Nicole Snell’s Training Blog

Got my clear competition shoes today!  I love living in Hollywood because instead of having to order expensive shoes online and pay for shipping, I can just stroll up to Hollywood Blvd and take my pick of shoes from the dozens of stripper shoes stores that line the boulevard.  So that’s what I did today, and for $39.99 I found a pair of clear competition shoes that fit the bill perfectly!

There’s also a store called Z’Gans where I have had clothes made, and they do body building posing suits too!  The owner showed me some examples of suits he had made and I picked out what I wanted for my 2pc and 1pc.  I go back in October for a fitting and he’ll have both of my suits made in time for my competition, and it’s SO much cheaper than trying to order one online.  Sure, ordering online is cool if that’s your only option, but I much rather like the idea of actually being fitting and customized in person.

Am I happy I live in Hollywood?  Absolutely!  Am I saving a ton of money by using my connections here than trying to do the expensive "proprietary" stuff online?  You betcha!

Now I’m even more excited than before…NPC here I come!

Willpower isn’t a secret super power that only the genetically blessed possess. It isn’t some intangible feeling, it’s not a spiritual connection, it’s not even a fleeting moment.

It’s a part of your brain that’s every bit as real as your brain itself. We all have it. But like our brains, not everyone uses it.

Willpower is like a muscle. If you don’t use it, then it will atrophy. If you don’t exercise it, it will remain limp, weak, undeveloped and utterly useless.

So what exactly is willpower? It’s the drive inside a person that keeps them on the path towards whatever their goals are. If you want anything in life you have to work for it. You have to work HARD for it.

When you were in college, did you decide to just not go to class because you were tired from studying or partying? Did you decide not to pay for your next semester’s tuition because you didn’t want to take on a 2nd job so you could finish? Did you fail your midterm because you didn’t want to study? Of course you didn’t…at least not if you graduated!

Hard work rewards you with the goals you were working for. Weight loss is no different. Do you think that losing weight is easy? Should it be? Do you think that you shouldn’t have to work hard for it, sacrifice for it, plan for it and stick to it? Like anything else in your life that you have to work for, weight loss and good health is something that you must WORK HARD FOR!

I’m tired of complainers. I’m tired of whiners. I’m tired of those without willpower. I have willpower and so do you. The difference between you and I is that I use mine. I don’t let my urges control me (and I don’t even have them anymore).

How dare you not have the good sense to turn down pizza, bread sticks, donuts, and birthday cake at the office party and then complain later that night about how much weight you have to lose and how bad you feel for cheating? Then STOP CHEATING! How about you stop putting food ahead of your personal goals. Would you complain about failing a midterm because you cheated and looked at your neighbors paper because you didn’t study? HELL NO!

If you don’t think you have willpower then you’re right. You don’t exercise it. You don’t think that it’s important enough in your life and therefore you succumb to the things that you’re trying to avoid.

How about walking away when your office orders in crap food? Who says you have to eat it? Why didn’t you prepare yourself for your day and have snacks ready that were healthy so if you were indeed hungry you would have an option? Why is it necessary for you to eat just because the food is there? Hunger is a biological need…cravings are psychological.

When my office, or group of friends buys a bunch of food (pizza, cake, craft service) for our group, I in no way feel obligated to eat it. Do you know why? Well because:
1) I have my lunch and snacks with me so when I am hungry I eat what I prepared. I like knowing exactly what’s in my food and exactly what’s going into my body. My body is important to me because I only have 1. You better take care of it.
2)  The food they bought is crap and I know what it will do to my body
3)  I don’t feel that just because its there that I have to eat it
4) Just because I am teased, or because everyone else is eating it doesn’t mean that I have to. I live in my body everyday and I’m the one that has to look in my mirror everyday so I’m not going to eat something that I know will affect my goals. Who cares what everyone else does or wants me to do?

So, am I heartless and unfeeling? Do I have absolutely no sympathy for the hundreds of thousands of people that complain about wanting to loose weight and are yet not doing enough to change that? Possibly.

I just hate hearing people complain about things that they have complete control over and yet they do nothing to help themselves and blame everyone (so and so brought food and I HAD to eat it because it was there and looked good) and everything (I have a slow metabolism) for their lack of healthy choices and WILLPOWER to get the job done.

Next time your boss asks you to do something that you have to work hard at, just tell him/her that you don’t have the willpower to do it and that you’d rather go outside and sit in the sun since it’s more satisfying than any kind of work they could ask you to do and it’s instantly gratifying. See how long your job lasts. Probably the same amount of time as your weight loss.

Stop making excuses. Stop using excuses. Stop looking for reassurance that your big explosive cheat is ok because you just did it this once (even tho it’s not just this once).

