If you're Kristina Lange-Biondolillo, you ramp up your training. You pay close attention to nutrition (controlling a tremendous sweet tooth) while limiting your food intake — you want to get your weight down to 126 pounds. You work hard on conditioning, because you know your results will be judged by professionals.

Kristina is no newcomer to fitness. She grew up in a family that emphasized good physical condition, health, and nutrition, and has been working out since her teen years, having joined her first gym at age 18. As a competitor for several years in equestrian sports, she knew she had the physical and mental strength to put herself into the spotlight and perform before a crowd. And her life away from the gym keeps her in close touch with the importance of health and fitness: she is a staff Cardiovascular Perfusionist at Cleveland Clinic.

So when trainer Niki DelGrosso suggested Kristina consider competition as a reward for all the hard work she'd put into her training, she ramped up her workout regimen, doubling her 45-plus minutes of cardio, six days a week, and 35 to 40 minutes of lifting, at least four days a week.

After training with Niki for about a year, Kristina felt she needed to avoid becoming bored and wanted to learn different types of workouts. So she began working with James Boykin, another Titans Gym trainer who uses extremely different training methods and, like Niki, has competed.

Kristina was well prepared for her initial competition, October 2009's NPC Natural Northern Bodybuilding, Figure, and Bikini: in a field of eleven in the Bikini Tall class, most of them half her age, she placed sixth. Click here to see the results. Besides her results, she was most proud of her figure. As you can see, she looked great!

When she's not competing or preparing for competition or placing a Cleveland Clinic cardiac surgery patient on a heart-lung machine, Kristina is Executive Director of Marilyn's Voice, a 501(c)(3) organization. Kristina founded Marilyn's voice with the purpose of rescuing, rehabilitating, and placing severely neglected and abused dogs from commercial kennels, puppy mills, and other unfortunate situations. Her advocacy group speaks in schools and with civic groups about the puppy mill and commercial dog breeding business and is active in current legislation surrounding the issues associated with puppy mills. (Click here for more information about Marilyn's Voice.)