Archive for contest prep

Motivation

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Let me start you off with a few videos…..

And one more…

I’ve talked about it before, but I’ll say it again. Losing weight, training for a marathon, prepping for a competition, or WHATEVER your goal may be is NOT about your diet, exercise or training plans.

Those things are about 10% of acheiving your goal. The other 90% comes from your motivation, drive, persistance and consistency.

Motivation is probably one of the hardest things to acheive. YES, we want to achieve the goal, but staying motivated all the time can be really hard. When you get your swing moving, things become easier and your motivation can become more consistent and apparent.

For anyone reading this that is stuck in a rut, we’ve all been there. Here, let me say it again: WE’VE ALL BEEN THERE. You are not alone. You are not a loser because you can’t keep your motivation high. Hell, I’ve been there. I would venture to say that I have been there the past, oh, 5 months? Yep, that’s right.

I’ve been struggling, but something clicked with me tonight. I realized a few nights ago that I was really unhappy with myself. Yes, I have been in a pretty good mood most of the time, but deep down: Not Happy. I wasn’t keeping up with my goals and was just letting time slip past me. My only explanation for this is that somewhere down the line, I stopped doing this stuff for me. I started eating well and training for my coaches, sponsors, and friends.

All of these people were “counting on me”(in my head) to compete and get better. I lost my biggest fan, though, ME.

I found her today. After some serious events that hit rock bottom today, I realized that I needed to get my happiness back. I was letting outside factors and simply, a lack of personal motivation get the best of me.

Let me put this out there, I LOVE my life. As hard as things get, and as ashamed of myself as I’ve been, I still love my life. I love training HARD. For some people, getting to the gym is a real struggle and eating right is pretty simple. Although I do LOVE eating healthy, I also like to eat a LOT haha. That doesn’t exactly work when you’re trying to slim down for myself. Not for a competition(although that is a landmark along the way), but for ME. I like my body lean. It compliments my training. It makes me feel good about myself and it reinforces my hard work. So there. 😛

Getting to the gym is easy for me. I LOVE lifting, i LOVE pushing myself to the absolute max. Sprints and running bleachers? Yes, i love it.(Although during it I swear like a pirate and grunt, but that’s just part of my sound effects. I swear one day I will make a soundtrack of myself )

I remember around this time last year, I  made a goal. I decided that I was going to get in the best shape of my life, and that when I was ready I would do a competition. March 2009 was in my mind, but when the time came, I didn’t feel ready. So I pushed on and decided on July. About 2 months before the NPC show, my posing coaches told me that I shouldn’t do it. The reasoning is that we were all planning on doing a show in August, and two shows in a row is hard to do.(Learned later, they were so RIGHT.) HOWEVER, I decided to do that NPC show because it was what I had been working for and I wanted to do a damn competition already!! So I did. And I placed 2nd. And had the best day/night of my entire life.

Here’s to me re-committing myself to being healthy and happy. I have found the peace within myself that i have been looking for. All it took was for me to take a step back and remember why I do all of this. This isn’t for my coaches, or my friends, or my family, or my sponsor. This is for ME. If I don’t compete again until 2012 RIGHT before the world ends, then so be it.(1. I don’t really think the world will end but maybe it will! Who knows?! and 2. I DO still plan to compete this February. If I feel ready. If not, I will jump on March. End goal however, is June -Jr.Nationals. That one is in the books for sure.)

I’ll leave you with this commercial that my professor showed us last night. I dig it. I also dig him, he is amazing. I am planning on re-taking his class, because it is THAT awesome. Right now his 466 person class is already full…

Posted in contest prep, motivation tagged with , ,

Channeling My Inner Hippie

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Woke up late today and missed boxing this morning! WAH :'(.  I also slept through my training appointment. DOUBLE FAIL! It’s probably good though because a) i needed the sleep and 2) my whole body is sore.(home alone fans anyone?!) I still hit up the gym when I woke up and just did cardio today. Chest/Triceps/Abs will be done tomorrow instead. I decided I would stop at the grocery store after the gym to get some essentials: Eggs, egg whites, water, and veggies.

veggies

I got a BOAT LOAD of veggies, and forgot EVERYTHING ELSE 🙂 Figures. When I say a boat load of veggies, though, I mean it! My fridge looks a lot like the picture above, minus the eyeballs.

