Speed Bumps and A Big Decision

Mentally I had a very rough week when I tried to implement a "peak" week plan to practice prior to a photoshoot. This happened in conjunction with PMS and my brain went nuckin futs, almost literally. And then I had the regular occurrence of dealing with my adrenal fatigue, which always happens during PMS week, although usually it's only 1-2 days, this time it was 3, maybe 4. The fatigue on top of trying to follow a strict plan just made me crazy. I ended up having a crappy carb nite that followed up with a second carb nite. I did feel better after the second one, and back to the gym I went.

Friday, back in the gym, and I was in a hurry. My coach, Tanji Johnson, was competing at the Arnold later that afternoon and I did not want to miss the broadcast. Skipping my usual back workout I picked compound moves to target a few key spots. I should mention that earlier in the week I had seen a MT to have my psoas muscles released, something that I need as mine are tight and were preventing me from being loose enough in the hip flexors to pose the way I need to. What I didn't know at the time was that she was only able to release my left side. This is important and will come in to play further on in this story.

Ok so during my workout I did push ups and pull ups for warm ups, some bent over rows, and single arm rows and then I went to the rack to do rack pulls. Rack pulls are probably one of my most favorite back exercises. I feel like Major Badass when doing them. I've been lowering my weights on most pulls just due to being in a deficit and thereby weaker, even though some lifts (or rather pushes) I have managed to increase weights on, the heavier lifts I have consistently decreased on. My normal rack pulls are usually in the 175-185 range, maybe more. Friday, I was pulling 155. 3 sets of 6-8 reps. I knew on the last set I was only getting 6 reps, mostly due to grip. I don't wear gloves and I won't use straps so that I can increase my grip, and the gym was out of chalk, again. On that very last pull, I am not sure if I didn't reset correctly, I twisted somehow or what, but as soon as I lifted up I felt the right lower back muscle pull and I nearly dropped the bar. In fact I would have dropped the bar had I been doing regular deadlifts or trusted that the pins would hold the weight if I just released the bar.

When I got home I immediately started icing and taking anti-inflammatorys. I had to be well enough at least to walk around Comic Con the next day! I wasn't really but I did it anyways, and the next day too. And both of these days were off plan eating. I did feel that imbibing in the carbs was fine since my body needed to heal and recover from my tweaked back. My coach won the Fitness Int'l at the Arnold, I walked around comic con and I took time off from the gym.

7 days later I've been to the gym once since I hurt my back. I've had a lot of time to ponder things and really hyper focus on myself. During this time I received an email that Precision Nutrition was opening up their certification course again. They only do this twice a year and only let in a limited number of people. ARG! I want to take this nutrition course SO bad. But $900 is a lot, and we just don't have it. Then, I got another email saying that for the first time ever they were taking payment plans, with a down payment of $399. The exact amount set aside to compete at the end of this month at the Vancouver.

Here is where the big decision comes in. Do I back out of a competition I have been prepping for to take a course I have been dying to get into for a year now, or wait until the next time they open up and still compete. I honestly haven't been feeling ready to compete this month. Maybe physique wise I am almost there but mentally I am not there yet. I was pushing myself regardless over a sense of obligation and feeling pressure, mostly from myself. I had to think hard about this decision. On the one hand I have been prepping for weeks for this show but I had not yet monetarily (or I guess really, mentally) committed to competing this month, on the other I have been getting myself ready, suits and jewelry and hair and posing and all that jazz. But competing, what does it offer me? It's a hobby, an accomplishment, but really it doesn't offer me much once I am off that stage. Taking this nutrition course offers me a lot. I am always in pursuit of more information to better serve my clients as well as myself. I know that this course is thorough, something my NASM course wasn't. Taking this course would give me more knowledge, more accreditation. Getting this certification will help my business, my business will help my family. These are things competing won't do, so in the end that big decision wasn't so big after all. It's really a no brainer.

Here I am then, no longer competing at the Vancouver Natural and I am now officially enrolled in the precision Nutrition course. And I was accepted into the ISSA CES program, which I won't be able to start until the summer quarter since I have all this GI Bill nonsense to go through.

