fluteangel’s BodyBlog

I had a great time at my first show and learned a lot.  Now I’m in the rebound stage and trying to recover and get my hormones back to normal as I shed my water weight.  I’m also wanting to build more muscle and muscle maturity, so let the off season begin!  I don’t feel like Mike was the right trainer for me.  I need someone who is willing to take the time to communicate with me, tell me HOW they’re structuring the diet and workouts and WHY.  He gave me great results, but he didn’t teach me and I didn’t feel prepared on a lot of aspects.

So, I’m looking for someone who can really help me build the right way.  I’m looking at Amy Peters and Jenny Lynn currently.  I LOVE the diet that Amy does, but have no idea what Jenny would do, though I LOVE her physique! Does anyone have any experience with either of them?

So I got my new diet from Mike yesterday and praise God there’s variety! I don’t have to just eat asparagus anymore, but I do have a LOT to eat! Holy cow, it amounts to 10 egg whites (including one whole egg) a day, a massive amount of glutamine, one can of tuna, more chicken, more fish, less oats and *gasp* 3 oz. sweet potato and 2 servings of protein powder! Holy cow!

Unfortunately, in my ignorance, I goofed today. I tried to stick to the diet as close as I could, but I’m wiped out and don’t think I can eat any more, and there’s two more to go! My goof is that I didn’t realize that the cardio that was listed in the diet goes along with the diet. The workouts that I need to finish from the last month, I finish, but not the cardio that goes with them. Soooo, today, the two cardio sessions I did today were not on the plan. BLAST! No WONDER I feel like I didn’t deserve all the food that I ate today, I didn’t burn enough calories! Tomorrow, however will be different and I’ll do my darnest this week to make up where I’m behind, but I’m not sure I will have enough time to do it. I’ll do my best though! So here’s the workout I did today:

Shoulders:

4 x 15 Lateral raises (10 lbs)
4 x 20 heavy 1/4 laterals (15 lbs)
3 x 6 Heavy one arm presses (did on machine, 30 lbs?)
3 x 10 Upright row push outs  (8 lbs)
3 x 10 D-bell up and backs (8-5 lbs)
3 x 30 Shrugs (20 lbs)
4 x 12 Machine front press (45?)
Did one set of 50 reps on my abs at the conclusion of each different exercise:
did situps, ball twists, bicycles, rope crunch, ball crunch, leg lift/hip thrust

Tomorrow I get to bust out the arms and cardio, but unfortunately, since I work two jobs tomorrow and don’t get off till 9:30 PM, I can’t do the evening cardio. However, I think I’ve figured out that Wednesday I will double up on cardio in the morning since I don’t do weights, and same with Friday, with the possibility of triple on Friday and double on Saturday, just to make sure I get it all in, and hopefully a day off on Sunday, because goodness knows I’ll need it!

What bugs me is that I was so gung ho about doing all of this right, and because of my ignorance I ate too much (so I feel) and didn’t work hard enough in my cardio (so I feel) and right now I feel huge. I daren’t get on the scale (I know I’ll get blasted in here for it anyway! ) but the show is 3 weeks away and I don’t have time to make mistakes!

On the positive, Suits by Amy is making my two piece, my supps from last week finally got here today, my one piece is on its way and I ordered more protein (thanks Mike) and tanner which has already been shipped too!

Now I just have to find a way to make a butt-load of cash to pay for everything, because I haven’t found time to put all our stuff on ebay yet - why no time you ask? Because I have to cook for the next few days right now and get to bed ASAP because 5 AM comes early and this girl needs her sleep!

How did I get into such an expensive hobby?  Too bad I can’t deduct it from my taxes!

Today starts week 3 of the diet!  Woo Hoo!  I can do this!  At the end of the week I send pictures and hopefully Mike will like what he sees…and change my diet so I can eat something else.   This has been tough, but I know I can do it!

