Wow – what a huge few weeks!! Lots of work followed by a 7
day holiday at the Gold Coast … that turned into 9 days due to the volcanic ash
situation. While seemingly ideal being stuck in Brissy for an extra few days,
finding new accommodation, extending rental cars, organising new flights and
existing in a hotel room was quite trying. By gosh it was great to finally get home!
Things I’ve learned while on holiday;
·
It is definitely possible to stay on track with nutrition
and training while away from home. Anyone who says differently has convinced
themselves of their own excuses.
·
There are a lot of gyms that charge a fortune
for casual visits and don’t deliver.
Specifically:
o
Trying to find a reception person who will
actually remove their bottom from the chair and show you through the gym is
non-existent. I assume they have worked out so long and so hard that their DOMS
prevents them from moving. Luckily their fingers are still able to flick
through Facebook pages though.
o
Empty and used water bottles scattered around
the gym. These are presumably there for those times that you reach into your
gym bag and quickly realise you’ve left your beautiful, clean water bottle on
the bench. You may now use one of the conveniently placed used ones. The attached
cold sore or halitosis is for free.
o
Dirty equipment. I have nothing.
·
The Goodlife Gym in Montpelier Road, Brisbane,
is an exception. Lovely staff. Clean equipment and plenty of it. Spacious and
inviting. Still costs a fortune for a casual though.
·
It’s ok to be the Mum that insists on buying her
family decent food for lunch while at Dreamworld. So we had to get a leave-pass
and eat outside the doors. And the ibis birds got a little too close for comfort
which made us feel a little bit like we were eating at the rubbish dump. And the
kids could still just see the people inside eating their chips, nachos, fried
crumby things and other unidentified plates of crap – but that’s just tough. We
ate beautiful fresh sandwiches and later topped it off with a yummy ice-cream. NB: By ‘we’.. I’m sure you realise this is ‘them’
and not ‘me’. I carry my own stash of food.
·
Steak Houses are definitely the easiest place to
stay on track while going out for dinner. I needed 120g so ordered a 250g and
halved it…minus an extra crumb or two….and voila – dinner to the plan.
·
25m HIITs can be achieved anywhere. ANYWHERE.
Hotel stairs, apartment lounge rooms, scrap of footpath, beach, bathroom (yes!!! bathroom!!!). No excuses register
on this one.
·
Food prep is just something you do. You have to
organise some sort of food to eat so it’s simply a choice to choose food from
the plan. Why o why do people make such a big deal about food prep?
So this has me thinking about
competitions and the commitment to them. Because the above would surely make
some people think that the whole holiday revolved around the needs for my competition.
And in my head, I admit to a large portion of my mindset being focused on my
training and all it entails. But most of the above comes naturally to both me
and my family these days. My children don’t blink an eyelid when I start
steaming bowls full of vegies. We use the time to chat in the kitchen. They don’t
even notice when I start doing burpees on the floor for 25mins. At worst they
have to move so they can see the tv better. And when my family offers to take
the kids to the park or beach or whatever for an hour, it’s second nature to
grab that time and race down to a local gym to smack out a workout. At this
stage I wouldn’t dream of using that time to shop, sleep or relax. It’s just
the way I roll.
So the comp preparation phase is
starting to get really intense and I’m more focused than ever. If I think about
the comp I get nervous, totally excited, competitive and glad that it’s still
some 16 weeks away.
I stayed on my last food micro for
3 weeks rather than the usual 10 days. This resulted in a plateau and a gain of
500g. I can live with that and have today started my new carb cycling plan. It’s
glorious!!! Plenty of food; chicken, roo, fish, vegies, fruit, nuts and a
choice of rice/sweet potato/oats post workout. Along with all of my beautiful
supps. I’m still very happy and satisfied. Some days will now have less carbs
(remember – vegies and fruit are carbs too, not just the processed stuff), and
some will have a few less. Can’t wait to see the results.
With the bulk of Season A competitions
done and dusted, I have been thinking about a few things that are quite
interesting and unique to this lifestyle. As always, my opinions only;
·
There simply must be an end to the competition preparation.
