As Tish Tudor walked on stage for her first bodybuilding competition on Sunday, her nerves were slightly jangling.
"It was so scary with everyone there and watching. You've just gotta do what you've gotta do," said Tish, of Beresfield.
"Once you're up there and you start the T-walk, it's the best feeling in the world. The biggest feeling of accomplishment."
The T-walk, in case you're wondering, is the choreographed routine that bodybuilders go through to show their body, muscles and best features to the judges.
"It was honestly the most rewarding thing hearing all my friends and family yell out to me on the stage, screaming my name. It was super overwhelming," she said.
It was also rewarding when she actually took out the NSW title of the Australian Bodybuilding Federation event, which was held in Sydney.
Asked if she was keen to compete again, she said: "100 per cent. I really enjoyed it".
Tish, who works as a personal trainer, has been bodybuilding for about four years.
She entered the competition because she needed a new goal.
"I needed to push new limits," she said.
"I thought bodybuilding was the perfect opportunity for me to test new heights."
One of the biggest challenges of the pursuit is following a strict diet. She eats five small meals a day.
"I work hard on my meal prep," she said, adding that the most important factor was eating wholefoods.
"It's just keeping it clean - nothing extreme."
She said the hardest food to cut out was sugar, but "the body adjusts over time and you get used to it".
She works out every day, usually doing about an hour of weights and close to an hour of cardio. It depends on "what my body needs".
Heaps Dumb
It had to be at the intersection of King and Steel streets in Newcastle West, didn't it?
You know the intersection. It has Maccas on one corner, the Travelodge on another and the King Street nightclub on another. Dominos Pizza is there, too.
The gravity of this place is powerful. It attracts all kinds of tomfoolery, hijinks and drunken buffoons.
Which is probably why it featured on the Instagram page of popular meme site Brown Cardigan.
A video on the page shows a decent-sized firecracker hurled into the middle of the intersection before spectacularly exploding.
"New Year celebrations starting a bit early in Newy," the post said, adding the hashtag #heapsdumbbut and, of course, #lol.
A Nice Compliment
An academic tweeted on Monday that a "total stranger just stopped me at University of Newcastle to say I looked fabulous!"
"Be that person! Not that everyone should compliment me, but be the person who makes a stranger smile!"
