Since it was my first competition, everyone including me thought it would be a good idea to do novice first; the noob class. So I booked novice for the Saturday, but I had a feeling I wouldn’t be pleased if I didn’t at least try and compete in the PRO Qualifier, because if anything for the experience. I had no idea what the girls at NPC Sweden level look at, what the judges want to see or what to expect really.

But here’s the fun part: I missed novice completely and had to go straight into PRO.

The only experience with bodybuilding shows that I had was from when my friend Emmelie brought me to her wellness show at Tyngre X in Sweden last year. So I knew I had to be there a day earlier for check-in and pre-tan. They opened up at 17, and I got there at half past thinking I’d do sign-in first then tan. The only thing was, they did the cueing by number. I got number 73 and the current number was 20-something. So I thought let’s do tan while I wait.

When i got to the tanning booth, something weird happened. The guy said something in the style of “oh you’re an early bird” and I was like…what do you mean early bird!? But since he didn’t speak good english I didn’t get any useful information from him, because now I started stressing about this thinking I’m too early to do my tan. I was already stressed coming here all alone, not having much of a clue.

My original plan was to be at the venue 8am ready with makeup and wig, just put the tan on go up on stage whenever that is because yes, they do not give you a specific time. They give you a schedule of the line up, because there’s men and women competing the whole day in different classes. When I finally got my hands on this schedule, on the day of check-in, I looked at it but since I was stressed and biast from him telling em I’m early I completely messed up and looked at finalists going up after 2 PM..so I thought oh I’m not up until 2 PM, I can relax and come in at 1PM.

Because the other thing that played a big role init was the fact that I had a friend coming to help me, and she had the wig that I ordered from SHEIN. I had a different wig that I had to panic buy at Taj Mahal in Stockholm, but when I tried it on it didn’t feel right. I felt uncomfortable. She was gonna arrive at 11 in the morning, so that also made me think, if I’m going up later…then yeah I can wait.

I was pretty much done with my makeup when my friend Henrik, who’s working for NPC at the venue message me asking if I had been up on stage yet. I was like no….and that’s when I realised I missed it.

I cried for about 5 minutes, until I pulled myself together and laughed at my stupid mistake. I put some clothes on and went to the venue to check out what girls I would have competed against in the finals (that i thought I was going to compete in obviously, hahahaah why do all the extra work when you can just go into the finals, that’s probably what I was thinking!)

The show must go on…

Started preparing myself for the next day, because we gotta bring the best. I felt really dry, because I didn’t drink any water or ate anything else than rice cake, peanut butter and salt that day. I know bikini need to be little bit soft, so I carbed up, ate some protein, and filled up with water.

Here’s what the physique looked like day 1 vs day 2

Show day — I woke up at 4am or something ad started doing my makeup. Finished at 7.30, me and my friend went down to the hotel breakfast. I had a bit of carbs and sugar. We took a cab and got to the venue at around 8. I went in and got my 3rd layer of tan (got another the day before) before putting on the lace wig from SHEIN because I didn’t want discolouration on it.

I honestly have no idea why I thought it would be a good idea to do a lace wig installation for the first time ever

I have worn a wig once when I was in high school, but it wasn’t a lace wig that needed glue installation. But me, I learn everything for watching youtube and tiktok, so I though I can do it. I managed to install the wig in like an hour, and it looked amazing! I loved it.

I was going to buy some cushions that you can put into your shoes for stability, but as I went to get them ran into my friend Ayah who had me practice my I-walk and letting me borrow her new shoes! This was about half hour before I was supposed to go up on stage…

I had to half run backstage, do some light workout to pump out blood into your muscles and use the glycogen. This makes them look bigger, but I didn’t really get time for it because I realised I had to top up my lipstick AS THEY WERE CALLING MY NUMBER.

Believe me when I say I was stressed at this point.

All the girls lined up back stage, then it was time to go towards stage. Standing at the edge to the stage, I did some more pumping muscles, while I had to look at how much time I had to do my posing routine. It was a lot shorter than I had anticipated.

My toes were hanging over the edge of the shoes at this point..

..as I walked up on stage for the first time ever, in front of judges and the whole crowd. Individual routine first, then front-back pose.

So with all that, and the fact that I only started prepping 13 weeks prior…

I didn’t. make it to final, but would have needed a miracle for that with all of that baggage. I was so happy to have a slice of princess cake that my friends brought to have after the show!