TLC: Trust, Love, Consistency

I’m back from Melbourne and true to form, I’m sick as a dog. Everytime I go there for some R&R I get a misserable cold. My joints ache, I feel dizzy, sniffly, croaky and cranky.

On the upside I trained all but yesterday. Including putting my sister through a leg workout she’s still cursing me for 3 days later! I also managed to find a good balance with my food. My first 3 or 4 meals where always things that I’d packed, such as chicken salads, pruffins, PN mixed nut bars, my last meal was a bit more free-for-all. The first night the big beachball belly showed up after Italian food followed by Churos (I’d been wanting to try these for years). The second night was easy, as it was the conference dinner and the main course was AWEFUL (nice squid entree) and S was sick so we both left early with our plates mostly full. Tuesday night’s meal was Afghani food, I managed to avoid the uncesisary carbs but still had a bit of bloat action, though my abs were back in the morning. Wednesday I was faced with my greatest weakness, Vietnamese food. Luckily it was Northern Vietnamese and there was no rice hotpot, so other than filling myself full of sodium I came out OK. I was feeling like death yesterday and relaxed a little bit and ate when I was hungry and all sorts of un-clean delecacies (toast, baklava & pizza all in the same day). I stopped everytime when I was no longer hungry.

So, what did the scales have to say about this?…….down 2kgs, back to just above comp weight! This is not an excuse to keep eating empty carbs, but a reassurance that I can be trusted with a bit of good food now and then.

Today I’m back on track with meals I had in the freezer (eaten in bed). Time for another nap, so that I can beat this aweful flu/cold.

Australian Muscle have just posted a huge review of both the South Australian INBA shows. You can see them here. You’ll see me in the Whyalla section, after we’d all eaten a few to many jelly babies! All the photos are stunning, nice work Sean!

In other news, I haven’t been in the gym since Tuesday. I’m still searching for my energy. Today was the first day I’ve considered training, which means I need at least 2 more days off! I’ve also been feeling a bit of a sore throat coming on so I’m super-dosing on L-Glutamine. Let’s hope airplane air doesn’t totally kill me.

Tomorrow we head off to Melbourne for 5 days. I’d originally planned for it to be a no holds barred indulgent week. However, my body has not been dealing well with even the smallest indulgences, so I’ve spent the day pre-cooking my meals. A task not made easy, due to our stove and oven electrics being broken. It’s all camp stove and BBQ.

I’ve made a delicious frittata for breakfasts (even though the hotel does complementary breaky). I’ve got 5 days worth of pruffins (choc-walnuts & blueberry and vanilla-lemon & blueberry- these are indulgent!), some PN nut bars in the freezer, and will later be bbq-ing a whole batch of chicken breasts. When I get to Melbourne I’m going to be picking up lots of salad mix, snow peas and cucumber, and a few cans of tuna. I’ll let myself have one free meal a day. It’ll be a huge change from past visits to Melbourne which have been all out food feasts.

While in Mebourne, I’m really looking forward to seeing my sister and seeing what progress she’s made since she was here for my comp. I set her up with a weights program and gave her all my PN stuff to read and a basic diet outline. She saw my physique for the comp and decided she wanted one too! I’d love to see her on stage eventually, as she has a background in dance, a degree in Performing Arts and stunning stage presence.

I’m going to take all my workout gear and get in at least a few weights sessions (hooray for my FF gold passport) while I’m away as well as getting back into a bit more cardio. Dog walks have been very lax.

If you’re in Melbourne and want to catch up while I’m there, chuck me (Michelle Koen) an email (firstname.lastname@gmail.com).

I haven’t blogged much this week but let’s just say there’s been some tough, tired and emotional days. I was never prepared for how exhausted I’d be and it’s been a real struggle. Most days ended or contained tears.
and then…
I woke up Friday morning without my alarm at 6.15 and I knew it was the day to get things straight. Gobbled down my eggs and greens and had a fantastic hour walk in the national park with the hound. I had all my food packed and ready and made it to work 20 minutes early (unheard of). Went for a walk on my lunch break to get some sun and a short black (ended up with a tiny little sun-dress from miss gladys too).

