Productive Start

Quick morning post, since I was fortunate enough to get my workout groove on early. Yippee skippy!!! I trained back/bis/tris this am and then rocked it out in a spin class. This is the first chance I have had to do spin in almost a month! GAH! It is normally my cardio of choice so it was weird to be away from it due to crazy holiday schedules and snotty noses. I enjoyed my workout, but did have one sad moment. I tried to warm up with a set of pullups, but my stamina for those has disappeared. Well, dang!!! I never had energy for them during competition prep, and so it just goes to show --- don't use it, ya lose it. I was rocking out sets of 8 for a time there. Today I got one. Hrmph. So, I'll just make this positive and say my new goal is to build up my pullup reps again. *thumbs up*

After the gym, I went by the grocery store to pick up a few essentials we were out of. Then it was home to have my big morning breakfast and do my devotional reading. Now, I need to get my caboose moving and start crack'a'lacking on decorating our tree, a load of laundry, and some cleaning. Also, I have to get some things organized for my tutoring session this afternoon (this boy is going to pass Spanish if it's the last thing I do!!!) and also get working on Sunday's church group lesson/discussion. Busy day ahead...ciao!!!

My Morning Workout
Cardio = 45 min Spin Class = sweaty mess
Training = Back/Bis/Tris
underhand bb row - 65# x 12, 75# x 10, 85# x 8, 95# x 6 x 2sets
lat pulldown = 90# x 8 x 2 sets, 100# x 8 x 2 sets
wide grip machine row = 70# x 8 x 2 sets, 75# x 8 x 2 sets
machine preacher curl = 45# x 10 x 3 sets
1 arm overhead db extension = 15# x 12 x 2 sets/side, 20# x 8/side

Busy Busy Busy

Well, today has once again been incredibly busy. I trained shoulders and did some abs quickly at the gym this morning, which was a very good session. Then, it was home to play with Makenzie before her nap. During her nap, I got some food prep done and finally finished the laundry from this weekend. In the afternoon, it was off to the grocery store for our weekly shopping and also Dick's Sporting Goods to get some different shorts for my sportswear outfit for the competition. The federation has a pretty strict no butt showing rule for the sportswear round and mine were border-line. After watching the show this weekend and seeing what other girls wore, I decided to be safe and get some different shorts. Hey - works for me because my butt is my weak point and a bit extra coverage there is a good thing in my book. Haha! 


After Peter got home, it was off to the gym again for a cycle class with my beloved instructor. I was sure to get there early this time to reserve my bike! Yowza was it a killer class. She called it her "Wipeout" class. Every 3rd song she played the "Wipeout" song (you know - the duhduhduhduhduhduhduhduhduhduh...WIPEOUUUTTTT" one") and during that song you had to go as fast as possible with moderate resistance the entire 2 minutes. Then the other 2 songs between each wipeout were different drills of breakaways, hill sprints, heavy resistance, jumps, etc. The goal is for us all to look like we went through a wipe-out dripping in sweat and to physically be wiped out when we leave. Yeah - she succeeded! Felt gooood!  


Now I will top off another successful day with some chicken and roasted veggies for dinner and watching last night's episode of Desperate Housewives with the most supportive man ever, while enjoying my tbsp of peanut butter for dessert! It's the little things in life. G'night everyone!!!

Meals: 100% ON ON ON (low day) 
Training: Shoulders
db overhead press - 5x6-8
db side raise - 4x8-10
bb upright row - 5x10
bb front raise w/ rear delt pull - 4x8
machine rear delt - 4x10
cable side raise - 3x8
Cardio: 60 min Spin Class
Extra Stuff: Abs & a bit of routine practice
Bench Crunch - 3x20
Planks 3x60sec
Bicycles - 3x25/side

GOOOOD MORNING! Sorry I didnt get a chance to update last night.Instead I killed my workout. I am SO loving training in the afternoons! I came home just in time for dinner and to hang out with my sister and watch The Biggest Loser. Which, wow....what an ANNOYING episode that was. We have officially found the new Joelle of the season in Tracy. What a *$@#&!!!! She has totally screwed her chances of staying after backstabbing sooooo many people. I understand its a game and you want to play it to your advantage, but wow. That was a bit extreme though. I give serious credit to the trainers, the pink team, and a few others for telling her how awful what all she did was and even more credit to the red team for sacrificing themselves so that Shay could stay longer and then doing SUCH a GREAT job after going home. Anyways....

