Page 85 - Demo

www.MOSTmag.com || MOST FITNESS || 85out of whack; everything was hurting, but for some reason it made me feel alive again and no pain could ever be worse than the one I had gone through a year prior to that so I just pushed through. Once I was completely off the meds and eating better and quit drinking, that%u2019s when my mind started being clearer, and I could think straight. I hired Jason Marcovici as my coach because I was on a mission to get to Nationals that same summer. In five months I competed in two regional shows, Provincials & Nationals. In one year from my first show, I qualified for the IFBB Pro Qualifier at the Arnold Amateur and was able to place in the top five; it was a great achievement then after seven years of not competing that I was able to accomplish so much in one year. I can definitely say that adversity is the one thing that keeps fueling the fire for competition.MFM: What is your training routine for competition?CD: I always played it by ear, and never have a set workout written down. My mind is on point when it comes to my workout. I guess I%u2019ve been doing it for so many years that it is simply an automatic thing. I can change the structure of a workout in two minutes in my head. Overall, it%u2019s a lot of free weights; I try to stay away from machines, but do some cable work. I do a lot of sets and reps. I have always loved to lift heavy, but when you do figure competed a few times after that but was not that into it as I had to deal with other priorities and then life just happened. The second time around when I decided to compete was in 2015. This was a year and a half after my boyfriend of almost six years passed away suddenly at our house. He was a retired pro-bodybuilder that had given and dedicated his life to bodybuilding. He loved it, lived it, breathed it, and dreamed it every day. He probably even at times hated it a bit!I learned from him that it is a constant effort. It%u2019s an everyday thing; it%u2019s not twelve weeks out of a show that it matters. It matters all of the time. He taught me to never feel comfortable with your progress, and there is always room for improvement. There will always be something to improve and to always stay passionate about what you love. You cannot give 120% if you are not passionate about what you do. After he passed away, I did not know how to handle it so I just worked like a maniac for a year straight until my mind, and therefore my body completely shut down. I was put on three types of antidepressants and worsened my situation by drinking a lot of alcohol. Not having a family as support, my friends were great and took care of me. Therapy was not an option for me, and one day I thought ok, what am I going to do with my life now? And the first thing that came to mind was, %u201cI%u2019ll go to the gym,%u201d so I did. My body was all wonky and completely