TLC: Trust, Love, Consistency

After reading Kek’s blog the other day with pruffin’s made from tofu I felt inspired to give my own recipe a go. The only problem is it had to fit into my meal plan. Luckily, my meal plan has this strange meal, protein jelly and 250g greens. Protein jelly is what happens when you mix whey with low-joule Jello, apparently. I’d just been mixing my whey with silken tofu instead of jelly to avoid the AS but the baking bug got the better of me and I rose to the challenge of a no-fat, no-starchies muffin. The tofu is the secret, as it provides softness and ‘crumb’ where normal protein powder baking turns to rocks. The other trick I used is Xtend as my sweetner, 2 scoops has arguable neglegable calories and all those aminos have gotta be good for me!

serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 egg whites
• 90g (3 scoops) Vanilla protein powder (I used Vital Strength, Ripped)
• 300g silken (soft) tofu
• 13g (2 scoops) lemonade Xtend (or sub splenda and some lemon-rind)
• 1 teaspoon poppy seeds (or more)
• 1/3 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons (12g) psyllium husks
• a generous pinch of salt
• 400g zucchini, shredded

Process

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF
2. Whisk the tofu until smooth, then gently whisk in the egg whites and Xtend.
3. Stir in the protein powder, baking powder, psyllium husks, salt and poppy seeds until the mixture is just combined.
4. Fold in the zucchini until mixed through evenly
5. Divide mixture amongst 4 greased (silicon) Texas muffin molds and bake for 20 minutes or until dark golden on top
6. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes before icing (optional)
   • icing
     • 1 tablespoon vanilla protien powder
     • 1/2 teaspoon Lemonade Xtend
     • 1 teaspoon warm water

     Blend ingredients to a thick paste, adding more water if required, spread over muffins and sprinkle with more poppyseeds if desired

These muffins are great reheated to luke-warm, 25 seconds in the microwave is perfect

The numbers (without icing)

163 Calories
2.5g fat (.2g saturated)
11g carbs, 4.2g fibre, 3.8g sugar
25g protein

Started this morning doing my intervals on the beach at Brighton. The wind was fierce so reaching the heart-rate goals JD set was easy. It was nice to have a change of scenery from the local block or treadmill. Afterwards we went for breakfast at a cafe on Jetty Rd, as we do every saturday morning. I’ve been eating breaky before we go out so that I get in exactly what JD prescribes but this week I hadn’t done my cardio so I packed a scoop of whey into my shaker and left the rest up to the cafe gods. I ordered a double serve of spinach and 2 poached eggs. I was counting on the eggs to be their usual non-runny mediocre selves but they were quite soft which meant it was tricky to do 1 whole, 1 white. They were really great and didn’t put any butter on my spinach and mixed heaps of tasty parsley through instead for flavour. WINNER!

Got home and got S to do skinfolds measurements for me. Compared with the skinfolds and measurements Joe did for me at the begining of the month I’m a little unsure about the accuracy of the skinfolds as they are LOW (I got a few 1’s and 2’s) so I’ll have to wait until JD sends me instructions to do the measurements his way. Tape measurements are all down too, some areas I’ve dropped 3-4cm, no wonder everything’s not fitting right even though the scales haven’t moved in weeks. WINNER!

I’ve discovered that skate makes for a tasty alternative to chicken when cooked as fajita filling with onions, coriander and cumin and mixed with spring onions (scallions) and coriander leaves (cilantro). Shame I don’t get to eat either rice, beans or tortillas on my current diet. It was nice with salsa, salad and avocado though. Who’d though stingray would taste good!? WINNER

It was Super Saturday at Aussie Muscle so I scored all my supps at 10% discount, plus a good deal on Gen-Tec Glutamine Creatine combo. Plus compliments from the lovely Sean on my shoulders, arms and traps. Like everyone else says, "You’ll do awesome…. if you can lean-out in time" (That phrase is doing my head in!!!!) WINNER-I think?

I took more progress photos this week too. They really highlight the crappiness of my posing, my non-existant boobs and my shrinking legs and butt. I’m not sure whether I’m going to keep uploading photos. I might just post them all retrospectively after the comp.

