TMGP Ep 40 with PCA Master Bikini World Champion Elouise Voget — a powerhouse athlete, professional coach, devoted mother, and wife who's redefining what balance, discipline, and success looks like

Oh, another white boy with a podcast. Pronouns Jim Bro, another white boy with a podcast. Do you want to see the video? It went viral. Hi games gurus, and welcome to TMGP, the Muscle Growth Podcast Episode 40. I am your host Roscoe, and today we're welcoming Eloise Verger onto the show. Today we're joined by Eloise, a trailblazing health and fitness influencer, advanced personal trainer and nutritionist whose journey is nothing short of inspiring. Eloise made history in November 2024 by becoming the first South African to win the prestigious PCA Master Bikini World Champion title at the PCA World Championships in the Netherlands, cementing her status as a groundbreaking athlete in the world of competitive bodybuilding. Beyond her achievements on stage, Eloise is a dedicated mother, full time professional and passionate advocate for functional and rehabilitation training, empowering women, especially moms, to break barriers and realize their full potential. Her story is about resilience, transformation, and the relentless pursuit of greatness, proving that life's commitments are no obstacle to achieving your dreams. Get ready to be inspired by Eloise's remarkable journey, her insights on muscle growth, and her mission to uplift others both in and out of the gym. In today's episode, we dive into a wide range of insights. Some of the topics include Eloise's inspiring journey into the niche of prenatal and post Natal fitness for mothers, the importance of dieting, meal prepping and consistency for long term success, What it means to be a role model for your kids and lead by example. A behind the scenes look at Eloise's current training routine. Her historic win as the first South African to take the PCA Bikini Masters title on the world stage. How she structures her cardio routine and stays stage ready. From UCLA premed to Health Sciences to opening the first EMS gyms in the Gulf. Her unique academic and entrepreneurial journey. Why carbs are not the enemy and how to make them work for you. Supplement options for people with dietary restrictions, including gluten and dairy intolerance. What it's really like to compete abroad and prepare for international shows. A surprise guest appearance from TMG PS mascot Nacho. Balancing breastfeeding with competition, prep and maintaining performance. How children often mirror their parents and how to use that positively. A reminder that it's never too late to start your fitness journey. And so much more. Get ready for a truly informative episode. Quick shameless self plug. I'm starting to upload consistently on reps Roscoe on YouTube and Instagram. So check that out for some epic fitness entertainment content. A little disclaimer, this show does not contain medical advice. The views and opinions expressed by the guests on the Muscle Growth Podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect my beliefs or the stance of the podcast. While we aim to provide valuable insights and information, it's important to approach all topics with critical thinking. I encourage you to do your own research, consider multiple perspectives, and form your own conclusions. Healthy discussion is always welcome, and I'm happy to engage with listeners in the YouTube comments section to continue the conversation. Lastly, don't forget to follow us on all major social media platforms including Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and X Find us at the Muscle Growth Podcast and myself at Reps with Roscoe. Welcome Eloise to the Muscle Growth Podcast, where we explore subjects related to muscle science and hypertrophy. I'm thrilled to have you join us for today's conversation. Can you briefly introduce yourself and your journey into the world of bodybuilding? Well, hi guys. My name is Louise Boje, so I've been in the fitness industry quite a long time, but I actually started my bodybuilding journey about 12 years ago. Actually a little bit more. I stopped 12 years ago. Had a couple of kids moved abroad and then last year out of the blue I decided to try my luck again at the age of 40. Wow, how did you find it competing at 40 versus previously? Quite honestly, this time around I enjoyed the journey a lot more. I think patience or so, muscle maturity, I mean. So yeah, definitely very different, a lot harder, I'm not going to lie. You have to put a lot more work into it. The diet has to be a lot cleaner than in your 20s, where I always say you dieted for a week and then all of a sudden you had a flat stomach. I'm still trying to get that. You must teach me anyway. That's the one thing I got going for me is the thin stomach, the small stuff that's. Amazing. But you're being very humble. Can you give us a bit more of a background from last year? There's a lot that happened. Yes, there is. So I had AI, had a very good season. I was very, very blessed. I did quite a few shows last year just because I wasn't sure if I could still do it. So I started at the bottom, did a couple of IFBB shows, did a couple of PCA shows, did the Shay show, and I was quite fortunate to go to Worlds for PCA representing South Africa. And I won the world. Title. I was the first South African to win that title, so yeah. That's an incredible, incredible achievement. What was the exact name of that title? So it's the PCI. World and I'm the bikini master world. Champion. Congratulations on that. That's a huge achievement. Thank you very much. I'm stoked. I didn't expect that at all. Go well, expect, especially considering that you were just, as you say, trying to get back into it. That's not really fair to everyone else who's been, you know, that's just very cool. Listen, a little luck and a little perseverance, I guess. It must have been a lot of perseverance to get to the top. Everyone else listening to this is like, damn, that they trying so hard and everything and then you went off for 12 years and came back and won. That's incredible. Listen in all fairness that I never went out of shape, I might have not be calm pretty but even through my pregnancies I always maintained so in all fairness to other. People, it depends on where you start. Absolutely. I remembered you. Do you