Switching Gears. Starting Again.

After being cooped up in the house for about a week with Flu-Like Symptoms, I’m anxious to get outside for some networking and Vitamin D. That’s one thing I love about Toronto–there’s always something free to do in the area. The 25th of this month is Third Tuesday in Toronto, a meet up of pr professionals and social media enthusiasts who want to learn more about social media. I can’t wait to go. Hopefully I’ll be done with this flu by then, if not I’ll probably spend the night in a hospital rather than meeting anyone at Third Tuesday.

 

Speaking of days, I can’t believe May is nearly over already. 2009 is almost half done.  In a few months, I’ll be leaving my overnight job to study Corporate Communications at Seneca College. After doing the fitness show in April I realized that public relations is where I want to go, so I’m going there starting September. Granted I could have done all of this last year, but who knows? That idea only invites a lot of ’shoulda, coulda, woulda’ thinking and I don’t have time for that.

 

As far as the competition went, it was a mini-disaster. But I had fun, so “that’s the most important part” I guess.  For a while I thought I had to try again, to sort of ‘make-up’ for this blunder, but I changed my mind. I do what I want and what I want to do is corporate communications. So putting my time and money in to competing as a fitness model doesn’t make any sense. To be honest I’d feel much more comfortable competing if I knew everything else in my life was in order; mainly my career.

 

Re-Hustle

So it’s officially 18 days until The Day but I’m not really worried — I want to get it over with. I’ve become ‘angry’ at the competition, if that makes any sense. I resent it for disrupting my life, costing me money, causing added stress I don’t need, etc. Last week I didn’t work out at all and I think I used these feelings as an excuse not to go to the gym (oh yeah, and I was dead tired).

So today I got back in the gym to work my abs and legs… and they’re still burning. A little extra punishment for staying away so long I guess.

Then I got an email from the founder and president of Fitness Star saying that STUDIO-H has offered to do hair and make-up for free for all the competitors! I signed up to take the offer, so I’ve got a little more motivation.

I still have lingering worries about how everything is going to work out, but this past Thursday I got the chance to browse the latest issue of Oprah magazine while getting my hair done. After reading Martha Beck’s article on ‘Just-in-Case’ vs. ‘Just-in-time’ thinking got me thinking I really can relax… I just have to remember that first.

Making it do what it do.

After slacking off for the past few months, I figured I probably wasn’t going to make it to April 11th. A friend who knows a lot more than I do told me that if I stick to my diet and exercise for the next month, I’ll be competition ready, so I committed.

It’s been six days and I’m noticing some new cuts in my arms and abs. Hotness!

So today in the gym I did my legs: 3 sets of 25 leg extensions, 3 sets of 15 (3×15) seated leg curls, 3×20 lying leg curls, 4×20 seated calf exercises, 3×15/3×25 superset walking lunges and (more) leg extensions, 4×25 leg presses, 3×20 standing calf raises, and 3 one-minute  sets of standing on my calves until they burn out.

I actually started to feel a little physically sick after doing all that business, so I did about 25 minutes of cardio–intervals with one minute going as fast as I can, 30 seconds slowly.

The diet has been a struggle to adjust to, especially with my backwards schedule. Most people (personal trainers/bodybuilders) I talked to told me to cook for the week, but because I’m no good in the kitchen, I’m usually up cooking past my bedtime, then I’m tired when I wake up, then I don’t feel like working out ’cause I didn’t sleep enough, etc. But I’m going to try it again. This time I’m looking in to getting a grill from Cuisinart (not from Canadian Tire though). That should make cooking chicken, fish and beef easier… Honestly I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before.

One of the things I’ve learned is that cooked vegetables don’t last the week. Laugh if you must, but I figured it’s probably best to buy and cook vegetables every couple of days… Lesson Learned.

Stomach Vacuum? No thanks.

BTW I tried Stomach Vacuum for a few weeks and it didn’t seem to work any better or worse than regular crunches. Maybe I wasn’t doing them properly, but I’m on track with my dieting and exercise now without doing any vacuums and everything is going well.

I dream in cardio…

Yeah, I’m still here. I’ve officially started training for the Fitness Star Model Search competition on April 11th. Now that I’m so close, I’ve actually found it easier to get to the gym and not cheat. The competition has become my motivation.

But I know I’m still going to get hungry and snarky, so I’m trying Hoodia supplements. I got these fancy one’s from Flora. I’ve tried Hydroxycut and QB burner before, this time I wanted something that wouldn’t make me feel like I’m hopped up on coffee all. the. time.

So I’m working out six days a week. Cardio every day for 45 minutes and weight training for about 45 minutes to an hour. I work out every body part once a week, and I try to use enough weight so that I can’t get to 10 reps.

Oh yeah–competing is expensive. I figure everything is going to cost me about $700.00. That includes two posing suits (one I got for $15 on sale… the Fitness Star website said it didn’t have to be fancy!), shoes, gettin’ my hair did, make-up, etc. I figure it should cost less, though. I’m going to make it my personal mission to figure out how to do my make-up myself for the show.

