momsinthongs’s BodyBlog

By Lea-Ann Ellison
Copyright 2009 http://www.thepeopleschemist.com 

I love the gym, the beauty industry and competition. Put all three together and you have the perfect recipe for the sport of Figure. That’s why I chose it and have been competing in it for the last year. I’ve won first in all of my shows to date, while keeping my health intact. My recent win at The Arnold Classic has taught me more lessons about health and fitness than any single certification or degree could teach. Hopefully, by passing them on to you, they’ll get you past the BS that lurks within the fitness industry.

Learned Lesson #1: Avoid BS Diet Myths

The Arnold Amateur was the most exciting competition I have done thus far. And just like all the other shows, I have noticed a scary trend: starving, dehydrated, exhausted, bitchy women (so much for being healthy) trying to look like they are healthy and having fun on stage. The culprit behind it all: The BS fitness myths that tell us to eat a bazillion times a day and use Splenda to sweeten food in place of sugar. Feeding your face all day long will play some seriously detrimental games on your metabolism, guaranteed. First and foremost, it keeps your fat storing hormone insulin high. This is great for bodybuilders on steroids who are not as sensitive to fat storage, but really bad for the rest of us.

Eating four to six times per day simply forces us to go to the gym more often to avoid the fat gaining side effects. This leaves us exhausted and sometimes delirious. To feel and look great, you only need three quality meals per day, just make sure they are not served from a box, window or package.

Splenda is nothing more than a drug disguised as a sweetener. Are you kidding me? I thought you had to have a prescription from a doctor to eat drugs? Seriously though, it’s well known that Splenda is a wild-card that can cause numerous side effects, just like any other drug. And the headlines are clear: The artificial sweetener disrupts our brains ability to count calories, therefore leaving us feeling hungrier (bitchier) than we really are. Not cool for any athlete.

Learned Lesson #2: Never Deprive Yourself Of Sleep

Moms do it ALL right? I do. My competition schedule goes like this: Up at 5:30 am and to the gym at 6:00. Home at 7:45 to make breakfast for family, clean up, make lunches and send kids to school. Shower at 9:00 work at 10:00. Home at 5:00 pm, make dinner (maybe it’s my husbands night and we grab healthy food out) clean up, family time till 8:00 and kids to bed at 8:30pm. Shane and I hang out, take our nightly SerotoninFX to “sleep like drunken bums naturally,” and since he needs his beauty sleep too its bed by 9:30pm, no exceptions. Repeat! The only reason I can proactively dictate my own busy schedule is because I never deprive myself of sleep. And my physique benefits thanks to the subsequent release of human growth hormone during the resting hours. In total, inadequate sleep means I can’t keep up with myself or get the benefits of working my ass off at the gym.