My First Bikini Competition- OCB Eastern Regionals 2014

Well I hope you all saw my post yesterday! Let’s not keep it a secret till the end in case you missed it! I did place in my first competition! Two awards were given to me and I was over the moon excited. First time competing against an outrageous number of girls was such an honor!

Now let’s start back at the beginning. WARNING this is a LONG post and very picture heavy, but my best friends hubby took over 600 pictures with my blog camera, so I had to choose the one’s that captured all the best moments on stage. BIG thank you to Evan for taking the pictures. Mary is lucky to have you 🙂

Thursday I had my polygraph done and checked in. They let us choose our number and I chose 41 because I had a dream a few weeks back I was number 41 and I did well, so I ran for that number! Little did I know my best friend Mary chose #42 earlier that day (they let us choose between 1 and 100), how random was that!?

As you can see I had my nails done! All blinged out for show day, and my toes. I seriously have the best nail lady ever.

On Friday I was spray tanned. They literally put you in a tent buck naked and spray you head to toe with dark COLD paint several times. Then you have to stand in front of a super cold fan to dry. Mary and I were laughing at how dark we were, only to find out we would be about 20 shades darker when we woke up the next morning.

I had to stay in scrubs and an old button down shirt, sleep on old sheets, and basically not touch a darn thing. The smallest touch messed it up and it got on EVERYTHING! I almost started crying at one point because I was streaking bad, but I guess the professionals know what they are doing because it all blended in by morning.

I spent the rest of my night chilling at home, watching the Tonight Show, and drinking my sleepy time tea.

Show day I was up at 6:45 am BRIGHT EYED! Looking in the mirror I was shocked. First of all I was DARK, second I was ripped. I tried not to cry, but I did a little bit. This journey was amazing, tough, and a whirlwind, but I made it.

I didn’t want to drink a lot for show day to stay tight for pre-judging, so I walked over to Starbucks to get a double espresso, which turned into a single because I was shaking so darn bad that I spilled half of it on the elevator when I tripped.

Whoops

Soon it was time to hit the road for hair and makeup. My gorgeous friend Tiffany opened her salon so I could get ready there. I’m so lucky to have her! She did a fabulous job on  my hair! It NEVER holds curl but she made it happen.

And makeup was done by yours truly. I never trust anyone to do my makeup, and I was SO HAPPY with how it turned out. I think it looked professional.

Tiffany was so gracious and waited till I was all together to take pictures. She had a vacation planned and still helped me before she had to get on the road.

The final package! It really happened 🙂

In the car I started to freak out…

But once I got there and saw Mary I felt better

They touched up our tans, glued our suits to our butts (yep!) and put a glaze on us that made us look like shiny trophies!

Hitting the stage for the first time was nerve wracking, and I started to shake and breathe heavy backstage, but overall was ready to rock and roll

This is my posing coach Tina (we call her Mama T). She taught me everything I know about how to pose like a pro!

It was time to hit the stage and luckily my girl was right by my side!

I felt confident and beautiful. The crowd was pretty big. When I first walked out I made eye contact with my parents and had to look away quick. Tears started building up in my eyes and my smile started to shake. I couldn’t believe I was finally in the moment I waited 13 weeks for. And I brought the package I envisioned.

My family went CRAZY! Screaming “LOOKING GOOD #41!” “Go Minnie” and at one point my mom screamed “Phoebe Buffay loves you 41!” and everyone laughed. My shoulders were shaking on stage I was laughing so hard. I love my family!

Now when I tell you these pictures are just some of the line up, I MEAN IT! I was against about 30 girls! And for the one category they didn’t even split us into height classes, which was a little weird. I was next to very tall girls, but I was proud of my package and didn’t focus on “competition”. I came to show what I did for 13 weeks, not to hate on other beautiful women who worked equally as hard to get to the stage.

My suit was actually a red with silver sparkles, so it made a beautiful pink on stage. It had red and clear rhinestones in it too that sparkled like Edward Cullen under those stage lights! Pictures do not do it justice. Everyone stopped me (even strangers) and said that suit was incredible on stage.

I was front and center for a good portion of the show. They do switch people around and I won’t confuse you guys with all that madness because I barely understand it myself. But if they call your number in the beginning of the big group of girls to come forward it’s a very good sign you placed. My number was called and I couldn’t believe it! “41 would you step to the line”. 41!? That’s me!!!!!! 😀

And some back poses…

It was a few times we went back on stage. Once the first one was under my belt I felt good! Back stage we goofed off and ate rice cakes with jam. The sugar goes right to your muscles and fills you out nicely 🙂

I love Mary!

Selfie Saturday!

Some of my team!

I was ready to go back out though!

Here’s some more stage shots from pre-juding:

For the night time show, each athlete was able to do a 60-90 second walk strutting their stuff to a song we prepared. Well no ones song played and girl after girl came off saying “that wasn’t my song”. A handful played. I picked Britney Spears “Drop Dead Beautiful”- You can listen here and to my surprise after they said my intro (yes I thanked my blog followers!) I heard Britney’s voice and I said “this is my song!” and out I went…

I’ve never felt SO GLAMOROUS in my entire life! I felt like a movie star. My family was cheering, people were screaming “yeah SKINNY MINNIE!”. I was not nervous at all. I felt at ease, put on a huge amount of sass and walked that stage like I owned it! This first picture above is my favorite! It shows ALL my hard work!

All my hard work, every minute on the step mill, every morning after leg day where I couldn’t make it up the steps during patient rounds, every tear I cried saying I couldn’t do this and it was too hard… 100% worth it.

You cannot fake that happiness!

Glute days worked huh?

It’s so crazy to me how you look under stage lights. I just look like I have a normal tan, when in reality I was the color of my cherry wooden cabinets.

Shaking it!

The bikini girl curtsy!

My family brought me my favorite pink roses 🙂

And I literally jumped off the stage just in time to see Mary walk (her song also played!). When I say I jumped, suit/heels and all I jumped off the stage… whoops. My parents laughed at me of course. You can dress me up, but you can’t take me out 😉

My girl Mary looked GORGEOUS! We call her glamour Barbie! Those big eyes and golden hair. She worked that stage!

After our walks we indulged… all that was left were awards. Everything was decided so it was time for snacks!

G-Mama’s “muffin tops”- THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD! People backstage went crazy for my snack!

I believe I said “un-freaking-believable”

I fed Mary…

And she said “oh my Gosh… stop it right now!”

How attractive, cake on my face 😉

Amanda, one of my team mates let me have a sip of her coffee! It tasted so good. She’s a killer figure girl with an amazing body.

Finals were finally here and they called us all out again to get a look. They called numbers to announce the top 5 and guess what? #41 was in that group!

I placed 4th place in the Novice Bikini group, and 5th place in the Debut Bikini group! Not too shabby for my first show EVER!

Getting my medal.

I was so proud!

Coolest necklaces I’ve ever worn 😀

With my posing coach!

I didn’t leave until almost 11:30pm! I was there at noon, so an incredibly LONG day. Worth every minute.

Remember when I put those stickers up in my blog room? Wish it. Dream it. Do it.

I DID IT!

Thanks for THIS AMAZING JOURNEY you guys took with me! It turned out to be one of the best days of my life! I have tons more pictures and if you’re interested I will upload them all to my facebook account to share in a few days!

XOXO With a Cherry On Top,

-Minnie