TRANSFORMATIONS & TESTIMONIALS

Transformations index > Chenille

CONGRATULATIONS: Chenille won 4th place in Bikini Model at NPAA on September 30, 2012.

I have been passionate about fitness since I was fourteen. I started researching and reading everything I could get my hands on about bodybuilding and fitness at the age of nineteen. I knew I one day wanted to get on stage myself, but kept telling myself, "I need to gain more muscle first", or "I need to lose more fat first" before contacting a coach.

The past year of my life involved some emotional turmoil that had me turn to food in a negative way, causing me to gain a lot of unwanted weight. This added weight only contributed to the statements above of why I needed more time before contacting a coach and starting down the path of realizing my dream. I had the nutritional knowledge, and was always training in the gym, but it's the USE of the knowledge that I was not executing.

I like to think that fate lead me to acquiring Lisa's number and ultimately working with her. My roommate at the time was headed to her boyfriend's sister's fitness competition and invited me to join, knowing my interest. I ended up getting a referral to Lisa from this woman, and I kept that number for a few months before summoning up the courage to call. I realized that there was never going to be 'the perfect time' to begin contest prep, and I certainly wasn't going to get there on my own.

I couldn't have been happier with meeting Lisa; I remember getting so excited finding out she is periodically on the judging panel of the WBFF, and has been printed in Oxygen magazine. Besides these titles, just speaking to her on the phone that first time gave me a glimpse of her radiant genuine character. Lisa exudes a contagious kind of liveliness, and she is very easy to talk to. I had moments of self-doubt along the way, as I think most competitors do, and each time I visited Lisa and voiced these concerns to her, I left her place feeling newly energized and excited.

I think it is important to pick a coach who executes his or her own principles, and it is blatantly obvious that Lisa does just that; she looks great year-round. Not only that, but Lisa is qualified to work within each category of competing: nutrition, training, posing, and judging. Having one coach that has the knowledge base and can cover each of these is very advantageous to the competitor.

I mainly worked with Lisa at a distance, since I work at a remote oil sands camp three weeks at a time. She would give me my three-week meal plan in advance, and I would spend a whole day cooking and packaging up all my meals for my tour in camp. I packaged each meal in an individual baggie, and froze them until I was ready to eat them. The food they serve you in camp is definitely not ideal for competing, and I was determined to figure out a way to accomplish leading a competitor's life in camp. This lead me to have nothing other than a large cooler full of frozen baggies each time I headed back to camp since there was a weight limit on the flight (60 pounds of food! Haha). Regardless, it was much worth it, and I still do the same today, post competition.

Lisa sent out daily inspirational texts, and never hesitated to explain the reasoning behind her concepts. What I really appreciate about Lisa is that she doesn't hand out cookie-cutter diets. I was speaking with another one of her clients, and was a little jealous that she was eating way more carbs than I was, haha! Although more importantly, I was very appreciative to discover Lisa treats each of her clients separately since each body responds differently.

It was originally my goal to do my first competition before my twenty-fourth birthday, and I beat it by a year. I am now working with Lisa to pack on some muscle before stepping on stage again in a year.

I am very grateful to have met Lisa, and couldn't have asked for a better coach. I'm excited to spend the next year putting on size with the assistance of Lisa!