remember the quote that you said when I met you after you won the shape S about you have two states. Do you remember what those states were? I'm either pregnant or ripped. It's probably that. Yeah, that's that sounds like me. That is true. I tell people I'm I'm very extreme. I take things to the extreme. I'm either going to be pregnant and really look like a whale or I'm going to be ripped. There's no in between with me. That's amazing. So your main focus and niche is pre and post Natal moms, is that correct? That's correct, yes. OK. And is that for training, lifestyle, health? Why that niche and what do you do for these for these bonds? So basically it didn't start like that. So when I started with my degree back in the day in sports science, I predominantly actually focused on athletes, sports specific nutrition and sports specific training. But as the years gone by and me becoming a mom myself, I just. Realized that there is a very big gap in the market for mums, especially mums that are either. Trying to get pregnant Pregnant breastfeeding both Natal and it just. Seems like there's not enough knowledge or even people to work with these moms not just to get in shape but also moms that maybe want to become athletes and don't know how you do that while breastfeeding or when can you start after a cesarean for example. So it just became a passion of mine, if that makes sense. That's amazing. And how many moms have you helped to the stage you know? No, I'm a little too old for that. No, I've been working with moms for like the last eight years. So yeah, there's there's quite a few. OK brilliant. And I'm sure they're all super happy and stoked to have had you as a coach. Nothing but good reviews. I hope so. I think mommy's competing as well. That's exciting. How many of them did that have had their kids kind of go and watch them? You know what, you will be surprised that a lot of the older mommies children are actually teenagers. One of my best friends, her daughter is like 16 years old and actually does her makeup and her hair so a lot of them do come watch. Mine is. Still a little small. I would have loved to bring them, but the. Shows are too long. For them to stay there the whole time. No, for sure, for sure. And I think you wanted to show the medal when we had our pre boarding. Do you have? It I can't, unfortunately, because it's framed, it's completely fried. Okay, alright, alright, no worries. But I can take a picture and I can show you, but unfortunately I got it framed and it's hanging like. Oh, I see. No worries. No worries. You forgot about this podcast, clearly. It's OK. All right. And yeah, it's a huge achievement to be the first South African ever to win that title. Is that in that class or or the whole show the World Championships? If I'm not mistaken myself, it's the whole world champion. Wow for the PCA. For the PCA, I think I'm the South African that got a world championship and then logically my lineup. As well. Wow, that's incredible. Can you tell us a little bit about that prep for PCA universe? How what did you do differently from that versus Shay versus other ones and how did, how did that one come together so well, not saying that other ones didn't? No, but it's true, though. My conditioning was different for Waltz than for my other shows. So a couple of things to bear in mind. I've been prepping the whole year, so when I stood on the world stage, that was already 10 months into my prep. So that's the first thing to consider. That was 10 months of already prep and also six shows later. So I just conditioned on top of conditioning on top of conditioning. But the biggest change was so for the whole year I was prepping alone with the assistance of my husband. That is amazing with this. But for Worlds, I decided to invest into a prep coach. So somebody that is non biased in the sense of logically my husband is biased towards me is my husband he's scared of. Sleeping on the couch. But for Walter, I decided to invest into a prep coach and she's been phenomenal and she's been with me every step. Of the way. Wow. That's amazing. Did you go together with your husband towards or did he stay and watch and look up for the kids? No, he came with me. There's no way I need. I need my right hand mandate to carry my bags for me and my medal. There we go. Amazing was. I'm sure he was super stoked with the result and everything. It was, it was very sweet because when I watched the video footage of the woods, he was, he was fooling me the whole time. But when I, when I got announced as the overall winner, the fire, yeah, the fire started shaking and he dropped. You could hear his voice. He was like almost crying. So that was pretty amazing. It's giving me goosebumps. That's so sweet. That's so cute. And the kids, did they watch the maybe like the post thing where where they get to see you? Win. So my husband we did a live like little WhatsApp feed so logically the kids saw it as well. My daughter placed a little she's six years old and I'm constantly posing in the house in my bikini. So she's already learned my routine. So she usually does this the same thing. She walks around and does like a little posing routine as well. That's so cute. So do you think she'll probably follow in your? Footsteps. I hope, Sir, I hope this is something she would enjoy because she's not a shy little girl and she's got a cute little body. That will be that will be amazing. If she does follow in your footsteps, I'm sure you can do a show together. I know, right? Imagine I'll be like master, master, master. Yeah, you could do with your husband, with your whole family. It could be a family event. We actually are doing a show together. This will be our first year and 15 years competing together. That's so cute. Did you guys meet through bodybuilding? So funny story, he used to be my personal trainer. Oh wow. OK. And then I came and I started training in very short shorts and a little crop top and yeah, here we are 15 years later, married with two children. Wow. Well, congratulations to that. Congrat. Congrats for that. And he stole your trainer as well as the new. Coach he is, bless his heart. He's unfortunately stuck with me and even if he dies I'll haunt him. I'm sure, I'm sure on the couch as well. Yeah, it's on the couch with the dog. Oh well, he's got a companion, that's OK. So the training