Week 6 is on the books AND........

Bodyfat down from 24% to 20%.

Weight down from 147.6 to 137.6.

Measurements are still holding steady but those biceps grew .75 :) Small drops in the waist, chest, hips. Good results!

AND...the first pictures where I said, "Hey, I look a bit muscular."

Gloomy...

The one word to describe this week. All these grey skies make me want to crawl into bed. I really hate it. grumble, grumble. 

Have not been getting my cardio in this week....not good. But what is done is done and changing that starting tomorrow. No more misses on the dreaded "C" until May 7th!! Good grief...be silly to knock everything else out of the park and screw it up with this. Plus I would probably be less gloomy if I was getting up and doing cardio!! Don't ya love how I lecture myself. ;)

On another note...after my shoulder workout Tuesday I was posing in my bathroom mirror and I could literally follow my veins from my chest out through my arms. They were clearly visible and I could see them filling up while I held the pose. Oh the little things!! :) Whoeve thought seeing my veins would have me happy dancing!!! Progress baby!!! An obvious indicator that I am getting lean! 

Went heavy on leg press last night....5 sets of 10. Started with 250 and ended with 520. :) Love it!!

Enjoy your day.....be thankful for the opportunity!!

Week 6

Yesterday started week 6. The scale says 138.4. Just a pound away from 10 pounds lost! I'd say thus far I am kicking butt and taking names!! :)

Shout Out....

to my cousin, Trevor Bayne, who won the Daytona 500 yesterday!! Achieving your dreams must run in the family!

Revelations...

Looked in the mirror today and I liked what I saw! Really. :)

Minor Victories...

My days are full of them. Everytime I walk past the goodies at work, I have succeeded. Everytime I drive past the fast food restaurants, I have succeeded. Every morning at McDonalds when I order my medium black coffee and NOTHING else, I have succeeded. Sticking to my meal plan every day-success! Not missing any workouts-success! Practicing posing-success!

A goal with a plan=success!! The following people have made this journey easier for me by offering their knowledge and support. Thanks Mike, aka LF! :) And my trainer/nutritionist Niki Bryant. My choices of who to surround myself with were wise and I am destined to succeed!!    

drum roll please................

139.6...Oh Yeah!!! That just happened!!! laughing hysterically!! I told that scale it didn't stand a chance. :)

ahhh....

Thursday = day of rest. Love my days off!! I realize my body needs them and so does my mind. Three day weekend coming up...all good!!

Umm...did that just happen?

So this morning I woke up and weighed in and yes it said 140.0, of course. :) It is more comical each and every day. Then I randomly struck a double front bicep in the mirror ((the things I do these days)) AND there were two chunks of muscle popping up on my shoulders. And they weren't there yesterday!! I checked again...and yep!

Went to work and on my break checked again in the bathroom mirror...still there. So I am not hallucinating but is that possible?? Overnight these things just POP!??!

Seriously loving that little discovery and a big pfft! to the scale as well.  

Shoulder Blast...

5 sets of 10 BB Upright Rows (20, 30, 40)
10 sets of 10 Lat Raises (10)
3 sets of 15 front plate raises (10)
3 sets of 10 Presses (10, 15)
Tricep Pushdowns (pyramid up 50, 60, 70, 80, 90) then drop set from 90
Then 10 minutes on the step up on calves and 20 minutes on the elliptical!

12 weeks to GOAL!

I am not sure how but I was totally off on my weeks til countdown. Somehow I thought there were nine weeks until the Show Date....then yesterday, with a calendar in hand, I counted! 12 weeks!! Wow..I feel like I just discovered gold! 3 entire months to continue to build!!

******Happy Dancing******

Added in a 20 minute cardio session last night. We are up to 2 a days! :) Scale said 140.8 ((LOLZ))  It must be PMS week....water retention. Pfft.

Practicing my TBA's twice a day now too! I have to get this core STRONG so that I can hold in my abs and support my body through the routines and poses on stage! How much can a body change in 12 weeks anyway???

This was my back in October 2010.

This is now. Significantly leaner, v taper coming in. Shoulds and lats showing a bit. The leaner I get the more it will show. And the arms are quite a bit leaner too. L-O-N-G, S-L-O-W process!

Week 5 begins!

The scale says 140.4. Still. I love it. Seriously. It makes me laugh. I know for sure that by the time I actually do hit the 130 mark it will be for real since I have been stuck at 140.something for two weeks now.  Too funny.... It's like the scale and I are at a standoff, only the scale doesn't realize I will win. 

2nd posing practice yesterday....much better! And started learning my routine. Yes, that word makes me break out in hives...just sayin! The good news is we are not judged on our routines. The bad news is if you don't have your toes in exactly the right place while you are posing you will get disqualified. Now, THAT would suck...so lots of posing practice in my future.

