windsrprk’s BodyBlog

Had an appointment today at MAC to learn how to do makeup for the competition. I’m no makeup expert so I figured I better let someone with experience handle this! A nice gal named Mira worked with me. With the tan that has to be applied I was pretty sure day to day makeup would not work for stage. Sure enough, there were a LOT of steps involved (way more so than my daily routine for work) and the steps involved a lot of products I did not have. Luckily, I had a MAC eyeshadow that she loved and said would work great for the show (I brought all my makeup with me so she could see what I had). She talked me through the whole process, explaining why she was doing each step. This was extremely helpful! When it was all said and done she took my picture (I brought my camera) and she helped me choose the most important products so I wouldn’t blow my budget. With that, I still spent $230! I am going to practice doing my face at least twice before the show so I am comfortable with the process. Hopefully come show day I’ll get good comments from the judges regarding my makeup! 

I had an appointment at a salon today to get highlights. Funny how at the age of 38, I have never in my life gotten highlights. I wanted my hair to look nice for the upcoming figure competition so I thought I would splurge a little. The gal who did my hair, Carmen, she did a great job! She gave me some choices and made suggestions as to what she thought would look best. She did the color and then we looked at a hairstyle book to get a feel for what I liked as far as cuts. I have very fine, thin hair so my options are limited. This didn’t faze Carmen at all as she got right to work giving me a fantastic cut. I left the salon with a huge grin on my face and an appointment for late July to touch up the highlights. I’ll be keeping this look! I will unveil the new hair on my Bodyspace page once I have pics from the contest. Next Saturday will find me at the MAC store getting a tutorial in stage makeup. I should be able to pick up my suits from Jodie before heading over to MAC so they can choose flattering colors to compliment the suits.

My fiance is out of town visiting a friend so he won’t see the new hair until Sunday. We have already exchanged text messages and I told him I am very pleased! It was $$$ well spent. I also found out that my friend Diane will definitely be coming to the show and I’m super excited about this! We haven’t seen each other in about two years and it will be great to see her. I invited her to come to our after-show dinner outing and she said she would love to come. Woohoo! With Diane, my fiance Patrick, my dad, and Patrick’s parents coming that makes a cheering section of five people. Awesome!

Well, my spirits are up thanks to three things: I got a really nice message from a fellow competitor regarding my rant from Friday, I got an e-mail from my trainer that had me feeling better too, and Aunt Flo came a few days early! I am not one of those women that knows exactly to the day when Flo will visit. I can approximate, and I figured she would come knocking on the door the middle of this week. Since she showed up late Friday afternoon this definitely explains the water retention! I’m actually quite happy about this because there is a chance she will pack her bags and leave before the contest next month, or at the very least, be on her way out. That means water retention won’t be a problem come show day. YAY!

Now that my mood is up I can assess my progress without being too down on myself. I’ve been working on building my calves and they are coming along nicely. The right calf is still a bit smaller than the left although it is catching up. I feel I need more hamstring work and not having a power rack or GHR apparatus is partially holding me back. I do what I can with what I have (lying leg curls and SLDL’s) and will press on until I have the funds to get more equipment. Shoulders used to be a weak point and are looking fuller and more rounded. I especially had a problem with rear delts (or, lack thereof) and have been hitting those with a vengence. Now when I strike a side pose I can see the rear delt pop!

I have a short torso. I have to stretch myself upward as hard as I can when I am doing my front pose to elongate my upper body as much as possible. I asked my suit designer to cut the bottom half of my two-piece a little lower when she makes my suits. I will see her soon for a second measuring since I’m leaner now than when I first met her. Anyway, when I stretch up tall it makes my abs disappear but boy do my lats flare during this pose! Hopefully as I get leaner my abs will look more defined. If not, the overall pose still has me feeling pretty satisfied with what I see in the mirror.

Well, its time for the next meal so off I go. Thanks for reading!

Here I am, five weeks out from my contest. I’m feeling pissed and frustrated and am wondering why I’m doing this! Judging by my progress pics, I’m not making any progress. I look the same as I did three weeks ago. ARGH!! My macros were 150p/150c/30f. When I was dropping and getting tighter, we raised the carbs to 200 grams per day. The end result of that was a steady increase in the scale and a whole shitload of water retention. I wound up extremely unhappy. Ok, so the carbs were dropped back to 150 grams per day and after a couple of days the excess water wound up getting flushed down the toilet. After that, nothing! Weight is stuck at 109lbs and water retention is once again a problem in my midsection and thighs. I bumped up the intensity of my cardio sessions, thinking I wasn’t working hard enough. No change. It feels so easy to just throw in the towel now because I don’t see how I’m going to be ready in time if my body isn’t changing. I know I’m not alone in this as many competitors feel this way. Now that I’m personally going through it, it sure isn’t any fun! At this point and time, competition prep sucks bigtime.