Now if I can just find ways to finish this process without breaking the bank…

Yesterday was good and bad. It started out well, but I ended up waiting more like 3 hours between meals and towards the end of the evening I was having mad cravings. I was super hungry, too. I had walked around Gatlinburg all day with my friends (which, is all steep hills!) and after 10 days of adjusting to the new diet, felt like my metabolism had finally stepped it up, because I was hot, and burning through all the food! After hours of walking past fudge stores, candy shops, chocolate, nuts, funnel cakes and every kind of good smelling junk imaginable with my tummy rumbling, I thought I would go mad and cave without pudding or something. So I took a little time to myself in my room to see if it got better….it didn’t, so I headed to the grocery store.

It was torture! Not just madness because of all the people buying food for their 4th grill-out (wow what I would give for some BBQ) but because I had maybe 5 things in the whole grocery store I was allowed to eat. I kept to it though, scoped out the seasonings, bought a couple apples and then hit up the sugar-free jello and pudding. I ate one jello cup straight up in the car! I also bought a rotisserie chicken because I didn’t think I could stand one more cold, last-week cooked chicken breast. I skinned it in the room and weighed it out when I got back and snacked on it while my fish was cooking in the toaster oven!

This is what’s strange. Not only did I have chicken last night in addition to my 6 oz. of fish, I had green beans instead of asparagus (which he allowed but doesn’t prefer), the jell-0 cup AND a pudding cup…and two hours later, I was STARVING. Gatlinburg has a midnight 4th of July parade and being here in the Army for that, we had to march in it. I ate around 8:30 to 9, marched to the beginning of the parade route, got there at 10 and was really hungry, and thirsty - and yesterday I actually managed to drink all 2 gallons! We marched a two mile UPHILL parade route in our wool/polyester uniforms and I got back to the room around 1 AM where I promptly drank an entire bottle of water and drank a 30g goat whey protein shake. I didn’t care if it was late, I knew I was hungry!

This morning I was concerned about how I would look because of yesterday…

my abs are the flattest they’ve ever been!!!! I think not only has my metabolism finally kicked up, the extra exercise burned off the pudding. I was going to take today off and workout tomorrow as my fifth day, but I think I’ve got the motivation to keep going, so I might just go ahead and go and do an extra day of cardio tomorrow. I’ve only got till August 1, so I gotta kick it!

If I can, I’ll post a pic as soon as I can get one.

It just hit me: the show that I want to be in, is one month from TODAY!  YIKES!  It makes me even more resolute to stick to my diet (the fact that I have no cravings makes it easier) and workouts and to work extra hard, but it also made me think about money.
I don’t have  suits!  I’ve been looking everywhere for  cheap  suits, and by cheap I mean under $200, preferably $100 or less and while I’d love to have them pre-stoned, in the interest of saving money, I think I will need to stone my own, somehow.

I’ve also got to buy tanner, get my hair cut and nails done, figure out about makeup and oh wait, I still have to learn how to really pose! I need to pay the entry fee, book the hotel, gas to get there and food, final supplements, trainer fees and NPC fee.

Criminey, what have I gotten myself into?

Thanks everyone for the knowledge on how to add pictures.  They will be coming soon!

Thought about getting up early to do cardio first thing, decided against it because sleep is more important. Finally got a good night’s sleep last night. I was excited about working out today…and then I took my fat burner and got tired and zero energy! How weird is that? I think I’ve figured out what’s going on with it; it’s got 5-HTP and Hoodia. Now, I like that 5-HTP gets rid of my cravings, but it also promotes relaxation, which could explain why it makes me tired instead of giving me energy! Hmmm…

I was hungry for breakfast this morning for once, so that’s a good sign! After rehearsal, I choked down my fish and asparagus (gag, it was nasty and the only way it got down was to swig my Crystal Light with it) then I ate half a grapefruit (heaven!) and ran to the gym. Did a quick back workout and abbreviated cardio because I knew I was playing tennis this afternoon, so I don’t feel bad at all.

Back workout today:
4×10 close grip pulldowns 60 lbs.
3×15 one arm machine rows 25 lbs.
superset with
3×10 2-hand dumbbell rows 20 lbs.

4×20 short arm seated rows (45 lbs)
superset with
4×10 wide grip chin up poppers

3×20 hyperextensions on ball
superset with
3×15 full range situps

Cardio - elliptical:
Intervals: 4 minute warm up, flat grade, resistance 4
1 minute resistance 20, backwards
2 minutes flat grade resistance 4, etc. for 20 minutes.

