| Optimum
Nutrition Photo Shoot
I continued to watch my diet since my photo shoot with IronMan
Magazine in February of this year. One of the reasons I have been
staying lean was so I could be in great shape for photo shoots
or other promotional events that Optimum Nutrition may have in
store.
My
first photo shoot with Optimum took place on Friday, April 13th
at the X Sport Gym and Fitness in Naperville, Illinois. I was
joined in the photo shoot by several other bodybuilders, models
and figure competitors including Tom Voss, Justin Harris and several
others.
Optimum
Nutrition is such a great company and I’m really enjoying all
their high-quality products. Their line of protein powders is
incredible and I like using a variety of products instead of just
one type of protein.
I’ll use the Whey Gold Standard in the morning when I get up early
for a training session, I’ll use Pro Complex and Egg Protein during
the day and I always use the Casein Protein right before bed.
Of course, my favorite pre-workout meal is a can of ABB’s Whey
Force Shake with a serving of Creatine for the ultimate pre-workout
nutrition. During the workouts, I’ve been sipping on a serving
of Vassive NO combined with the new BCAA and Creatine. This workout
combo is giving me awesome pumps during my workouts!
Guest
Posing at Natural Great Northern Bodybuilding Championships
I got onstage again in my posing trunks for the first time in
two years when I guest posed at Dave Yeates Natural Great Northern
Bodybuilding and Fitness Championships on May 5th. I was in pretty
good shape for the guest posing, weighing about 210 pounds. I
felt pretty big and full at this weight although I obviously would
have been even leaner if I was competing.
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Guest
posing at the Natural Great Northern Bodybuilding Championships |
Jenifer
Digiovanni looked fantastic in winning the tall class in
the Figure Division. |
In
addition to the guest posing, I also conducted a seminar on training
and nutrition after the pre-judging at a local Capital Fitness
down the street.
for
the seminar, but it was still a pleasure to talk about my training
and diet “secrets” for those select few who did show up. I was
hoping to get more competitors from the contest at the seminar
but I think most of them were out getting something to eat as
the pre-judging ended right before the seminar was scheduled to
start.
I
was happy to debut my new DVD, “Natural Bodybuilding Seminar and
Competitions” at this contest. We literally just finished putting
it together earlier that week so this was the “featured item”
on my display table. (For more information on my new DVD, click
here).
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Helen
Chansky took home a carload of trophies in winning the Figure
Overall Division. |
One
of my clients, Paige Mackey, looked great taking the runner-up
position in the Figure Tall Class at the Natural Grand Prix. |
It
was also great meeting a couple of beautiful figure competitors
at the contest. The lovely Jenifer Digiovanni was competing in
her very first contest and she was the winner in the tall class.
Jenifer has got a great future in this sport. She was edged out
for the overall title by veteran competitor Helen Chansky who
also had an incredible body. Watch out for these two lovely ladies
in future figure competitions in the Midwest area!
Kevin
Noble’s Natural Grand Prix
I was happy to be on hand to judge Kevin Noble’s Natural Grand
Prix contest on May 12th in Belvidere, Illinois. Kevin always
puts on a great show with excellent competitors and the production
of each one of his competitions is always first class. I was sure
to take notes on how Kevin does such a great job in preparation
for my first contest promotion only a few months away.
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| Erin
Harte looked awesome in taking the runner-up spot in the
very competitive Figure Short Class at the Natural Grand
Prix. |
Erin
strutting her stuff onstage at the Natural Grand Prix. |
I
was happy to see two former “clients” of mine do very well in
the contest in the figure division. The first was Erin Hart who
I met over a year ago when she came to me for a diet and training
program to compete in an upcoming figure contest. Erin ended up
not doing the contest because she felt she wasn’t ready so I was
surprised when I saw her come up to the registration table in
her two-piece figure outfit. She looked fantastic and I almost
didn’t recognize her. Erin ended up taking second place in the
very tough short class figure division. Congratulations Erin!
I was also proud to see another client of mine, Paige Mackey,
compete in top condition in only her second contest. I was helping
Paige with her diet and her posing as she prepared for her first
figure competition. She competed the previous weekend in Bradley
but didn’t do as well as she hoped so she modified her diet a
little and came in much sharper only one week later. Although
the competition was much tougher, she finished a very close second
place in the tall class of the figure division. Congratulations
to Paige!
