They say, “If you can’t stop thinking about it, don’t stop working for it.” That quote had been stuck in my mind for the last two years of my life. Since I began to become more involved with working out about 6 years ago the notion of ever competing in any kind of competition involving showing my body seemed so far off, honestly it wasn’t even a thought that I would spend more than 5 seconds on. However, as I became more immersed in the world of fitness and began a consistent workout routine I learned more about what these competitions entailed. My first experience with knowing someone who actually competed was during my second year training at the boutique cross functional gym I belonged to. An extremely petite and strong girl I knew was training like a beast and preparing for her first “physique” competition. At the time I had no idea there were different categories or what that even meant, all I knew was that it took a special person to compete in one of those and I didn’t know if I’d ever be one of them. Fast forward the next three years and my passion for fitness grew and so did my interest in nutrition. Not only hearing that “80% is nutrition and 20% is exercise” but actually understanding what that meant. Understanding the difference between good fats, bad fats, why carbs are actually good for you, how much protein you should consume, caloric deficits, bulking, gains, macros, water intake etc.., what all used to seem so foreign all of a sudden felt like it was coming together. I think that when you first get into this, you think you understand – you follow something for a month or two and all of a sudden, you’re an expert… one word, naive. Understanding nutrition, how to get it to work for you, knowing what doesn’t work for you and how to transform yourself for better or worse is something that you learn over a long period of time. Through trial and error. I still do not pretend to be an expert on it. However, I’m proud to know as much as I do and to have taken the effort in listening to multiple opinions, understanding multiple approaches and learning by reading and researching from various sources. I didn’t just take one “expert” opinion’s word for it. I experimented to see what worked for me over time. Once I learned, and I mean – truly understood how to eat for your goals and how doing so can literally take you to a place you thought you’d never be, that’s when I knew a competition would be on my horizon, I just didn’t know when.
With the invention of Instagram, the path on how to accomplish this seemed to become clearer. Because of the trends Insta saw in my “likes” and searches, my feed was and still is always cluttered with beautiful chiseled bodies that fill me with so much motivation more and more every time. Not only was it enough to see the finished product but when you go to some of these girl’s pages and realize where they started and how you may have similarities with them be it height, body type, lifestyle etc ., you start to realize that these goddesses are the everyday girl just like you, they just decided to venture further and enter a world of limitless discipline. For me, seeing this made me say to myself, “ I can do this. If they can, I can!”. And that was it, but still it was a matter of “when?”. With a wedding approaching I knew it was not the time to sign up, prep and train for a competition but I used that as a trial period to see how I deal with self-discipline, limitations and hard-core 6-7 day workouts. With help from friends who use personal nutritionists, I was able to personalize my own little nutrition plan for my wedding day goals. This was a major learning curve and I wouldn’t realize why until after. While I had gotten into the best shape of my life at that time, I still wasn’t completely satisfied with my results… (are we ever? Ha). Months after, once I started to prep for a competition I realized how much I had put myself in a caloric deficit so losing the fat necessary to step on stage was a feat! For months I had not been properly fueling my body, not nearly enough calories I needed to continue building the muscle I was working so hard for and not only that, but my caloric intake on a daily and weekly basis was all across the board and oh carbohydrates, yea they were the arch enemy!
Besides the obvious lessons learned here, the huge takeaway for when I started learning the ins and outs of prep was how true the expression “consistency is key” means and means to fat loss in the body. I basically thought this had always meant working out consistently 6-7 days a week and eating “healthy” you know salad vs. burger. When in all actuality, it goes further than that! This actually meant to be consistently eating wholesome, nutritious meals 5x a day and keeping your calories and macros somewhat consistent so your body knows what nutrients to expect. The importance for your body to be on an eating schedule is immense and dramatically effects how your body absorbs, processes and uses food. This could mean the difference between semi-toned arms or sculpted-cut biceps, toned stomach vs chiseled abs and obliques, a noticeable butt or a rock hard glutes. Needless to say, this young grasshopper had a lot more to learn! Stay tuned for the rest!
The Health-Minded Pursuit 