Trish's 2011 comp prep, week 16- Let the countdown begin!!!

Starting weight: 113 lbs, Current weight 104.7 lbs

Well, let the countdown formally begin!  As of tomorrow, I will be 1 week out from contest.  For so long it feels like contest day will never come and then all of a sudden, it's here!  I went yesterday and bought all of my contest day odd and ends- dry shampoo, super dark makeup, travel sized toiletries, etc...  Just shopping for that stuff made me so excited, knowing that I'm getting so close to stage time! 

Feeling so enthusiastic yesterday reminds me of how emotional of a time this is for all competitors- seasoned or novice.  We all have our ups and downs during contest prep and it's a real test of someone's emotional strength and ultimately their willpower.  I've definitely had my share of mixed feelings this season.  I've had really bad weeks, like last week, and then I'll have a great week, like this week.  But it is an awesome feeling knowing that I've stuck to my diet 100%, given my workouts and cardio 100%, and have been able to stay married through it all! It's a tricky time because my hormones are going crazy (not in a good way either!) and the physical changes occur so slowly that it often feels like a plateau.  I just keep trying to remind myself that is was the tortoise who won the race, not the rabbit.

It's important to remember that in this type of dieting it's not about fitting into a certain size jeans anymore, it's way beyond that.  It's hard core now!  The workouts and strict diet are about sculpting and refining my physique, carving out every muscle, and losing only fat while retaining every ounce of muscle possible.  That's what it's all about...taking my body to that next level that so few people will ever be able to reach!  That in itself is an awesome accomplishment! I've gotta pat myself on the back sometimes too, right?

So far this season, I've gotten some great feedback on my blogs and competition prep from various people (you all know who you are) and I'm really thankful for all of it.  I may train competitors for a living, but even I need some encouragement and reinforcement every now and then!   In fact, one of the other trainers I work with (who is also a competitor) and I were chatting about how easy it is to focus on our clients' goals and often push our own needs to the side, squeezing in that client's workout or training session.  All I know is that judge on the panel sure isn't gonna care that I was too busy to practice myr posing or get my personal workouts in!

So, this week I start my peak week.  I think my hubby's got a great plan laid out for me, but we'll see how it all turns out next week.  Mike's never done me wrong in that department, so I'll roll with his insight and I'm sure it will turn out for the best. We did a trial run this week and it worked pretty good so I should be ready for the stage May 7th! 

Trish's 2011 comp prep, week 15- Do you see what I see?

Starting weight: 113 lbs, Current weight: 105.6

So this week the scale moved but my body fat stayed the same...frustrating!  I feel good some days and other days I just feel like crap.  I wish that my mind would quit messing with my competition prep already!  I didn't even want to work out on Sunday.  Mike actually forced me to go to the gym, telling me that I'd feel better once I was there.  He was right, again.  I felt great once I started the workout and ended up lifting heavier than I have in a while.  I don't think I'm over-trained or anything, I think my head is just messed up right now.  Mike kindly pointed out to me today that I do this before every competition- about 2 weeks prior.  I start psyching myself out and saying stuff like: I'm not ready, not conditioned enough, not lean enough, etc.  Some days I wish I could just snap out of it and get some freaking self-confidence!

I know that many people go through this stage in dieting.  Some people are in it longer than others.  I guess that I would call it the competition jitters.  It's a combination of excitement about getting on stage again and nervousness about what the judges will think about my physique changes over the past year.  I know that my body changes every year and hopefully this year it's for the better.  I have put on more size, but I'm also leaner than last year, which should be a good thing. I really want to stand out from the other competitors but once I step on that stage it's all up to the judges.  And Lord knows they have their own opinions and visions of what they want. All I can hope for is that I have what they envisioned...

With the past couple of weeks being pretty tough on me mentally, I'm in serious need of an attitude adjustment.  So this next week, my goals are the following:
*to stay positive and not get down on myself
*to keep myself on track with my workouts and diet
*to get plenty of sleep and rest my body (because it will really help with the grumpiness)
*to not put so much pressure myself to place high and just enjoy the sport that IS figure competition!
*condition, condition, condition!

Two weeks until contest......let the countdown begin.

Trish's 2011 comp prep, week 14- Note to self: you don't suck!

Starting weight- 113 lbs, Current weight- 106.7 again...


This week I was really anxious about my weigh-in. I wasn’t worried about the actual weight number on the scale but the body fat and water weight info. It was one of those mornings where I woke up bloated and had a stomach ache to go along with it. On Saturday (after my terrible weigh-in Friday) my hubby changed my diet. This was actually the first change we’ve made a change in my 13 weeks of dieting! Mike always says “If it’s working, don’t change it!” So for my first diet change of the season, he increased my carbs by about 15%, kept my calories the same, and just adjusted my ratios. He also took out my high carb day (which I must say that I was not happy about) but my cardio remained unchanged.

