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http://www.hardbody.com/news/2011/01/10/arnold-blog-amanda-latonas-got-a-new-attitude/Arnold Blog: Amanda Latona’s Got a New Attitude!
Amanda Latona ended the 2010 IFBB Bikini season with a victory at the Sacramento Pro show. The Brunette Bombshell hopes to continue her winning ways as she prepares for the inagural Bikini International in Columbus. Amanda has joined us to share her journey has she heads into the first IFBB Bikini show of 2011. Check it out!
Blog blog Arnold blog! I am sooo happy to be a part of the Arnold prep blog series here on fabulous Hardbody.com. I go to Hardbody.com every day. No, Isaac didnt pay me to say that, its very true. It’s on my favorites list and I click on there to see what my fellow competitors are up to. I am usually 15 steps behind of the pack… Example A… I JUST got a Bodyspace account! Yep, I said it! So Hardbody.com keeps me up to date on what I would normally find out 16 months later, so THANK YOU Hardbody.com!
Ok so…lets see…hmmmmm…ok, got it. Well at first I gotta say, it was hard getting into the preperations for the Arnold. Nerves? NO. Injuries?. NO. Three weeks off the entire year? Um, yes ok you got me.
Doing the Sacramento Pro Show November 6th, which by the way was seriously the best show for me in every way, I will explain later, I then had scheduled a 2 week vacation to Australia! Holla! Well ok, I was working out 6 days a week sometimes 2 times a day, so don’t holla too loud. I booked a fitness infomercial as a host, my favorite jobs let me tell you, for those of you who don’t know I LOVE being on camera and I want to do more t.v so these jobs are something I truly love. Anyway, I had to give them my schedule and since they wanted to shoot in November and I was gone almost all of the month, I had to book it the Monday after I got back from Australia on Saturday. I was there until Thanksgiving which was my 1st day off. So, 2 weeks was the plan to be off before dieting again, but I needed 3. NEEDED. For the 1st time ever I didnt want to train, or pack and weigh my food. It was the holidays, I had been doing it all year, and I was mentally not ready. Which then made me physically not ready. Never happened before…EVER.
I have been training since I was 18 years old, competing since I was 23, and like I said. never. I knew at that point, instead of forcing my workouts and throwing my cooler off of the Stratosphere, I needed a rest. I was going to take as long as I needed; I was going to stay off, eat, have fun and lay around as much as possible until I literally got the urge, the fire, the desire and feeling of the usual me “I CANT WAIT TO GET INTO THE GYM!!” Thank GOD it only took me 7 days! Yep, I can’t believe what that week did for me! The last thing I wanted was to get burnt out mid way through and I knew if I wasnt mentally ready to start and commit 100%, there was the possibility that I wouldn’t be ready physically throughout the contest prep. Which once again, emphasizes the importance of rest. Literally only a week changed everything, but if you dont take it, you’ll never know. So I took it, and holy crap am I ready!!!!!!
Ahhhh I’m sooooo excited! Back to the Sacramento Show. I have 11, 1st place wins under my competing belt. For some reason, since turning Pro, I started to think to much…wayyyyyyyyy to much. “What do they want to see?” “What should I do here?” etc…stuff that I NEVER did before. I always just went on stage and had fun. I was there because I loved it, and I was there to showcase the hard work that I had been putting into the gym, and the discipline that I had been putting into my diet. I was there to achieve goals that had been set, and to set new goals to achieve. Turning Pro, I thought about everything, or over-thought I should say….right up until the Olympia. I was nervous, I was over-thinking… I wasnt me. So, in Sacramento, I changed everything. We (myself and some others) talked at a seminar that head judge Sandy put on, and one of the best things she said was that competitors ask her all the time “what should I do now that I’m Pro?” and she simply said “do exactly what you did to get you here”. That made soooooo much sense to me. So thats what I did. I was me. The me that I was before. The me that I hadn’t been all year until November 6th. And that’s why I am so excited about the Arnold.
I am going into this show, this BIG show, with a completely different attitude. I WILL enjoy this ENTIRE experience. From Day 1 of my prep, to the day I am in the airport on the way home. I will have fun, train my hardest, present my best and be the me that I was onstage in Sacramento. I am truly looking forward to seeing all of my competitor friends, hanging and laughing backstage, and hopefully inspiring others from onstage. I am sooooo excited about my training because it is totally different than anything I’ve done before. Its a totally change for my body which is exactly what I need. I look forward to every training session and every clean and weighed meal.
Congratulations to all the competitors, I look soo forward to competing with all of you, and I truly wish everyone a very safe and cold-free competition prep. (heck its cold and flu season and with dieting, training, gym germs and traveling… it’s alot) I got a stinkin cold 3 times last year!!!!!!!!! So be healthy everyone and have fun!
See ya’ll soon.
AL
