There aren't many stay-at-home moms like Tammy Colbert.

The mother of four and spouse of a 1st Special Forces Group Soldier for 22 years is also a competitive bodybuilder. Her active lifestyle helps her get through her husband's many deployments.

"This is what I do for me to make me feel better," Colbert said. "This is my adrenaline. This is what gets me motivated. This is what gives me energy."

The Colbert family moved to Joint Base Lewis-McChord more than two years ago and after weight training at McVeigh Sports and Fitness Center for a year she set a goal to compete in bodybuilding.

She trained herself for her first competition and finished fourth in the Novice Figure category at the Washington State Natural Bodybuilding Championships last July. She also took first in the Xtreme Fit category, in which she was judged in flexibility, strength, aerobic conditioning and originality of her routine.

Colbert continued to eat healthy, work out six days a week and teach dance classes at a studio in DuPont, but she didn't compete again until April 28. She competed in the same show as the previous year and repeated as Xtreme Fit champion, also finishing seventh in the 35-and-older Figure category.

She said the trophies and medals were nice to receive, but Colbert felt an even bigger accomplishment after her performances.

"I had about four women come up to me and say they were really inspired by my routine," Colbert said. "Maybe I should start training people for this."

Colbert's competition exposure has created new opportunities for her. With the help of social media, Colbert was discovered by renowned fitness photographer Rob Sims. In Sims' 17-year career he has taken photos of thousands of fitness models and he recently traveled up to JBLM to meet Colbert and conduct her first professional photo shoot. The following day Sims took video footage of Colbert working out in the gym. The idea is use the photos and video to promote Colbert and build a fan base.

"She's going to be awesome, but she needs a fan base," Sims said. "Right now nobody knows her."

Modeling is a whole new experience for Colbert.

"Every pose you hit you have to show the muscle so you're flexing and holding it," Colbert said of the eight-hour publicity shoot. "It was worse than a workout. I was so sore."

Once Colbert establishes a fan base the hope is her photos will appear in fitness magazines.

Because her first competition wasn't even a year ago, all that has happened still seems surreal to Colbert.

"It's like a Cinderella story," she said.

While competitive bodybuilding is still fairly new to Colbert, she has always lived a healthy and active lifestyle. Colbert majored in dance in college and took bodybuilding classes for fun. While her focus was always on dance, opportunities led to her becoming a fitness instructor and then a manager of her own fitness club. When she started to have children she focused on teaching dance and gymnastics because the kids could participate. When the family was stationed in Okinawa for six years, Colbert's husband was only home for about 11 months during that time. With all four kids in school she remained active by learning Karate.

These days Colbert is still in the gym six days a week and continues to teach dance classes. She also began to train women in figure competition.

Colbert's husband returns home later this month, but will be gone one more time before deploying to Afghanistan in September. During that time Colbert has a lineup of shows she plans to compete in as she has now set a new goal to earn her pro card. She said she doesn't compete in just any competition, only natural, drug-free ones.

"To compete all natural is important to me because I know that what I'm doing ... I'm working for it," Colbert said. "I'm in better health and you can get better sponsorship."

While Sims spent only a brief time with Colbert, he believes the future looks promising for her in the fitness industry.

"Some people sparkle," he said. "Some people you can just tell."