VISTA ---- Pat Tackett can leg press 1,000 pounds. A little more than two years ago, she could barely scratch her back and tie her shoes.

The 57-year-old college professor spent the past few years reshaping her body, going from a size 20 to a size 4, and will compete in a body building competition for the first time Saturday at Rancho Buena Vista High School.

"I am really scared and nervous," said the Escondido resident.

Tackett is set to compete in the Ms. Figure contest, one of the competition's categories. She'll have to dance and form poses for a minute and a half while music plays in the background.

"I kinda have to be able to have a little coordination and movement," she said, adding that it's easier for her to lecture in front of 1,000 students.

Tackett's journey from 210 pounds to about 125 pounds was not easy, she said.

"When I started it was really hard," Tackett said. "I couldn't do one sit-up. I had to wrap a cool towel around my head because I sweat so much."

Tackett, who body builds at the Vista gym Club Rhino, said her trainer helps her understand what type of foods to eat, and avoid, in order to sculpt her body into perfect shape.

"I eat six times a day," she said. "Lots of fish, and I don't do any dairy, bread, pasta, rice or sugar."

Tackett said after years of trying every diet trick in the book, she decided to use "hard work" to get the results she wanted.

She said her development psychology class at San Diego State University touches on how to age well ---- eat right and exercise. Tackett said she felt like a hypocrite.

"I had put on 10 pounds a year over the past 10 years (and realized) I am not a good role model for young people, and I am a hypocrite for giving this information to young people," she said.

Well, no longer.

"All my tests are fantastic now," she said of recent heart and liver screenings. "The health benefits alone have been worth the money I put into (paying for a trainer)."

Her trainer, Club Rhino's Lorenzo Gaspar, said he developed a system for Tackett in which she uses her body's fat reserves to burn calories, thus reducing her size.

A picture of Tackett before and after hangs on the gym's wall.

"This was not something that was easy but the reward was worth it," she said.