Although my weight stayed the same this week, I did see some downward movement in my body fat. At least that tells me my body is responding favorably to the adjustments he made. I get so nervous about making changes close to contest (only 3 weeks left!) but that’s where the whole trust factor comes in. You’ve got to trust your trainer 100%!!! In this case my trainer also happens to be my husband, but the trust does need to be there even if you’re not actually married to them…

I find that right about this time on my competition dieting I tend to start the self-sabotaging. I starting thinking things like “Am I ready? How will I compare to the other girls? Should I be doing more cardio? Why won’t that little bit of fat under my butt go away?” You know, stuff like that. I imagine that pretty much everyone does it regardless of how good of shape they’re in. I’m an optimistic person in general, but I do tend to criticize myself- especially when it comes to my body/outward appearance. I’ve struggled with weight my entire adult life and I know how easy it is for my body to get off track if I let it. But I’m learning that while I can’t control many things in life, I can control what I choose to eat, how intensely I spin on the bike, and how I treat my loved ones while I’m in this dieting phase.

I was talking to a friend at the gym yesterday (she’s also competing this year) and she was telling me about how she’s been trying to date & diet at the same time. That just has disaster written all over it! It’s hard enough for a competitor to have much of a social life let alone trying to go on “a date” with someone. Bringing your own food to Mikuni’s would really suck…but it’s the lifestyle we choose when we get into this sport. The idea of belonging on that stage outweighs all the buffets, candy, Girl Scout cookies, and yes even alcohol one can handle. What may seem crazy to the “average” person is the norm for us…but it’s all for the love of the sport!

Trish's 2011 comp prep, week 13- Dear body, I'm listening...

Starting weight: 113 lbs, Current weight: 106.7 lbs

My weigh-in was awful. I’m convinced that the body fat machine is wrong….it has to be! I haven’t strayed from my competition diet at all, my workouts are as intense as ever, and my cardio is on point. So, I know that it’s got to be either that freaking machine is wrong or my body is asking for something different. I’m hoping what it needs is more food…

It’s funny because I woke up feeling yucky. I don’t know if you’ve ever just kind of woken up and felt different? When you train like I do, you become very in-tune with what your body’s doing and how it’s functioning. I can feel if I’m holding water, I can see if I’m looking a little stringy, and sometimes I will wake up feeling like I’m going to have a “bad body day”. I always make sure to weigh myself at the same time and day every week. It’s always before I eat or drink anything- I want it as close to the true numbers as possible. I know, I know, the number on the scale game is a bunch a crap, but it’s a necessary evil in this sport. It keeps me on track and focused knowing that I have to get on that scale every week- I think it’s become more mental than anything. The problem is that the weigh-ins can sometime make for a really bad day, but this week I was able to pretty much just brush it off. After I took my progress picture, I actually felt a lot better (I also take a picture every week on my weigh-in day).

But these past two weeks have been challenging for me. I’ve been fighting this cold which has now turned into an allergy thing. I have to do “open mouth” cardio because I can’t breathe through my nose and that makes for some tough sessions. I’m in the home stretch for my leaning out phase and the weeks seem to be picking up speed. The closer the contest gets, the faster time flies by! These next four weeks my focus needs to shift over to conditioning and posing. I’ve got to hard up my muscles and get those poses imbedded in my brain so they’re second nature. Like my client, Linda, said this morning, “There’s always room for improvement. Whether it’s physical or mental, there’s always something we need to work on.”

Trish's 2011 comp prep, week 12- Does anyone have a tissue?

Beginning weight: 113 lbs,  Current weight: 107.4 lbs (WTF?)


Yep, you looked at that weight correctly…I’ve given up on thinking I’m going on stage at 100 lbs. In fact, I’ve gotten to where I really don’t even care how much I’ll weigh at contest. The only thing I do care about is that my body fat went down and I’m getting leaner! That's a huge step for me as a bodybuilder- not caring about how much I weigh. In fact, I'm only getting on the scale once a week because I want to make sure my body fat is going down and that I'm not losing any of my hard-earned muscle. Other than that, I don't really care about "the number" anymore. Honestly, that's like a monumental breakthrough! I've always focused too much on my weight (as most women do) instead of relying on my eyes to tell me how I'm doing on my diet.

Truth be told, I wasn’t even expecting to lose anything this week since I’ve got this freaking head cold. Seriously though, training and dieting are hard enough when you’re feeling good but when you’re under the weather it becomes a true testament to how bad you want something. In the past, I would have curled up with some ice cream to make my sore throat feel better, some greasy french fries to make my stomach feel better, or fast food of any kind just so I didn’t have to cook. Now I'm so much different. First of all, I very rarely get sick and even when I do get “sick” it’s never really that bad. I usually just the head cold type stuff, like what I have now. You know where you blow your nose for 5 minutes at time and repeat every 30 minutes or so? Normally I can just take some Nyquil at night and some cold medicine during the day and it’s all good. Those days of feeling sorry for myself & making excuses are finally behind me! Now, I eat even if I’m not hungry and force myself to cook whether I feel like it or not. It’s all part of the program and the life of a competitor.