and getting fit during pregnancy, that's a big topic I would love to chat to you about. I think that's something that's missed, which is crazy because there's so much academic literature on the health benefits of exercise. There's less so maybe when pregnant, but I think you could extrapolate on it. That would be good for first mother as well as the unborn child. There is data to support that as well. Also having easier births and all that kind of thing. So I'm sure you will know way more about all that. So please do enlighten the audience. Yes Sir. First of all, you need to understand whatever you do prior to getting pregnant, you can continue during your pregnancy depending if there's no complications or your comfortability level. So, for example, if you were a jogger or a marathon runner prior to pregnancy, you can continue. That. Through your pregnancy OK, but I wouldn't suggest you start a whole new routine if you've never trained before. That being said. You can do weight training and static cardio and things like that. Not only is it a health benefit for yourself, but as you stated as well for your unborn child, but also for giving birth. What people don't understand is that moms in general that exercise give easier birth than moms that don't because one, your abdominal muscles are tighter, your pelvic floor is stronger and also it makes pregnancy easier for you and first recovery. Okay, so there's a lot of reasons to kind of train while pregnant. Yes, it'll help you and your baby. Yeah, definitely, definitely. Remember each trimester is a little bit different and each case dependent is different from mom to mom. But in generally if you do it safe consistently, you can try until the day you give birth. I gave, I trained up and literally the night before I gave birth. Didn't you have a story about being on top of Table Mountain or something the day before? That's advice nobody should ever listen to. But yes, Sir, I am. I decided to go hiking with my sister. I blame her. And yeah, we want. Yeah, we wiped up the mountain and then the next morning I went into premature labor. Oh well, at least it was the next morning. Listen, it was quite funny because my husband was on a fishing trip and this was this was two months prior to giving birth. So when we called him saying that I'm having contractions, they actually thought that I was joking. They thought I was lying. So he's like, Nah, it's fine, I'll just keep fishing. And then yeah, with within an hour I was completely dilated and he actually rushed. Into the emergency room. He still had his fishing stuff on and all I could remember was. He sticks like fish. Get away from me. So he had at least had a successful day. But he made it. He didn't catch a fish, but he did catch a baby. But if you said he smelled like fish, I'm saying he must have caught some fish. No, he let them all get away. No, no, no, sorry. No. That, that it wasn't, Yeah, it wasn't there yet. They had to rush all the way from Musenberg back to Panorama. So it's quite a quite a distance. OK, well, I'm glad that he he caught the he caught a baby that that's that's better. Yeah, definitely, definitely a happier, happier moment. Well, actually, I don't know if he's a good fisherman or not. Good. Well, remember, that's the difference between a fisherman and an angler. Yeah, angler and a fisherman catches fish, and an angler just throws. OK, that makes sense. That makes sense. So I think you wanted to talk a little bit about time constraints like job, raising kids, prep, getting your body ready for and fitness ready come second for a lot of people. But how can you mitigate that and kind of ensure that your health and fitness, it should probably come first because if you're sick in things, you can't really do the things you need to do to be a great mom, unless obviously it's it's concerns you can't really help. But for the most part, I think a lot of people could benefit from exercise, from getting good nutrition, from being healthy. And then you could probably be a better mom because you're healthy. You can, you know, do the things that are required. It's a very difficult job, if not the most difficult one. And and like you said as well, you could also have a regular job as well. So you've got so many jobs to do. How can you get enough time and motivation to kind of do do everything that's needed? Listen first of all. We have to be realistic when it comes to goal setting and what we are capable of doing and not doing. What I mean by that is logically it's a lot easier if you don't have a family commitments and you can spend the whole day in the gym and money is not an issue. But let's be fair, that is not the reality. So you have to work. Within your constraints. But I think the most important thing that I can tell people is you need to plan. You need to plan literally everything. That's the only way you can stay consistent. So in my case, my family is most important. I will never put prep above my family whatsoever. So if my daughter has a school recital to go to, gym will come second to me, but I will make time for it. It might just be at the later stage or while my kids are sleeping. You just have to make it work. So the best thing I could say is physical. Let's start both. Nutrition I cannot express. This is probably the most important advice I can give anybody and that's meal prepping. You need to learn to meal prep in our house. Not I need to. I meal prep my husband meal preps, my kids meal prep my dog meal preps. And if I could meal prep my fish, I would do that too. So we cook enough food in this house to sustain ourselves in three days. And then I make sure that I've got a freezer full of three days worth of food as well. So I only cook twice a week. That's it. So that's most important because if there's no food in that fridge, I promise you, you'll grab anything you can find. And that's, that's the biggest problem. And then secondly, you need to be consistent. So what you should tell clients is if you are lucky enough to have a work that's always the same time, try to make your work at the same time as well. Because your body works like a machine, it likes to do the same thing over and over. So for example, if you wake up 5:00 every morning, you'll see all of a sudden on a week and you'll start waking up at 5:00 as well because that internal clock