How I got started!

KNEW I had what it takes. I wa determined and asked the gym trainer how to do it. He told me to get strong. So I worked on that from day one. Learning tecnhique? Practice many reps? Heck, I rushed into it, I had no time! I wa in a rush! I was hungry to change my former starving-jelly like little body into a lean mean machine.

I remember when I started working out back in 1999. It was at a Nautilus Gym in southern Sweden and I had one clear goal to accomplish there: to build muscle so I could compete in Bodybuilding. Yup, I had my mind set on this before I had even picked up or felt a dumbbell. I just

Of course I got results fast. My muscles grew and I loved it. But then I realized: the gym was not "the real thing", because Nautilus was machines only. I read about free weights and squats and deadlifts and I dreamed about and fantasized about doing those. It was time to move on. I changed gyms and found a real gym just a few minutes walk away..

Everyone told me I would get bored and start being interested in guys instead. Well, no, I went from horses to bodybuilding instead.

So, for another year I worked out, learned real stuff like pull-ups, deads and squats. I kept on improving and started to look athletic, well-built. Still, I had a long way to go! People told me about creatine, protein powders and meal replacements and since I back then was as much of an all-or-nothing woman, I put all my money into protein powders and ate that and nothing else. Balanced food? Uh, no, I did not know what that was! Prior to the protein powder passion of mine I had been on the student´s pasta and ketchup diet the grapes only diet, the fruit only diet, carb only diet. I believe my body was so starved on protein it hit my muscles perfectly and I grew bigger and leaner quite fast. Boy was it fun!

I turned 19 two years later, graduated high school and moved to another city. I made sure I got an apartment close to the gym and not close to work. That had me walk for 90 minutes in the morning to the work site and then home again same route. If I had not eaten a lot of cookies at this time because I was so miserable, I´m sure I would have been in perfect shape. I had a lot of muscle and I now treated my nutrition as good as my training. four months I lived in the third biggest city of Sweden.

Stockholm was next up. I worked night shifts as a black jack and roulette dealer. Only time for working out was straight from the night clubs to the gym which opened up at 5 am. I got really tired from the routine, but I was less than one year out from my first bodybuilding show so no time to lose.