Show Day- Prejudging

So following quite a stressful few days, on
Saturday morning everything seemed to fall into place. We had a good night's sleep and woke up early to an interesting dry breakfast and continuing the carb up. I thought I'd wake up with one hell of a dry mouth however, the water deplete was not too bad other than swallowing some large tablets dry. Was instructed for the next meal to have some steak, potatoes and peanut butter which was by far the best comp prep meal ever! Although I had to shove it in my mouth while Ali's mum was doing my makeup! Ali was such a sweetheart and cooked this for me as he was ready earlier (bit simpler for guys!) and as we were both covered in dream tan by this stage and were getting ready at Jon's house, he was chopping and microwaving and moving around with a teatowel in check wiping up his fingerprints :S

The aim was to be ready to rock and roll by 9am- super organised. So we arrived at the RSL and met my family who were already there- Dad was super paranoid about getting there early before tickets sold out (aww!) and I warned them, this is going to be a long day! The pre-judging began and seemed to be moving through quite quickly so we gathered our bags and found a spot backstage to get ready, again with plenty of time. Loretta and I were set up with male competitors and actually didn't see any other figure girls before it was stage time! I think this really helped in terms of not getting nervous- I had no idea who or how many other competitors were in our lineup until we were there! We carbed up some more, had our tans touched up until perfect and pumped up with bands- I didn't seem to get a good pump really but didn't worry. I was in a great mood, nothing was bothering me!

Carried our shoes out and behind the stage where I met up with Kristin, marvelled again at her height in our perspex heels and we wished eachother all the best before heading out into the lights! I was really happy the two of us got to go out next to eachother, another familiar face was welcome in facing the judges and the crowd! 

Made my first mistake when turning to do a rear double bicep pose, I actually forgot to move my hair- didn't we practice that?? lol. So I was sooo relieved when I got a call out into what later became the top 6 competitors, and got a second chance to redeem myself. Everything else that I had feared would be happening- eg extreme nerves, lack of mental clarity, dehydration, shaking etc did not eventuate, I still cannot quite believe how calm I was which was great as I was able to soak it all in. I smiled at and directed my posing toward the judges as planned, waved to the crowd and smiled at my family who were madly taking photos :) While I was in the backline (not tensing enough while in the relaxed pose haha) I ran my eyes over the other girls, didn't count them but was really impressed with the physiques I was seeing, these girls looked beautiful - I was so proud to be among them!

The judges moved us around a little onstage and the last thing they requested us to do was to show them the lower body only, flexing one leg at a time which I thought was a little strange- perhaps they were using this to help split us! Excitement built at that thought because I allowed myself to wonder, am I in contention for a placing here?

Ali's class was following intermission and he was in a lineup of 5. Again the standard for amateur novice competitors seemed extremely high! Ali was the only one in coloured (blue) trunks and to me (totally biased anyway) he really stood out with his presentation, posing, smiling face (amongst a lot of seriousness!) and by far the best hammies and glutes onstage :)

We were beaming and congratulating eachother and other competitors when we were done and went to enjoy a second round of steak and potatoes from the restaurant downstairs to begin the wait for the next show.... 

Leadup to the comp

Pics: me in coach Jon's office after first coat of contest colour, our approved water for loading, comp prep supplies!

Ali and I are still on quite a high from Saturday evening :) we expected to be quite tired the next day but instead woke up early with the most amazing sense of freedom!! It was like a cloud had been lifted, suddenly we are able to relax, take our time doing things and let the stress levels come back down!

This is because the final two weeks of comp prep were TOUGH. Got through depletion alright, and had been looking forward to loading- carbs at every meal! I was surprised though being so hungry for each meal which is what happens when you up your carbs and down other macros- digest quicker! 

Everything in the 'peak week' must be done with utter precision, think you were being anal before? (lol!) welcome to a whole new level! The water and sodium load/deplete seemed to get me in particular. The day before comp, I had a water quota I had to fill before a certain time in the day and boy did I struggle. I literally sat on the couch in jon's house for a couple of hours forcing it in while staring at the walls. I felt nausiated and dizzy. This is going to sound stupid (and nerdy) but just picture Dumbledore drinking from the pensieve! (6th book in the Harry Potter series).  Ali was doing better than me at this time so picked up the slack and ran around organising things for us on his own for a couple of hours.

