As Fife bodybuilder Shelley Morgan posed at her first competition she beamed with pride thinking of the obstacles she had overcome to get there.
For most of her life, Shelley, 34, had seen herself as the ‘fat friend’, weighing over 17 stone at her heaviest.
Weight gain which started in primary school was accelerated in adulthood by an underactive thyroid, polycystic ovarian syndrome and a serious spine injury.
Seeing her father Thomas suffer multiple heart attacks and wanting to be healthier for son Robbie, 4, she had finally managed to lose five stone.
But still she laughed when a personal trainer told her she could be like the super-toned women she saw arriving for the same bodybuilding competition in 2024.
So 12 months later Shelley, from Methil, wore the widest smile as she lifted a silver trophy in the NABBA Mr and Miss Scotland contest in the Rothes Halls, Glenrothes.
She says: “I’ve never felt so proud of myself.
“I thought, ‘I’ve done this. I’ve actually done it.'”
Shelley, a Sky Retail advisor and radio DJ, was working near the Rothes Halls during that encounter with trainer Simon Swanston, who was to become her coach.
She had been documenting her weight-loss on social media.
Simon, a family friend, stopped to chat to Shelley before heading in to the NABBA 2024 competition.
Shelley recalls: “He said ‘I’ve been following your journey on Instagram and you’ve done amazing. What are your goals now?’
“I looked at a competitor going in, and joked, ‘you never know, maybe one day I can get up on stage like her.’
“He said ‘why don’t you?'”
Shelley laughed, unsure whether Simon was being serious.
But he replied: “Give me a year and I can get you up on stage.”
At her heaviest, a doctor had told Shelley she was a heart attack waiting to happen.
She had tried numerous times to lose weight without success.
But the breakthrough came in 2020, after Robbie was born.
Shelley says: “Once Robbie was born in November 2020 that changed everything for me. I needed to get my act together.
“During lockdown I had developed a love of trying to get my step count up.”
Then after her mum Barbara was rushed to hospital with long Covid and blood clots on her lungs, her doctor recommended weight loss and exercise.
So together they signed up with a personal trainer. Shelley was going to the gym three times a week.
Then they began pole dancing, which Shelley says has built her confidence as well as her core and strength.
By the time she started training with Simon, she weighed just under 12 stone.
To her surprise, he told her to reduce her gym sessions from over two hours to just over an hour.
“He said I’m no longer doing as much in the gym but targeting specific muscle groups on specific days,” Shelley explains.
“I still needed to do my steps but also to fuel my body properly.”
“He taught me about the balance of having an 80/20 split. So 80% of the time tracking everything and 20% of the time have a takeaway if you want.”
Shelley signed up for a competition in August 2025.
Posing is a major element of bodybuilding so Shelley went to a class at Leven gym in February to learn.
There she met NABBA Miss Universe Layla Allen who, along with gym owner and NABBA Scotland chair Mark Taylor, encouraged her to sign up for an earlier contest.
Shelley was apprehensive, especially as she still had loose skin from her weight loss. But Simon reckoned they could do it.
She went shopping for a sparkly pink bodybuilding bikini – the first time she’d worn a bikini in her life.
And she embarked on eight weeks of intensive preparation.
“I had to cut out a lot of food,” says Shelley. “Dairy and cheese was removed completely.
“I had a plan saying for breakfast you’ll have oats and a protein shake, at 11am a rice cake then at 12pm your main meal, which could be tuna with 200g of rice. Then another rice cake and at teatime white fish with 200g of green vegetables.
“It was super strict and after two weeks I hated white fish. But I was told to just shut up and get on with it!”
When show day came, Shelley was a bag of nerves.
Barbara, equally anxious, was on hand backstage to top up her tan, feed her grapes and pass her dumbbells.
Shelley weighed just 7st 9lbs. A body glue known as Bikini Bite helped tuck away folds of skin and show off her six-pack.
She says: “When I walked on stage I wasn’t sure what to feel. But I just felt like I came alive.
“I was like, oh my gosh, this is amazing.
Shelley won the silver trophy in the Miss Novice toned figure class.
She says: “That trophy takes pride of place in my living room now to remind me of what I’ve done.”
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