25 Days to Go - Like Baking a Cake

There are hundreds of different ways to make a cake, and for each of those methods there are at least a dozen completely different recipes. If you've never made a cake before, you can either follow the recipe to the letter or you can combine your favorite elements from different ones. No matter what you do, you will not know if your creation was a success until it is baked, cooled, frosted, served and finally tasted.

That is exactly how this competition is. There are a hundred different diets and exercise regimes which could all lead to incredible results but it is impossible to know which one is best for me. The last month of training some people go high fat and protein with no carbs, some stick to balanced macronutrients, while others may cut out fats and increase their protein and carb intake. For instance, Alex's diet involves a burger and fries followed by ice scream for dessert and it works for her.

This is my first time going through this competition and I am trying very hard to listen to just one person, but sometimes things just don't feel right to me. For example, right now I am eating very low calories and I am dropping an insane amount of weight. Last week I dropped 3 lbs and I don't know if that is muscle or fat. I don't know if I will drop again next week or if I will maintain. Should I do 30 minutes of cardio a day or only a few times a week? What others have advised me to do, and what I should do is stick to the recipe originally designed for me. The baking process is almost done and I won't know the result of my hard work until I am tanned, frosted, and on stage.

Speaking of cake, let me tell you what my mind has been on for the last 3 days, my post-competition meal. I am going to head straight to the Cheesecake Factory, order a small salad with chicken, then ask for the dessert menu. I will order a coffee and three of my favorite chocolate cakes; the Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake, the Black-Out Cake, and the Chocolate Tower Truffle Cake. When I literally can't have anymore because I am physically ill, I will let others try them. I am so excited I could die. Can you say sugar hiiiigh!

27 Days to Go - Booked My Hotel

I believe you are not officially competing until you have booked your hotel room. I still need to register, but I can do that on-site. In the last month there are a lot of changes. For one, I have less time to relax between two workouts, showers, getting to different gyms, and running my business.

So my morning starts off between 4:30 am and 5:30 am, even on the weekends, with a mug of warm water and 1/2 a tbsp of flax seed oil (because I could not find hemp seed oil). After I get ready for the day, I get my breakfast ready, half a yam and 8 egg whites (about 263 calories), and enjoy it with a fresh cup of coffee. I usually train about two clients in the morning and then do 30 minutes of HIT cardio at 8 am. Afterwards, I eat another meal of egg whites and yam.

 After a shower I train a few more clients, then head back to the gym around noon. For my afternoon workout, I warm up by practicing my walk and poses in my new five inch heels. After the first day I had huge blisters on my big toes. To break them in, I have been bandaging my toes then wearing them around the house while I do chores. They need to be so comfortable I can run in them. Once a week I meet with Alex Navarro to go over the walk and fine tune the poses.

I follow my stage walk with with hypertrophy training (heavy weight, low reps, high sets) on specific muscle groups for about an hour. I end with stretching; all the leg presses, lunges, and cardio have made my hips incredibly tight which makes it difficult to walk. As soon as I am done with my workout, I eat another high protein meal.

 

I go home, shower, then head to the tanning bed. For now, I tan  3 times a week, but it will drop to twice a week the last two weeks. When I get back, I usually train a couple more clients and then head home for my last meal of the day. My favorite last meal is spinach and chicken, a lot of spinach. I use the whole bag. My friends look at me like I am crazy, but one bag is less than 80 calories. If I were to eat less, I wouldn't get the nutrients or fiber I need for the day.

Throughout the day, my goal is to drink a gallon of water. To make it easier on my, I count out 7 24-oz bottles. Today I have already had 3, only 4 more to chug. It's not easy, especially because of the frequent bathroom breaks.

Right before bed I finish with 20 minutes of abs every other night. I drink 8 oz of ginger or chamomile tea and go to bed. I am physically and emotionally drained.

The good thing is that I weight less than I have in years and fit amazingly well in my old clothes. The bad news is I am losing muscle fast. It is too late for me to change my game plan, so I need to take it one day at a time, trust my coaches and the process and see my way to the end.

Today, I had a fitness shoot with Skimble, the number one free fitness app for Android,  which was really fun. I am excited for more to come. I will post pictures as soon as I get them.

I won't be posting anymore pictures of myself until after the competition, just in case some of my peers are checking this out, but I will keep you up to date on my week to week progress. I miss chocolate.

30 Days to Go

I am in the last 30 days of training and I am exhausted. Every morning, after breakfast, I perform 30 minutes of cardio and every afternoon I do 1 hour of heavy weight training. In addition to that, I spend 30 minutes a day practicing my routine. You would be suprised at how hard it is to walk in those heels.

