Confessions of a Bikini Pro

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Tamekia Carter, a mother, Air Force veteran, and wife who grew up in Mississippi. She got into bodybuilding when her father-in-law suggested she look into it. She first competed in 2021 at the Kuclo Classics, where she made a clean sweep of her classes! She earned her Pro Card just six months later at North American. Since then, she has placed top 5 at the Dallas Pro, t...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Ariana Brothers, an online coach with a B.S. in Nutrition and Foods. She first competed in 2019 and won her Pro card at   NPC Nationals at her second show ever and also won the overall. After my pro debut in 2020, she took three years off and came back this year and qualified for the Olympia at her 3rd show of the season at the Nashville Fit Show! At my Olympia debut, s...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Jill Humphrey, a wife, mom of 2 college age kids & 2 fur babies, Founder & CEO of SOLA CBD, co-coach of Team Special Forces. She competed form 2005 to 2010 when her kids were little before "retiring", and then decided to return to the stage in October 2020 after being in prep nearly a year.   When her kids were little, bodybuilding gave Jill a way to focus on herself. A...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Clare Morrow, a fitness & wellness coach who started her fitness journey at age 42, and went from fluffy to fit. She is now age 51 & helps people all around the world get in the best shape of their lives. Her motto is it's never too late to get fit. Clare recently wrote a new book series called, Fluffy To Fit, and Fluffy to Fit Cookbook. They're best sellers on Amazon....

