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.

With the nice weather this weekend I was able to put the tan-through suit to use. Apparently, the suit material is equal to SPF 6. The first time I used the suit I did not have on any sunblock. I wound up with some very minor lines from where the suit covered me. Oops! I went to Walmart later that day and bought some Hawaiian Tropic tanning oil. It was the only product I could find that was SPF 6 (everything else was 30+). The next day I covered all exposed skin with the oil before going outside. I was able to even out the coloring around the bikini bottom and there are no lines on my back at all. The only disappointment is around the breast area. Despite the suit being tan-through, and me moving the straps around so they don’t block the sun, the actual covered boob region is noticeably whiter than the rest of me. While most (or all) of this will be covered by my contest suits, I was looking for an even tan. I suppose the only way to get a truly even tan is to wear nothing and use a tanning bed. I will continue to move the top around here and there to see if I can even out the color. After all, if it worked for my butt its gotta work for my boobs too!

When I placed the order for the tan-through suit I got a confirmation e-mail that stated the top was on backorder. The in-stock date was May 18th and I didn’t want to wait that long. Fortunately, the e-mail offered a list of other color choices that were in stock. Easy enough, I send them an e-mail and ask to change to a different color. I got a response that the change was made and then I waited for the suit to arrive. And I waited, and waited. I didn’t see the charge come off my account and began to suspect something was up. I sent another e-mail inquiring about the order and a different person responded, hugely apologetic for the mix-up. Seems when I changed to a different color a new invoice for the order was not printed. Oops! This has been taken care of now and the suit should be here soon. I’ve had some inquiries as to how well the suit works for tanning and I apologize I am not yet able to answer those questions. Hopefully soon!

It’s been awhile since I last posted. Contest prep is going very well. My trainer/nutritionist wants me to hold at my current weight (109lbs) for a week or two. Saturday marked the end of the first week holding at that weight. Even though I increased my carbs on Saturday (which is allowed…225 grams) my weight didn’t change. Still came in at 109lbs this morning. I will monitor this so I don’t lose more this week.

There is a tanning salon within walking distance of where we live. We went in to inquire about rates and ugh, the guy was so pushy! While they have month-to-month rates the start-up deposit was a bit pricey. Also, the germophobe in me was a little grossed out by the idea of using a tanning bed that other bodies sweated in. Even though the beds are cleaned between uses I’m still weirded out by the whole idea. Sooo….the alternative? I purchased a tan-through 2-piece swimsuit from www.tanthrough.com. The site says you are guaranteed not to have any tan lines so I’m gonna give it a shot. Our apartment is right next to the pool so weather permitting, I’ll be out there on weekends once the suit arrives.

Made an appointment in late June for a makeup consultation at MAC. I’ll be re-measured in early June for my contest suits. Plans are progressing nicely!

My fiance and I spent April 5th and 6th moving. He had a one bedroom apartment and I came from a cramped roommate situation. We now have a two-bedroom apartment in the same complex he was in. Third floor living means a lot of stairs! hehe The second bedroom is the home gym and WOW! It is so nice having a dedicated gym and its roomy! Patrick took the mirrors from my old residence and installed them in the new gym. He’s wonderful for doing that! With better lighting and more room it will be much easier to practice posing. The plan is to unload some items on ebay to avoid having to dig into the paycheck for a power rack. Patrick and I both look forward to using it when we get one. Life together is great!

For the past week I’ve been battling a cough and stuffy nose. In the beginning I thought it was a regular cold and would pass. Well, when I missed three days of work, went through an entire bottle of liquid medicine, and still wasn’t any better I knew something was wrong. Finally went to the doc on Thursday and found out they had a slew of people in with the same symptoms. I told the doctor I was competing in July and that being sick was interrupting my training. I needed to get better FAST! I wound up getting two shots and two prescriptions. Feeling so much better already! I expect to resume training on Monday. I haven’t missed a beat on my food plan so at least one thing went according to schedule!

On the road to contest day, I took the plunge and hired Dr. Joe to help me prepare for the stage. How exciting! He needed current photos so I posted the same ones I sent to him in my progress pics. I’m in need of a tan, more muscle, and additional posing practice! Seeing photos gives a nice reality check when you think things are going well. While I may be able to strike a nice pose in front of a mirror, its obvious I don’t know what I’m doing when no mirror is around for cheating. Gotta work on that! I look forward to working with Dr. Joe as the journey to the stage continues. Stay tuned!