The coffee had me set. I was going to make it to my workout and have a good one. It felt so good to get in the gym again. I was working my shoulders in tri-sets, my favourite. I realsed I hadn’t done a workout like this in maybe 5 months. I have full control over my muscles, brain and shoulders were actually working together. Vague memories of this sensation linger from before I was injured, which was the last time I took time off. I was really working my  muscles hard, but mentally I was clear and focused and could control every bit of every movement. This feeling is priceless. This is how I want to train in the off season, no fighting for control, no negativity.

I was in an extra good mood too, as ‘Friday night rules’ had been re-invoked. S and I pick a nice, vibrant but upmarket restaurant and take several hours to indulge ourselves in delicious food paid for by our week’s toils. Anything goes. I provided a short-list of restaurants to S when he asked me where I might like to go, mainly Italian, his fave. He surprised me and pick Beunos Aires, an Argentinian place on Hutt st. It’s PN paradise, I was actually wondering if I’d find my PWO carbs! The serves are massive and we ate ourselves silly on chicken, seafood and steak, along with the crispiest (fat laden) potatoes and stir fried vegies. I joked to S that the desert menu was a myth and that they really didn’t serve deserts. After a little while of letting my main sit I spotted the specials board. Lemon Cheesecake. Oh baby! This was the one thing I really really wanted to have post-comp, not a cheap supermarket kind, a baked one. I have pretty high standards but this didn’t disappoint. S said he didn’t want desert and ended up eating more than me , it was that good. I woke up this morning, still a little full, remembered the cheesecake and felt so happy I’d ate it. Won’t need another piece for months.

This morning we were back into our Saturday morning routine of dog rambling on at Brighton followed by breaky. The Friday-Saturday combo used to be a bit of a slipping point for me so I had planned ahead a bit. I’d pre-cooked a pile of kangaroo snags and packed one incase I couldn’t find some good lean protein. Ended up eating at a different cafe and ordering an omlete with spinach, asparagus and mushrooms, amazingly fluffy and not at all greasy. Fed the buttery toast to Kevin (thanks mum!) and added in my kanga-banga and was full and happy. I was really feeling like the off season me I wanted to be.

Debated about training 2 days in a row, but S had chores to run on the motorbike, leaving me the car and a free hour so I got my gear together. Ate a small bowl of protein ice-cream (I love off-season) and punished my legs furiously. My squats felt so good. I powered through my walking lunges (yuck), threw in romainian split-squats (just for fun) and finished with tri-sets of ham-curl, leg-extention and calf machine. Listened to my body for rest breaks and felt like a new person.

I had chicken, green beans and sweet potatoe waiting when I got home. As I ate it, I thought how lucky I was to be healthy and fit and eating such delicious food.

My next goal is to eat clean and PN until my next training session, Tuesday. It’s going to be hard not to train until then and keep my head up but I know I can do it.

I drove all the way to Whyalla and all I got was this trophy

Actually I got 2 trophies. First place figure novice, 2nd place Ms Whyalla.
It was a bit of a talladega nights situation (if you aint first, you’re last). Also got 2 tubs of Vital Strength define/slim whey in choc and strawberry (ick, never likes strawberry), if they’re no good I’ll make bars and ‘cheese-cake’ out of them.

Sadly this might be the extent of the photos I’ve got as our camera decided to ‘chew’ the card. My Dad’s doing his best to recover the files for us.

This week I was much happier with how full I came in and managed to get a decent pump before going on stage. I was still a bit rushed when I got out on stage and the poses were called very quickly which left me a bit shakey. I tried my best to remember everything Terri taught me. I felt a little like I’d jipped myself when I can off stage and decided that I absolutely HAD TO get my routine right. I totally messed my routine up last weekend but this week I was raring to go and get some serious posing done. I slowed down and focused and my timing was perfect. I almost jumped up and down on stage I was so happy.

