In this week’s episode, host Celeste Rains-Turk sits down with IFBB Bikini Pro and Coach Jessica Dolias. As a certified holistic nutritionist, Jessica shares insight on how holistic nutrition has helped her own mindset and relationship with food and how she passes this insight on to her own clients. Jessica stresses the importance of eating foods that make you feel whole, both mentally and physically, instead of cutting things out of your diet. As Jessica shares how her interest in holistic nutrition began, she dives into her past with disordered eating. She talks about how the numbers she constantly chased (the scale, the macros, the calories) had negative effects on her body image and her eating style. Jessica explains about the moment she recognized that something had to change in her current lifestyle as she noticed the lifelessness in her own reflection. Jessica proudly discusses how she worked through her recovery by herself and how her mentality made a shift from focusing on eating as little as possible to instead focusing on eating healthy. Although this shift has been made, Jessica talks about how it wasn’t an instant shift. She talks about how although she has been recovered for 10 years, she still finds herself dealing with disorder thinking and shares some of her best advice to competitors who may be going through what she has in the past. As the episode progresses, Jessica talks about her career and her education. When she lost her job due to her company shutting down, Jessica decided to seize the opportunity to start her own business so she would be able to pursue her dream, training clients and becoming a coach for Bombshell Fitness. She shares how her background in dance has aided her to becoming a posing queen, with one judge giving her the feedback that when she is on stage posing, she “lights up the room”. Like many of us, Jessica has had to make adaptation in the recent months due to quarantine. She shares how her unorthodox gym has helped create a new passion and drive for the sport. While she’s squatting with tree trunks she recognized that the quarantine only reinforced her passion because although the circumstances have changed, the excitement for the sport has only grown. Finally, Jessica shares her own journey to the stage. As she fought her way to the top through 10 shows, three of which were national levels, she shares how important it was for her journey to get a “less than optimal” placing. Her 16th place at her first national show made her realize how badly she wanted to push harder to earn her pro card. She also talks about how important it was for her own journey to be involved in the industry outside of her own training and coaching. She talks about the passion she has developed for the sport in things such as working with the tanning company and expediting the stage. She shares how important it was for her to take her competing career to the next level by working behind the scenes. In this insightful and powerful episode, Jessica reinforces the importance of building a life that competing fits into and visualizing your way to success. CONNECT WITH JESSICA:https://www.instagram.com/jessicadolias/ https://bombshellfitness.com/b-competitive CONNECT WITH CELESTE:https://instagram.com/celestial_fit www.celestial.fitEPISODE TIME STAMPS:[2:17] Pre Stage Rituals [3:14] The Importance of Daily Visualization [5:20] Holistic Nutrition and its Definition [6:53] Living with and without an eating disorder [8:50] Eating Disorder Recovery [9:55] Choosing to study nutrition [13:20] Recognizing the Goal Value of Food [14:14] “Coming out the other side” of an Eating Disorder [17:43] Importance for Competitors to be Mindful of their Relationship with Food [20:49] Reinforcing healthy behaviors and thought patterns [23:21] Being Mentally Prepared to commit to competing [26:31] The Journey to Becoming a Competition Coach [31:42] Starting a Business [33:03] Obtaining a degree from the Fashion Institute Technology (FIT) [35:00] A Dance Background’s Impact on Competing [36:59] Feedback received from the judges [38:40] Favorite Exercises for Glutes, Shoulders and Hamstrings [40:21] Evolving with the Bikini Division [43:44] Prep under lockdown [47:57] Maintaining an unwavering commitment to the sport for over five years [51:30] Journey to becoming an IFBB Pro [53:48] The Experience of winning the overall at NPC Universe [55:29] “Leveling Up” and creating new goals [56:23] Spousal support in the competition world [58:20] Pets and easing into the farm life [59:37] Ways to become more involved in the industry [1:01:34] Best Advice for New Competitors and Competitors looking to go pro Jessica Dolias