Take responsibility for your weight. Take responsibility over your Willpower. Take control of your health. Otherwise, don’t complain about something you’re not willing to fix.

How excited am I that I am noticing muscle gains and cuts in my shoulder cap!  I guess hitting them twice a week is paying off!  I can definitely tell that now my shoulder is developing the distinctive shoulder cap and the cut the leads to the tricep/bicep junction is more defined.

I have 1 more week to wait before I can take more after shots (going for once a month until I get closer to contest, then I’ll take photos every week) but I can’t wait to compare the photos from June 8th! Woo hoo!
Yeah for me!!

Losing weight and eating healthy is like spending money. I’m sure you’d love to buy those $4000 Prada shoes, spend $400 on jewelry at the mall, or re-decorate your entire living room but you know that not only can you not afford it, but if you do buy those things you’ll be in debt and not be able to buy gas, or clothes or food.

So instead, you get something in your price range.

Would you like to spend all you money on expensive things? Sure. Do we like to indulge our expensive tastes and purchase things we don’t need just because we like it and feel we deserve it? Sure we do! Do we go shopping when we’re bored and does buying things make us feel better sometimes? Sure.

Do we go out and spend $5000 a day on our expensive tastes? No Way!

And why not??

Because we know the economic consequences for such indulgences. If we spend our monthly budget or even our savings on things we don’t need then we can’t pay rent, we can’t pay our bills, we can’t buy food and soon we are in debt up to our eyes and trying to figure out how to get a 3rd job to pay the bills.

Now apply those same principles to your weight. Sure people would like to eat donuts, candy, tortillas, burgers and ice cream every day for every meal . Sure people would like to eat without thinking of the consequences. But these are their "expensive tastes" and like expensive objects, there are consequences to overeating (overspending) or eating unhealthily (irresponsible purchases).

How likely as the average middle class American going to go on an $800 spending spree every week? Well that should be the same likeihood as how we treat our bodies and what we put in our bodies.

Don’t got on spending (eating) sprees, don’t make irresponsible purchases (eating unhealthy foods) and don’t make excuses for why you must spend all your money on a certain item or items (justifying why you can’t diet or why you can’t lose weight).

Only spend what you can afford (only eat what you need to sustain your body), and remember to invest your money so you can spend a little later (weight train and exercise so you can cheat every now and then).

Do you want to be poor all of your life or live extremely meagerly? (Do you want to be overweight and/or riddled with health ailments?) If you’re not happy with your financial state, you can change it! If you’re not happy with your physical state, you can change it! But change isn’t going to happen by complaining about it and by not acting on the desire to do something about it.

Unlike money, when your body is ruined you can’t file bankruptcy and start over again. You only have one body, one investment, one portfolio. So make smart decisions and let that body carry you successfully on throughout your life so you can be rich where it counts.

So I’m 3 weeks into my training.  I’m going steady, looking forward to working out everyday even if its just a cardio day.  I LOVE it.  I added CellMass to my program on 6/14 so we’ll see how that affects my gains.  I also set my cutting date as 9/15/07 to give me 3 solid months to slim and trim for December.

But to be honest, I’m feeling a bit disheartened that I haven’t seen any gains yet.  I know it’s only been 3 weeks, but I was hoping to see some massive muscle growth already since I’m lifting so heavy.  I’m sure by the end of July I’ll see more improvement, but I really want to start seeing results now.

Then there’s the whole "body image" thing that I (and every other woman on the planet) has.  I look in the mirror one minute and I think I look great and that my muscles are really popping and 15min later I look in the mirror again and I look like a humpback whale.  Eating 2000-2200 calories a day doesn’t help in my perception that, Yes- it must be body fat I’m gaining and not muscle at all.  My clothes don’t fit any different (no bigger no smaller) and yet I have this sense of doom that I’m getting larger every second.

Then I have my times when I swear I’m shrinking and that I’m not eating enough and that all the work I’m doing is actually tearing up my muscles and I think - Geez, I need to eat more or I won’t have any muscles left!

What’s a girl to do?

I’ll tell ya what I’m gonna do- I’m gonna keep at it.  Gaining muscle is new to me.  Training for a body building competition is new to me.  Eating sweet potatoes and drinking protein shakes is new to me.  I knew weight loss like the back of my hand so now its time for me to challenge my body and mind in a whole new way.  And if by Sept 15th when it comes time to cut I have gained too much body fat, I know what I have to do to get it off.  But if I have no muscles, there’s no way to build up more in 3 months if I don’t have a good base to start with.

So onward!

I just created my Body Space page today.  I am also on Sparkpeople.com and MuscleMX, but I figured I’d put my training log on here too. I won’t backtrack my log, but I’ll start from today.  If you have any tips or hints to help me with my musculature goals for the December competition I would really appreciate it!