April 3DP: dayTWENTYFOUR | A New Approach

I've been busy since I began Carb Back-Loading again on Sunday. Busy enjoying food, making it, taking photos of it.. it didn't take much for me to realize just how much I love food. Healthy, trashy, whatever. If it's made wonderfully, I like it.

If you all have Pinterest, you should follow me! I post a lot.. trust me (lol). I just created a new board called Jenina's Culinary Creations, a special place just for, well - the title explains it all. I've loved taking pictures of all my dishes for God knows how long. I was definitely already in the "food photography" bandwagon before everybody else made it an epidemic on Instagram. :)

Check out these spicy California rolls I made for a back-load!

More Tracking

With change comes adjustment. Since I've increased not only my caloric intake, but also my carbohydrate intake, from <1200 to 2000+, I definitely have to be careful not to overdo it. If I was a man, I wouldn't need to do this at all, as their bodies aren't holding on to fat for dear life in the chance event that a new life needs to be supported. For women, unfortunately, our bodies are stubborn and hold on to glycogen reserves too well. I don't want mine overfilling and spilling into fat storage (damn estrogen!).

I've been doing the following to keep myself and goals in check, just until I get the hang of everything and become habituated to the whole thing:

 - Calculating my average caloric needs for the WEEK. Right now, my average is 13,000. If I want to lean, I go down to ~12,500. If I want to grow, I can go all the way up to 14,700. The average daily caloric intake is 1,857. Again, everything adjusts accordingly - I'm not gonna be hitting that number every day. Some will be more, some will be less. ULC days will hover around 1200-1500, while CBL days will be 1800-2200.

(SN: This is due to all the strength training AND HIIT sessions I do - if I was sedentary 24/7, NO WAY IN HELL would I be able to get away with all this food).

 - Writing in my daily log - how I woke up looking and feeling that day, what I did in the gym, what I'm eating.

 - Logging food on MyFitnessPal. I tend to undereat - this is why I'm tracking my intake so much: not to restrict myself, but to actually hit all my macros.

 - Designated 4 CBL days and 3 ULC days.

 - Writing out checklists for each week to make sure I do all necessary workouts, and eat to accomodate each training session.

 - Haven't got around to it yet, but I will be measuring chest, waist, hips, quads, calves, biceps, and shoulders - as well as recording my weight every week or two - to assure growth in desired areas, and fat loss in others.

Seems excessive, and I know no one would really go to this kind of length to get fitness results, but I'm not normal. I could cook all day, eat all day, work out until I'm sore, and STILL want to record everything. I almost like it. It won't be for long, though. I know I will get to a point where I will no longer do it, for I won't have the need to. I'll just know what my body needs. And that'll really be the day!

But, for now, I'm being a complete nitpick about it.

I'm definitely enjoying my meals and my days. Both the carby and the ultra-low carb kinds. I really do not feel like I'm dieting - maybe because I'm not. I get to eat with the family, and I feel great that everything I'm eating is going towards my goals - even the Ben & Jerry's Cheesecake Brownie Ice Cream before bed.

Tonight, I'm working on my chest & deadlifts, then going ULC - and I plan on making a cheeseburger cauliflower casserole for dinner (which I saw on Pinterest) with a chocolate mug casein cake for pre-bed dessert. All stress-free, but still delicious. I'm excited!

19 Weeks Out | Carb Back-Loading!

Yesterday I made the decision to switch from Carb Nite to Carb Back-Loading. I didn't mind going ULC for 7 days and having a Carb Nite once a week - however, I began noticing the following:

- No change - no real fat loss, no significant body recomposition, very little change on the scale,

- All paired with no visible changes on my body. Progress pictures put side-to-side from dayONE and dayFIFTEEN show no change, and maybe some slight fat gain (or muscle loss).

- I have been too stressed post-Carb Nite from worrying about the sheer volume of food I ate, and I stay bloated until day 7 of ULC. Maybe my cortisol levels have risen as well.

Most importantly: After tracking my macros, I realized I was only eating 1200-1500 calories/day, when my BMR is approximately 1222 calories. Basal metabolic rate is the amount of energy expended daily by humans and other animals at rest, sufficient only for vital organ function. I have been exercising with heavy volume weight training and 3-4 HIIT sessions/week, which amounts to approximately 300-400 calories burned per workout.. and that doesn't account for post-workout calorie burn.

