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 :)

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.

But what do your kids eat?

I get this question a lot! It's also a common concern among my clients as to what they will feed their spouse/children for dinner while they are on a "diet". PS I hate the word diet since it has such a negative implication attached to it. We are ALL on a diet, a diet is simply the food you eat. I don't put my clients on a diet, I give them a guideline of what to eat and the portions to eat them in, and I give them the tools to learn how to make a lifestyle change. I believe the number 1 reason diets fail is because when it's over the person goes right back to the lifestyle/habits that lead to them needing to diet in the first place, whereas a lifestyle change there is no end date. You just do it, right Nike? That's not really here nor there but does offer some background to this common question.

What do my kids eat? The same things I eat, in portions meant for them. We do not buy junky snacks, we do not cater to what they think they want, we cater to their health! Some people feel our children are deprived because they don't get soda or cookies or twinkies or whatever but they aren't and they do get those things IN MODERATION. That is the key word there. We have a pizza night once a month in which we enjoy pizza, cookies, soda. Or we will have our geeky weekend movie marathons in which I'll bake treats that fit the theme of the movies we are watching (Harry Potter is a family favorite, the kids love butter beer!). As for snacks, we always have a huge bowl on the counter full of fruit options, potatoes are always handy as the teenagers love to make roasted potatoes as afterschool snacks, and we keep popcorn kernels for air popping. They can also fix a tortilla wrap with ground turkey/beef and cheese if they are really hungry and need something more filling to tied them over to dinner.

They prefer healthy, whole foods to junky foods. They know which foods will help them grow, keep them healthy, give them energy. Just like they know which foods will make them feel yucky. The kids have oatmeal for breakfast, sometimes with eggs, sometimes with turkey sausage, sometimes just the oatmeal. Lunch they pack themselves and includes a protein, a carb, a fat and sometimes a healthy(ish) snack. A typical lunch for my 7yo is tuna fish in pita pockets, slice of real cheese, mandarin orange, and possibly whole grain goldfish or organic 100% fruit rolls. My 10yo loves making chicken salad, she cops up lettuce, fresh veggies and chicken breast for her salads, sometimes she will take a salad dressing for it and sometimes not, then of course a fruit (banana, apple, or mandarin orange) and sometimes one of the same treat snacks as the 7yo. My 12 yo you can almost always predit his will be a tunafish sandwich, a banana, and if available one of the treat snacks. They rarely pack something different, this is what they enjoy and they don't get bored eating it.

But ohemgee what about dinner? Easy! Remember my basic grocery list? We fix meals off that! It's really amazing how many ways you can cook chicken and so many options for veggies and complex carb to go with it, even spaghetti can be healthified! We make the sauce from scratch using canned tomatoes and tomato paste, sauteed/roasted veggies, and spices, lean ground beef and whole wheat or brown rice noodles, voila!

There is always the concern that well my kid is a picky eat or my kid will only eat xyz. I'm going to be blunt here, your kids will eat what you put in front of them, they will eat what you model eating. It may take some time but they will eat, they are not going to starve themselves, kids are kind of smart that way. Take for instance when i first married my husband he got custody of his son from his previous marriage and his son would pretty much only eat pizza out of the box or hamburger helper and the only thing he would drink was Sunny D. He was 3, and like most 3 year olds, stubborn. Ha, I am stubborn too ;) I won't say it was easy, I won't say I didn't consider throwing my hands up and just letting him eat that stuff but I knew if I held my ground he would start eating more variety. Now he is still picky about some things, I mean who isn't, but by far he is the one of the least picky of all of our children. Our pickiest is definitely the youngest and that stems from sensory issues and food allergies so we do make exceptions for her, still she eats 90% of what everyone else eats.

My husband and I both model healthy eating. We eat clean whole foods most of the time, allowing for treats in moderation. We both hit the gym several times a week. We use helpful language when it comes to talking about food, teaching them rather than forcing them. For younger kids using language cues can be amazingly helpful. Dr Sears classifies foods that help you be strong and healthy as "grow foods" and also puts foods into a stop light category. Green light foods can be eaten all the time, yellow light foods eaten often but not unlimited like green light foods, and red light foods are the ones to eat rarely or never. Some of our clients have found using this type of language and classification the biggest helper in transitioning their children to a healthier, cleaner eating lifestyle and teaching about what foods without putting a good or bad label on them. I personally don't like to classify foods as good or bad either, it's kind of like sticking a big red button on the "bad" foods and saying don't touch. I bet you will touch that red button right? Right we can't help it. So no foods are 100% off limits but there are foods that are better to eat in abundance and foods best left to moderation.

