The I Love Carbs Blog

Today my girlfriends and I went out to a place famous for antiques.  It also happened to be my friend’s birthday and we spent the whole day wondering around town, eating, without a care in the world!  It felt SO good!  I indulged in whatever I wanted.  We started with a light lunch at a French place.  We shared a cheese plater with fruit and bread.  Oh how I LOVE Brie!  Then we hit the shops and we shared some chocolates with coffee.  Shopped some more.  We started to get hungry so we ventured into a place for a late lunch.  I had a delish Florida Grouper sandwich with homemade french fries and chased it down with an Italian Bellini—very refreshing since Florida is 1000 degrees outside!  Shopped some more…then went into a cafe and had a cappucino with a pastry.  My diet was blown away today.  But the beauty of it was, I really didn’t have a diet today!  Just out celebrating friendships and loving life!  Here’s some pics of us around town today.

It feels like it was all just a dream.  My pictures don’t even look like me, and it was almost like an out-of-body experience because it seems to come and go so fast.  (I’ve gained 11lbs since the show!) But, the experience that I got out of it will stay with me forever!  I met some fantastic people, and learned a lot about myself along the way.  I came out stronger, and yes, alittle sassier-I love make up! lol. 

What is most profound to me is that I set a goal and did it!  My whole life growing up, my parents never pushed me to set goals.  They never put me into sports, dance, music classes…nothing.  As I set out on this journey, there were many times when I asked myself, “why am I doing this?”  And I realized that this is me.  Yes, I am a wife, a mother, a friend to others, and the list goes on.  But, this is me, this is who I am!  I love training in the gym, and setting my personal records.  I love that I’m living an active and healthy lifestyle for my daughters to follow.  And I love looking hot for my man!  At the shows, I see people of all kinds of shapes and sizes, and different ages, from teens to masters.  I am proud of all of them for getting up there, and accomplishing their goals.  As my love for this sport grows, unfortunately my support from my extended family members aren’t growing along with it.  I would be okay with them if they just didn’t find it interesting, but they give their best wishes to me.  That’s not the case.  There’s something strange about it.  It’s like they don’t acknowledge that I’m competing.  I do however, have an amazing husband and daughters that love me for who I am.  They support me, and are there with me through all the ups and downs.  Although, right now, they REALLY are enjoying me because I’m able to drink my wine and have my carbs, haha.  Wine+carbs= a happy lady!  I have some fantastic friends that have watched my journey.  And I’m sure they thought I was a crazy person for putting myself through this, and wondered what the out come would be.  They all told me after the show, that they were very nervous for me.  They’ve seen me go through this tranformation.  But, as I stepped out on stage, and did my routine, it all came to light for them.  Honestly, yes, my extended family’s non-existant support does make me sad.  But, my husband’s, daughters’, and close friends love and support truely make up for it.

As for what I will do next?  I have a show lined up for early November 2008.  That will give me 19 weeks tomorrow to start bulking a bit and gaining some thinkness in the legs and abs.  I think after leaning out and dropping my water, my waist was too thin, and needs more thinkness.  My abs need to be more pronounced.  My legs need to grow some in the quads and calves.  I meet with my coach tomorrow afternoon to get the diet going.  My husband worked up a training plan for me already, and that will start next week.  So, here we go again! 

 I’ve meet some really nice ladies at the show.  One of the girls actually helped inspire me to start bodybuilding.  She was a light weight in the first show I went to see.  (my coach happened to be in that show, too)  I remember seeing her up there all freaking ripped and thought, yeah, that’s awesome!  And I got to compete in the show with her last Saturday.  It was an honor to share the stage with her.  She’s the one on the far left.  She lives in town, so we’ve already started talking about training together. 

Happy weekend everyone!  Lift HEAVY! Train HARD!

EWWW!
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IP Address: 69.177.201.117

This blog is written especially for the person who left me this beautiful comment on my profile and left me this message.  What really bothers me is who the HECK is this person to comment on MY profile!  I trained darn hard to achieve my goals, and it won’t be shattered by someone who can’t take it.  Perhaps, my friend, you’ve stumble upon the wrong web site, this IS BODYBUILDING.COM   Perhaps you meant to look at Whimpybodies.com?  Before you place judgement upon ANYONE here on this site, just know that EVERYONE here trains hard, has different goals, and YOU are NO ONE to shatter their dreams!  So, I leave you with the wise words of my husband…”Shut your pie hole!”

