Amanda Latona: “Booty Queen” of the Fitness Industry Spills Her Fitness Secrets!

All content on this site is copyright of Women Fitness and no part of any article found on this site may be reproduced without an express permission and highlighted, do follow link crediting http://www.womenfitness.net/ or preferably the original page as the source. This interview is exclusive and taken by Namita Nayyar President womenfitness.net and should not be reproduced, copied or hosted in part or full anywhere without an express permission.

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Ms. Namita Nayyar: You were born in Pittsburgh, PA and must have been interested in fitness and sports at an early age. Later you were encouraged & motivated to compete in fitness competitions. You earned your IFBB Pro card in 2009 after winning every competition that you entered that year. You reached the pinnacle of success by winning twenty times 1st place finishes in fitness and bikini competitions around the country. Tell us about your journey that took you to the the world of fitness and as a winner in Professional Bikini Pro competitions?   

Ms. Amanda Latona: I think I was just born with a passion to entertain. I started singing at the age of 18 in all girls group in Orlando, Florida. We were given a gym’s membership to stay in shape and to help us with our cardio, singing and dancing at the same time. I remember stepping foot in the gym, seeing a woman with a six pack and saying “I want to look like that”. From that moment my second passion was born and I fell in love with fitness.

After the girls group I went on to have two other solo recording deals and I spent the majority of my free time in the gym, learning and studying everything I could about training and nutrition. I decided to work with a trainer and he suggested that with my passion of training and my background of being on stage and I should enter a competition. In 2003 , I entered my first fitness bikini competition and I won. After my record deals were no longer, my whole family moved to Las Vegas and I got reconnected with the fitness industry because it’s such a big scene in Vegas.

I competed in the Flex bikini model search in 2007 (8^th Place), 2008 (4^th place) and in 2009 I won the title. Also in 2009 that’s when the NPC started the bikini division and they took the criteria for the division from the top four in the flex bikini model search from 2008. The fact that I placed fourth in 2008 made me realize that I would do hopefully very well in this new NPC bikini division. From then on, I went on to turn Pro in 2009 and also win the Flex Bikini Model Search and earned 2 contracts that Year. The next year I had my 1^st Cover and the rest is history.

Ms. Namita Nayyar: What is your motivation to take a multi-faceted personality of a fitness model, professional bikini competitor, personal trainer, recording-artist, creator of an online fitness video series and nutritional expert?

Ms. Amanda Latona: I started with 2 passions. Entertaining and fitness. I started onstage as a singer, which gave me a gym membership that allowed me to discover my fitness passion. From there, I took my love for being onstage and fitness, and that led to me to competing. From there, I went into fitness modeling which allowed me to not only be in magazines and on covers, but increase my brand awareness and fan base, all while learning more and more about the business. I am a big believer in developing as many skills as possible and staying in a mode of constant learning.

The more skills you have, the more you bring to the table and the more valuable you are to the companies you are working with and for or trying to work with. I have been blessed with being able to do many, many different areas in the fitness world and it’s a huge blessing to be able to have a career doing what I love. God just kept allowing doors to open, and I would and will continue to walk though them. I now host TV shows, emcee bodybuilding/fitness shows, own a successful fitness apparel line, travel the world as a Team Allmax athlete with my husband, and we were promoters of our own show this year. The Kuclo Classic which broke Texas records for a first NPC show.

Ms. Namita Nayyar: Share your exercise routine that you do to maintain such a bikini perfect physique?

Ms. Amanda Latona: I have been training half of my life and my  foundation has been built with heavy weight training. I am passionate about showing women that they can lift weights and not get bulky… Still a misconception these days. I train 5 days a week sometimes twice a day and during a competition I train 6 days a week with most days twice a day. When I train twice in a day it’s to split up my weight training and my cardio. I usually weight train an hour to an hour and a half depending on what body part it is and to do cardio after that to me is too much, so I’d rather split up weights and cardio. I do cardio 3 times a week, the majority of my cardio being HIIT cardio. Shorter durations 30 min and high intensity interval training.

My go-to cardio of choice is intervals of incline sprints, intervals on the step mill or arc trainer and plyos. Taking the heart rate up, then bringing it back down, tracking it with a heart rate monitor and cardio with added resistance to make cardio glute focused as well. I train lower body twice a week both days being glute focused. I train hard and very intensely every time. Every session I give my all, and I don’t just go through the movements. I see people on their phones in the gym and they wonder why they’re not getting better results. You need to be in there working harder than anyone else if you want to achieve results better than anyone else.

My competitors mentality keeps me in competition with myself and my own personal goals. Also, because I have been training now half of my life, I know the importance and necessity of switching up your training. This helps not only physically, because the body is so smart and constantly adapts, but also mentally to get out of a training rut, set new goals and just enjoy what your doing. That being said, I’ve recently started training at 2 new studios along with the gym, taking hiit classes and getting back into yoga. I love bikram yoga the most. There, my goal isn’t my heaviest lift, but becoming more flexible, getting into splits and doing headstands and hopefully one day handstands.

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Ms. Namita Nayyar: What is your diet? Do you take a particular fixed regulated diet comprising of nutrients and vitamins to keep you in perfect health?

Ms. Amanda Latona: My basic diet philosophy is… eat whole, non processed foods as much as possible and basically eat what God put on this earth. Your diet should consist of foods with as few ingredients in them as possible and ideally eating foods that have one word ingredients such as chicken, eggs, spinach almonds etc. When you go grocery shopping, shop the parameters of the grocery store (where the produce, and meat are) and stay out of the isles because that’s usually where the processed foods are kept.

