If you are on Facebook, please show your support for me as I go for the FAME World Championships in Toronto by joining my Fan Page:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Natalie-Minh/18542287572

Looking forward to seeing you in Facebook land!

Natalie Minh is an American-Vietnamese born in Houston, Texas USA in 1980.  She was raised in the Metro Detroit area and excelled in school and sport. She graduated with honors and was accepted to study at several prestigious universities. In sport, her achievements included 2 singles position in tennis, 3 years of martial arts, and swimming.  She was also active in Student Council (class president Sophomore year), Student Representative on the school district Board of Directors, elected Student Council President on the county level, community service activities with the student Rotary Club, National Honor Society, listed 3 consecutive years in the High School Students Who's Who directory, Drama Club, and earned her Nail Technician license.  Other hobbies included drawing, reading, and computer programming. 

In University, she earned a BBA with honors from the University of Michigan (U of M) while working full time as an IT analyst in the automotive industry, running an Ebay PowerSeller online shop, and at one point her own manicure business.  Although she had a strong interest in computers and IT analysis, Natalie believed that applying her analytical talents in a broader business sense would be far more challenging and rewarding.  Immediately following graduation from U of M's bachelor's program, she enrolled in U of M's dual masters' degree program - MBA and Masters of Science in Finance.  She earned both masters' degrees in 2.5 years.  Upon graduation she changed careers from IT to Finance.

While working for a Fortune 100 financial services company in 2007, Natalie took advantage of an opportunity to live in Brussels, Belgium for 3 years as an expatriate in the company's European Finance Center.  This decision was a life changing event for her.  Natalie dropped everything in Detroit, moved to Brussels by herself, and decided to accomplish some new goals for 2008 specifically - a physical goal.  The first thing Natalie did after moving to Europe was to enroll in a gym, hire a trainer, and sign up for a physique competition. 

For the next five months, Natalie learned to eat, breathe, and live the competition prep regimen.  She extensively researched publications such as Oxygen magazine, bodybuilding.com's SuperSite, and the Eat Clean Diet by Tosca Reno and slowly started to implement the principles of clean eating and living.  Her mantra during this time was "How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time".  In five short months, she tightened up her program, took progress photos, and educated herself on what was diet & exercise fact or fiction.

The hard work paid off when in April 2008 she won the WNSO FAME European Fitness Model Championship, 2nd place in Bikini Model, and received the invitation to compete at the WNSO 2008 World Championships in Toronto.  She also won a modeling contract with W Fitness Models, the premier fitness modeling agency in London and will be a featured athlete in the September 2008 issue of Muscle & Fitness UK magazine.

Other activities that Natalie currently enjoys are indoor wall climbing, mountain biking, and aerobics.  In her spare time you will find her making new friends in Brussels and discovering new cities across Europe.

Natalie's philosophy is to strive for excellence in fitness, intellect, family, and career.  Her positive outlook on life and drive for excellence is evident in her upbeat personality and achievements. 

Keep your eyes on Natalie Minh as she is determined to make her mark on the fitness industry. 

Hey all by American friends, come and support me!!! 

FAME World Championships & PRO Showdown 

Toronto, Ontario
June 13 - 15
Metro Toronto Convention Centre
John Bassett Theatre

  I'll be competing in the Amateur Fitness Model (Advanced level 3) and Bikini Model catagories (ie. a bunch of fit hotties duking it out in itsy bikinis, you know you want to see this).  Tickets can be purchased in advance and the show details are available in this link:  http://www.wowfame.com/Worlds.html.  There will be a full marketplace exhibition and some of the biggest names in the natural fitness industry at this show. 

If you can't make it to the show it will be broadcasted live on the internet as well.  You can pay in advance for access to the live broadcast here:  http://208.67.186.252/b2livetv/promo/fameworldsM.html

If you are coming, let me know... see you there!!!

I'm very pleased to announce that there will be an article writeup on me and pictures from the FAME European Championships in Muscle & Fitness UK Magazine, September issue.  It will hit the stands in August.