Hear is the link to the video of the pre-judging at the NPC Mid FL. The womens Open had five athletes, all LW (125 and under).

http://www.vimeo.com/1221685

I am the 2nd girl from the left. Final placing was from Left to Right 3rd, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 1st

You can also check out some really good pictures of me at the following link:

http://www.iajephoto.com/photocart/index.php?do=photocart&viewGallery=5003

Enjoy!

That was a BLAST!!!  I placed second out of the five ladies, all light weights. 

The top photos with me in the black suit are from pre-judging.  I’m the one second to the right.  The ladies where all so nice and helpful.  They made me feel comfortable and relaxed.  I didn’t feel nervous at all.  I thought for sure I would.  The photos of me in the blue suit are from the night show. 

The experience was amazing, and I learned so much from it.  My husband, daughters, and close friends came out to support me.  My dear friend, and hairstylist drove down from G’ville to do my hair for the night show.

I woke up iin the morning, around 4:45, and mys tomach was just not right.  With the lack of water, having to eat a steak before bed, and smelling the fumes from the Jan Tana was just all too much.  I started getting dry heaves.  Not a good sign.  But, after eating some carbs, and skipping the morning steak, I was feeling better. 

I got to the athelet’s meeting and all the competitors went back stage to the dressing rooms.  I quickly met some wonderful figure ladies that gave some great tips.  As I was relaxing I met one of the female BB.  She was so nice and extremely helpful.  Turns out that her hubby cycles and my daughter and husband know him.  Funny…small world. 

My coach is good friends with the promoter and came back stage to give me a final look over.  Now, what’s great about my coach is that he’ll tell you how it is.  And when he gives you a compliment, it’s a big deal.  He told me a few times he was very proud of me, and I’ve come a long way.  I walked into the gym about 8 months ago and said I want to complete, and he was thinking, "here’s a stick figure standing in front of me..I’ve got my work cut out".  He’s been very supportive, and we’ll get together this week to talk about preparing for the next show. 

My hubby and girls have been my saving grace and without them, I couldn’t have done this.  My daughters thought the show was cool, seeing their mama up there.  I’m just glad to be in a sport that will teach them that no matter what age you are, you can live a healthy life style and set goals.

After the show, I didn’t go crazy eating.  We went to Carrabba’s.  I had some calamari, and bread, and ordered a pizza.  I ate 2 slices, with a glass of white wine, and that was it.  I felt like I would bust!  This morning I went to Einstein Bagels and had a turkey egg bagel with a coffee, and again, I felt stuffed.  At home, cut up a yummy mango, and had some grapes.  Oh how I missed summer fruits!  My stomach has been messed up so I had some yogurt, and that seemed to help.  I’m trying to control my eating, which is pretty easy right now, since I can’t fit much into it   I think my girls and friends are having more fun with the eating and celebrating part. 

I took 2 naps today.  My family is wonderful, they cleaned the house and let me rest.  I slept for 3-1/2 hours!  I woke up and ate some more mangos, and fell asleep for another 3 hours! 

I’ll try and hook up my profile with a youtube video of the pre-judging.  I’ll write more later…time to go chill.  Thanks everyone who stopped by with encouraging comments and best wishes!  You guys ROCK!

I am less than 24hrs out now. Here is the latest. This is with my second coat of Pro Tan on. I have one more coat tonight and then Jan Tana in the morning ….. and then prejudging! Dropped another 4bs last night from when I went to sleep weighing 125lbs, woke up at 121lbs. Here they are …. still have 3 - 4 more lbs of water to drop. Thank you everyone for all the support.

Here’s a picture of me with one coat of ProTan. My hubby put on my second coat of ProTan tonight.  What a difference a tan makes   I’ve been getting my things together for tomorrow.  Making a list and preparing my food.  We’ll head out to the hotel tomorrow evening and go to weigh ins.  My water weight last night dropped from 129 late night to 124 in the a.m.  Oh-Yeah!  I still wish I came in drier and leaner, but over all, I’m pleased with where I am for my first show.

I went over some poses with my coach today.  He seemed excited about the show, and said I will be giving the others a run for their money.  That was nice to hear.

