It’s July 11th as I sit here and write the final chapter in Jenn’s Journey to the Stage for the NPC Southern States, which happened two days ago on July 9th. At roughly 7:15 p.m. my division, the 30+ Masters stepped on stage.

Now let’s roll the clock back to roughly 8 a.m. that morning and you’d see me literally jumping out of bed ready to go. The adrenaline rush that I had all day was amazing.  I spent the morning reapplying my tan, doing laundry, cleaning the kitchen and bathroom all the while walking around in my clear stripper shoes, so that I wasn’t road kill on stage that night.

I looked and felt amazing that day and all the text messages and Facebook postings of support from friends, family, and other figure competitors only added to my excitement and happiness.

I just kept thinking, “I DID it!”

Eight months of weight training with Frank were about to pay off, along with the last eight weeks of contest prep dieting. I started dieting on May 1st to get ready for July 9th. The first 4 weeks entailed 1160 cals, carbs 3 days a week and cardio for an hour a day. Spin class at 24 Hour Fitness became my new best friend. Teachers, if you haven’t used your health insurance to join, then get a move on and make it happen!

The last 4 weeks weren’t so easy to follow calories-wise. The first 2 weeks I was dropped to 1,000 cals a day and cardio twice a day. The last 2 weeks dropped to 800 cals and still cardio twice a day. This wasn’t so bad once the school year ended, but that last week of school was rough what with getting up at 5 a.m. to get round one of cardio in before going to work.

It should also be noted that I work part time at Dunkin’ Donuts over the summer — that was not an easy place to be during contest preparation and on the days that I worked there starting at 7 a.m.; I had to get up at 4 a.m. to get the first round of cardio done.  But I did it all with very little whining along the way. I’m sure Frank the Trainer would beg to differ, but he’s a great personal trainer and takes very little of my garbage, which we all know I can dish out by the bucket load.

I stepped on that stage on July 9th, 2010 at 106lbs and 13.8% body fat. I don’t qualify for Amazon status yet, like the girl in green, but I am working on it.

I’ve been weight training for roughly two years and I started taking it and myself seriously within the last year, and it has improved my self-esteem, my self-confidence and my body. I feel better mentally, physically and emotionally. The sense of personal accomplishment that I have right now is amazing. Being that this was only my 2nd show it wasn’t about competing with the other girls in my division, it was about competing with myself mentally and physically.

It was a battle everyday with the treadmill, the bike in spin class, the refrigerator, and grocery shopping properly, but the end of the day I won! Since I began training with Frank I have gained roughly 6lbs of muscle and drastically improved my diet, and now there is nowhere to go but up from here.

Huge gains within a year!

Back to the present it is now 10 a.m. July 11th, and I get a week off from training. No cardio, no weights, and no eating clean if I choose, and for the last 48 hours I’ve chosen to eat pretty poorly. As soon as I was done at the show my friends and I hit the Cheesecake Factory and I had a wonderful ice cream drink and fish and chips and took some cheesecake to go and Saturday night we hit Anthony’s Pizza and I had my standard pepperoni and black olive pizza and their amazing salad, and after dinner I had some peanut M&M’s and Sour Patch Kids for Desert.

No photos of the pizza night because I forgot the camera at home, but the rest have been documented for posterity. This has been an amazing journey and experience and there is nowhere to go but up from here and I am planning on two more shows in the fall just for the experience, then it becomes the off season and it’s time to lift heavy, lift hard and make some major gains in the muscle department.

There is nothing more empowering than stepping on that stage and knowing that you worked your butte off to get there.