Christine2005’s BodyBlog

I can’t wait to weigh myself tomorrow.  I started to bump up my calories progressively after the Houston Pro/Am competition.  For two weeks, I kept my calories at 1500 plus one cheat day.  The next two weeks I bumped up calorie intake to 1700 plus one cheat day.  Now I’m on 1950 calories plus one cheat day.  I keep my cardio to about 3 hours per week with one hour intervals mixed into the three hours.  My food plan is still very clean during the six days e.g.  rice, chicken, fish, occasionally some ground turkey, baked tostadas, veggies, low glycemic fruits.  But in the last 4 days, I’ve been eating sweet potatos and I really think this is helping me fill out.  I swear, my entire body (thank God not my mid section) is fuller.  It’s crazy.  Legs, glutes, and arms feel thicker.  I like it but I miss seeing definition on my physique!! 

My first national show will be in Las Vegas for the USA’s.  It is in late July so I have a good amount of time to continue to shock my body with intense training.  I want to see what the weight training will do for me this time.  My next show will be about a month later right here in Texas (thank goodness) for the jr usa’s in late August.  There will be 6 height classes and only 2 pro cards are given out (if I read this correctly in the npc news mag) to the 1st and 2nd place in the overall.  That means tougher competition, that means training smarter.  Then I will do the last national show of the year at nationals held in Dallas, where competition is even tougher.  Great competition always makes you a better athlete.  Somehow a person finds a way to step up to the competition.  How often do you hear about someone stepping down to the competition? 

I decided to enjoy putting on a little more muscle on my frame.  You can’t increase strength carrying 4% bodyfat all the time.  The goal for me is to create an even better physique that will hopefully ’shock and awe’ everyone.  So once again I will take my body through another transformation process.  I’ll take before photos at the beginning of the year and see where this journey will lead me. 

Any words of encouragement is very much appreciated by ALL of you!!  Thank you for following me on this crazy but fun adventure….  

My next show is not until July so I don’t need to kill myself with 11 hours of cardio a week.  But I’m finding that it’s easier to do eleven hours rather than three hours.  When it’s just three hours, I tend to put it off because it’s such a manageable amount.  You can’t get behind with eleven hours or you’ll NEVER get it in for the week.  So far, I’ve been able to do it. 

 One thing’s for sure, I feel so much better being off all supplements and actually trying new things with my training techniques.  I don’t start training with my trainer until after Thanksgiving and we will only train 1x a week until April.  I read an interesting article in this month’s ESPN about Pro NFL players.  While it may good to be fast in the nfl, it is only one component.  Speed alone does not make an NFL player successful.  In other words, pure talent can only get you so far.  You have to do your homework, you have to have a good work ethic to set yourself apart from the pack.  I believe this applies to anyone that loves to compete at the next level (nationals) where you get the best of the best on stage and then more so at the pro level.  Majority of the competitors have good genes, but only a small percentage are willing to do the work required to get to the top. 

Competing is not a ‘job’ for me, I enjoy it.  I love the challenge of beating time and getting it all in.  A strong work ethic comes to fruition when the body gets on stage, complete.  Now excuse me while I focus on getting my ‘three’ cardio hours in for the week!!!  Have a great weekend coming up everyone! 

I’m glad I kept my cheat day limited to only one day. I found out on Friday about a photo shoot for a local health and fitness magazine that I might be doing in a week and a half.  I really couldn’t enjoy my usual Saturday cheat fest, I held back a little. 

Before I found out about this shoot, I changed my workouts and now I’m glad I did!  I’ve been incorporating a lot more core based training to strengthen my midsection from the inside out.  I stopped doing crunches with weights and have been using the bosu ball, dyna disk, stability ball, and explosive multidirectional motions to wake up my core.  It’s been working, I feel sooo much stronger and in control of my middle area. 

Soooo, there is no off season for this little lady.  Well, okay maybe my off season will be in December!!  I probably need to put back the 10 lbs that I lost and hope to do this in the next few months.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to post the pictures from the shoot.  There will be NO 2 pc for this shoot, I decided on a different but sexy approach - hope it works with the photographer.  Otherwise, I have a couple of bikinis on stand by! 

I had a virus on my  home pc the week of my last show and just got a new laptop a few days ago. Meanwhile, I was waiting for some photos and cd to come through the mail from a photo shoot I did in Austin.  The photos and cd got lost in the mail.  Waiting, waiting, waiting, no cd. I finally texted my photog friend, I felt so bad.  He sent me another one.  Meanwhile, I had the Houston Pro/Am to do. Completed that contest and my fam and I headed to San Antonio for a family get away.  I don’t think I ever mentioned my Fatty’s burger fiasco?  Funny story…  my goal after the Houston show was to seek out a great burger in San Antonio.  Soooo, I found Fatty’s.  I could talk about burgers all day, I really do love them.  The bun was perfectly soft, the burger was just right.  No frills, just meat and bread.  I inhaled the entire burger and fries. About 3 hours later, I was in  a state of coma…. you know what?  I already talked about this fiasco!!!  I’ll end that story here and move on to other things on my mind.