Oh wait I said that the whole having my psoas released was important, I forgot to say WHY! I saw my regular MT today and she told me that she had spoken to the other MT and was told she was only able to release my left psoas so my right was still tight and I have been walking around out of balance, one released loose psoas and one unreleased tight psoas. It makes perfect sense why/how I tweaked my back and on the right side since that is the side that is still tight. I do wish the MT had told me she was only able to release one side as I would have avoiding doing any big compound moves such as squats, deads, and rack pulls. Now though I need to go back to see her so she can get the right side to release so I am not walking around with this muscle imbalance. FRAK! Next visit I will be sure to ask at the end of the session if both were released so I will know how to proceed with my training. Big lesson learned. Speed bumps man, they can really throw you off.

Boo to day 2!

Oh man day 2, you really sucked! I was so over the top fatigued, major brain fog, super cranky. I decided to do a small carb nite, a practice run of the carb nite plan for day before my photoshoot/comp. I am glad I did as I discovered a few things but on the flip side I am really ticked off!

My carb nite went like this -

• non fat latte
• 2 ripe bananas
• 1/3 bag marshmallows
• homemade bacon cheeseburger
• mashed sweet potatoes with butter & brown sugar
• 7oz cheesecake

This totaled about 250gr of carbs, 400 less than I ate last carb nite. First thing I noticed was extreme bloating, painful even! I am not sure exactly what caused it but sweet potato is the only thing I haven't had in months, it just seems weird that would be the item to cause bloating. It went down after about 30-45 min thank goodness! I also found it hard to eat the cheesecake, I mean what?! I had planned on eating 4 mini cheesecakes but ended up only eating 2 and even sharing those 2 with Pixie.

Woke up this morning up 2lbs instead of my normal .5-1lb increase from a carb nite, and I was not lean and tight like normal after a carb nite. I feel like man that was a total waste! Up more weight, not lean and tight, and still no bump in energy. GRRRRRR! On the other hand now I know doing a small "cleaner" carb nite does not work for me, and it's better I found out now rather than waking up the morning of my photoshoot or competition and seeing what I saw in the mirror this morning. Maybe when I am a little leaner a CN like this would work but frankly I don't want to take any chances. I will stick to my 600gr carb dirty dirty carb nites from now on, those are what gets me results so that is what I am going to do. As they say don't fix what ain't broke.

Peak week trial run

33 days until the Vancouver Natural! 7 days from my first photoshoot, 6 days from my first Comic Con! So much excitement I can barely contain myself. Or well I might have trouble if I wasn't so damn exhausted. I seriously detest PMS week, not because I am cranky or might have cravings, nope, it's because that's when I simply can't control my adrenal fatigue symptoms and always seems to fall on the busiest of weeks for me making life miserable. On the plus side this type of fatigue only lasts 1-3 days so it's not to terribly limiting but I do usually find I need to take that time off from the gym so I can function normally in day to day activities.

To really impact that though, I am doing a trial run of my "peak week" plan. Now peaking for bikini really doesn't mean much of anything. I remove a few food items from my meal plan and increase water intake for several days then start to slowly drop it down a bit until show (or in this case photoshoot) day. I did decrease the calories a bit as well as I will not do cardio during peak week. I discovered during my last prep the combo or waterloading and cardio did not work for me. Knowing what does and doesn't work is always  trial and error so it's beneficial to have this test run for the photoshoot and then I can make tweaks as needed for my actual "peak week". My carb nite will change a bit as well this week, much cleaner and lower intake of carbs. I've had great success with the higher carb intake carb nites so I am really interested to see how this one will turn out!

Speaking of carb nite, my last one was crazy! I ate over 4000 calories and hit 645gr of carbs! Now I did over do it by 3 bites of a cookie, which left me tossing some cookies a few hours later. Luckily it wasn't too bad and I was fine after. I did suffer one hell of a carb hangover and I blame myself for not drinking enough water. I strive for 6 liters during carb nite but I am fairly certain I only drank 3 liters, definitely not enough. My carbs looked like this (minus the banana I started with and um well I ate the candy corn too fast to take a pic lol). Oh and I was only up less than a 1lb again!

Now since I am doing this whole peak week trial thing I did decide to do some food prep. The only thing I didn't prep were my eggs because well I like those cooked fresh. It took me about 2 hours total, thanks to my awesome George Foreman grill! I drafted up my plan this morning and it looks good, I am eating more meals than normal but I think it will be fine since the meals are smaller for this week. Now I just have to be disciplined on drinking my water and all should be fine! Speaking of water, time to chug a lug another liter *groan* And here is a look at what my food prep looked like, which is never complete without my Harley bug perching on my shoulders :)

Say what? Rewind, back up, start again!