I’m feeling a bit fluey today so I’m glad I got some new glutamine. Oooh it’s 5 O’clock time for a lemon, poppyseed and zucchini muffin(ish) and my fish caps. Recipe tomorrow.

A lot of people have commented, during their comp prep, that they have learned a lot about themselves. I was always curious about what these lessons where. Where they that obvious? Maybe it’s more subtle than that but everyday my bodybuilding journey informs the rest of my life and vice versa.

For a while now I’ve been complaining to ‘the lovely boy’ that I wished I could have the focus in the rest of my life that I have when I’m in the gym. I blamed it on all the supps, afterall that Thermofuel is pretty sweat stuff. Lately, I’ve been training on almost no supps (shock, horror!). Only taking aminos to stop my muscles falling off due to my massive calorie deffecite. However, even on my most sleep deprived days (and I’ve been zonked) I’ve managed to pull out some serious PB’s. How can I explain this, I wondered?

It’s simple. I go to the gym with a list of things I have to do. A bag with the equipment I need to do it and an allocated time-frame to do it in. I visualise success with every set. Only do one thing at a time. It’s a deadset formulae for success. If I get distracted by the weird things the 18yr/o PT’s are doing to their trainees or start day dreaming it all turns to muck, so I know not to go there.

Why not apply this formulea to getting other stuff done??

I’ve been dilly dallying about getting my new portfolio together so I can go for job interviews. I’ve ummed and arred about it for days and haven’t achieved anything. Then, eeek, a job interview comes up. So I spent yesterday in an unproductive panic. Today, being a new day (where I got enough sleep!) I thought about the process I use to get my bb stuff done and decided the focused, one thing at a time method may just work. Guess what? I set a PB. It’s all done and at the printers before meal 3. I’d estimated at least another 2 hours, which means I can have a nice nap now.

Once again I’m reminded that success is inevitable as long as success is living in the moment.

I just completed a nice long posing session. I put on the 2007 INBA all female DVD and posed along to all the madatories and then set my iPod to repeat and worked through my routine 10 or so times. I never understood when competitors said they were sore from posing practice, but let me tell you, I was getting sore. The first half of my routine is looking really good but I just haven’t got a good feel for what I’m doing in the second half. Luckily I’ve booked an extra session with Mareike so I can sure things up a bit more.

Yesterday was my first day in the gym with my new program from JD. I looked at it with contempt, a glute and ham day without any deadlfiing or squatting is foreign to me. But let me tell you, it got the job done. The workout also started with a back focus. It called for assisted chins, but when I walked into the gym (different gym from usual) and looked at the machine, it beckoned me to try a BW chin. No worries. I knocked out 4 in a row! Before my accident I could only do 2, hence there was a bit of a grin and a happy dance performed, much to the amusement of my fellow trainees. Today the whole back of me, shoulders to calves is telling me I worked hard. What was really nice was that I even had time for a sauna and steam afterwards.

I almost skipped the whole session because I was feeling so flat. My chiro/natro, upon examining me, told me I wasn’t getting enough sleep, and he was right. I’d bounced out of bed at 5.30am that morning feeling wide awake (no cardio was even scheduled so it was a waste of sleep time) and couldn’t get back to sleep. After my chiro visit though, I felt so flat, I was ready to drive straight home but couldn’t get in contact with the boy to see if he needed a ride so I figured I’d just try. Lucky I did, I think weights went up on everything. I came home and cooked an amazing fish stew and fell into bed salty (over salted dinner) and tired.

The fish stew was awesome so here’s the recipe:
2 serves

110g skate, cubed
4 big green prawns (shrimp)
1/2 onion, finely sliced
1 clove garlic
1/4 red capsicum (bell pepper), finely diced
125g tinned tomatoes, diced
a pinch of smoked paprika
a pinch of ground fennel seed
a pinch of saffron
2/3 cup, canned, cannellini beans
1/2 cup fish stock
1/2 teaspoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
cooking oil spray

Lightly spray a non-stick skillet/wok and saute the onion for 5-8 minutes or until soft. Add in the garlic and capsicum and saute for a further 2 minutes. Add a drizzle of stock if your pan is getting too dry.
Add in the tomatoes and spices and simmer until reduced 2/3 and a thick paste is formed.
Stir in the fish stock.
Add in the seafood and beans and simmer, covered, for 5 minutes.
Stir through the fish sauce and basil and season to taste.