We had a whole list of things we needed to bring ready to eat the night before or morning of the show, just in case! this is such a science! I in particular was looking really flat after depletion, so my carbs just went up and up! it is all SO interesting- its not about your weight, calories any of that, its about what foods are going to act fast in your body to get the desired effect- dry and muscles that are pumped and pushing out against the skin. 

I really enjoyed the presentation (beauty) aspect of competing and was actually glad when I decided to take a simpler approach to some things. We didn't start tanning until Friday morning so the only thing I got waxed was my upper lip (too much info? lol!) because I did not want the dark makeup to cling to any hairs there, shaved my bod including arms. I had my jewellery planned fairly early and was happy with the choice. When it came to hair and nails, I originally had big plans but ended up just relying on a good haircut and my trusty GHD. As for the nails, I had fakies on for the photoshoot but had not bothered to get them refilled so ended up just pulling them off and painting the nails myself. I thought this was more of a touch that would make me 'feel' glamorous' rather than contribute to the look onstage. Unfortunately cost was also very much a factor at the late stage, all this stuff adds up!

Which brings me to the tan- expensive, messy and quite difficult to get right! We had underestimated how much contest colour we would need for the two of us and had to buy additional bottles as we went along. Even though Ali is twice my size I was the culprit in using it up- as coats were sprayed on and attempted to dry we found that the natural oils in my skin instantly rejected the product and it gathered on my skin in patches which was quite frustrating!  Luckily Dream Tan is such a great product for darkening and evening out the final colour, it was slapped on nice and early and touched up right before going on stage. It was all worth it as I was so happy with the final result and agree how important a good tan is to overall presentation. 

Friday night we had anticipated getting very little sleep but we were so exhausted that we ate all our night meals quite closely together just so we could get to bed in an attempt to get as much shut eye as possible, managed a solid 7 hours which was so great for getting us through the big day Saturday!

So after about 14 months total preparation including 20 weeks on a comp prep diet we were finally ready to compete. Next post will be all about how the day unfolded, according to me! :) 

Next post will be all about how Saturday unfolded. 

WE DID IT!!!

Steph: 3rd place Figure Novice

Ali:  1st place Mens Novice

!!!!

To Right: Mens lineup

Below:

Top 5 out of 13 girls

l-R 5th, 4th, 1st, 3rd, 2nd

     

                                                  

Stoked with my result and proud of my baby!! 

Will post more details and pics v soon but for now need some sleep! :) Thanks for all your support xx

Got my kini!!

and.... I LOVE IT! of course ;) Another Style on Stage masterpiece, now just hope my physique does it justice.

2 sleeps to go. Depleting went well, so well I was so tired and flat last night at coaches' that my carbs got bumped up for loading time- nice! What I'll eat on the morning of the show depends of course on how I'm looking. Another reason I'm glad we have someone looking out for us there.

have about a million things to do today while constantly eating/drinking, we are staying in Southport overnight with Ali's family before the show and have to leave home super early in the morning!

I am to-ing and fro-ing between excited and nervous- if I remember its a competition the nerves kick in straight away so that thought is banished. Just hope everyone backstage prior plays nice! (worrywart, aren't i? lol)

SO this is likely to be my last post in relation to my 'journey to the stage'..  Thanks so much for reading and I will be back asap to post pics and a report of how the day panned out. Listening to stories from last weekend taught me that no matter how prepared you think you are, its going to be an interesting day!

See you on the other side!

..woohoo! 

Congrats to INBA competitors

What a great show! Big congrats to my good friend Hanna for placing third in the novice figure short class; having kept in contact with her during our prep I know just how hard this girl worked and getting to see her overcome nerves and pose so gracefully onstage was fabulous. My throat was a lil hoarse from the yelling, hehe!

