kaizen cleanse day 1 review

disclaimer:  I am not paid for this review.

so, going into a competition I would never dream of doing a cleanse.  I am a natural athlete with UFE and I have never and would never “cheat”.  However I am going into a photoshoot with Rick Oliver and I am not on point from where I would like to be.  I have been stressed out about this photo shoot since I decided to do it and I decided that as part of my peak week I would try a cleanse.  Going with my “body is a science experiment”.  Rick generally shoots physique and bodybuilders and I am a little tiny fitness / bikini model who loves to lift heavy and who also loves that I’m “trim”.  So. Last week I decided to try out a cleanse.

 

Cleanse decision

So. Not a whole lot went into this.  I will not do a “juice cleanse”.  I also will not starve myself for anybody. I work out 6-7 days a week at 5 am and I love that I lift heavy.   Getting ready for a competition is hard work and adds stress to your body.  While I want to look fabulous in my pictures I do not want to do a full competition prep – I just want to be “photoshoot ready”.  So, I decided to search for an easy to use cleans product.

 

Why review

I am doing a daily detailed review because while I found some great reviews of this product most were through people trying to sell it or Kaizen themselves.

 

Where I got it.

I bought this at www.supplementsource.ca  which is a london (home town) based company.  They had 2 cleanse products and this is the one I chose.

Off the point comment

Canada post is having major issues with finances.  Even though I drive past the supplement source website on my way home there is no pick up option.  Canada post picked up my order on the 11th, drove it to Mississauga to be processed and then drove it back to be delivered on the 14th.  Ya, there are some major issues in canada post. \

 

The product

Kaizen is essentially a natural herbal remedy with a diuretic and a cleanser.  You eat healthy and for the first two days you take the CLEANSE liquid detox purifier twice a day and for 7 days you take the overnight “diuretic”.  (They call it something else… whatever).  So its now day 1

 

DAY 1

Did a heavy leg day at the gym followed by 1.5 hours of pampering at the salon!  Came home to begin my cleanse.

Instructions say to have the first cleanse with 8-10 oz of water after b-fast.  I was a little late on that and poured green sludge cleanse liquid into my giant 1.6 litre water bottle and downed it.  Tasted like crap regadless of the label which reads naturally flavored apple / lemon.  No worries. Drank it up.  Ate normal all day.  Spinach and chicken salad for lunch, tilapia and b-sprouts for dinner and sesame seed snack this aft.

Around 8PM I took second cleanse shot.  It had tasted sooooo awful drink one I seriously plugged my nose and took it as a shot.  Taste is way better.

The Gross stuff.

This is supposed to clean out your kidneys, liver and refresh your skin.  I have pooped a few times today but not like I have pooped more like…. I went poo a lil bit a few times (TMI I know.).

Tonight

According to instructions I take 5 of the detox / cleanse (re: diuretic) pills tonight and see what happens.  Tomorrow I begin my water load and do my last major all over body deplete workout.

 

 

Status as of this afternoon:

 

to see status pictures follow me on instagra @onefitmamacanada

More update tomorrow.

not second last!

Does’nt sound like much an achievment.

 

However.  My goal was always to do better then my last competition  Which means for me, do better, feel better and look better.

Results posted for the bikini category.  Master’s only qualifies the top 3 for elite.  And the top 5 for open.  and…. I came in 5th out of 12th for Master’s.  May seem odd but 5th in bikini means more to me then 3rd in fitness.  YAY!

 

 

5TH PLACE! UFE Bikini Masters 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

Full Competition Recap and Plans

UFE SHOWDOWN 2014

Showdown took place at Centenial Hall right here in good old London Ontario.  I do not work on Fridays and I spent the day limiting water, getting my nails done, and getting spray tanned for the competition.  For a tan this time, since I am always looking for a way to keep on Budget rather than do the traditional Competition Tan, I bought a bottle of Pro Tan overnight competition tan.  This stuff is amazing.  I began on Wednesday night by applying a coat, did the same Thursday night and then went for a regular old spray tan on Friday afternoon.  The other half took the kids to the race track Friday night, and I headed to the athletes meeting.  There were ALLOT of competitors in this show.  My guess is well over 100.  So, it was jammed, and moved incredibly slowly.  Suggestion:  Allow people to fill out their waivers, and bio’s online and give out the Goodie Bags at the show, perhaps during the 9 am meeting?  Standing around for 2 hours dehydrated but having to pee and throwing off you’re meal schedule the day before the show is not a lot of fun.  Either way I met some great people again.

