| People January 1, 2010
|
Amber didn't place in
the Fall '08 Model Search, but in 2009 she came back and won!
(Photo Nov. 2009 by Liana Saadi) |
|
by Doug Schneider
People with perseverance impress me. Amber Nagle competed
in the Fall ’08 SAF Model Search and didn’t place as high as she’d have
liked, but instead of simply giving up, she persevered. Amber took what she learned from
that first show, and chalked it up to experience. Then she dedicated much more time to
training and dieting for the next year. Amber returned to the Fall ’09 SAF Model
Search with a much improved physique, and a completely new look, and took first place in
the Fitness Model category. What’s more, the judges liked her so much that she won
with unanimous first-place votes. Talk about an improvement!
Stories like Amber’s are ones I like to share because
they can inspire other women to succeed. After all, just because someone doesn’t do
well in a competition doesn’t mean that they don’t have a chance of
winning at a future one. Sometimes all that it takes is to make a few changes and put in a
little more effort.
Amber is now a full-fledged member of the SAF Elite and,
from what she tells me, will be competing in future Elite-level events. Obviously,
she’s someone I want our readers to get to know better. So last month, I asked her to
take a break from her rather hectic schedule of working and studying to let us know how
this new SAF Elite star got into fitness and where she plans to go from here. The story
she told me is interesting – here is what she said:
My Story . . .
My story starts out innocently enough. I guess I have
always been gifted with athletic ability but I wasn’t inherently competitive. To give
you an idea, I remember one year my gym teacher actually had to bribe me to compete in
track and field by offering me a piece of pizza for every event that I entered. What can I
say? I’ve always had a weakness for good tasting food. My best events were the
100-meter sprint and the discus toss. After the track meet, I enjoyed my two pieces of
pizza immensely, but it just wasn’t enough to keep me interested in competition. Even
though there was a multitude of coaches and gym teachers throughout my childhood telling
me about my potential as an athlete, I never followed any of these athletic aspirations
regardless of any persistent prodding or offerings of pizza.
Being naturally introspective, I have always enjoyed
independent activities, and even though I am not competitive in a traditional sense, I do
consistently strive to better myself, physically and mentally. This seems to be a good fit
for the fitness industry; unfortunately at that young age, the idea of fitness didn’t
even exist in my little world.
I went on to high school with a fairly rebellious attitude.
I think I had some sort of authority complex. I'm not exactly sure where along the way it
developed, but it was definitely present and accounted for. Even though I was more than
capable of getting good grades, I often left assignments undone, or extremely overdue, and
postponed studying for exams until the very last minute, if ever.
Amber (right) with Caroline Bergeron (middle) and Karen Picard-Brown, the top-3
finishers in the Fitness Model category at the Fall '09 SAF Model Search.
The majority of my friends were older than I was, and I
found myself drawn much more to the social portion of high school as opposed to the
academic or athletic realms. I was inactive, I smoked, I misbehaved, and I was also
dealing with some emotional problems. I ended up dropping out of high school in grade 11.
I went back the following year only to drop out again in grade 12. Basically, I was on the
fast track to nowhere. (I know what you’re thinking, but although I’m not proud
of all of the things I did as a teen, I can honestly say I don’t have any regrets.
Like Kanye West said, "Everything I'm not made me everything I am.")
Fortunately, I have the ability to learn from my mistakes, so when I officially left high
school and started working fulltime at the ripe old age of eighteen, I quickly realized
that this was not the path that I was intended for and started to make steps to change the
direction that my life was going.
At this point I was out of shape, overweight and not
healthy physically or emotionally. But I was determined. At first, I started making small
changes to my life, while learning about myself in the process. I made changes to the way
I ate, I quit smoking, started practicing yoga, and started walking my dogs every day.
(Sometimes for more than an hour each time, which may not seem like a lot, but when you
consider the fact that both of my dogs were under 30 pounds, it’s almost laughable.)
I won’t say that the journey was easy, or painless, or that I didn’t falter and
fall off the path more than a few times.
I started cycling to work (originally out of necessity) and
at first it was torturous. Eventually I started to notice that it was becoming easier and
I actually began to enjoy it, not only for the physical pleasure but for what the exercise
did for me mentally as well. I moved away to Toronto for school and started working out at
the gym. I did yoga almost daily and started taking fitness classes, continuously trying
to learn about exercise.
The program I was in was to become a physiotherapist and
occupational therapist assistant, which, in a nutshell, is helping people rehabilitate
themselves, or find (sometimes very creative) ways to compensate for an injury or
impairment. A lot of my school revolved around exercise and so my passion for exercise and
understanding the human body grew deeper. I worked extremely hard and even though I was
lacking the skills most people develop for studying in high school, I was very successful.
I came home in the summer after my first year and got my
certification as a personal trainer and began working for the summer at a gym close to my
house. After the summer, I went back to school and just kept learning and trying new
things. I continued cycling; there was a bike path behind my residence and I would take my
1970s Sekine 10-speed with the teardrop handlebars and just go for hours on end. I loved
it.
After I graduated from college, I moved back to Ottawa and
started focusing on work. I continued to work as a personal trainer and eventually started
teaching spinning classes. I took a year off from school and just took as many
continuing-education courses as I could afford: sports conditioning, yoga, rowing, you
name it. If I could, I would. After that year, I was tired of wearing sweat pants at the
gym every day and wanted another change so I decided at the last minute to apply to the
University of Ottawa for the following September and was delighted not only to be accepted
but to be offered an admission scholarship as well because of the marks and awards I had
achieved while I was in college.
That’s also the time when I decided to compete in my
first fitness show: the Fall '08 SAF Model Search. I competed in the Figure Model
category, but I was not successful at my first show. Still, I took advantage of the
experience I had gained and learned from it. I eventually decided to compete in my second
show, the Fall '09 SAF Model Search, this time in the Fitness Model category, but this
year I was going to put 100 percent of my focus and effort into it. I achieved my goal by
winning first place in my category. Needless to say, I was extremely happy and
grateful. I look at every opportunity, be it a failure or a positive accomplishment,
as a choice. You can look at and learn from the experience or you can choose not to. But
why not choose yes?
Amber has the kind of positive, confident look that the SAF judges like.
Fitness has taught me how to be more confident, more
focused, and more relaxed. It has taught me how to work through discomfort and sometimes
pain, and that if you really want something and are willing to commit yourself to it you
can make it happen.
I believe all human beings have the potential to be
something great and to make a difference in their own lives and the lives of others. The
type of life that we choose and the type of person we want to be is a choice that we make
every day. Fitness has helped me to create more positive energy in my life that I can then
in turn share with the people that I interact with and hopefully help them see that they
are capable of making the same changes in their lives. Nothing is impossible you just have
to believe.
Looking back on life, I don’t have any regrets. Sure,
I could have potentially been a good athlete, I could have been a healthier teen and
chosen a more direct route instead of having to work so hard for everything that I have
accomplished, but I am a true believer that everything happens for a reason and I am happy
with the way my life has turned out so far. But I won’t ever say that it’s over,
being a full believer in the idea that we are never done growing as human beings while we
are still on this planet.
I am still currently working as a personal trainer, I also
teach yoga, spin and a variety of other group fitness classes. I'm also a full-time
student at the University of Ottawa. I plan to continue to enhance my physique, pursue
fitness modeling, and, of course, continue to compete with SAF in 2010, starting with the
upcoming SAF Toronto Elite Challenge that will be held in June.
. . . Amber Nagle |