Not sure if my diet is spot on or not. I haven’t cheated, not once! However, I don’t think I’ve eaten the right things at the right times, because how he outlined it is kind of confusing. After my workout I came back and scarfed down 1/2 cup oatmeal with glutamine and protein powder. This was during the time I usually would have had my chicken breast, 1/3 c. oatmeal and almonds, but he said to make sure I eat my post cardio meal after my workouts, which I’m guessing is the oats and protein. So after two hours I ate my tuna and egg white (GAG!!! any suggestions on flavoring that so it doesn’t taste like nasty sawdust?) and then went immediately to play two hours of tennis.

Felt kinda light headed, think it’s due to the lack of salt in my system, but I was unusually focused and intense - not bad for a year off. I came back and ate my chicken breast, glutmine, 1/2 cup. oatmeal and 10 almonds. Put Strawberry-Kiwi Crystal Light in my oatmeal - tasted almost like strawberry oatmeal!

So not sure if my diet is just like it’s supposed to be, but dadgummit, I’m close and at least I haven’t eaten anything OFF my diet! I think I’m about to go to the grocery store to get some sugar free pudding/jell-o/popsicles because while I don’t crave them, I DO crave some taste and variety. And you know, it sucks to be here in a tourist city with plenty of time on my hands and not be able to go out and eat with people. I just keep reminding myself of my progress and if I want to do this show, it’s a month from today, so stay tight!

Every day I am shocked at my new found definition!!!  This plan is killer, but I LOVE the results.  I just got back from the gym about 30 minutes ago and right before I left I stripped down and just gaped at myself in the mirror! It’s been one week of the Davies fitness/diet plan and I am astounded with how quickly I am leaning out! I have abs without flexing! I have ripped, cut arms without flexing! My back is HOT! WOO HOO!!!! These are the results I”ve wanted to see for sooo long and couldn’t figure out how, and I’m wondering if I lean out this quickly in a week, am I doing it too soon when my show is August 1?

Ok, so couple of things I’ve noticed:
1) I’m tired almost all the time. I used to have boundless energy - nuh-uh. I’ve started taking Venom Hyperdrive 3.0, due to the rave revues and well, I haven’t seen ANY of the energy it promises. I took it with just fruit before my morning workout earlier this week and get this, not only did I feel slightly light headed, I yawned the ENTIRE time! Is it possible something like this could make me more tired?

2) I feel like I’m eating a TON of food. I’m never hungry for my meals and the thought of eating actually makes me slightly nauseous. Normal or not? 1 cup of oatmeal is a LOT at one time.

3) My pee has the most terrible smell…must be that asparagus phenomenon.

4) I’m not sleeping well.  I usually sleep like a rock.  I take my melatonin and Arginine and I’m out.  Now my brain won’t stop and I can’t stay down.

Gonna ask Mike about this. I feel like I bother him with questions every day, he’s so kind to answer me, but you know, I want to be taught, not just told.

I’ll get pics up as soon as I can!

As of tomorrow, it will have been one week that I will have been on Mike Davies’ contest prep diet and workout plan.  I am VERY pleased with how my body is responding, and how quickly, too!  The workouts are KILLER, but interesting, and loaded with plyometrics, which I HATE, and the cardio is the same way.

The diet is crazy.  He says he’s trying to deplete me so I could have a chance at competing in the Dexter Jackson Classic, which I really want to do.  It’s been one week and I’m down 3 lbs., no idea about inches, but I’m seeing definition I’ve never seen before (arms, back are ripped, abs area flatter, great serratus showing and hams are finally firming up!).  The diet is well, a lot of things.  At times, I really like it for its simplicity, not having to think about what to eat, and its consistancy.  A lot of other times, I feel like I’m eating SOOOO much, I really miss variety and eating fish at 10:30 AM is really difficult.  I miss my fruit, too.  And I have so many questions like: why only oats, roughy or flounder?  Why not mahi?  Why not sweet potatoes?  Why do I have oats after working out and no protein powder or simple carbs?  I could go on and on…  So here goes the diet:

Wake up: Drink 16 oz. water, take thermos and vitamins.

