Week four has felt just as successful. It might just be in my head, but it seems like I can actually feel the fat melt off. I added a some plyometric exercises to my lifting workouts and am doing cardio 4x a week for now. I'm slowly adding volume to my workouts through either longer lifting sessions or more cardio to allow myself to continuously progress without plateauing. Diet was the same as it has been for the last 3 weeks. I added an extra dose of CLA and added L-Carnatine to my list of supplements. I've done my research and understand all of the perceived benefits from these and want to do whatever it is I can to help myself. So in total I am currently taking: Fish oils, CLA, L-Carnatine, basic vitamins/minerals, coq10 and obviously whey protein, creatine and branch chained amino acids. Between the bags of white powder (protein) and containers of pills (supplements) its like I'm running some sort of operation!!
The last two weeks I did absolutely no measurements or progress pictures. I was getting too worked up about what my numbers were and if they were not falling in line I was making myself anxious. I did weight myself every once in a while to make sure that number wasn't going up for any reason. What I determined was that I was only going to "measure" myself based on how I was feeling myself change. I decided to only take progress pictures every 2 weeks in order to see bigger changes in myself when I did take them. This might not be the suggested way to do it, but I want to enjoy this experience enough to possibly do it again in the future. I have told myself that as long as I am giving it my all with each workout and each day of dieting, then I have nothing to regret or be disappointed with at the end. I am not going to let myself think "I should of done more cardio" or "I shouldn't of eating so many calories" in regards to how the final product of my body looks on competition day. I'm using this as a learning experience and will be proud enough of myself just to get on that stage. I have no expectations to win the competition, and that's not my goal of doing it, I just want to see how much hard work and dedication I can scrap out of myself and then show it off, whatever it is that I achieve.
One big thing that I discovered from my last "prep" was that I cannot fill in my macronutrients with just any kind of foods. Before I would try and calculate my macros out so I could eat things like frozen yogurt and cereal by cutting out carbs at my other meals. I feel that this was one of the biggest things that kept me from being successful. I now know that my carbs have to come from brown rice, sweet potatoes and vegetables in order to keep my blood sugar level and avoid spikes that can cause my body to store excess fat. Same thing went for meats. I don't like chicken. Yah, I know, that's strange seeing as chicken is probably the most commonly consumed and enjoyed meat among the population, I just don't like it. So I would try and cut out my fats in other places so I could eat beef. I also now know that my fats need to come in only forms of nuts, seeds, and healthy oils. By doing this, I know that I am doing all that I can to help myself be successful.
Saturday starts day one of a three week carb cycle. This is a mini-carb cycle to keep our body's from plateauing and to try and get a few more body fat cells burnt off of our bulging muscles :) I'm looking forward to a change in diet, and to actually eat fruit again for a few days before we cut it out of the diet again. Again, this is a learning experience, and with all the research I have done in dieting for competition I have realized that most people do not allow fruit in their competition prep. I'm going to do it anyway. Most prep plans also do not allow for any kind of dairy, I'm eating a little bit of greek yogurt for my carb cycle......call me a rebel....I'm still trying to keep this enjoyable so this is what I'm going to be doing.
Saturday also starts week 1 of 3 for our posing class. The two other ladies and I will be taking a weekly one hour class on how to properly pose when it comes time for the stage. I'm really looking forward to this and hope it goes well. I have been practicing walking in the 4 inch heels that we are required to wear on stage so that I don't fall on my face. Still I think walking in those shoes will be what I am most apprehensive about on competition day, more than how my physique looks!!
This is the suit I am leaning towards. What do ya think?
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