IronMan
Magazine Photo Shoot
The diet continued for me all the way until the end of May when
I traveled again to Southern California for my second photo shoot
of the year. The reason I came out to shoot with Mike again was
for the opportunity to appear on the cover of IRONMAN Magazine.
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With
Gina Ostarly and Mike Neveux at Mike's studio in California. |
Posing
with Gina in the dressing room
before our photo shoot. |
The
beautiful Gina Ostarly, a top ranked national level figure competitor
traveled from her home in Florida to meet me at Mike Neveux’s
studio for our photo session. We were hoping to land the cover
of IRONMAN’s Over 40 issue which is released in the month of January.
Under Mike’s expert lens, we took some great shots and I’m keeping
my fingers crossed that we make the coveted COVER early next year.
Gina
was in fantastic shape just coming off the NPC Jr. USA competition
and getting ready to compete in the upcoming NPC Jr. Nationals.
Her abs were incredible for a female competitor, especially one
who has three children (the oldest is 20 years old) and also taking
into consideration that Gina will be 40 in September of this year.
Gina shot a series of photos with Mike for an appearance of her
own in IRONMAN Magazine as the Hard Body of the month. Her photo
spread appeared in the September, 2007 issue so check Gina out
if you get the chance.
I also shot some more shots with Mike when Gina was changing into
her different outfits for her shoot. Mike used some pretty cool
photography and he got some great shots of me during the shoot.
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Mike
Neveux is a master photographer in the bodybuilding and
fitness world.
|
Gina
and I were shooting a possible cover for IronMan Magazine's
Over 40 issue
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NPC
Jr. Nationals Contest
It was great to represent Optimum Nutrition at this year’s NPC
Jr. Nationals held in Chicago at the Hyatt O’Hare Hotel during
the weekend of June 15th-16th. With over 350 competitors competing
over the weekend, it was one busy show!
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Handing
out the trophies for the Fitness Division at the NPC Jr.
Nationals.
|
I
worked the Optimum Nutrition/American Bodybuilding booth on both
Friday night and Saturday. All the top Optimum representatives
were on hand including the beautiful Pro Figure competitor Jessica
Paxson, Pro Bodybuilder George Farah, upcoming top national level
bodybuilder Justin Harris and Pro Bodybuilder and the featured
Guest Poser for the Jr. Nationals, Chuck Sanow.
I
was happy to hand out trophies in the Fitness Division along with
my fellow Optimum Nutrition representative, Alex Ballines. It
was great to be part of such a prestigious and well-run event!
My
First Contest Promotion!
On Saturday, July 28th, 2007, the big day finally arrived! I have
been so excited and nervous about this day for the last six months.
This was my first contest promotion and I didn’t know how everything
would turn out. I knew there was so much to take care of and I
did my best to prepare for the show in the months leading up to
the contest but I was still nervous on how it would all turn out
on the Big Day.
I flew in Lorenzo Gaspar who is the Vice President of the ABA/INBA
organization, on the Friday night before the show. Lorenzo is
a fantastic emcee at bodybuilding competitions all over the world
and he has been with the ABA since it’s inception. I sat down
with Lorenzo on the night before the show so we could go over
the line-up for both the pre-judging and the night show.
The next day was extremely exciting and exhausting at the same
time. I felt like I never stopped moving from the time I got to
the auditorium until the show was finally over. As stressful as
it was, I have to admit that it was much more fun and exciting
than it was stressful.
There were a few things that I want to improve on for the next
show but, overall, I thought the show was a big success. I had
quite a few of the competitors come up to me after the show and
shake my hand telling me how much they enjoyed competing in my
contest. That meant a lot to me because I wanted to put on a good
show not only for the audience but also for the competitors. After
competing myself in over 40 competitions, I know what it’s like
to compete in a show and I wanted to promote a contest that was
a good experience for these competitors, especially for the ones
who were competing for the first time.
Now
that I’ve gotten my feet wet with my first contest promotion,
I am looking forward to my next one. I was originally just going
to promote this show each year but now I am seriously thinking
of promoting two shows a year, one in March and the other in July
or August. I’ll keep you informed of the next one that I am going
to promote. I can see these competitions getting bigger and better
each year.
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