Hey y’all! It’s hard to believe my 2017 contest season just finished! It was AWESOME to say the least. This was the first year that I have done two shows back to back. Tricky, and difficult, yes, but I’m so glad I stuck it out another three weeks to do a second show! I also had a new coach, and so everything leading into Peak Week (and now reverse dieting into off-season) was and is totally new and exciting. I’ll catch you guys up on what happened at both shows, and what the plan is moving forward!
The NPC Texas Legends Championship was my first show of the year, and it was held August 5th in Dallas. Although it hasn’t been around that long, it was promoted by Branch Warren and has always been pretty good size. I went into it excited, and confident, and honestly my only goal was to get Nationally Qualified at one or both of my shows this year, so that was it. Although I came with my absolute BEST package to date, and I was super excited to see how things played out. Peak Week went off without a hitch, and my body responded (like it had all Prep) right on target—we were ready to roll! Long story short, there were six ladies in a very competitive Class B. The top three were SHREDDED. It was a super stacked class! I ended up being placed right at the end in prejudging, so honestly I had no clue until finals where I stood, but we were pretty sure it would be in the bottom three. I unfortunately ended up coming in in last place (6th out of 6). It sucked. I mean really sucked. I knew I likely wouldn’t make top three given the conditioning of the other girls in my class, but I really wanted that top 5 for the NQ, especially given that there were only six in my class. Being the only one in the class to walk off stage without any hardware or trophy after working SO HARD for 16 weeks was so disappointing. You can’t go into expecting to win or to walk away with an NQ, but when you don’t understand why someone who was less conditioned and smaller than you places two spots higher, it’s really disheartening. But either way, we learned from it, and like I mentioned in previous social media posts, I chose to be positive about it and be thankful for the experience. So many great athletes and champions have been in similar situations, and the best thing you can do is to learn from it, and take it with grace and a smile. Like I’ve said before, bodybuilding is a VERY subjective sport. It’s difficult to do, but if you can keep the focus as much as you can on YOU VS. YOU regardless of whether you win or lose at a show, as long as you’re constantly improving (inside and out!) then it’s always a win. Luckily I was able to talk with one of the judges who was super nice with feedback, and he basically said I had a great package (specifically a well developed back and shoulders) and a lot of potential, but that it really came down to (as we know) conditioning in my lower body, specifically my hamstrings and quads.
Fast forward through some much needed pizza and breakfast at our favorite breakfast spot, it was back on plan and back to work for another three weeks (really two weeks plus peak week) until the next show, August 26th. This was harder than I thought it’d be. I was physically and mentally exhausted, and could feel the depletion and the toll all of the cardio and training was taking on my body. I ended up only training 5x a week (instead of my usual six) and taking two rest days both weeks after Legends. I needed it! The last thing we wanted was for me to get sick or hurt. I can’t stress how important it is to listen to your body and know when you need rest! It was a challenge every day to push through my cardio, and keep giving 110%. The mental demons and self-doubt were non-stop too because of what happened at Legends. I was so fearful and scared of coming in last place again. It really messed with my head! I’m so thankful though that I have such an amazing support system around me. Shane, my friends, my coach, and my gym family rallied around me and I was ready to CRUSH that stage for the Johnnie Jackson. It was a long two weeks but Peak Week finally came!
As we all know, bodies do weird things. Especially when they’re under stress, or are dehydrated, or are dropping or gaining weight quickly. All of which happen right before and right after a show. I held a few pounds of water weight (totally normal) from the post show goodies and rehydrating process, so we knew going into the 2nd show that we’d need to make some tweaks to my diet and I would need to take diuretics sooner to help dry me out. No biggie. It makes your joints feel weird when you rehydrate, but getting “dried out” isn’t so bad until the last 36 hours or so before show time and the day of the show when you get like NO WATER. It sucks!! But, Joe also completely changed my diet and I basically was eating tons of cod, asparagus, and red potatoes for two weeks straight. It tightened me up a TON, but needless to say I am on a sabbatical from those three foods until further notice!! Hashtag I was sprouting gills and turning green!! LOL!! It was finally time to get tanned up and glammed up to hit the stage again. I was READY! Peak Week went by without a hitch, and we knew that I was going into this show tighter and better than I had been at Legends three weeks before. I even got a burger and fries the night before the show!! Woohoo!!