Serve with the mandatory green beans and broccoli. Sprinkle with a little Parmesan cheese if you’re braver than me.

In other exciting news, we got a new microwave today. Meaning I may not die from eating the melted glad wrap that was getting deposited on my raw food WFT!? The new one claims to defrost chicken boobs super quick and be able to roast meats. We’ll see.

Finally, after a lot of fiddling around I’ve managed to catch up with JD from pepared to win, who will be helping me to look awesome on stage. Nick was getting way to busy and couldn’t make the time for me unfortunately. JD’s tone was a lot more serious than Nick’s and he instilled the required fear and seriousness into me. I’d been slipping enough on my diet over the last few weeks for me not be making progress. It was a tight diet by normal standards but not really for 7 weeks out from a comp. I went to bed fearing the worst, waiting for my diet and exercise plan to come through.

This morning’s been a pensive one, I was waiting for ‘the email’ and also for my delivery from bb.com with my Xtend (I’m an addict). The email came and it was all pretty straight forward. Much, much less cardio than I was doing (poor hound) and the weights program will need to be printed and carried with me as it’s a strange mix of things. Lots of shoulders and glutes.  I’m still making sense of it all, but as expected feel a huge sense of relief.

Now it’s time to give it 100%, no more BLT (bight, lick, taste).

It’s been a while between posts. Probably because I quit my job and now have much less time on my hands to sit and surf the internet all day. As my new coach says, I’m a full-time body builder. I do keep telling him I looking for work. I’ll keep telling myself that too. I’m really exhausted most of the time though.

So, yes, I have exciting news. I am now being looked after by Nick Jones from Prepaired2win. I met up with him this morning and he had a look at what I was doing so far and thinks I’m doing well on paper. Friday, he wants to poke, prod and pose me to see where I’m really at. I’m a little scared, after all, he is several times world champion. He seemed to think everything I had set up should see me succeed but I really need the 2nd opinion and his experience. If I don’t have to think about being a bb all day maybe I’ll have time to look for work.

I got the first half of my posing routine last week, and it’s awesome, but not easy. I’ve been practicing hard to make it look half decent. I get my other half and the verdict on whether it’s all gonna suck, tomorrow.

This week I switched to a 3 day split to try and give myself a bit more rest and cardio time, but realised half way through both workouts I prefer my 5 day split. I can be much more focused. Nick entirely agreed with me and will be doing something along those lines for me. He even promised me a rest day (the kind without cardio), but we’ll see what he makes of my physique before I get my hopes up too high.

After many a saga, I’ve finally finalised the material for my bikini. I put it in the post today. It’s not the sexy glittery raspberry velvet I had originally hoped, and is much girlier than I am, but I think I’m happy with it. D’oh, forgot to keep a swatch to match makeup and accessories to!

I uploaded last week’s progress photos the other day, so you can all wonder over to my bodyspace and see those. I look flatter (more carbs) but I think the legs are coming out. It’ll be so much nicer to have someone else worry about these things.

The older I get, the more I realise, the less I know.

I’ve been reading the forums over at Lindy Olsen’s website, which are inhabited by Australia’s finest and friendliest figure athletes, and I’ve come to the conclusion both of the above statements describe my contest prep.

So far I’ve been preparing pretty much on my own and at first anxiety drove me almost mad, and I was often changing tack. Luckily I’m not entirely stupid and realised this was getting me nowhere. So from the reaches of my intelligence I’ve been working on a process of Review, Plan, Do. Recording as many stats as possible daily, reviewing them weekly and getting on with each planned meal and workout whether I feel like it or not.

