6 Weeks Out—Halfway There!

Saturday marked the official halfway point of my contest prep! There are less than six weeks left until showtime! Funny how six weeks can seem both incredibly long (there’s still a lot of dieting and training in front of me!) and impossibly short (I need more time to practise my walk!).

It’s hard to believe that in six weeks, I’ll be strutting around in my 5” high plastic heels and posing for a crowd full of people with just a tiny bikini and some crystals to cover me! And not just that: I’m going to be judged on it.

Someone recently asked me how I felt about being judged purely on my looks. Obviously, by signing up for this competition, I knew the criteria depended almost wholly on my appearance. However, the more time I have to think about it, the more I realize how bizarre this is. In the end, my personality, experiences, and knowledge won’t help me on that stage. I’ll have to fit the mould of how a bikini competitor should look, pose, and smile, and I’ll be judged on my ability to fit this mould. I won’t be able to win them over with wit or charm or my own tastes in style, and I will be compared with other girls who come from very different backgrounds as me. I could lose to a rude, spoiled, stupid girl, and I could beat a girl who’s much kinder, humbler, and more intelligent than me. We will be exposing ourselves physically but hiding our true selves underneath.

However, in a way, this is also freeing. Unlike when I meet someone new in real life, I will at least have an idea of what the judges are looking for. I will know exactly how to paint my nails and curl my hair, and I will simply execute the walk and poses I will (by that point) have been practising for weeks. I won’t have to come up with a joke or find an amusing topic; I will just stand there and look pretty.

The prospect of being judged on my appearance also appeals to me for one major reason: by the time I get to the stage, assuming I’ve done everything in my power to prepare for that moment, the outcome will be out of my hands. It will all depend on what that particular set of judges find attractive. Do they like a more muscular physique, narrow hips, fake boobs, blond hair? I find this comforting in a way because once I get there, I’ll just have to do my best and (cue Tony Horton) forget the rest! In his DVD Unleashed, I think Layne put it best when he said that his goal is that "if somebody beats me, it's not because they outwork me."  This outwork principle is what I turn to when I need that extra push of motivation. If I get last place on show day, I want to make sure I don't have to say "maybe if I'd worked harder or eaten cleaner...". I have all the tools; I just need to follow the instructions and practise, practise, practise!

Those are my thoughts going into the second half of my prep. I’m going to give ‘er these last weeks, so I can bring my best package to the competition! And once I get there, I’m just going to stand there and look pretty…and hope I don’t trip over my shoes!

I think I may need new pants!

At the halfway point--a lot can happen in six weeks!