Well, here I am about 7 1/2 weeks out from stage time and I'm feeling pretty good. My meals are still holding me over pretty well, I have escaped bingeing and have avoided most defeating thoughts and NEVER missed a workout. With my full personal training schedule, it has been a matter of perfectly planning my weeks. Morning cardio has been long and grueling but I am definitely seeing my legs thin out and lose a little bulk from the running so that's been a motivating factor. As of about a week ago, my plan to enter the Shredder as a bikini competitor was tweaked a little. After listening to the advice of multiple mentors who are active in the body building industry, I decided to cross over into Figure in the same show. This makes my preparation a little tricky as I need to be curvy and hard all at the same time but it will definitely give me an idea as to what area I'd like to further pursue even though I already have a feeling I know where I fit in. Basically, this has changed everything for the next 2 months. Instead of stopping right about here with the weight loss, I will attempt to get my body fat into the 8% range (it's a little high for figure but a little low for bikini). I have a feeling this is going to take every bit of discipline I have for the next 7 weeks as once you get your body fat this low, it tends to not want to let go of it. Anything under 12% is getting below the fat level needed to maintain survival so bodies tend to resist. I am also back to lifting weights again and I love it! I am lifting HEAVY on the upper body (shoulders and upper back are the calling card of figure girls) and I'm really enjoying it as it is a serious challenge. I'm embarassed to admit that I am extremely weak in the upper back and picturing myself doing pullups is almost comical but this is what I am set out to do for the remainder of my prep.
I will be posting up in the free weights section of the gym with all the boys lifting and grunting like all the rest of them :)
Because of this leg of my journey that I have set forth on, I have thought a lot about how we tend to work on or in areas that we are good at and tend to avoid those that we are weaker in. I can't do pull ups and I also can't tell you the last time I tried. How many of us are just running on a treadmill because that's easy enough and completely neglecting resistance training?? Weights are our friend. The gym is not a place to look like a Barbie and stand around socializing so why don't we mix it up a bit and risk looking like a fool attempting an exercise we aren't accustomed to? My body has 100% transformed from the time when I would just run around the block for 20 minutes and call it a day. Once I learned first-hand the value of weight training, I'll never go back. On top of the great visual changes you see with added muscle, extra food ain't half bad either (every pound of muscle added burns another 250 calories daily at rest).
Bottom line on my thoughts for the day are this, don't get too comfortable with where you are at now. Don't settle for average. This isn't just about your body but really about everything in life. You have no idea of what you're capable of if you don't go after it. That applies to pull ups as well as becoming the person you want to be. Sometimes, coming out of a dark time in your life can feel just as difficult and humiliating as watching me attempt to lift my pile of bones into the air :)
"There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going"
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