Monday, January 12, 2015

Figure Competition Prep: 18 Weeks Out

This week begins my official countdown to May 16, 2015 -- my contest goal. I've been working with my trainer, Joe Franco, for exactly a year now, and I can definitely see progress. If anyone tells you that the off-season doesn't matter, they're dead wrong. Here is a comparison from last year to this year.


Dec. 26, 2013
138 lbs
Jan. 11, 2015
143 lbs.






Excuse the mess in the mess in the background. LOL! I can definitely see a difference in my waist and legs. Here's the crazy part: in the left pic I'm 138 lbs. and in the right I'm 143 lbs. Who knew an extra five pounds could look like this?!

Below is the diet and workout that I'm currently following:

Macros 
Protein = 145g
Carbs = 210g (I got a 10g bump this week)
Fat = 40g
I try to keep my calories at around 1,700 and track everything on the My Fitness Pal app.

Workouts 
3-day split, lifting 5 days per week
Chest/delt/tri's -- Back/bi's -- Legs
Cardio is two 30-minute sessions of steady state (keeping my heart rate around 120-130)

I'm excited to see how things progress. Stay tuned for more updates.

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Happy New Year

Talk about fast forward to 2015! Happy New Year! I just looked at my last post and realized it was in Nov. Yikes! I am royally slacking in the blog department. Needless to say, writing at least one a week is one of my New Year's resolutions.

I'm still focused on a May 16 show. There are also two NJ NPC shows in April and June. I may use those as back-ups...although I wasn't particularly impressed with the NPC show I did last year. Scratch that -- I flipping hated it and swore I would never do it again. LOL! It was so unorganized, expensive and poorly run.

So what have I been up to for the past few weeks? Like everyone else, I was consumed by the holidays...preparations, shopping, decorating, undecorating...and poof, it's Jan. 4, 2015!

Nonetheless, I've still been plugging along on my diet and workouts. Here is where I'm at:

Weight: 142.4 lbs. (how funny it's exactly the same as my last post)
 Bodyfat: I'm guessing 18-20%...I should probably invest in calipers

Macros
Carbs: 200g (I just got bumped up this week -- woohoo!)
Fat: 40g
Protein: 145g
Calories: 1,700 (I try to keep it closer to 1,650)


Workouts
I;m still lifting 5 times per week, one bodypart per day. I do legs one day, chest/delt/tris, and then back/bis. As I get closer to my competition, I'll add another day to burn some extra calories.

Supplements
I'm slowly decreasing my supplements. Aside from being too many pills, it's expensive! I'm currently taking:
- Pre-workout (trying a new one -- F.E.A.R. by Clinical Labs)
- Multivitamin (Optimum Nutrition or a store brand)
- ECGC
- Fish Oil
- Aspirin (to help prevent blood clots)
- Clinical Labs BCAAs


Next Steps
I send pictures to my trainer next week, so I will also post them here. I'll also post some pictures from last year to see how things have progressed over one year.

Stay tuned for next week's post!