It is now just over 2 weeks since I finished my second ever figure competition. Life is slowly returning to normal.
The first 3 or so days after my second competition I felt as if I were a 4 year old child rolling carelessly down a sunny grassy hill. It started out as good fun, then would end in sickness. I reintroduced so many "off limits" foods that I was not used to and I ended up feeling like vomit by the end of each day. I kept trying to start my days off well, and they did end up being fairly decent, it was just that my body not used to all the different foods. A lot of it had to do with my mental state. For 14 weeks, I had not been able to eat simple foods like cereal, sandwiches, fruit, dairy or eat the foods I felt like eating when I felt like eating them. I hardly even wanted a lot of the foods I was eating, but because they were off limits for so long I felt that I had to reintroduce them and remind myself of why I wanted them. It ended up being that I didn't have the same palate for certain foods and they didn't taste as wonderful as I had remembered or they didn't have the same satisfaction as before or they didn't seem to be worth the added calories. But again, because they were off limits, I wanted to see what it was I had been thinking I was missing. I finally started feeling a bit better by the beginning of the second week. I had a basic reverse diet I reconstructed based on how unsuccessful I was at the reverse diet during the first post-competition week. I stuck to it about 75% of the time....most days. A lot of it had to do with the sugars I reintroduced, they are the devil!!! My blood sugar, which was basically stable for the whole competition prep, was fluctuating similar to a roller coaster, up and down and twisting around. As good as sugar tastes, it is a quick satisfaction resulting in a negative plunge in mental, emotional and physical state. Sugar makes me tired, and I want to have energy for my day and my workouts without the aid and necessity of caffeine or preworkouts.
Moving forward I have decided to take my "off season" to maintain the muscle that I have, possibly working on developing a few lagging muscle grounds and evening out the symmetry in my current muscle. I am going to bring my calories up to about 1800 (depending on what muscle group I am working on for the day) so that I can maintain muscle. I am still going to follow a preplanned diet, I feel so much more in control when my meals are planned out for the week and all I have to do is eat as scheduled and not think about what I should be eating throughout the day. I have a lot of the clean foods that I enjoy in my meal plans like salads, protein pancakes, clean treats. I am going to keep my weight lifting pretty similar; 5 days of split body, cardio will be 3-4x a week mixed up between HIIT and steady state since I am still trying to keep my body-fat low. There are a few shows this fall that I am considering doing which would require me to start a competition prep diet again sometime in June, so I am going to use May to regain focus and eat a few strategically planned treats. I actually already have a new competition prep diet plan and workout routine developed to try for the next time!
What I've learned about myself and life during this process:
1. I can do a figure competition
2. I am insulin sensitive, too many carbs (or sugar) and my body responds poorly
3. Everything you put into your body affects you sooner or later, some things have a quick appeal followed by a negative affect even days later.
4. Food is just fuel, I have so much more energy when I choose good fuel.
5. I don't hate cardio as much as I thought I did.
6. Patience. I am really bad at waiting. I am the super opposite of a procrastinator. If there is something to do, I want to do it right away to get it over with and not think anymore about it. Having to wait to eat until certain times, or wait to get workouts in was a real test of my patients.
7. I pushed passed so many emotional and physical barriers I didn't even think I could, determining that my threshold needs to be pushed every so often.
8. Finding balance, with everything in your life, is key. Once you establish it, maintaining it is essential.
What I will do differently next time
1. I will start my diet a few weeks earlier to allow myself to get leaner then I did this past prep.
2. I will not do a carb cycle during the middle of my prep diet
3. I will put in more "off limit" foods in my prep diet; like steak and fruit
4. I will do more running for cardio
5. I will adjust my workouts throughout the process to focus on more fat burning toward the end and worry less about muscle loss.
6. I will fluctuate my calorie intake to fuel my workouts as needed.
7. I will practice posing a whole heck of a lot more. Just from looking at pictures of me on stage, I could tell my posing wasn't as strong as other girls and that is a big part of your score.
Here's to a successful off season
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