Hey Guys!
As many of you will know by now, last weekend I competed in my second Body Building Competition – ANB Asia Pacific International. I wanted to share with you all a little bit about my journey and what I went through to get up on stage and take out 5th Place!
Psychological
Over the past 6 months I have gone through a lot in my personal life as well as with Strong One Fitness from Relationship Breakdowns to unexpected Business Growth and all of these things took their toll on my psychological well-being as well as my physical well-being.
Being totally stressed out and suffering severe anxiety, I made the decision to go on medication to help me come to terms with everything and allow me to develop tactics to deal with the stresses of running my own business and understanding how different people have different effects on you as a person and your personality. During this time is when I decided to compete again and I am so glad I did it! Less than three months later I am off the medication and smashing goals left right and centre.
Physical
The physical side of prepping was a tough hurdle to get past. I had to train every day of every week to ensure I was in my best physical shape before getting on stage. With all the extra stress on my body came fatigue and a feeling of weakness. Some days I would start work at 5:30AM, train during the day, go back to work and not finish until 9PM and then have to repeat it all again the following day which took its toll but I loved it at the same time.
Prepping & Business
This was probably one of the most difficult parts of the whole Comp Prep period for me! Business is booming and trying to work around eating several meals a day, training up to twice a day and fitting in all of my amazing clients to their “usual” session times proved to be quite difficult. That said I have to thank them all for dealing with a few weeks of all over the place scheduling and a few double bookings (oops!) in that last week – Hey you can’t blame me I was barely eating anything!!
At the same time however, I think it’s great that my clients got to see the Prep side of it and be a part of my journey with me.
Overall
I had a rough start to the year and I never thought I would be able to pull through and in fact I doubted my chances of making it on stage more times than I can count. I am so glad that I made it despite all of the hurdles! It was a blast!
Now although I’m not stoked with my placing, I’m more determined to bring my weight up this off season and just really put some good mass on! (I write this at a Mexican restaurant haha)
Adam (my coach) did extremely well at bringing me in tight and dry on the day and also dealing with the emotional roller coaster throughout the 18 weeks! It feels like I’ve really accomplished something and hopefully inspired some to never give up despite physical health and/or mental health.
In all seriousness, a big shout out to my Family, Friends for putting up with me during the prep as well as Bizpal Services for the tremendous support they have given during this prep. I’m very proud to be a sponsored athlete of theirs.
I’ll leave you with this:
Just because you’re having a bad day, weak, year? It’s still a time of your life and you need to accept that these times will test you towards becoming a stronger personal mentally, emotionally and physically. There is no excuse in this world that can be given as to why you’re not making positive changes to become a more positive person.