I also got to meet the lovely bloggers Kristin (pic above) and Tiarna for the first time, who competed in the novice tall class and was lucky to get a quick hello with Tara by chance (outside ladies loos of course heehee!) who competed in open figure. All amazing, beautiful girls who really stood out onstage :) 

At first watching the show gave me butterflies thinking about mine on Saturday but as the day went on I got more and more excited about it. I wish I had my bikini cos at the moment its impossible to even picture myself up there but I understand how busy poor Jo is! 

Saw coach this morning and got great news- dropped 3ml this week and half of that was from my quad at last! My triceps were STILL unchanged and are only 0.5ml off what my quad is... which just boggles the mind! strangely though i don't mind my tricep pose, so remembering they are only numbers at the end of the day! 

Got my deplete/load plan and all the info for the days leading up to saturday, not too scary at all but bring on carb up thats for sure!

Looking back I could not have worked any harder so I am happy, coach is happy.... Finally feel ready :)

1 week out

Ahhh starting to relax now that I have completed my last day of work pre- comp; going to take a couple of days after next weekend off too to recover.. and scrub off the tan as best I can! The mild in comparison spray tans we got 3 weeks ago for our photoshoot stuck like glue to me and my dry skin! :S I have been scrubbing and moisturising like a good girl religiously, since.

I think the pain of this week's diet is finally starting to pay off, feeling leaner this week so hopefully a good result when we see coach again on Monday. Then its a case of the final drop in skinfolds due to the water deplete which for us girls esp I think can be quite significant!

I am so excited about heading to Chandler tomorrow morning to see the INBA show. I'll be looking out for friends and bloggers Hanna, Kristin,  Tiarna as well as my friend from CBJ's Renee,  in the novice class as well as Tara and another friend from gym, Michelle in either tall or open classes... (not sure which but Im sure I won't miss it!)

I am hoping to see a fantastic turnout and a lot of support, encouragement and fun going on up there on stage- work it girls! Be confident, stay switched on, work hard but make it look easy ;) Can someone please give me this same advice next weekend? Thanks x

7 sleeps

Lord give me strength!

This week’s meal plan has been TOUGH, full of ups and downs and having to take each day (hour, meal, training session) as it comes. I did get my small serve of oats back for brekkie (thank goodness- I almost go into zen like state when I eat them) however the fun certainly ends there each day L I am counting down not only to the show next Saturday but to the day next when I get to start carbing up!

I’m grateful that I don’t have to endure this ‘final stretch’ of the diet any longer than I do because ive been wondering at what point of this diet would I really start overthinking/dreaming/becoming a little obsessed with food eg what I’m going to ho into next Saturday night and Sunday after the show! All in all, I am happy with the decision not to come in any leaner than I will be especially for my first show, as I may have just traded my marbles for a few more ml! :S

These thoughts can be a little frightening, especially when they come out of nowhere but its not at all surprising when the diet is this restrictive and unbalanced. Its interesting when you think about it, my head is longing for foods that will give me the quick fix and rush of a happy hormones release (serotonin, dopamine etc) which happen to be simple carbs (SUGAR) and fat whereas, I know that more importantly, my body is crying out for healthy fats and lower GI carbs. When I look in the mirror and wistfully think I could maintain this shape I stop and think of these physical symptoms- My memory and concentration are poor, skin and hair are dry, joints are clicking, cracks in my tongue etc etc. Not that I have been thinking this everyday of course, remember the mind plays tricks- I’ve lost 16kg all up and every second day is still a ‘fat day’ which can drive you nuts if you let it too.. Glamorous hey?

Being very aware of my thoughts and feelings helps immensely. Understanding that they are stemming from a physical response to nutritional deficiency helps me observe my thoughts rather than let them take over.

So that’s my wrap up of what appears to be a ‘2 week out low’ I must endure before at just one week out I presume (hope) that BANG you turn another corner and there’s that light at the end of the tunnel. Cue nerves and excitement…. Right now is a perfect time to remind myself how much I have learned about self-discipline and restraint..

