11 weeks out
WHATS GOING ON
I’m just trucking along – Stretch, vacuum, journal, eat, train, stretch, pose, recover, mindset work, sleep, repeat.
I’m truly enjoying the journey. Yes, it’s challenging, yes, it takes effort, yes, it takes sacrificing time and yummy foods, yes, at times I’m hungry, yes, I still don’t like cardio. But, oh I so love this sport.
TRAINING
Killing it at the gym still. For some reason when prep starts I get more locked in and push harder, which doesn’t make sense because the time to push was when I had the food that would support building muscle, at this point I’m trying to just maintain what I have. Currently I’m at maintenance calories, so no building that booty at this time.
CARDIO
Still at 5 days and 45 minutes. Thank God!!
POSING
Just started the vacuum/core control drills and boy are they fricken hard……this is going to be so beneficial for core control when I am on stage. I did have a posing session with my posing coach and she gave me a few tweaks so I’m back at the beginning of my program to engrain these new tweaks before moving on again. I’ve tried many posing coaches and learned so much different things from each of them which helps me to build my own tool box. For myself as well as for my clients. I really feel that I have improved my posing and feel so proud. I still have more I want to work on, but from where I was to now, I feel good.
STRETCHING
Still doing my stretching regimen. Towards the end of last week my hip/low back wasn’t even bothering me. I was trying to mimic the extra things I was doing to pin point what worked. I have one more idea I’ll try today to see if that was it.
Glutes are less tight, but gotta get ahead of it still. I train them hard so I gotta probably get more aggressive with this area of my stretching.
I purchased this hip compression thing. Feels yummy. IDK if it works – but getting blood circulating anywhere is good for recovery. And did I mention that it feels yummy?
It’s called Hyperrice. I have the leg compression sleeves as well. Towards the end of prep when I’m doing so much cardio my legs are really fatigued so this should help.
VACUUMS
This past week I started a vacuum training program. I diligently did them intentionally every morning. I took progress photos and videos and will be able to see if/how they improved/worked.
MINDSET
Continue to prioritize my mindset work. I feel pretty solid in this area. Gotta keep working on this though. Typically I beat myself up pretty bad post show if I don’t come in as conditioned as I’d like or I don’t place as well as I’d like. So I want to make sure I have my expectations in check and my definition of success not based on things out of my control.
STUFF
I really love helping people, I really love creating programs and content. I really love blogging. I really don’t like the IG and marketing. It takes me so much time to try to think of what to post, what do people need to hear, to learn, to get motivated….I know I need to show up, it just is like pulling teeth for me.
STRUGGLES
Probably the unexpected is my struggle this week. I am such a planner. Probably borderline OCD type. When things don’t go as planned it throws me off, especially mentally. Now with prep and meal timing, this area stresses me out more.
Last night, picking up my son from an event and the timing of it ending didn’t go as expected so I was sitting waiting over 40 minutes – all the while starving because technically, as planned I would have been home eating before then.
Lesson learned, just bring my food just in case….or try to work out my schedule differently when timing or unexpected circumstances may arise.
OVERALL
Overall I feel really good. Last week my weight didn’t budge like I expected. Especially since I was starving. Expressed to my coach that I wanted to be more aggressive and last prep my body was stubborn so I didn’t want to be chasing into the show. He cut calories more (I would have also added more cardio, but I’m still trusting him). I think I hit a low since the cut, will see my average when I do my check ins.
Here's to 75 days out…..