CrystalMatthews’s BodyBlog

Woo Hoo!

I seriously felt like Miss America, lol. I’ve never been crowned before. How fun!!! I think even did the whole, "Me? Really? Me?" and jumped up and down a little bit when they called out my name. Another top moment was being able to show my nephew Raided my trophy. Unfortunately you had to be 21 to go to the show, so he couldn’t come, but I rushed back to the hotel (after hitting the buffet) and showed him. He was so proud of me, and pretty much told me I was the coolest ever. I felt like his super hero for a moment…priceless.

Let’s start at the beginning….
My friend and I decided to use the new ProTan Spray and spray each other the night before. Well unfortunately you have to spray it from a ways a way or it makes a big drippy mess, oops… Needless to say we ended up having to paint each others naked bodies with little paint brushes for over 2 hours! You definitely become pretty close after that .

We had prejudging at 10:00 the next morning, so I got up at 6:00 in order to have enough time to get all ‘glammed’ up. Fake eyelashes and two pounds more makeup than normal are a must. Events usually offer a makeup artist for those who aren’t comfortable doing their show makeup. I also use white strips to brighten my smile 2 weeks out before an event.

Even after all our ‘painting,’ we realized we still weren’t dark enough when we got backstage, so we had to fork over $40 for a professional touch-up by the spray tan lady (It cost $100 for a full tanning service!). While it’s a lot of money, no one is going to make your tan look better and smoother than her. If you’re like my boyfriend and wondering why the heck you have to get so freakin’ dark, it’s because the stage lights are extra bright to show all your definition (and flaws), so you get washed out.

I had the normal pre-stage nerves, but a small glass of wine (yes I’m a weeny) helped calm the nerves. There were three height divisions - Short, Medium and Tall, and about 20+ girls overall that competed in bikini. The bikini prejudging was first, so we were able to get in and get out, and take a trip to the planeterium in Seattle before the night show.

After our Seattle excursion we got ready to go back on stage at 6:00 for the Night Show. It was way more fun than the prejudging because they had all the bells and whistles to spice it up. We did a quick walk on stage,   a few comparison turns and they went straight to announcing the winners.  

Here were the winners from each division:

Dana Strandemo for the Short Class (She also won overall):

I won the Medium class

Diane Rudholm for the Tall Class

It was soooo much fun! I’m so lucky my sweet boyfriend was there to take pics and cheer me on the whole time. There was never a moment I didn’t hear his voice yelling I’m a lucky girl.

I want to say THANK YOU so much to Bodybuilding.com and Ryan DeLuca for all of your help and all of your encouragement. This truly couldn’t have happened without you. Also, I want to thank anyone who took the time to read my blogs. Please feel free to contact me if you ever have any questions about anything. Until next time….

WTF?! I catch a cold NOW? REALLY?! Grrrrr………… This always happens after I work a trade show like the Olympia - I get sick. Even when I stack up on the Airborne - I get sick. So now here it is, two days before the competition, and I feel like poo. At least Mr. Hankey is smiling - I’m not .

I woke up yesterday feeling off, but went to the gym anyways, lifted chest and did cardio on the bike because at least I got to sit down. The recumbent bike is awesome if you honestly, absolutely do not want to do cardio. It’s not as effective as other forms of cardio, but it’s better than not doing it (just make sure you are still pushing yourself - it’s not an excuse to relax). I made it through about half a day of work and had to go home and rest. Usually I baby myself with icecream when I’m sick, but since that wasn’t an option I had a protein shake. I tried the new Chocolate Mint Syntha-6 flavor (used half a scoop since it has 14carbs per serving) and combined it with a full scoop of low-carb vanilla protein and blended it with ice and water. That way I can still have the flavor, but not the extra carbs. Way yummy and only ~7carbs and ~40g of protein.

We leave tomorrow afternoon (my bro-in-law is flying us), so I have to get everything ready tonight. I’m going to go shopping after work for accessories for my bikini. The fun thing about NPC Bikini is they encourage you to ‘dress it up’ a little. The thing you have to be careful of though are accessories that distract from your body. 

TIP: A necklace cuts off your neck and distracts from your pectorial/chest area, and while a simple bracelet can be nice, if it moves around a lot it can be distracting when you do your turns. I think the best places for bling are on your ears (you can go big or small) and a nice statement ring that ties in your earings and your suit. REMEMBER - your heels should be clear, so they match everything and elongate your legs.

TIP: You can find accessories to match almost anything at forever21, plus they are super cheap! If you don’t have a store near you go to www.forever21.com. An earing and ring pairing like this would work great!:

Well, I’m off to shop and tan. I was going to do a mystic spray tan, but I was told that it’s better not to if you want the competition tan (I’m using  http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/pt/overnightcompetitioncolor.html) to stick because your skin will already be coated, so I’m just going to do the regular cancer-causing tan. I might also get a little workout in depending on how I feel after all that. All I really want to do is this though….

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh………………….
.pjs…….gossip mags….and my puppy dog…