Day in the (current) life

A (Working and Training) day in the life of Steph since about 4-6 weeks out

5:15-6:15 1 hour cardio on treadmill, usually pass the time with morning news programs and a magazine

6:15-7:15 madly get ready for work, prep and eat breakfast

7:15-8:30 commute to work, do makeup in the car!

8:30-4:30 work- I eat four meals during this time, space 1.5-3hrs apart. Drink about 4L of water, heaps of green tea and 1-2 black coffees.

4:30-5:30 leave work, commute to gym, take pre-workout supps and change

5:30-6:30 weights workout

6:30-6:50pm post weights cardio

6:50-7:20pm travel home.

7:20-9:20pm another mad rush to: shower, feed cats, cook dinner + 4 meals for next day and try to clean up. I usually have the meat pre cooked and frozen into portions however, like to cook the vegies fresh for each day- 300g x 4 = 1.2kg!

9:30pm try to be in bed by this time, otherwise risking insufficient sleep (already under ideal 8 hours) before arising to do it all again!

Repeat 4/5 weekdays + one training session on weekends. 

Extra cardio on 2 non training days.

No time to scratch oneself, really! LOL. You can see how as fun and exciting as the process is, you have days where you are simply over the routine, the lack of time, pressure to go go go and the closer you get the harder it gets energy-wise.  The successful competitors are those who can push through these times and not let anything (particularly themselves) compromise their conditioning in those final weeks. 

I can also see how you get so over it all that as dedicated as one is to the fitness lifestyle, all the 'balls' could be dropped at once for a while post comp. While I fully intend to take some well deserved time off training to recover, I know I will need to stay active and keep eating a lot of clean food so as not to shock the bod into a violent reaction! Because this is one of the key things I have learnt- gradual changes. I did not begin this diet eating so much fish and broccoli and so little else, I wouldn't have lasted 2 weeks! 

2 weeks out

woo hoo! hit that 'over it' feeling this week, particularly since losing my beloved oats :( lol, this was the first change to the diet that made me feel just a little deprived, i got more carbs during the day but i don't care about that- oats were the nice sweet filling start to the day- you girls know what i mean! BUT its not for long and we do what it takes, don't we. 

Got to nail that 'deprived' feeling on the head when i feel it though- that's what would get me into trouble post comp and make it harder to add things back in gradually. The more 'deprived' i feel, the more i can justify eating til the cows come home, lol! Im concentrating on how good it will be to have back the healthy items that were formerly on my plan-- adding fruit to my oats like the pic above should feel like total luxury!

Got a cardio session done at lunchtime walking through the botanical gardens yesterday- chatting with the lovely Hanni helped the time fly! Its so good whenever you have the chance to have a chat to a fellow competitor, you share ideas and encourage eachother but mostly just have a great vent! Being 1-2 weeks out at the moment as we are, its certainly a strange mix of being soo close yet so far!

Grocery shopping has certainly gotten easier the last few weeks! Ali and I tend to go on a Friday night (paaarty animals) to get it done when its quieter and more often than not because we're all out of food! I was just looking over our docket from last night's trip and for a bodybuilder and figure chick 2 weeks out from comp it included the following:

4 kg fish

3 kg chicken

~12kg broccoli

other vege eg green beans, celery, cauliflower, cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, cabbage, fresh garlic & ginger

white potato and sweet potato

nuts

fruit

coffee

as many egg cartons as we think will fit in our fridge (dam woolies not stocking the whites atm!)

splenda

diet cordial for training, too much diet softdrink and diet jelly LOL!

Without fail we get the comments, 'wow you guys like broccoli don't you' etc- I have now limited my standard response to 'oh, you have no idea' with a nice smile... if its a customer they might even buy a bit more themselves, wondering if they're missing out on something.. haha!

My holy grail of weight loss

“How do you eat so much and stay so skinny?”

LOL! Care to take a look at WHAT I’m eating right now and did you notice what I DIDN’T EAT at the morning tea earlier??

VEGGIES- learn to love em cos the metabolic effect (FIRE!!) and lack of energy density (calories) makes them worth their weight in gold! I thought I ate a reasonable amount before- some salad with lunch and vegies every night for dinner.. little did I know I could do a whole lot better haha.

