NPA National British Championships

WOW!!! NPA National British Championships – Brilliant day, amazing comp!

I placed 2nd!!!

I’m truly overwhelmed, honoured and… shocked!!! I’m so so so happy with my placing and trophy. It is truly the ‘icing on the cake’ and made every bit of pain and sacrifice SO worth it – absolutely no doubt!!

I honestly wasn’t expecting to come anywhere near this. It was a tough line up of 13 girls and it was hard work! The other girls looked really great. I had to pose my butt off and work the judges hard, because there were many many call outs. One of the hardest workouts I’ve ever done! In a dehydrated and hungry state, I couldn’t wait to get off stage in the end! But the whole atmosphere of the day was just brilliant. I was so excited and happy, especially once the judging was over, man I was BUZZZZZZZING!! Coming back for the night show I felt so relaxed and so supported by brilliant people. It was one of the best days of my life!

Thanks a MILLION to my wonderful support team – you guys rock so much, couldn’t have done it without you all! You guys are amazing friends, so encouraging! Annie – Thanks again for being there for me – right the way through from posing practice, glueing my bum, shouting just what I needed to hear on stage – right to the end of the… night with a lift to my doorstep. Luxury You were an amazing support!! What a great team! Thanks to Veronica who is incredible at make up and hair – you blew me away, you are so talented and Richard for the support and laughs. Thanks to Hani for the pump up and pep talks, Faris for guessing I’d come 2nd I was wrong – thank God! Thanks my beautiful friend Helena for coming with me, keeping me happy, believing in me and taking great pics – skills girl!! I felt very very looked after and the luckiest girl in the world! The support means so much to me.

The line-up was 13 truly amazing figure girls, the girl who won is 3 x British champ and also an international champ. I somehow beat the girls who got 1st & 2nd at my regional qualifier where I placed 3rd! I don’t think I realised how much I really worked over those 6 weeks between the regionals and nationals to come back fighting and better.

Competing is VERY consuming, it requires a lot of mental and physical energy. I find that a lot of people don’t understand it and think it’s a bit of a shallow sport. But once you’ve done it, you realise it’s SO much more than ‘looking good on stage’. The lessons are parallel to so many areas of life. Arnold Schwarzenegger once said that body-building taught him everything he needed to be a successful Movie star and Governor.

I’ve learned -
- How to believe in myself and my abilities
- That I DO have what it takes (I never knew this before!)
- What my mind and body is actually capable of
- The art of self-discipline and sacrifice (this can be applied to other areas of life of course)
- That having a big goal and seeing progress is the most motivating thing in the world
- The art of ‘delaying gratification’ in order to achieve something greater
- Lessons and skills that I can apply for the rest of my life when it comes to fat loss.

Also you get to meet great and like-minded people, knowing you have gone pretty much as far as one can go in the area of weight training, nutrition, cardio and lifestyle combined. To be honest, it was almost ‘easy’ – because if you have a goal and are focused – you can do anything. What I find harder, is trying to be ‘good’ when I don’t have a goal!

I had a lovely 5 days off in Spain, celebrating and indulging (poor body was in shock – after dieting for 4 months!). Did lots of walking and a couple of workouts while over there, but it’s not the same! Am now back working hard in the gym and eating clean food again (feel so much better!) I can’t seem to decrease my training volume yet, my body is just so used to training twice a day it’s hard to drop it back although I know I need to taper it off and have a rest, let my hormones come back to normal balance (they’ve been out of whack all year!).

I know I can remain within a certain weight range (within 3-5kg), and I know exactly how to get myself back down if I choose to. No questions, doubts or confusion – I have a blue-print plan that works for me, because I’ve always been disciplined to record everything I’ve eaten. The law of cause and effect in action – in clear writing, no excuses!

I need to increase my carbs and decrease protein in order to get my body back in better balance. I don’t really want to, as I love the competition diet way of eating – it makes me feel great!! But 180g protein and less than 70g carbs per day is not good long-term, and my body will fight me if I try and keep eating like that for too long. The challenge is always how to maintain the body composition that we like to be, while remaining healthy and sane!

I’m looking forward to some different types of training too – improving my posture, doing more classes, outdoor bike rides etc.

Until next time!

Happy Kat

Here are some pics …

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