In addition, we are working out the details for a separate photoshoot that will appear in M&F UK as well.

If you would like to order yourself a copy, please visit http://www.muscle-fitness.co.uk.

Dieting sucks.  So does having to go to the gym almost everyday.  The first thought in my head when I wake up in the morning is "OMG I have to ride that bike in my living room again.."  AHHHH!

Ok, now that I got my daily complaining out of the way, Nishy wanted to know what motivates me and keeps me on track.  The 1st answer is that I have to be on stage in a bikini, high heels, alot of self-tanner, and and big smile.  Oh yes, and pitted against a bunch of hard bodies on stage helps too.  But behind the obvious reason, I always wanted those perfect abs, arms, sexy legs, etc.  Who doesn't, right?

Motivation 1: Identifying Fitness Idols.

I figured out that the folks who know the most about bodysculpting are bodybuilders.  They are the extreme example of discipline, diet, exercise, and nutrition.  While we may not all want to look like them, no one can deny that they are walking & talking experts in this field.  So, I googled "bodybuilding" and landed on www.bodybuilding.com.  Anyone who wants the visual motivation can easily start with this site.... there's a big section on women in this lifestyle and they come in all shapes.  I scrutinized the figure girls because while they were rock hard, they looked very feminine with great hair, smiles, posture, heels...  gottta love the clear heels  LOL.   I love Monica Beckham, Jennifer Nicole Lee, Jamie Eason, and a few others in my top friends list.  Normal women, full lives with family and careers, and rockin' bodies.  I found a couple around my height so I could really see and follow what girls like me were doing to look good.  Personally, it's difficult for me to relate to someone who is 5'11" because I'll never be her height/weight ratio.

Motivation 2:  Working towards a Firm Goal

I have the attention span of a fly.  You can imagine how long a diet lasts or an exercise program lasts for me.  I knew that if I didn't have a firm goal at the end of this hard work I would just stop or relax when I felt that I "looked good enough".  So, I signed up/paid to compete in the Bikini and Fitness model catagories of a physique show that was 5 months out.  Now I'm screwed, can't back out now!  For others, the firm goal may be a class reunion, wedding, paid photoshoot, etc.  I like the idea of paying for a bikini photoshoot with a very good photographer to nail your commitment down.  If you are serious about wanting to get in "picture shape", put your money where your mind is.  I calculated to lose 2-3 lbs a month so that I could commit to a realistic time table.

Motivation 3:  Keeping track of your eating.

If you are not accountable then it's easy to forget what you ate a few hours ago.  Write everything that you are eating for at least two weeks, including quantity.  Determine the calorie content of everything by looking it up at www.calorie-count.com and document this in your excel worksheet.  Add everything up per day.  Once your real diet is down on paper you can easily see where there is room for improvement.

How much should you be eating every day?  I used this online calculator to figure out my resting metabolic rate:  http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/calrmr.htm.  For me at 5'4", I should be around 1300 calories/day so I try to consume around that.  I'm exercising as well so keeping around that calorie amount ensures that I will be at a caloric deficit, therefore losing fat.  Refer to my previous blogs for ideas on clean eats and eating principles.

Motivation 4:  How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

So now you have a goal in front of you so it's time to create a plan to get there.  I created an excel worksheet to calculate the weight loss so first I took my current weight minus the goal weight (let's say 15 lbs for example).  Then divide 15 by the number of weeks until the goal day (20 weeks).  This equals a 0.75 lbs weight loss per week.  In excel, make column A the dates of every Monday until the goal and next to it Column B put the corresponding goal weight.  Then do your weekly weigh-ins and put your actual weight next to it to see your progress.

Little goals are alot easier to digest and this helps keep track of your progress.

