Worry wart and daily routine

Annndd apprehension is setting in. Not so much about the actual competition itself, I was a cheerleader for about a decade and I'm pretty confident in my ability to get on stage and whip out my "jazz" hands and milk it for the judges. No, I'm becoming more and more worrisome about the actual prep coming into the last few weeks before our show. Sure, I have done research and devised a plan based on the most common rules and tricks, but to actually know am I doing enough cardio or am I doing too much, am I eating enough calories or am I eating too much, it is such an individual based answer. It all depends on how your physique is progressing and being that I have never done this before, I'm not sure how my body is going to change with each process. This is when I wish I could afford a coach, someone to be able to know how each workout and meal should be devised to change the parts of my physique that I specifically need. I guess every person who ever competed had to go through the process of trial and error to see what worked best for them, but I just don't like the idea of putting all this work into something and have it backfire on me if I do something totally wrong.

On and up note, our suits will be arriving today!!!! Pictures will be taken this weekend, hopefully it fits. We are practicing our posing a few times a week and are developing our "model walk" that we have to perform on stage. It is a series of 6 poses that you hit at various spots on the stage. Again, I was a cheerleader for so long, I'm pretty confident in that part. Our last diet change is happening on Sunday and we will follow that for 3 weeks before we get into peak week. That is a whole other part of the prep that I am super nervous about messing up, peak week has so much contradicting literature. I think I have a plan for it, but I'm going to be doing more research.

The last 2 weeks, since we have been on this part of our diet, I have fluctuated between 138 and 135 pounds. Its so funny how such small changes, like how much sodium you eat or water you drink and how much you workout, can make such a difference on the scale each day. I'm not worried about the scale, just as I haven't this whole time, but its always fun to see how it changes. This past week I have been doing 2 cardio sessions each day along with my regular weight lifting session (sun-wed) and have seen a significant difference in the definition of some of my muscles. I have been eating a few extra calories here or there, but I have been sticking to the diet pretty well and didn't see much difference last week. This made me realize that the cardio is definitely helping me. When we make our next diet change on Sunday I think I'm going to take a step back from so much cardio and let the diet do some of the work first, then add cardio in again as needed. It is said that you should be completely ready with your physique a week prior to your competition so that you can do a week of carb depletion and loading right before the show. We'll see how far we get.

I though I'd give you all a sample of what my days look like currently and what kinds of foods we are eating.

I usually wake up around 5:30. Thank you husbands alarm clock. Drink 24 ounces of cold water with some raspberry ketones in it while I make my egg whites and veggies as my first course for breakfast. Second course at breakfast is 1/2c oats with 1/4oz walnuts, cinnamon, ground ginger and stevia. I adore breakfast. With a healthy side of black coffee I try and savor every second of breakfast. With breakfast I take my fish oils, CLA and L-carnatine. After breakfast has settled its usually cardio #1 at about 8 a.m. I make sure I drink BCAA during cardio sessions. Second breakfast at around 9: 3oz ground turkey and 4oz sweet potato with a little bit of cinnamon, I also adore this meal, it taste like thanksgiving. Then I usually have some morning clients before first lunch which is 3oz chicken with 1/2c brown rice. I put on a good squeeze of hot sauce with this meal, I love spicy stuff. And with lunch I take my vitamins. Usually by lunch time I have drank 4 blender bottles (~80oz) of water, which is about 1/2 of my daily intake. Then following lunch is weight lifting. Sometimes I take a preworkout, sometimes I don't. My preworkout has caffeine in it so it usually depends on how much coffee I had during the day and if I can tolerate any more caffeine. If my weight lifting goes any longer than an hour I start drinking my nectars protein with BCAA in it at that hour mark, trying to preserve muscle. By the time I finish weights its time for lunch 2: 3oz chicken with 2 cups zucchini/green beans with 1/4c organic salsa. Then I usually have the afternoon to do some food prep, I seem to always be cooking something. Whether we've run out of chicken or veggies I always like to have plenty of everything cooked ahead of time so I can just put together my meals as I need them. Then I usually have a few more clients in the afternoon/early evening. Dinner tends to be between 5-6p.m. and that meals is another 3oz chicken with 1cup green beans and 1/2oz slivered almonds. I put a good dollop of spicy mustard on this meal and take another serving of CLA and fish oil. Sometime during the late afternoon/early morning I fit in my second cardio, depending on how much clients are scheduled. I am usually home by 7 every night. I stop drinking water at around 7:30 when I have consumed around 1 to 1.5 gallons during the day so that I am not up all night going to the bathroom. I finish my day with a casein shake. Around 7:30/8:00 p.m. I mix one scoop of casein with 1 cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk and some ice cubes in my blender until it is as thick as a "frosty" and eat it with a spoon. IT IS AWESOME!!! When ever you can consume something that is similar to a frosty every single night, life can't be too bad! I've said it before, I like the diet, the foods are great and I enjoy them but I do miss certain foods and think about protein bars and cereal often. However, the following are the main components that are mentally getting me through the last few weeks of diet:

 

I dream about these foods often. I look forward to sticking with my healthy lifestyle and diet routine for the long run, just with a few more cheats involved. Nachos and brownie sundae being the first of cheats.