I'm Back!!

Ok. I am ready to dive in and give a full report as promised. Here goes nothing.

Thursday -
I spent the day in luxury treating myself and getting polished for the trip.
0900 - Waxing appointment: full brazilian and eyebrow.
1000 - Hair appointment: Enjoyed visiting with my sweet friend Erin as she made my look awesome. I darkened it all over and added some lighter pieces up top to brighten my face.
1200 - Had lunch at Snap kitchen

1230 - Nail appointment: Had a wonderful and relaxing pedicure
1330 - Headed to the massage studio where I relaxed in a robe and napped until my appointment. I received a full body brushing and then body scrub which was amazing and then a hot stone massage that was the cherry on top.
1700 - Tanning appointment: I met up with Renee for my first tanning session. She is so great.
1800 - Headed home to pack and prepare my food for the next day. We then dropped off puppy with a friend.

Friday -
0330 - Woke up and showered. I had to blow dry my hair now because I wouldn't have time before my first tanning appointment in LA.

All my stuff!! I very carefully planned out my carryon bag that was filled with my must have competition gear and my checked bag that was filled with all the crazy amount of liquids I would need and my 'purse' bag filled with food for me to eat that day. It was a little tricky but I managed to keep my chicken and veggies cold.
0500 Leave for the airport
0600 At the airport and at the gate an hour early. Relaxed and ate and took my supplements.

0700 Boarded the plane. It was a three hour flight so I snacked on my chicken and veggies in route and planned my nutrition and training plan for when I got back

0900 - Made it to LAX and off to the rental car company. This went very smoothly and we were able to find the hotel no problem. BUT the hotel did not include parking which was a slight oversight I didn't financially prepare for in all my planning. Matt dropped me off and found a cheaper garage a few blocks away. Just a little word of advice.
1100 - I showered up and headed to my first tanning appointment. I lucked out that the sponsor tanning company chose the hotel directly across the street from my hotel. Seeing as I was walking around downtown LA orange and braless, this was helpful. I rested in the hotel and practiced my posing and tried to nap.
1700 - Second tanning appointment. I sent Matt out to explore the city since I planned on doing nothing that day. I organized my bag for the next day and took small naps on the sheets I brought. I still somehow managed to leak tanner through my sheets and onto the hotels, but it came out with a quick rinse before we left.

Saturday
0400 - Woke up and did my makeup all the way except my lashes and lips and I styled my hair completely minus some extra teasing.
0600 - last tanning appointment
0700 - The hotel provided a complimentary car to drop me off at the convention center since it was a mile away. I thought they would call a cab but I walked outside to meet a small asian man and a black lincoln. It was so nice. The gentleman was a pastor and spoke blessings over me the whole ride there. It was precious.
0715 - I found the meeting hall and waited till 0800 for it to start
0800 - For 2 hours I sat in a room with all 120 competitors as they gave us instructions on the flow of the show. I purchased my NPC card, got my height assigned and my number. I was 108! I loved this because 8 is my husband's lucky number.
1000- All the girls went behind stage in this small area and started prepping. I was nervous and had nothing to do but look at my competition and so I decided to make friends and if I found someone intimidating or thought they looked awesome, I made friends with them so I would view them as a friend and not a threat. It greatly helped me be more relaxed and have more fun.

You can see the area was pretty small and some girls were "pumping up". I met Jenny and she was in my class. She was great and gave me a lot of advice. I hope to run into here again in the competition circuit.
1100 - Competition begins. Bikini is always the last category so I sat around for an hour freezing. I was too scared to eat anything so I would pop a couple hot tamale candies to keep my blood sugar up.
1230 - We went on stage. Apparently you typically go out one by one and pose. The show decided to save time by bringing everyone out together and then posing all together. It was so crammed I could barely pose. There were 8 girls in my class and it was a tiny stage. But I did it! It was such a rush. I immediately met up with Matt for a few shots and then we explored the fitness expo. I couldn't go far because I had to be back at 3pm to prep for the 4pm awards. Here are some pics...

showing Matt my poses

I met Amanda Latona - IFBB bikini pro

and Nicole Wilkins, IFBB Figure Pro

My nasty tan hands

1500 I head back to the stage and begin prepping for the finals. The judges have already made there top 5 decisions, but they now announce the winners. This time we were able to come out one by one and do single posing. Here are some shots. I made bodybuilding.com!!

I had a good time and just really enjoyed the adrenaline rush of competing and being on stage. I don't know why I was so worried about that. I mentally said "have fun!" and that is what I did. We were then all told to walk up and they would call the top 5. I was so excited to be done and was shocked when they called out 108. I got back on stage and couldn't stop smiling. I won 5th place!!! I was expecting to place and was ecstatic!!

 Matt and I then headed back to the hotel and I celebrated at the bar with beer and a pretzel. It was so good.

I then showered all the tanning gunk off and we got dressed up for dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse

The next two days I ate everything I wanted and despite a pull up preformed on Venice beach and a 4 hour hike through the hills of Hollywood, I didn't work out. It was wonderful but it made me ready to start training again. Here are some pics of my gluttonous behavior.

The donuts from Randy's Sunday morning

I literally ate half a donut, a red velvet cupcake, half a cookie/icing sandwhich and one small chocolate covered brownie from babycakes!!

But we hiked 4 hours right before from the Griffith observatory to the top of the Hollywood sign, in my defense. 

All in all it was a wonderful experience and I can't wait to share with you some exciting news and new recipes I created today: zucchini pizza and protein cookies, yumm!!

Thanks for all the kind words and messages. I hope I have been helpful to those pursuing something better for themselves. I will continue to blog about healthy eating and working out as I prepare for my next shows in March and April. Let me know if you have any specific questions about the process and I will be glad to share. I received my training program from Revelation Fitness group here in Austin, but they do online training too for those of you interested who don't live here. 

Train Hard, Eat Clean - Be Better!!!

- Whittney C.