It’s hard to rack up excess energy (calories) from whole, real, calorie-scarce foods. You can’t ‘accidentally’ overeat. Check this out, 200 calories worth of celery vs 200 calories worth of chocolate bar:

I know what I’d *rather* eat too, but that amount of chocolate wouldn’t touch the sides let alone keep me full for very long! Its got no nutritional value or functional purpose either so would purely be on top of my daily intake, that’s why it’s a ‘purely for taste food’ reserved for my cheat meals J

I’ve been on a meal plan for so long now that I can’t actually imagine eating what I would call a ‘meal’ WITHOUT consuming a huge bowl of the green stuff… seriously, even with my last two cheat meals (4 September and 19 July 09) I ate amongst *other things* a huge salad and/or plate of veggies. With my last choice of lasagna, I purposely stirfried up some zucchini, celery, carrot, tomatoes and red capsicum in order to pump up the size of the meal. Granted, I took advantage of the situation and added tomato sauce and grated cheese to them, I kid you not they tasted just as good as the main course! (I don’t think its all that ‘clever’ when people get their kids to eat veggies simply by hiding them in a pile of cheese!)

I have lost almost 16kg now and have rarely experienced hunger- I eat far too much volume for that! The ‘eat as much as you like’ advice re vegetables is a like a get out jail free card or safety net for me. I simply could not diet if there was any chance of being hungry too often or having to limit (to that degree) my exact food intake.

Do i get sick of them? not really, if you too its kind of too bad, they're non negotiable part of everyone's diet (or should be!) Rather, i get sick of not being able to eat other things, oh and preparing them!! (don't like frozen vege). I actually make an effort to eat even more than im supposed to to ensure that there’s limited chance of getting hungry… am I afraid of this experiencing this feeling? A little. Especially if we are out for the day, away from home etc. I realize I may be replacing one behaviour (overeating crap) with another (stuffing veggies in) but.. as far as the comp prep diet goes, its working well for now. I think post comp when my meal plan gets more flexible I would like to be comfortable with eating til satisfied rather than FULL. I anticipate that I won’t feel as anxious or the need to satisfy head hunger etc as much… that will be nice :)

Happy face to struggle street and back again

only 16 days to go??!!! i cannot quite believe it!

Thought I’d better balance things out with another reality update- I was SOo hungry yesterday! My worst enemy is hunger and although some of it is ‘head hunger’ I hate the feeling of counting down to my next meal, stuffing in a huge volume of vegies and feeling the tummy ‘swell’ but not feel satisfied. Ah these are harder days but at least they’re infrequent- usually non training days where I have to spread the meals out a little more. I had also had a great back workout the night before (Mon) so I chose to believe that was making me hungrier and that it was all a good thing, lol.

The struggle got home when getting my cardio done, my tights were too hot, my legs were tired, hips tight and sore and the time just plain dragged! I had to use the advice to ‘just put one foot in front of the other’ quite literally! Stretching afterward felt great. See how there is a positive to every negative? You just have to find it!

Feeling fairly neutral so far today, I'm thinking its coffee time :) liquid gold!!! I am a proud addict and it is a lifesaver to dieters but I do stick to two cups per day- otherwise I'd probably be climbing the walls..

On a completely random tangent, I just read and worked out that Im currently eating double the chicken the average Australian eats per year… without even trying, I eat more than double the amount of fish per day right now than I do chicken.. lol! But seriously people, where’s the meat? Don’t you hate going out for meals and trying to find it in amongst all the rice/pasta etc? Well I used to, I order different things now!  

YESSS!

YES!!!!!!!!! *exhale*

I’ve got my supa happy excited face on today.  In fact I’ve had rather a positive week! J  Refused to get sidelined by any headgames re Friday night’s cheat meal (before OR after) despite the inevitable bloat the next day, lol! Saw coach this morning, had a good drop (even a little more off the quad!) and he said I looked close to being where I need to be onstage- cruising it in baby... I hope! No changes to food this week and no high intensity cardio- phew!