Oh yeah, the cd.  So I finally get it and I’m excited.  I take it to work to view the photo shoot pics and I cannot upload ANY of the photos to my bodyspace account - file too big.  Once again, I contact my photog friend (I’m sure by now he wants to strangle me) and ask him in a really nice way to help me out.  He does and I have ONE pic from the photo shoot.  I cannot upload anymore pics because they are bigger than 2mb.  I don’t have the heart to bug him again so I guess I’ll leave it alone. 

While looking at the cd with the contest pics and the photo shoot pics, I decided that I am not a fitness model.  I am a model athelete.  I’m not photogenic, I’m not a natural.  But when I’m on stage and my purpose is to shine, I know exactly what works for me.  Every figure competitor wants to achieve Pro status. I am one of them. I think the one question that people never ask is, why?  For me, my personal training business is my bread and butter.  Becoming an elite athlete is the icing on the cake. For people that are attracted to ‘brand’ names, pro status is a brand.  I would still train, develop menus, possibly put out a dvd on who knows what, and live my day to day life helping those that need and want it. 

I would love to be in a position to encourage and motivate other women to live a healthy life so their kids will learn how to live a healthy life too.  You know what?  I already am in that position.  I live and breathe fitness (okay except on the one day that I decide to have my burger and fries!), I hold myself to a higher expectation and follow through on everything I set out to do.  I don’t cheat, lie, or steal.  I want to be an example to others, my daughter first and foremost, people young and old.  This is a model athlete and this is me.  I’m eagerly waiting for 2010 to greet me with more challenges to make me an even stronger competitor inside and out.  Hurry and get here!!!!

Right about Wednesday I start planning out my Saturday cheat day in my head.  This past Saturday’s cheat day went something like this: 

Breakfast:  (2) slices white toast (love white bread, buns, etc) with margarine and jelly - yummm - 4 egg whites

Lunch: mcd’s angus burger mushroom and swiss cheese - I forgot to tell them not to put the mayo - yuck!!! Mayo is soooo disgusting!  Of course I have the fries, I can’t help it.

Snack 1: part of a large dairy queen blizzard

Snack 2: sushi and seared ahi (had to make sure I get my quality protein in even on the cheat days)

Snack 3: the other part of the large dairy queen blizzard

Dinner 1: half of a frescha chicken & swiss cheese pizza

Do you see why I have to keep  my diet on point during the week?  Because when I say ‘cheat day’, I mean ‘cheat day’.  I’m still eating every 3 hours and not eating until I can’t move.  I don’t want my belly to get used to being expanded!  I’m drinking water like crazy on this day because of the sodium in the foods, plus it makes me feel better.  I wouldn’t want to do this every day or even twice a week.  Even when I dieted down for the show, I would think how great it would be to whatever I wanted!!  I don’t think my body would appreciate that kind of abuse! 

It’s been 2 weeks since the competition.  Usually I am eating whatever is in my way post show.  This time I decided not to do that and focus on keeping everything in moderation.  I’m on 1700 calories 6 days a week and I’m allowed to have one cheat day (saturday).  My cardio schedule consists of 2.5 hours of fat burn and 1 hour of intervals a week. I’ll need to bring in an even tighter body for the national level stage.  I’m currently looking at other fabric samples and designs.  I love the white suit but not sure about doing it again from another designer and having them bling it out more. 

I have 2 or possibly 3 national level shows I will do next year.  I’m not a ‘pro’ but I swear I feel like a professional amatuer at best.  Sorry this blog is so short and not in depth but I have a nutrition client right now!

The Houston Pro/Am show was one of the best experiences for me since I’ve been competing.  It started off a little rough.  At the pre judging show, I usually sit in the stands until 20 minutes before figure goes  on stage.  Well, I had a lot of friends and clients around us talking and asking questions that I would miss what the expeditor said.  Luckily, a girl I coach for posing was doing the same show and she told me we need to get backstage now.  I’m figure A so we go on FIRST.  As I walked back stage, I heard the other expiditor yell out ‘FIGURE A GIRLS BE READY IN 5 MINUTES’.  WHAT??????  I didn’t even get oiled down, didn’t eat my honey, and DIDN’T GET TO PUMP UP.  I was pissed.  I knew the expeditor and she told me don’t worry just try to hurry up.  Long story short, I finally get prepped but can’t pump up and end up waiting in line for at least 15 minutes.  Should’ve pumped up anyway.

Gets better - we’re told the order of how we will be presented on stage: walk on as a group, walk off to one side, walk on to do our model turns.  No problem.  Except I have been practicing my model turns coming in from one side of the stage but now I’m on the OTHER side and I’m THE FIRST ONE to do the turns!!!  I almost lost my footing on my last turn (and I kept doing that when I went back on for masters).  I thought to myself, ‘I need to get my **** together and get back in sync.’ 

