Fitness Shows

Back in 2018-2020 Steph was really involved in fitness shows. She actually won her first bikini competition out of a group of over 50 other females. 

It gave her the motivation to continue competing, and she started personal training for clients. 

I started working for a number of athletes, making their content, managing social media, and making highlight videos.

Steph was my main effort effort though, I would document her training, her diet, and posing.

However I had a few concerns... her dieting, and weight fluctuations were in my opinion unhealthy. Secondly, while it is respectable to take care of your body, it can easily become an unhealthy obsession of competing against someone else and having body shame issues as a result. 

I witnessed her train for months, diet for months. She was already thin, but had lost in my opinion too much weight. I even asked one of the coaches if she was too thin. They said she was perfect for bikini class competition.

My dad, who is also into photography, joined us for one of the shows. He was the one taking pictures of both of us in the sets above. 

On her 4th and last competition, and she is on stage with 14 other athletes. She clearly looks and poses better than all of them, as the judges even state. But she lost the show. When we asked the judges for feedback, they said she would have won had she had a darker tan... that's when Steph, I think realized I was right and the whole fitness competition journey while fun, just wasn't right for us. 

Fitness we both agree should be a lifestyle, not a comparison to someone else. It has to work for you. 

Some of these athletes while the look amazing do not even have the energy to walk up a flight of stairs because they are so depleted. 

For a while, I was worried Steph would develop an eating disorder, the top or first picture was a few days after she decided she would no longer compete and just focus on functional fitness. The last photo was her at her thinnest. That was shortly after the pandemic started in 2020.  

The second to last photo was more of an artsy project for me that I would later get printed. I darkened areas so the print was a little more tasteful.

In conclusion, do what makes sense, don't let your passions kill you, let them fuel you.

On a side note, I'll have a post hopefully today of prints I would recommend for anyone looking to order a print or just have a digital file.