Less than 3 weeks away until the show! HOLY BEELZEBUB! Here is my current progress since last night (19 days out):
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| 3 weeks out: looking and feeling vascular, despite 6 consecutive days of carb depletion. |
Knowing When To Slow Down
I don't wanna burn out. I don't wanna damage my metabolism. I am doing enough work for the amount of food I've been eating. I've been tweaking my training volume around my Carb Nites. Tuesday's become my carb nites and will be until 8/20. Then I will go ULC until the last 3 days of my Peak Week, where I will carb up to maintenance for 3 days straight. AWWWW YEAHHH.
Because I do not want to damage myself in the LONG RUN, I've made it a point to keep all 5 training sessions per week 45 minutes long (or under). I wanna grace the stage lean, but I don't wanna spend a lifetime trying to fix the damage of dieting and training too hard for my first prep (or any future prep, for that matter). I'm NOT gonna kill myself with everyday hour-long cardio like most people do, but will still do my HIIT's and circuits 3-4x/week. I have pulled two-a-days and that's fine with me. I will set these around my carb nite. Heavy work Wednesday, rest or cardio Thursday, heavy work Friday.. then start scaling down in weight and volume to maybe just full-body circuits Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday as I become more and more carb-depleted throughout the week. Absolute rest on Sunday. I am going for healthy - not just for my first competition, but life in general - and I don't wanna end up fried.
I've reduced the amount of bloaty food that I eat. I cook all my veggies so they don't give me stomach aches. I have reduced significantly the number of Quest Bars I eat on a given day.
I've also recently contracted a cold - I haven't felt sick in several months now, thanks to fitness and nutrition! - so I've been downing huge amounts of green and black tea, which is actually doing my body good in so many ways.
I keep taking my fat burner supplements and my Cellucor Super HD. No problems for me, but I can't wait to cycle off them and just focus on eating and lifting off-season. Off-season is gonna be off the hook, I already know.
30% Gym, 70% Diet??
And a quick reminder to those who are STILL doubting: you can train or run or exercise all you want, but you're not gonna see drastic changes unless your diet is on point. I was one of those un-believers until recently.
See for yourself, below for an example:
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| LEFT: 7 Weeks Out - VS - RIGHT: 4 Weeks Out (3-week difference, diet on caloric deficit, CNS, and tracking macros.) |
Some days are better than others. Some days I cave in to extra scoops of peanut butter, or sneak a jelly bean in once in a while. I almost quit Carb Nite completely to reintroduce carbs (and sanity) back to my regular diet!
But, while the diet is difficult, the motivation I get from seeing myself lean out week by week in the mirror is what really drives me forward. I am not striving to look like somebody else, as my competition is right in front of me. What better way to grow and improve?!
I've also been enjoying the HELL out of meal prepping and cooking and planning my meals during this diet - since I have certain macros I need to stick to (which I've mentioned I like tracking) I've been coming up with all kinds of alternatives and concoctions that make sure I get the foods I like in, as long as I make certain adjustments. But that'll be all detailed in a different post.
Ain't Got Time For Your Shit
I've been dealing with stress, adjusting sleep schedules, dietary tweaks, monthly BLOAT and water weight gain. Which really wreaks havoc on one's perspective of oneself when trying to diet down.. especially for a show. I'll admit I've freaked out a few times that nothing I was doing was actually working.
But even with these hellraisers popping up everywhere, I've still stuck to ALL of my plans. I got less than 3 weeks left, there is absolutely NO room for excess garbage!
I am consciously making my days better by default. I really have no time or energy for stress (mostly other people's bullshit, pardon my French). No raised cortisol or added fat storage for me, no thanks. People pick fights with me and break my heart and/or make me upset on a regular basis. But guess what? Ain't nobody got time fo dat on contest prep!
Instead of crying or hurting, or even worrying to death, I choose an extra hour or two of sleep per night. I'll ignore the culprit and just think about what is more important at this point. They give me stress? I circumvent it. I ignore it, I focus on the things that matter - Kaeden, work, Kaeden's school, training, nutrition, prep for the show, etc. No time for drama.
People have been constantly throwing me under the bus, or putting me in the spotlight with all kinds of stupid questions. "Why are you not eating normal?" "Why aren't you doing this?" "Why are you doing that?" Why are you eating so much meat/etc.?" "Why are you taking another rest day?" "Why are you always weighing and measuring everything?" And they're not even questions that they want answered out of curiosity, or because they really want to know what I'm doing and why - but snarky, snide little comments that people mask as questions so they can jab you with negativity without sounding like an outright asshole. See hater in the dictionary. At least the self-professed assholes out there are forthcoming...
And these days I only have enough energy to tell them all the same thing: I don't have to answer to you! I really dont!
NO ONE rules my life but me. I have a life to raise on my own, as it is. I don't need stupid opinions or comments bogging me down.
NO ONE is going to keep me from stepping on that stage and COMPLETING this goal especially when I'm so close! Even though there are lots of little hands trying to pull me down. I'm GOING to do this.