This morning was a crazy surprise. I've hit a new low weight for prep - 116.6! Wow! From 12 to 8 weeks out I basically maintained around 120 due to the hospital stay, Mandy's visit, being sick, etc. Well, the last 2 weeks it wasnt going down much again (like 1.5 lbs total, which I was still ok with) because I was feeling bloated and backed up. Well - enter higher high day Saturday and WHOOSH....poopy issues GONE (sorry if TMI but deal with it haha), peeing like a racehorse after carbs were dropped back down the past 2-3 days, etc etc. So before my higher carb day again this morning I decided to check things and I had totally bypassed 117 completely. I'll take it! So, yes, body, you can say a big fat "I TOLD YOU SO!!!"

Today's plans are to go the grocery store (AGAIN!) for a couple of things this morning when M is done with bfast (which btw she is MUCH MUCH better! yay!), do a few things around the house during her nap, hope my suit arrives, enjoy a high day of eats (woot!), maybe take a walk in this gorgeous weather, train back & chest and do cardio this afternoon, watch So You Think You Can Dance tonight, and chill with a book in between. Perfection. I hope everyone else has fabulous days too!


Yesterday's Stuff -


Training: Legs & Shoulders with Plyo Fun
BB Squat - 12, 10, 3x8
Bosu PopSquats - 4x10/side
BB Overhead Press - 2x12, 2x8

BB Stationary Lunge - 4x10/side
Jumping Lunges - 4x10/side
Side Cable Raise - 10, 3x5dropset5

Hammerstrength VSquat - 12, 3x10
Lying Leg Curl - 4x8
Front DB Raise - 4x10

DB Bulgarian Split Squat - 4x10
Burpees - 4x10

Plie BB Squat - 12, 3x10
Rear Delt DB Raise - 4x10

Cardio: 60 min Spin Class

Extra Prep Stuff: Posing Practice & Tanning

Macros = 123 C / 30 F / 141 P
meal 1 = 1sc Dymatize Toffee PP, coffee, 4oz unsweet vanilla almond milk
meal 2 = oats/20g dried fruit/.5sc All the Whey cake batter PP, 100g "french toast" eggbeaters w/ 2T sf syrup, 100g strawberries
meal 3 = ground turkey/35g salsa/15g ff cheese, 100g cucumbers, 4oz greek yogurt/1T pb
meal 4 = 1sc All the Whey strawberry PP/8oz unsweet vanilla almond milk, 120g apple w/ 20g strawberry spread
meal 5 = 4oz grilled shrimp, 100g cauliflower/carrot mix with herbs

Poor Baby!

Today has been a ROUGH day! And no, it's surprisingly not even related to comp prep. My poor little Makenzie has a serious serious BAD BAD BAD diaper rash. She has been battling one off and on since she was on antibiotics those 2 weeks. The pediatrician keeps giving us these various creams of different strengths and the rash will appear to go away and then come back a day or two later. And even worse off than before. We are doing everything we can to help it - letting her roam naked almost all of her awake time, applying the antifungal/yeast creams, feeding her tons of yogurt, not using wipes, etc etc etc. And she continues to be in super pain :( Even to the point where she is waking up in the middle of the night numerous times (which she never ever does - and mommy is hating) and when I go to the changing table she screams and shakes her little head NO. The pediatrician says if it doesn't improve (they just gave us another stronger cream) she will need to go on probiotics because it is possible her system was disturbed too much with the 2+ weeks she had to be on the antibiotics. One of the toughest parts of being a momma is without a doubt watching your child suffer and not being able to take it away.


