Who’s the most bloated of them all? Me, of course! Eating like a heathen these past few days seriously shows in the mirror, I kid you not. High sodium and high sugar foods that I’ve been destroying myself with in combination with the lack of working out is truly torture on my progress. I have even more motivation (if that’s even possible) now to get back into the gym and stick to my diet.
I still have a long way to go and a lot of progress to make, both in muscle growth and fat loss. So, I’m definitely increasing my work out intensity over the next several weeks to get the gains (and losses) I so desperately need. I am definitely going to focus harder on legs and arms, but I promise I won’t forget my chest and back. I still want to get my bench max up to 135 (that’s always been a goal of mine); I just have to find a spotter I trust to help me. I’ll probably add more lunges and stiff-leg deadlift and increase the number of squat sets I’m doing. Gotta get that booty!
What are your favorite leg day killers? Need help? Let me know!
Last week, I checked in with my trainer and sent him more progress pics as usual. Then… We picked a new contest date! The spring season doesn’t officially begin (in Texas anyways) until March 5th. We chose the March 26th City Limits Championship in Waxahachie, TX! Based on this decision, Keith has given me the next four weeks off of dieting; I am to resume my strict dieting the day after Christmas. My first reaction to this news… “BUT I DON’T WANNA!!!!” Yes, I objected to the idea of literally eating anything and everything I wanted anytime. I’m terrified of losing all my progress or even a little bit over the next four weeks, and for good reason! Three months of strict dieting and hard-earned progress could be lost! I don’t want to take leaps and bounds forward only to fall backward. So, I made a compromise with myself: Beginning on Thanksgiving, I would eat whatever whenever while in Dallas ONLY. As soon as I’m back in College Station, I’m back to reality and back on my diet.
Along with the competition choice, I talked to my trainer about when to order my suit. From what I’ve read, other competitors recommend ordering your suit 8 weeks out from your competition because your body shouldn’t change excessively in size over that period of time. However, Keith actually told me it’s never too early to order your suit! I’m still going to wait, but my best friend is already helping me choose the color and design. I’m keeping it a secret as long as I possibly can!
I still have so much to save up for. The suit, make up, tan, nails, and all that jazz along with my NPC membership and competition costs (registration, hotel, food, etc.). It’s going to be expensive, but totally worth it!
I jumped back into my work out routine this week full-blast, and boy are my abs sore from roll outs! I’m definitely earning Whataburger tonight! I have a million and one things going on this week (as usual), but I refuse to sacrifice my work outs and diet discipline. I know, I’m stubborn.
I weighed in at 115.0 lbs yesterday morning, which is the lightest I have been since my freshman year of college basically starving myself. My waist measured 27.5″ around on Sunday; I only have one pair of jeans that fit in the waist now and all of my belts are too big -.- it’s a pain in the butt getting skinnier (lol). I actually looked in the mirror last weekend and said to myself, “Holy crap. I’m actually skinny.” Not an unhealthy skinny, but a healthy, lean kind of skinny. This morning, after my work out, I could see the outline of each section of my underlying 6 pack… It’s coming! But tonight’s high sodium cheat meal will definitely kill it haha oops. For a while there I feared that I wasn’t seeing progress anymore. Progress has just slowed a bit, that’s all.
I’m still waiting to hear from my trainer about my diet change since we are 8 weeks from New Year’s now. I know that one cardio day is going to get replaced with sprints and lunges for sure. I’ve been looking at pictures of other competitors and I have a lot of progress to make in my hamstrings and quadriceps in the next 16 or so weeks. I haven’t picked a new competition date because NPC hasn’t posted their 2016 competition schedule yet, but as soon as I know you’ll know, I promise!
Today is back day, and I have a dense work out planned complete with shoulder work. I’ll definitely do some light(er) deadlifts (no maxing out), lat pull downs, bent-over underhand rows, shrugs, trap rows, rear deltoid flys, lateral dumbbell raises/overhead press, and some bicep work to tie it all together and destroy my biceps (plate holds and curl supersets). I probably won’t be able to hold myself up tomorrow, but it’ll be worth it!
Last week, I managed to pick up another cold from someone. I started feeling it Friday night when I got to Katy, and it’s almost gone as of today. Against my wishes, I chose to rest up and take time off from working out to heal. I’ll probably take Friday off as well since I’m still not back to 100% today. I’ll try my best to squeeze in work outs on Saturday and Sunday, but I know my body needed this rest week, for real. So did my mind. Advice for the day: When you’re not feeling 100% (i.e. sick!) give your body the time and rest that it needs to recover so you can get back in the game 110%. I’m looking forward to having the energy to absolutely kill it in the gym next week.
It was kind of funny because I had to walk into my classes wearing “regular” clothes instead of work out clothes. One of my classmates actually pointed it out to me today LOL. Yes, I do own regular clothes people. I don’t live in work out clothes.
It’s been a long and exhausting week, and to my dismay I have a ton of work to get done this weekend. Life of a grad student.
Long time no write, right?! I have been insanely busy with my master’s program work, training, work, etc. Last week, I averaged 2-4 hours of sleep per night. Now, I’m sick because of it 😦 And I still have a mountain of work to do! I’ve been living off of sugar-free/calorie-free Rockstar energy drinks and Death Wish Coffee (seriously, look them up). To explain how exhausted I’ve been, 12 oz of DWC has 660 mg of caffeine (the average cup of coffee usually doesn’t exceed 100 mg). I can drink a cup of DWC (a solid 20 oz) and still fall asleep in class. Yeah… It’s real.
But enough of my whining. This past weekend I went to Katy again and trained with my man on Sunday morning. I had an extra kick ass leg work out to make up for missing on Thursday. I lifted the atlas stones again with John; I lifted the 80 lb stone several times and moved on to the 100 lb stone. I don’t think I’ve ever been so frustrated with lifting something in my life. I tried several times to lift the stupid 100 lb stone without success, nearly giving up. But I kept convincing myself one more try, one more try. Once I got John to shut up and stop coaching me through it and just let me lift, I got it up and over. I love him dearly and I appreciate all of his help and coaching, don’t get me wrong, but if you make me overthink a lift, I’ll never get it. My back and legs are DEFINITELY feeling it today, no doubt. I’ve got lovely scratches and bruises up the inside of my forearms from the stones. Just in case I failed to mention, the stones are made of concrete. And they aren’t completely smooth. I did several sets of back squats with 135 easy while I was there, too.
They looked awesome before I took a shower! There’s some slight bruising underneath that’s hard to see, as well.
Saturday was my cheat meal day, and it was glorious! John’s parents took us to Fogo de Chao in Houston for dinner; I think I almost ate them out of business. I put away probably half my weight in meat and side dishes. OMG THEY HAVE CANDIED BACON! IT’S LIKE HEAVEN IN YOUR MOUTH!!! It was a beautiful menagerie of flavors and scents and foods. Ugh! I want to go back!
After this week, my diet should be changing to be more lenient during the holiday season up until January 1, 2016. I’m excited for the change (more food!) but I’m also nervous because I don’t want to lose all of the progress I’ve made. Hopefully I can talk to him about ordering my competition suit soon! I keep seeing all the pretty ones from Angel Competition Bikinis on Instagram and it makes me more excited!
Let me know what gets you up and awake and moving! Happy lifting!
chickwholifts 
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