I can’t believe it’s been 5 days since my last competition! I’ll tell you what – I really needed the last week to decompress, sleep-in, and set some new goals for the months ahead.

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind. I have been pushed both mentally and physically and I have broken down personal barriers I didn’t even know I was capable of achieving.

The first and last time I competed was in May of 2013. My goal was to just step on stage and to learn the process of competing as a bikini athlete. I trained for about 3 1/2 months and while I didn’t place or win any trophies at that time I gained a thirst for wanting MORE out of the sport.

Over the last 4-5 months, I’ve been training with my coach, Staci Boyer, and team Motiv8n’U Elite. Staci has helped me add more muscle, polish my posing, and most importantly transfer her belief and confidence to me. I will forever be grateful for meeting her. 

On March 29th, I took the stage for my first competition of the year with five of my other beautiful teammates at the NPC Mid-Illinois Championship in Ottawa. I was SO excited to be back with a stronger/tighter package and better posing 🙂 My class (class B – girls 5’4 – 5’7) had 13 girls in our lineup. I was absolutely BLOWN away by the beautiful women I was competing with that night. Everyone was on point and after speaking with a few other coaches and my own – they all agreed it was one of the best novice line ups they had seen for a long time. During pre-judging I got 2nd call outs and ended up placing 7th – a true victory in my book. I met some great women at that show and I hope to get a workout in with a few of them soon!

The next week was pretty tough. I decided to compete in back-to-back shows so that I could try to qualify for nationals. Being a nationally qualified bikini athlete is a goal I’ve had since last year, so I thought if for some reason I did not qualify early on I wanted to give myself enough time to try again at a later show in May. For the first few days after Ottawa, I felt pretty bloated with my body trying to hold on to as much water as possible from being dehydrated. I don’t think I consistently went to the bathroom until Wednesday! Also, being lean from the week prior, there was a lot of nutritional manipulation and tricks that had to be thought out so that I wouldn’t go into my next show being too thin or waterlogged, either.

My recommendation if you are competing – GET A COACH and make sure your coach is properly versed in peak week and nutrition and believes in your overall health! Every person is so different and every BODY is so different I won’t go into everything I ate or did not eat (as it likely won’t be applicable to your goals or if you are a competitor) but to give you a little example: Friday night I had to set an alarm every two hours into Saturday morning to wake up and eat sweet potatoes and protein. Not only that, but Saturday I woke up to a huge waffle and sausage in order to fill my muscles out and be stage ready… lean I was not! 🙂

The NPC Midwest Open, held at Davenport West High School, was put on by promoter and judge Earnest Bea. I saw a lot of familiar
faces in the crowd and my family drove out to see me! My class (also B class again) was smaller this time – but the competition was still tough. I said a few prayers, shook out any jitters that I had, and hit stage with my head held high for prejudging. We did a few front and back poses and only one competitor was moved for comparisons. Beyond that, I had NO idea how I did. It wasn’t like normal shows where there’s the usual first call out, etc. I remember walking off stage feeling a little concerned but hopeful as I  reminded myself that I did everything I could to prepare.

Thankfully and humbly, Im excited to say I placed 3rd, which means I am now a nationally qualified bikini competitor (top 5 of each class are qualified). I was going to do Jr. Nationals in Chicago this June but I have decided to put in some hard work at the gym over the next 4 months and take stage again for North Americans end of August!!! I’m on a booty mission – I need to add some size there 🙂 I know it will all come together and I’m excited for this next challenge.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me so far with my journey – and if this never ending spray tan has taught me one thing… it is far from over.

xoxo,
Heather