If I need this 1222 calories just for my organs to function, and I'm at a 300-calorie deficit, that leaves the final number to be approximately 900. WOW, not good.

Usually I don't focus on my caloric intake, but this is too little food.

According to this macro calculator, someone my age, exercising vigorously for 6-7 hours a week, needs about 2109 calories to maintain their weight. I'm not too concerned about weight, but more of my body composition - decreasing my body fat percentage, and increasing my lean body mass. That's over 1000 calories I am not eating.

Throw heavy weight training AND multiple HIIT sessions in the mix, and this has spelled disaster for me. Disaster means a stall. Any further, and I'd be imposing some bad stuff upon myself, health-wise. I really don't want to impose any metabolic damage on myself, ever, not even for any competition or any aesthetic desire. My health comes first.

I could tweak everything by NOT working out and increasing my fat take to up my caloric intake to 1560/day during Carb Nite, but currently my body needs much more muscle to develop the shape and state of fitness that I really want...

There's no way I'm going to scale back on the volume of my workouts. My body needs the exercise and responds very well to it. It is also my de-stressor everyday.

And that is why I will be carb back-loading again.

During March, I CBL'd multiple times a week - sometimes I even got out of hand. If only I had kept a numerical log during that month, I could have posted the differences. The most important thing I noticed, is that dayONE and dayTHIRTY of March's 30dayPUSH displayed the most significant changes. Hell, even dayONE-dayFIFTEEN was super drastic.

To describe it, I lost a ton of FAT on my back and upper body, which has been my constant goal since the beginning. My lower body gained more definition, and despite the fat loss, the measurements for my hips, glutes, and quads did not change - which is also what I was going for.

I've always known it in the back of my mind, that my body responds rather well to eating copious amounts of food post-workout, and that eating a significant amount of carbs afterward always makes my body feel good.

This switch, and a switch for good - while still being able to make tweaks, here and there - will make my body much healthier, my mind more sane, and life a little brighter. And I will explain why.


Changing the Approach

Being 19 weeks out from a show that I've never done before, and deciding to increase caloric intake by a bunch, seems rather risky, doesn't it?

Well, I'm not going to risk metabolic damage. I'm not going to let a whole month go by with no progress. I'm actually very happy to be able to eat more soon. My body will like it, and not only will I be able to work better and harder in the gym, I'll definitely see some muscular growth. It's not without its downsides, of which are the fact that I'll be recording my progress daily NOT to minimize intake, but to make sure I eat enough. Um, actually, that's not a downside :P But the fact that I will be recording every little stat, change, etc. to make sure I'm on track and don't mess up.

I consumed 181g of carbs yesterday (which felt like a LOT to me last night) but according to the CBL book, I can get away with 270-364g per night. Provided I train - train the way I do now, and even harder perhaps. I will start at the bottom and work my way up. I will only increase carb intake if results are stalling (ie. I'm not growing). Fat loss will happen as well, so I need to make sure to monitor my fat intake to make sure I'm not overloading on that while carb-loading as well.

I'll post my CBL experience from last night, in the next post. My spirits are up, I'm happy, life is good. I will explain all really soon, I promise. But for now, I have to go. Carbs are back!

April 3dp | daySIXTEEN

Today after work, in between changing laundry loads, I will be doing the following:

P90X Ab Ripper X
Shoulder & Arm supersets w/weights: front & lateral raises, overhead presses, bicep curls, tricep dips & overhead extensions.
20 minute overall HIIT Tabata workout - ANABOLIC CARDIO!

Don't have a lot of time to update, but I wanted to update anyway.

Also, today is the halfway check-in for April's 30dayPUSH. I will post the picture tomorrow (or tonight) of my progress from dayONE to daySIXTEEN (today).

I've figured out my May plan: I'm going to Carb Back-Load for 4 weeks [18-15 weeks out] and cycle off my weekly HIIT sessions, replacing them with 30-minute incline walks post-weight training. Need to focus more on hypertrophy and NO fat gain, maybe even fat loss, during those 4 weeks.

I'm not really going to overstress about comp anymore. But I understand, I'm human and I'm going to have my bad days.. especially due to this. No normal person undergoes a physique competition, let alone the torture to prepare for it.

