2 weeks out

         On Saturday I will be two weeks out from my first competition of the fall season. These last two weeks have been really rough on me and I can tell that my muscles from head to toe are inflamed. My training is still the same (4 days weight training & 3 sessions of 30 min cardio/week), the only difference is HIIT cardio for 30 mins once a week. I feel that maybe the fact my body is running on less calories has caused my body to take a lot longer in repairing itself after each training session.
       Next week is the start of my shorter work days, and I am so glad, because I was having an extremely hard time getting through my work days. At the end of each day I was very shakey and weak, so I am very thankful that tomorrow is friday.
      I can not wait to step on stage. I am hungry and tired, but I have never been this lean in my life. Competing, is all about being better than you were last time. No matter the outcome, I know I have won already.

Routine and sanity

       I am a very routine person. To give you a good example about how routine I am, I have eaten the same thing for breakfast for three consecutive years, every single day, and I have no intention of changing that. I know to some people that may sound bizarre and no I am not sick of my breakfast, in fact it is my favorite meal and sometimes I eat it in the afternoon as well. TMI alert: I also poop at the exact same time every morning, halfway through eating my oatmeal.
      I am a person who likes order and checklists for almost everything imaginable, whether it be my duties for the week, chores for the day, or packing for a competition or trip. On Sundays, I spend my entire morning prepping all of my meals for the week and placing a sticky label with my macro breakdowns on every single tupperware container. I start cooking at 9:30am and am done by 11am, for the entire week! Imagine not having to cook AT ALL for the rest of the week! And my food doesn't even suck, I eat steak, chicken, meatballs, stirfrys, you name it, throughout the week and in the evening I have usually saved room for a creamsicle or two.
       I ALWAYS have a one year plan, 5 year plan, and 10 year plan. My list of goals for the year is on my fridge and each time I accomplish one I check it off of my list. Do you know how good it feels when that pen check something off your list? AH!
       I understand that many people who act this way are in fact very stressed out people, who suffer from anxiety or OCD. That being said, I feel like there are a group of us who are an exception to this rule. If something in my plans were to change, I would not panic, I would simply edit my list.
     I have tried the "go with the flow" mentality, and honestly was more stressed and overwhelmed than I have ever been. I think it is great that people can live that way, but I can not. I like my routine, my schedule, and my order. I make these lists because they make my life so much easier and more enjoyable. I become more productive, therefore I have a lot more time for play than the average person and I am so much more relaxed knowing I am going exactly where I want to go, in my life. I am not an "we will see what happens" person, I am an "Ill make it happen" person.

Overwhelmed

           Lately I have been feeling overwhelmed by the amount of goals I have set for myself. Every December I sit down and create a list of goals that I want to attain for the year ahead. This is a great way to keep yourself on track, especially if you place the list on your fridge in plain view. My original plan was to take a trip to the rocky mountains and compete in two competitions. I did accomplish all three goals, but at the end of my last competition, I thought to myself, "Now what?"
          Post competition blues are common amongst competitors and this can be very dangerous territory. [I will elaborate on the dark side of competing in another post]. I had suffered from the post comp. blues, however never to the point of depression. I felt like I needed to strive for a little more than what I had accomplished so I have set out to compete in three more competitons this fall.
        I know this was a choice that I had made, but I do feel like I bit off more than I can chew at the moment. This past two weeks, I have not been getting good, quality sleeps. I feel myself falling asleep around one or two in the afternoon, and I have not been excited to go to the gym each morning like I usually am. I am going to push through this and get a lot of rest this labor day weekend in hopes that my batteries are recharged enough to take on next week. 
        I like to set the bar very high for myself, but I think 2015 is going to be a year of me, myself, and I, travelling, and learning to go with the flow. This might be my biggest challenge yet! 

           

Currently 5 weeks out from my first fall show

Self love first, fitness competition second

      I hear a lot of women say that they want to do a bikini competition as an incentive to lose weight or "get in shape". This very rarely goes over well. I know many women contemplating the idea of competing in a figure or bikini competition, but this is not a wet t-shirt contest.
      Before considering competing, you need to be 100% happy with who you are as a person, but you also need to love your body the way it is. Everyone knows that this sport is physically exhausting, but no one realizes that the hardest part of the whole competition process, is the mental game competitors go through. If you are unhappy with the way you look, competing is not a good "goal" or "push" that you need in order to lose weight.
     Imagine being in the best shape of your life. You have the six pack abs, gorgeous shapely shoulders, lean legs, you look like a model and you most likely are the person in the best shape when you go to the pool, or the grocery store, people stare at you, because you look THAT good. When you get backstage at your first competition, everyone looks just as good as you, if not better. No one backstage looks you in the eye, they look you up and down in your teeny bikini, and assess whether you are a threat to them when you step on stage or not. The night before meeting your competition, you were feeling very confident in yourself, and maybe you thought you would place 1st or 2nd, but after meeting everyone, your self confidence takes a hit.
   After stepping on stage, you can get a judges feedback a week or so later. Now this part, is usually the make or break of a fragile competitor. You worked for 6-12 months, eating chicken and rice, 6 times daily. You put in the work and did everything in your power to get onstage, but according the judges report, you need larger calves, you have too much fat on your hips and legs, and your shoulders are not big enough, better luck next year.
  I have seen this time and time again. Competitors get their feedback and go completely off the wagon. After enduring such a restrictive diet, they gain 20-30lbs post competition and they give up because of what a judge said. The judges job is to be completely honest in how they see you, because you are to take their critisizm and build onto that for the next time you step on stage.
  If you are going to compete, it should be for yourself. Winning should never be the sole purpose that you are stepping on stage. I step on stage in order to challenge myself. With each time that I step on stage, I try to bring in a tighter leaner, better physique. Competing shouldn't be about a trophy, proving someone wrong, or weight loss, it should be about competing with yourself everyday. When the judges feedback comes back, do not take it to heart. If you brought in a second set of judges, they would place every competitor differently than the first set of judges did. Take what the judges say, and work to beat the physique you brought in the first time you competed.