I usually have a million things I need to do once I’m back stage so I don’t really socialize with the other competitors.  I’m timing my supps and whatever food item I’m instructed to eat, then pump up, reapply my lip liner and gloss like a million times over, de shine my face, get oiled up, practice my mandatories and model turns.  I came to the show to handle my business - not to win (although who doesn’t want to win) - and present an even tighter,more complete look.

In the process of getting prepped backstage, I met three really cool ladies that made this show THE best show I’ve competed in.  One girl is from Oahu just like me and when we found this out we were like two chattering birds backstage!!  Another girl I met while we were getting spray tanned the day before, and the other girl I met back at the Austin show and we were competing for the overall back then.  Funny thing is, the spray tan girl and the austin girl both won their height classes as I did so we all ended up on stage for the overall.  For the first time in my amatuer career, it felt good to be up there with a couple of competitors that you felt good standing next to.  Meaning, if either one of them won I would be okay with it.  This show was so important to me.  I had family, friends, and clients in the stands.  It was a good day despite the craziness I went through at the beginning. 

OH! I can’t forget to tell you about the night show schedule.  They changed the order of the figure girls, we would go LAST.  I didn’t bring ANY EXTRA food with me - bad decision on my part.  I needed clean protein. Assume nothing when doing shows, things change up fast. I called my buddy Monica to see if she had some extra fish in her fridge. She left her house but she was nice enough to stop by a chinese restaurant to get me chicken  and rice.  I don’t know how many times Monica has come through for me!!  So I get the chicken and rice, wait it out until figure girls go on stage.  This time I’m back stage EARLY.  Leave nothing to chance.  It was a long night and at the end, I just wanted a shower!  I didn’t even want to go to dinner.  BUT,  I did have an ANGUS burger and fries from Mcd’s and inhaled that sucker in 5 minutes!!!  We’re on vacation right now so I’ll post photos from the contest in a week. 

The season is over for me this year.  I plan on doing 1 or 2 national level shows next season with one warm up show possibly in california.  Keep checking out my bodyspace page for updates!  Thanks everyone for your support.   

The final week is here.  I started my low carb phase a little early.  Today is my 3rd low day and I look extremely tight.  I carb up over the next 3 days and then carb deplete another 3 days getting my body to tighten up even more.  I started taking Bromelian by NOW nutrition this time around and it is helping my body break down protein.  This is great because my tummy doesn’t feel SOOOO bloated and uncomfortable but my body is reaping the benefits of getting harder.  I usually take 1 pill with each meal to help it along. 

I am going to the sauna tomorrow and  Tuesday to dry out a little more and also help my muscles and joints feel better.  I’m a little tired today but overall I feel more at ease going into this show.  Simply because I just went through the process not too long ago.  I was just telling someone the other day that I wish I could walk around in contest shape all the time!  I think I love my burgers and blizzards a little too much in the off season - which is in 8 days!!!! 

This is not an out of town competition so I am working up until Thursday morning.  I have a 70 year old lady that HATES missing her workouts - she trains 3x a week.  You’d think she was doing a show! 

All my personal appts for the contest are set, my cardio will be completed by TUesday morning, my work schedule is set, and I’m just counting down the days.  I’m kind of sad this will be over soon, but I’m NOT sad the cardio will be over.  I hope to blog with good news on my next blog!

It’s not like I’m getting complacent.  I love the training that it takes to get on stage. I trained legs yesterday and you should see what I have to do.  I HATE it but I also LOVE it.  I had to push a 100lb plate across a 40 yard sprint track, then perform exploding lunges down and back on the sprint track.  The we mosied on over to do deadlifts/laying leg curls/laying hip lifts from the stability ball.  My trainer is basically blasting my butt with these exercises since I asked for a tighter backside. 

In the middle of the second set of exercises he could see I was wearing down.  So he gets in my ear and asks me if I want to hear something?  I ask him if it’s good news - YES.  So he responds by saying it’s actually bad news that can turn into good news.  I’m curious plus I figure it would buy me at least another 30 seconds of rest - I know, what a wimp! 

 This is what he tells me, "you know there are people here that want to see you LOSE.  Get your ass in gear and get this done".  LOSE?  What is that?  Who wants to see me LOSE? That little comment lit a fire in me to no end.  A good trainer knows what buttons to push and how far to push. He accomplished that because I needed to hear it.  I don’t care about the competition because the only competition I face every day is myself. I am my biggest enemy and critic.  But at this phase, I needed an outside motivator and he found it.  I need to bring it at this show, this is the show I’ve been waiting to showcase what I’ve been working on all year.  People are watching and waiting to see if I will fail or succeed.  What will it be?  We shall see on the 29th.