I’ve learnt a lot of things about my body. How much sleep, water, fiborous carbs, greens, caffeine and other sups my body needs and how it responds to each. I’ve been using this information to make adjustments each week and it’s taken the anxiety out of my prep. I am doing the best that I know how to do and am almost always pleased with the results.

However, this can be looked at in a 2nd way. After all I’ve never competed in a Figure competition before. I’m like the small business person who buys Photoshop and call themselves a designer. 90% of the time I look at the results of these self-guided efforts and as a professional designer it makes me shudder. So my deepest apologies to any of you who are reading and shuddering. I have the deepest respect for your profession.

Back in May I looked into getting an online coach to help me through the process. I then started to get murmurs about the instability of my job. Good coaches don’t come cheap and I made the ignorant decision to go it alone. As documented here, I ran myself into the ground a bit but then figured out a balance which would make me a healthier happier athlete. I actually quit my job last week, as it was leading me to a not very healthy state of mind. You only get to live every minute once in your life and I was wishing for 8.5hrs of them to pass. Time machines don’t exist in either sense though, if I could go back and hire a coach (now fully booked) I would.

I have been able to stay objective. I think it’s the lighting in my bathroom, it’s like a free fake-tan, shows my lumps and bumps nicely. I’m thankful for this, as I’ve realised figure prep is not maths! Trusting my optimistic eyes is weird though as I don’t really know what to expect, week to week. I know if I’m seeing changes, my muscles are still a size I’m happy with but I’ve started to realise I’m a pilot coming into land without any instruments . Flying up here in the clouds is fine but I could stick the landing safely, land in the paddock before the runway, or go shooting right off the end of the runway.

I make it sound like I’m stressing about this. I’m more resigned to my situation and committed to forge forward. I’m having a fantastic time with my training and love waking up every morning feeling lean and muscular. I have confidence in my diet and my training. However, 9 weeks out I’m on the hunt for something to use as my speedometer coming into land.

… ramble, ramble

The days you don’t feel like cardio sometimes turn out to be the best cardio days.

For me Saturday’s are always tricky. We always head to the beach for breakfast, a catch up with my Dad and to let the dog run wild and chase balls/frisbees. I’m very much a get up and get to the gym kinda gal and if I have a whole day ahead of me to workout I tend to put it off. Food is always a bit off too, though I now bring my own kangaroo to add to my eggs and spinach. I get weird looks from our border collie owning friends but they now know I’m competing and even want to come and cheer me on.

By the time we get home, S is ready for a nap with the paper, and I’m almost always tempted. Today, instead, I cooked up my 2 kilos of roo on the BBQ, chopped my  day’s vegies and, against instructions from my natropath, downed some thermofuel with my supps.

I got to the gym thinking I’d do 20 minutes of sprint intervals and maybe 6 minutes of tabita squat presses (ouch). I couldn’t find my groove with the sprints and gave up after 16 minutes and switched to a bike to finish them, but that felt even worse. So I whacked in another 16 minutes of ‘hill training-interval’ on the elliptical and let it do it’s thing. Then I realised the problem, my 2 previous cardio machines weren’t infront of FOX8’s Saturday fight special. I’m not a violent person, but I love watching the WWF, the Contender and other mind+brute force shows during my cardio.

Time flew by and half way through I noticed Mr Shoulders jumping off the tready in front of me. He also fessed up to being a fan of the FOX8 line-up for Saturday cardio and jumped on the elliptical next to me. With the elliptical set on heart rate target and someone to chat to and fights to watch a 26 minute cardio session turned into a monster hour and a half.

Mr Shoulders was still debating competing this year and had had a diet slip up the past week so was flogging himself (I think he’d been there a fair while before me). We realised we’d each forgotten each others names, so now I have a real name to call him. It also turns out he’s won several (NABBA) Australian titles for his weight class and showed me some amazing photos. He’s natural now and still has one of the biggest physiques in the gym.

I left the gym 666 calories lighter, totally pumped with how my prep is going. I love having ‘me time’ in the gym. It’s normally headphones on and head down. Consequentially I know almost no one except by sight, so it was nice to have a training buddy for the day. Thanks for the great workout Mr S.