It is not healthy or normal to want to remain in a world of weighing food,
limiting food groups and forcing workouts as you do immediately prior to
competing. In fact this sort of behaviour
may help to;
o Limit
your ability to gain any decent muscle due to the absence of calories needed to
gain.
o Reinforce
any lurking compulsive and/or controlling behaviours. Very common to those
attracted to competing.
o Ruin
relationships because, let’s face it, it’s seriously not fun to spend 12 months
a year with someone who analyses every morsel of food, cries when they miss a
workout, walks about in some sort of carb-reduced ‘fug’, struggles to go out to
dinner/attend a social occasion/grab a coffee at a shop and talks incessantly
about their leanness/lack of leanness/goals to get or stay lean…yawn yawn. I
dare you to find someone that truly enjoys being with someone for an extended
time that does this. Remember children too – it’s important for them to see
their parents enjoy all aspects of life. Girls in particular will learn their
food habits from their Mum.
o And
probably most importantly for me, remaining on a prep phase lifestyle simply
robs you of the enjoyment of a spontaneous and full life. It influences your
ability to plan holidays, enjoy changes in plan, commit to work and embrace the
strange and beautiful turns that life can take.
o
When you start using competitions as a weight
control method, you’ve lost the plot. Seek some advice. It’ll ultimately fail
at both missions. You will eventually lose the ability to gain muscle as you
manipulate your diet to continue losing weight. Be honest with yourself and you’ll
be able to answer this question.
·
The journey must make the end worthwhile.
Picture this….you start your training, you doggedly work towards a competition
with a single focused approach. 12 weeks out and you find yourself weighing every
morsel, ticking the workout book, posing, buying over-priced, under-whelming
items (eg. Less than a metre of bikini material for around $500!!), and poring
over pictures, YouTube clips, magazines. It gets increasingly intense until
this is the only thing you think about day in and day out for the last few weeks.
There are tears, tantrums, manic laughter and strange moods that everyone
around you notices. You travel at huge expense, pay a stranger too much for a
slap of make-up and a fancy hairdo, and finally step on stage. Some 2-4 minutes
later your lime-light is switched off and you didn’t even get a callout for a
second look. That’s it. It’s finished. All that work and the moment passed
without much fanfare.
If
you don’t truly and utterly love the process that got you to that stage, the
end must surely be one of the most disappointing events ever. Make sure the process
is enjoyable. For goodness sake make sure it is.
Oh yes – I promised to share some
of the things that I learned while on the judging panel a few weeks ago. Agree
or disagree, this what I gleaned from the other judges. Take what you like from
them;
·
Bikini girls need to diet too. Oh yes you do!
·
Fitness girls – choose the right shorts for the
fitness round. Nothing long and baggy. Nothing light coloured – you seriously
need to turn on some bright lights and have someone check the transparency of
light coloured material…..you will be amazed at what’s on show. Choose well
fitted shorts that show off your muscly legs. Otherwise what’s the point?
·
Fitness men – you get it pretty easy with your
outfits in comparison to girls. Choose some decent shorts that have a shred of
style to them. Not something that looks like it was a $5 special at Lowe’s.
·
Figure and Physique – posing. Learn. How. To. Pose.
Admittedly there are few choices in the NT for good quality posing. But the
minute you get to a national stage your posing will figure greatly in the final
decisions. If you are unsure whether your posing is considered good, ask the
judge after the show. They will happily tell you their thoughts. Here’s a
couple of mine;
o You
can under pose. Especially in the bikini/fitness rounds where you are not supposed
to throw yourself into a huge muscular pose. So it’s important that the
graceful poses you use still do have a ‘bang’ to them. Make the judges notice
you.
o Why
o why do bikini and fitness girls pull their shoulder blades together? Surely
the golden rule is; wide shoulders, small waist, proportionate legs??? Craziness.
o Over
posing is a huge turn off. Winking, pointing and doing other weird things to
the judges table is simply awful!!! Just makes the judges uncomfortable and
unable to focus on your physique due to the amateur dramatics. If everyone in
the audience is talking about it, surely the competitor could find an honest
friend/coach who would let you know that you’re over-doing it. In these cases,
any attention is definitely not good attention.
·
Here’s a controversial one. Being lean means you’ll
see a person’s muscle. Muscle - big or
small - exists in every physique. Don’t mistake being lean and seeing muscle
with actually having decent muscles. The bigger the competition, the more the
size of your muscle will be judged. The Biggest Loser show surely must have
convinced the world that just about anyone can jump onto a calorie controlled diet
and lose copious amounts of weight. That is not what a body building show is
about. It’s about body building. Your training must have existed long before
your decision to eat less and run more. Uninformed non-bodybuilding friends
will not know the difference so don’t rely on them for advice.
Ok. It’s time to get on with it
for another week. Hoping to see a slow decrease in weight while maintaining
precious muscle and a feeling of strength. My new training program is crippling
me physically and psychologically. It involves high reps, heaviest weights I
can manage and a 1mn break between sets. I’m still gasping for breath between
sets and that sorta sucks. I’m on round #2 and was very much dreading week 1 as
I now know how much it will hurt. But got some pretty significant gains this
week and feel very spurred on by that.
Cardio has its place. I blast for
25mins per week and have a second much milder session each week too. 50min is
extremely achievable so no complaints. Well….not out loud to any of you. Can’t
say I don’t grumble at the time…
Here’s to another great week.
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