How do you handle food in your home? Do you keep healthy snacks at the ready or do you buy convenience snacks in packages? Do you eat the same dinner as your children or make several different dinners to meet the personal wants of everyone?

PS I forgot to add this handy link to an article called clean eating for kids, it has some tips for the transition.

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!)

Day 1-3 of Contest Prep and CNS

Dec 31 -  Day 1 CNS & Prep

Started the morning like any other, water bottle in hand and a hot cup of coffee beside me. I was mulling over plans for Jan 2 when I would officially begin CNS (www.carbnitesolution.com) and prep for my first show this season.  As the morning progressed I started to get way too excited about starting this new venture and before I knew it I had decided to start prep today! I really didn’t need to “prep” for this prep or go out and purchase items, although that didn’t stop me from doing a tiny stock up ;) After having meal 1 we finally headed out to the gym. I had an amazingly intense shoulder pumping workout. It felt great to get in that last workout of the year and to have hit it so hard.

Once home the craziness of the evening started, trying to get in my PWO and cook the kids dinner. One of the great things about this prep is that most of the foods I fix for them I can eat too. This prep is going to be so different from my previous preps.

Today’s meals looked like this:

1.       Ham steak, 2 whole eggs, goat cheese, coffee

2.      Protein shake with banana

3.     Chicken breast in butter and topped with garlic white cheddar cheese

4.     Leg of lamb, dulce de leche coffee (omg! 1tbs dulce de leche, 2tbs heavy whipping cream mmmwah!)

5.      Bedtime snack of sugar free jell-o

I know it doesn’t read like a lot of food but it was very satisfying/filling and oh so delicious! I’m drooling thinking about tomorrow!

In the midst of all of this my hairstylist friend and client walked me through the process of back tinting my hair. I was over the bleach blonde, it wasn’t me and I didn’t feel very confident as a blonde. I’ve always had far more confidence with darker hair, plus it really highlights my eyes, not to mention darker hair is far easier to maintain. I have to say the process of back tinting is just as laborous as the process of bleaching.  The end result though is nothing short of perfection! I managed to achieve the exact shade I was wanting and spent pennies (ok I spent more than pennies but compared to what this would have cost in a salon it was pennies). It is the ultimate in rich, warm chestnutty chocolate brown. When my 10yo daughter saw it she fell instantly in love and has asked that I dye her hair the same color. So looks like she and I will be taking a trip to Sally’s tomorrow where I try to convince her she really wants fuchsia rather than brown. I went from bland to bam!

So to wrap up day 1, it’s been fun and I’ve had plenty of energy. I hear the energy lag usually hits around day 3-5 depending on when your body starts to transition from burning carbs for energy to burning fat for energy. Oh for those that don’t know what CNS is, it’s a form of keto dieting except that every 5-7 days you do a carb refeed. I am still doing IF (intermittent fasting) along with CNS as they work very well together. Excited to see what the new year brings! Happy New Year to all, good bye to 2012 and hello to 2013 J

Jan 1 2013 – Day 2 –

I hardly slept last night, ugh. I blame the coffee I drank late in the  evening so I could stay up until midnight to kiss my husband. 13 yrs of NYE kisses and the only time we have missed one is when he has been deployed. So 5 hours of restless sleep, waking several times, and some very odd dreams left me feeling a wee tad tired most of the day.

I have been truly enjoying college football this year. This is the first season in many years we have had cable and I could actually watch my team (South Caroline Gamecocks). Today they played in the Outback Bowl, which wasn’t the best bowl but hey it’s still a bowl game ;) Now I always have Nate’s chili and chips and a beer during football games, it’s kind of our tradition. You can imagine weekends when both of our teams are playing (he watches NFL) that is a lot of chili and chips eating going on lol Since I am doing CNS I knew I wouldn’t be able to have the beans in the chili or our regular chips either but I had a plan! I scooped out my serving of chili (which had about 4gr of carbs from the cheese & tomatoes) before he added the beans and I baked up some La Tortilla Factory 3gr carb tortilla’s for my chips. I didn’t miss skipping the beer since I really don’t drink much anyways. The chili was awesome, as usual but I have to say those tortillas make crappy chips and it’s probably due to the high fiber content. I had planned to eat about 16gr of carbs just in this meal and ended up only having around 8-10, so I can’t complain really and I was truly full and satisfied.