 

I was initially wanting to aim for lower skinfolds and would have had enough time to do it, however in honesty- do not have the muscle mass to carry it off L The thought has occurred to me from time to time that I should have waited and trained longer before deciding to compete but each time I remember that I am only competing against myself. Overall, I am happy and satisfied with the effort I have put into preparation so there will be no regrets on the day.

 

So if you are struggling with numbers etc remind yourself like I am that no one knows your weight, body fat, height etc any of that onstage- it is HOW YOU LOOK! (including how you pose and present yourself) Most of the hard work is done, we are nearly there so stop panicking and start getting excited!!

3 weeks out

Hey there

Quick update- had the cheat meal last night! I kept forgetting about it all week but then come yesterday was really looking forward to what I had planned. Felt a little anxious before eating it wondering how I would go and I ate as slow as possible! The flavour of the lasagne and its cheese was explosive to my tastebuds! I went to a lot of trouble to get my favourite one from verve in the CBD as they make it with roast pumpkin- yummo! I also had dessert and a coffee and did have a little trouble stopping before I felt overfull but despite this, I am pleased to say I had absolutely no trouble returning to my planned eats today- in fact I enjoyed my fish even more! I cooked up a fresh batch of cod with fresh ginger, cumin, garlic and had it with my mashed cauliflower and greens, yum! 

I'm glad we got the chance to have this meal because I see it as good practice for post comp. I'm very aware of all the horror binging stories that everyone seems to have gone through at least once post comp! In fact, I have come away from conversations with competitors that have left me wondering whether this rebound is inevitable.. i don't like that thought! I think it would be easy to get caught up in the excitement of post comp celebrations where everyone is encouraging eachother to .. gorge. And of course all your friends and family will want to have a meal out with you, not having been able to for so long! I'm just going to stay positive and pace myself as much as I can. I know that coach will have a plan in place for me and I've gotten used to doing as I'm told so we'll just see what happens- right now I'm looking forward to relaxation much more than any food!

Its been a really positive week for me and I've enjoyed training too. I even enjoyed my High intensity cardio session this morning, it felt good to push myself running intervals and kickboxing. I put on some really daggy 80's music loud on our stereo and sang along to it- the neighbours probably think I'm nutso! hehehe... probably.

Spontaneous cheat meal

Ali and I saw our coach on Monday for our weekly skins and it was a rather bizarre appt of highs and lows for me! Before taking my measurements we ran through our compulsory poses in front of Jon’s bathroom mirror (best natural light!) and were pleased that I had visible progress going on- the tan helped a lot there!

I dropped another 2ml however, not from the areas which are really lagging behind which are my triceps and quads. The triceps was no surprise for me, Ive always disliked my arms and although the bicep is quite lean now the tri is holding on! The quad however is a nasty surprise, I started the game with relatively lean legs so assumed that this would be a strong point for me. But alas turns out I’m not a special exception and am struggling to lean down the legs just like every other woman- darn estrogen! I was hoping to get them all the way down to 5-6ml but they have not really budged in the last 5-6 weeks!

So I have no patience at all right now for that question that always pops up around the traps- how do I lose fat from my tummy? Or, I just want to tighten up this area *point to offending part of self* Sorry, its out of your hands! although there’s always lypo.. ;)

We made quite a few little changes to my meal plan for this week- more food and calories but less of the things I usually look forward to. Nothing really bothers me at this late stage though, we’re almost done and I’m ready to do whatever it takes to finish this well. I thought my steady state cardio might increase but instead I’m doing a couple of high intensity sessions again this week.  Variety is good. My last session I hogged 3 cardio machines at our local gym and did three rounds of five minutes on each- the time flew! Running is not even that hard when you don’t have as much fat flying haha. I remember when my butt and lovehandles used to ‘bounce’- ouch! 

So there I was thinking how much work I had ahead of me when at the very end of the appt, coach says- when was your last off plan meal? I thought he was doing a ‘compliance check’ as we’d cut those out weeks ago but he said, “have one more this weekend”. *stunned face* really? At 3 weeks out? Didn’t see that coming! Lol. I see it as a nice reward for being on track cos that’s how my prep has been- coach plans the timing, ie to make small drops as steadily as possible and then I work the plan. If I do as Im told, there’s no worries, no fear, no guilt. 

