I MADE IT!!

Whhhhheeeewwww Hooooo!!!!

So the final week of training was the hardest part knowing that I was so close, but still had to stay sharp! My strategy was spot on and although I've heard not to train the last week, I felt great and I was able to come in lean as hell and full.

Thursday night I went to my trainer's house where he took a final measurement of 28 and 1/8th for my waist, THE SMALLEST IT'S EVER BEEN! We then practiced posing and went through a strategy for Friday and Saturday.

Friday I still kept the carbs and calories low, increased my potassium and lowered my sodium just a little bit. I drank about 1.5 gallons of water right up until 6pm.

Saturday I woke up and lost about 4 pounds and my waist was definitely below 28...crazy. I took a couple of photos which can be found on my facebook page. After my first and only coat of Protan it was breakfast time. I ate two glazed donuts, 4 rice cakes with Nutella and a cup of oatmeal. Up until the show I sipped water and sucked on candy from 10am til I went on at 2pm. I had a scoop of NO2 power about 30 minutes before I got on stage and poof, full hard and ripped!!!

Posing was definitely a challenge and I did get a little tired as the show moved on. After two classes and a lunch similar to breakfast I was ready for the night show. My routine went very well and I got a few cheers! Then during the posedown they lined us up and started to announce the winners....I thought for sure I was getting 3rd or 4th...low and behold I won 2nd place! This after a 4 year break from competing!!! I was and am still so excited and I felt that my hard work really paid off.

The post contest binge was amazing for that night and day after and after gaining 20 lbs and losing 15 of them I'm back on a healthy eating plan slowly increasing calories. I can't WAIT to do it all over again.

7 Days aka Peak Week

So here I am...28.5 inch waist, good legs, solid upper body. Definitely top 3 material depending on who shows up (which is about 105 competitors for anyone who cares). This is the week a lot of people try to do various carb up sodium loads and water depletion. Crazy stuff really...then when they don't win they blame that week rather than lack of condition on why they didn't pull it together.

So here I am...dieting hard still until Thursday night and awaiting the response from my coach on what to do. My conditioning is great, I feel good enough and I can't wait for Saturday morning to hopefully come off stage knowing that I've given it my all these last few months and I am a winner.

2 weeks out

Is is sad that my "cheat meal" is a bowl of green beans and/or lettuce??? Yep that's where I'm at. I have given zero thought to food and essentially am sticking to my plan to get to the stage. Although one thing I did change this past couple of weeks was putting more essential fatty acids in my diet. I'm finding that with the extra omega 3s my mood is better and I feel a lot better overall. Combine that with the fact that I hit a new record at 164 lbs and 28.5 inch waist I'll take it!

So everyone in bodybuilding knows about "peak week" it's where most people eat excessive carbs to "recover" from 12 to 24 weeks of severe dieting. I'll probably not have that luxury. There's a good chance that I'll be dieting hard right up until Wednesday or Thursday. I find that I look best in the morning before I eat. Therefore I'll probably have a mild reintroduction to carbs and try to just hold my condition. I'm starting to feel like I can do well though and my conditioning is great.

Thanks coach Ted!