6 weeks to Peak Week!

We are a mere month and a half from peak week: the week that matters the most; where every minute in the gym counts and every calorie and drink of water makes all the difference. We are continually working through the trials and triumphs of the diet and workouts day in and day out. I have learned a lot about myself and my eating habits through this process and I am hoping that realizing my little quirks will help me to continue to reach my goals.

A common mistake many athletes and people in general make is binge eating. I am no exception to this problem. After eating the same things every single day I am continuously fighting my mind not to give in to every temptation. My biggest fear through doing this competition is developing poor eating behaviors. After struggling with the diet every day, I am all too aware that I could go completely overboard once the show is over. With this fear aside, I have learned to listen to my body and learned when I need to eat foods that are outside of my diet.

We usually allow ourselves one cheat day a week, where we eat foods that have more fat and carbs. My cheat of choice is a cheeseburger. I usually end up having my cheat meal at the end of the week when my body feels like its starting to shut down. I chose to have my cheat day today as I was feeling very light headed for most of the day, a sign that my body needed some fat and carbs. I usually feel ten times better after this meal, however, I am still struggling to keep the cheat meal to just one food item. For instance, today I found some chocolates in our house and have had a hard time eating just one (or 5).

I refuse to feel guilty about any extra cheats I may have had because I will still be working out for 2 hours tonight (weights/cardio) and because tomorrow is a new day!

I have to eat that again??

As most seasoned bodybuilders know, eating can be one of the most depressing parts of this sport; you eat the same things day after day. I am finding this out first hand and go through phases of not even wanting to eat (even though I'm hungry often) because the food is the same and the supplements are the same and they are eaten/taken at the same time EVERYDAY.

So, I have taken it upon myself to try some different cooking methods. Tonight I am going to make baked sweet potato fries with just a splash of olive oil and Johny's seasoning (see recipe link below). I'm not much of a cook so let's hope this turns out ok! I am hoping that this will make it easier to eat sweet potatoes when I'm busy or on the run. The sad part is, I won't even get to try them until tomorrow as I have just finished my final meal for the day and am out of extra calories (another depressing fact).

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Baked-Sweet-Potato-Sticks-2/Detail.aspx

In other news, after meeting with our posing coach this weekend and not only going through our poses but our body fat as well, we decided that for me to look my best I should be at 8% body fat and around 103 pounds. This will be a huge challenge for me. After adjusting my calories to lose about 2 pounds this week to get on track with this goal, I am at a mere 1400 calories while still working out twice a day (lifting weights/ 50 minutes of cardio). We'll see where I end up on Saturday morning!

Bring On the Definition!

I am finally feeling back to a normal size and am comfortable with my body once again. I can see a lot more definition in my muscles now and it is a huge source of motivation for me! Although I have pretty much lost my boobs, I have replaced them with muscle which has actually given a false look of cleavage (see above picture far left). Yes, the picture on the left is muscle, not breast lol. Among other changes, my abs are finally making an appearance and I can usually see a small vein in my biceps when we workout upperbody. The whole vein thing used to scare me; I really thought it was repulsive on a female. But when I see it barely show through during workouts I embrace it, because it means that my blood is pumping hard where it needs to and vascularity is important come show time!

I have also finally seen a change in my weight on the scale. Yesterday I weighed in at 115.6 (stuck around 116.6-117 for 2 weeks). Today I actually weighed in at 113.8! I have a feeling this is just a water weight drop as I had a bout of diaherrea yesterday (that's what you get for eating broccoli before a tough workout).

The above picture are some of my most improved muscles. Biceps have really grown, shoulders are getting more cut, and I am starting to get striations in my inner chest. And of course, my abs are finally coming back. Goodbye layer of squish around the middle!

With this decrease in body fat has also come uncomfortable side effects. I am cold ALL THE TIME. It takes me 15 minutes wearing heavy sweats, sweatshirt, and beanie, just to get warm during a cardio session. Also, my joints were aching constantly (until I started taking Omega Cuts) and it is extremely difficult to sleep through the night. My muscles are always sore and they fatigue much faster without all the extra calories. But the progress I'm seeing in my muscles is all worth it!

Lesson Learned: TRUST THE PROCESS. These changes DO NOT come over night or even in a week to 2 weeks. My weight loss is very slow and controlled. The changes are small but significant, but you have to trust the way you're training and the way you are eating will get you ready right before the show!

BELIEVE THAT!

Competition Suit!

I woke up drenched in sweat early this morning after a horrifying dream. It was the day of the show and everyting that could have gone wrong, went wrong. I had NO COMPETITION SUIT and NO ROUTINE! What a stressful dream! Luckily, today was the day of my consultation for a competition suit (wiping the sweat off my brow). Read on below...

