Bianca Lawson

My name is Bianca.

You might not believe this but I rarely wear shorts in summer and as for wearing a bikini…not likely thanks yet I’ve just competed in my first 2 natural figure contests in May & June.

Trust me I’m still wondering if it really happened but I know it did as I’m still on a high from the sense of achievement of overcoming a big fear. Although I didn’t bring home any sparkly trophies I was on top of the world just with the fact that I made it up on stage.

I’ve always been pretty active, played all sorts of sport as a kid but mostly horse rode. Had show hacks and did a bit of dressage and showjumping but never had the financial backing to get to an elite level. Gave it away to go to uni in 2000 when I did a Science degree majoring in Biology.

Gym took the place of horses and I soon became a gym junkie and always loved the sculpted lean look. I struggled to try and grow some muscles but not knowing what I know now I was undoing all my weight lifting work by overdoing the cardio as I had a big fear of getting fat.

The competition seed got planted in my head one day when I went into a supplement shop to get some protein and fat burners (like I said I’d always been afraid of getting fat) where I met an awesome lady who was a competitor.

I still hear her saying “you should think about it”. I still remember thinking to myself “as if.” I then met a male bodybuilder a few months later who I started to hang out with a bit who also said the same thing.

I remember the day he texted me in Oct to tell me the 2012 competition calendar for INBA had been posted on the website & I should check it out. That’s when it really began.

I told everyone what I was doing as a way of stopping me backing out of it. I met with a few different competitors and trainers from time to time & kept asking “do you think I have what it takes?” “am I even big enough?” waiting for someone to tell me to not waste my time but all I got was encouragement & the more of that I got the more I got excited & nervous at the same time.

I’d done a lot of reading and research on nutrition & training, and with my science background I was pretty good at weeding out the watery info from the solid stuff so with this I trained myself as well as did my own diet plans.

It wasn’t till 10 days out that I got a text from that lovely lady who first planted that seed telling she had become available due to a cancellation and would I like her to be my back stage helper (she may have been feeling a little guilty for getting me into this in the first place..haha). you have no idea how relieved I was.

Over the next week and a half we had numerous phone conversations emails and picture texts to tweek me so I was right on the day. Those little tricks made a world of difference (I lost 1.5kg in water out of legs overnight just by doing a few little suggested changes)

Anyway I got on stage, I loved it and I learnt so much. I’ll definitely be back out there next year stronger in body and attitude. I’m super excited about using all that I learnt to see how much I can improve.

If nothing else ever came of this journey other than meeting the amazing encouraging people I’ve met then it would still have been worth it. It surprises me how supportive everyone I’ve met in this sport is, its truly amazing and there are some other sports I’ve been involved in that could learn a few things from bodybuilding.

I’m so thankful to those people who believed in me, especially when I didn’t (which was multiple times a day when I was at my carb depleted lows).

It has given some renewed purpose and focus as I’d felt a bit lost since I’d stopped competing with horses, that competitive side of me has come out of hibernation