Day of the show, Countdown over!

Friday night I barely slept, too excited, feeling fabulous and just generally wound up.  Got up at 5 am and put curls in my hair, Alysia of AM Pro Makeup Artistry came to the house just before 8 am and I can honestly say she is absolutely amazing!

 

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Was supposed to be at the venue for 9 am, but the athlete meeting pre-show never happens when they say so I didn’t miss it even though my hair wasn’t done yet and I was running behind.  Totally lost my brain Saturday morning and forgot to bring my competitor numbers as well as the memory card for the camera.  Not that it matters, the other half isn’t keen on taking my picture apparently.  He got some good shots with his cell phone I suppose and I even talked him into 1 whole picture with me.

 

I competed in Masters Fitness Model and Masters Bikini.  I felt amazing.  However I rushed my bikini walk as its the first time I have been on stage for a year and regardless of all of my practice I got nervous and zipped through my walk.  My Bikini round of fitness model went really well, the judges were paying attention, I felt confident and fit.  Sports wear for fitness model, I had pink boxer bottoms (seen above) that were riding up and I tried to utilize bikini bit to ensure I was showing the goods on stage, instead just ended up with big dark glue marks on my hiney.  I had been prepared and brought another pair of bottoms, however they had fallen out of my bag and before stage time I could not find them for the life of me.  (I wore them at the evening show).

Pre-judging done, we went home and I could have gone straight to sleep.  However an hour later I was back at the venue for pictures with Chris Linton Photography  He was amazing to work with, I have not seen the photo’s yet but I am waiting on pins and needles.  They were taken outside of Centenial Hall in the court yard.  Lets just say you get some crazy looks from people when you’re wandering around at 2:30 in the afternoon downtown in a hot pink bikini and clear stripper heels!  It was so much fun and I can hardly wait to do another photoshoot.

 

After that I had about enough time to go home, have a glass of vino, feed the kids, and head out to the evening show.

 

Evening show was so much more fun than the morning, everyone was having fun.  You relax, the judges have made their decisions.  I spent all day having complete strangers telling me that I had this.  I felt like I had it.  Masters fitness model was called for awards first.  And I got 3rd!  Yes very excited and suprisingly very dissapointed too.  I really thought I HAD this.  All that work.  However and some won’t like that I am posting it.  I don’t think I get brownie points for being my own trainer, or for not being part of any of the “teams”…  I also have no sponsors, no idea how you get them either.  So, yes I am now a UFE Elite Fitness Model.  Bikini masters I have no idea where I placed because they only called top 5 and have’nt posted results yet.  Not so upset about bikini even though I thought I came through on my phyique and my quarters turns, but I screwed up my T-Walk (nerves!)

3rd place masters fitness model ufe showdown 2014

So… its been a week and a half.  Now what?

Trainer

After asking for advise and speaking to a few I have made the decision to hire a well known trainer.  Not announcing it yet, as I still have to figure out how and send them funds.  Announcement coming soon!  This should deal with the No Trainer and no idea how to promote myself issue.

Gym

Still at it.  Hardcore.  I want to compete again in the fall and I want to win.  First place please and thanks.  So, still going hard.  Took 2 days off right after the competition and schedules with the kids starting summer has been a little chaotic however I am dedicated to my workouts and my lifts are coming back up.

Food.

Oh how I missed food.  Regardless of my best intentions I jumped two feet off teh diet right after the show.  I have eaten and drank to my hearts content.  That’s gotta stop or all that hard work is right out the window.  Competition weight is not do-able year round with a job and a life however I do not want to go back up to my starting weight 12 + weeks ago of 143 either.  Seeing as I want to compete possibly october and definitely november that means its gotta stay relatively clean.