kicks in. So it's about consistency and also just planning your week ahead. And then the most important thing that you have to remember is your kits are copy and paste of you. You can't expect your kids to eat healthy if you sit there eating a burger. So with my kids, they are copy paste of what we eat. And they also understand that the value of having, for example, a cheat meal or sweetie comes on the weekends. It's not something we do every day. And what's your favorite cheat meal? So with me, I'm pretty. I'm pretty. Easy. When it comes to food. I think if my mood changes. So right now if like, what's the first thing I'll eat after my next competition? A croissant. I want a croissant and that's it. Almond one or chocolate or just plain. Plain. Absolutely plain. Nothing on it, just as is. Fresh hopefully, but in general I think my cheat. Would probably be I like salty things so I like making like a slack platter. Like with crackers and biltongs and jams. I want to pick and build my own little thing. OK, that makes sense. I also like a good platter with biltong and cheese and whatnot. Yeah, so you mentioned consistency, the value of meal prepping, the benefits like no snacking and then also being a role model to a kid. I think that's, you'd think it's all obvious, but I guess it kind of gets lost in the day-to-day things when there's so much on. You think, oh, the burger or the McDonald's or whatever is much easier. And I'm sure it is. But like you said, there's there's long term things. Your kid sees you, they, they eat the McDonald's obviously that you've got for them. And if it's a once every now and again thing, that's not a problem. But if it's an everyday kind of thing, it can definitely stack up and become the norm, which is not where you want to be. So can you tell us a little bit about your diet, your training? You've mentioned your meal prep, but can you tell us a little bit more about about the diet, like high protein, probably meat, carbs? OK, so my diet does. Depend on where I am in my. Prep so for. Example with me I do weekly check insurance with my coach and depending on what my check in will look like she will maybe change my meal plan for the week to follow and then logically leading up to competition my diet will change as well. So for example, in general I eat a very high protein fat diet, which is not very common with female athletes to have a high fatty diet. But with my body type it works very, very well. And then logically carbohydrates, what works for your body? So predominantly I live with rice and rice cakes these are and also my porridges in the morning everything from Weetabix to oats, these are my carbohydrates. And then for my protein sources I eat a lot of eggs, a lot of fish and a lot of chicken up until show day I never cut those out. Predominantly red meat are only used for refeed days. So if you feel I'm dropping a little too fast, my coach will give me a steak to refeed on. OK, that sounds like a yummy diet. I mean, I also eat eggs and chicken and all that basically every day that the red meat parts Interesting. But I mean it makes sense. It's a bit. Would you say it's more? Satiated for you, funny enough. I don't really care for steak, I really love my eggs. And I love my carbs. So long as my carbs never gets cut I'm happy. But luckily I have to be honest with my diet, I never starve, my couch never depletes me like that. I'm pretty consistent because I prep so long. The nice thing about it is we don't have to make major changes because I just kind of stay in condition exactly micro adjustments like my calories always stays the same. We might just. Adjust which protein source we use or where we put my carbohydrates. Where are those calories at? More or less Because you said they don't. So we don't really calorie. Count because we've been doing it for prepping for so long. But I would. Say in general right now, I'm probably around 1800 right now. 1800, yeah, that's. Quite a lot. That's quite a lot, OK, OK. And your that your body uses as well for sure, because I think a lot of other people are females in particular at 1800 that would be probably a bit of a surplus actually. And that that's your ripped physique cut like more or less. And then maybe 1500. Yeah, I would drop, I would drop down to about 1400 right before a show. That's still not that little. Like I know males who shouldn't be doing this. And again, I'm not saying it's a good idea, but really big guys who are cutting too aggressively in my opinion on 1000 calories, which is a really bad idea, really, really bad. But that's that's really interesting. 1800 calories you can do a lot with with that. I never go pretty low. I think also you have to you have to think of the body type because I'm quite a lean person in general. If my calories goes too in a deficit, unfortunately I start losing muscle mass. So I can lose body fat quickly, but I can also lose muscle very quickly and I can I'll just become a very emaciated. So this time around be trying to keep me as full and as round as possible, keeping those glycogen stores nice and. Full. That makes sense. So the the Internet went a bit bad there for a second. Did did you get my question on how many eggs you eat? So with me when, So in all thinness, when I do my. High fatty diet. I eat per day, about 6:00 to 8:00, right? Yeah, right now I'm only on count for you. My meals are right in front of me. So I'm in about 4, right? Now, but. You go all the way up to 8. That's a lot. I I thought I was good on 6 and I'm like, hey, I need to actually get 8. That's that's shocking. And that's not even all my fats, that's just my eggs. That's not my albar, that's not my nut butters. Nothing like that's still included. What else can you continue on that list? So you've got your eggs, you've got your alvar, you've got your nut butter. What other fats do you use? Olive oil and then logically my only fats that you'll get is from your whey as well, so your protein, but that's it. That's the only fat sources. I don't do cheat meals whatsoever so I don't just a. Sweetie on the weekend, you said. Not even. No, not, oh, not even. That's just for the kids. That's just for the kids. I don't. I don't cheat. I haven't had a cheat meal since December. I I was expecting you to say since, since, since like, oh whoopsie, since about 3-12 years ago, something I