I've always heard that it's the tough times that make you stronger and I've become a firm believer in that. In fact my husband has a great little saying, "If everything was easy, there'd be nothing worth earning." I've had my fair share of weight loss issues and I feel like I am finally coming to terms with my "self". I've accepted that I'm not a "skinny girl" and never will be. In fact, I don't want to be! I actually get insulted when people tell me how skinny I'm getting. I often think to myself "If they could only see what's under this jacket & pants!!!" Well, now they can...May 7th, 2011 baby!

Trish's 2011 comp prep, week 11- I need a tan!

Beginning weight: 113 lbs, Current weight: 106 lbs


Every time I take a photo for these blogs I say something to the effect of “Man, I need a tan!” I think its amazing how different muscles (and fat for that matter) look when you have some color. My husband always says that "tanned fat looks better than pale fat!" I remember the good ole days where I’d lay out at the pool for hours on end to get that gorgeous golden brown color. I just lay there, read my fitness magazines, and cook myself, but those days are no longer. Ironically enough, I stopped going tanning when I started to compete in bodybuilding 4 years ago. I always look forward to the super dark stage color because that’s when I really can see all the cuts and know that the hard work has paid off. It’s always fun to plan a trip to Wal-Mart or somewhere public right after I get my color put on, the night before a contest. The looks I get from people are priceless! I’m sure one day I’ll end up on “The people of Wal-Mart” website...

This is the best stage of the competition dieting I think. It’s the time when I really start to see what “the finished product” is going to look like. I actually think I’ll end up heavier this year than last which is okay considering that I’m leaner now than I was at my competitions last year. In fact, my hubby and I think that I could be in better shape now than I was in 2009…but it’s too hard for me to tell without the color on.

It has actually been a rather uneventful week for me. I’m sleeping a lot better, now that my husband’s not snoring, and I don’t feel like a raving lunatic anymore. In fact, now I’m feeling pretty good. I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and now it’s time to start my posing conditioning. It’s crazy because I’ll arrange for all my clients/competitors to get plenty of posing conditioning and I help them with their individual poses, but when it comes to my own conditioning I tend to procrastinate. Thankfully, the NPC doesn’t tend to leave us up on stage very long (not nearly as long as the natural divisions), but I still have to make sure to hit those poses flawlessly! So posing practice starts for me this week- no excuses.

This is also about the time I start making all of my arrangements and checking that I have all of my necessary competition supplies- at least the stuff I may have to order online.

Here’s the checklist that I’ve started:

Suit alterations- I have a local gal I use just in case…
Affiliation card- for NPC, IFPA (NANBF), etc.- depending on the organization. It’s better than doing it the morning of the show and being stressed about it.
Hotel- for the show if it’s out of town
Heels- clean them up make sure they’re in good shape
Tanning- arrange for the night before the show (this year I’m doing my own)
Waxing- the week of the show
Hair appointment- the week of the show
Dream tan- the morning of the show (it fixes smudges & gives my tan some shimmer on stage)
Bikini Bite- no wedgies on this chick!

Just talking about this stuff gets me so excited…I have the competition bug for sure!

Trish's 2011 comp prep, week 10- Say hello to my little friends!

This has been an interesting competition prep season for me. Last season I lost so much weight during my prep (about 25 lbs) that I got really used to seeing the scale move every week. It was an expectation because of how much I needed to lose. But this season, since I didn't gain as much weight off season, I haven't really seen see the scale move at all! It's a real mind trip to look in the mirror & see new veins and muscles popping out but then I step on the scale and....nothing. Thankfully, the scale at our gym does measure the weight of your body fat, water, and muscle, so I can see some sort of progress (losing tiny bits of fat or water). But for those of you who don't have that nifty machine I definitely feel for ya. It really can be frustrating to work so hard and not see that dreaded number go down.


I've talked about how pictures can do a world of good in tracking your progress but taking the time to pose & look at yourself in the mirror is another good way to see progression. I haven't even had the time to take my own pictures these last 2 weeks, but you bet I have time to pose in the mirror! It was during one of those moments that I flexed my bicep & saw a bundle of new veins in my shoulder that I didn't have last year! Seeing my new “little friends” made me really excited (I even had to show my husband) and motivated me to push through this week’s workouts and diet with a vengeance! It may seem trivial to anyone else, but to a dieting competitor it’s like an instant high. Knowing that your hard work is paying off works wonders for your mental state and your motivation.

I know that I must be getting as lean, or am leaner, than I was at contest last year. I tried on a pair of jeans that I never was able to wear because they were too tight and they fit! I noticed that I’m also more vascular throughout the day, not just during my workouts. Now, since my weight’s not really changing, but my body is, I can only hope that I’m preserving muscle and only losing fat (which has been my intention all along). Now, if I can just get that last bit off of my thighs and butt I’ll be stage ready!