I should be relaxing more than I am, but there’s so much to do.  I go my nails done, and I think I’ll have to do my own hair, darn.  I figured I would have it up so not to hide my shoulders and traps.  Even though it’s the night show, points can still be made.

Well folks…got to hit the sack.  More to follow tomorrow!

3 days left, and I’ve begun my carb loading tonight.  I’ve stop taking in sodium, no veggies, and I start pulling the water out.  I can’t wait to see what’s underneath!  I’ve been training my butt off for the past 8 months for this, and here it is.  I did my final workout today and got a super good pump with light weights.  I had no pauses in between sets to keep my HR up.  I ate 25g of carbs this a.m. and I just got in 50g before bed!  Although I would LOVE them to be something tastey like oats, but it contains sodium. So, what I do is I take Idaho potatoes and wash the skins very well.  Dry them and slice them into 1/4″ think slices.  I spray them with olive oil cooking spray, and sprinkle garlic powder on them.  I flip them and do the same to the other side.  I place them under the broiler until they brown, and flip them to brown the other side.  They taste delish!  Now I wish I could say the same about the chicken.  It’s hard to make chicken taste good without adding salt.

I had such an ego boast today!  I had to go to the mall and I had a few people ask if I was competing.  I even had a clerk ask if I was  bodybuilder…not a trainer…a bodybuilder.  That made my day!  My muscles are looking flat, so I can’t wait for those carbs to fill them out.

I met with my coach today and got the diet written out up until the show.  I’ll see him again tomorrow, and Friday just in case we need to do final tweaking.  We’ll go over the poses.

My hubby is so sweet! He booked a hotel for the weekend so I don’t have to wake up super early and drive to the show.  I love him!  Without him, I really could not have done this.  He had been my support and helped me get through those challenging moments.  I never felt like quiting, but there were plenty of times I felt like I didn’t have what it takes.  He was right there encouraging me the whole way.  And let me just say, I was not always the most chipper person to be around   but he always give me a smile and a kiss and let me know I’m doing great. 

Tomorrow I begin putting my ProTan on and I’ll get my things ready for the hotel.  Weigh ins are on Friday night, or early Saturday.  I’ll probably go on Friday.

Thanks everyone who have sent me best wishes.  I’m stoked that you all have been there along this journey of mine.  I’ll try and get some photos leading up to the show.

Tonight my hubby and I went to a local (level III) show with our good friends.  They’ve never been to one, and I think after being around all those fantastically fit people, it just becomes contagious and you want to be fit also.  They guy asked my hubby if he could write out a training program for him seeing how much I’ve gained from his training.  And his wife said she would consider training for a show, and wished I lived near her so we could train together.  Honestly, she would look wicked up there on stage!  She’s the one who went with me to train a few months ago.  So yay for being bit by the fitness bug! 

This would have ben a great show to compete in.  There where 3 ladies in the Women’s Open and I think I could have done very well.  I’m glad I went because it sure did fire me up for next week!  The promoter to my show was also there tonight.  I went and introduced myself to him.  He’s a very nice guy.  I told him I was looking forward to doing his show next week and he kind of looked me up and down and said, “Oh yeah, you look great, nice total package.  You’ll do great!”  I told him that meant a lot to me coming from him. 

My diet has been bearable…but…these next few days will be torture!  25 grams of carbs + training + cardio up until Wednesday.  I am however, really enjoying all the sodium I get to take in right now.  The chicken breast that I cook is delish and tastes great on salad.  I’m going to miss having it for a couple days as I start to pull the water out.  If you buy frozed chicken breast, buy Tyson’s no-hormones, no-antibiotics chicken breast.  I thaw it, and pat them dry.  Then I make a dry Italian seasoning mix with garlic powder, dried rosemary, dried basil, dried oragano, red pepper flakes, and sea salt.  Then I sprinkle it over the chicken and pan sear them.  About 4-6 minutes each side, depends on the thickness of the meat.  They turn out tender and great hot or cold over salad. 

My goal this week is to focus of course on my diet, or lack there of, cardio, and most importantly my posing.  I’ve come a long way from when I’ve started, and it’s been so much fun!

I deplete this week and start dropping water on Thursday. 128lbs right now, should come in at 117 - 119lbs by Saturday.