was going to say, and that's why you're a world champion, but. But even the same bed was just a refund after the comp. OK, no, fair enough. Fair enough. That makes sense. But that's still, we're in April now or Yup, it's still a name for yeah. So that's still very, very long to not have had a single cheat meal. I think that's very different to most. 99.9999 all the way all the way to like the end recurring people. Like most people have one or two cheat meals a week. So that's very, very impressive. Do you just not have a like desire to have one or is it just not part of the calories? So it just isn't a thing. To me it's just because I'm stubborn and a gold medal is a lot more worth to me than a cheat. Meal one, cheat meal. Yeah. OK, OK. And. And Aussie, Does he have a cheat meal? So Aussie right now is not in competition prep yet. Everyone so So he gets his cheat meal with the kids that I have their own little snack cupboard. I hide it because Aussie already has a six pack and he's not even prepping and here I am killing myself just to keep my 6 pack. Fair enough, fair enough. He must lock that safe or for you it's not necessary, but for most people it would be necessary to kind of lock it away from the person who likes to snack. But that sounds like it's not, not you. Listen, don't get me wrong, I sometimes I want to snack, but I've got my carping mechanism, so I make myself a little protein cake and I promise you it tastes just like a cake. And so long as I get that or a rice cake, I promise you I'm good to go. Is that like a cake made with like whey casing, that kind of thing? Yeah, so I've got a delicious whey that's like caramel and a rich chocolate fell over. So all I do is I take two eggs and I beat that with a little bit of baking powder just to make it rise. And you just just that and you pop it into the air fryer and I promise you it looks like a brown. The air fryer as well. Yeah, it looks like what? A brownie. Oh wow, OK, that sounds delicious. I love it, I promise. You and then your training so that that's more extra. Do you know Gone. Protein done. Fats. Done. Carbs, I'm happy with that. Your training. Let's talk a little about a little bit about your training. OK, so I train very intensely. I'm not gonna lie to you right now. Don't train like the average person, so I train. I'm sure you don't. No, I never. I was. I was gonna, you know, I actually had you punched here as an average. Trainer average 20 minutes. 20 minutes. I was thinking 15 at the most. No cardia. No Cardia. Hey, don't, don't call out my program here. This isn't about me. I love it. So right now I train twice a day. I train seven days a week. I do not take a day off for recovery. I use my recovery day as my cardio days. So it's an active recovery. So what I generally do is I can't because of my schedule, I don't have the leniency to say OK, I'm going to wait, train at 5:00 in the morning and do cardio in the afternoon. My. Schedule's all over the place, so whenever I can get to the gym, I'll do my first weight training session. Sometimes Tom doesn't allow it and I have to do my cardio straight. After. Or if I'm lucky, I'll come back in an hour to and do my cardio. But there's always the hour weight training, or let's say 45 minutes, and then there's at least an hour to hour and a half worth of cardio every day. And. You said an hour to an hour and a half of cardio every day. Yes, Sir. If you want to eat 18, if you want to eat 1800 calories, you got to work for it. But that, that actually makes sense that, that makes a lot of sense. So that's, that's a lot of cardio. I've I've talked to a lot of body balls every day. None of them have said an hour and a half of cardio a day. That's and you do that every day and you train. So is that you mentioned that you trained twice per day in our onboarding call. Is one of those the cardio one of those the was at the same time. OK, SO1 Cardio 11 gym. Yeah, OK. So I train at least two to tune off. Hours in the gym every day. Sure, that's a lot and so I might have missed it. Did you give your split? So my split all honesty is what I got time for. So in a perfect world you would plan out your week but unfortunately because of my lifestyle and the way I work and with my kids I don't have that luxury. So what I usually do is always start my week with my with my biggest muscle. Groups. So that will either be my glutes and my hamstrings or my glutes and my quartz. And then the next day will be usually shoulders and then the following day again it will be glutes again. I do at least lower body three times a week and then upper body I will do another three days and then I'll do one day just of cardio. OK, OK, that makes sense. That makes sense. And cardio, walking, running, elliptical, bike. So my cardio is pretty this. Same, same every time. So I go hard. I don't do the typical bodybuilding, very low intense cardio. So I either do a uphill walk for an hour on an 18th incline, but I walk it I'm talking about level 4 to 6 like I'm a sweat. And then either I'll do the stepper also for an hour and I'll do that on level 12 to 14 and. What are you doing during that hour? You listening to a podcast? Listening to music and why is it this podcast? I'm kidding. Yeah, I know this. Definitely listen to this one because the most educational. There we go. Good. Stuff so I actually watch Netflix when I do like. The hour. Of I watch Netflix and right now I'm watching Yeah, right now I'm watching The Resident. OK, OK, so good. Listen, I like all the medical dramas. It entertains me and keeps my mind off things. I love music. I train with music but when you're on like cardio for an hour it gets pretty hard. OK, that's actually a great way to do it. So to everyone listening, watch your Netflix. If the staff come and kick you off, just tell you can't tell them that you're world champion, but you can. So. Hopefully I can get a better title this year. Where? What's up from? World champion. Sorry, the next one is in four weeks, so yeah. So I'll be thinking, cool. So I'll be competing for South Africa at the PCA universe in university. Bigger. Than world OK makes. Sense yeah, and it's also a pro AM show, so they'll be giving out pro cards. So what does AM mean? So nature, yeah. So it will be a pro amateur show. So basically you'll you'll try to compete for your pro card. OK, OK, that makes sense. Is that what the AM stands for? Amateur. Yes, Sir. OK, OK, OK, cool. Well, good luck with that. I'm sure. I think you'll you'll get it. I hope so. And would that make you one of the few South African pros in that division, if not the only at that, at that federation? I think. If I do get it, I think I'll be, I think I'll be the only one. I'm not sure. There's another bikini master in South Africa, Procodo. I'm not sure. OK, well good luck and I and if you are the first, fantastic and if not then the more competition the better. Listen, we'll keep trying till we get it. I tell people I'm not going anywhere if I don't get it this year, we'll keep pushing for next year. We'll just keep pushing. 