Prep while traveling

Following on from my last post, though I am still over 24 weeks out from my comp I have successfully transitioned into my focussed mode and am loving it! But when the idea to travel up to Bundaberg for the weekend to stay with a friend for her birthday came up, I thought I should take the opportunity as I don't plan to do any travelling again between now and late September.

The past weekend really showed me just how successful I can be if I am both ORGANISED and FOCUSSED. When filling in my food diary I was able to see that while not overall perfect foodwise, I am very pleased with my effort and choices.

To complicate matters, I had a training course all day last week on Friday so I couldn't bring any food with me for the weekend that required the fridge. So in addition to meals for that day, I packed in my huge pink lorna jane bag: oats, protein powder, an emergency protein bar, 2 cans of tuna and a foil pouch of salmon. I asked my friend to have a carton of eggs, whole bunch of celery and a lettuce in the fridge for my arrival! Got there after work on Friday night and following my lonely walk in the morning (girls weren't keen on my idea to go to the gym unfortunately) I was able to have my oats, greens and make my eggs with some capsicum and mushroom.

It was great to be able to spend a bit more time with my girls than the usual 1-2 hour catchup here and there but really showed me how much discipline and organisation this sport requires with food! On the saturday I had to make sure I had a portable morning tea of a protein shake, almonds and celery with me to have while browsing through many a clothes store. Shortly after that my friends stopped for their lunch so I enjoyed a long black and waited until we were home to prep my enormous salad including the extra salad items and avocado I had purchased. Then it was off to the beach. Great thing about living in Bundy would be that everything including the very nice beach and Elliot Heads is closeby and the fresh air was great. We relaxed reading books and getting just a little bit of warm afternoon sun. I had my afternoon tea when we got home, tried something new as I didn't have any natural yoghurt to mix with my protein powder- I scrambled 5 egg whites with a banana and it was delish and satisfying!

That night we had planned to go out for dinner for the bday girl, there was mention of Thai which I thought would be a pretty good choice. When last minute talk of Chinese or Indian came up I made my protests polite :) As did I when the idea was thrown up of sharing meals, sorry I just don't do that, lol! So I enjoyed a beef basil and chilli stirfry which I asked be made 'gluten free' to avoid any flour in the marinade/preparation of the beef and simply avoided the 'extras' entrees, rice and wine.

Did another walk on Sunday morning with my ipod this time and there was a late decision to eat breakfast out before my train ride home. Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day and i'd actually be more inclined to struggle with making appropriate choices here than dinner! But i was ready and willing to order off the menu as is usually required at places offering the standard bacon creamy scrambled eggs and at least 2 slices worth of toast. However, the place we chose turned out to be excellent, it was one of those run by a couple with a real homely feel and had a choose your own menu items option which ive never seen before. I was able to choose exactly what i wanted, be able to eat everything on my plate and not get totally ripped off the process! Steak, 1 poached egg, grilled mushroom and tomatoes and 1 slice of toast later and I was very satisfied. (does it get much better than steak for breakfast?)

The focus is also allowing me to cast aside any thoughts of what others might think of how I eat or somehow 'offending' people by insisting on being different. I was able to enjoy a nice weekend without 'missing out' on anything and little disruption to my friends as I did not whine or complain about the diet so they didn't really notice! When you decide its no big deal, it really isn't! They were amazed though with how often I need the bathroom.... haha.

Let the comp prep begin!

Its finally almost here... 

Ali and I went down the coast to see our coach Jon today, it was verrry overdue visit for me given that I am not as lean as I was in November- the last few months post Christmas have gone soooo fast! 

This weekend I am approx 25-27 weeks out depending on which second comp I choose to do. Still definately doing the ANB State Titles :) Jon decided that I would start prep a little early... in two weeks- yay! I feel like I have been trying to get as prepared as possible but still, waiting waiting waiting to get going! Especially when family and people at work keep asking when the comp is and when the 'serious' dieting begins, lol. They think how I eat already is pretty crazy!

A few things have happened over the past few months that has had me questioning my decision to compete but now that I have made my commitment Im ready to let go of all the self doubt, stress and worry and just do what needs to be done. The real beauty of having a coach is that as long as I do what Im told, I don't need to worry about whether I'll be ready or not- and that is apparently the largest stress, especially for first time competitors. Jon said that my body type should respond well to the comp diet, sounds gross but when doing my skinfolds he said that my skin 'pulls away easily' meaning that my fat stores are not tough and dense... mmmm! 

When we first arrived, Jon was still busy with one of his other clients who is just days away from her IFBB figure comp, she kindly showed off some of her posing for us in the bathroom! I have been to watch a few shows now but I have never seen a competitor (still in their costume) that close up before- she was only 31ml bodyfat and hoping to drop down to 29ml in time. It was certainly motivational for us, especially in the area of posing- she was so graceful. 

We trained on the way home and despite being tired I had a good back and hamstrings session. Since focussing in my training for figure, I am really happy with how my shoulders and glutes have been developing. I never knew I had to worry so much about my rear end, now I make sure it is pretty sore most of the time.. haha!

Sorry the update has taken so long, Im typing this from home as we took the day off today. Hopefully I'll be able to sneak in short more regular updates as the fun begins. I have still been reading all of your blogs as much as I can, so excited to see those competing in May up there doing their thing. I think seeing familiar faces up on stage for the first time will really spur me on as well. Go hard girls!

Steph xx

Legs legs legs

I have refound my passion for leg training the last two weeks, its been GREAT. Goal has been to make sure that when I finish and go to climb the stairs to get my bag out of the lockers- that it HURTS to do so.

Last night I decided to start with two heavy, low volume quad dominant exercises and finish with two lighter hamstring dominant exercises with higher reps. So I did:




1. V Squat- 2 warm up, 1 prep, 2 heavy sets


2. Hammerstrength Single Leg Press- 2 warmup, 1 prep, 2 heavy sets


3. Single Leg Hamstring Curls- 3 sets 12 reps per leg, no stopping


4. Lunge Trisets- see below





The trisets were a beautiful finisher. I was in a hurry by this time and my legs were already pretty dead so I grabbed the olympic bar in the squat rack and did 10 slow deep lunges each side, racked it and did 12 quicker reverse lunges aside and lastly 8 deep slow sumo squats- squeezing the hell out of the glutes. Rested for about 30 seconds and repeated another two circuits.





Its funny when I think back and analyse what I did and why cos when Im "planning" my workouts these days, its very much a few minutes thought process before we hit the gym and other than that a see how I go- re available equipment and how the bod is feeling. I see people walking around tightly clutching their personalised programs, waiting impatiently for equipment- I can't do that when I have to be in and out in little more than 1 hour! Just a matter of time though I think before people gain their confidence in the gym and know that they can plan their workouts themselves AND most importantly TRUST themselves enough to push hard enough!





Walking on the treaddie the last few mornings has been a very boring chore and I have reluctantly woken up with a groooan but... I do it anyway. :)





Train hard xx