After months of strict dieting and cardio, on top of daily workouts, Nicole Janveaux dropped out of the bodybuilding competition she was preparing for just three weeks before the competition.
Her body was a mess, she said and her hands were swollen.
“I had to make a call to stop and I talked to my coach and he said yes that’s the right call,” she said.
But four days later the swelling went down and Janveaux started feeling better so she called back her coach, who lives in Chicago.
“You know what, I think I can still do this.”
Two weeks later Janveaux was on a plane to Edmonton for the 2017 Bodybuilding, Bikini and Classic Physique Canadian Nationals.
“The night before I didn’t want to go out because I was scared I wasn’t going to do well,” Janveaux said.
But she got a spray tan and woke up at around 4 a.m. to get her hair and makeup done.
She lifted weights to pump up before going on stage, and lined up in front of the judges with the other women in her weight class.
Janveaux finished second in middle weight and third in lightweight masters, which qualify her to compete at international competitions.
This was Janveaux’s first national competition. She first started bodybuiling at 26-years-old in 2012.
Though she had been going to the gym since she was a teenager, it was a commitment to healthy eating that really started her transformation, she said.
“It’s a very individualized sport and you can create what you want, it’s almost like you’re an artist, because you can create the body you want,” Janveaux said.
“You’re constantly picking yourself apart and deciding ‘okay I need to work on this a little bit more’ or kind of figuring out what to do as far as making your physique change.”
Janveaux’s life revolves around bodybuilding. It isn’t just exerise and healthy eating but an “eat, sleep, drink…lifestyle.”
“It becomes so it’s not about motivation it just becomes something that you do every single day,” she said.
“I think it can’t be about motivation because you have days where your completely un-(motivated).
“I’ve had days where I’ve cried because I didn’t want to do cardio, but I still did cardio.”
There have been times where she sits in the car near tears because she doesn’t want to do cardio, but she still does cardio.
“You’re never satisfied…you’re always trying to get that next goal or trying to get somewhere else,” she said.
Luckily, there is a community out there who is going through the same thing as Janveaux. She said she met a fellow competitor from Nanaimo who she had been in contact with online but never met in person until they met in Edmonton.
“It’s cool to meet people with the same lifestyle, who are more powerful women who are supportive of other women,” she said.
“Because a lot of times women can be really critical of other women…to have that kind of environment and be around those kind of women who are secure in themselves and postive and they just want to bring other people up, that is the coolest thing I could be around.”
Right now, more than a month after the competition, Janveaux’s coach is slowly adding more carbs into her diet and decreasing the amount of cardio workouts she does.
But the process will start all over again next spring when she plans on travelling to Chicago for the International Federation of Body Building’s Wings of Strength Ms. International Classic.
Janveaux and her husband Adam work at Club Fitness in Willow Point doing bootcamps as well as personal training.