Changes are something that Kim Dolan is quite familiar with. Having changed her body, career and more since deciding to follow a more fitness-oriented lifestyle. Before she began seriously training, Dolan had been working in the Pharmaceutical industry as a Geriatric Specialist. That's where she first realized the impact that diet and exercise can have on a person.
"I had not been involved in a training or diet program at all. I made a committment at this point to make fitness a lifestyle. I knew I had to pick a hobby that I enjoyed to stick with it. That's when I challenged myself to do a fitness contest," she remarks.
Inspirted by such fitness luminaries as Kelly Ryan and Julie Shipley, Dolan began her road to the competitive stage.
"After I did my first competition I was hooked. I have a genuine passion for putting the music, routine, and costumes together. It is very rewarding to have tangible results of your hard work - your routine and physique," she adds. And anyone who has seen her compete in the Fitness America Pageants brodacast worldwide on ESPN networks is sure to have picked up on that.
However, even with her cover girl looks and fantastic outfits and routines, Dolan is still humble.
"My goal is to always improve. I would like to go as far as I can. I would like to also send a positive body image out to women. I do not feel that a healthy image of woman is always portrayed in magazines."
A very true statement, especially when looking at the "mainstream" fashion magazines like Cosmopolitan, Glamour and Elle. However, as a personal goal, Dolan is working to help change that image with every interaction she has with people.
"Women ask a lot of questions like 'How do you get your abs like that?' or 'What do you eat?' Where men freak out when they see a women doing tricep dips, pull ups or one-arm pushups."
That freaking out might actually be disguised admiration. The fragile male ego often has to find ways to justify itself, and seeing strong and confident women can sometimes intimidate and touch on the insecurities a lot of men have including the relation of strength to 'manliness.'
But that is a reason to train and lift weights. "I love the feeling of strength. It has given me an inner confidence that money can not buy," adds Dolan, stressing that more than the purely outward appearance of shapely muscle, that it is the mental edge where it's effects are most prominent.
At 5'7" and weighing around 125 lbs., the solidly built Dolan trains year round to maintain her physique. "I do not have an off season. My weight fluctuates about three pounds and I train the same way throughout the year. However, for a show, practicing my routine all the time seems to make me lose a few pounds."
When she isn't training she works managing her own on-line and catalog based clothing company or works on her gymnastics where has has private lessons three to four times a week. Dolan is also very spiritual, putting God first in her life.
In the end though, Dolan is a person who looks to help make positive changes. Whether it is with her own health and fitness or with her own spiritual growth, or even in dispelling the mass media's warped body ideals.
"I feel strongly that the image of women needs to be changed. Women should be able to look the way they want to whether that is muscular, fit, or fuller figured. Everyone looks different at their best, and I feel this not represented in our media."
An appropriate statement coming from such a unique woman who definitely looks her best inside and out.
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