I have videos and photos, but I have not had time to sit an upload them. I have so much I want to share, so hopefully tomorrow I can give you some details on supplements, the amazing Alex Navarro, how my diet is changing, and how much weight I have actually lost this week.

I am so excited this is almost over!

Day 31 - Never Too Late to Dream Big

This is my last weekend away. I leave SF tonight, and tomorrow at 6 am I am taking off for LA with my mom. I am packing my cooler with chicken and yams, rice and almonds, kale, tuna and rice cakes. Hopefully I can find chicken and spinach and egg whites in LA.

I stopped freaking out, I am in great hands. Glen is doing the muscle fine tuning; Alex is going over my stage walk, posing, and attire; Maria is in charge of my pre-show primping (apparently it is a process); Larissa is doing my hair and pushing me all the way to the finish line. I've heard that the first show is great practice and the second one is perfect, but I want to place in this competition.

I have never worked so hard for anything before and it feels great. I was checking out videos and pictures of Ms Fitness USA from last year and I found this great video of my stage coach. Isn't Alex amazing?!

The woman who place second last year is in her 40's and didn't start gymnastics training until she was in her 30's. She has three kids and runs a restaurant, which proves it is never too late to get fit and turn your life around. I can't wait to be on the cover of Oxygen magazine! It might take a few years, but I am patient.

This morning I hit up the Lyon Street stairs. Larissa and I did 5 rounds of sprints. We used are walk to the bottom as a cool down. Our legs were trembling so bad my the end, we had to walk all the way back.



This picture makes them look easy

If you are wondering about yesterday's workout, both of our backs are perfectly sore. I highly recommend you try out our back circuit. Next week we will take a video of pull ups to show you how to progress and regress each exercise. I have a ton of errands to run still, but I will be back on here to post pictures of my cooler and training equipment for my weekend.

Day 30 - Freaking Out

Today was my 4th weigh in and I am not sure how I feel about it. I am excited that I have 30 days left to go, but I don't feel like I made that big of a change. Everyone tells me how small I look, but I am scared it won't cut it for the competition. What if I can't build enough muscle? What if my glutes deflate? I need to look like this:

Everyone tells me I will see the results the last 30 days and I am anxious. I am impatiently waiting for Glen to call so I can get in my second workout of the day; we are supposed to focus on the leg press. Last night my quads hurt so bad and I was so hungry at 2 am that I couldn't sleep most of the night. Since my back isn't sore anymore, I spent my morning doing pull ups and rows. I did:

• 5 sets of wide grip pull ups (8-10 reps)
• 5 sets of narrow grip pull ups (8-10 reps)
• 5 sets of TRX close rows (15-20 reps)

I am trying very hard not to over train, but I want to make sure I do everything possible to have the advantage. My waist had dropped another half an inch, which is barely visible. My abs hurt so bad but I still want to do mountain climbers, leg lifts, and TRX pikes. I am going to let them calm down and then I am going to start doing 20 minutes of abs right before bed. That way I don't waste my time during the day working on my six pack. Get ready to see some major changes in the next 30 days. I am going to pop in my Slim Naturally meditation track and if Glen doesn't call by then, I am going to hit the gym again on my own. There is no way I am losing this thing.

Although, I the scale has barely dropped, I have lost over 2 inches in my waist and hips. I need to lose 2 more inches in the next 30 days. Next week I am meeting with a stage coach to go over presentation, shoes and suit. I am also going to start tanning and primping for the show. I'll keep you all up to date on my progress.

Day 29 - Tiny Steps

Since September 1st, I have made a small change every week towards a healthier me; I planned my meals around my workouts, I scheduled a specific time of day that I dedicated to the gym, I learned from my mistakes. Many times we wait for motivation to act, but I believe it is the other way around; You need to act in order to find your motivation. Even if that action is packing a gym bag every night or making your lunch, it is a small step in the right direction, and eventually you will go to the gym and start planning all your meals.

I noticed after the third week, the hunger and muscle pain was gone. Normally that is a good thing, but I knew it meant I plateaued and needed to change. Until the competition is over, I see comfort as a negative because it is a sign my body isn't progressing anymore. After yesterday's double workout, I am sore and hungry again. This morning, I visited the North Point gym to get in some sprints and abs before I let Glen work out my quads and upper pectorals. He is really specific about the training.

Workout:

•  8 minutes of sprints:
• 1 minute walk (I did 3.5mph)
• 1 minute sprint (I did 10.0 mph)
• repeat 3 more times
• 20  Hanging leg raises (lift knees to make it easier)
• 4 sets
•  8 minutes of sprints
• 40 mountain climbers (20 each side)
• 4 sets
•  8 minutes of sprints
• BOSU opposite leg reach (16 on each side)
• 4 sets
•  8 minutes of sprints



Clear Glass Single Cup Coffee Maker



Last week I mentioned that my addiction to coffee was causing my stomach to bloat. After speaking with Glen, turns out it was the quality of my coffee, and not the quantity. Poor quality coffee can throw off your body's pH balance (something I need to do more research into) which is what caused the bloating.

