Corinne22’s BodyBlog

Hey everybody!  Thanks for reading and for all of your supportive comments along the way–if only y’all were judges…I’d be a Pro by now! LOL

So, it  is December 7, and if you’ve read my goals, you’ll see I have made the decision to switch from Figure to Bodybuilding.  Now, I don’t want you to think that I let the judges push me into making the switch…I don’t value their opinions THAT highly (LOL)!  The truth is, I will most likely never have what it takes to place highly at a National level and if I’m going to get smoked every time I’m on stage, then at least with bodybuilding I know that the judges have seen me at my absolute best!  With figure, the 1/4 turns just don’t do justice to my physique–I’m a "pumper" and a "poser" so in order to really show off all my hard work in the gym, I’ve got to hit those mandatory bbing poses.  THAT’S what I want the judges to see.  And I love the routine aspect as well….1 minute of stage time!  No excuses about the judges not seeing me in the line-up!

 So, that’s it in a nutshell.  I have switched up my training and eating and have put on a lot of size in the past 4 months.  I am starting my contest prep "officially" come January, but am already eating very clean.  It would be great if you guys would keep your feedback coming (positive and negative) as it really helps get me through the rough spots!

 Thanks so much and I look forward to hearing from you soon!

 Yours in fitness and health,

Corinne 

I’m feeling really lousy right now and thought writing about it might make me feel better.   I e-mailed the head judge of the CBBF (who happens to be the head judge here in Manitoba as well) and asked for her feedback regarding changes I could make in my physique for next year.  She told me my shoulders are too square and overpowering for the rest of my physique and that perhaps, with more muscle, bodybuilding would be a better choice for me in future competitions.  Oh my God!  This is the same woman who last year awarded me 1st place in both my figure categories, told me my stage presence was amazing and that I was a real treat to watch on stage and made a comment earlier this year that choosing figure over bodybuilding was a "good choice."GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!  I hate this sport!  I am so tired of judges telling me my shoulders are too big for the rest of me.  I didn’t train shoulders AT ALL this year and brought up my legs over an inch on each side.  What do I have to do?  Get quad implants, breast implants and tape down my shoulders?  Man, am I mad.  Well, mad and hurt ’cause I'’ve been telling everyone who asks that I’ll be back next year.  If the head judge (who would be judging me at our Provincials next year) has basically said I’m not right for figure, does it even make sense to try and go back?  Is there any point at all?  Should i start using steroids and focus on bodybuilding?  I’m going to go cry now…maybe that will make me feel better.

Corinne 

Hey!  Just thought I’d write to let y’all know where I’m at.  I hit the gym yesterday for the first time in 2 weeks and it felt GREAT!!!  Nothing like a little break, both for the mental and physical aspects of training!  I’ve been eating clean for the past 3 days and it feels awesome!  I’m looking great and feeling confident again.  My plan is to stay lean and hard for the summer and see what happens. I’m working on booking a photoshoot with a photographer here in Winnipeg and have been sending out some pics to various magazines.  If this modeling thing takes off at all, then I’ll stay in shape all year.  If not, maybe go up 10 pounds with clean calories and see if I can GROW! Even if I never make it as a supermodel (LOL) it would be nice to get some feedback from folks in the biz.

Thanks for reading!

 Corinne 

Hey everyone!  Just thought writing about the post-contest blues would help me to feel a bit better.  For anyone who has ever competed, you know what I’m talking about.  After 12 weeks of strictly following an eating plan, posing practice, training with your contest as your goal, and seeing changes in your body every day, it can be devastating once the show is over…especially if you didn’t place as well as you’d hoped.  You eat garbage, you take a break from the gym and before you know it, you feel fat and completely lost.  Our bodies were  not meant to be stage-ready forever.  It’s unhealthy to try to maintain such low levels of body fat.  It’s one thing to "know" that…quite another to go from the best shape of your life to nothing special.  I know that I still look good.  Taking my kids to the wading pool, I feel like the muscle-bound freak when everyone is pointing and saying "look at her muscles", and I’m okay with that.  No doubt about it, I love the attention my physique brings me otherwise I wouldn’t have such a desire to be on stage and to model.  When I look in the mirror, though, I see my flaws and that I’m not as hard and ripped as I was a week ago.  I also know this is normal and what gets me back on track.  I’ve been eating petty much anything and everything for the past week and now I’m ready to eat clean again.  I know that within 3 days of clean eating, I’ll lose the extra water and start to feel a lot better about how I look.   I’ll be back in the gym on Monday and will train harder than ever.  I will keep posting my blogs to help me stay grounded and focused.  Your feedback means a lot and to know that I am motivating some of you out there is so rewarding.  I want to look good for you so I may keep inspiring and motivating you to make changes and feel better about yourselves.  So thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading and writing!  I’ll take pics regularly just so you don’t get bored.  I’ll book a photoshoot right away so I can send out some pics to potential sponsors and magazines.   I have so many reasons to stay in shape and continue to train…guess I just needed to see it in writing.  I feel better all ready!  Thanks! Corinne 

