Local mom has used fitness to push through life struggles, and now she’s in a national competition

POCATELLO (KPVI) – If you were to ask Jade Rammell how fitness has affected her life, she would say it’s had a domino effect that has made her life better.

The Pocatello native is now competing to be on the next cover of Ms. Health & Fitness.

Getting to this point has been a three year journey and it isn’t something she would have looked forward to back then. It took a lot of work to get to where she is today, and postpartum depression was one of her biggest challenges along the way.

“I wasn’t myself. I cried all the time. I had dark thoughts. I was very short-tempered. I was just mean and I just wasn’t myself,” Rammell says.

Taking medication to combat her depression has always been part of her daily routine, but the thing that’s made the biggest difference for her is movement.

“It’s really nice to know that movement is medicine. It helps you out a lot,” she says. “I’d come home feeling a million times better. I’d be happier. I’d be ready to get my to-do list done and it just helped a lot.”

With this competition, she hopes she’s also setting an example for her young daughter, who is already following in mother’s footsteps.

“She loves to play with the weights and grab on to them. She can’t lift them at all but she loves to be around it,” says Rammell.

Overall, Rammell says fitness has done more for her than just being fit. It’s also helped her be open to new experiences and where they can take her.

The competition ends Sunday at 11 p.m. and she’s asking for your supporting vote here.