100 percent, 100%. You mentioned now briefly that you like to watch a medical series that that tasked quite nicely into you at UCLA pre Med, Is that correct? And yes, then you changed to sports Health Sciences. And yes, Sir. You did the hospital work and opened gyms. Can you just quickly chat a little bit about all that? So basically after school I went to university in the USI went all the way there. I stayed there for almost 10 years. Can you believe it? Came on holiday to South Africa, met my husband and then just decided. To. Yeah, I know, right. And then meeting him, being in the fitness industry and that sort of thing, I just, my passions started changing and I started realizing that I like the sports and Health Sciences more behind it than so much being in a hospital. And therefore there we moved to the middle. East. We were the first. People to open up a EMS studio in the whole of the Gulf. And we were blessed enough to open 3 studios within two years. And it was large. It was about 20 machines operating in one go. Yeah. And then, yeah. So that was an amazing journey. And then unfortunately, COVID hit and we got stuck in South Africa on holiday. And then I got pregnant. And then I just realized that I've been abroad too long and I want to be around family. I want my children to know their grandparents and we decided to rather stay in South Africa. Wow. And look how well this turned out for you. That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, pretty on board, like kind of call. You mentioned that a lot of women are scared of carbs and I think you mentioned that you're an ex vegan and allergic to dairy. Yes, Sir. That's all. So no cheese for you. Not so, unfortunately I I don't crave chocolates and ice creams and cakes because I'm allergic to them. Anyway, so I don't have that craving that most people do. But that also being said, because I was raised vegan my whole life, I only started eating animal products when I met my husband and when I started getting into bodybuilding because. Being a vegan bodybuilder is very hard, not in terms of finding your protein sources, but you have to eat such a large quantity of food to make up for that lack of protein that it's it's very hard to maintain. Yes, I started slowly progressing into fish. That's why still till today I'm not a fan of red meat because my body is just not used to it. I will still stick to eggs or fish or chicken, something a little bit more lighter. And then also because I'm definitely allergic to dairy. My world was very small back in my day. There wasn't a lot of supplements I could use because everything was concentrated from milk proteins. Now you've got so many isolate ways you've got and also even people that are gluten intolerant, you've got so many options right now. Like there isn't an excuse not to use it. Absolutely. And it's amazing that they've come up with solutions like the way isolate that you mention, because like you said, a lot of people can use that, that are maybe dairy intolerant. So that's very exciting. And it's very similar to the story with my girlfriend. When we met she was a vegetarian and I think she made me bacon once and then she had a had a piece of bacon and then that was the end of her vegetarian days. Bolton. Yeah, Bolton, exactly. Yeah, her dad's actually a professional hunter. So he, he, we actually this Bolton I've got here is something he shot so very cool. OK, I can top that as well. So I bought my own Bolton machine and I make my own Bolton as well. Wow, do you kill the animal though? So. I grew up on a working farm, so I grew up with. Slaughtering and all those sort of things. So that's pretty normal for me. Wow. That's that's why I became vegan, because when you, when you know where your party comes from, yeah, not so fun. No, it's not fun. No, no, no, it's not a tactic. But it is delicious. Yeah. And nutritious as well. Sure did. So can you tell us a little bit about competing abroad, the hotel prep, how to get stage ready and what you can travel with and the long hours of flights, all that kind of stuff? OK. So competing abroad is very different than competing in South Africa, I'm not going to lie, just for a couple of things depending on the federation. I've only competed. In two federations abroad which is IFBB and PCA, so I can only. Speak for them. The difference is, let's say, the lineup. So first of all, when you prep for a show abroad, you need to know what you're prepping for. Make sure that the condition you bring to stage is what they are. Looking for there, Your mandatory process is exactly what they're looking for. Even your attire is what they're looking for. Then other things to consider is logically you're not in your own country so you're going to have to figure out how to do your meal preps there and what is available to you. And if there's things you can travel with do take it with. So for example, I travel with my supplements, my whey protein. I take 2 bags worth of that. I make sure I take it with me. I even take pre workout with me. I take rice cakes lots. I know you can find them anywhere, but the last thing you want to do when you land on that side is looking for food. Who's that? Is that? Is that your cat? Oh, it is indeed. Shush boy. It's going to be quiet. OK, Sorry. He's feeling needy. Sorry. Please. Carry on. So try to pack as much in your bag as possible. Peanut butter, anything that you think that you're going to need strike when getting off the plane, make sure it's in your bag. As for carry? On airlines are very lenient towards athletes, especially if you just bring a letter to state that you are competing abroad. I've. Got