Well, I’m back from Edmonton and as much as it kills me to report this to you…I was completely and totally anhilated at Nationals.  I’m not kidding!  It was awful!  I didn’t make it past the elimination round.  An elimination round is the cut if there are over 15 competitors.  Why the cap, I’m not sure, though I hope to find out this week when I send an e-mail to the Chief Judge and the president of the CBBF.  I’m not bitter about not placing, but I think the elimination round is completely unfair to all of the ahletes who work so hard.  We don’t even get a chance to wear our one and two-piece suits!  Unbelievable!  Anyway, up puntil I was eliminated, everything was wonderful!  I flew up with another competitor and we ended up having a great time together as we were both on our own until late Friday night.  We walked around downtown, helped eack other with our tanning products and had a lot of fun!  I was totally confident with my "look" and couldn’t wait to get on stage!  I don’t know what to tell you…I was on stage for maybe 5 minutes and I really don’t know why I was eliminated.  I know there will always be things to work on, but I was sure I was on the way to improving my placings this year–and I actually ended up doing worse!  The judges kept to their word, though, and went with a little softer and a lot smaller physiques this year.  Most of the BIG girls were knocked out of the Top 10.  So, kudos to the CBBF for having the balls to make changes that will improve the placings of our Canadian pros and also present a much more appealing and attainable look to the general public.

I could go on and on, but I’m not going to waste your time complaining.  Am I done competing?  No way!  If anything, it’s lit a fire under my butt to show the judges what a mistake they’re making by even having an elimination round.  I will have to re-qualify for Nationals next year at our Provincial event, so placing Top 3 will be my goal for next year.  If I win the overall title, I will be eligible for National-level competition forever.  That would be a great accomplishment!

So, I guess my "road to Nationals"blog is done.  Thank you so much for reading and thanks to the wonderful folks at bodybuilding.com for taking an interst in my endeavors.  I wish I could have had better news to report–kinda feel like I let a lot of people down.  Oh well, I’ll be back!  I love competing too much to let a bunch of judges convince me I’m not good enough to compete!  It’s not about the placings, it’s about the experience.  From training and dieting to Pro-Tan and tears, the entire journey is worth it!  Don’t take my word for it…if you’ve ever considered competing, you HAVE to try it just once!  Give yourself the chance to shine on stage and you won’t regret it!  It may be the proudest moment of your life!

Your friend in fitness and health,

Corinne 

Sorry I haven’t been writing everyday…things around here have been a bit chaotic.  We lost our 11 year old cat very suddenly yesterday.  Not sure how he died…he was fine in the morning and gone in the evening.  I can only hope it was quick and painless and that he is chasing yarn balls up in pet heaven.  My eldest son (11 years) is devastated as am I.  We will miss him so much.

However, the show must go on, as they say.  My reverse carb-load has been working very well!  My muscles are soaking up the carbs and water like sponges and I’m looking fuller and more pumped every day.  Yesterday’s stress caused me to harden up a bit, so we’re going to keep everyhting at the same levels rather than drop anything today.  If I start to soften up, we know that adding some fat in Friday will harden me up big time.

I’ve receieved a lot of e-mails from girls competing on the weekend and I can’t believe the amount of support and goodwill coming my way.  Women have a reputation for being catty, but I have to say that I have met a LOT of competitors who shatter that stereotype!  I am looking forward to meeting many of them for the first time and seeing old friends from last year’s comps.  This year should be a BLAST!  I’m flying out with a team mate tomorrow morning and should arrive at the hotel around 2:00pm.  Registration is at 5:00pm.

I started my Pro-Tan application this morning.  Messy stuff, but it sure makes a difference!  Even with one coat, my definition is much more eveident.  I’ll likely paint 2 more times today, then one more tomorrow morning.  I’ll see how dark the other girls are and determine whether I need to paint again. 

I may not get a chance to write again for a bit…vacation after the show!  I will upadate you on EVERYTHING as soon as we’re back which should be next Thursday.

Thanks so much for reading and for sending your supportive messages and e-mails!  I can’t tell you how much it means to know that I have people from all over the world wishing me well!

Later!

