely unfamiliar with the types of positions they would be asked to do. Laurett makes everything looks so easy too…I suppose that is why she won the national titles! We filmed everything so I can watch her walk and my amateur attempts as well… Let’s just say that I doubt I’ll be posting any videos of this any time soon on YouTube! The good news is that I still have time to practice and wasn’t trying to figure out the “walk” the day of the event. Laurett said she had faith I could do it, I hope I can be that confident after more practice.

Conquering Fear #2 - The Swimsuit

While Laurett didn’t ask me to try on my suit, I wanted to, to just get it over with. Really I don’t enjoy putting on a suit in front of friends, let alone anyone who would be “judging” me, but this was a great time to get over the fear and just “own” what I’ve got/don’t got and get her reaction/feedback so I know what I need to focus on for the next several weeks. It was actually a really positive experience. She was really nice about it, and made me feel very comfortable. She said I had nicely shaped legs (which was a total shocking surprise!) so that was a boost to my confidence, and we talked about what I could do to cover up my unsightly spider veins. Thankfully we get to wear nylons, that should help some, but I’ll be using some make up on them as well, just in case, but I’m also going to call our local vein clinic and see if they want to sponsor me, why not ask?!

Laurett was very lovely and fun to train with, and gave me great courage! We enjoyed a nice lunch at the Red Rock Hotel Country Club too, I liked her very well until she ate 2 cookies right in front of me! We joked about that and what you do and don’t do when you’re in training mode…

Today’s Magic Wand: This is what I try to eat everyday… this pageant/life/health training/feel like a million bucks food!

Before weight training/exercise at 5:30am: handful of almonds, Emergen”C” 1000 mg of Vitamin C packet in water, Greens To Go in a water bottle and bring it with me (6 organic servings of fruit and veggies), available at Costco

7:45am: Omlet (Omega 350 eggs, 1 egg, 2 egg whites), plus my choice/mix of veggies, either zuchinni, tomatoes, fresh salsa, broccoli, spinach; 2 Fish Oil supplements

10ish: piece of fruit, usually an apple or an orange or a smoothie (1 c rice milk, 2 c spinach, 1 frozen banana, 6 strawberries, flax seed oil, coconut oil)

noon: large salad (spinach or romaine) with chicken or salmon, pecans, almonds, sunflower seeds, avocado, lemon juice, Braggs Liquid Aminos, any veggies I have, red bell peppers, etc.; 2 Fish Oil supplements

afternoon snack: cut up veggies and hummus or almonds

dinner sample ideas: baked yam and brown rice, veggies and salmon OR tomato soup and salad with chicken OR black beans, salad, chicken, rice, salsa; 2 Fish Oil supplements

1 Gallon of water!! Whenever I feel hungry I reach for almonds, pecans, sunflower seeds (raw), pumpkin seeds, veggies, rice crackers, apple, grapes or clementine

If you try this… tell me how it goes, I’d love to know that I’m not the only one out there doing this.

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