After the game it was gym time and my favorite day, hammies! I had an amazing session and boy did my hammies feel the burn. I had some issues getting up and down the stairs after getting home LOL of course working legs makes me VERY hungry and yesterday was no exception. I ended up taking a mini nap at 730, woke up at 8 and by 9 I had a growly tummy. I’m also lazy and really didn’t want to get out of bed to make something to eat, whatevs I got up anyways. Once I had some food in my belly I was able to fall back to sleep and slept nearly 12 hours!

So today’s meals went like this:

1.       Coffee with heavy whipping cream (nomz!)

2.       Chili with low carb chips

3.       PWO shake with banana

4.      2 thin cut porkchops topped with pepperoni & garlic white cheddar cheese

5.       ½ of a prosciutto wrapped porkchop from the kids dinner, 1 lrg protein pancake, 1 cup sugar free jell-o.

                                                 OMG Doesn't this look amazing? Yea it really was!

Day 2 wrap up – energy was lacking due to lack of sleep but nothing that kept me from my training or cooking for the kids. Probably didn’t eat enough because frankly I just didn’t feel hungry until that last meal, I’m sure I will make up for it tomorrow.

Jan 2 – Day 3

Oh hi lack of energy. Not sure if you are diet related or AF/shark week related. Possibly it's a combination of both, so I am taking a rest day to recover. I’ve been pretty thirsty today too so chug chug chug goes the water! My first meal was so filling I still haven’t eaten anymore today, which I am sure will be made up later this evening which is just fine by me.

Interesting enough I decided to get up and dye my daughters hair, during the process I started to feel normal energy levels emerging.  When she was done I decided to do some grooming of myself and then hopped in the shower, BOOM, energy back! Came down and cooked the kids a delicious dinner and then made my own. I half considered going on to the gym but honestly 6pm is one of the worst times of the evening to go workout in our tiny gym and even more sure during the January influx. Kind of excited to see how I feel tomorrow, I hear day 4-5 is when the energy slump really happens.

                                                        She is gorgeous no matter what :D

1.      Spinach & egg omelet made with 6 egg whites, 2 whole eggs, spinach, white mushrooms, goat cheese, and cheddar cheese. Coffee with a splash of hwc.

2.      2 prosciutto wrapped pork chops, green salad with bell pepper & tomatoes, homemade dressing with olive oil, apple cider vinegar, Dijon mustard and a sprinkle of sea salt. It was so yummy!! See my crappy iphone pic for food porn visual ;)

3.     1 cup of 4% cottage cheese, ½ scoop of Big Bitch Formula cake batter flavor protein, a sprinkle of chocolate almond frosting creations = one very very happy mouth. I had a spoonful of natural pb on the side too, mmmmm! I wasn’t sure if I would be able to fit pb into this ULC plan but today I was so very low on carbs I had plenty of wiggle room J

4.      Grilled chicken thigh

Day 3 in short, started the day low on energy, decided to make it a rest day, gained energy during the evening, was fully satisfied with  my meals and drank a ton of water. Oh and finally started that blog to put all of this nonsense on!

(note to self, word docs do not c&p well to blogger, oi!)

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.

What is a [fiz-eek] geek you ask?

Lets see [fiz-eek] is the phonic spelling for physique, and I am very focused on creating a gorgeous physique, for me, for you, for everyone! Geek? Well that's pretty explanatory I would think. I am constantly geeking out on things like Doctor Who, The Guild, Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog, The Big bang Theory and such for entertainment but my more serious side likes to read about the science behind different dieting methods and training protocols. I like to know how things work and why they work. Sometimes I jam so much information in my brain that I end up having a weekly dump. No not a poop kind of dump! A brain dump, where it feels like everything I need to know or just learned about just falls right out. Mean while I tend to hold on to the most useless (and sometimes nerdy) trivia. Really, why do I know Britney Spears birthday? That is one fact of trivia that could go with the next brain dump, for real.

What can you expect to find here? EVERYTHING! Posts about my training, my contest prep (currently in prep), my food, clients food, recipes, a lot of doctor who because frankly I am obsessed, probably some knitting nonsense and anything else that flits across my little brain.

Are you a gym rat like me? It takes a lot of work to build and maintain my physique but I must say I kind of wish I was like Captain Hammer and just naturally looked awesome, but alas no. I will just have to wear my superhero cape and smash my workouts :)