At least I will try my hardest, every day, to look on the bright side.

Currently, I am 121 lbs (4+lb weight gain from Carb Nite, normal, mostly water weight) @ 20% body fat. Down 2% from last month. So far, so good.

April 3dP | dayFIFTEEN & 20 Weeks Out

It's Monday morning, and I'm already stressed.

I'm officially 20 weeks out from competition. I'm currently using Carb Nite to lose body fat since I am around 20-22%, from the last time I was checked - which was most likely horribly inaccurate, given the circumstances (measurement was taken at 4pm, after I had a half a day of loading up on water and food). Carb Nite is not optimal for gaining muscle, which is the only thing I do not like about it.

I'm definitely leaning down, and I notice it in the way that my wardrobe no longer fits the way it once did. However, I'm finding that I don't like what I see in the mirror:

1. My lower stomach fat is still present. It's really a combo of fat & skin from the pregnancy.. which was almost 5 years ago. This is how stubborn my genetics are, though, and I see it in all the women in my family. This is just a matter of patience, though, since a lot of me is starting to lean out already.

2. The lack of curves is disturbing. Now, this may just be a subjective thing.. My opinion is not objective at all, no matter how much I try. Things are not popping as they should. And to achieve those curves, I really need to build muscle in the lacking areas.

See the dilemma?

I'm 20 weeks out, and I'm pretty nervous. I find that I need to tweak my intake more, and adjust things for better results. 20 weeks for someone that's never competed is such a short amount of time, and it doesn't help that my gym gives me really bad body fat percentage readings that worry me into thinking I haven't been making any progress since training and dieting in January.

Training doesn't scare me. I know what I need to do to build muscle and strength, and improve as the weeks ago.. and also adjust accordingly if I'm feeling weak on a particular day. Heavy weight, volume, and intensity do not frighten me..

It's the diet. My body has never been in such good shape as I want it to be in 20 weeks. I don't know what's really under the body fat, if I have enough muscle or not to look good on stage. To me, it seems like my body does not want to let go of anymore fat at all. And I need that fat gone to see if I need to add more muscle to various parts of my body.

A lot of contest training and diet is aesthetically oriented. I just know that post-competition, I would not be stressing out about ANY of this, at all! I plan to CBL for life, keep growing muscles and gaining strength, eating healthy AND delicious foods, and be happy. I'd know to eat carbs post-workout, have whatever everybody else is having for dinner, get to have some wine or beer on those special occasions, and just train and eat to be healthy.. NOT to be aesthetically pleasing on stage.

However, this is not real life, this is prep. I have 20 weeks, which means I really don't have any room to play around or mess up. The worst part about the diet aspect of pre-contest is, that it will never be the same for everybody, so it's not like I can just go and ask someone for advice, especially since what works for them, will most likely not work for me.

I'm worrying myself too much today and can't focus on much else. I haven't gotten anything done. I feel like I'm obsessing. I have come to expect that days like this will happen during contest prep.. however, I can never get prepared for how crappy I will actually feel.

It doesn't help that I just had my Carb Nite yesterday, and I was literally debilitated from the volume of food I had. Round one, I had some sushi and a lemon bar to start, which were delicious. I tried to eat slowly, and at this phase I was feeling pretty good. The rest of the night, I felt impregnated with carbs. It was difficult to move. Next Carb Nite, I am going to definitely cut things back a notch or two.

I keep wondering if I should do 4-6 weeks of carb back-loading to build some muscle, and seriously wondering if that will set me back in my goals. Carb back-loading is designed so that you don't gain any fat while building muscle. The problem I'm having is 1) will 6-8 weeks be even enough time to get some good mass in certain problem spots, and 2) will the next 12-14 weeks be enough time to diet down to a certain body fat percentage?

It's days like this that make me wish I could afford to hire a coach, and not just any competition coach - but one that will implement Kiefer's dietary protocols along with my training. Hell, even Kiefer himself. Every trainer I've run into here tries to convince me to eat breakfast and go low-glycemic, whole grain and low-fat. Egg whites and oatmeal, and dry meat. I know from experience, that none of these work for me at all. I gain fat, get bloated, and crash in the middle of the day. There is little to no progress with me in the traditional contest diet. Sorry, but my body really does not respond too well to it.

