Road to my first bikini show Part 1

Why on earth would I want to parade around in a sparkly bikini and clear very tall heels....in front of an audience at age 41????

I asked myself this over and over again during this year of preparation for this show! 

That's right a full year of prep time! 

The only reason I came up with is ......to prove to myself that I could.

So last May I started to follow a friend of a friends journey on social media to her first Figure Compettion. 

And.....

It just went from there. 

I have another super close friend that does Figure Competitions and I started asking her a ton of questions. 

I then found out another acquaintance that did bikini shows...

Then I started to research (BC that's what I do) .....I researched to find out the ins and outs of everything on bikini competitions that I could.

What I needed to look like.

What I needed to eat.

How much muscle I needed to gain.

Posing.

Bikinis.

Coaches.

Jewelry. 

Shoes. 

I researched it all! 

This was taken in April of 2014... Right after I had lost about 7-8 pounds from stopping eating candy. Remember that? Read more about that ...  Here... I  weighed about 120/122ish...

Notice my completely flat as a pancake booty and very string bean arms. 

This was at the end of May 2014 right before I started to change my lifting and cardio. 

So no I certainly didn't look "bad" I realize that.... I was fit...cardio wise...very fit...and had about 100 pounds of lean muscle at this point from years of lifting...

But.....

I knew that this was going to be a huge challenge. 

I knew that I was going to have to work really hard.

I knew that I may get last place. 

I knew that I wanted it really bad!!