 

 

 

“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.

 

 

 

Fit Girl Problems

7 + Weeks to competition

Hands

My hands are a disaster.

I wear my gloves religiously at the gym, but lift heavy enough and often enough and they don’t really stop all of the wear and tear on your hands.  I moisturize constantly, and I use a pumice stone on the callus’s when they get really bad.  Right now… they are a wreck.  To top it off its spring in Ontario and the wonky weather with warm one day and icy cold the next combined with all of the damp and quite a bit of time spent trying to get my new garden up to snuff for planting season means my arthritis is full blown.  The last few days they have been swollen to the point that I cannot get my rings off, I can barely bend them and they ache all the time.  This is not really conducive to competition prep, tried to go easy at the gym and give them a rest.  Even my straps were not going to help this one.  However I do not enjoy going easy and probably pushed a little too hard.   Either way Aleve or a bit of a break and I will hopefully be back to going hard soon.  (Ok, who are we kidding, I am likely going to go hard anyways… just hope my hands survive.)

 

Clothing

I love getting dressed almost as much as I like being naked.  My problem right now.  If it’s small enough to “fit” it likely doesn’t fit my frame.  Size small shirts depending on the style fit my waist, and arms, but not my shoulders.  Stretchy pants in xs are lose by part way through the day.  Jeans may fit your waist but are too tight in the bum or calves.  This is a good problem to have I suppose.  But it certainly makes getting dressed interesting.   Dresses and tanks are easier, however I work in the office of a distribution warehouse.  Not really appropriate most of the time.

 

Tired

Restricted calories, early morning workouts, food prep, cleaning, kids, and boyfriend.  Ya.  I am tired all of the time.  Plus I am an incredibly light sleeper so even when I plan on sleeping in if my early rising boyfriend gets up early, so do I

 

Over-Doing it

Sometimes you need to let stuff slide.  Let’s face it.  Life on a good day is a lot of work, doubly so for us Mama’s.  I am not so good at letting it slide.  I need to work on this.  I kind of did this Sunday, by playing in the dirt in the garden instead of finishing the laundry and cleaning the house.  I don’t even remember going to bed Sunday night and think it may have been involuntary and I just fell asleep however when I got up yesterday  morning I realized that the laundry was in the wash from two days ago, so had to be re-run, somehow there was enough laundry created in 2 days for 2 more loads.  The kitchen was an absolute disaster and there were dishes, glasses and garbage everywhere.  I did a quick tidy and left big kid a note for some chores to do after school.  I’ll bloody well pay him as long as it gets done right.  I need a maid, or really a mom, or a wife to look after my house!

 

Meals

This takes prep.  If for some reason I am not prepared, like yesterday morning.  When I realized I had no Tupperware, hadn’t been grocery shopping and hadn’t prepped my meals yesterday (see being lazy and playing in the dirt above) I was at a complete loss.  No idea what to do, and so yesterday not only did I sleep through my work out because I fell asleep involuntarily Sunday night, my food sucked.  I improvised but it’s not really according to plan, I didn’t bring enough with me and well… ugh.   Eating the same boring stuff all the time is not fun, eating a crappy improvised version of it is even worse.

Ok… whaaa waaa waa.  I’m went grocery shopping on the way home.

 

I can comment on my arse, you can’t!

Boyfriend made the mistake while I was working on posing practice to comment that I need to shrink my backside to look like the girls in the show that win.  Well Duh!  His comment, I love you’re bum, but these girls have much smaller bums.  Gee Thanks Darling!  I know he wasn’t being mean, just trying to help.  I compete, he races cars.  (Talk about not feeling guilty about my hobby, his is far more expensive hee hee)… He also races to win.  And yes, I want to win, but really my first goal is to look and feel better than my last competition.  My arse is much smaller than it was 3 weeks out from my show last June and I am still 8 weeks out.  Plus, this is like the absolute last place that I lose weight.  I know all of this, he made a comment.  Still it bugs me.  Advice to boyfriends out there, especially when you’re girl competes in bodybuilding contests, unless you are her coach or trainer, keep it to yourself.   “You look fantastic!”  should be the only words out of your mouth, or “Gee I’ll do the dishes and clean the bathroom”

Ha Ha!  Loves him.  But I didn’t even ask “does this make me look fat” You’d think every guy knew this. Apparently not.

