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Spotlight On NPC Figure Competitor: Karla Jean
Category you compete in: NPC
Figure and Bikini
Date of birth: 08/02/83
Hometown: Milwaukee/Menomonee Falls/West Bend, WI
Career: Grad Student at the University of North Florida, Document Manager, Bartender, Promotional Model, and Personal Trainer
If you could change into a superhero for a day who would you be and why?
I love this question! Is it wrong to admit I was a Xena the Warrior Princess junkie for a hot minute? My parents gave me this tiny black and white TV with dials that would click to turn the channels. It was also equipped with its own set of rabbit ears for reception. I’d wait for my parents to go to bed and then I’d turn it to the WB and watch Xena and Gabrielle kick ass for an hour. She wasn’t a super hero in the sense of having some mystical power or magic, she just pulled out her inner-beast every week and never took any prisoners. She always found a way to be more than human despite being only human. There’s a great line in a Tupac song, “Trying to make a dollar outta 15 cent.” That’s got Xena’s philosophy written all over it!
What made you begin dedicating your lifestyle to this sport?
I’ve been in and out of the circuit for several years now. There was a love/hate relationship with the sport for a long time because I wasn’t doing it for ME. I was told over and over again I had potential, but it always seemed to be tied to some other person’s benefit. It left a bitter taste in my mouth. I f
elt sick and stressed training for shows. I was not ready emotionally or mentally for a true commitment. Yet, as I get older I am drawn more and more to not just competing (that’s only one avenue or platform!) but being a BEACON of light for others. The competitions are fun and provide structure, but resiliency and ambition to live a healthy life must be the foundation before anyone can claim true success.
What approach do you take to dieting...carb cycle..keto?
I tend to not follow a specific cycle of anything. You can’t really mess up chicken and broccoli. I listen to my body. For the longest time I condemned myself for not eating exactly what was on my meal plan. Even in cooking or baking, I simply refuse to follow directions (problems with authority, perhaps?) I have to make it my own. I throw cinnamon in when it isn’t required. I eat 15 almonds instead of 12. Then I realized that I am not going to hell if I eat an egg yolk, and if it keeps me sane it’s totally worth it. I believe in whole foods and busting my ass in the gym. I don’t spend an hour hitting my biceps from ten different angles. I like compound, multi-joint and super-set exercises that blast fat. I love food. Food is a miracle. I’m an advocate of timing protein shakes post-workout, and also support training in the morning on an empty stomach. Food should be medicine, and we should “eat to live, not live to eat.” (Joel Furhman) There are endless medicinal properties of foods, herbs, spices, and the like that when consumed individually or paired with something else, provide a very specific and stealthy chemical reaction in the body that often go unrecognized. Foods are synergistic. We tend to think of ourselves as operating as one individual entity, but in reality we, the person we identify with in the mirror, are actually micro-managed by millions of cells that are “making it happen” in our bodies.
In my opinion, the idea of “cheating” on your diet also baffles me. Cheating has a negative connotation already embedded in the word itself. Ironically, the word “cheat”and “cheating” also contain the words “eat” and “eating”, which subliminally remind us that food is bad, eating is bad, cheating is bad, etc etc. People “cheat” to gain something they don’t have. When we “cheat” on our diets, there isn’t anything in it for us. What do we gain? Guilt? There’s no incentive to even use the term at all. So you ate a cookie? It’s a cookie. Get over it. Get your ass on the treadmill. Move on.
What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about competing?
It depends on what division the person is competing in. It looks a little something like this:
Bodybuilding: “They must be on steroids.”
Fitness: “They 
must be on steroids.”
Or - “They must have been in gymnastics.”
Figure: “They must be on steroids.”
Bikini: “They must be strippers.”
We are all very fit, flexible strippers on steroids.
What is your most embarassing childhood memory?
Is it fair to say my entire childhood? I was a weird kid - and awkward. I can’t recall anything specifically, although I’m sure substituting cartwheels for dance moves at a cousin’s wedding probably qualifies.
What is the biggest lesson you have learned about YOURSELF during your contest prep?
The biggest lesson I have learned in regards to contest prep is that I absolutely must train with intention. Over the past few years I have worked with the best of the best in the industry, and for that I am grateful. Yet, working with numerous coaches have also revealed to me my preference for training as a rogue competitor. For me, it’s not just about following a cookie-cutter diet and workout and then getting on stage. It’s about seeing how far I can go or how close to the top I can get based off my own resources, my own self-promotion, my own image, and through networking. As awesome as it is to be part of a team, I also see the potential to feel suffocated, restricted, and limited in my natural tendencies to take the path less traveled. I do not want to win a show because of particular affiliation with a team. I want to win because I came solo, bringing my own product, packaged neatly, presenting it and “selling” it to the sport. If my goals and intentions are masked by the demands of competing on a team, its financial commitment, or even just trusting another person with my contest fate, then my own journey is rendered moot. My intention is to show that it can and will be done. On my own terms. For now.
Who do you look up and admire and why?
There are many greats out there that I admire and acknowledge but I do not set them on pedestals to “look up” to and “admire”. A fall from grace happens fast and hard, and often overshadows any good they may have done in the past. I’ve met plenty of celebrities, yet have failed to ever become starstruck. I’d rather sit down with them for a cup of coffee and have a casual conversation than to live my own life based on theirs. In 2008, I had the opportunity to meet Arnold Schwarzenegger at The Arnold Classic in Ohio. I shook his hand. We took a photo. It was awesome. Then I noticed his mortality - the fact that he is very much human just like you and me and that made him less epic and more HUMAN - a human doing super-human things. And for me, realizing that was WAY cooler than having to draw a distinctive line between me and those that are seemingly greater.
Competition history:
November 3rd, 2012 All South Bodybuilding Championships Figure 3rd
October 5th, 2012 DFAC Ormond Beach Championships Bikini 2nd / Figure 2nd
April 18, 2010 Orlando Europa Fitness Model Search 1st
August 20, 2008 Debbie Kruck Classic 1st/ Overall
August 1, 2008 Dexter Jackson Classic 1st/Overall
April 26, 2008 Gateway Classic, 2nd place
November 3rd, 2007 All South National Qualifier, 3rd
July 28th, 2007 Ancient City Classic, 2nd place
Next competition: My warm-up show will be in Ormond Beach, FL the first weekend in October 2013. It is a Pro-Qualifier and I plan on doing a Bikini/Figure Cross-Over. I’ve gotten mixed reviews on if I should stick to Figure or venture to Bikini, so this show will help determine what avenue I would like to take within this specific organization.
Favorite Motivational Quote: “Kegel Up!” Although I’d like to claim it as mine, one of the yoga instructors shouted this out right before “Plow.” I couldn’t keep myself from giggling, and to this day I use it. I absolutely love it. I’m designing shirts right now with the phrase. I’m a woman. I can’t “man up” or “ball up,” so “kegel up” is my only option!
Who would you like to thank?
Friends and family who have supported me through thick and thin. Oh, and the haters and the people who haven’t believed in me. Like publicity, any energy is good energy. I’m resourceful and strong enough to use that negativity and forge a weapon that will one day make them eat their words, judgments, or misconceptions of me. I seek no revenge - people will shoot themselves in the foot (or put their foot in the mouth?) all on their own. I just strive to be the best I can be with the help and encouragement of family and great friends that are my family!
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