Bogalusa resident and YMCA fitness instructor Brandi Beaudette is competing in a National Physique Committee Competition on Saturday.
The event, which is titled “Battle on the Coast,” is taking place at the Hard Rock Café in Biloxi, Miss.
This is Beaudette’s first time ever competing in an NPC event. She will be in the physique portion of the event.
“I’m excited and nervous, but I feel really blessed to be here because God has really blessed me — and that’s why I do this. Coming from the past I have, just to show that when you give everything to God, he can take you places you’ve never imagined,” Beaudette said.
Beaudette said she has been training for two years to reach this point.
“Strict diet regimen, strict sleep schedule and just really, really staying focused and driven,” Beaudette said, when asked what she has done to get to the point to where she could compete.
Beaudette said the judges are looking for symmetry, proportion and muscularity.
“Physique — they’re not really looking for striations, vascularity or deep muscle separations,” Beaudette said.
Beaudette went there last year as a spectator and said the event had about 100 people competing.
“I wanted to see, what is my competition? How steep is it? What do you have to do? There’s mandatory poses,” she said. “There’s quarter turns. I just wanted to learn everything I could about it and I’ve spoken a lot with some of the other competitors.”
Beaudette also said she did a lot of her own research and spoke with competitors past and present.
Beaudette said that Sharon Hartzog and Margie Jackson Calderone have been really helpful.
Beaudette said it is a really nice community.
“Even though it is like a beauty contest, everybody just comes together and it’s really about helping each other learn,” Beaudette said.
The doors open at 5 p.m. and the event begins at 6 p.m. Tickets are $30 at the door.
If anybody is interested in sponsoring Beaudette, call her at 985-750-9968.