 

 

 

 

8 + Weeks and Counting Update

8 + weeks or 61 days to go!

Wow.  8 weeks until I am on stage.   It will have been a year since my last show, and I am so excited to bring it.  Not only do I get to compete in the masters division this time (35 years and up) I am going to bring a package way better than last year.  Every training session between last year and this year is going to make my physique that much better.  Some of the little things I have noticed since I have started hard-core focusing on this show:

• Morning workouts way easier
• Still lifting heavy, despite cutting back calories
• Losing more weight without cutting all carbs
• More intensity in my training

I have never been a “circuit” girl despite competing in fitness and bikini divisions where that is the norm.  I like to lift heavy.  This time around I am still lifting heavy but have incorporated circuits into every single workout.  3 exercises, 3 sets, no breaks.  Repeat 3 times and move onto the next 3 exercises.  In an attempt to add more HIIT and hating cardio with a passion I also have incorporated a 60 second of jump rope into each of these circuits as of this morning.  Results to come.

Progress so far

I began tracking on April 1.  My goal was to lose an average of 1.14 lbs per week between now and June 21^st for UFE Showdown.  This seemed realistic, as once you are already very fit losing weight becomes far more difficult.  So far in 3 weeks I have lost 5.4 lbs averaged out to 1.7 lbs per week.  Higher than my goal, but let’s face it the last few weeks things will likely get much tougher.  The nice thing about being ahead of schedule.  So far I am not doing mass amounts of cardio, I am still eating carbs and dairy and I feel great.  No, no-carb brain going on here!

Decisions

I have now officially registered for my show.  So there is no turning back.  I posted a link in the blog to suit decisions.  So if you have not already checked it out, please do and vote for your favorite.  I believe I have decided on the style of the pink one, but not necessarily the pink color (though I do love pink!  And being a breast cancer survivor I love it even more.  Perhaps a diamond ribbon on the bum?

I will be competing in 2 divisions.  Master’s Bikini and Masters Fitness model.  Which means 2 bikini rounds and one fitness wear round.  UFE is rather known for the ladies coming up with somewhat gimmicky fitness wear and I am undecided at this point.  Last year at showdown I made a last minute decision to go with the golf look I had brought, totally not taking into account that I do not play golf.  Hmmm… swinging a golf club on stage in 6 inch heels maybe not so swift when I’d only practiced a couple of times.  I made the decision since most of the sports / fitness wear back stage at the show was fitness wear.  Think sports bra and booty shorts.  Had planned on doing my sailor look but then felt too gimmicky and too close to my bikini wear.  Ugh.  Would love to do something to do with racing as it’s my sweetie’s big thing, hmm… going to have to give it some thought.  Suggestions welcome.

The kids will not be coming to this show.  They are home the weekend of the show, at least as of now.  Though I am trying to switch weekends with the one before because the Canadian Cancer Society 12 hour relay for life is the weekend before and I would like for them to come with me.   We will see if that all comes together or not (stay posted for the link on where to donate) It’s only a morning show so I will make plans for them.  I can still get pictures with them before or after the show but tickets aren’t cheap and I’m not sure it’s the right place for a hormone crazed 15 year old boy.

 

Epic Cheat

I had planned on a cheat night this past weekend.  My birthday is a little less than a month from now and knowing that I will be only 4 weeks out I did not want to set my heart on a big night out (it may happen, depending on where I am with progress at that point) So my sweetie took me to dinner on Friday night (hey, no kids is a mark your calendar event) So, What was the epic cheat?  Burger… loaded, French fries and an appetizer platter.  Couldn’t finish even half, but man was it delicious.

 

Note to self: when you have next to no-sugar in your diet, even a small amount of alcohol = major sugar headache the next day!