I met with Christie Skelton of Cedara, a body wear designer, for my first competition suit consultation! She took a variety of measurements including some of the basics; bust, waist, hips, and other measurements for the width and height of the front and back of the bottom of the suit. The amazing part about the suit creation is that Christie has to adjust the measurements to what size we think I will be come show time; wow! After the measurements came the fun part, color and fabric selection. I am attracted to the brighter colors so I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted coming into it. After pulling out a few fabrics and holding them up to my body to see how they would work with my, skin, hair, and eye color, Christie pulled out the above fabric and we both knew it was the one! It is a beautiful shade of blue and is a velvety material which kind of changes color in the light. YAY!!

This is a huge source of motivation for me. I put this swatch up on our fridge so I can see it and feel it everyday and visualize myself in it on stage. Having it on the fridge will also remind me that I need to fit into it properly come show time which will help keep me from eating what I shouldn't :)

Choosing my suit color has also inspired my music selection for the night show posing routine (a 60 second routine that shows off your best poses). I chose "Kiss" by Prince because to me, this color says fun, flirty, and confident!

Now that I have a suit and a song, I can really start to visualize myself on stage! And hopefully no more bad dreams...LETS DO THIS!

Falling Off the Diet Wagon

After my previous post of claiming to stop messing things up in my diet, I totally fell off the wagon, or more like dove head first. The day started off with my weigh-in. The number I wanted to see did not appear on the scale and I became discouraged. This was my first mistake.

I ate my oatmeal as usual and completed my strength workout and had my supplements. I then went to visit my folks where I lost self-control. My parents have all sorts of goodies at their house; cheeze-its, tasty cereal, chocolates, cookies, and pop-tarts, all of which I later ate. I started off good with a nice big salad with ground beef on top. Then proceeded to have 1 chocolate (just one can't hurt, right?) 1 turned into 3 then a cookie here and there then a handful of crackers then a pop-tart. I totally lost track of my goal and my mind was constantly on food.

After leaving my parent's house, I thought about the bland food I was going to have to make for dinner and stopped at McDonald's for a McChicken and small french fries! AHHHHHHH! I totally blew it for the day BUT, tomorrow is a new day and knowing that I don't have any food at my house that I can cheat will make it much easier to stay the course.

Lesson Learned for the day: Don't let the number on the scale discourage you. As my husband reminded me, the number will continually fluctuate with differences in water intake, various foods, timing of eating and monthly cycles. Remember what you are striving for when faced with adversity and trust the process. Stick with it, get back on course, and don't beat yourself up when you fall.

KEEP THE FAITH!

2 Weeks into Dieting; 10 weeks until Show Time!

Entry forms are going off in the mail this weekend... it's official now. I am entering into the Women's OPEN bodybuilding class in the Light weight division (under 114.5 lbs). I could enter into the Novice division but  entering into open class gives me the motivation to work harder and stick to my diet.

I'm not going to lie, I have cheated on my diet a few times ( 5 frozen chicken nuggets here and there and a few saltine crackers after some nauseating workouts). I have been blessed with a high metabolism and have generally been able to get away with eating most things while maintaining a healthy weight. This has been the WRONG mentality for me going into this diet, therefor this post is my final straw against thinking this way! So, how do I combat my cravings for crackers and chicken nuggets? I've come up with a game plan. Thus far my diet has been lacking variety which has set me up for failure. So I've done some research and come up with some new meals that will keep me on track. I've added more vegetables into my diet and have recently added Rosarita non-fat Salsa refried beans (delicious).

Currently, my new favorite meal is 4oz refried beans mixed with 2-3oz brown rice and 4oz ground turkey. I try to eat this around lunch time because of the higher carb content, but it is delicious!

My goal weight this week (weigh-in on Sunday) is 116lbs; 1 pound less than last week. I am currently hovering around 116.6 so I have adjusted my calorie intake and no more crackers this week! Today is a cardio day, so I plan on running to burn more calories. My body fat percentage is roughly 16.9% and I am shooting to get down between 11 and 12% by show time. If I get too low, however, I run the risk of amenorrhea (loss of menstrual cycle) which could reduce my chances of pregnancy in the future. I want to be lean for the show but it is more important for me to be able to have babies in the next year or so!

Well, that's all for today. I'll be back on Sunday to share my latest stats with you :)

The Supplement List Grows!

As you can see, our pantry has more supplements than food. Each one has a very special purpose and is taken consistently on a daily basis. We get everything from GNC in Woodinville (ask for Jake.)
Heres the list:

Arsenal: promotes energy, increased metabolism, and better mood. Taken before breakfast and before workouts
Omega Cuts: contains essential oils and promotes muscle definition. Taken before breakfast and before workouts
GNC womens active vitamin: taken with breakfast or after
Pump Fuel: pre-workout supplement
After Glow: post-workout supplement for muscle recovery
Amplifiy Vanilla Flex protein with Flax seed: for muscle recovery taken after workouts and sometimes with breakfast

All of this has cost us 200-300 dollars every 8 weeks or so. Ouch!

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