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Jade-Kelsie Wolfenden, a personal trainer, nutritionist, and posing coach from the UK who earned her Pro card in 2019 at the UK Olympia Amateur. She started competing in 2015 trying out a few different federations before she found the NPC. She was diagnosed with epilepsy on her 21st birthday and has since transformed her lifestyle. She was told she wouldn't be able to c...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Marnie Al-Saraf, from the UK who recently won her pro card at the Ben Weider in April this year, and then placed 4th in her pro debut at the 1 Bro Pro show the same day! Marnie did her first show back in 2015 so has grown up in the sport. She is a full time posing coach and runs her own business, Rockit Posing. She also has a bachelors degree in Biomedical Science which...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Ndeye Ndour, a mom of two kids who is married to the love of her life. She was born and raised in Senegal and graduated from the Air Force academy. She just started her competition journey in April and five months later competed in the Olympia. She won her Pro card at 2023 Junior USAs, where she took third overall. She qualified for the Olympia with her first Pro win at...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Kendall Call, born and raised in Oregon but currently living in Tampa. She was involved in sports at a very young age and began training with a coach when she was 15. She became a personal trainer while in undergrad and went on to get her Master's in Nursing from Johns Hopkins while also starting to online coach as a side hobby. She had planned on competing in June of 2...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Holly Zarski, a native Floridian who was part of the 2012 Etsy boom creating one of the top Etsy wedding sign shops 'Z Create Design' and has since expanded their line of custom products to larger than life backdrops and installations for weddings and parties with 'Golden Hour Rentals'. She started competing in March of 2020, days before the world shut down, placing 2nd...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Erin Mayrhofer (formerly Gales), who first moved to Los Angeles in 2010 after college to pursue a career in dance. In 2015, she experienced traumatic event, which led her to a deep depression. On her search for what she wanted to do next in life, she discovered bodybuilding through a friend. What started with a short term goal to lift her spirits became an 8 year journe...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Megan Long, who has been competing as a bikini bodybuilder since 2014, earning her IFBB Pro Card by winning 1st place at 2021 NPC Universe. She has been a sponsored athlete since 2016, and featured in publications such as FitnessRx. She has been on Team FitBodyFusion since 2018, coached by Jami DeBernard. She recently made her Pro Debut at the 2023 Nashville Fit Show.  ...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Vesela Hristova, a 26-years-old Bulgarian, living in London, who is also an online coach and a posing coach. She started competing in 2015 as a junior and took a long break before returning to the stage in 2019. In 2022, she competed in the Amateur Olympia Romania and won her Pro card!     Vesela shares her journey finding bodybuilding early and life, and how she manage...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Kelsie Woodhouse, a 38 year old, married, working mom of 2 living in the greater Seattle area as a Washington native. She works full time as a Business Development Director in the engineering and construction industry, and she loves to cook and bake. She grew up cheerleading and started self-guided weight lifting in 2016. Five years later, she decided to realize a bucke...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Casey Hill, born and raised in northeast Ohio and currently living in Tampa. She works for a Matrix Hormones as a weigh loss specialist. Casey started competing in 2017 when she competed in 3 national qualifying shows and placed top 5 in all 3. She took of 2018 to grow and fix hormone issues and returned to the stage in 2019 when she competed in her first National show,...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Viviana Salazar, a former soccer player from Mexico who moved to the US a year ago to live her dream of being a pro athlete. She has only been competing for a year, but has been training hard her whole life as an athlete who attended IMG Academy school in Florida for soccer.   Her first show was the 2022 Patriots Challenge where she got nationally qualified, She then di...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Kallie Travers, originally from the small town of Hurt, Virginia. She was introduced to the competition world about 5 years ago. She started competing in the OCB but soon after switched to the NPC in 2019. She competed in 5 regional shows and 5 national stage before earning her Pro card at 2023 Junior Nationals. She teaches posing and has online lifestyle clients, as we...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro April Conley, a mother, and grandmother, who started in ballet and fell in love with fitness as a teenager, go as far to dance on a professional team. In 2012, some personal issues led her to want to get stronger to not appear as a victim. Through this she became aware of bodybuilding and was inspired by Isa when she won the Olympia in 2019. Her then husband was jealous...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Rhoda Allie, and interior designer and server, who is going back to college for her PT certificate. Throughout high school, she played basketball, volleyball, and softball. In 2019, she competed in her first body building competition on a whim because her now fiancée challenged her to. After a short 6 week prep, she did well and her love of bodybuilding started. She ear...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Angela Rutherford, a coach for FitBody Fusion, who started competing in 2012 in a natural federation called NANBF, in figure. She switched to the NPC and bikini in 2013 and did her first National show at the end of the season, where she got last callouts. After taking time off to improve her physique, she returned to the stage in 2017 and competed in multiple National s...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Amber Pacholok,   a former competitive cheerleader and gymnastics coach from North Carolina. She started college as an early childhood education major with a minor in psychology, and halfway through I made the decision to follow her dreams of becoming a makeup artist and went to cosmetology school. She found bodybuilding by doing extensions for clients that were in prep...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Aimee Jacobs from Wellington, New Zealand, who has been competing since July 2018. She competed in her first IFBB show in March 2019, taking first place in both Open and novice. She competed in Nationals that year with a new coach Kurt Dell, and took first place in her classes but missed out on the overall win. She earned her Pro Card at Nationals 2020 with an overall w...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Daniela Benitez who born in Costa Rica and moved to Utah at 14. She's a mother, makeup artist, baker, and sales manager, who started her fitness journey after a divorce. She began body building at the end of 2017, competing in three shows back to back. She won the overall at her 4th show ever which led her to compete on the National level. She earned her Pro card at 202...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Ally Vattauer from Tucson, Arizona. She started competing in 2018, competing in both regional and national shows. She took 2020 and 2021 off for an improvement season and returned to the stage in 2022 when she won her first regional Overall. She earned her Pro card at Jr. Nationals in 2023 with the Overall win!   Ally went to school for and worked as a Registered Veteri...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Kateryna Kauffmann, a 36 years old originally from Ukraine who moved to Canada when she was 11 years old as a refugee. She is a mom of two girls who are 15 and one and a half years old. Kateryna started competing in 2015 and first turned pro in the IFBB Elite. She switched to NPC/IFBB in 2019 when she then had a 4 year break due to COVID and having a baby. She earned he...

Today I speak with IFBB Pro Tianna Weymouth, who is the youngest IFBB Pro. She started competing at 17 and earned her Pro card in her first season at 18 years old, 12 hours after she graduated from high school! She competed in two regional shows and one national show before winning her Pro card at Junior Nationals. Her goal is to inspire others to find their passion, as she has done with bodybuild...