In other news - today has gone very well with prep and with my new plan. I just had cardio this afternoon and it was nice to be able to eat less in the morning when I am naturally not AS hungry and save my food for the afternoon around my workout and when I am more hungry. Spin was supposed to be on the plan for cardio but when I got to the gym for the class it was already booked. I was even there almost 20 minutes early. Yikes! So, I made the best of it and did tomorrow's cardio plan instead and will try to sub in a spin class tomorrow...which tonight's killer instructor teaches tomorrow too so that should work out fine. The remainder of the day I went grocery shopping (extremely fast to keep M in her diaper the shortest time possible), laundry/dishes/kitchen cleaning (never ending jobs they are), read a little bit, and played with Makenzie. It's amazing how much burn you can get through a workout and daily activity. As of 8 PM, I had already burned close to 2500 calories! Not too shabby :) Its so fun seeing all the numbers and charts and all with the Go Wear Fit. Thanks sooooooooo much again, Mandy!!!!! BTW - she has an awesome blog that you should check out HERE ;)


Training: Off
Cardio: 50 min Total
20 min incline run - 6.5mph @ 4.0 incline
15 min incline walk - 3.8mph @ 10.0 incline
15 min crosstrainer - incline 10, resistance 8
Extra Prep Stuff: Abs - 4 sets of each
60 second plank holds
20/side bicycles
25 froggy crunches


Macros: 110 C / 30 F / 153 P
meal 1 = 1sc Dymatize Toffee PP, coffee, 4oz unsweet vanilla almond milk
meal 2 = oats/.5sc All the Whey PP/20g dried fruit, 100g eggbeaters w/ 2T sf maple syrup, 100g strawberries
meal 3 = 3.25oz ground turkey/2T salsa/15g ff cheese, 100g cucumber, 4oz greek yogurt/1T pb
meal 4 = 1sc All the Whey PP/8oz unsweet choc almond milk, 120g apple/20g strawberry spread
meal 5 = 4oz chicken/50g red pepper that I roasted/50g cucumber/3oz steamed broccoli slaw/2T light sesame ginger dressing all tossed together and served in romaine lettuce leaves for Asian lettuce wraps - oh so so so so good!!!!!!!


Notes/Reflection: Super happy that I didn't let spin being thrown out of my workout mess me up and send me home doing nothing. I still got in a great workout and will be able to adjust the week as needed. I really enjoyed having my meals set up with more in the afternoon. Also, if you notice, my carbs are lower than before. I've decided I want to make my high days a lot higher than my low days. So, I dropped the low days back on carbs and upped protein a bit to have a bit more of a serious cycle this last bit of prep. It worked just  fine! 

Spin with...SEINFELD???

So, I went to cycle tonight for my cardio and there was a sub in for one of my usual favorite spin gals. Oh boy! This sub was the WEIRDEST one yet...well almost, as one time the sub was literally a woman whose alter ego is a small Southern town Baptist preacher and was yelling at us that we could "do it-EH" the whole time. Anyways. This sub totally reminded me of Jerry Seinfeld - a dorkier, less-amusing version. He had the same nose, same dark hair with receding hairline, and just overall goofy appearance. He was wearing white knee-high socks with high-tops. Shorts that came mid-thigh in that old-school swishy material all track outfits were made of in the 90s. He had his handle bars all the way down, not adjusted properly at all. AND kept calling the seat a "chair". I thought I was in trouble and in for a TERRIBLE class. But it ended up not being too bad. I'm almost wondering if he is some dorky friend of the typical instructor who got suckered into covering her class last minute. The music and drills were similar to what she uses just a lot more basic. It was one song = climb, next song = quick steady pace, lather, rinse, repeat with an occasional sprint and breakaway. Luckily, it still made for a decent endurance ride and got the job done for sufficient carido for the day - and a good laugh in the process. Don't worry, I was nice and kept the giggles in my head. 


Time to log off and hang with Peter....and watch the season premiere of Greys Anatomy tonight! 