First things first, I really fraking hated doing the CBL/CNS hybrid which really just turned into straight up CBL. When I say hate I mean with a firey burning passion. I felt like crap, I had no benefits of ketosis so eating ultra low carb during the day was just worthless. I was not recovering well from my workouts despite the 3-4 times a week of carb backloads. My energy was shot and I just felt blah. I took several days off from the backloads and then Friday night ate a huge ass bacon double cheeseburger from jack in the box. I got instantly hot and had to ride with my window down in 35 degree temps. Yep, smoking hot. I hadn't planned on that cheat meal since Sunday I knew I'd be eating like a pig at a Superbowl party. Whatevs my body obviously needed it so I went with it. Then Saturday I had this insane craving for a box of chocolates. Like I would have cried if I didn't get it right then and there. Bless my husband for getting it for me. I ate it all. And then had a blast eating at the party the next day.  --Yea just look at that burger OMG so worth it ;p

Monday however I was pissed at myself for eating like that all weekend. I knew I was going to do another reorientation phase and get back on CNS so I didn't stay mad at myself very long. Surprise I had my energy back, I felt better, my brain was clear, and I was recovering just fine from my workouts. Yesterday created my first love/hate relationship with CNS. I felt the signs of ketosis, I felt the symptoms of being glycogen depleted. It was AWESOME! It also sucked when I was near death and about to bonk hard on my HIITs. I decreased my protein intake and upped my fat intake for the day, it seemed to be what my body was really needed. I kept the fat clean, pretty much stuck with coconut oil. I woke up this morning feeling well rested, which never happens, full of energy and just generally fantastic. We shall see how the rest of the day goes as I have team posing, plyos and some shake ya booty steady state cardio on my plate.

Oh and tomorrow? Carb nite, The Walking Dead, and our 2nd son's 16th birthday. Yea that's gonna be an epic fking carb nite. So far the plan is get up and do my HIITs first thing, then late afternoon hit the gym to work back and bi's, pwo will be my usual shake, but to start off the carb nite I'll have sweetarts (1st ingredient is dextrose, winning!) and sour patch kids. After that the husband and I will head to the mall to enjoy a huge soft pretzel and latte (or breve in my case mmmm love those!). After that we will head home and pick up a couple of take n' bake pizzas from papa murphys for dinner. Now here is where it really starts to get awesome, dinner of course being the pizza, then dessert will be red velvet cake and ice cream while we watch The Walking Dead. Originally I was going to make this kick ass zombie cake but that was thwarted thanks to Party City being closed down, jerks. Bedtime snack will be 2 Reese's hearts for Nate, and 1 Reese's egg for me as well as a donut or some other danish/pastry. I am so excited I could pee myself right now. Just holding out for this carb nite feels like it is killing me because I am so depleted now even my brain is starting to act stupid. Only at night so I guess I can deal with that. Anyways, that's where I am, had a successful re-reorientation, feeling totally ketogenic and glycogen depleted, seriously craving my carb nite.

Ain't nobody got time for that!

9.5 weeks out from my show and yes I am getting a bit nervous. Not about being on stage again but about my physique. I am such a slow loser and it's showing. I guess I shouldn't complain too much I am dropping some inches and that's progress, but of course the inches aren't dropping off my hardest place to lose, bah! I know the drill, fat loss is top down and the lower body is last to go. I do have time yet I feel very much like I don't. Last comp I was nearly stage ready lean at 7 weeks out, definitely feeling the pressure this time!

I had decided to set up my carb nites to fall every 5th night so as to coincide with my personal training sessions with Tanji, however since I seem to not experience those symptoms of keto I am switching gears and going back to a 7 day spacing.

I did find this past carb nite to be much better. I truly enjoyed my latte with whip and as much of the apple crumb muffin as I could stomach. Dinner was a bit harder, I had to make myself finish my spaghetti, however I had NO problem shoveling in 2 slices of cheesecake! Later Nate and I went to bed with our individual pints of Ben & Jerry's, only we found we only needed to open one pint, which we split and couldn't finish. That has never happened before, seriously. I passed out almost immediately after eating my ice cream only to wake an hour or so later. I ate a handful of chocolate covered pretzels to finish off the night and promptly went back to sleep.

The next day I was looking tight in the abs and only up 1.5lbs. Of course this was also the day I was meeting a client at a posing clinic that IFBB bikini pro Ruthie Harrison was putting on. I so didn't feel lean and tight once we arrived. The majority of the girls literally already looked stage ready. It did put a damper on my confidence for sure. I have had to have a lot of mental pick me ups this past week. So much going on and you know what? Ain't nobody got time for that!