I'm going to train heavy this week, this 20 weeks out, and do HIIT accordingly, to purge the glycogen stores I filled up from yesterday's Carb Nite.  Heavy and crushing until I feel absolutely depleted by day 6 or 7.

Then, on Sunday, I'll decide on whether should make that Carb Nite into a Back-Load, then just back-load on nights prior to training, for maybe 6-8 weeks. We shall see how my body changes during those weeks.. I am definitely going for MORE CURVES. On 13 weeks out, though, I will switch back to Carb Nite, add a ripe banana post-workout, and just adjust as the weeks go down and maybe cut out the banana and dairy 6-8 weeks out.

We will see, but I won't make any concrete decisions right now, seeing as I'm frazzled as all hell.

I'll train after work, heavy duty glutes, legs, and core. I'll implement the post-workout carb today to see how my body responds to that. Take the progress pictures so I can monitor the changes. I feel like a lab rat.

Ugh, I am stressed. F**k you competition prep. :(

April 3DP: dayNINE

I'm just going to be straightforward for this post. No frills today..


dayNINE | Training

I trained Chest and Arms, and deadlifted @ 2-65x10/8/. Definitely think I'll be increasing it next week, either by sets, weights, or both. Played around on the assisted pullup machine with different grip placements. Pull-ups, chin dips, etc. to hit various muscle groups in my back. I'm working harder this time around on my back, since it needs a lot of work.

Top: Normal view. Bottom: Flexed.

Trained with my boyfriend. Spotted him on the bench press. The benches were, once again, busy as f**k, so I ended up pressing a tiny 40-lb bar and had to up it by 50.
The cardio machines were also backed up. God, the gym being so busy got me aggravated yesterday.
Didn't help that Mother Nature has decided to kick me in the ovaries yesterday morning. Every little thing is getting on my nerves.


dayNINE | Food

I had some leftover pork sinigang (that I made over the weekend) but instead of eating it alone, or with rice - as it is usually served with, I threw some cauliflower in a blender, microwaved it, and added butter, garlic powder, sea salt & parsley to it. It tastes like a delicious fried rice or mashed potato alternative. Was gonna throw in shredded carrot, but didn't get around to it. My belly was happy and Kaeden even had some, and liked it.

Cauliflower "Rice": Great ULC alternative to rice, or even potatoes.

My mornings and pre-training hours are starting to look the same each day, which is good. Morning consists of the AM Accelerator Shake - coffee, splenda, 2 tbsp heavy cream, 1 tbsp coconut oil, 1 scoop of Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Vanilla Whey.. and some whip cream on top [maybe] if I feel daring that day.

Then I'll have my first meal at around 11am, and another at 1:30 pm. One of them is usually 1/2 a cup of 4% fat cottage cheese. I freaking love cottage cheese.

Post-workout, I take some fish oil, 3 creatine pills (1 serving per the bottle I have); and either a scoop of ON Vanilla whey, a scrambled egg, or both. I do it for the leucine content in the whey and egg, since I need that small insulin spike post-workout to tap into my glycogen stores - which I am trying to deplete by the end of the week, prior to another Carb Nite.

Pretty straightforward. Food porn still haunts me daily though.. I should probably stop looking at so many food blogs, Pinterest, Tumblr, and talking Filipino food with my sister all the time. Ugh..


dayNINE | Overall

I've been feeling very blah for the past few days. For some reason, the jealousy bug still bites me once in a while, and I see girls in the gym who I KNOW for a fact do not work hard very much at all, and yet somehow (ahem, genetics) they have the perfect bodies. I have to work 200% 24/7 to attain a physique that I can be proud of... and I'm not even sure what that "end" result is going to look like, if it's going to even look good, since I've never seen it before. I've never been this fit and strong before, I've never been "lean" and I'm only starting to see results here and there, but my stubborn areas continue to plague me.

Despite all this, I still got through a day of training and proper nutrition. Didn't give up. I used to use days like these as an excuse to stay in at home and do nothing, and maybe even binge on something bad.. But, giving up is no longer allowed. Still, I am feeling rather bummed out and negative, and I'd really like to change that ASAP before it spirals out of control. UGH...

Maybe this weather needs to brighten up too. I HATE SPRING.

April 3dp: dayEIGHT (& My New YouTube Channel)

As you can see, I changed the layout of this blog. This place needed more sprucing up.