Problem with the epic cheat was it carried over through most of the weekend.  While not awful for a non-competitor we visited family on Saturday in the sunshine and had a few pints.  Followed by a fire with the girls, and on Sunday after a great workout and watching the rest of the family eat their Easter Sunday brunch, and working in the garden for 3 hours I may or may not have had part of a pint.  (Hee hee oops).  Ah well.  Not going to beat myself up.  While I would have been even further ahead of schedule during weigh in this morning then I currently am, I am still ahead of where I expected to be at this point and I am going to continue with my plan.

Re-Evaluate

I originally said that I would re-evaluate my plans (diet, exercise etc) at 9 weeks.  Seeing as I am about at that point and still making gains, I am going to leave the plan as is, with the addition of my new jump rope addition to circuits and set another re-evaluation at 6 weeks.  This will be just before my b-day (BIG 35!)  So it may also be where I decide to plan for or not plan for another cheat…. Just so long as I can keep it from turning into an entire weekend!

 

Choosing a suit.

UFE Showdown is June 21, right here in London.

So, I need to make the decision as to what color suit I am going to wear.  My first competition I wore a lovely gold suit from www.suitsyou.com  I loved this suit, but I also knew I was taking a risk wearing it, unfortunately it did not pay off and it washed out on stage.  My second competition last years UFE Showdown I created my own suit which was bright yellow and blue.  I LOVE this suit.  It was different, colorful and a one of a kind.  I have also created a black one with some help of my sewing machine which I may wear for one of the bikini rounds at Showdown this year.  However since I am going to compete in both bikini and fitness model this year I have decided to invest in another suit.   A new one.  I am trying to go with the crowd a little this time and have looked at a tonne of pictures of what others are wearing this year, and last and what looks good with darker hair. Blue and purple are always popular, however they are two colors that I just do not like.  I have narrowed down my choices to pink, red or green.  So, help a girl out.  What would you pick for me

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A Typical Day

I have made the decision to compete at UFE showdown.  That makes it roughly 80 days.  What I am going to attempt to do in the next 11 weeks is go from about 20% body fat to 10-12% bodyfat.  I figure there is no point in competing unless I can be better then my last competition.

5:00 am.

Alarm goes off.  I get dressed, while stumbling around a dark bedroom.  Then I grab my gym bag and juggle cars in the single drive driveway.  I then drive to the gym and do an hour or so of weights.  20 – 25 minutes of cardio.

7:00 AM

I get back home from the gym.  By this time my sweetie has generally already left for work.  I clean up the kitchen from whatever mess is left from the night before, make the kids lunches, eat my breakfast, pack my food for the day (I generally take 5 meals to work… that’s allot of stuff to get organized)….  I then get the kids up feed them breakfast, make my bed, clean up my room, chase the kids around to get dressed and try and get them to tidy up their rooms.  Big kid leaves for high school.  I then get about 20 minutes to get cleaned up, changed and ready for work.

8:30 am

Drive boo to school.   Drive to work which is at the absolutely other end of the city and get to work just for 9AM.  At 10 or so, I get meal #2 in.  At 1 I take a lunch.  Except because I only have about 30 minutes, I generally spend this running errands, after my lunch break I eat meal #3 at my desk.  At 3 or 3:30 I eat meal #4.

5:00 pm

I get done work and fight traffic home.  I usually end up stopping at the grocery store, gas station etc.

6:00 PM

Get home.  Sweetie likes to cook, not so much clean.  So by the time I get home from work my kids have been home for 2 hours making a mess and usually sweetie is cooking.  So I get home and eat meal #6, cleanup after sweetie, clean up after kids.  Do grade 9 homework, read stories with Boo.  Hopefully finally shower or bath (ya, there is NO time for that in the morning… body spray and deodorant is my friend!)

Around 8:30 Boo goes to bed.  This is when I load and run dishwashers, do laundry etc.

11PM

I am hopefully on my way to bed.  But unlike the boys in this house, first I have to wander around the house and pick up the mess, lock the doors, and turn off the lights.

 

I love my life! I really really do.  But I am forever hearing about people telling me that they do not have time, their kids are too important, they cannot fit it in etc.

Choose your priorities, if it is important, you will make time.  You can succeed.  In spite of how tough it seems some days I am soo proud of what I have accomplished.  This is my ME thing.  This is what makes me happy and proud.

