Pros and Cons

Everything in life has pros and cons.  Before I decided to commit myself into entering a bikini competition, I thought about all the great things that I would accomplish with this goal and all the things that I probably would not like along the way.

          When I started training with Chris Tybor, I knew that my diet was going to be very strict and that I would be missing out on all the major holidays with my family, which was definitely a challenge since I love sweets! Along the way came many more things that I did not see coming.  As winter started to approach and the temperature started to drop, I found myself freezing all the time! Well, it makes sense that fat keeps you warm, so as I started to loose fat off my body I became colder.  Another thing that really played with my mind was the scale. I had to weigh myself in 2 days a week on the gym scale.  My first weigh in during the week was always good but by the second weigh in towards the end of the week the scale was always up!  This went on for months and really drove me crazy! I didn’t see a drop in the scale consistently until a month and a half before my show date.

          As weeks and months went on I saw a changed in my body and I felt great about myself! Once I got my competition suit in, which was about two and a half months before my show, and I put the bottoms on, I freaked out because it was so tight!  I thought to myself that there is no way I was going to be able to fit into this skimpy piece by the time of my show. Chris kept on reinforcing that the bottoms would fit and that I had plenty of time left to slim down my lower body.  As the show date got closer and closer, my carbs got lower, my cardio and workout became longer, and I became hungrier.  By the end of it all I was physically and mentally exhausted and was ready for it to be over with.

          By the time of my last competition, I could not believe how much my body had changed in 24 weeks! In that time period I lost 7 pounds and 10.1% body fat! I have to thanks Chris Tybor for that. He gave me the tools, guidance, and encouragement to succeed.  Chris was with me every step of the way, pushing me in my workout were I never thought I would be able to go before, and making sure my diet was right  on every day. At my last show, another competitor that I became friends with said to me “Your trainer is here again? Wow that’s really nice of him to come”. After she said that I started to look around and noticed that a lot of other girls were by themselves and did not have their trainer there with them.  At that point I was even more grateful that Chris was my trainer.  I truly would not have been able to achieve my goal without him.

          Now that the competitions are over with, a lot of people asked me why I wanted to compete.  First off, I believe that everyone should set goals in their lives.  You only get to live once, so you should do everything that you want to do.  Second, I did not want to look back on my life and say I wish I did that.  There was so many things that I gained from this experience that has changed my entire life. I have learned so much about training, nutrition, and how my body handles certain foods. Every day I look at what I eat and do not think it’s a diet anymore; it’s a lifestyle that I plan on doing for the rest of my life. With this knowledge I want to teach and help others to have a healthier lifestyle and achieve their goals.

-Alicia Mann