Natasha’s BodyBlog

So excited to see my momma! lol, I havent see her since Christmas and have missed her dearly. She is flying in Friday for my graduation this weekend. As are my cousins, aunt and step father. Looking forward to receiving my diploma and being a college grad. Unfortunately I wont be able to celebrate with food and champagne… (still gotta get that body fat down) plus a cheat meal 3 weeks out is not such a good idea.

Got alot of stuff going on in the next couple of weeks. This weekend is grauation, with all my fam in town and next week I start my new job! I hope I like it, Im excited but have heard mixed reviews about going into retail. Hell, I figure I’ll give it a try and if I dont like it, its never too late to change professions! haha. And I got the Southern Classic in 3 weeks as well as the greater gulf 2 weeks after that. That’s my update, and I probably wont get around to another one for a couple of weeks…. later yall!

Don’t let the bastards grind you down.—General Joseph W. Stilwell

Hey all! I have been putting off writing this blog… The show in Panama City was awesome! I was so scared and nervous at first, but now… I LOVE LOVE LOVE being on stage! 

Hopefully I’ll be able to put up some actual pictures from the show, the ones that my boyfriend took did not come out so well. Anyway, I entered two classes, the Beginner and Open. I placed second in the beginner class, which I was a little disappointed about because I kinda though I should have won, but obviously the judges did not see it the same way. 

Anyway… I placed fourth in my height class in the open which I was very excited about, there were nine other gorgeous women in my open class and I honestly didn’t expect to place. 

I was happy to have the experience and am ready and looking forward to my next show (Southern Classic in MS). Plus, IHOP afterwards was AWESOME! 

Who knew decarbing wouldn’t be so bad? I kept thinking it would be pretty horrible and I’d feel awful…. not so much… haha. I am a little spacy and it is harder to concentrate in class, but not as bad as I expected. I have had a couple of moments where I’ve wanted to bite someone’s head off, but I keep telling myself its just the lack of carbs talking and move on…

Ive been decarbing since Sunday, tomorrow is the last day (and my last workout day, yay!) and I will begin carb up on Thursday. We are leaving Friday morning and driving to Panama City. I am excited! Just hope its smooth sailing from here till Friday. We shall see tho, I go a test tomorrow, not so fun….

Also glad to be in better spirits than last week! Later yall!

Ahh! I am getting pretty nervous for this show. I am trying to keep in mind that this is my first show ever and that I am only trying to gain experience and not win the whole thing (though that would be nice). I have to admit that my nervousness is not helping to boost my confidence levels. Im worried that I might make a fool of myself… good thing I don’t know anyone in panama city!

I start cutting carbs tomorrow so I will keep yall posted on how my week goes. For now I am off to the gym for cardio!

Yesterday I was officially 2 weeks out from my contest. To be completely honest, I’m feeling pretty down right now. I know, that’s very out of character from the usual positive outlook that I have. But, ever since my last post my body fat hasn’t changed. I’ve added in cardio (Im up to 45min sessions 2x a day) and gotten nothing out of it. With the pressures from school in my last month, the time constraints from being in the gym all the time doesn’t help lessen my stress. 

Basically, I don’t feel like I’m there, I’m not ready. I wanted to go into this show under 10% bf and I haven’t and probably will not achieve that goal. 

My body fat was 10.5% the other day down from 10.9%. So even with my cheat meal I managed to lose fat and I put back on about a lb of muscle…. Not too shabby. I really want to get below 10% for panama city ideally around 9%.

Only problem is that ever since I hit 12% my bf percentage has still been going down but very very very slowly. I know that its normal because my body is fighting it but I really need to try and speed up the process.

Since the cheat meal actually did some good for me (still lost fat and put on muscle) I get a carb up day! wooo hooo. doulbe servings of carbs on sundays baby!  Hopefully this will help me hold on to my muscle and keep losing that stubborn fat!

Gotta go practice posing…. later yall!

Panama City here I come!

The contest is quickly approaching and Im pretty much set! I still have much posing practice to do and still have to drop a little bit of body fat, other than that I am almost set to go! Got my heels and my protan. I still need to send out that entry form and get my make up, but thats not too much to do… My boyfriend and our puppy are coming with me for support! And I am starting to get excited for the show! (I’m just hoping my excitment doesnt turn to nervousness…)

Body fat update tomorrow!

"All you can do is your best. You give it everything you have and whether you make it or not, you’ve done all you can. If you’ve done that, there’s nothing else you can give and you should be proud of yourself." - Joy Fawcett

Suits- Check

Protan- Check

Heels- Check

NPC card- Check

Entry Forms- Still need to fill out and send!

Hotels- Check

Makeup- Need to get (yikes!)

We had a great time at our cheat meal! my boyfriend and I decided to go early to beat the friday night rush. We got there early and it was pretty empty save for a table of 7 very large, very loud, very ignorant women. The hostess thought it would be a great idea to put us at the table right next to these women. My boyfriend was immediately annoyed. Thankfully our waitress was awesome and let us move to another table a ways away.
We started out with a spinach artichoke dip, yummy! Instead of being served with chip they serve their spin dip with fried bow tie pasta sprinkled with parmesan cheese. It was sooo good we devoured the whole thing immediately.
Then came the entrees, I ordered a crab stuffed catfish with fries and mashed sweet potatoes. I asked our waitress for a box to put half of it away so I could have room for dessert and finish my meal later tonight (feels like I am cheating twice instead of once!) Well I put most of the sweet potatoes and fries in the box and the larger half of my catfish. The fries were so salty and you could taste the brown sugar in the sweet potatoes it was delicious! Well when I was done eating my entrée and my boyfriend was still working on his filet I was starting to feel a little full…. 

We took a look at the dessert menu… and let me tell you it was so hard to decide! He ordered the fudge brownie cheesecake and I decided to get the snickers one. As we wait for our cheesecake, I quickly go from ‘a little bit full’ to ‘my stomach feels like its about to explode full’. Sadly enough… I took one luscious bit of my cheesecake and realize that if I eat anymore I will throw up. 

We both found it ironic and funny that the one thing that I’ve been looking forward to (for the past three weeks) in this cheat meal , was the cheesecake. And I couldn’t even finish two bits! HA! I feel a little bit defeated right now but at least I have the opportunity to finish my cheesecake later tonight. 

Hope yall enjoyed my cheat count down and story. Next up is my count down to the panama city show.  5 more weeks! 

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.” 

For cheesecake. damn, I can not wait. Were going to go to dinner around 5pm so that I can stay on track with my eating sechdule (every 3 hours). Im so stoked. More on how delish my food is later…. gotta go get that hour of cardio in to start compensating for this cheat. Later yall!

So so so so excited, haha. I’m so glad I didnt take this cheat meal as soon as it was given to me. Placing it so far away has really made me feel like I am working for it. Not to mention the few times that I have broken down from feeling hungry or really craving sweets. (Like when my mom sent me a huge box of cookies on valentines day, that i cried over as my boyfriend packed them away in the freezer for post competitive season consumption). Anyway, we’ve decided to go to our first date spot (awww) that is known for cheesecake! I think I have looked at the menu online at least 10 times in the past 2 weeks. The plan is to go for an early dinner then a movie. I am hoping that I wont be too stuffed or feel sick after eating so that we can actually make it to the movies.

I told myself that I must do extra cardio the day of and day after the cheat meal and also consume lots of extra water. This way I can minimize water retention from all that sodium and dairy that I’ll be eating. I’ll keep yall posted on how it goes! Later!