Fast Forward to show day. I knew it would be a smaller show, but there were 5 girls in my class this time, and they all still looked pretty good! I was calm, cool, and collected, and had a blast getting ready and pumping up backstage with my girlfriends from Field House. It was so much fun to be there with our squad! We truly encouraged and supported each other through our Preps, and it was so sweet to be able to share the journey with each other. It was finally time to go on stage—with where I was in the lineup of 5, I ended up being right in the middle during comparison rounds. We went through all of our quarter turns—the judges moved a couple of the girls around, and one of the funniest most surreal moments was when I had to double check my number to make sure that I had to stay and the middle! Apparently my face said it all and I had an ear to ear smile on stage! I could see and hear my friends, and Shane, and my family cheering for me—prejudging was over, and yours truly was front and center. It was AMAZING!!!
As I got of stage—I felt just a rush of adrenaline! Holy shit. I was in the middle! I WAS IN THE BOX THE WHOLE TIME!!! I knew that I would either be in first or at worst second place, and getting NQ’d for next year was a given since there were only five in my class. So I could rest easy in that and just enjoy the rest of the day without a care in the world! I couldn’t wait to find Shane and my coach and celebrate!! I found my crew and we were all THRILLED! Although you don’t know anything until Finals are over, we were all pretty confident that I was in a really good spot. We had burgers and fries at Chophouse Burgers (gotta keep the muscles full yo!) a few bites of sweet treats, and came home to rest until it was time to head back to the venue for Finals. We finally got to Figure judging, and it was time to go back on stage! I didn’t believe it until they called my name, but I CAME IN FIRST PLACE AND WON MY CLASS!!!!!!!!! It was truly an amazing feeling—I can’t even put it into words. Everything had come full circle, and I finally knew what it felt like to EARN what I worked so hard for for so long. I loved competing before– the process of Prep, the discipline, the rush of the stage, the sparkle and tan and the attention and everything that goes into it, but MAN winning takes it to a whole other level! I was so excited and so so happy that all of my hard work paid off—especially after being at the bottom in last place at the show just 21 days before. Ultimately I came in second overall, which just blows my mind! I was THRILLED!!! The girl that won Figure Overall looked incredible and was so sweet! The judges even moved me and the Overall winner around, so to even have some comparison there was just awesome! After lots of hugs and pictures and smiles and cookie cake, we left Will Rogers and headed to a delicious Mexican feast at Pappasito’s. It was such a fun night, and one that I’ll remember forever!
I’ll end by saying this. It’s never just about the trophy for me. Competing for me is and will always be a competition of me vs me first and foremost. Of course I have goals and aspirations of how I want to continue to shape and mold my physique and where I’d like to go in the sport, but it’s a journey and it takes time to build muscle and get that kind of conditioning. Joe and I have decided we’re absolutely doing at least one National show next year, which is SUPER exciting, and depending on the schedule and how I look/feel, we might even shoot for two. Honestly I’d really like to do another bigger Texas show like Europa or maybe the Phil Heath again to see how I do in a larger, more competitive class. I’ve got several months of growing to do, so for now we’re focusing on making the most out of my post-show anabolic stage—the first few weeks after being stage lean when you load up on food and start to fill up your muscles again are where you can really make some major gains and progress! In just three weeks, I’m already seeing some major strength increases and just like my other preps, I put on some pounds quickly, but make gains quickly too. Hooray for off-season where you get to eat all the food and lift all the things!
It’s all about the growth inside and out, ALWAYS. Thank you all so so so much again for following and supporting me in my bodybuilding journey. I’m so blessed to have so many amazing people in my life, and I’m so happy to be able to share my love of training and fitness and nutrition with you all. Here’s to crushing more goals and getting even better!
Till next time,
-Mere