The Fame of Health and Fitness

THIS IS WHAT MY CHRISTMAS EVE & CHRISTMAS DAY DINNER LOOKED LIKE:

Again, before going into the holidays I had a specific plan on how I would treat each dinner especially because I am prepping for an opportunity coming up. If I wasn’t prepping then truthfully I would have had more of the favourite home cooked meals, not all of it, just the stuff that was ‘worth it’. But when all was said and done, I felt completely satisfied with everything I did and did not eat. And like I mentioned before, this was the first holiday season that I felt good in my clothes the day after Christmas. In fact, I felt amazing the whole break - this is a first for me!

WHAT FELT GOOD and SUPPORTED MY JOURNEY:

• family/friends not even looking twice at what I was or wasn’t eating
• family/friends not questioning my meal choices
• family/friends asking questions of interest about my upcoming opportunity and journey
• family/friends asking how they can make a healthy lifestyle change
• family/friends asking if I wanted an alcoholic beverage and when I said “No thank you” it was dropped.

WHAT DID NOT FEEL GOOD BUT IS PART OF THE JOURNEY:

• family/friends investigating what I was or wasn’t eating
• family/friends questioning my meal choices
• family/friends asking if I would like a particular dish, my reply “A very small piece”. Their response “Whatever” and then bringing me a piece larger than my fiancé’s.
• family/friends responding to my upcoming opportunities with “Again?!”
• family/friends telling me that if I were to try and bring my own clean meals to their house that they would tell me to ‘Get lost’ (this is put politely)
• family/friends when seeing my meals asking if I wanted “Normal food” instead
• family/friends asking if I wanted an alcoholic beverage and when I said “No thank you” they continued on asking why I wasn’t being any fun

SUMMER RECAP:

7.RECAP - Back Home One Last Time
After NYC, I went back home to see my family and friends for one last visit. It was nice and relaxing. The summer weather was perfect for enjoying some BBQ outside on the deck. I enjoyed plenty of Italian homecooking from my mom, Nona, and future mother-in-law. 

When I went through the NYC airport I discovered BISCOTTI Bailey’s! I had to pick up some for my parents. We also tried this when I was home. Can you say “Yum”?

SUMMER RECAP:

6. NEW YORK CITY

This was my second time visiting NYC and I just love it to pieces!

We:

• ate roasted nuts from street vendors
• savoured NYC style pizza
• stayed at the Gansevoort Hotel
• had cocktails on the rooftop pool and bar
• crossed paths with Tracy Morgan in the elevator
• went to Georgetown Cupcakes - delish!!! (I had chocolate banana)
• shopped and shopped!
• made purchases at Tory Burch
• relaxed
• dined out and experimented with different meals from the menu
• drank wine
• soaked it all in!

I can not wait to go back to NYC! What a fabulous place and time!

2012 SUMMER RECAP:

4. STANDING UP IN MY FUTURE BROTHER-IN-LAW and SISTER-IN-LAW’s WEDDING

After my photo shoots in Toronto, I flew to my hometown to stand up in my future brother-in-law and sister-in-laws wedding. This was my first time standing up in a wedding since Grade 4. It was a busy, HOT, and fun day. It was great to see my family and my fiance’s. I was only in town for 36 hours (literally just for the wedding) and then I flew to NYC to meet my Team Blessed Bodies’ teammates for our trip to the Hamptons! Next recap coming soon!

2012 SUMMER RECAP:

1. PHOTO SHOOT WITH PAUL BUCETA!!!

My fabulous team mates, Marilyse, Fatima, Leslie, and I spent the most amazing day shooting with Mr. Paul Buceta himself. I can’t even put into words how much fun this full day of shooting was. I learned so much about modeling, posing, outfits, clothing colour choices, make-up, hair, you know name it. Not to mention how great it was to spend the day with 3 of my inspirations, a very talented hair and make-up artist, Valeria Nova, and Oxygen Magazine’s photographer, Paul Buceta. It’s interesting how fast things can happen. I planned on my vision board to shoot with Paul by 2015 and it came 3 years early! Pretty cool if you ask me!

After my fitness competition season wrapped up I was able to try some food that I have been wanting to try without it counting as a ‘cheat’ or ‘guilt-free’ meal. 

I usually eat Light Mini Babybel cheese so Swiss was a nice change.

I usually eat a banana a day but while I was prepping for photo shoots I avoided bananas because they are high in sugar so once photo shoots were complete I went back to my old friend.

When I do have dairy I usually have plain Greek yogurt and I will add chocolate protein powder to it or fresh fruit and nuts. But Chobani has always been a delicious snack when I’ve tried it. I have had the Blueberry and the Strawberry but never the Apple Cinnamon flavour before. I really enjoyed it.

If you are a Chobani fan what other flavours would you recommend?

It was really nice to enjoy some ‘clean’ treats that I had been wanting to try without concerning myself with measuring or counting since prepping your body for a competition or a photo shoot is a science.

These are the supportive and dedicated women of Team Blessed Bodies! It was great to spend the day with my team shooting with Vasko!

I will be updating you soon on all the happenings of Toronto, the Hamptons, and NYC!

fitnessprint:

Team Blessed Bodies through the lens of Vasko Obscura.

What colour of the rainbow do you like?

