Hardness23’s BodyBlog

I’m looking for some motivation to get back into a workout routine.  Not sure what type of training I want to do as for frequency and intensity.  I don’t want to just jump back in and do random workouts- although they are fun.  I wish I had a training partner who was knowledgeable about training techniques and can teach me some new stuff.  I workout with people here and there but I just want someone who knows more than I do and is as dedicated as I am.  I should just hire a trainer……………  but I’m too cheap for that.

I WON TODAY!! I won the 2008 Southwestern Tucson Figure Championships! 112lbs, 9% bodyfat.
Finally.  After 5 months of dieting and not even placing in my NPC show last month I have won my first title tonight.  It was hard earned and well-deserved.  I have failed and failed again but now I’ve overcome and through persistence have earned myself the title of Ms. Figure Tucson Southwestern 2008.  I could have given up after the first two times and just blamed the judges, cursed the industry and moved on with my regular career path.  Instead I pressed on to keep trying through the tough times knowing my time will come.  I was not blessed with a perfect body, I have worked hard to achieve greatness from the inside out and to prove to myself I can win.

I will now sit on it for a week, soak it up and decide what to do now.  I will obviously take a break and CELEBRATE like I did at the club tonight.  Then I have some time to decide if I am ready to take on competing in Venice for team USA in October.  Now that I have won this title I have that opportunity.  I can work harder to put on more mass and perfect the shape of every muscle to do bodybuilding or figure, or I can maintain and compete in the bikini model or sports model divisions.

Don’t know yet….either way I still WON tonight!  I’m still realizing it, it’s like a dream I haven’t woken up from yet.  I’ll wake up tomorrow, see my trophy and get a relieved proud feeling of true accomplishment and self-actualization.

So this morning I weighed 114 pounds!  That is down 3.5 pounds from last week and my bf% dropped a little by 1% but basically I lost muscle!  I don’t know what to do!  Well eat more I guess.  Cardio?  I don’t think so even though I’m 8 days from competition.

I only did cardio twice last week too I don’t understand how I dropped so much muscle.  I did cut out more carbs, but I added alot more fats to compensate and increased the overall calorie intake to 1200 calories.

Alot of girls do like 90-100 minutes of cardio the days before the show.  Would they do this in my shoes ?  I don’t know.

I feel my upper body is too lean and my lower body is not lean enough.  My competition is in 8 days and I don’t know if I should up the cardio or not.  My legs look musclular they are not ripped though.  My arms are really striated, however but they have gotten smaller.  I can’t wait to stop dieting and build back up again I feel so scrawny!

Did you know when it comes to sugars the government only "defines" sugar as it exists in it’s most stable form ie: gluecose?  Well this means that any other form of sugar is fair game for slapping on a sugar free label.
Sorbitol (sugar-free gum sugar), for example, is just the reduced form of sugar, and when you put it in your body, you oxidize it right back to gluecose easily because that is it’s most stable form and your body uses that for energy just the same!  So therefore, it has the same effects as sugar and essentially is sugar.
Also what’s interesting is "artificial sugars" actually occur naturally in nature, depending on the environment.  So when a label says no artificial sugars added, it could be telling the truth!  They are not synthesized.   Well…..this is a stretch but something to think about.  The only one I know if that IS synthesized is sucralose or splenda.
Well I’m still not giving up my gum, it gets me through the day.  My ethnic Japanese aunt always said just stick with the natural stuff anyways like maple sugar and In The Raw sugar.  At least they are not processed.

Carb-up days make me feel like crap.  I’m sluggish, tired and my stomach hurts.  I talked to a 40-yr old female "retired" bodybuilder today and she said she’s the same way and that she never carb loaded in her day and did fine.  She said women don’t need to do that and it doesn’t really help us lean down like it does men.  I’m debating whether I should carb load before my show in two weeks or just keep it normal and not risk it.  I actually don’t feel I look better when I carb load.  I do feel better and look better when I eat a lot of fats such as peanut butter and animal fats on occasion.  Maybe I’ll just increase fats the day before and of the show.