Today the progression story of Simone Adema, who achieved her goals.
Simone Adema
In the spring of 2016, I started thinking about new goals. I had to stop playing handball due to knee injuries and started strength training. After a few months, I felt like I was missing a goal. I enjoy strength training, but because I had played handball for years, I also missed a competitive element. Through content on social media and my work as a personal body coach, I increasingly came into contact with (well-)trained bodies. And I wanted that too. I decided to book a fitness photoshoot and asked Sylke if she would accompany me there.
Sylke has experience in coaching behavior, nutrition, training, and recovery, and has experience with bikini fitness competitions. After a conversation about my goals, it felt good to go for it together.
Before I started with Sylke, I had been on a low intake for months. Some days I kept track better than others, and on weekends, I often ate (too) much and (too) often. To build some muscle mass, I started increasing my calorie intake with my coach. We did this every two to four weeks, and strangely enough, I lost weight in the first few weeks. Every four weeks, I took progress photos so my coach could monitor how my body was responding to the nutrition and workouts.
For half a year, we continued to increase my food intake. Slowly I gained weight and became stronger. The coaching and contact with Sylke were very pleasant at that time because it’s quite contradictory to see yourself gaining weight while you want to have a toned body. Patience is very important here, and she made that clear to me repeatedly.
Bikini Fitness
The photoshoot was approaching, so at the end of 2016, we started reducing my food intake. During that period, another goal came up. While I initially only had the photoshoot as a goal, I started thinking more and more about a bikini fitness competition. I began to itch for it. I enjoyed this journey, felt good, had fun, so why not? After my vacation, we talked about it, and eventually, we made the decision. The bikini fitness competition was added.
So far, the whole process had been so enjoyable that I was extremely enthusiastic to add this to it. An extra goal!
Sylke could tell me exactly what the coming months would look like. Where I worked with a calorie budget and counted macros for the first few months, I switched to a meal plan at the end of 2016.
From workouts with many sets and few repetitions, it gradually shifted towards workouts with few sets and many repetitions. It took some getting used to, but this was also incredibly fun. Also, super motivating because from this moment on, I saw my body change very quickly.
Throughout the whole period, I had almost daily contact with Sylke. I could ask her anything. Super nice and really a motivator!
After a period of 6 months of building up nutrition, 2 months of reducing nutrition, and 3 months of following a meal plan, I have already completed the photoshoot and the bikini fitness competition(s).
The photoshoot was incredibly cool, and during my last competition, I came in second, something I never expected to achieve before starting this journey. Never thought I would ever have the body I always dreamed of!
I look back very positively on the past few months. Without Sylke’s coaching, I would never have achieved this. I am therefore incredibly happy that we took on the challenge together! A new passion is born 🙂