Today is a few things: it is dayNINE of April's 30dayPUSH. It is also Week 2 of the PUSH.

And effective yesterday, I am 21 weeks out from the INBA 2013 PRO/AM Natural Universe, which I am set to compete in after all. It is to take place on August 31, 2013. It is a terrifying and exciting concept altogether.

But this post is really for yesterday, dayEIGHT. New week, new start, new goals.


WTF, You Started VLOGGING?!

I figure I'll explain more right now as I hinted at it in a previous post. Yes, I started a YouTube Channel, go see it @ my username: jeninalanzi.

I will warn you right now, I suck at making videos. Considering I've only made one, the level of suckiness is appropriately congruent. I was using my phone, since I do not really have a computer or a camera to record with (my 4th Macbook charger fried out, after only 3 times of use). I also think I sound very nasally and un-feminine, but hey, not everyone sounds as glorious as a breathy Celtic singer.

But ANYWAY! The first vLOG is me talking (ahem, rambling) about my journey during contest prep. I also lift up my shirt to show my belly button, aka progress. It is amateur at best and I really don't plan for all my future videos to suck as bad as this first one did. But it's a start.



dayEIGHT| Training

Yesterday, I mentioned my glycogen reserves were very full. I totally kicked butt during yesterday's glute & leg PM training. I somehow properly, but painfully, squatted 135x2 by accident (put on the wrong plates) and I was wondering why the hell I got weaker from the week before.. DURP. It was a good shock to my central nervous system, though. I went up 5lbs on my [new] regular though: 95 to 100. Yes, yes, and yes.

I worked my quads a lot yesterday, too. They used to be huge, but when I stopped lifting last year, due to surgery issues, my body kinda started eating away at them. So I did a few leg press sets, playing with different footing placements with each individual set to work different parts of my legs. Still at 95 (but only hit 95 last week) and still finishing each set by crawling out from underneath the damn machine. Dignity? What dignity?

I did a lot of bodyweight glute & hip accessory work to bring those muscles to failure as well. I also weighted up the same workouts on the floor. As always, on Mondays, my gym has a line out the door for benches & bars, so I wasn't able to do weighted hip thrusts until I went home and asked my little guy to sit on my stomach as my weight. Which is fine, he loves when I do this exercise: he calls it "Moving Table." So cute.

Then we checked out the park behind our apartment complex, and had a great evening together. He tried the crack brownie - I mean, the red velvet cheesecake brownie - I made yesterday. His face was priceless. It kills me to have to give all the leftover brownies away, since I am back on my ULC days, but I also love seeing the reactions on people's faces whenever they eat my food. The good outweighs the bad significantly in this case.

The thing I love about being healthy and venturing into fitness is, it makes me appreciate life more. I have a deeper appreciation for the small, easily-overlooked facets of life. It makes me look forward to every day. And in this case, I love it all, especially since I get to spend it being a mother to such an amazing little guy.

Sunday Funday (a.k.a. Carb Nite)

With all the craziness that ensued last week (and Saturday, see post below), you can imagine that when I ended up having Sunday (yesterday) all to myself, I enjoyed the heck out of it. Oh yes, it was glorious..

It was sunny and warm out! I got to shop for new shampoo, conditioner & face wash without being rushed or yelled at to go look at toys! I went to the gym and took my sweet time stretching, training my back, getting my HIIT in pre-Carb Nite - and OH! It was CARB NITE! I don't know if I overdit it or it was just perfect, but I stuffed myself silly.


What DID I Eat?

For Carb Nite, I made pork sinigang (Filipino tamarind soup) with rice..

...Then it went downhill from there.

I ate half a box of kolacky's, then baked these dangerously divine Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownie cupcakes from scratch:

What have I done? These things are dangerous!

...Then, I ate a square of 60% dark Ghirardelli chocolate (in the middle of baking, when I was supposed to be melting the chocolate).. then I had a "date night" with my best girlfriend and we went out for pizza at Leona's, which had some absolutely delicious personal Sicilian pan pizzas (mine had green peppers & mushroom) and bread with lots of garlic butter. Then I went home and nibbled on some banana bread that I made for the family a while ago.

Needless to say, I crashed hard when I put my head on that pillow.


