If you knew Monica Teixeira in high school, you might be surprised to hear she’s a fitness champion.

As the 23-year-old tells it, she was a “little chubster” back then.

That all changed when she went to university, where a group of friends hooked her on exercise.

“I honestly feel amazing,” she told The Royal Gazette. “This is the happiest I’ve been in a long time.

“I love my body now more than ever because before I’d say I still want to change this or that. Now I’m starting to accept this is what I have and I focus more on the things I can work on.”

Last weekend she took top honours in the women’s figure class in the Bermuda Bodybuilding & Fitness Federation’s Fitness Extravaganza.

She called it “a wonderful experience”.

Years ago, she never imagined she would get to that point.

She loved junk food and would spend hours on her computer each day.

“I was a little chubster in high school,” she said. “Then I went away to university and met some athletic friends and they dragged me to the gym one day.

“That was during my first year at St Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada.

“It turned out that I got hooked on it, even more than them, and turned into this little gym rat.”

Miss Teixeira said she started off slow.

In the early days of working out she couldn’t do more than six or seven minutes on the recumbent bike. She wore thick sweatpants to hide her figure and stayed away from heavy weights because she found them too intimidating.

But as her fitness levels improved so did her confidence.

“The gym can be really intimidating at first, but I got to the point where I said, ‘You know what ... I want to build some awesome legs’ so I started lifting from there,” she said.

“There was this squat trend where everyone was trying to build their booty so that’s why I figured I’d start by building my legs.

“After that, I thought I want some guns too and great shoulders and soon after I had a day for everything — upper body, chest and leg day.

“I slowly started researching. At the time I was segmenting my days like a body builder does and I didn’t even know it.”

She moved back to the Island after graduation, and her mother told her about Seaview Fitness.

She started training with Ross Caesar not long after.

He was the one who encouraged her to enter her first fitness competition in 2013.

“At first I said ‘No way’, but he kept pushing me. I thought about it some more and figured I’ve never had a hobby or a sport and that’s how I picked up bodybuilding,” Miss Teixeira said.

“Ever since then I feel weird when I don’t train. I can’t stay out of the gym for more than three days because it makes me feel good to train.

“It’s all about finding that one thing that you’re passionate about.”

The fitness buff prepared for last weekend’s competition for 16 weeks with Carmichael Bryan of Positive Results.

He helped her get a better grip on the best way to eat to fuel her body.

“For the basic bodybuilder diet you drop carbs and up your fat intake — that tends to work for most people,” she explained.

“But what I learned this year is my body really likes carbs.

“My coach at Positive Results figured that out. When I loaded up on carbs my body fat started dropping and I had energy for my workouts that I couldn’t describe.”

Outside of competition training periods, Miss Teixeira tries to be as balanced about her diet as possible.

In her first year of dieting and working out she admitted she became a little too extreme with it.

“I almost became scared of junk foods and would only eat clean, healthy foods,” she said. “I wouldn’t touch a simple carb and thought white rice was evil. I only ate complex carbs, vegetables, proteins and healthy fats.

“But I realised this obsession with clean eating wasn’t healthy so I started incorporating balance into my life and I’m way more happy for it.”

Now she tries to eat healthy 80 per cent of the time, but also gives herself room to enjoy a hamburger once in a while. Bodybuilding does come with its challenges. Miss Teixeira has sacrificed a lot of time with her friends; she’s usually passed out in bed by 10pm.

But she enjoys her new healthy lifestyle and encourages others to find something that works for them as well.

“I’ve come to the conclusion whether it’s bodybuilding, soccer, CrossFit, Zumba or whatever, the important thing is making sure you find something you enjoy,” she said.

“Just keep moving. Find something fun for yourself. If it’s not fun, no one is going to stick with it.

“The gym is actually a really fun place for me because you have this little bodybuilding community and we all support each other.”