I eat a very high protein diet, and I’m more of a protein/fat girl as opposed to a protein/ carb girl.  My diet is mainly protein such as chicken, lean turkey, lean whitefish, salmon, protein powders, egg whites and whole omega eggs. I’ve recently cut out red meat I personally like the way I feel better. I eat a ton of vegetables and try to have vegetables at every meal with a large salad a day. I eat a lot of healthy fats such as avocado, almonds, coconut oil, macadamia nut oil, almond oil, Olive oil, a ton of seeds like chia seeds, flax seeds, hemp seeds, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, and all natural nut butters.

When I do have carb meals they’re based around my workouts and are slow digesting carbs such as oatmeal and sprouted grain products. I also adjust my food and carb intake depending on my training and energy output that day. Heavier training on a leg day means more carbs and more food and a travel day or rest day will be less carbs and less food. This keeps me from counting calories. My main key is to really avoid sugar, and keeping blood sugar from spiking because insulin spikes can lead to weight gain. Every body is different. This is what works for me. I try to really just eat nutrient dense foods. I focus on eating the best, healthiest foods for me, not foods that are going to make me loose weight or be skinny. Health is always my goal and always what I am passionate about teaching about.

Ms. Namita Nayyar: You have glowing skin and gorgeous hair. Do you take some kind of skin treatment to keep it young and glowing and secondly what you do to your hair to make them look so stunning?

Ms. Amanda Latona: Well first of all, THANK YOU. Ya know, I really believe you are what you eat and being healthy on the inside shines through on the outside. So I believe my skin and hair being super healthy, shiny and radiant is a combination of years of a high protein diet, lots of healthy fats, beauty rest, tons of water, sweating to get rid of toxins and lots of prayer (I used to have acne as a younger adult). You need to eat enough protein in your diet, and healthy fats such as avocado, coconut oil, and salmon are crucial. Start eating those now and you’ll see a big difference.  Also, to me , rest is an equally important part of making fitness a lifestyle. I try to make sleep a priority at night and when I travel and don’t get as much as I want to, I try and take a nap if I can. Tons of water along with sweating is great at getting rid of toxins another important part of getting the glowing skin your after. That’s another reason I love bikram yoga, dripping in sweat for 90 minutes is amazing.

Ms. Namita Nayyar: Fitness modelling is about bold photo shoots. You did photo shoot for Bodies Of Work By Bodybuilding.com and showed your spectacular chiseled physique. What advice you wish to give to the women of today to be body confident in order to do such bold modeling?

Ms. Amanda Latona: I don’t think women should be confident to be able to do bold photo shoots. I’m pretty conservative in everyday life, and on my instagram and in social media. I’m not one of those girls that posts pics of myself in my undies saying its fitness. I’m married now so I being a wife, I have a whole different outlook on the way I portray myself as well. That being said, I have always had a clean image because of my beliefs and its just who I am.

The Bodies of Work photo shoot was actually something I only did because it was done very tastefully and artistically and also shot 2 days before Bikini Olympia when I was in the best shape possible and was able to capture the insane amount of hard work I had been putting in for years and years. I personally kept sending back the images they could use saying more shadowing, more shadowing, lol, but its true. To a point, where they couldn’t use an image all together because I wasn’t comfortable showing too much.

I do preach women’s confidence though in everything I do. I think everyone and especially us women are very very hard on ourselves. That’s why I tell people to stay off the scale. We can fluctuate so much from day to day due to several factors especially hormones for us women, and a few pounds up can make or break your day. I also did a challenge and was coaching over 3,000 women where I learned a lot and have been able to use those experiences in my life to educate and help women. There was a girl that posted a pic at 3 different weights. The middle was her current, and the right was 30 pounds heavier and the left was 30 pounds lighter. She then said, that she wasn’t happy at the lighter or heavier weight. She was now happy where she was. That really impacted me.

If you don’t love yourself, I mean really love yourself, then a number on the scale really wont change that. You can be unhappy because you want to lose weight, and then to lose weight and you can be unhappy because your always hungry or tired or moody or feel like your deprived and cant enjoy your life. The same goes the other way. I know what its like to be up and down in my weight as a competitor. This is why I now am an avid preacher of balance in your life.

Ms. Namita Nayyar: Advice and motivational words to the inspiring and budding professional Bikini competitor girls who all are your fans and shall like to know from you for their climb to ladder of success in field of professional Bikini competitions?

Ms. Amanda Latona: My advice is to do everything you do with the heart of a champion, with passion and with integrity. Do your research to be educated with the field you want to be in, and be able to be an ambassador of the Sport and a spokesperson. Learn to be skilled in many areas so that you can branch out into many different avenues in the fitness world. Learn your business and brand so that you can be a good speaker and bring a lot to the table to a company that you want to work with. Have a positive attitude always. Stay constantly grateful…this will keep you with a non-complaining attitude. And work hard. Very hard. Knock on every door, because you have no idea what door will open, unless you knock on it. Don’t let a no or a rejection get you discouraged and never give up.

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All content on this site is copyright of Women Fitness and no part of any article found on this site may be reproduced without an express permission and highlighted, do follow link crediting http://www.womenfitness.net/ or preferably the original page as the source. This interview is exclusive and taken by Namita Nayyar President womenfitness.net and should not be reproduced, copied or hosted in part or full anywhere without an express permission.