5 Weeks and Counting Until the June 30th Fitness Competition

Since we went away this weekend, I met with Jodi on Friday for a 30-minute leg training session and then 30 minutes of posing and tweaking the diet/workout.

I'm now at 13.1% bodyfat (woohoo!!!) and the scale showed 134.8 lbs. Mind you, my scale this morning showed 131 and Jodi mentioned the workout could have forced me to retain some water. Regardless, I was more than happy with the results.

Lots of diet changes this week...

Breakfast
- No more banana (wah!!!)
- 1/2 cup oatmeal
- 4 egg whites

AM snack
- 20 almonds

Lunch
- 5 oz. tilapia
- 1 cup string beans (no more broccoli or zucchini -- eeek!!!)

PM snack
3 oz. chicken
4 oz. sweet potato

Dinner
6 oz. tilapia
1 cup green beans

Evening snack
- 1 scoop protein powder

That's what I call a low-carb week! It will be interesting to see the changes from this new diet plan.

Workout
- Cardio is now 70 min.
- Sprints and bleachers (or treadmill sprints & stairmaster) -- 2x per week

Since my birthday is this Friday, my family decided to celebrate it with me this weekend. Here was my pre-birthday cheat meal, courtesy of my favorite little brother and future sister-in-law:

• Hot artichoke & spinach dip with pita chips
• Prime rib cooked on a rotisserie grill hand-rubbed with fresh herbs and spices -- (YUM!)
• Grilled asparagus
• Sweet potato tater tots (you'd think I'd be sick of sweet potatoes by now...LOL!)
• Carvel ice cream cake for dessert
• Key lime dip with graham cracker pretzels
• Iced tea with mango vodka
• Pinot Noir wine

I'm drooling just thinking about that meal. It was as good as it sounds...maybe better.

I worked out on Saturday before we headed to the shore. I took Sunday off, ran 70 minutes with sprints in the morning Monday and then did triceps when I got home. Needless to say, I'm ready to get back to my routine.

Next week will be even tougher since I have a business trip thrown into the mix. UGH!!!

I'm training and posing with Jodi on Sat. morning. Stay tuned for the next update. Heading into four weeks left and my last cheat meal. *Sniff*

Fitness Competition Update: 6 Weeks to Go

In addition to having a fabulous weekend with incredible weather, I had a great meeting with Jodi this week.

My body fat dropped 4% to 14.3%!!! I was floored! After gaining 4 pounds last week, this was an unexpected, welcomed surprise. My weight is at 133 lbs. (this is from my scale since the gym one wasn't working). However, Jodi only did the measurements for my benefit. She's going strictly by how I look now. Except I (and my fabulous cheering squad who check in with me after my weekly appointments) want to see the numbers change and go down. It's incredibly motivating!

After going down so much so fast, I wondered what changes awaited me. Here they are:

•  Diet -- no changes
• Cardio is now 65 minutes 6x/week

I'll be keeping everything the same, including daily deadlifts and walking lunges. But I'll be increasing sprints with jogging to 2x per week. These will also include running bleachers. I'm going to try and get those in during my daughter's T-ball games since they have a nice set of bleachers and a paved area to run laps on.

This week I will also be ordering bikini samples from Christine Marsh. The colors I'm thinking about are royal blue, green and black. We'll see how those look on me. I do know I want lots of bling, which tends to cost lots of $$$.

Jodi and I practiced posing, which is way harder than I thought it would be. It's really hard to make your lats flair without squeezing your back and sticking out your shoulder blades. I have some work to do in that area.

Since I've been tanning and got such a great report this week, here is an update pic:

I almost forgot my cheat meal! My parents came and stayed with me this weekend, since my hubby was away. We decided to introduce them to Smashburger:

• Jersey burger (with applewood bacon, blue cheese, fried onions, sauteed onions, lettuce, tomato)
• Onion rings with an awesome horseradish sauce
• Picked on fries from everyone else
• Oreo milkshake (we ordered 2 and shared them between the 5 of us)
• (5) Thin Mint cookies
• (2) 7-Up and Mango Vodka drinks
• 1 glass of wine
• A few dark chocolate truffles

All I can say is YUM! But after that, I was more than ready to get back to my healthy eating.

Until next week...

7 Weeks 'Til the Fitness Competition

Just 7 short weeks to go! I met with Jodi on Friday after work versus Saturday since she was prepping other competitors for a contest. I also attended the show so I can see what to expect. While it was not an NPC contest, the prep (tanning, bikinis, etc.) are still the same. However, the posing is different. Whereas I just have to do front, side and back poses. During the contest, the girls had to a 2-minute T-walk to music and also perform front, side and back poses.

