Well, I just journeyed back from the Arnold after a really long but FUN weekend! It was my 8th year going to the Arnold Classic and absolutely the best one yet! The crowd on Saturday was unbelievable and definitely the largest crowd I have ever seen while being there through out the years.
I started things off on Friday morning, bright and early, with a duo shoot (Tara Scotti and I) with J.P. Erickson (athleticwomenmagazine.com). J.P. is a super friendly guy and definitely does some great work! We had loads of fun shooting outdoors esp. it was really warm that day. Tara is getting ready for Jr. USA's and looks fabulous! You will have to check out this woman's shoulders and abs when she steps on stage in April.
At around 10:30am, I hurried over to the expo to help Twinlab set up. It was so nice to meet everyone for the first time and all of the Twinlab athletes and staff are amazingly friendly with wonderful personalities! My day consisted of taking slews of pictures with fans/friends and of course selling my pictures to make some moolah.
Jodi Miller (GetBig member) stopped by the booth to say hi. This woman is amazing, so sweet and a great BOD! I hope she does some serious damage at the Jr. USA's. She is right good things do come in small packages!
I was venturing over to the bathroom, which seem like it took 20 minutes to get there from where our booth was located. That gives you an indication of all the people that were there. In a way, I sure was glad I was standing at a booth rather than trying to squirm through all the people. If you are social phobic or get claustrophobic this is definitely not the place to be… HA!
I got done working at around 6:30 pm. and really wanted to get a workout in even though I was dog-ass tired. LOL! Those knee high boots we had to wear with our Twinlab outfits were killer to wear all day! My boyfriend and I got to World Gym at around 7ish. When we walked in, I was amazed to see Ronnie Coleman, Dave Palumbo, Mike Morris, etc. It was a darn good view and I had an awesome arm workout! A few photographers were there snapping pictures and took a few of us doing some bicep poses! I was thrilled and felt honored to have my picture taken! Sometimes, I think some of you members don't believe we Figure girls lift heavy... HA! I got a darn good pump and was lifting heavy to failure, which is how I like to lift.
We headed back to the hotel at around 8:30, cleaned up, had our protein shakes and hit the road to get some freakin' food.... I was starving! We ended up eating at Applebee's, which was about 10 min. away from the Expo. I even resisted those delicious buffalo wings since I just started my diet for Jr. Nationals. I had a tasty low-fat chicken salad, which was very tasty.
I woke up on Saturday at around 6am, since I had to be at the expo by 8ish to set up. While at the expo, I met some great well-known photographers, got offered a few modeling gigs/etc. and even did an interview and pose down for ABC news. I was later told that I was practically all over the news since I was featured 3 times on the broadcast. I was shocked when I heard this since I am a not a pro or anything. I was asked a lot of questions about Arnold and the impact it had on the expo since he is now Governor, the size of the expo this year compared to other years, etc. It was a lot of fun and was thrilled to be apart of it. I sold some more pictures so the extra $ was great!
I took about an hour lunch break and did a little shopping. You can get some awesome deals at the Arnold, especially if you wait until Sunday. It never fails, every time I see the Jagware booth that sells competition suits, I always end up spending hundreds of $ on new suits. I spent about $600 there and didn't even need new suits, good thing Twinlab took well care of me for working!! I also bought some new workout clothes and hit up all the booths with the free sample protein bars, which was practically my lunch since I ate so many of them. Talk about major bloating/gas.... UGGHH ~HA! No wonder the Expo smells so bad at times due to all the people munching on those protein bars.
At this one booth they had these awesome tasting sugar-free candies. I'm sure they were loaded with fat to make up for the lack of sugars but oh well I was starving. I think I hit up that booth about 10 times total throughout the weekend for free samples. HA! They had everything from jellybeans, gummies, oreo-type cookies, and these awesome peanut butter cups that tasted just like Reese's... YUM YUM! I would never buy any though. I feel like if I am going to eat that stuff in the off-season, I am going to go for the real stuff, much cheaper too! They also have some awesome tasting low-carb protein bars. They almost seem too good to be true! I often wonder if they have in them what they say they do.
I did get to see/talk with Monica Brant briefly while I was on my break. I had to squeeze in to see her though, since as usual she had a line of fans waiting to chat with her and get autographs. I'm a member of her VIP fan club, which is awesome I might add. Her face is so warm and has a glowing effect! My eyes got swept away in her body, absolutely phenomenal! She really is quite muscular compared to a lot of the other Figure girls, which is what I love, not to mention her awesome curves.