Its funny, you might think someone in my position would be fairly desperate for a cheat meal at this point, but I’m not and when you weren’t hoping or expecting to have one til post comp its kind of like getting a present for no reason!  People assume that I must be feeling so deprived cos I can’t eat cake or even something as ‘normal’ as a toasted sandwich but honestly… I’ve worked through that- if I was still feeling deprived after this long on a meal plan I would seriously rethink whether its worth living life so miserably!  As far as I’ve come with my relationship with food - I’ve also accepted that I may not be as ‘popular’ now if I don’t  join in, say yes to everything and get extremely excited about junk food. Lol! But I’m simply a much happier person without that addiction and emotional attachment to food and the longer you strive to be consistent in your lifestyle changes you’ll be amazed that it ever had such power over you… l don’t preach that food is fuel and that’s it but rather if you learn to use food wisely, you can turn a negative into a positive mindset where you can love and enjoy food for what it is (rather than have a love/hate relationship with it!) Where cheat meals used to be a source of anxiety followed by guilt for me, I’m hoping its now going to be a case of setting my taste buds on fire followed by being full and satisfied- big difference hey?

Wanting to implement the changes to the meal plan meant grocery shopping for more supplies after work and gym last night- didn’t get home and start cooking dinner and prepping new meals for the next day until 8:30pm. Got in bed by 10:30pm (late for me) and managed to fall asleep quick so would have had just under 7 hours sleep before up again for cardio. I find I feel best with 7-8 hours consistently.

So I’m really enjoying prep but more than just a big long dieting exercise it is kind of  like a healthy lifestyle “to the extreme” that one must try to keep up with. When you really get down to the business end there’s no exceptions, days off or time to pause. If you don’t feel 100%, are tired, unmotivated, feeling a bit flat, whatever- suck it up cos it doesn’t matter!  (gotta love this in a sick kind of way, but only temporarily!) So what I’m dreaming about post comp are things involving more flexibility and balance in my daily/weekly routine:

• Having more energy and enjoying training sessions more, being able to rest when I need to
• Being able to leave the house without meticulous meal planning and worrying about Tupperware, refrigeration or what the time is 
• Not having to do as much food prep, getting more creative in the kitchen with healthy recipes 
• Not having to get up really early every morning for cardio, being able to spread sessions out more and with more variety.

Photoshoot Sun 29 Aug 09

What a weekend it was!

Not only was the photo session heaps of fun but we had a good amount of time to catch up with lindy and dallas and as always I can learn a lot from lindy! Not enough nice things can be said about this happy couple who made us feel so welcome and comfortable. 

I only slept about 5 hours Saturday night, I think I was too excited! I was up early and usual quite hungry so I got my cardio out of the way to earn breakfast. I had every intention of going along with ali and lindy for their walk on the beach as well but found my butt stubbornly planted on a comfy recliner in front of a plasma with cable TV… at this point you don’t really have the energy for anything extra!  :P 

We planned the timing of the shoot to coincide with 4 week out mark because we thought surely by this point we’d be looking pretty decent! ;) lol. And although I feel pretty ordinary and bloated from all the vegies and water pretty much all the time, overall I’m happy with where I was at body fat wise for them- lean but healthy looking. Its funny, you can’t really imagine how you’re going to feel at the various stages of prep til you get there, despite having seen others go through it. I expected to feel tiny and like death for the last 6 weeks but its only every now and then I get what I call the ‘skinny’ panic..! and that changes day to day, some days im still fat, other days I think im hot stuff! Lol its all in your head of course but honestly, most of the time I’m too tired or busy to really care- hair is always pulled back, minimal makeup, baggy clothes etc. That’s why glamming up for the pics was so much fun. 

Dallas has already sent me the proofs to go through and 'cull the duds' so I can't wait to see the finished products. And of course jadey I will be posting ‘one’ for you…  everyday until you guys beg me to stop.. hahahaa..