a fitness schooler box, right? This little guy that I take on a plane with me and it can fit my milk, It's got ads just like me. I like it and it's pink. So this little guy has ice packets inside. And then I take as many meals on the plane as what I can because logically you can't eat the airplane food. It's full of sodium and salt your balloon. So I take all my meals in there. You can take whatever you like. The only thing you can't say is forget about honeys. They will confiscate your honey. So don't even try to take honey on airplane and then you can't take water as well, so just take an empty. Bottle and then when you get through airport security then fill up your bottle. Especially when you are under a cab impression. Make sure to get your water in. Do you in Cape Town, do you have special filters on your water or you do you just drink the municipal water straight? I drink the municipal water straight. I'm cheap like that. OK but but I do bikini on a budget OK wherever I can like save money I. Will. So this is this is my little go to. I use flavored water drops and I pop that in my water just for something different so I'm not always tasting the same thing. OK. That makes sense. Yeah, that's great. And then one of the other points you mentioned that you wanted to chat about was breastfeeding while competing. Can you chat a little bit about that? I think it's very important for moms to realize that once you have babies or once you are pregnant, it doesn't mean that life is. Over for your body in terms of oh, you'll never be in shape again or. You. Might never look the way you did before. Don't get me wrong, I don't look the same as what I did when I was 20 years ago, but I love my body more now than I did when I was in my 20s and it was due to my pregnancies. My body change but for the better. So what I mean by that is I had two caesareans. There's no such thing as you can't have a flat stomach again. You just have to re rehabilitize those abdominal muscles, rework them again, train smarter and the same for breastfeeding. I breastfeed for six years nonstop and last year I did 3 competitions while breastfeeding. Only after the third competition I actually stopped breastfeeding just because my body fat got so low it was just impossible to produce milk and compete. But I did completely fine for the first three shows. I donate milk. There's no such thing as you can't do it. You. Just have to be a little bit smarter in the way you do it. That makes sense. And what percent body fat did you compete at? At what are you now and what are you looking to compete at at four in four weeks? So to be fair with my prep coach, she does not care about the figures, so we don't do calipers. In terms of my body fat, I mean, to be fair, once you get to this stage of competing, you should be pretty consistent. It doesn't really matter what your body fat is so long as your composition looks correct. But in general, I go pretty low. I go to about 4% body fat when I come. That is very low. That's very, very, very, very, especially for a female. Yeah. That's that's like a male and A and a shredded male at that as well. Wow, sure. But but those. Females can get to that. But to be fair, my body fat percentage in general is pretty lean. So my average body fat is 12%. I mean, you've seen me, I'm, I'm a very lean girl. So I always say what my 4% might look like, might be your 10%. So it's, it's, that's why I never concentrate on those figures because it's not a true depictation of what the physique looks like. I am generally more leaner, but you don't need to be that lean at all. If I'm on 10%, I might look like somebody that's on 20%, if that makes sense. That makes sense. But then again, if that person that you mentioned, the hypothetical one who's 10%, maybe if they went to 4%, then maybe they would compete with you to win the, you know. Exactly. That's that's the difference. So that's all the kind of questions I think that I wrote down from our onboarding. You did mention a little bit about Ozzy, your husband also being fit when says and you said you guys are both competing in four weeks. What is that show? Sorry? I'm competing at PCA in four weeks. So it's an invite only show. So only two, only two athletes on South Africa was invited. Myself and my fellow teammate Melissa, she's also competing different divisions. And then Ozzy and I will stand our first show together for Titans PCA, which is in September. OK, that's exciting. Is that is that a couple's pose? No, that's OK. I want. Those you guys. Should do that. There is, but only one federation does it. ISP right now is the only federation that does the couple's thing. OK, OK. And that's a different, obviously you can't be going for a pro in multiple in multiple federations, OK. But Ozzy will stand is you will share, you will do the Shay Best show. So you will prep for August for Shay Best. And then we'll. Break together and we'll do PCA together after that. That's very exciting. Well, good luck to him. Good luck to you. We've got matchy outfits. Oh really? But you think I really have to do the you have to do some couple thing, even if just for fun? I mean the outfits are gonna go to waste otherwise. Listen, you do realize Ozzy and I are like 2 stick insects. We've got 2 lift feet. We've got no rhythm, no sway. We all look like robots on stage. But we'll try a bit. That could be a thing you could do a robot answers. I mean, that could be quite funny. No, that's hysterical. And then do you kind of finish off, do you have any closing words or wisdom that you'd like to say to the audience for maybe a mum as well who's looking to kind of get into shape, looking for that kind of final words of advice from the world champion, PCA bikini master? I think the best advice I can give any mum is it's never too late. You don't have to go as far as I go, I think just set yourself a goal. You have to start. I promise you, you're not going to remember the beginning. The beginning is. Always the hardest, but four months down the line, you're going to look back and you won't remember that start. You'll just see the results you have right now and consistency, consensus, consistency, consistency, consistency. I cannot express you. It took me 12 months to get here. I didn't wake up like. This. That's not very long. You just. It is long. It's. Not That's not