Striding across the stage in a leopard print bikini as millions watched, Miss Nina Davuluri was the picture of body confidence during the pageant’s swimsuit competition on Sunday night — but she hasn’t always been bikini-ready.
Just two years ago, the 5’7″ 23-year-old from New York tipped the scales at 170 pounds and she reveals her secret weight loss journey in a testimonial on her trainers website.
Finding herself seriously out of shape after graduating college in May 2011, Davuluri says, “In four years I had put on over 50 pounds and was ashamed of myself for allowing myself to get so out of shape. I realized that I needed to make some serious changes if I wanted to get healthy and feel confident about myself.”
Starting slow with diet tweaks and group classes at the gym. She lost 15 pounds in four months. “I felt that I had made progress and was pleased with my results, so I decided to stay at a comfortable 150 pounds,” she recalls.
But then in February 2012 the former Miss Michigan Teen and 1st Runner-up to Miss America teen decided to dip a toe back into the pageant world.
“It has always been my dream to become Miss America,” Davuluri explains. “I kept telling myself that I was too busy with school and other activities to compete.However, the underlying issue was that I was simply too nervous to walk in a swimsuit and heels on stage! It came to the point where I realized I was giving up on my dream simply because of my weight and confidence issues.”
And so, she met up with trainer Tia Falcone, planning to shed 15 pounds in one month for the Miss Greater Rochester pageant — the first step on her way to the Miss America crown.
With free weights, circuit training, resistance bands, kettle bells and more, all while following a strict food plan, Nina dropped even more weight and won the title of Miss Greater Rochester in April 2012. By June, she weighed just 117 pounds.
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