Shifting into full gear

Sh*t is getting real.

-Suit is ordered
-Base tan is getting developed
-Tanning/Hair/Make up is scheduled (for both competitions)
-Hotels are booked

We had our clinic this past Saturday, which wasn't as informative as we were hoping, but we did get to work on posing. The "model" walk and quarter turns are really important to understand and perform well at because it is a large part of your score. It is something that we are working on continuously throughout the week, as often as possible. We definitely don't want to get on stage and look like a lost puppy!!! However, I feel perfectly comfortable walking in our heels at the gym and posing in the mirrors while members give us blank looks of confusion. Well if they didn't know we were training for a show before, they know now!

The clinic wasn't as informative as far as nutrition and diet in the last few weeks leading up to the competition. Now, I do have a plan all made up for diet and exercise, that I have developed based on research, for the next 36 days (Yea, that's all we have left until showtime!). I was hoping to get some reassurance as to whether or not what I had planned was sufficient. One of the main reasons I wanted to go to the clinic was to get some of that information since we don't have a coach guiding us through this. I guess I will just trust myself and trust the process.

So last time I left you I was just finishing up the last round of carb cycling, aaannnddd to be completely honest, I totally busted up the last 4 days. There was no carb cycling happening, what was experienced was more of a calorie loading. I was so mentally drained and over this process that I decided to eat a few extra things while I had the chance. The first low carb day of the last cycle was pretty true, however into days 2 and 3 I tried to stay high with protein and lower in carbs but I ate a few extra of my homemade protein bars with peanut butter on them and THEY WERE DELICIOUS. I had no guilt about this, which I'm not sure if that was a good thing or not. My last "high carb" day was damn straight a high carb day. Some of which I had was planned, like the peanut butter and jelly and protein bar, but I ended up adding 2 bowls of cereal and some chocolate. And you know what, I think that was exactly what my body needed. I didn't lose as much on the carb cycle as I had hoped (I did all my re-measurements before I went on this little binge) but after I finished that part of the diet we started the next phase and within the last 6 days I have lost about a pound and a half and feel completely rejuvenated. Not only did I lose a little bit of weight, but I can totally feel the loss of body fat, especially in my core. You know what is an awesome feeling, when you bend over, either to the side or forward, and your belly rolls don't eat each other. I am enjoying this part of our diet 100% more than that carb cycle, I'm not as irritable or negative when my body has sufficient carbs each day. If I decide to do another competition I will leave the carb cycle section out of my diet. It was definitely not worth the mental strain.

Here's the plan going into the last 5 weeks of prep:

Continue this part of the diet until next Saturday (1400 calories, 170ish grams of protein, 100is grams of carbs and 30ish grams of fat. I say "ish" because I might switch out certain vegetables at meals and they run slightly different in carbs and proteins)

Weeks 10-12 go down to 1250ish calories with about 50% coming from protein, 30% from carbs and 20% from fat.

Week pre-competition is depletion. Still working on the whole process of depletion, but essentially you lower your carbs for 4 days, then go to normal carbs on Thursday and finish with higher carbs on Friday before the show. Its suppose to give your muscles a fuller look for competition day.

Workouts are staying pretty consistent. Lifting pretty heavy for 8-12 reps, keeping intensity high with plyometrics between sets and exercises. Cardio is getting accomplished, I might have said it before, but I loathe cardio. Most of it is in the form of sprints or HIIT which is a little bit more fun, but I'm doing a few days of longer duration. The one thing getting me through the cardio: Pandora. There is something so amazing about listening to music to keep you motivated and inspired during monotonous cardio. I do have a wide variety of interests when it comes to my music choice, and some people might chuckle as I lip sing to myself on the treadmill or ellilptical. I'm sure they would chuckle a little bit more if they knew what I was listening to. Not going to lie, sometimes there is the occasional Disney showtune....it gets me through.