Eat a small grapefruit or apple or 1 1/2 cup of strawberries before training

Train/Cardio (50minutes/30-45 minutes)

Meal 1: 4 egg whites and 1 whole egg, 1 cup of oats  (unless I don’t have time to do evening cardio, then I leave out the  eggs)

Meal 2: 5 oz. flounder or roughy with 8 asparagus spears with glutamine and b-complex

Meal 3: 5 oz. chicken and 10 almonds with 1/3 cup oats and 2000 mgs of vitamin C

Meal 4: 3 oz. tuna, rinsed and 1 egg white

Meal 5: 6 oz. flounder or roughy with another 8 asparagus spears

Cardio (if time, so not on days I work two jobs): 10 minutes of stairmill followed by 20 min. walking 3 nights, Two days bike 30 minutes

Meal 6: 1/2 cup oats with 30g whey protein with b-complex and glutamine

Snack: 4-6 oz. roughy or flounder with 8 asparagus spears

Snack: Sugar free popcicle, jell-o or pudding only if you’re hungry (haven’t done any of these!!!)

Minimum 2 gallons water daily (only made it once.  Still trying, but usually get to about 1 1/2 gallons.  It’s tough!)

7-9 hours sleep per night and 8-10 on weekends if at all possible.
I’ve been averaging 6 hours of sleep a night and it’s killing me, because I don’t function optimally on normal circumstances with less than 8 hours, but when I get off work two nights a week at 9:30, so I’m not in bed till after 10 and I have to get up at 5 to make it to the gym, it’s REALLY tough, and it’s taking a toll on me.  That coupled with the stress of my jobs (I deal in retail with STUPID tourists, I swear, the questions I get…) I know I"m not doing the best I can.

So I’m kind of on a working vacation right  now.  I’m in Gatlinburg, TN with the Army doing our two-week summer camp.  This means I have a lot of extra time and I’ll be able to not only work out twice a day like I couldn’t before, but I’ll get to sleep like I need to!  I got here at 2 AM, woke up at 6 and couldn’t sleep, but this afternoon I took a really hard nap for over 2 hours and I’m still wiped out, so I have a good feeling about tonight.

Yesterday I bought and cooked a butt-load of fish and chicken and asparagus and it was a huge pain.  I packed all my food with me for the ten days I’ll be gone (minus the eggs, but I can get those later) but I get here and I’m really grateful to have gotten the last fridge, but it’s TINY, so all my food doesn’t fit!  So I’ve got one of my cooler bags packed with ice cubes from the vending machine and praying that the fish doesn’t thaw before I can eat enough out of the fridge to put it in there!  No microwave either, I keep having to go down to the front desk and asking them to microwave my meals for me.  Maybe they’ll finally get tired of it and send me one. I’m finally seeing some results and I’m so excited about that!  I can see my definition finally, and I have a feeling I was right about my body responding quickly: I feel like I put on muscle easily, and now I see that with the right diet, I can take it off quickly, too!

I"m getting lots of support from my comrades in my unit, my brother and my husband, but it’s hard not to be able to talk about it a lot to my family because they don’t approve of me walking on stage in front of people due to modesty reasons. IT’s something I’m dealing with, being a Christian and not wanting people to look at me lewdly - I just want to show off my muscles and hard work and bring God the glory for the body he gave me, for the temple he has in me to live in. Paul says in the Bible that he beats his body, to bring it into submission - this could be considered that, and God praises determination, dedication, hard work and says that a worker is worthy of his wages and especially that our bodies are a temple for God.  I feel like when people are fat and they are gluttonous (which is a sin) and don’t take care of themselves, they are not honoring God with their bodies.  I want to honor God with my body - not only health-wise, but by inspiring others to take their health in their own hands, to push myself beyond my own pre-conceived limits of dedication, saying "no" and overcoming the mental challenge of competing.  I can look at food now and not have any cravings, at all!  I look at fudge, cookies, pizza, shoot, even Dairy Queen Blizzards and think only about how bad it is, think it’s gross and not be tempted by it.  I am eating cold fish, sparagus, chicken, even oatmeal and not having a problem with it.  For the first time food isn’t about taste.  Sometimes I want to gag, but I know at the end of this, God will have worked a marvelous wonder in me to make me a better person.  So that’s how I’m looking at all this!

