Getting into shape: The first step to competing is the right mindset

Boksburg fitness beauty Cindy Willemse is the latest and fourth athlete to join the Advertiser’s 2020 fitness initiative to help members of the public who want to make a change in their fitness lifestyle.

She joins bodybuilding pair Craig Huxtable and Rudolf Koen, as well as Penny Wilbers.

Below, Willemse offers some of her insight in the ever-competitive but interesting world of training as she makes her first input into the fitness initiative.

• What she had to say

I always thought that being an athlete is similar to a higher/spiritual calling – that you are chosen by a special force outside your reality who anoints you with the ability to compete. But boy was I wrong.

Let me start off my first “Tip of the Day” by telling you who I am not. I am not a fitness trainer. I am not a food expert. I did not study fitness or health and I certainly do not consider myself a specialist in the field of body building.

But who I am, is a mother to a beautiful 10-year-old daughter, a businesswoman and a South African with all the shared stresses of load-shedding and balancing responsibilities of everyday life. In short, I am like many of you – a person with a zest for life and a passion for things that make me feel whole; and mine happen to be fitness, bodybuilding and on-stage competition.

You might feel the same way I did or have similar questions to mine before I found my feet on stage. What does it take to compete? Can I do this? Is this sport for me? Will I be good at it? And to be honest, looking back over my sporting career, there is really only one question I found that you need to be able to answer: How badly do I want this? For all the other questions, there are people out there with a shared passion and dedication to the sport who can assist you along the way.

Now was that such a difficult question to answer? Not at all.

See, once I realised my love for the sport, I became dedicated to following a routine and back that up with effort and energy that would allow me to compete nationally and internationally.

The first step to competing on stage is not the right diet or exercise programme. It all starts with the right mindset. That ‘knowing’; the butterflies in your stomach (whether you are almost stage ready or still in your fumbling phase) that tells you that this is what you want to do.

In the following months, I will share my experience of getting ready for a competition, what you need to look out for, setting realistic goals and how to approach your first couple of competitions.

Let’s meet here once a month and hopefully you will soon decide to join our family of competing fitness athletes. Till next time …go get that mindset ready.