Here is a snap shot of a very memorable day with Paul Buceta and my team. More details coming soon!

fitnessprint:

Every photo shoot and photographer brings something fresh and a new experience. This is exactly what the talented Paul Buceta brought to this shoot. He highlighted our models’ beauty, created emotion, and raised the bar for what is expected in a photo shoot. Not only were amazing photos captured but it was a day full of laughter and lasting memories. Team Blessed Bodies is looking forward to working with Paul and Valeria again, what a team!

Photographer: Paul Buceta

MUH: Valeria Nova (Fatima)

MUH: Jag Dhahan (Marilyse, Theresa Jenn, Leslie)

354 DAYS:

After winning my Pro Card with the WBFF on June 23rd I am now eligible to compete with the other pro’s across the world once a year. This past August I had to miss competing at the WBFF World Championship because of a family wedding but it’s on for 2013! Today is day 1 of 354 days as I maintain a solid off season while making gains and working toward bringing my best body for the WBFF World Championships in 2013. If you have been following my blog since my first competition in 2011 and/or my second competition in 2012, you will know that my my journey to the stage has been filled with challenges and triumphs. Last season especially brought several challenges and lessons to be learned and I even trained while working full time (unlike my first show, I had 2 months prior to my show to just focus on training). This year, not only will I  be working full time, training full time, but also planning a wedding, and getting married one month prior to Worlds! Talk about challenges. If I can get through this and look back on my achievements and be proud, then this is success.

I am looking forward to filling you in on the adventures that have taken place over the last two weeks and also catching up on reading your blogs! I have missed you and I am happy to be back in action with you once again.

For some of you today is the first day of school and for me Fall always brings a sense of something new and special. Let’s work together to achieve our goals and bring our best self every day! 2013 is right around the corner and I want you and myself to feel happy with health and fitness BEFORE the new year, not after.

Who’s with me?

I got my new ice cream coloured kicks! Can’t wait to start training in them!!

It was such a pleasure shooting with Paul Buceta and my amazing coach of Team Blessed Bodies, Fatima Leite Kusch, team mate and national level bikini competitor, Leslie Lewis Sword, and team mate WBFF Pro Fitness Model, Marilyse Mayerhofer.

There’s so much to tell about this day of shooting with the extremely talented Paul Buceta. To be continued.

Pink Elephant Photography & Design was so kind to post and share this photo from my recent shoot with them. I really like it because it’s something different than my usual fitness shoots, it’s more of a fun lifestyle shot and the sunset lighting adds a nice touch that isn’t captured in the studio.

Hi everyone!
It’s been too long since I’ve had a chance to blog about what’s been happening since my photo shoot with Oxygen magazine. I have so much to blog about but since time has been limited plus I’ve been on vacation in my home town, the Hamptons, and currently on my way to NYC, I haven’t had a chance to write quality posts. I want to wait until I can properly express what has been going on. For those of you who are in my Facebook I’ve been able to update here and there. Thank you for your ‘likes’ and supportive comments!

Since my Oxygen shoot, I shot with Paul Buceta, Vasko Photography, gained a sister-in-law and stood up in her wedding, seen my parents for the first time since Christmas, caught up with my team since WBFF, flew to NYC and spent the last 3 days in the Hamptons, experienced a Barre class and bootcamp like no other, and next is NYC!!

I’m excited to show you photos and share with you everything that has warmed my heart in the last 2 weeks. Just when I’m already feeling very lucky and blessed for everything that has developed, more comes my way. The Universe is always listening as long as you believe it is.

Looking forward to catching up with you all!

Inspire and be inspired!

Yesterday I became an official Oxygen fitness model!

“When you attach passion to your dream, you get yourself closer to achieving it.” ~ Robert Kennedy
It truly is amazing how dreams can come to life. I’ve been a dedicated Oxygen magazine reader since my early 20’s and this magazine has been by my side the whole time like a good friend. Oxygen has been with me through the highs and lows of my life and it always remained my rock. I’ve relied on it for motivation, inspiration, tips, recipes and workouts, I’ve read it front to back and back to front. I’ve travelled with it, worked out with it, tore out pages, laminated pages, and the list goes on. This experience has become full circle. To be honest, it still makes my heart race today just thinking about my experience yesterday with the Oxygen team. It was so much fun and so special to finally meet the people behind the magic: Paul Buceta (photopgraher), Valeria Nova (in photo) & Lori Fabrizio (hair & make-up artists - Two Chicks and Some Lipstick), and Nadia Pizzimenti (stylist). We prepared a workout spread that will be featured in the January 2013 issue which comes out in mid-December. This couldn’t be more perfect, not only is December the holidays but January is my birthday month! I think I just got spoiled for the holidays and won’t be needing any other gifts. I have some fun photos to share with you but I can’t until the issue is out because my clothes need to remain a surprise. Let’s just say I am very pleased with the clothing brand and colours that were selected. The colours really popped for the camera and I was very happy with the images. It’s easy to get great shots when you’re working with hard-working professionals. Just when I thought the day couldn’t get any better, we did two extra sets of themed photos. You may be seeing these photos in the future and if/when you do you will know when they were taken. Keep your fingers crossed!

Last but not least, I met two WBFF Pro’s from South Africa at the RKP Studios!! How lucky is that?! Angelique and Jacques Van Der Linde!! They are both wonderful people! Angelique was also shooting a spread for Oxygen - I hope we’re in the same issue!

It feels like I won the lottery and maybe this is why »> “Choose a job that you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” ~ Confucius