“My Hottest Body Ever” Project Plan

The Plan

The English Dictionary defines a “plan” as: A scheme, program or method worked out beforehand for the accomplishment of an objective. 

This competition preparation I set out to develop a very detailed and comprehensive plan for the accomplishment of my goals for UFE Showdown on June 21.  I determined my goal weight, goal measurements, diet, and review and re-evaluate dates as well as my diet, workout schedule and days.  I planned my cheat or re-feed days as well as put together a spreadsheet to track all of this.

The best laid plans have hiccups along the way.  I have also attempted to track, what they were, when they happened and taken notes about any particular things that I believe may have triggered those things.  No plan is perfect, but by tracking both success and failure it will be easier and more successful the next time around. It also makes it easier when you find something early on in the plan to re-evaluate and adjust. The “plan” includes a budget with costs and expenses, estimated where unknown and then updated as found out to track how much competing costs as well as to mitigate what I will spend on my competition.

In other words I have a project plan to get to the stage.  Anyone who knows what I am good at will know that this is exactly how I function at work as well.  If you are managing multiple projects with multiple timelines and different resources you need to have these “plans” in order to keep track of everything that is going on in each one.  (Yes, I have one of these for the household, kids, and other “projects” I work on in my personal life, though not always as comprehensive as this one is…)

Expenses

Things like my competition registration, monthly gym expenses, and tanning were known and have not wavered.  I put a budgeted max amount to spend on photography this time, as I have not had the “professional” photography done at a show yet, and selected a set of backstage photos from the UFE photographer Healthy Vision.  I would have liked to get photography done after the show as well or on the same weekend but it was out of the budget, however I did overestimate the back stage photos and so have money to re-allocate.  While planning to compete at the Spring Bash which I was unable to do back in April I had created another new suit, very in-expensively.  I also still have two suits from my last two competition from 2013.  However who wants pictures in the same suit.  So I am still on the fence about whether to order new / used suits, or to use the suits I have (Or order one new suit and use one of the suits I have).  Either way I do have money allocated for at least 1 new suit.

Diet

The original diet was carefully planned taking into account what I was eating on a “normal” daily basis, what I know about how my body reacts to certain foods, and realizing where my plateau’s have hit in the past.  For the first 3 weeks I was eating around 1600 calories, which included about 150 grams of carbs (veggies, oats, and sweet potatoes) and very little sugar.  At 7-8 Weeks out I re-evaluated this and dropped to about 1400 calories, decreased my carbs and decreased my fats while upping my lean protein intake.

Tracking

I honestly weighed myself (something that I never do) at the beginning of my 12 weeks.  On April 1 I weighed in at 143.7 lbs.  Not much really when you figure I am 5’8” and very active.  My last show after peak week I weighed in the day of the show at roughly 134lbs.  So for this show I decided on a goal “weight” of 130lbs before peak week.  In order to achieve this I worked out that I would need to lose 1.41 lbs per week every week between April 1 and June 17.  I then weighed myself once a week at the same time on the same day every week.  In the first 4 weeks my average weight loss was 1.7lbs.  I figured out that if this trend continued I would weigh 125 lbs by the time of my show.  Being a huge hater of cardio, I was determined to do as little of it for this show as was possible.  For the first few weeks my cardio consisted of changing my weights from 3 sets 6-8 reps with 45-60 second rests to circuits of 3 exercises one of which was usually a core “thing” and upping reps to 8-10 I was also doing about 20 minutes on the treadmill after every workout fasted speed walking at max incline.  When I realized that I was losing quicker than plan I decided to change the cardio portion and experiment with the circuits and combined a 4^th exercise into every circuit done.  For 60 seconds of my circuit I now skip rope.  Essentially over a 60 minute workout I accomplish between 15 and 20 minutes of 60 second bursts of cardio, I also enjoy this much better than walking on a treadmill, my results stayed pretty much consistent (which I found interesting).   As of this morning my weight loss is at 136.7 while the original goal weight was at 136.8 meaning that I am no longer ahead of my plan, I am meeting it.

Not time to re-evaluate “yet”.  Sunday being mother’s day and knowing I was ahead of plan I allowed myself not just a “re-feed” meal, I honestly, took the day off.  Had an amazing day with my children, my other half, and my mom and sister.  I ate off plan, did not work out and enjoyed my family and garden. This turned out to be the best mother’s day I have ever had in my entire 15 years of being a mom.   No regrets there.  I will not know if this de-railed my “plan” and progress and will not until next week’s weigh in so I am not changing what is working until then.  I could be retaining water, have not slept well the last couple of nights, or I may just shed my cheat day within the next couple and then some.  It does however put a small crimp in my plans for a birthday cheat this weekend.  THAT is still to be determined.  But since I have no real plans, c’est la vie.

So there’s the update… this would be “my hottest body ever” project plan.