Hard work and dedication paid off for Kaytee Wheaton for a fitness competition in Edmonton, as she took to the stage against professionals in a World Beauty Fitness and Fashion event earlier in October.
Despite missing the cut for the top five in her division, she received positive feedback from her fellow competitors.
“Being a rookie underdog that nobody knew about—I don’t have a professional trainer that would’ve put my name out there more, also just not competing in the federation at all—I blindsided a lot of people,” Wheaton said.
“I got first-call out for both the morning and evening show, but unfortunately did not place in the top-five. But the feedback from the pros, was that I should have. I got incredible feedback.”
Wheaton has been training for the competition for the last year, which was originally set for June, but rescheduled due to flooding in Alberta.
She went up against 25 other athletes who came in from around the world to compete—the professionals of which are regularly featured in fitness magazines.
It was only Wheaton’s second competition, but that didn’t seem to faze her ability to make an impression on the judges and fellow competitors.
“When you first walk out, you do your routine, which is called a T-walk, and that’s your own set routine and then after you do your routine, you line up,” said Wheaton, “and that’s where the first callouts come out, they grab the best girls to be compared against each other.
“So we stand in a line and they make us do corner turns to compare and judge who has the best body and presence as well.”
Despite missing the top-five cut, she is happy with how she did, considering the positive feedback from the professionals.
It was a much different experience training for this event, compared to her first one, Wheaton said.
“I did one two years ago, but I crash-dieted and completely trained unhealthy and actually very damaging to my body,” she said. “So this was the first real one where I took it upon myself to train healthy and prove that it can be done healthy.”
She only gave herself a few months to train for her first competition, and didn’t have a proper diet while doing excessive amounts of cardio and weight training.
This time around, she switched up her regimen with the help of local trainer Jodie Pickering.
“I gave myself enough time,” Wheaton said, “and then I didn’t have anyone giving my nutrition, so I completely listened to my body of what’s working and what’s not, and being able to have so much time, I was able to do trial and error. If something felt wrong, I changed it.”
Wheaton wants to focus on her two jobs for the time being, but she is eyeing another competition next spring. She enjoys training for the fitness events because it keeps her accountable to herself.
“I think it was more so the one thing I could control,” Wheaton said. “If I don’t do the certain things that need to be done, there’s no one to blame but myself. I’m creating a body and a look that only I have control over, so if I fail, I fail myself—I can’t blame anyone.
“So it was more so a goal that I could prove that I could get it done, even with a busy schedule and just prove to myself that it could be done healthy as well.”