What happened Saturday?!

Competition number one- ACCOMPLISHED! 

It was such an amazing weekend. Time for some details on how everything went. 

My lovely mother drove in Friday to help me out. Being carb and water depleted makes it tough to have much energy to do anything so she helped me out with final details at home. I had a posing session with Sher in the morning at 8am and felt good about my model turns. The rest of Friday consisted for relaxing and packing. I got a chance to go to the farmers market to buy FRUIT to eat after the show. I was more than excited about that. 4:30pm was my spray tan appt at the double tree hotel. 6:30pm was briefing for bikini and figure competitors. After that I just hung out in the hotel room with my mom and was asleep by 10:30pm. I actually wasn't feeling jittery or nervous about the show so it was good to rest well that night. 

Saturday schedule went a little something like this:

5am: Woke up to undo my curlers and fix up my hair

6:30am: Make up appt

8am: Out the door to the venue for tan touch up

9am: Final briefing...but actually just lots of waiting around 

11:30am: Hair and make up touch ups, bikini on....Prejudging has started at this point

1:30pm: I am on stage for prejudging

2:30pm: On our way back to hermosa to nap! 30 minute power nap!

4:30pm: Back to the venue for finals

6:30pm: Finals begin....tan, hair and make up touch ups while waiting for my category

7:30/8pm: On stage for finals!

9:30pm: Show ends, stay after to get feedback from a few judges! 

10pm: Dunzo. 

11pm: Party time. 

Prejudging was great. I am happy with how I did on stage. I went out confident and comfortable with my model turns and walk. It was exhilarating! Competitors are in different "classes" depending on your height which means I competed against others around the same height. There were 10 girls in my class. We all walked out, did our individual model turns. Then they put us in smaller groups to compare girls against one another and had us do a few poses...walk to the back of the stage and back up front. Every one was so beautiful and had incredible bodies! The winner of the class was Ingrid Romero, a very inspirational competitor who is well known in bikini and has taken pretty awesome titles. (I didn't make top 5 but am still waiting on my placing)

When I walked off the stage and saw my trainer after prejudging I got pretty emotional. All day, it was about prepping and in that moment it sank in and really hit me that I DID IT. I worked so hard and accomplished my goal- and I did it all without comparing myself to the other girls or feeling insecure because I was simply proud of my own personal journey and individual accomplishment. I was on top of the freaking world! And to see my friends afterwards just meant the world to me. 

Finals were easy breezy. The most stressful part is prejudging because thats when it counts and when you are being scored. In finals we just walked out and did our model turns individually and immediately after they announced top 5. 

First thing I did after I got off the stage for finals was eat my muffins, brownies and fruit- didn't even go for a sip of water (I hadn't had water since 6pm the night before).

Head judge's feedback:

She said that I had a great figure/shape because of my tiny waist line and nice butt. haha..She wanted me to work more on my hamstrings and just get leaner. She said that she really liked my stage presence and my walk- that I was poised and classy. She loved my hair, make up, skin tone and overall look. Need a more blinged out bikini though! 

I had an awesome sunday relaxing and EATING whatever I wanted and today I was back in the gym, back on my clean eating diet ready to work for excalibur december 3!

Enjoy the pics! more posts to come that will be more personal and reflective! 

29% body fat to almost 12% in 3 months. Lost almost 2% in the last week before competition- insane. 

What I want.

Today was my last day with Sherlyn before competition day. When you train and you're sore, your body can retain more water than usual. We aren't training me all through the week so that my body/muscles will have time to heal and be show ready. 


Now, let's talk about wants. 
I knew what I wanted in terms of the goal and I knew what I wanted out of the process. What do I want on competition day? 


Let's start with this:


The last few days have been very emotional for me. I know its a combination of being carb depleted, training hard and trying to get everything taken care of for competition and life in general, but regardless of all of that- it's an emotional time overall. I have worked so hard for the last 3 months, staying insanely focused and determined to reach this goal. It has taken hours in the gym, hours of preparation, and every bit of mental, physical and emotional strength to conquer my days. And now, I've arrived to what I have been working so hard for. To stand in front of the mirror, look at how far my body has come and how far I have come personally, makes me feel things I can barely put into words. Last night, I literally did just that. I stood in front of my full length mirror, naked. Just me, and the progress I've made physically. Just me, and the fears that I've shed. Just me, a better me- accepting (for the very first time in my life), stronger, prouder, peaceful and still. I didn't get into all of this for vanity. It was for health (honestly, read my blog about my allergies and health issues). It was for an experience. I knew, 3 months ago, in the very moment I decided I was going to pursue bodybuilding and compete, that I would put 100% into it and that I'd make it to game day. That's just how I am. But standing there, I was still in awe of what I had accomplished, what I had learned and what I had overcome in the past few months. We all know the definition of dedication and discipline, but to live it is when you truly understand it. I have a better appreciation and understanding for those words as well as who I am. All of this, from training for a bikini competition. 


