Thursday, February 28, 2013

Ugh But Still Excited!

Working on getting the new routine sorted out, picking my lifting days and cardio days, looking for races to participate in to help me get back into running and have mini goals up until the big show.

Today I happened to see on Facebook a photo of the winner from last years competition that I will be competing in.  By the way I've been overly annoyed that they never posted any pictures to check out of the winners.  So I'm a "fan" of "Your First Figure Competition" and there she was, last years winner of The Best in The Midwest Show.

Not what I expected to see, she looks amazing, very small.  Maybe I will be that small but her legs were pretty tiny, I'm so terrified that my legs are going to be these enormous muscle bound things that make the judges think, really, why isn't this chick body building instead?

I know to trust my amazing trainer in all aspects, I have no idea why it kind of took the wind out of my sails today but it did.  I know I have seven months to prepare for the show, I have so many transformations to go through and I know that every judging panel has their own "idea" of what they want to see in a figure competition.

I hope and pray that when I compete they are truly looking for someone with amazing symmetry and muscle definition because that is what they are going to get!

So I guess today I got a big dose of reality, I'm really doing this, I have extremely high expectations for myself, but no matter what I want to have fun.  I'm beginning to surround myself with an amazing team of people, Kyle for my trainer and nutritionist, our friend Dimitra for my posing coach, my bestie David for hair and painting me for the show, my sister Mindy for makeup, an awesome shop on Etsy to get my custom suit from.

I'm beyond grateful for so many people that are wanting to help me out already, surround me with positive energy and help make this a fun experience!

Monday, February 25, 2013

Gym Time!

Hello there!  No I have not stopped working out, I just haven't been blogging about it, oops.

So I came to the last three weeks of P90X Classic and rather than do that I've started training at the gym with Kyle.  I really don't like those last three weeks of P90X, they are boring to me and honestly I'm more than ready to be in the gym lifting a bit heavier and simply doing more.

Saturday was my first true workout with Kyle as my trainer, it was a good one.  He does make me laugh a little bit, I love how much he supports me and believes in me, seriously to have him with me through this journey I am beyond blessed, but.....

He was wanting me to do reverse curls and he grabbed the 25 pound curl bar. Now I'm thinking, ok Steph, the most you've curled has been 15 pounds and these are REVERSE curls but lets do this!

I did eight reps with horrible form on the last two, normally I do 12-15 reps but Kyle is wanting to add in some heavier weights with less reps as well.  We go to do the second set and I seriously could not lift that damn bar, he is looking at me and is like, "come on baby, I know you can do it, you can do five reps."  I did one and wanted to cry, I truly could do no more, I think he felt kind of bad but I told him I've only been lifting for two months and not heavy weights.  I felt like I disappointed him, but nope, he was disappointed that he tried to get me to do that when I'm not quite to the point of being able to curl 25 pounds yet :)

Food wise we are doing awesome, most of the items I buy at the grocery store are all fresh.  I'm finding so many great recipes thanks to Pinterest and have found some blogs to follow.  The transition was a bit tough, but now that we've made it, it truly is so easy and we are spending less money on groceries.  Still have cheat days, but even those are getting less and less and my cravings are really changing from wanting some greasy fast food to wanting a sub sandwich or a salad instead.  

Dieting wise I don't really need to diet thankfully, not until we hit July then it will be me weighing out my food keeping track of calories, fat, protein intake, all that fun stuff.  I will start keeping track of the amount of protein I get in everyday though, crazy how much the protein truly helps with muscle recovery, I've got to start getting in about 145 grams a day.  Good thing I love to eat Greek yogurt, hard boiled eggs, fish, almonds, string cheese, protein powder, peanut butter, just have to make sure I'm actually eating enough of it every day!

Monday, February 11, 2013

Week 5 Summed Up

Obviously I go through phases with blogging, have been a bit lax with that, oops.

Week five was great though, I'm feeling really amazing and starting to see some big changes.  I've been told it takes about six weeks to really see a big difference and I'm seeing that advice is true :)

I'm making an adjustment to my workouts, Friday workouts I'm doing on Saturday at the gym with Kyle.  So now on Fridays I will be doing cardio and lifting on Saturdays.  It is nice for Kyle and I to start getting into a routine, just think in two short months he will be training me and there will be no more Tony Horton!

I love working out at the gym, it wasn't super busy on Saturday when we went but I'm still self conscious.  I can't help it, I know where I want to be and I know it will take time I just can't wait to get there.  I will say it was great lifting shoulders in front of the mirrors, my shoulders and my legs are my best assets, especially when it comes to muscle definition.  The lines in my shoulders are already awesome and it felt really good to actually see that while I was lifting :)

Kyle is very happy with my progress so far, once I really get the eating down obviously I'll see more changes.  I'm not doing bad with my eating, I just do want to eventually have my carb intake quite a bit lower, baby steps though, I'm a carb QUEEN and it is going to take some time for me to want to eat carrots instead of lets say a yummy, delicious sourdough roll :)

My weight is fluctuating, I feel it is silly to report on my weight, but since I have been I'm up to 143 this week. 

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Week 5 Do Over

So on that last workout I posted about, I tweaked my left shoulder and had to take the rest of the week off.  I am redoing week 5 this week, and I'm ok with that :)

Chest, Triceps, Shoulders & Ab Ripper X was a great workout on Sunday.  I did it on Sunday instead of Monday because I had an event Monday night and I knew I wouldn't get up Monday morning to do the workout, Mondays are just the worst!

I'm having issues with some of the push up, Kyle was observing while I did this workout.  I can't do the one arm push ups yet and the plyo push ups, well I did one.  On the plyo push ups you go up, clap, then go back into plank for another one.  After just one I felt like if I tried another my face would hit the floor before my hands got there, but I did one, yay! :)

Weight is back down, seriously, it is such a roller coaster, back at 142.  We won't take my body fat again for about three more weeks.