I did get to see Rocky by accident as I was strolling over to the bathrooms. I got held up by million security officials and was wondering what the hell was going on. I figured it was Arnold coming through or something. I told the security man that I just had to go pee... HA... he thought that was rather funny. I didn't since I was about to bust. I did get to see Sly though so that was COOL! He looked amazing and hasn't aged too much considering he's in his what 50's? Totally has that Hollywood look! I also saw Skip LaCour, one of my favorites. I waved at him but didn't get to go talk to him because I needed to get back to the booth. He always looks amazing and looked really BIG in that t-shirt he was wearing. It's always nice to chat with him since he is so knowledgeable, intelligent, and so friendly!
After the expo was over at around 6, I headed back to the hotel, put on some of my new workout gear and walked a few blocks to World Gym again for a Shoulder/Chest workout. Art Atwood, Ronnie Coleman, Alti Bautista, and Collette Nelson were also there. It was great to see them in action and I got to talk to some of them for a few minutes! I really admire Ronnie, he is so dedicated yet at the same time he is so personal and friendly! He looks unreal, almost like a cartoon character. His back is so freakin' wide and his arms…Wow! I had another awesome workout! How could I not after working out around the pros!! I've been using a lot of Twinlab products that have really been helping (HMB, carnitine, pyruvate, creatine, ZMA, and methoxy. I stack these together and have been doing so for about a month. I have gotten a lot leaner and much stronger! I noticed this while working out at the gym both days. They did have good lights there, though. HA! I was much more vascular and my upper body was a lot leaner.
We headed out at 8pm, cleaned up, and had our protein shakes and we went to Texas Roadhouse! I had some peanuts, a nice big juicy steak, salad, and some steamed veggies, it tasted damn good!
I woke up Sunday morning, swollen eyes and blood shot at that. I was extremely tired and my feet hurt like hell from those boots we had to wear, they sure did look good though!! I drank a cup of java, had a low-carb Myoplex, took my supplements and headed to the expo at 9:30. This day flew by and was even more fun than Saturday since it wasn't so busy. I seen a lot of people I knew and even got a few gifts from fans, which really made my day. I really pushed selling the rest of my pictures and the remaining Twinlab products since we got commission off of them. Let's just say the extra $ was awesome and I was really thankful for Twinlab treating us so good! I really need the $ after buying suits, workout clothes, etc.
At midday, I ventured back over to the bathroom and ran into pro fitness Angela Semsch. This is the first time I had ever met her. I was truly impressed with what I saw. She is just down right beautiful in person and oh so sweet! I could definately see that she had improved a lot over the past few years. She is much thicker and bigger. I was sure glad I ran into her and got to meet her.
The Twinlab team had to go onstage to present the 'Live like a Pro Champion' his $50,000 check and other prizes. That was quite an experience. Let me tell you it was amazing working with Lee Priest! I could not believe how tiny his waist is, not to mention how awesome everything else is. I tried to tempt him with my Reese Peanut Butter Cups that a fan had brought me but learned that he didn't like peanut butter. Wow, did not know one could not like peanut butter since it seems like so many people like it. Lee is really laid back and always friendly. He definitely enjoys his fans and appreciates them. Cathy Priest was also working by his side. She also looked great and is really friendly too. It will be interesting to see what she looks like when she makes the switch over to Figure.
In my free time, I had a few photographers do some video clips of me. That's always fun and it definitely got the fans attention. After all, they are there to see plenty of beef, right? HA! I had another photo shoot scheduled with J.T. (www.truebodies.com). I had originally invited Pro Figure Kim Becker but she was unable to attend so Shelia Rawlins, who is a National Figure competitor, wanted to come along in the absence of Kim. Shelia and her husband are awesome people. I met them at my booth on Saturday and just had to invite Shelia to the photo shoot since she has an awesome body and has a fun personality.
We met for the shoot at 4:30 at Adam's Mark hotel. J.T. had a studio set up in his room, which was really nice! He is also a VERY friendly person and makes you feel extremely comfortable. Shelia and I had a lot of fun, acting silly, sexy, and all-pouty lipped. Shelia doesn't like her smile so 90% of our shots are all-pouty lipped. I sure didn't complain after smiling all freakin' weekend... HA! Hopefully, Shelia or her husband will post some pictures on the board for everyone to see. They should be some good ones! Look for Shelia to turn Pro this year in Figure. She definately has the total package and is right there!
The shoot lasted until about 7 and we decided to grab a bite to eat before hitting the road back to Indiana. We went back to Applebee's since it was so darn good on Friday night. All I can say is the walnut blondie topped with vanilla ice cream dessert is the BOMB! At around 11pm, we stopped at a gas station, just had to grab some coffee and Krispy Kreme donuts... YUM YUM! Yep, you could say that was my cheat day, I needed it though since I couldn't eat much all weekend. We got back home at around midnight and let me tell you I slept like a baby!! It was a long weekend, but it was an awesome time!