By the time the overall Miss Whyalla was to be judged I’d totally forgotten that I’d have to pose again and frantically re-pump. All was good and I posed much better than in the novice round, but still had wobbles (no wobbles last week-grr). I was up against Helen, who did novice last week but entered intermediate this week. It was a very tight result apparently, but I came second. Uno later told me I wasn’t quite lean enough in my lower body.I thought this was the case but had hoped my muscularity would win out.

This is Helen last week doing her routine. She is such a friendly and enthusiastic person. I hope to see her again next season.

Well done, girl!

All this means I achieved my goal of qualifying for the Australian Titles in the Gold Coast next weekend. However, I’ve looked at flights and done the maths and it’s going to cost about $1000 all up. Plus, I’ve already asked so much from my new bosses and I’d need Friday off to make registration in time so unless they are really, really encouraging tomorrow, I don’t think I’ll be going. With this decision in mind I’ve started rolling out my clean eating for massive muscle plan. This week I’m increasing my fish oil intake to 2g with each meal and allowing back in a wider range of vegies and protein source, most exciting for me is the return of chickpeas to my big salad. So tasty.

Eats yesterday were the usual crappy contest day food of jelly snakes and chocolate (wow- lindt dark with coffee flavour is the best in the world!). I had my obligitory post contest pizza (aimed for 2 slices, stopped at 4). This time it was from the Trat pizza bar and had ricotta, italian sausage and artichoke and was possibly the greasiest thing I’ve eaten in months. This morning we went down the beach with Kevin and I did my best to keep it PN at breaky with scrambled eggs, mushies, spinach tomato, bacon and pesto- no toast). The no toast thing wasn’t so strict as I always steal a bit of S’s turkish bread. Drank bucket loads of water and had my fish oil. The meal was way too much and quite late so I skipped meal 2 (not cool PN I know). For lunch I had some chicken left over and made my usual ‘big salad’ with bonus treats of sundried and regular tomatoes and chick peas and drizzled on some tasty local olive oil but may have over done it  a bit. We also did some food shopping. I resisted the fresh ricotta, mangos and bananas but S snuck in some chocolate and ice-cream which I’ll now have to ignore. I caved at the frozen blueberries, but even Scivation’s cut diet allows them! I still bought my kilo of spinach and kilo of broc and tonight it’s a nice juicy rump steak on the webber with corn on the cob and salad. I’ve got more cooked chicken to chow on in between. I’m thinking a good old-fashioned Sunday leg workout is in order now, might follow it up with a bit of cardio, just in case.

I’m all depleted and starting to load. Mmmm the warm fuzzy feeling of carb loading. 2 more sleeps and I’m on stage in Whyalla. Looking at the results from last year, it could be a walk in the park, there was only 1 female competitor last time. I know at least one girl from the SA titles will be there this year. I’d rather a decent competition, but want to get to the nationals just for the experience and to meet the other girls and JD (in person).

My official placing for last weekend was 6th, but then everyone else got 6th too. I was initially very dissapointed with the result but I had such a good time and unleashed the show-pony inside of me that I couldn’t be upset for too long. It was too much fun. I think it’s so awesome that Kim, the promoter, gave little trophies to everyone who competed. I feel so proud everytime I pass mine.

In the last week I’ve concentrated on my posing and trying to get a little leaner (cardio, cardio, cardio). I’m very excited that tonight I’ve finally got a session with Terry Roberts to go over my posing. We’ve been eyeballing each other not sure who each other was all week in the gym so it made for a funny phone call today when she returned my enquiry. She also said that I was looking much better in the gym yesterday than I was on stage (grr), so hopefully, between her and JD’s worrying I can come in a lot better on Saturday.

I am getting more and more excited about off-season training and eating. I don’t mean eating crap. I mean getting some good food in, to get some good size on. I’m still figuring out the best way to set measurable goals for my off-season plan to build massive shoulders (with glutes to match). I’ll be discussing my goals with JD as soon as all this comp malarky is over. I feel so feircely determined to build a better body, must be my stubborn streak.

In the meantime here are my quads (tara inspired):

What a line up!

