Solvang resident Jennifer Santos was walking the floor at The Fit Expo in Los Angeles this past January went she stumbled upon a booth for SAN, a national nutrition supplement company.
“They had fliers for a competition called ‘Flab to Fab,’” recalled Santos, who works as a trainer at Anytime Fitness in Orcutt and serves in the U.S. Air Force National Guard. “It was one of those contests where whoever had the biggest transformation would win.”
Standing at 5-foot-1 and weighing 115 pounds, Santos didn’t have much to lose, but the health nut in her was intrigued by the contest.
“It was about losing a little bit of fat, shredding up, and having a big transformation,” she said.
Shredding up, for those non-bodybuilders types out there, means building muscle.
So Santos and her then-boyfriend, Andrew, signed up for the couples’ category of the contest. They set up a mandatory blog and started posting about their diets and daily workouts.
“We had to blog and submit photos of ourselves,” she said. “And we’d have to hold a copy of the day’s newspaper in our hand to prove it wasn’t an old photo or Photoshopped.”
Santos focused her energy on cross training, weight lifting, and eating as healthfully as possible.
“I’d use a lot of weight, but I’d only do about five to eight reps,” she said. “If I was doing more than that, it wasn’t heavy enough.”
While training for the competition, she also taught Zumba and spin classes at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Surprisingly, the high-intensity workouts ended up hurting her more than helping.
“I’d have to make sure I ate a high-calorie meal or protein shake before teaching class because I didn’t want to lose any muscle,” she said. “I’d be jumping around on a full stomach.”
During training, Santos filled her stomach with mostly protein and veggies. She also made sure she ate every two to three hours to keep up her strength and metabolism.
“I stopped eating meat in January except for fish, which was something I did for myself,” she said. “People think they can’t get protein without meat, but you can get just as much from eating beans and rice. You get all of your amino acids without the fat clogging up your arteries.”
Santos got most of her protein from fish, eggs, and tofu, as well as vegetables from Babé Farms and protein bars and shakes.
“You have to be more creative with your food when you’re vegetarian. You have to add more flavor to your food,” she said. “I’d make a lot of veggie stir fries: put in the coconut oil, olive oil, or grape seed oil; chop the veggies nice and big because you want to get enough sustenance; and add your protein.”
In the beginning she would eat some grains, like oatmeal or brown rice, but as she got closer to the competition, Santos cut out gluten and sugar.
“I’d have my cheat meals, too. I’d eat protein bars or sometimes I’d go to Lazy Acres or Lassen’s and get some vegan chocolate cake,” she said. “It wasn’t too hard because after a while your body makes a lifestyle change and it rejects [more fattening foods].”
At the gym she used a combination of workout equipment—kettle bells, TRX extension cables, free weights, and targeting machines—to get into shape. On Sundays she’d go to church and then go for a hike with her dog on local trails throughout the Central Coast.
Her motto, she said, was, “If I’m not waking up sore, I’m not doing right.”
In the end, all of Santos’ hard work paid off—she and Andrew won first place in the couple’s category, and Santos won the grand prize, which included $1,200 in cash, a $1,200 gift certificate for SAN products, a gold champion’s ring, and a SAN varsity jacket. She also got to be the SAN spokesperson at the Mr. Olympia competition in Las Vegas.
Santos said she was nervous prior to the judging because one of her competitors went from being “fat in a muscular way” to “body competition-ready.”
“When you’re overweight and you change your diet and exercise, you lose a lot of weight,” she said, adding that she admired the woman’s ability to transform herself. “But I guess she didn’t have as much tone as I did.”
Santos said she’s very excited to be the new SAN spokesperson because she gets to meet all kinds of people at the health and fitness expos.
She encourages anyone who’s interested in living a healthier lifestyle to check one out.
“Not everyone at these events is ripped,” she said. “You don’t have to be ripped, you’d don’t have to run 26 miles, or lift 100 pounds to be healthy and look good.”
Managing Editor Amy Asman’s cheat meal of choice is a juicy hamburger and a cold beer. Send her beer recommendations at aasman@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 22-29, 2012.
