Part II: My Journey

Part II: The competition day

The day has finally arrived: the day of the competition! I took support with me including two good friends and my BF that stayed over in the bungalow park close to the competition town (the full park was taken over by bodybuilders; can you imagine how this looks? :) ) I loved the thrill of knowing that this day I would shine on stage; this was the day I have trained for so dedicated and consistent. This day is why I sacrificed soo many things the past half-a- year. This is it!

At this important day, the stress level should be kept to a minimum in order to look at your best that moment on the stage (you want to make sure your body not holding any excess liquid). I had a perfect team around me supporting me and getting me trough the day. A good friend of mine is a top-hair and make-up artist that helped me getting ready. It was a honour that he wanted to do my hear and make-up this day! I really do strongly advise each athlete to bring a friend or pay for a professional to help with your hair and make-up as this relieves a lot of stress at the day itself! The tanning was being done by the professionals at the event. I have to say all went well, except for one thing: my tanning was striped! The day before the competition I used a scrub, that was apparently too intense and my body didn't recover from this, showing the exact direction of the scrubbing! (yikes!) Fortunately my PT ensured my we could cover this with oil and that this will hardly show on stage. He was there to get me ready the last minutes before the stage. Before going on stage, there was a lot of waiting, but I have to say this went quite fast. I just chilled a bit in the hallways, put my legs up and rested.

Than there was the moment on stage!...

I empathized the '.' here. Because, well, it was so quick! Just 5 or 10 minutes on stage, for the posing and the T-walk in total. When you worked so intense and dedicated for it, this time on the stage flies so fast! I did feel on top of my game at the stage; even participated in the first call-out (I have been told they like you than :) ) I was satisfied with the 6th place (out of 12) for my first competition, but I also had mixed feelings. The 6th place is not qualified for the B class (next level) competition. So unfortunately for me, I was not able to participate in a next-level competition next time, but had to compete in a similar competition again. What was a happy surprise though, was that they did call me on stage when announcing my 6th prize, even though normally they only call the 1st winner - the 5th winner on stage to hand over the prizes! #proud!

Recipe: Healthy tuna burgers

This is a great and easy recipe for delicious tuna burgers. What is nice about this recipe is that most of the time you have all ingredients in house! At least, I always have a can of tuna in my kitchen because is is so quick and easy to prepare, for example in a salad or paste. But now you also learn how easy it is to make a burger out of it! And who doesn't love burgers?

Ingredients

• 1 can of tuna in water, drained
• 2 eggs (or only egg whites if you are watching your calorie/fat-intake)
• Fresh parsley
• 1/2 cup of oatmeal

  

Method

1. Cut the parsley
2. Mix the drained tuna with the eggs, oatmeal and parsley
3. Roll a small ball of the mixture and flatten it out to a 'burger shape' 
4. Bake the burgers in a pan until it has a golden-brown crust 
5. Enjoy!

Because my tuna burgers were gone right away (in my tummy, yumm), I reached out to google for this great pic!

Part I: My Journey

Part I: Preparation time

Even though my stage-time was back in 2014, almost 1,5 year ago, I would like to share this story with you. 

My journey started when I took my BF to a fitness competition for his Bday. We went driving for about 1,5 hours all the way to the South of the Netherlands, where there was a A/B competition ongoing. When we arrived, we chuckled at the men, all tanned and swollen from the steroids (most of them at least). When arrived at the theater, I was however impressed when seeing the ladies on stage. The bodies were stunning and the bikini's  were beautiful, the one with more bling than the other! What I noticed, however, was that many girls seemed quite nervous on stage and that was showing in their performance. They seemed tense and did not act natural. The stage is to shine; own the stage! It was itching; I was eager to be on stage again (I used to perform when I was younger in dancing and acting, just as a hobby). I enjoy the spotlight and have missed the adrenaline rushing trough my body when going on that stage. The simultaneous feeling of power and vulnerability, being in the center of attention. The 'high' of being on the stage. But also the journey towards the stage, the dedication, the team-work (hardly ever you will do it by yourself). Standing for something, working dedicated; this gives you identity.  That place and that moment, that is when I decided I wanted to be on that stage.

I reached out to a PT, the best in it's class to help me to with my journey to the stage. While preparing, he provided the best physical advise and this really made a difference! It showed! My muscles grew, I got leaner (of course in combination with strict clean eating; remember; abs are made in the kitchen!) The past months, I thought I have been training hard already. I went to the gym 4-5x a week, did weight training and finished most times with half an hour - a full hour cardio. When doing my first training with my PT, I asked myself; 'what was I doing all this time'? This training was so intense; I lifted heavier weights than I ever thought I could lift, I did supersets, and it seemed that cardio was included in the full workout as the pace was so fast, it felt like my heart was in my throat! Wow, that is what you call a work-out. With 'just' 3 full-body workouts a week, mixing up with cardio (max 30min. High intensity a day) and clean eating, my body shaped more and more towards the body ready for stage.

Working hard! On my way to the stage...