Aftermath

Today, my metabolic hormones are all re-set to fire, my glycogen stores are adequately filled up, and I'm going to use this day to crank out my heaviest training workload in the gym: Glutes & Legs. Let's see how heavy I can push today. I may not do HIIT until tomorrow, since I want those glycogen reserves to all flood to my legs & butt once I'm done with today. Sounds weird and gross, doesn't it? Well, I did something right last week and I looked REALLY good in the mirror by Tuesday morning. So, I'm going to repeat the experiment and see if it works again.

I have a feeling I'm going to have to work super-hard this week to empty my glycogen stores again, and really make my body burn its existing fat, due to all the carbs I inhaled last night. I foresee lots of heavy weights, soreness, and HIIT. Double time in the gym, and of course my designated 2 rest days. THIS WEEK though, I will actually try to get some REAL rest - as opposed ot just having a "day off" from the gym, only to do lots of cleaning and stressing out.

I have to get on stage, so I will do what I must to step on it. But I'm not superhuman (well, yet), so I need to make sure not to stress and enjoy the ride as well.

ALL Over The Place!

I keep intending to blog regularly with some "regular series" of posts, IE: the 30dayPUSH daily blogs, as well as informative articles here and there, but I keep forgetting to! Mostly, I am just all over the place, and I HATE it when there's no set structure for something I'm out to accomplish.

I spent Saturday cleaning. Rest day? PFFT! Cleaned all day! And COOKED! And cleaned some more! My boyfriend and I are only home together for an entire day, maybe once a week. And during the rest of the week, shit piles up! So we both re-organized everything, scrubbed from top to bottom (sorta), got the carpet shampooed, etc. You know how it is. Especially with having kids, and no time. And I only have one, and I almost always have no time.

Somehow, I'm doing more fun activities with Kaeden, talking to him more, the boyfriend and I have been cranking out some DELICIOUS FOOD that looks and tastes pro, the house has stayed somewhat clean for an entire weekend now (GASP! -there's still dishes in the sink, though), AND I'm getting my workouts in for the weeks leading up to competition AND staying on track with my ULC nutrition.

Oh, and I started a Youtube channel @jeninalanzi. I'll dedicate a separate post to this.

How the $#%#$ is all this possible?! My head's going to explode!


Game Plan

I have to start getting organized again, so I'm just gonna lay it out as a list:

CONTEST PREP:
 - Keep doing 30dayPUSH
 - Weekly vLOG/videotrack to count down the weeks from competition.
 - Keep checking off to-do lists on calendar.
 - Form a more specific training split
 - Keep ULC days WAY under 30g/day (instead of pushing it)
 - Begin Carb Nites low-fat, then increase fat as the night progresses
 - Create budget, schedule and checklist for prep items

FUTURE PLANS:
 - Create a new website/blog
 - Move blog to WordPress (sorry Blogger)
 - Make Videos on my Youtube Channel to supplement my website content
 - (Maybe) Make a Facebook Page..
 - Purchase new laptop for fitness work, articles, personal files etc.
 - Get my NASM-CPT certification so I can begin training people.
 - Take some culinary classes in oder to switch my day job from office to kitchen.


I feel crazy for even wanting to undertake all this on top of my life. I really wish I could update more often and with more variety in content. SOON, I hope!

April 3DP: dayONE

It was rather fortunate for me that my Carb Nite fell on Easter (yesterday). My boyfriend's sister hosted, and did one hell of an awesome job. One look at the food she served and I knew I was just going to go insane on the intake. I happily feasted with the family, I was relaxed, and it was a good time. And best of all, the kids had so much fun! It was a great day indeed. Don't forget to enjoy life, ya know.

 

[Note to self: NEVER BUY Cadbury Mini-Eggs AGAIN! Unless you want diabetes the next day...]

 

Summer is nearby, which means the competition is deadline is also nearby. I'm going to be using this April 30dayPUSH to keep myself completely in check: daily tracking, macronutrient timing, consistent training schedules week to week. I hate that I need to lean out but I need to do it. I have stubborn body fat that desperately needs to melt off, and I will only increase my carb intake per week once I feel I've reached a desirable level of leanness. (If it wasn't for contest prep, I'd CBL every other day and make some serious gains.)