Keep at this list handy and repeat each step daily.  :-)

            Goal         Actual
 
1-Jan   130
8-Jan   129.25
15-Jan   128.5
22-Jan   127.75
29-Jan   127
5-Feb   126.25
12-Feb   125.5
19-Feb   124.75
26-Feb   124
4-Mar   123.25
11-Mar   122.5
18-Mar   121.75
25-Mar  121
1-Apr   120.25
8-Apr   119.5
15-Apr   118.75
22-Apr   118
29-Apr   117.25
6-May   116.5
13-May   115
 

Curious to see what people eat as essentials to their low calorie lifestyle.  I found this thread on a nutrition forum and all the women listed their healthy eats.  It definitely gave me some ideas for my own grocery list (3 made me laugh too). 

So, here's some that I eat and that I found on the nutrition forum that I thought would be helpful (in no particular order):

1. lemon juice, garlic salt, pepper as salad dressing
2. Celery with hummous
3. That yogurt that makes you poop (to quote Tina Fey)
4. Baby carrots
5. Sugar free jello cups
6. Fudgecicles
7. Oatmeal
8. Tangerines
9. Pineapple
10. Veggie burgers
11. Cottage cheese
12. Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries
13. Baby spinach
14. Miso soup
15. Hot sauce
16. Coffee
17. Water
18. Morningstar soy breakfast sausages
19. Whole grain thomas's light english muffins
20. boca chick'n patties
21. black cherry sugar free jello
22. Pumpkin
23. Cucumbers
24. Apples, oranges, bananas, grapefruit
25. Tea
26. Coffee
27. Kashi GoLean
28. Fiber One
29. Black beans
30. Sara Lee light bread
31. PB2
32. Oikos Greek Yogurt
33. Appel Farms Quark
34. Alpenrose Nonfat Cottage Cheese
35. Egg whites
36. Vinegar
37. Tofu Shirataki noodles
38. S&W Edamame
39. Cabbage and lettuce
40. Frozen broccoli and spinach leaves (Actually pretty much ALL fresh/frozen veggies!)
41. Frozen tilapia
42. 8th Continent Light Vanilla Soy Milk
43. Spaghetti Squash
44. Canned tuna
45. Salsa
46. Crystal Light Lemonade
47. Black grapes
48. salad
49. tuna and salmon
50. La Tortilla Wraps
51. Salsa
52. Vinegar
53. Walden Farms Caramel Dip
54. Cocoa Via products
55. Almond Breeze
56. FIber One
57. Cherry Tomatoes
58. Stevia Sweetener
59. Orbit Gum
60. Bell Peppers
61. Onions
62. Asparagus
63. Mustard
64. Tomato Paste
65. Nori Sheets/Seaweed
66. Bran flakes
67. Skim milk
68. Splenda
69. Lentils/beans
70. Apples
71. Bananas
72. Boca Burgers
73. Light life veggie hot dogs (45 calories, can't tell them from real franks)
74. canned pumpkin
75. Thomas's light multigrain English muffins
76. Smart Balance light
77. whole wheat pita bread
78. fat free cooking spray, for stirfrying
79. PB2
80. Smucker's sugar free jelly
81. Sugar free maple syrup
82. Hershey's sugar free chocolate syrup
83. Egg whites
84. Frozen shrimp
85. frozen scallops
86. cocktail sauce
87. stir fry vegetables
88. lean chicken breast
89. 93% lean ground beef
90. grapefruit

Hello friends,

I want to ask you for 1 minute of your time to vote for me here at the link below.  I'm trying to win the W Model Management contest for Fitness model contract and a Muscle + Fitness magazine cover in London. 

Some of you may know that I'm training for my first physique competition, the WNSO FAME European Championships on April 27 (two weeks away!), and I need all the support I can get.  Since most of you are in the States and can't physically be at my show, please "cheer" me on via the link below :)

http://www.wfitnessmodels.com/profilecomp.asp?model_id=201

PS.  If you have multiple email addresses, please use all of them in the vote... I will be forever grateful.

**EDIT** 

I ended up winning a contract with W Fitness Models through the European Championships but dammit I still want the Health & Fitness mag cover!!  :P  Vote, vote, vote!!