Oh look, here is a pic of us at the posing clinic, that's me in the purple sports bra, Ruthie is the goofy one on the floor giving the thumbs up ;) Hmm I think I need to start tanning again, I'm practically Casper!

Take two!

After evaluating my calender I decided tonight would be my 2nd carb nite, this ensures that my next 2 carb nites fall directly after a personal training session with my coach. She has a way of killing me and we will be targeting an area I need to build up, my delts. This makes those days perfect for carbing up on and then follow up the day after with a heavy legs session!

My 1st carb nite was disappointing as I said and I started it too early during the day. This time I have taken a different strategy. To help finish glycogen depleting I did HIITs yesterday and today. Honestly I haven't felt depleted even during the reorientation phase so I almost feel like I haven't "earned" a carb nite, getting over that feeling fast though ;) I am about to head back out to the gym for a heavy shoulder workout, DLB style. That's Dana Linn Bailey for those that don't know, and she is pretty much one of my biggest physqiue hero's. So my workout will look like this -
warm up 2x15 push press
3x12 face pulls, super heavy
3x10-12 rev pec dec
drop set DB lat raise - 3 sets of 20-20-20 starting with light weight and working up
3x10-12 1-1-2 front raise

post workout will be a protein shake and banana before I hop into the tanning bed while I wait for the husband to finish his workout.

Now begins carb nite!!
1- decaf latte with whip and a lemon poppyseed muffin top
2- dinner of spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic toast, and cheesecake for dessert
3- pint of B&J ice cream
4- choc covered pretzels before hitting the sack

There will be protein in there too, I just haven't decided what my protein source(s) will be, probably chicken breast since it's easy lol

Oh and remember yesterday's post about the kids eating what I eat? Here's an example of how I make my meal plans work with them. I made pulled pork for dinner. Now since I am doing CNS I could have the pork and some sort of fat (I opted for cheddar cheese). To make this kid friendly I made theirs into pork, cheddar, apple slices paninis with a side of green beans and extra apple slices.

A delicious unvented recipe

I decided to quit writing out every damn thing I was eating, figured you guys didn't really care. And well let's be honest, my food isn't that exciting. I pretty much eat the same things everyday. I don't find it boring and I do spice it up here and there but I prefer easy to fancy and easy means I don't have to think about it!

Today though I had a craving for chicken curry, except I didn't have any canned coconut milk on hand. What does a girl with a craving do? Unvent a new way to make it!  I have to say I think I love this version way more than the usual way I make it.

Unvented Chicken Curry

• 1tbs coconut oil
• 1/4 cup chicken stock
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2-3 tsp curry
• 1 lg chicken breast
• 1/2 red bell pepper, sliced

I grilled the chicken until it was cooked on the outside but still raw inside (my George Foreman grill is amazing, my chicken is never dry!), then diced it. While the chicken was pre-cooking I sauteed the bell pepper in the coconut oil, then added the diced chicken, broth, cream, curry, and a few turns of himalayan sea salt. Brought this to a boil to finish cooking the chicken and then plated it. I took a picture of course before I devoured it but seriously the picture does not do it justice, and frankly i suck at picture taking anyways.

As for the last 2 days post carb nite, they've been eh. I'm tired but not due to the diet, it's just that time of the month and TOM and adrenal fatigue do not play well together. I did still bust out an ass popping workout yesterday and today spent a few hours purging my bedroom. Really want I want most to do is curl up in my bed with hot cocoa, knitting, and some guilty pleasure tv show or movie for the next day or two. Too bad life doesn't really allow for that luxury. I'm also not very hungry but trying to make sure I do get my macros in even if it's the bare minimum and I'm cool with that. I know I will be back to me soon!

Well, that happened

I have been so busy the last two days that I haven't had time to post or hell even write down my food for the day and take any pictures! Yesterday I took my 10yo daughter out for some girl time, she got to do a little bit of shopping and then met with my stylist to get her first "grown up" haircut and style. I admit I was very hesitant over the short a-line bob she wanted but Austin reassured me it would work great with her hair type. I have to say she looks older, more mature, and she absolutely loves the new style! I think she lost around 12-16" of hair! Once she was done it was hurry home and get dinner started so I could drive an hour up to the "city" for my massage therapy appointment. I had been looking forward to this for almost 2 weeks! My MT is amazing, seriously.

