It’s been a rocky road, very rocky….. This year has been full of obstacles, one after the other, seemed like it just wouldn’t stop (and it still hasn’t).

This year has taught me a lesson and showed me who my real friends are, who I could count on unconditionally.

My preparation for the Ms Universe was probably my toughest contest prep. Staying in a reasonable shape all year around, with only 3-4 weeks off diet here and there resulted in a mild metabolic damage that made my dieting for this contest a living hell.

I planned on doing 3 competitions in November but my weight just didn’t want to shape up. The weight loss started off well but at 75 kg it stopped and wouldn’t move whatever I tried: increased cardio, dropped calories, went on 0 carbs… nothing. My coach couldn’t advise anything so I asked for help from a nutritionist friend of mine (Athletic Nutrition) Paul Burgess who talked about different diets and helped me with them as well, but with no big changes in my physique or condition unfortunately. Because I have already booked my flight for a competition in Hungary I thought I might as well just go and see how it goes. This competition was the WBPF Hungarian Championships that was a qualifier for the WBPF World Championships a week later. As my condition was really off I didn’t expect anything to happen and obviously I didn’t place well but nevertheless it was a lovely experience with another great federation.

But this trip also showed me who were with me and not against me. I met again Zoltan Vida, who is the owner of Vida Fitness in Budapest and also the president of the Hungarian NAC. He pointed me into the right direction, explained me how they do their prep in Hungary and helped me with mine. The transformation in 3 weeks was unbelievable. Not only I managed to get on stage at the Universe but I brought my best package ever in my opinion.

Unfortunately the competition in Hamburg didn’t go as we planned. Even though I had a good package, it didn’t seem to be enough to get into the top 6. The results were a bit shocking to me – and apparently to others, too, but I am not a judge, and now I’m not even sure what they’re looking for.

After the competition when I came off stage I was told by one of the judges that: ‘You need to go back and train! You haven’t improved anything since I last saw you a year ago!’ hmmmmm…. that’s a bit harsh, or is it just me? This wasn’t the first time this person talked to me like this and  I think it’s time I stopped taking this bullshit from anyone because neither him, nor anybody else has the rights to say something like that. I’ve worked my ass off this year, struggled with a lot of other things but training has always been my priority. Most of the year I was actually training 2x a day (and NO, it wasn’t cardio in the morning and weights in the evening, but 2 actual weight sessions). Anyway, moving on and looking forward instead of backwards.

I’m glad this season is over now, I need to focus on other things. First of all need to improve my personal training business and now that I’m definitely not competing in the next 6-7 months I will have the mental capacity to focus on more clients. My metabolism will need at least that much time to recover – and after that we will see…. It was a disappointing year in more than one ways. But as Confucius said:

‘Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.’

Pictures from the contest can be found in my picture gallery.

This year has been a little bit quiet with competitions for me. Bodybuilding is an expensive sport, let me give you an idea how much it costs to get ready for a competition:
•First of all you need a gym where you can train. Gym memberships are about £20-£30 and up per month, depending on which gym you go to.

•Food: well this is a very sensitive topic. Your diet is 70-80% of your success. During your prep you really cannot afford to eat crap. As they say: you cannot expect to look a million bucks when you eat from the dollar menu… Chicken/turkey breast costs about £5-£10/kg and we usually eat at least 1 kg a day.

•Supplements: protein shakes, pre workout formulas, fat burners, post workout recovery drinks… They all start at about £40-£50 per tub and depending on how much you use them they last for about a month.

•Stage bikini: that depends on how plain or decorated you want them to be (or they’re allowed to be), but a plain bikini starts at about £70 and the limit for the decorated ones is the sky (my previous 2 decorated bikinis were reasonably ‘cheap’: £250 each)

•Tan: it usually costs you about £50 if you have a spray tan, and roughly the same if you do it for yourself. I usually use ProTan, generally 2 bottles that I can get for about £40 and I use Jan Tana on the top which I bought for another £40 (but that one is for more than one competition as I only use it as a top coat).

•Hair, nails, make up: you can do it yourself or get them done, you probably have a rough idea how much it costs to go to a beauty salon.