New diet plan next week and rumor has it I will be kissing my beloved fruit goodbye for a while. This week I will savor every bite....I know that I will most miss my blueberries in my oatmeal.

So let's see what week 5 has in store for me! Or should I say, Let's see what I have in store for it!!!

Checking in....

Week 4 is on the books. A GREAT week!! Lost another pound, bodyfat dropped some, workouts were great! I am just going to keep going forward each and every day! I don't see what I want to see anywhere on my body, no muscles like I should have, more fat than I should have, but I know that this is a process and I am committed to my training and diet 100%! Whatever the end result is I have given it my all thus far and will continue to do so!!

Dedication....

Things that make you go hmmmmm......

So this week was week 4 of my nutrition. Tuesday I noticed I was full of energy, and my workout was rock solid. I even did extra work because I had so much energy. And I spent the entire day in a very good mood. Then comes Wednesday and same thing! Great mood, tons of energy, feeling the workout!! Then Thursday...the dreaded low carb day. I felt fabulous all day. No workout on Thursday but here I sit, 8:20, and I just finished some yoga and I had to make myself not do cardio after. The only other time I felt like this was when I used Jack3d as a preworkout drink! But this time it is all natural and coming from my nutrition! And my body feels different. I can feel my muscles and I am more conscious of everything from how I stand to how I sit. Mind you I work full time, go to school full time, have 3 kids, and lift weights after work 5 times a week. I fully accepted being dead dog tired most of the time....but not anymore. If this is what a GREAT meal plan does for you then sign me up!!

Posing Practice

Today we had our first posing practice and I was a nervous wreck!! I always get nervous before doing something new, that whole unchartered territory thing!

But having completed the first session I am so glad that its done and that I now know EXACTLY what to practice for the next 11 weeks! My coach had all of my mandatory poses ready for me and gave me a printout to take with me. SHE ROCKS!!! That was the best decision I ever made going into this...the experience she has and support she gives is incredible and I am so grateful!!!!

And I feel so much better now!! Time to step up my workouts and PUSH!!!!

Temptations and Will Power.....

 

 

 

 I hate that phrase...will power. It implies that somehow a person who says 'No" to the things that tempt them is somehow super strong and has super powers. Yeah, not so much.

As most of you know I am 3 weeks into my training for a bodybuilding competition. First timer, amateur, just a goal! So obviously I have to eat CLEAN! And yes, eating clean translates into mostly bland and boring. Chicken, broccoli, brown rice, oatmeal, a serving of fruit, AND lots of whey. I pack my lunches every day. I follow a schedule for my food. I eat high carbs on leg workout days and low carbs on days off. I get up and do cardio 5 out of 7 mornings at 5 am. I lift weights 5 nights a week after work. And so on....

Last night my daughter had a sleep over for her volleyball team at our house. I told her to tell the girls to bring treats and we ordered pizzas and had the pop. When I got home fromt he gym last night there were 10 extra girls and TONS of JUNK FOOD!! Puppy chow, cookies, Doritos, tortilla chips and queso, pizza rolls, pizza, fruit salad with cool whip, ice cream....

So I made my post workout shake and talked with the girls while ignoring the food spread out all over the kitchen. An hour later I ate some ground turky patties with mustard and brussel sprouts and then proceeded to go to the lower level of the house and put myself on lockdown. I watched Inception and went to bed. Why??? Because I am NOT super human and I do NOT have super powers and I wanted at least one piece of that pizza and a handful of puppy chow and, oh yes, some chips and queso would have been good for sure!!! I hoped they would eat all of the pizza so it wouldn't tempt me from the fridge today and made plans to send them home with all of the leftovers.

I didn't have the willpower to keep myself in front of those temptations for hours on end. No way. So I removed myself from the situation. Just like I won't be attending any Super Bowl gatherings this year. I am nothing special and I know my limitations....It is NOT easy. It is a ton of hardwork and constant decision making...should I? Could I? Will I? For the last three weeks the answers have been "no". No I won't. No I can't. No I shouldn't. My goal is to keep saying 'No' when I need to for the next 11 weeks. But i have to take it one step at a time, one decision at a time.

First Posing Class tomorrow....

Oh lord.

Updates......

So I have started looking at posing suits! Hard to make a decision when I seriously cannot visualize myself in one. But I am going to ask for fabric samples....choosing between blue and purple in some sort of velvet. I know, glamorous. LOL :)

The scale is stuck at 141 all week. My body seriously protests when I get close to getting into the 130 range. No lies...it pisses me off. But I know the scale is not a good measure so forward march!

Sunday is my first posing class...and I am complete nervous wreck about it. This is the part that is a challenge for me. Talk about stepping out of my comfort zone.....