There are people in life who manage to inspire those around them. Lauren Drain is just that kind of a woman – she fought hard to grow into the inspiring woman she is today, as a nurse, model, and fitness expert. Lauren’s story is a testament to the powers hidden inside of us, and the ways life can both make us question our core beliefs and push us to be our own heroes. Her tale is truly an inspiration to the rest of us, and as she has already shown – it can bring many others to make the necessary changes in their own lives. It is so hard to live a healthy lifestyle – and to be true to yourself – simply because continuing as you are is the easier option. Through grit, hard work and belief in her ability to succeed, she discovered that when you’re faced with demoralizing circumstances and feel like giving up, staying the course and self-motivation can turn you into the rock you need to make a positive change, and eventually become that rock for others.
Practicing What You Preach
Lauren Dain isn’t just a personal trainer, but she’s an inspiration for the masses. Lauren is a role model as well in that she does exactly what she preaches. She uses fitness in her downtime and hobbies as well. She enjoys CrossFit, Spartan Races, and every kind of active sport. She’s also an adrenaline junkie who seeks thrills and enjoys the feeling of her heart racing. All of this physical activity has made Lauren the ideal candidate to be a professional model, and she has done quite a few modeling gigs.
Nursing
Lauren isn’t only a personal trainer and model, but a licensed nurse. She’s been in the healthcare industry since she was 16 and a registered nurse for over eight years! Lauren’s passion for health is what pushed her toward a healthier lifestyle. “I was unhappy with what I saw in the mirror and I felt even worse, so I decided to make a change for the better,” she said. For Lauren, this also included regaining her self worth, which she had lost in the years prior.
Lauren’s Training Secrets
Lauren urges others to get healthy to “be your own best version of you. The only secret to it is: you just have to start. Break through the mold of settling. Break through the monotony of life and challenge yourself to get better. Break free of the excuses you and society tells you: that it’s too hard or that it’s not fun. It’s not too hard and it is fun! You won’t regret becoming a better version of yourself mentally and physically. You will regret not trying or giving up.”
Banished
Despite her beautiful exterior and gorgeous smile, Lauren actually had a really rough childhood, which she detailed in her memoir, ‘Banished’. In it, she talks about how when she was a child, her family had joined the Westboro Baptist Church – an extremist, anti-American, anti-LGBT, and anti-military organization recognized as a hate group. After participating in their funeral protests and hate speeches, she was ultimately excommunicated for wanting to date outside the church and was cut off from her family, to whom she hasn’t spoken since.
Looking Back
It hasn’t been easy for Lauren. Ever since she was removed from the Westboro Baptist Church, she has not spoken a word to her family since. She said that despite being sucked into the Church and brainwashed by its leaders, she still knew it was wrong. “I was so ashamed, I wanted to hide my face,” she said. Lauren knew leaving the church’s hatred behind was the right thing to do, though it also meant her not seeing her family or even hearing from them in over nine years.
The Westboro Baptist Church Explained
The Westboro Baptist Church is located in Topeka, Kansas, U.S. and was founded by Fred Phelps. With only 70 members you might think that it wouldn’t be that famous or make such an impact. However, the WBC is known across the U.S for its homophobia, hate speeches, anti other religious beliefs, and their strong and loud protests against the U.S. soldiers and politicians. The church has been protesting against LGBT rights and have been seen stomping on the U.S. flag for as far back as 25 years.
The Life Within The Church
Together with the rest of her family, Lauren was indoctrinated into the Westboro Baptist Church from 2001 to 2008 and became an active member, participating in protests against U.S. soldiers and other WBC activities. It took Lauren a long time before she started to question the methods that the WB Church used in order to express their ideologies – she was only a kid, after all. Lauren explains that due to her and her fakily being “brainwashed,” the believed that what the Church was teaching them was normal and right.
Leaving That World Behind
It’s no wonder why Lauren felt the need to escape. She knew even from a young age that what she was doing was wrong. She didn’t want to be a part of these horrible protests. As a young girl taking part in these events, she would hide her face in the hopes of not being identified. The famous statements of the Church have been “thank God for dead soldiers,” and “thank God for 9/11,” it is very understandable why Lauren would not want to be a part of this hate-filled group.
Dream Job
Perhaps as a way to balance her participation in the Westboro Baptist Church, even before she left it behind Lauren knew she wanted to help people. She decided to become a nurse, and attended Washburn University on a full scholarship. In 2007, Lauren received a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing. She was a full-time nurse for nine years before deciding to switch to personal training and become a fitness model. Lauren uses everything she as a nurse and applies it to the regiments she offers the people she trains.
Unhappy and Unsatisfied
Despite her amazing story, in the years after leaving the WBC, in many ways Lauren was just like the rest of us – at least when it came to her health and diet. She ate the wrong things and avoided regular workouts, until one day, she had had enough: she promised herself she was going to like what she saw in the mirror and feel good about herself. It was a struggle she had known all before; She knew she needed a change, but wasn’t sure how to go about it.
A New Year’s Resolution
Lauren made a New year’s resolution that turned into a habit, and then a passion. She made her first healthy and proactive choice on January 1st, 2013, and it changed her life for the better. It started with a small choice to sign up for a Paleo Challenge, she wanted to start eating healthier because the winter months were usually her worst. She felt she had gained weight and the first step would be cleaning up her diet.
The Next Level
Lauren successfully completed the Paleo Challenge and felt great. She knew that this wasn’t just any New Year’s resolution. This was the real deal. She was truly committed to getting into the best shape of her life. So Lauren signed up for the World Beauty Fitness and Fashion (WBFF) bikini competition, aimed at showing off contestants’ muscle definition – as opposed to size or bulk – paired with a fashionable outfit. It was a truly ambitious undertaking, but the competition wasn’t the first time Lauren found herself facing an uphill battle.
The Fitness Competition
Lauren decided to finally make a change in the way she felt about her body, and to motivate herself, she entered The World Beauty Fitness and Fashion competition. The competition strives to merge fitness, beauty, and fashion. There are two rounds – a swimsuit competition and the couture fashion round – and three types of divisions that one could compete in – the pro division, the amateur division, and the transformation division, which shows how far you’ve come on your bodybuilding journey.
The Transition
Lauren states on her website that she weighed 135 lbs. before starting training for the competition. She got herself a coach and started specialized training with a new wave of determination. She started noticing muscle definition that she had never seen before and her curves looked a lot better to her in the mirror. She sliced through that excess fat and dropped to 122 lbs. She had never been happier about the way she looked. Lauren didn’t only lose weight, but she also found a newfound comfort with the person that she had become, a person who had grown so much since the trials and tribulations she had faced as a kid.
Results