The goods:

Purple cabbage(that thing was HEAVY..honestly probably weighed like 10-15 pounds)

Zucchini

Red Bell Peppers(55 cents each thank you very much!)

Mushrooms

Onion

Celery

Broccoli

Green Beans

Grape Tomatoes

Blueberries(not a veggie, but an essential for my oats)

I also got a plethora(word of the day!) of low in sodium sauces. A mango hot sauce, spicy szechuan(love saying this word), a regular hot sauce, mustard powder, and hot spicy Sriracha!

I came home, realized I forgot most of what I planned to get, and made myself a stir fry! It had chicken, quinoa, and a nice dose of veggies with the Szechuan sauce. Flavorful, but not over powering. I was still starving after that, so I made some oats to go along with it.

Meals today were eggcellent today. 

I met with the girls today for posing. Missed them! We went over a lot of stuff and we are ready to practice, practice, practice! 10 weeks to go, and each one is going to count! Focus is on nutrition, weight training, and POSING!

I came home and spent the afternoon watching a Woodstock documentary in which I decided that I’m really upset I couldn’t be a part of that! If only I had been born sooner…..

I followed that up with The Wall. I LOVE this movie. I am a huge Pink Floyd fan and also love the psychedelics of the movie. How everything becomes something else and it all ties in together. I think it is so damn cool! (I promise I don’t do drugs!) Many people think I smoke pot just because I’m very laid back and intrigued by things that…well…stoners are usually intrigued by. Truth be told though, I’ve never done drugs. I tried pot once or twice when I was 15, but that ended as quickly as it began. I guess I just have that inner hippie 🙂

Hope everyone’s day went well! See you all tomorrow.

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10 Weeks Out

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Lizzy compete 6-2

Okay, so officially Friday is 10 weeks out, but we are going to pretend 🙂

I have some goals for this contest prep. Let me brief you about my past contest prep real quick. It started back in December 2008. I wanted to lose weight and doing a show was my goal. I didn’t really know how to do a lean-out, so I just did what I knew. I ate clean foods. I counted calories, but they would range anywhere from 1800-2500 calories per day.(Sometimes even 2800 a day) I didn’t have any “free” days until about April of 2009. I had lost the pudge that I made up in my head was carrying, and was ready to try to lean it out for the July show. I didn’t have a “plan” per say, I was still just doing what I knew worked. Not being too strict and having a cheat day about every two weeks. These cheat days were full out binges, by the way. It obviously slowed my progress, and it is why I came in just right for the July show.(I say that because had I been on a strict contest prep diet from December to July, I would have looked like I was just shipped over from a deserted island that didn’t have any food.)

Fast forward to now. I have eaten enough crap to feed a third world country my fair amount of junk these past few weeks during my “mini bulk”. Whether I bulked up my muscle or just a bunch of fat, I’m really not sure. What I DO know is that I have gained strength, pretty sure I have gained a fair amount of muscle, very sure I have put on some fat. Don’t worry guys, I am OKAY with it. A year ago, I would have been sitting under the table crying because I was destined to become obese, but these days, I KNOW what I need to do to lose weight, and KNOW that I have done it before and feel CONFIDENT in myself that I can do it. I’m about 10 pounds up right now. Which actually works out perfectly because I have 10 weeks until my competition.

This is a BIG competition and it has been my goal since I bought my plane ticket a few weeks ago that I will bring my BEST PACKAGE to the stage. That means that from 10 weeks out until the day of the show, I will put in 100%. Not 99.9%, I will be standing on stage knowing there was NOTHING more I could have done.

Now that I have written Chapters 1-6 of my novel, I will lay out my goals for this contest prep. i am going to go into this prep with a PLAN, not just going to wing it like I did before.