long. That's not long. That's not long. But remember, that's 12 months of prepping, OK? So that's not normal healthy diet. That's 12. That's a very long prep in that in that sense. OK, I see what you're saying. Yes, but consistency, consistency, consistency. I will say don't look for quick fixes. Look at the long term results. Don't look at what you'll look. I will say I. Can't wait to my next show because I just want to see what I'm going to look like then, you know what I mean? If I look like this now, what will I look like in a year? Always look ahead. Set yourself goals. And try to achieve them and set another. Goal and keep chasing those goals. No, I love that. And sorry, what I meant to say is like, I don't want someone to who's out of shape now to be like, OK, in 12 months I'm going to be like looking like you shredded stuff. Like the caveat is that you've always been fit. You've bet you've been prepping for 10 months now. So it's not overnight thing. I get you, I get you 100%. But there are a lot of people that here. Oh, it took. Me, three months to get this body, but meanwhile it's been 30 years of hard work and then three months of maybe more intense fewer carbs or fewer calories and intense 3 months or 10 months or whatever. And then they get demotivated. In three months, they're not looking like a Men's Health magazine cover and they're like, Oh, well, it doesn't work for me and they give up. So I love that you big advocate for consistency for meal prepping. And then the favorite thing that I like, one of the top ones that you said is how your family is a copy paste of the parents. So it's really important for you, you like the father and the mother to be role models for the kids. And I think that that's not something that's done enough. And I know how difficult it is loving and having children and all of that. So I'm not saying anything against people that don't do that. But that is the only way for them to learn is to kind of be able to look up to their parents and copy paste what they do. So eat healthy, gym hard, and your kids will be pretty fantastic. They'll be fit, if nothing else, which is which is good and healthy. And also remember with kitchen you need to explain things to them. They never too young to understand simple concepts. So for example, little things like this is this is a candy and we. Use this as a treat. We're not going to have this every day because this is something special because you did well. Or remember to eat your veggies. You have to eat your veggies in order for them to eat their veggies. And don't always try to mask everything. The problem is, if you reconstruct everything, then they don't understand it in the simplest form. So, for example, if you keep putting cheese sauce on your broccoli because you want your kids to eat it, that's what they think it should taste like. But if you just teach them to eat the broccoli from the beginning, then they love it. My kids love it because they see we do it. To them, it's a treat. That's so cute, do you add nice spice as well in the air fryer? Yes, yes. Don't. Don't and make it. Crater. Sorry. Yes. Put it on a be creative, put it on a cute little plate, give them a little knife, a fork that looks like a a truck, and you know what I mean? Like an airplane. If you make it interactive, I promise you they'll eat it. That's so cute. And then just the last piece of advice for for the mums out there. Well, what would you say to to them? The ones so pre post or and everything in between. You just need to start. Please do not think it's too late because it isn't. This can be the better you, if that makes sense. Yeah. And just honestly, the best thing I can say is just start. If your goal is to lose a little mom pooch or just to be fit so you can run after your children or you want to do a marathon, That's how I started. I wanted to do a marathon with my kids in the stroller. That's kind of how. I started. I did. I started with it and then I decided why not do bodybuilding while we had it? Wow, so you actually did a marathon with the kids in Australia? 2 kids, yeah. Two kids. Yeah, I've got a, I've got the photo. We all dressed up as Nemo, Fish, Ozzy, myself and the kids. And I popped them in the stroller. My, my son was three months old. And then we went and we ran. And Ozzy took the other kid. No, I put them both in the. Stroller. Both and Ozzy just white. Yeah, I put it he had to carry the bags. Oh so. He also did the marathon. Yes, all of us to do that. Very cool that. And we would join Nemo Fish. Very cool. Wow. Yeah, I think that for most people that would be too extreme, but that's very, very cool. So all done to both of you. You can walk it, it doesn't matter. You don't have to be first, you just have to complete it. No, but that's amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your story and I look forward to seeing what comes in the next 4 weeks and then for the next shows and all of that after that. But please, yeah, good luck and I hope to see you with your pro card very soon. Remember, I'm a very competitive person. I wish I could, I say to, I wish I to people in life, if I had to do a race with my children, I'll kick them out of the way to win the race. OK? Like winning is winning. I was not expecting that. I was expecting you say I will dominate them. I wasn't expecting that I'll kick them. After a while I will I will drop kick them out of the way. That means I'm winning I. Can listen to this podcast one day and be like, mom, you weren't supposed to say that. That's hysterical. Well, thank you so much for your time. Definitely. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you for tuning in to the Muscle Growth Podcast. If you found value in today's episode, we'd really appreciate it if you could leave us a 5 star. Rating and a quick review. It helps us grow and reach more people just like you. Don't forget to follow us on all major social media platforms including Instagram, YouTube. TikTok and X Find us at the Muscle Growth Podcast and at Reps with Roscoe. For more insights, exclusive content, and full episodes, visit themusclegrowthpodcast.com. Your support truly makes a difference, so please like, share, comment, and follow. We're grateful for every bit of it. Until next time, keep pushing your limits and staying focused on getting bigger, stronger, and better.