With that, what do I want competition day? Do I want to place? Yes, of course. But I'm not going to expect anything. I have to be realistic. I have come a long way but my body is not 100% show ready. I don't know the girls I'll be going up against but I do know I have worked as hard as I could in the amount of time I had to prepare for this show and that's all I could've done! You better believe I'm going to bring my A game when it comes to stage presence. That's actually more than half of what matters. How would you even choose the final girls when everyone has a sick body. Stage presence and personality account for a lot. The judges have to LIKE you. So no matter what, I will be up on stage, confident and proud, because I am. 


My body will continue to change. I will continue training after this competition to lean out even more. I'll be in even better shape for Excalibur December 3rd. I think at that point, I'll be pretty close to where I should/want to be for the stage. 


Sooooo what do I want? I want to have fun, I want to celebrate with the people I love and I want saturday to end with only the most amazing memories! Because truly, at the end of the day, my placing does not define me. It's my attitude, it's how I hold my head up, it's what I have learned and who I am today. 
Today, I am a better me.
And I am happy. 








Love, 
Nat

Update and tickets to the competition!

Hello world,

A lot has happened in a short amount of time. A little over 2.5 months into training I got my body fat remeasured. It was bittersweet. I had made progress and I needed to celebrate that victory, at the same time, I was still so far away from my goal.  It was definitely a bit discouraging. The progress I made in 2.5 months should have been greater considering how hard I was working. Something was off and what I was doing clearly wasn't the most effective for my body in terms of fat loss and getting lean. Then, I got really sick and this threw me off for about 2 weeks. Even further behind, I decided I needed a new game plan, a new strategy. It was time to hire a trainer and nutritionist. 

I remembered: If I wanted to be the best, I needed to learn from the best.

Through some research I found Jason Kozma (High Performance Personal Training)! I met with him and in short, he paired me up with IFBB PRO figure and bikini competitor- Sherlyn Roy. Wow and wow. I started training with her September 28th 2011. With a new diet plan created specifically for me by Jason and more effective fat burning training with Sherlyn, the progress I have made in just a few weeks is incredible. August 5th 2011 was the first day of my journey. I started at 29% body fat. Today, October 15th 2011, I am at about 14%. 

Now, I am a week away from my first competition (October 22). Training this last week has been intense and it's been a whirlwind getting all of the details together. There is so much that goes into preparing for competition day. I've had to consider what bikini will look best and accentuate my body shape, shoes, tanning, make up, hair, registration, considering the minor changes in diet and training if necessary (at this point my carbs are ALMOST 100% cut), making sure the poses and walk for the stage is impeccable! On top of all of that, training/ cardio 2 hours a day, meal preps (that takes me about 1.5 hours a day!) I also work and have to make time for errands, chores, relationships and myself. Its been incredibly challenging but unbelievably rewarding. I have learned more than I could have ever imagined about myself while going through this process. The lessons I have gotten out of this I can forever apply to so many other aspects of my life. Not just health and fitness. 

I am completely over the moon excited to reach my goal of completing my first competition. It will be a great experience to get my feet wet and get a feel for the process and stage to better prepare myself for my second goal- the big show- EXCALIBUR- Dec. 3rd 2011 (in Culver City as well). 

It's the home stretch now. I'm focusing on staying mentally, emotionally and spiritually strong- with that, my body will follow! Also, to take in every moment and emotion, to remember how blessed I am to be able to pursue all of the things I love each and every day, the support system I have, and everyones continuous encouragement that has truly helped me out more than you probably realize.

I have so much more that I want to share with all of you. I will try to make more time this week! 

TICKETS TO THE COMPETITION: 

I would absolutely appreciate and love for people to come and support me at the competition and also experience this insanely inspiring world of bodybuilding.

Saturday October 22nd, 2011

10:30 am: Doors open to public for prejudging

11:oo am: Prejudging- Competitors will be doing their model turns/poses individually and will be called out in groups to be compared against one another. Competitors get more stage time as judges are actually..judging (for finals). Its a cool time to see everyone up against each other and see the judging process as competitors are switched back and forth. 

6:00 pm: Doors open to public for finals

6:30 pm: For unlimited bikini specifically (what I am competing in), it is awards only but competitors will still be able to do model turns. Less extensive as all comparisons will have already been done during prejudging. 

Ideally, I would love for people to attend BOTH! :) But if you had to choose one, I suppose its up to you and what you'd prefer to watch. Finals/night show is the one I think most people attend.. 

You can purchase tickets online and most likely at the show although I am not sure if they will sell out. The info is on the website. This link will take you directly to the tickets for my show:

https://www.lindsayproductions.com/11TicketFormTitan.php

This link is the information on the event location and classes:

http://lindsayproductions.com/11EventInfoTitan.php

(I am not sure how long prejudging/finals will take. There are about 150 competitors total for NPC/IFBB. I don't know how large each class/category is so I am unsure of how slowly or quickly they will get to my class! I realize there's a big gap between prejudging and finals but prejudging will NOT go until 6:30pm. No where near 6:30. I do know finals will be shorter than prejudging because they will have already done some comparisons in the morning)