Local mom who lost 200 pounds competes in second fitness championship in memory of coach
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POCATELLO — After losing over 200 pounds and completing her first fitness competition, Brittany Ward has shifted her focus to the Big Sky Championship — one final fitness competition she will enter in honor of her friend and late coach, Jack McCormick.
Ward described McCormick as a father figure, a sounding board and her rock.
“He was my person,” she told EastIdahoNews.com. “I could talk to him about anything. I could work through anything with him.”
Eight years ago, Ward had a precancerous polyp. Soon after, she underwent a complete lifestyle shift — from a 350-pound smoker with little energy to a 150-pound active and healthy mother.
With McCormick by her side, Ward spent nearly two years preparing her body to, as she put it, “strut half-naked in front of 10 judges” — the most nerve-wracking thing she has ever done.
Now, she’ll do it again.
This next competition was the one Ward and her coach initially targeted before McCormick’s cancer treatment necessitated a schedule change.
Ward said there was a time when she thought McCormick would be at her side this April. In November, when cancer treatment was going well, and he got “a second wind,” Ward said, the two went back to work — and even McCormick was working out again.
Then, McCormick died on Dec. 12.
“There for a while, after he passed away, I didn’t think I could do it,” Ward said. “It’s been hard — not having him — but I promised him I would do it, so I’m just going to rally.”
From the darkness of McCormick’s loss, she emerged with two new friends-turned coaches.
Ward said she owes a great deal to Danny Ross, her new bulking coach, and Lloyd Welch, her nutritionist. Her new coaches, along with her husband David Ward and their seven children, help Ward dig herself from the depths of depression and back into her tough workout schedule.
A typical day, Ward said, starts at 3:30 a.m., when she wakes up and gets going.
She meets Ross at the gym at 4:30 a.m., and they put in two-and-a-half to three hours of work. While she’s at the gym, Ward added, she will take in her first meal and supplement.
After her workout, Ward will head to Portneuf Medical Center, where she puts in a 10-hour shift as a nurse. Then, she gets in bed by 8 p.m.
All told, Ward takes in 2,200 calories, spread across six meals. She’ll trim that number down even further as the competition nears.
Her goal is to be around the 146 pounds and 7.1% body fat she measured for the October competition.
Following the April competition, Ward said she is done — and will settle somewhere around 170 pounds.
“I just want to feel light on my feet,” she said, adding that she wants to be able to hike, bike and dance.
“This one, I really want to pay tribute to Jack and show him that he taught me so much,” Ward said.