I spoke to fitness model and competitor Selena Han today over the phone and she said she did her make-up herself for the WBFF competition in September 2007, so I figured I could do it too.

So far I’ve ordered my suit from Karen at KHP Designs, and my shoes from Sexy Strut (website a teensy explicit…). I’ll never understand why these competitions demand female models wear clear heels, but oh well.

For now it’s steady at the gym… the more I learn the more I learn.

Doing the Fitness Model thing…

Did I mention I’m competing at the Fitness Star Model Search on April 11th, 2009?

I’m going to compete as a Fitness Model… last year I went to the World Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation show and got inspired.

I figured I could try it out, see how it works out… who knows what could happen?

The only thing that confuses me about these competitions is the winners. I watch the shows and I don’t understand why the girl who wins, won. I’m not trying to be rude, but as someone who knows little about fitness modeling, that is something I am trying to learn… ah well, check the websites.

Get sweaty!

Egg Whites. 7 Days a Week.

I’m tired of eating egg whites every day, so I found some ways to get creative with them while sticking to my meal plan; egg white pancakes. Muscle and Fitness magazine has a recipe for egg white pancakes online that looks pretty good… I just don’t care for the sweetener or splenda.

So last week, I worked out for 6 days for the first time in my life… I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea. Previously I did 4-5 days per week and I looked forward to have two or three days a week off. It also gave me a couple extra days so that if I missed one day, I could always make it up later on in the week.

Now it feels like I’m going to the gym seven days a week instead of six. If I miss one day, that was my day off and I have to be sweating it out (sorry for the detail, I didn’t want to say ‘going to the gym’ one more time) every day for the rest of the week and then most of the next week too.

Then again, change is good. And the more I do it (go to the gym six days a week), the easier it will get eventually. And not to mention I will see results even faster. So the moral of the story is to stop bitching. If you don’t like something (egg whites), change it. And just because something seems difficult (working out six days a week) doesn’t mean it can’t/shouldn’t be done–do it anyway.

stop lying to yourself.

Found this website (www.bunklers.com) off bodybuilding.com… it’s the truth!

Stomach WHAT?!

I’ve been bloated over the last week or so and I’ve been generally worried about my waist/stomach area because I gained weight (about 10 pounds).

A couple years ago I learned about an exercise called the ‘Stomach Vacuum’ and tried it for a couple days, but then forgot about it. Basically it’s a method that was used by bodybuilders to shrink the waistline and flatten stomachs. So after reading about this method on bodybuilding.com, I decided to try it for the next two-three weeks to see if it works.

I tried to find evidence of regular people trying it themselves, but have found none. So I decided to post an objective look at this exercise. After I finish trying it for the next few weeks, you’ll know if it really works or not.

Woman Up.

For being someone who is ‘into fitness’, I realize I haven’t posted anything on this blog about working out, nutrition, losing weight, etc.

It is completely my fault, but then again, I didn’t start this blog thinking I would write about anything but PR/communications.

To give you some perspective, some years ago I was ‘pleasantly plump’ at 5′8 and about 200 pounds. I distinctly remember looking down at my stomach one day while I was sitting in bed and thinking ‘oh hell no.’ I started going to the gym and changing my eating habits, I lost 50+ pounds and (forgive the cliche) never looked back.

That was about five years ago. Now after yo-yo-ing between gaining and losing five, ten, even 20 pounds, I decided this year I would woman up and take my fitness to another level by getting ready to compete as a fitness model.

Losing weight was a battle on its own. But to really tone the way I want to, it’s like starting all over again. I got a meal plan from a fitness trainer, and this is like nothing I’ve ever done before. Basically I eat a lot of chicken and egg whites, and there is NO BREAD in my diet whatsoever. THAT I thought I could never do.

But after one week of following the diet (with the exception of having coffee, something I keep as my little indulgence everyday), and the workout routine I’ve been doing for almost a year now, I was able to see some definition in my stomach, and my weight went down to about 2 pounds (from 149 to 147 approx.)

So on one hand, I’m really excited about the results I could get. Just thinking about where I could get in two, three, or six weeks is motivation enough for me in the gym.

On the other hand, doing that for six weeks assumes nothing happens to mess with my diet or workout schedule. And interruptions have been unpredictable for the last couple of months.

For the first couple weeks of September, I was doing everything fine. Then a chest cold hit me and I was out. I tried to tough it out and workout for the first day despite feeling not so good. I couldn’t push as much weight as I wanted to, and I stopped my cardio short, but I still got in to the gym and that was good. But the next day I felt even worse and didn’t go to the gym.

It’s been about four days since I’ve been to the gym, and although I feel a whole lot better, I also know I’m going back to starting all over again. I have some satisfaction that I know what I’m doing now, and I know that if I hold out and do what I’m supposed to week after week, I will see results.

So this weekend I’m going to get as much rest as I can so that I can fully recover. Then it’s back to the weights Monday @ 7:30am!