Yesterday was also day 5 of prep and CNS. I am finding I have such an abundance of energy. Before I never would have been able to feel comfortable driving an hour (at 6pm) for a 90min appt and then drive an hour back (at 9pm) before because I wouldn't have had the energy and would have needed several cups of coffee just to stay awake. Instead the only thing I needed, or wanted, was a massive ton of water. I drink somewhere in the vicinity of 6 liters. From what I have read that thirst is a sign of ketosis. Note to self never google symptoms of ketosis again, sheesh, that was almost as bad as looking up a symptom on webmd!

Today was pretty similar, minus the crazy thirst. Decided to take my 16yo son shopping since he had been asking me for a shopping trip for a few weeks. We had a blast! Usually for lunch we always go and have chinese food in the food court and today was no exception. I gave him my rice and just ate some angus steak with asparagus thing and chicken with mushrooms & zucchini. We also of course had to get coffee, I had my first breve today and holy wow was that delicious! I kind of wish I had been drinking breve's before now ;) All in all we were out shopping for 7 hours. This was so surprising to me, I can usually last 1 maybe 2 hours at the mall or doing any kind of errands and by the time I get home I am so physically and mentally wiped that I often spend the rest of the day in bed. Before getting into this fit lifestyle I would often be out for 1-2 days after grocery shopping.

The only downer of the day was a run in with a rude cashier at Old Navy when I was buying some new athletic pants. Yes I do have to buy the smallest size they carry, whatevs, their sizing is all over the place. Anyways while she was ringing me up she saw the size tag on the pants nd said with a bit of an eye roll "xs? ugh!" Wow, really? That was uncalled for! She wouldn't have rolled her eyes and said "xl? ugh!" so why is it ok to make remarks like that to someone who is an xs? I really detest rude and disparaging comments aimed at smaller people. I work HARD to maintain my body. I could easily stop exercising and stop eating healthy and become overweight but I chose to be healthy to be fit and there isn't a damn thing wrong with that so take your jealous judgmental comments and keep them to yourself!

All in all this prep and the induction phase of CNS has been a breeze. I love the food options I have, I love watching the scale drop, and most of all I love this energy I have! Now I'm going to go make some chocolate almond protein pancakes and smear some natty pb on them, mmmm yum! (kind of like these, but this isn't my pic!)

New Year's Resolutions

We all make them right? And the #1 resolution again this year is to lose weight. There are as many ways to lose weight as there are people in this world, shakes, pills, sprinkles, shots, prepackaged "food", food deliveries, point systems . . . and they all promise the same thing. Quick results. And hey who doesn't want quick results right? But what happens after the diet? When the pills are causing you issues, the sprinkles are causing unpleasant leakage, the shots are starving you, the prepackaged food is not enjoyable, the points no longer keeping the lbs at bay. People give up or find a new extreme quick fix. Or say they DO have fantastic results, they hit their goal weight so now what? They go back to the habits that got them in the position to need to diet in the first place, and thus starts (or continues) the yo-yo dieting lifestyle. Yes I do think yo yo dieting is a lifestyle, it's a choice made to take the quick easy way out only to return to your old habits without ever actually changing anything. And every year, every yo yo sends the scale climbing up to a higher weight than before the diet began.

So this year instead of resolving to lose weight, perhaps resolve to change your lifestyle! Start small and make 1 or 2 changes weekly. Ditch the soda for water and try to drink 2-4 liters per day. That one simple change can make a huge difference not only on how you feel but on how much you weigh! I recently had a client with a 12 cola a day habit, in her first two weeks on a meal plan from me and giving up the soda she dropped 10 lbs! Now those results are not typical, but it does show how much extra weight drinking soda can cause you to hold on to.



I personally don't do new year's resolutions as I tend to fail at keeping them. Instead I set new year's goals. My goals change each year and this year is no different. I like setting goals for myself, it gives me something to strive for and helps keep me focused and on track. I am also very specific about my goals and I think that also makes a huge difference. Try this, instead of saying "I want to lose weight" say "I will eat whole foods and exercise 3-4 times per week"





Now be ready to be bombarded with several posts about my current contest prep plan. I am trying something different this prep but I am open to changing this plan if I see I am having any negative results from it. I am planning to track every single day, what I am eating, how I am feeling, my activities etc. It will probably be pretty boring, or not. I will also be documenting my clients progress using this plan as well.