 

 

22 Weeks Out

 

On this very day, I am 22 weeks out from the 2013 INBA Natural Universe. I guess, from what I've read on the internet in various places, that that is ample time to transform a 117-lb, 22% BF body into some serious bikini bod.

 

Again, I'm telling myself to be patient, be consistent, and best of all, relax. Contest prep is stressful enough, and I'll have to sort out show details soon. I just need to:

 

 - Stick with the plan daily,
 - Train dirty,
 - Track my progress,
 - Hit my macros, and
 - Don't give into predatory carb-tempting demons (aka my friends and family, sorry guys) until Carb Nite, which is currently every Sunday.

 

 

dayONE | Training

 

I'll go back later and post what my workout consisted of, once I actually do it. It's 10AM right now and I'm still at work. After work, I'll try to get some caffeine in pre-workout.. then train HARD - my glycogen stores have been filled up from yesterday's Carb Nite. Heavy volume today, back/biceps/lower body. It'll taper off in intensity as the week progresses and the ketogenesis kicks in. Hopefully my boyfriend joins me today :)

EDIT 4/3: I didn't do any cardio, nor did I do biceps. I did do heavy duty back and lower body.

I guess all the dudes love Chest Day, since today there was a freaking line for all of the benches. I couldn't do my hip thrusts or even deadlifts since there were no Olympic bars available! :( But oh well. Since going to the gym more regularly now, I have come up with a good split for my days.

My boyfriend came with me to the gym! He has expressed interest in going to the gym more, so we'll be working out together more often. Infecting more people with the fitness 'disease'! ;) He says he wants to get his abs back, as he put it, and that he's pretty strong everywhere else. Trying to convince him to lift more so he can burn the fat faster than with solely cardio. He will do so well, I'm really excited for him. He broke some skin punching the boxing bag though.. next time he'll bring some gloves.

I did the following workouts:

•  Hip abduction - 6-5-5 (not sure what the numbers meant on the machine, however they were HEAVY. I'll have to find out.)
•  Wide grip lat pulldowns - 70-55-55-40, drop-sets until failure.
• Seated row - 55-55-40-40
• Leg press - 95-95-95 for 10 reps. Feel the burn!! Told BF, "There's no dignity, everyone crawls in the end."
• Deep Smith machine squats - 95-95-95. The free weight squat racks were all taken up.. by idiots curling!!!! Ugh!! So I took the first opportunity to do my squats.
• Glute bridges w/10lb plate - 3x20, 5-second isometric holds at top movement
• Superset Dumbbell calf raises & Jump squats - 3-20

dayONE | So Far

 

I'm sleep deprived today. I'm gonna get more sleep this month, I swear. Not worry so much about my house, and just enjoy time with my son.

 

I'm taking Claritin for my allergies - they have unfortunately begun, despite the lack of greens, and the lack of warmer weather. Stinkin' Chicago. I hope this doesn't affect me in any other way, 'cause I know some medicines can cause bloat and/or weight gain.

 

I'll take my phototrack when I get home, after working out. I'm gonna measure parts of my body so I can track progress in those areas throughout the month.

EDIT 4/3: I wrote down in my notebook that day that "I'm noticing that I'm starting to develop more curves! :) I'm so excited for this month. I can't wait to lean out + start adding muscle!! :)"

I'm so excited to be putting in more time at the gym and being 22 weeks out (only!) from a BIKINI competition. It's still scary, but not as frightening as it was when I decided that I was gonna go through with it.

I'm also learning more and more about Carb Nite and Carb Back-loading. The fact that I'm understanding more and more of the book every day, and how specific nutrition can be timed and executed for the right metabolic function, really excites me. I don't think anyone else around me (or any other normal human being) is as excited as I am about insulin manipulation, Modulated Tissue Response, leucine supplementation, and MCT effects on the body, etc.. Oh my goodness, I'm reeling just thinking about all the science - that I almost fully understand them now! SO MUCH JOY! Well, at least, I'm beginning to comprehend what Kiefer has put out.

So dayONE was indeed a good day. Very very eager for the month. I hope I can keep this feeling high for the whole month!


I'm not really going to be documenting my intake on here. It's not that interesting and it'd just be too much to write, especially on a daily basis. If I had no job, however, or if someone personally requested to see it on here, I might be able to do it. I might write a post about my post-workout supplementation, as it pertains to contest prep, but I don't know when that'll be. Such is life!