  • Calories will be 1800 per day. Macros on most days are: Protein: 168 grams Carbs: 161 grams Fat: 53 grams (this comes out to 1793 calories)
  • Days that I am insatiable, I will up the carbs or fat and lower the protein a little bit.(Fats like nuts and carbs like oats help fill me up pretty well) Calories will stay the same.
  • If I am finding myself TOO hungry, I will go up to 2000 calories per day, but will have to assess that as time goes on. With my lowered cardio, 1800 should be okay.(i’m 5’7, so i easily lose weight on 1800 a day)
  • I will be taking measurements and posting progress pictures every two weeks. I am not going to start them on day 1, because I am superstitious and feel like it will jinx me(call me crazy, no really, i don’t mind :)) So look for them two weeks from Friday!
  • I am going to enjoy myself for this 10 weeks. I will enjoy the process of leaning out and seeing the changes in my body.

I’m really excited. I have never done a contest prep where I followed it exactly, and REALLY am excited for this challenge! I love myself a good challenge and KNOW how happy I’ll be on show day if when I do this.

(By the way, the strike out feature is 99% of the reason I switched to word press…and yes, i’m serious haha)

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy watching me transform these next 10 weeks. Your thoughts and comments are always welcome and SERIOUSLY helpful. 🙂

Posted in ambition, contest prep tagged with

Break it down

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FAP – 20 DAYS

13 days: 1800 calories, 100-150g. carbs per day.
6 days: 1600 calories, 50-75g. carbs per day, veggies only.
SHOW TIME!

What.
I haven’t been quite strict enough since my last show. Partly because I was struggling with dealing with post-comp. blues while prepping for a show. That is a deadly mix. These past two weeks have been filled with binge, followed by 4-5 days of good eats, followed by another binge.

Why?
After dieting so strictly, especially for the few weeks leading up to my first competition, I needed a break. I was so excited and thrilled by the results of my first competition, and how much fun I had doing it, that I didn’t realize what I was setting myself up for. Although I am not regretting doing these next two competitions(August 22nd and September 5th), I feel that a break should have been in order. And the break should have been better planned.

Order of Action:
Learning what I have learned in the past two weeks(although it feels like it has been months…), is that I need to allow myself and my body time to recover from the rigorous dieting it is put through pre-contest. I have 20 days now, and although I know I have gained a few pounds, I haven’t gained too much. My workouts have stayed intense, and I have been eating clean the majority of the time. I am bloated right now both from poor food choices, and also my stupid period. I haven’t had it in 4 months, and it decided to take it’s time puttering around in my body the last week and a half driving me insane wondering if it was coming or not. It finally did on Saturday morning. Explains the raging hormones, mood swings, etc. My body is adjusting, and dieting is NOT easy when your body is adjusting. I also know that 20 days is a lot of time if I do it just right. I believe that if I really push myself and set myself up for SUCCESS, that I will come in looking even better than I did at my last competition.

This is me putting myself out there. If I get any feelings of wanting to stray from plan, I am going to text the blog(if I am out of the house) with my cell phone number so all of you can text me and yell at me for being a big baby. I don’t believe that will happen, but if it does, feel free to banter at me!!! 🙂

The 20 day countdown has begun.

On a positive note, I cleaned my entire kitchen, both bathrooms, closet and picked up the clothes from my bedroom. Just need to finish re-arranging my room(need more shelving first) and the house will be spotless(at least until mid-week hehe.)

Agenda for tomorrow:
Workout: AM Cardio, Legs-Glutes/Hams, 1 hour cardio post-workout.
Work: 11:30-2pm
Meeting: 2pm-2:30pm
Errands: 2:30pm-4pm Get new jump suit to give to my sponsor for logo-ing, get themed sportswear outfit
Blog: 5pm
Secret Life of an American Teenager: 8pm(yes, very important haha)
Sleep: 9pm!

And i’m off…..with 8 Skinny bones….

Posted in contest prep, post comp blues, skinny bones
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