IFBB Bikini Olympia (Part II)

Hello again friends :)

Today was a great day to blog, but unfortunately it was a pretty lame day to do anything else - chalk it up to "flu season" I think the bug got me. A sore throat and a feverish feeling sent me home from work at lunch- like a defeated puppy with my tail between my legs, who overeagerly chased after the neighborhood cat only to smack into the picket fence, not fully aware of my own limitations. Ugh. Fail. Well the good news is I have extra time to blog and sip a coffee :)

Let's pick up where we left off shall we? Ah yes, I was recounting the surreal weekend activities of the Mr. Olympia Weekend in Las Vegas 2 weekends ago. I had enough excitement and late-nights there to last me until the end of the year! I am not a late night regular, usually going to bed at 9pm :p but when the Las Vegas lights put me up to it, I found myself staying up until 3:30am. Yikes!

But you know that if I was up that late-it was for good reason! Lots of fun and friends kept the midnight oil burning. With that, I give you my Olympia Recap (Part II) !! ....

Right after the Bikini Olympia pre-judging I found my friends Kinjal and Annie who drove up from San Diego just to see me. (**Please excuse the ridiculous show tan in all these photos... I know, I look weird next to normal skin tone colored people)

Annie, Kinjal, and I

My Bombshell homegirl, and good friend Leslie
came by and supported me too. Thank you "Mr.
Bombshell" (Leslie's hubby) for filming me at
prejudging. It helped to see my replay.

The night show Finals were Friday night, so if you missed the recap of that check out my last post.

Me on stage at the Olympia. Can you believe I get to say that?!
I'm still in shock.

Friday night after the show I was free to celebrate and enjoy the town with Kinjal, Annie, Leslie, and her hubby Jeremy. Our mission? Silly fan photos and quesedillas :)

My gguuurrrrrllls!

After a full night of exploring we got home at - gasp - 3:30am!! Way past bedtime to get some shut-eye to work the Olympia Expo for Muscle & Fitness Hers/FLEX magazine.
Photos from the expo on Saturday:

Not too shabby for 4 hours of sleep, eh?

Bombshells workin' and lookin' fly

Just being my Baddass self :p

My girl Nicole and I working at FLEX. Yes, we are actually
both standing on the same level... I'm not wearing heels....
Yes I am 5'10" and look giant here lol.

POWER CRUNCH!
Shout out :) and thank you for the bars! I
loved them and so did my peeps at work.

Another shout out; this time to FitnessGurls!
Check em out: FitnessGurls.com
This was for #ABSolutelyFitBody :)

Even with all that excitement at the expo, I got some once in a lifetime opportunities too... Like judging the FLEX Bikini Model Search! Yes, the very show I competed in last year.
 See the 2011 Olympia recap post here: Blessed at the Olympia

The gorgeous Top 5 ladies

Not a bad job :) It's so inspiring to see these amazing ladies.

Winner! Miss Ana D absolutely deserved it.

An awkward ending while waiting our judges scores to be tallied...
the Mr. Puny-verse contest. LOL. No words.

Saturday night it was an amazing time with my friend, Bobby Black, and Michael Middleton (Jamie Eason's new man) and his adorable Southern parents. We had a great dinner and then Bobby, Michael, and I went to the Boddybuilding.con party to meet up with Jamie. The rest of the story is a long night of ..."What happens in Vegas".....

Bobby (grrr baby grrr!) and I



Baddass Nutrition owner, Kevin and I
Yes- we look like we're going to prom and we like it lol.
 

Goodnight from LV ♥

Sunday Share ... Food is Fuel + We're SO Blessed

Hey ya'll sorry to not post as much lately, I've been quite busy with school and reffing... I reffed 6 games in the last 2 days alone! Unfortunately that led to me getting sick and sleeping from 4pm yesterday to 2pm today :/ I still feel quite under the weather so today's post will be short.

I hope you all enjoyed my last couple posts on food prep, "eating clean," and dieting tips. My friend and Bombshell Teammate, Abby Clark, also wrote about food on her blog, "The Bikini Competitor" and it's a really GOOD article filled with information. Check it out here: Food Is Fuel.


Also, be sure to stop by my Facebook Fan Page to see all the photos from my VEGAS trip and photoshoot with Bobby Black of B2 Photography. They turned out so so good. He's an amazing man too; he'd just gotten back from a missions trip to an orphanage in Haiti with Jamie Eason and her fiance the week before our shoot. He showed me some of his photos from the trip and I was blown away. See some of the photos for yourself by clicking here: Haiti Album. 

Photo taken by Bobby Black

Photo taken by Bobby Black

We are so blessed to live in such luxury and lack of need in the United States. I mean, these kids hadn't even ever had a lollipop in their entire lives and we give them away free at our bank's tellers. I get to make a huge difference in a child's life by providing my Compassion International child, Newton, with enough money each month to pay for him and his mother's food, and enough money for him to go to school. I also get to fund the Aids Initiative Project in his village to provide the whole town with fresh clean water and fund research to help prevent aids from spreading. It's such a small sacrifice for me... only about $40 a month... but it's the WORLD to him.


I'm signing off to go sleep some more... I hope ya'll had a great weekend!
God bless,

~ Ruthie

Las Vegas Weekend Recap

Hi friends! Well, I have returned from the fabulous Las Vegas... and back to reality :p I had an amazing trip and got some incredible shots at my fitness modeling  photo shoot with Bobby Black.

The view from our hotel, the Wynn

The Wynn's gorgeous lobby

I traveled with my friend from New York city, Chris, and he was kind enough to pay my whole way and even treat me to dinner and shows on both Saturday and Sunday night. We saw Celine Dion on Saturday night and went to a really good Italian restaurant (so  Chris said, I had to be good because my photoshoot was on Sunday.. I did have steak though!)

Chris and I at Celine's show

Celine Dion's show

It was worth the sacrifice though, Sunday's pictures turned out sooo good!

One of the shots from Sunday's shoot with Bobby Black

On Sunday night we got to go to Cirque du Soleil's show on the Beatle's called "LOVE." It was totally mind-blowing. I kinda felt like the show probably looked like what it would feel to be on drugs. I don't know how that'd feel, but I think I do now!! Part of the show had rollerbladding hippies haha:

Crazy circus stuff

Sunday night we went to the most amazing restaurant and got the Chef's choice 4-course dining experience... and boy was it incredible. It started with an appetizer, then the BEST lobster pot pie, then steak, and finished with a dessert sampler of a bunch of different chocolate dishes. DELECTABLE.

Part of our dessert sampler was mini root beer floats
and chocolate chip cookies. YUM! It was all so good.

We also chose to do the wine pairing carefully selected by our chef for each course. Four glasses of wine later I was definitely having a good night :p

Chris and I after dinner

And a good night to you! I'm off to bed. As always my friends... blessings :)

~Ruthie