Corinne 

Okay, so after looking at the pics last night, my trainer is upping my carbs to the highest thei’ve ever been, lowering my protein a bit and upping the H2O.  He will monitor my "look" daily and make adjustments accordingly, likely dropping the carbs and water a bit each day.  He soesn’t believe in complete dehydration for figure athletes (thank God) so I’ll probably be on 1-2 litres of water on Friday until early evening, then I’l likely have a couple of litres on show day.  His theory is (and I totally agree!) with the natural bodybuilder, the muscles look full due to water.  If you take out too much water, you become flat and stringy–especially in my case! 

I am SOOOO excited to see many of the competitors I met last year and/or have been chatting with over the internet.  So many of the girls are just as excited as I am and agree that it will be great just to be on stage again, regardless of the outcome!

 We may take more pics today after my huge carb intake–I actually feel pretty good and am looking a lot fuller than yesterday which is exactly how I’m supposed to look–go figure! (no pun intended!)

Thanks for reading!

Corinne 

Yesterday was our provincial competition and after the World Qualifier results and yesterdays overall winner, I am once again more confused about this crazy sport of Figure and what EXACTLY it is that the judges are looking for!    From what I understand, the overall winnier at WQ is very slender and gorgeous, but more "bikini-model" than muscle.  At our Provincial show yesterday, the overall winner beat the WQ medium-class winner and is VERY muscular and full.  The Head Judge was the smae at both events, so you tell me…soft or hard?  Big and full or softer and smoother?  SHEESH!  This is so confusing!

 Oh well, I’m tryin’ really hard not to be discouraged and frustrated.  I think I’m okay with going to Nationals with what looks best on ME and not worrying one bit about trying to please the judges.  Yes, I want their feedback and yes, I took their advice last year and made some changes to my physique, but I’m just not comfortable changing my overall look too drastically just to try to win the approval of 7 people who don’t know me from a hole-in-the-ground.  As I said in a previous post, I am all about the expereince this year and enjoying every minute I have backstage, on stage and the rest of our vacation after the show!

 So, the plan for the week is to reverse-carb load (my trainer’s special technique!)  until Thursday and see how I look and fill out.  Again, nothing crazy and no major loads or depletes.  If I look stage-ready on Tursday, we won’t change a thing.  Too soft or too hard, and we’ll tweak my fat or carbs to achieve the look we’re going for.  And what exactly is "the ook" I’m going for?  WEll, on my frame, full and fairly hard look best with great conditioning.  So, we’re going to take some pics. tonight and see exactly how close we are.  I had a lot of fat in my diet the last day and a half to see how I reacted.  I am hard and very vascular–maybe TOO much?!  We’ll see how the pictures turn out.

 I am starting to get a little nervous, but my excitement is outweighing my nerves!  I hope it stays that way!  Watching last night’s show, the smell of Pro Tan and Dream Tan, seeing the disappointment and elation, the smiles and the tears, I realized I couldn’t wait to get on stage again!  As frustrating as it may be. there is still something phenomenally rewarding about standing on stage knowing you look the best you ever have IN YOUR LIFE and to have friends, family and complete strangers cheering you on!…  OK, now I am TOTALLY pumped!

Thanks for reading!

 Corinne   

10 days out and I am ready to rock!  If I had to walk on stage tomorrow, I think I’d be okay.  We’re not doing anything too crazy this last week and a bit…manipulating my calories and carbs a bit to keep my body guessing and responding.  I am really tight and full already, so I think cruising in is the best bet.  Leave the crazy carb-deplete/carb-load to the "enhanced" athletes.  Moderation seems to work best for the natural competitor (at least it does for me!).

I’m having 2nd thoughts about my one-piece suit, though it’s too late to change it now.  It’s got very deep cut sides which does nothing for my wider waist.  Oh well…I love the suit and won’t worry too much about it.  My two-piece fits like a glove since I had it altered and I don’t think I’ll need Bikini Bite either–that’s a bonus!  Nothing like worrying about your suit bottom turning into a thong!!

I fly up to Edmonton on Friday morning which will be great as it will give me time to chill before the competitor meeting in the evening.  There are quite a few girls from Winnipeg competing, so I’m hoping for a team-like atmosphere.  Last year was awful–everyone was SOOOO serious and not very friendly.  Ohwell, I’ve gotten to know quite a few girls on-line and it will be good to finally meet the face-to-face.

Well, that’s it for now.  Thanks for reading!

 Corinne 

We’re just getting ready to take some new pics…got my suits altered so we’ll see how things look.  Pictures should be up for your viewing pleasure (and critique) tomorrow.  It’s super hot and humid here, so I’m lookin’ a little fuller in the abs than usual and I’m super vascular.  Guess we’ll see how the pics look…the camera don’t lie!

 Later!

 Corinne