•Travelling: as we are talking about international competitions in my case, I need to pay for my flights (depending on where the competitions are being held) The NAC Universe is in Hamburg, Germany and I’ve booked my flight for £170 plus airport parking £30 = £200 for travelling. With NAC you don’t have to pay for the hotel and there is no registration fee, but with other federations that also comes out of your pocket.

A prep for a competition lasts from anywhere between 12-16/20 weeks depending on how many competitions you do in a row and how you look offseason.

As you can see we are talking about a £3-4000 easily for a contest prep. I am looking for sponsors to help me with these costs. They could be either companies or private people. I am happy to discuss the terms of the sponsorship. For companies obviously I would advertise their products as much as I can on my social media pages (facebook, twitter, youtube, my websites etc) and for private people I’m happy to do custom made photos or even short video clips. Please contact me with your offers as I want to continue competing and training!

All good things come to an end sooner or later, and now I’m back to London again. I had a really nice time in Istanbul, had some great training sessions, learned a lot and have met some very nice people. Learned a lot about training, different cuisines, different cultures and values. It was a lovely trip and a real eye opener to the world. We get stuck in our own lives and can’t even imagine what is out there, how other people live, how they train, how they manage to achieve their goals. It was a very motivating and moving experience. Here in the UK everyone is so concerned about money – and quite frankly in the UK everything revolves around money. And then you go to a country where people live in less comfort, they have less money and you realize that it’s not all about the money. It is about how much you want it and what you are willing to sacrifice. You get more appreciation, even if it’s only moral, but at least they admire hard work and achievement. It was a lovely environment to train, to live and I can’t thank my host enough for helping me so much during these almost 3 weeks.

The last weekend we spent in the center of Istanbul, Sultan Ahmet and TopKapi. The mosques are beautiful, we went into one of them where people were praying. We also visited the Zoo which was a lovely experience. I will upload the individual photos in the picture gallery over the weekend so check back.

Finally holiday time has arrived for me! İ am spending almost 3 weeks with nothing else but training, eating and resting. And when all this is paired with a fellow bodybuilder then it makes it even more enjoyable.

Currently enjoying the lovely weather of İstanbul, Turkey. The temperature is comfortably in the mid 20s, perfect for resting and training and some site seeing.

Feeling really blessed to be here. The gym is perfect and İ have a lovely host. By the time my morning cardio is done breakfast is ready.

Last night we trained chest. All the people in the gym was so welcoming and they all wanted to take pictures with us.

And this is what a meal for 2 looks like in İstanbul

An a bit of posing after the workout

Watch this space for more upates!

I’ve had another fun photoshoot with Danish Apple last weekend. Even though it is hard work (wink wink), we always have such a laugh with Jakob. He has a lot of great ideas and I really can’t wait for the next shoot to finish off what we have started.
Here is one sneaky pic from the shoot. Watch this space for the others soon!
We also agreed with Jakob that with some photos he will make 2 versions and I will ask you guys to decide which one is better. Are you up for that?

I had the pleasure to work with Luis Veloso who recorded one of my workouts to do a short video clip, hope you guys like it:

Next week I’m having another photoshoot with Danish Apple with new ideas. Watch this space for updates!

Time for a new update and I thought I’d share my photos and experiences from my holiday in Hungary. Originally I’m from Hungary and i have all my family back there. I haven’t got a big family though and not many true friends to visit either, although it’s always a rush when I go back there, never enough time to rest.

Even on holidays I usually go to the gym, especially if i know there is a good gym around. I trained at the Metropol Fitness while I was there, it’s in Miskolc. Good selection of machines, enough free weights, good enough for any bodypart (little bit less on legs though, but it’s difficult to top a gym like Monster when it comes to legs)

Apart from training I also tried to catch up with friends and family. Spent 2 days in Budapest over the weekend where we visited the Memento Park, went to a Brasilian restaurant (CasaBrasil) where we tried 16 different types of meat, and visited my favourite place in Hungary – Eger, that has a lot of Turkish history.

Not to mention the amount of food I consumed on the last few days. Hungarian food is quite heavy but the cakes there are just something else. I have a terrible sweet tooth so it was like heaven for me 😉

And now back to reality, focusing on training again. Come back for more updates!