Pre-judging’s over and I’m ignoring the boss and getting pizza before the night show.
I woke up really really flat. I was massive when I went to bed. Made my sister poke my quads 4 times, at least. I had my rice and bananana and added a small amount of honey on instinct. Did my hair and make-up (what a team!) and rang JD for instructions. It’s so hard to describe over the phone what I saw and be sure I was getting it right. He prescribe a very mild course of sugar and warned me to not have too much.

We weren’t allowed backstage until after the first class had competed which gave us NO time to tan and pump. Thankfully one of the other competitors BF’s offered to help and I had complete strangers slapping dream tan on my bum. Mad props to Suzie Q, who made my suit, who made sure I was glued and tied in perfectly. Couldn’t find Mareike anywhere to get instructions on pumping up until the last minute. She walked in the room and the first thing she said was “OMG you’re flat!”. Yikes! Thank lordy for the free gummy snakes. I was doing pushups one handed while eating snakes with the other. I’ve never done a one handed push-up before!

Before I knew it, we were called. The whole line came out and I was center stage, feeling radiant and calm, praying to the figure gods I got my sugar in time. Then they split the line in half. I wound up on the end in the back for what seemed like an eternity. I held my relaxed pose strong. Flexing my awesome quads all the way. Nailed my worst pose (rear db bicep) but didn’t get a call-up. By this time all the girls who where in the back were giggling and whispering amongst themselves. Thanks Josh (black bikini), I had a blast. It all felt so easy to smile and feel amazing, I felt amazing.

I got off stage and straight off with the heels and out of there. I felt confused, angry, amazed, excited all rolled into one. All I could say to anyone was, ‘what a weird sport’. We hit up Cibo for coffee and the boy suggested a cake to me. I’d had mountains of sugar by this point and didn’t really feel like anything too big so I shared a mini chocolate tart with makeup-S. Sure enough within 15 minutes I finally felt the sugar kick in and my body tighten up. Doh! Dad had great photos and we all decided the judges were insane and that I looked awesome.

So it’s onto the night show. I’m not sure how much more sugar I can handle. JD wants me to have chicken and greens and S-potato. I decided to ignore better judgment and eat the chicken and wait for my Dad to bring me the best pizza in Adelaide. I’m feeling pretty full and will only have one or 2 slices, I’m so over this fat-fobia.

Over-all I’m a bit disapointed but I can’t wait for next weekend when I get another chance to get it right and next year when I can be even bigger and leaner.

I can’t wait to shake this joint
No, I can’t wait to fully illustrate my point
I can’t wait to let it flow
No, I can’t wait to bring down the house with my microphone

Brassy-I can’t wait

This was almost my posing song, but I’ve got something just as cool.

My first coat of tan is on and, dare I say it, I look HOT. I can’t stop posing. I can finally get my lats out nice and wide and can’t wait to show JD more photos. I can’t wait to see how good I look on Sunday.

I knocked off my last day of work for the week today and didn’t loose my job or cry, so things are going better than expected. I’m actually feeling a lot less T&E than I thought. I didn’t have a weights session scheduled this evening so I was inspired by Charlotte to throw in some extra cardio. Kev and I had a lovely after work walk. Tomorrow I’ll wake and do a short walk with Kev (for his benefit), eat my 8 egg whites +1 and greens (depletion time), pack the rest of my food and walk the 7km to my hair appointment. I love functional cardio. I’ve also got a massage booked for the afternoon and am meant to train chest (yuck/ouch) but might skive off and do a pilates class as it really loosens up my back nicely. Then, more cardio and I await my instructions on my carb load.

I’ve got a whole lot of my life tied up in Australia post too. I’m waiting for my Sann’s Shredded (Taraxatone replacement) and my foundation to come through tomorrow. At least, unlike some girls competing this weekend, I’ve had my suit and shoes for weeks. I’d be losing it otherwise.

One thing I didn’t expect was how thirsty I am. I voluntarily drank 8L of water yesterday, just because I was thirsty. Today I did about 6L and it was a breeze. Apparently, the thirst is to be expected. My lips and hands are also feeling very dry. Lucas’ Pawpaw for my lips and olive oil for my hands.

Might post some photos tomorrow when I’m fully depleted out of interest.
Goodnight all.