Training = Off
Cardio = 60 min spin class
Extra Prep Stuff = none, meant to do abs but forgot - oops!
Macros = 129 C / 30 F / 139 P
meal 1 = oats, dried fruit, cake batter pp
meal 2 = eggbeaters french toast (just the eggs cooked thin - no bread), sf syrup, TJs chicken sausage,  apple
meal 3 = ground turkey/taco season/salsa/ff cheese, strawberries, cucumbers
meal 4 = choc pp, choc unsweet almond milk, luna bar
meal 5 = turkey burger w/ pickles, mustard, onion, lettuce on Lavash bread (1/2 pc), green beans

Mmmmmm.....Food!

I love Saturdays and Sundays. Even though I know my diet isn't as super restrictive as most competition diets, by ANY means, I still get pretty stark raving hungry living off approximately 1300 cals/day by the end of the week. And am always always always excited for my carb-up/refeed day. I consider myself lucky that my body responds very well to carbs. If I restrict them to much, things aren't pretty and, after going moderately low all week, when I up the cals and carbs for a day each week I come out of it all renewed, refreshed, and feeling tighter and leaner to boot. Currently, on Monday-Friday I eat in the neighborhood of 1300 calories with 120-130g carbs each day. Then, on Saturday I go up to 1800 cals with 200g carbs. Ahhhhhhh......sigh of satisfaction that was. ;) And on Sunday, I drop the cals back to 1300 range but keep the carbs up a bit more again at 150g. This approach has really been working well so far to keep me satisfied, seeing progress, and having the energy to keep up some intense workouts. I also like the fact that if my progress starts to slow down (which I have every expectation it will closer and closer to show - just a fact of dieting) I have LOTS of room to tweak things and drop carbs a bit here or there, as well as tightening up food choices, etc. But until then, I will enjoy my yummies.

Saturday's Update
Macros - 206C / 46F / 134P
pre-cardio = coffee & 1sc Dymatize toffee protein powder
post-cardio = bowl of cereal (mix Kashi & Cinnamon Special K) w/ almond milk
lunch = chicken/lettuce/onion/mustard/pickles on sandwich thin, cucumber, strawberries
snack = apple, pb
dinner = sirloin, sweet potato, steamed broccoli
dessert = skinny cow icecream sandwich


Training - off
Cardio - another awesome spin class
Extra stuff - did some abs
        .......
3x15/side oblique twists
3x20 hip thrusts
3x15 stability ball cable crunch 30#
3x60sec hold bosu planks - thanks Mandy for the ab recs ;)

Sunday's Update
Macros - 146 C / 31 F / 120 P
meal 1 = kashi waffles/sf syrup, chicken sausage, eggbeater omelet
meal 2 = ground turkey/taco season/ff cheese/salsa, cucumber, strawberries
meal 3 = pumpkin cheesecake loaf inspired by Kristin's Eat Oxygen Blog :) Thanks!
meal 4 = greek yogurt & pb "icecream" (4oz yogurt mixed w/ 1T pb frozen)
meal 5 = homemade roasted veggie pizza (low carb tortilla, tom sauce, vegs, lf cheese)


Training - Chest and Back (killed it!)
Cardio - off
Extra stuff - none
............
Circuit 1
wide grip latpulldown
12x85# / 2sets 8x100# / 6x100#dropset6x85#
incline bb bench
15x65# / 2sets 8x80# / 7x80#dropset8x65#
narrow grip latpulldown
12x75# / 2sets 8x85# / 7x85#dropset5x70#
incline db bench (weight/hand)
15x30# / 10x35# / 8x35# / 10x35#dropset5x25#


Circuit 2
underhand bb row
12x65# / 9x75# / 8x75# / 8x75#dropset7x65#
flat db flyes (weight/hand)
12x15# / 2sets8x20# / 7x20#dropset8x15#
wide grip cable row
12x55# / 3sets 8x60#
pecdeck
10x55# / 3sets 8x60#

Notes and Thoughts:

