Where do you start? Hire a Nutritionist

I think that depends on where you are now physically, emotionally and financially. My hobby for years has been cooking, I can go to any restaurant, try any dish and re-create it at home and get pretty darn close. Ask SC (Strength Coach), I re-created a green salsa for him, he seemed to think it was pretty amazing, it was a cinch.

I love food and I love to eat. I love textures, runny eggs, raw fish, rare meat, you name it, I will eat it. Here I am making cassoulet, you can't get much fattier and high calorie than this.

You need to assess where you are, what your lifestyle is and what your goals are. I certainly don't starve myself, but I don't eat cassoulet more than once a year either.

I decided that I had been lifting weights for a long time, I looked good, but there was something missing, and I had to learn to successfully maintain this amazing thing called the human body.

The best thing I ever did for myself was to work with a nutritionist, and one who had been a Figure Competitor herself. She knew what I was trying to achieve and helped me figure out how to get where I wanted to be.

Kim and I have never met in person, we did all of our consultations over the phone and that worked fine for me. If you are a person who needs more hand holding through a new process, this may not work for you.

Kim taught me how to eat to fuel my body. She provided me with encouragement, she made me ask myself tough questions, she gave me honest answers. I have a book full of recipes that I still use to this day, over a year later that I still enjoy. What did it cost me to do this? About the price of a nice pair of designer jeans, the choice is yours.

If I were to do it all over again, this is where I would start.

Decide what your goals are. Do you want to lose weight, lose body fat, increase weight (she taught me how to do that too, and I do that intentionally part of the year).

If you will be working over the phone or Internet, make sure you have all of the information he or she will need. Accurate pictures of yourself (be sure your body is visible, even if you are not happy with it), current body fat, current weight, a log of everything you have eaten and at what times for the last week. This is not a time to try to fool anyone, be honest.

Give Kim Porterfield a call at The Institue of Eating Management and Relapse Prevention Center