To fix this problem,  I bought organic, pH balanced coffee with no additives and a clear glass mug. I am slowly turning into a "Purist". My laundry has no smell, I use vinegar to clean my floors, everything I consume is organic, I meditate at least once a week, and now my mug is clear glass. I don't recognize me anymore. I hope my next step does not include crocs and all hemp clothing.

When I was a kid my friend had one of those above ground pools. I used to love to swim in circles until I built up a current that would allow me to float around and around with ease. After a while I would get bored and force myself to stop floating. I would turn around and fight my way against the current, dodging the pool toys. In the beginning I could barely move, but eventually I would take a few tiny steps, which would turn into strides, and eventually I would change the direction of the water and everything in it. Life is no different from that experience. If you are bored, try something new.

My point is that you don't change overnight. I slowly incorporated healthier choices which eventually became a drastic life change. I struggled with cutting out sugar, but now I don't even think about it. I used to sneak bites of bread, but now it smells sour to me. Working out 5 days a week used to exhaust me, but now I need to work out longer and harder to feel the same fatigue.

Why would you wake up one day and expect to run 7 miles without walking it first? How can you expect to change the way you look if you don't make any effort to change the way you eat? Pick something small and attainable, and do it next week. It could be waking up a little early to eat breakfast, or cutting out bread, rice, pasta or any other starches from your dinner. Maybe you are not drinking your 8 glasses of water a day. Make a change this week, and if you make it through, add something else in next week.

Change was not meant to be easy. If it were, everyone would be successful.

Days 26, 27, 28 - Talking Dirty

This weekend was perfect. I had my 4 balanced meals, I went to two parties on Saturday, I went all of Sunday without Coffee, and I even snuck in a 7.5 mile run on Sunday morning.

Eating out is getting easier each time I go. On Friday night, I split a salad and ordered the grilled chicken breast with a side of sauteed spinach at an Italian restaurant, Vie Veneto. It came with potatoes, and although I did pop one in my mouth the rest were donated.

Saturday was similar. Since we were invited to two birthday parties, I ate a quick meal before the first one so I would not be tempted by desserts or pizza. When we got there, I sipped on my virgin, sugar free mojito and had a great time. Three hours later we drove to an Afghan restaurant, where I had the most amazing chicken kabob and a ton of spinach, before heading out to the second birthday party. What I realized is my body responds really well to chicken and spinach, so I am going to incorporate more into my diet. It is definitely the best dinner for shedding excess water weight.

On Sunday, I went for a 7.5 mile run, in the rain. It was great except that I was starving the rest of the day. For the purpose of my competition, I need to avoid long runs, but I love them so I keep them to one time a week. If you want to understand the difference between a long run and sprints, compare the body of a marathoner to that of a sprinter. The two girls on the left are marathoners; the long runs deplete their bodies of fat and muscle. The two girls on the left have a more athletic build; the sprints deplete their glycogen stores but keep their muscles well defined.

I realized that I have developed this fetish of watching others eat foods I can't have. The first time it happened was at dinner with a group of friends. I watched as they dug into the different chocolate delights and I listened to how they described the foods. My favorite part was watching the spoon sink into the various creams and cakes. There was one dessert no one had touched, so I begged them to dig in and tell me about it.

It has happened a few times since, but I realized it was a problem on Sunday. Ali gave into this giant chocolate chunk cookie at Plutos. After all the work and time I have put into this competition, I knew I didn't even want a taste, but I waited impatiently for him to eat it. Turns out he wanted to save it until I wasn't around, but I forced him to eat it any way. I watched how he slowly tore off a piece of the cookie, so I knew it was slightly chewy. I wanted to know if it was salty, it looked like one of those cookies that weren't too sweet and had that slight salt taste. He didn't know how to answer so I made him come close so I could smell his breath. I knew right away it was a good cookie. Then I started to laugh because I realized I was officially insane. I want people to eat foods while I watch, describe the texture and flavor, then finally let me smell their breath. It's like I get to enjoy the food without the calories. It's weird.

Today I worked on legs with Larissa, and then again with Glen. I am 39 days away from the show and it is time to "fine tune' my muscles. With Glen, I did two exercises for an hour, single leg hamstring curl and rear delt flys. I was exhausted in a whole new way. For the next two weeks, to get over my plateau, I will do double days of strength training. I am going to be cranky.