Dairy of competition prepping
#6weeksout
Baby steps…………
Each week I have something else to look forward to and it’s not always about the diet.
This week I headed up to Melbourne to have a one on one session with Vicki to go over the poses for the competition. Vicki is one of the main organizers of INBA and is one of the judges. She helps most of the girls with their routines and gives some constructive feedback to help each competitor.
I talked to Vicki about why I am here and wanted to know if she felt I was ready to compete. I was so glad to hear that she understood that each person’s journey is different and the goals we set on ourselves are purely up to us to decide if we are ready or not. I have always said this is about achieving within me, not to necessarily receive a medal on the day.
Yes my shoulders are in need of some growth, but hey that’s what this is all about, gaining some experience, feedback and direction for another comp later in the year. I have decided I will still get up and compete in March and see how I stand up next to other girls for their first competition.
The poses are very intense; my back ached for days afterwards. The amount of twisting, holding, turning, tensing and smiling does make for an individual training session EVERYDAY to get used to it. The transition of the feet from one pose to the next and back to relaxed pose needs a lot of practise. This is good to do as every sport no matter what it is has the skills side and the training side, so I see this as the same.
Vicki talked me through some ways to keep my weight loss going to been lean enough for the competition. As many people first think – less food, this is not the case. It’s the same amount of food but eating every 1 ½ hours so that my metabolism speeds up and the food I consume is burning faster and hopefully burning fat. I will see the naturopath next week to go over this more and tweak what I can these few weeks before comp.
Other ways to make sure I am losing weight is to increase my cardio. Everyone is different and everyone’s body adapts differently. Some people may need more cardio time, some may not. I know my body and I need to burn it as much as I can.
This week I am feeling very drained and by the afternoon very zapped. I have settled in with my food and prep a few days in advance so as I am not in the kitchen all the time, plus I’m organized in case I get caught out anywhere due to still having to deal with the school holidays.
My training sessions are still solid; feel a bit weak sometimes, but still training to fatigue. I have organized each day what time and what exercises I will do even down to reps and sets.
I am logging all my food and meal times, as well as training times, extra coffees and the amount of water I consume (5 litres!!!). I will always look back over this journey to know exactly what I went through, as many days do become a blur.
I love 8pm each day, knowing I got through the day and I always look forward to going to bed. Getting 8 hours sleep is priority to me as I love waking up early ready for the next training session.
I do read social media of other people’s journey and I am strong enough to not change my plans and what Liz (coach) and Lindsay (naturopath) have advised me. They know me, they know what’s needed and reading some peoples advice to others on social media is just plain wrong. I realize 16 years as a personal trainer – you need to have the right leaders and not listen to others comments as most of the time it’s because they like the sound of their own voice. I do see that many people get wrapped up in this and I feel they will be misled. I promised my support crew I would focus only on their instructions for this process. So far it’s proven right, open communication with them is vital.
I have learnt so much on this journey already, I love learning every day. It’s very satisfying to “trust the process”, because I see every day in the mirror the changes in my body, and to be quite honest I am blown away.
Each week having a different part of the process to focus on helps and it’s all about taking baby steps to get it all right…
What on earth will happen next week?????