• I had fun trying new concoctions today to be able to add to my diet repertoire. Kristin's blog has lots of great ideas. And I have discovered that I do, in fact, like cottage cheese. I always used to HATE it!!!
• I bought some exfoliator at the store today so I can start getting into that habit. I have to be sure my skin is smooth for the tanner. Which leads me to my other dilemma - use Jan Tana or Extreme Tan???  I know I need to get on ordering those supplies. 
• I also need to start thinking about hair and makeup. For makeup should I go to a MAC counter and have them do a trial run for me. I know I was recommended a lot of MAC products the last time I prepped. For hair - I am clueless!
• I made an appointment for a brazilian next week. EEEEKKKK!!! It will be my first and I know a trial run before having to get it done for the show will be a good move. So I'm doing it next week. 
• I have redone my workout schedule where it leaves me without a full rest day each week - BUT I end up feeling MORE rested and refreshed. Since I enjoy splitting up my cardio and training as much as possible to get quality workouts in each time, this works well for me. It is NOT something I recommend by any means for typical living, but to get it all in these next 8 weeks and not feel overwhelmed on a daily basis I am going with it for now. I like having days where I have to worry about JUST cardio or JUST training. :)
• I'm PUMPED for the next 8 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2 More Days of Prep Fun

Thursday's Info
Training - Legs & Shoulders
Cardio - Spin Class (AWESOME class!!)
Stuff - did a quick 10 minutes of posing practice
Macros - 128 Carbs / 138 Protein / 31 Fat


Thursday's Training
Superset 1
Deadlift 
12x95# / 8x105# / 3sets 8x115#
Leg Press 
12x140# / 10x160# / 3sets 8x180#
Hammerstrength Overhead Press (weight/hand)
15x35# / 10x40# / 2sets 8x45#


Superset 2
Front Squat
4sets 10x70#
Kneeling Hamstring Curl
4sets/leg 8x30#/side
Machine Rear Delt
3sets 10x50#


Superset 3
High Stepups (weight/hand)
4sets/leg 12x20#
Quad Extensions
4 sets 10x90#
Cable Side Raise
3sets 10x20#/side


Friday's Info
Training - Arms
Cardio - Turbojam Cardio Party 1
Stuff - none
Macros - 126 Carbs / 134 Protein / 32 Fat


Friday's Training
warm up of pushups & pullups
7, 5, 5 unassisted pullups
20, 20, 15 pushups


Superset 1
BB bicep curl
4sets 10x40# 
tricep kickbacks (weight/hand)
2sets 12x15# / 2sets 8x20#


Superset 2
Hammerstrength preacher curl
12x50# / 2sets 8x55#
Hammerstrength tricep dip
15x70# / 12x80# / 10x90#


Superset 3 
seated incline hammer curl (wt/hand)
12x15# / 6x20# / 6x20#dropset8x10#
1 arm cable pushdown
10x20# / 8x30# / 8x30#dropset6x20#


Superset 4
concentration curl 
3sets 8x15#/hand
overhead extension
3sets 10x15#/hand


Some notes/thoughts of the previous prep week - I need to get more organized with my posing practice and ab work. Those are two things that are very easy for me to neglect and that I need to incorporate more now that I am 8 weeks out. So, this upcoming week, it will be a goal of mine to make those 2 things a regular part of my plan. I am feeling great as far as the training, cardio, and diet all go. I really really enjoy my workouts and like pushing hard on the weights. Well, as hard as I can with dieting since my strength is already dropping a little on various things (especially legs!). My cardio isn't killing me either since I am doing things I enjoy, like spin. And I am enjoying my spin even more now. I have recently switched to a closer gym that does not have near as good spin classes as my old gym which was bumming me out because I NEED the hard core spin cardio during prep more than ever. So, my old gym was very nice after I spoke to them and they are allowing me to be a "member" until mid November so I can still go there the few times a week I want to spin. Yippee!!!!  


Last, but certainly not least, I heard from my suit designer that she is hoping to send out my suit by Wednesday of next week. I cannot wait to see it! Too bad I won't have it in time for my 8 weeks out progress pictures coming to a post near you tomorrow ;)