Well, this Sunday I finally made a decision, took the plunge…and hired Mike Davies to do my contest prep workout and diet.  He said he’d try to get my diet to me this Sunday and I can’t wait!  Really, the sooner it gets here the better, because the sooner I can start it!

Life has been crazy.  Joe (my husband) started a new job at Target, making half of what he used to make, but he really actually likes it better and now he has time to work on his degree.  I’m working crazy hours at all my jobs.  30 hours a week at Smoothie King, 10-15 at Vitamin Shoppe and Monday afternoons I teach lessons.  My stress level has gone up (unfortunately) working at the King and the last two days has been really rough.  I work with a bunch of 15 year olds who don’t know the meaning of "pro-active" and being manager, I’m tired of playing babysitter and CONSTANTLY telling them what to do.  Today I was by myself for the first two hours, usually fine because we’re dead, but that second hour, without warning, and entire baseball team and their families all came in.  There were 14 people in there and each of them ordered no less than 4 smoothies a piece!  I was by myself and at one point it really got to me and I just broke down and cried in front of all of them.  I felt so silly, but honestly, I couldn’t handle it all by myself and there was no end in sight.  When they were gone and it was all over, the adrenaline left my body and I was left totally exhausted.  Most of the rest of my day was a fog; I didn’t want to talk to anyone or deal with customers and their stupid questions (i.e. "do you just have a regular smoothie?"  What the crap is THAT?!).

On a positive note, I feel like I"ve made some real progress in the gym.  Today was overkill.  I knew I shouldn’t have gone this morning - I didn’t really want to work my back and shoulders, and my middle delts were still sore from two days ago.  I did super-slow super sets (7 counts up, 7 counts down lat raises and upright rows) and I’ve been doing cardio every day, incroporating more sprints into my workouts.  I see a lot more definition than I’ve seen before. While my weight is still about the same, my bodyfat (according to the scale) seems about the same, I know I’ve lost the rest of the cruise water weight and I feel like my muscles are growing - my shoulders are huge! I love it!  I can’t wait till I get more definition in my abs and the cellulite dissapears on my hams and glutes.  Back to today, I had no desire to be in the gym, zero energy, zero enthusiasm.  Funny enough, I had more energy when I left work, so I did 45 minutes of cardio afterwards.

I WILL be a figure competitor and I will look darn good doing it!

So forget about that trainer - he wasn’t very personable and I don’t appreciate people who don’t take the time to really get to know me because they’re too busy for their own good and then call me a liar.

Last week I went on a cruise vacation - the vacation was extremely needed, however, the 11 lb. weight gain was not.  I knew something like that would happen.  I tried to keep my food choices as healthy as possible, but towards the end of the cruise, I just gave in and wanted to try stuff and ended up overeating to the point of pain.  REALLY stupid, I know.  What bothers me is how long it’s taking the weight to come off!  I’ve been taking the Vitamin Shoppe diuretic, eating clean and I’ve dropped my calories back down, so far I’m at 127.6 today, down from 133 on Monday, when I went on the cruise I was 122.  Frustrating.  Any ideas on what to do?

I’ve figured out there is probably no way to do the Dexter Jackson classic.  Not enough time to drop my bodyfat, especially with my limited knowledge.  I feel like I’m in decent shape (except for the extra weight I put on) and if I could just get the body fat off, my muscles would show through like no other - I’m so proud of them!  I’ve been eating a lot of fruit (It’s healthy, cheap and in season), is that bad?  My carbs are still under 200, with about 40 grams of fiber per day and 1.5g per pound of bw of protein a day.  I’m drinking a lot of water too, shooting for 1 gallon a day.  I get up at 5 AM to workout and three days a week I work two jobs so I’m on my feet for 12 hours or so, so I’m sure that contributes to it.  I’m trying to lower my stress (with all the jobs and my husband having lost his, it’s hard) and I’m getting a massage tomorrow (got one on the cruise too!).  Any ideas?!?

THank you everyone for your encouragement!  I WILL compete, it’s just a matter of when.