So… What is your excuse

 

 

 

 

 

Best of luck to all of the competitors in UFE Spring Bash 2014

I had originally planned on competing this weekend.  I do not regret my decision not to. I would not have been at my best.

Wishing all of the competitors the best of luck.  Enjoy the experience, it is amazing, and you will meet some of the most wonderful people.  So in honor.  Here is a little flash back to last years spring bash.

 

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Committed – Or… Commit me.

UFE Showdown in London Ontario June 21, 2014.

81 Days and counting

Why

I compete not because I think I am going to be a sponsored athlete, get sponsors or my picture in magazine.  I compete because I can.  I compete because getting on stage next to the fittest of the fit and feeling good after everything I have survived makes me feel strong and beautiful.  I absolutely love my pictures.  Not many women who have lived my life and have two kids can say that they look and feel there best at almost 35.   I can.  And as I have said before, its amazing motivation. My diet is generally good, but when I do not have a goal, I cheat more often then not.  I work out like crazy all the time.  It makes me feel good.  I am happy, healthy and more stable then I have ever been in my life.

The original Plan

I originally planned and posted about competing at Spring Bash.  It is this weekend, and while I am disappointed that I did not pull it together in time to do it.  I have no regrets.  Life happens.  I got a new job end of January and I was not used to 5 am workouts anymore, my kids were not used to me not being home all of the time, and priorities have to take prescedence.  I could have done it, but I would not have been better than my last competition, and to me, I am my only competition.  So, I decided not to.

The new plan

UFE Showdown June 21

I did this show last year as fitness model.  This year I would like to enter both bikini and fitness model.  It is only a morning show unless you qualify for pro status, in which case you can choose to compete in the evening show.  Considering I have barely made not last the other two competitions I do not anticipate that.  But I am going to bring my A game and you never know.  I have always done this on my own, my diet, myself as a trainer.  I still cannot afford to invest that kind of money as just competing can run into a mess of money.  However through all of the competitions and connections I have made through both this blog, my competitions etc.  I have my hands on far more information.  I am above and before anyone else a stellar researcher.  I have a nailed down plan, diet, exercise, goals.  I will meet them all.  And if and when I do, I very much plan on at least top 10  ok, not last (Cannot believe I said that. … talk about a way to jinx yourself!)

History

The first competition, I did not really have a structured plan.  I felt great, up to and including the show, got amazing compliments from other competitors and then came 4th last.  I would be lying if I said it was not a major let down.  Granted it lasted about 30 minutes and I was over.  I had done it!  I then went out, ate a bunch of deserts and cheese cake.  I had a few too many bevies and proceeded to binge for a week.  Then I decided that if I did not pick a new goal I would be plus size again by summer.  So I picked showdown in London last june.  This time I watched my diet more, stretched wayyy more and added a mass amount of steady rate fasted cardio.  I looked way better however after the show it took months for me to have any want or desire to barely make it to the gym.  Add in alot of stressful personal crap and well…. meh.  Life happens.

Plan for 2014 Showdown

Diet.

I am roughly 12 weeks out.  My diet will be mostly protein and veg.  This is what I know works not just for my body but also fold in celiac and feeling good and its how I have results and feel good mentally.  I do not crash on low carb, I feel good.  First 3 weeks will be about 1400 calories.  Only dairy will be 1 cup cottage cheese a day and only carbs will be wheat free oats.    Re-evaluate at 9 weeks out.

Took my measurements tonight.  Will weigh myself in the morning.  Not telling all the details but essentially I am 33-27-33 (can you say hour glass)  I will track this every monday evening with a weigh in on Tuesday mornings.

HIIT Cardio – 4 days a week

Again I will re-evaluate as needed but for the first 3 weeks that is the plan

Posing

This is a bad one for me.  I feel like a fool at the gym doing posing practice…. no idea why but I do.  And there is nowhere at home to do this that is easy or I can see.    The nice thing about again being used to 5 am workouts.  I have the gym to myself.  So 4-5 day a week posing practice.

 

Wish me luck!

Tips, tricks and encouragement needed.