I somehow gained weight this week!! I was up 4 pounds (138.6) and down nearly 1% (18.6%). This caught me by surprise and freaked me out a bit. But Jodi didn't seem concerned, especially since my bodyfat went down. It could be I'm retaining water since my period is coming next week. Another reason may be the pre-workout drink (Assault) I've been taking has creatine in it, which causes water retention. Regardless, I'm more than determined than ever and hoping the gain is a combo of muscle and water!

Diet Changes
Lots of changes in the food department, including:

• No apple at lunch (that half an apple was a tease anyway)
• Afternoon snack is now 3 oz. of chicken (no more protein shake -- thank goodness!)
• Lunch: replace chicken with 5 oz. tilapia (yum!)
• Dinner: replace chicken with 6 oz. tilapia (double yum!)

Workout Changes

• Keep daily walking lunges and deadlifts
• Keep plyos between sets
• Cardio: 1 hour/ 6 times per week
• Add leg extensions and leg curls to leg workout

Cheat Meal
So I discovered something new during this week's cheat meal -- the drive-by cheat (works particularly well for dessert after your in-laws send you a giant Mother's Day gift basket full of foods you can't eat. LOL!). What is the drive-by cheat you may ask? It's literally trying tons of food, but only 2-3 bites of it. Lots of tastes and options!! I was sick to my stomach after this one. I haven't had this amount of carbs in a looooong time!

• Merlot cheese and multi-grain crackers from the gift basket
• 3 slices Anthony's Coal-Fired Pizza with sausage and onions -- I just couldn't stop!
• One meatball (from Anthony's -- I had heard rave reviews, but it wasn't that great. I've had better.)
• 3 chicken wings  (from Anthony's -- I was expecting buffalo wings, but these were just roasted with onions and rosemary. Very yummy!!!)
• Handful of Reese's Pieces
• 2-3 yogurt-covered pretzels (from the gift basket)
• 3 mini toffee cookies (from the gift basket)
• 2 chocolate truffles (from the gift basket
• 2 dark chocolates (from the gift basket)
• 5 Thin Mint Cookies (which tasted so good after watching my family indulge all week!)
• 3 Dove dark chocolate mini eggs from Easter
• 2 spoonfuls of Coconut Almond Fudge ice cream (my favorite!)

Needless to say, I thought I was going to throw up or fall asleep after eating this fiasco! It was hard going to the show and then feasting like this. I'll definitely be much more focused this week for sure.

I almost forgot about my awesome Mother's Day gift from my sweet hubby! He got me two one-hour training sessions with Jodi and a one-hour massage. Who loves me??? I really feel like he's totally behind me on this crazy endeavor, and it means the world to me. I'm psyched to get my ass kicked by Jodi. I think I might divvy the sessions into 30 min. and start next week with her. Giddyup!

I've been tanning, so I feel just a little better about this week's update pic (guess I can't use my paleness as an excuse any more):

Fitness Competition Update: 8 Weeks Out

Sorry for the delay! We had some internet connectivity issues this past weekend. UGH!

It's hard to believe I'm nearing the home stretch. I started at 14 weeks out and here we are at 8 -- yikes!!

I had a great session with Jodi yesterday. She evaluated me in my heels and a bikini. I was a bit nervous, but she was all business. My upper body is coming along and my lower will be the last to follow. We practiced posing, which was incredibly helpful. It would be a waste if I was practicing incorrectly!

I lost 2 pounds and dropped under the 20% bodyfat threshold -- YES!!!! I'm 19.2%, not close to 12%, but well on my way. I feel like that was a huge milestone. I haven't gotten my bodyfat to that level since I was in my 20's.

Here are this week's changes to make sure the bodyfat keeps dropping:

• The apple at lunch is now half an apple
• Cardio is now 55 minutes, 6 times a week
• I'm allowed to run -- WOOHOO!!! Jogging with sprints
• Walking lunges and deadlifts (heels on plates), 40 lbs., 4 sets of 15 -- every single day (if that doesn't life my butt, nothing will!)

Everything else stays the same. I'm excited to see the changes each time Jodi makes them. It definitely keeps me motivated.

Next week I'm going to go check out a Figure show so I have an idea of what to expect. I'm soooo excited to see what happens at the pre-judging and final show.

Here's this week's cheat meal (I felt sick after eating this):

• T-bone steak on the grill
• Sweet potato tater tots
• tortilla chips with homemade guacamole (didn't turn out that great; the avocados weren't ripe enough)
• Lots of sangria...okay, a small wine bottle of sangria to celebrate Cinco de Mayo
• Oreo mint shake

Stay tuned for next week's update....