Progress and Updates

     Well I'm well underway on my journey. It's been very rewarding and challenging at the same time. My current weight is 133.8. I signed up for the 12 week transformation challenge on bodybuilding.com so in 3 weeks I will be getting professional "after" pictures done with my hair, makeup, tan, and extensions all done and my competition heels that I plan on buying the beginning of May or sooner if my state return comes back. I'm really excited to be dolled up and enjoy my hard work but I know it's not over. My competition is in November so I will still have a ways to go. It has been mostly smooth sailing except for my naughty binge I did. It was Easter weekend and we went out of town. When I was visiting it was all good, I kept up with my workout schedule and diet, but the trip was 9 hours so on the way back I didn't cheat and I got very cranky and moody. Then I got home and binged on reese's peanut butter cups. I emailed my trainer right away and told her so she did damage control and fixed the it. I've also been introduced to Purium products and I do plan on using 2 products in particular, the control meal which is a green meal with a chocolate flavor and Amino Acid Pattern tablets that I will be taking in place of Blox which I ran out of. There are 2 products from Beverly International that I'm interested in as well, the keto-7 and lean out but I'm going to hold out on those until I hit around 125-ish because then I will be within 8-10 pounds of my contest weight and I'm sure I will be presented with a whole new challenge. I like the rate at which I'm losing weight right now, it's not too much and it's not too little. I haven't posted any pics on here yet but when I have my transformation pic taken I will post it and the "before" pic so that you can see a 12 week difference.
     One thing that will be changing is where I work out. I'm currently a member at the Y mainly because I have children and I wanted the convenience of a daycare area, but the more my routines evolve and change the more I'm finding out the limitations of it. I understand the mission statement of the Y and it's not to make it convenient for competitors. At our Y the cardio area is separated from the weight room, other than a few ellipticals in the weight area probably for warm up purposes. And you have to sign up for equipment so it becomes a challenge when you're doing circuits and you're supposed to do treadmill pushes in between weight training circuits. I got lucky and found Fitness Extreme right down the road from me. Here are the pros, however, I'm going tomorrow to take a tour of the facility and a week trial. But I've been emailing back and forth with the owner and this is what I like: he's a former competitor so he knows how crazy contest prep can get, there's 24 hour access so if I need to get up before my husband to get in morning cardio before he goes to work I can and when he gets off work I can get in my weight training. There is an area where kids can wait but it's not a daycare, but it's ok because I have more flexibility as far as hours go b/c of the 24 hour access. The layout is also open so I can move from machine to machine easier. And there's a designated plyo area so that's a major plus. I will post to let you know and post a pic of the new gym.
     So anyway I will post again with some pics. Hope everyone has a great blessed week!

Moms Can Feel Sexy Too!

This post is dedicated to all the moms out there that feel like over the years they have let their bodies and well being take a back seat to providing the best for their children. Letting yourself go because you just didn't have the time between getting the kids up for school or early morning feedings, getting the house straight, work, the list goes on and on. How many times has weight loss or makeover been your New Years Resolution? Well it was mine this year. All I had to do was take the first step. I started out doing P90X in the lean program. I started out weighing 158 lbs @ 5'3 1/2". It wasn't a pretty site and I realized no matter how much I wished and wanted my body to change, it wasn't going to unless I did something about it. I changed up my diet a little but I wasn't getting the results I wanted. I was losing my drive a little and that's when I realized I needed something to motivate me, so I started looking into bikini competitions through the bodybuilding competitions. Then I started searching for an affordable coach, because let me tell ya they can get expensive! Let's just say for now that I found the diamond in the ruff and I'm seeing accelerated results. Now I will write a blog later about the emotional and mental aspect of contest prep but I'm sticking with it and I'm loving the changes in my body.

My point is that moms can be sexy, moms can feel sexy and not be ashamed of it. I'm 30 years old starting this journey and I am starting to feel sexy again which is a great feeling. For a long time I got to the point where I quit wearing makeup and trying to look cute because I didn't like the way my body looked. I took baby steps, I started out doing zumba on the wii in December of 2011 and worked my way up to the zumbathon, even took a few classes at the gym. And then I graduated to P90X and now my coach is kicking my ass in a good way. Every morning when I'm doing my cardio, which is my first workout of the day (I have 2) I display a magazine with Nathalia Melo to motivate me and remind me of why I'm doing it all in the first place. Because if my body can look like that and I can get the look and presentation together I will feel extremely accomplished. It's my big goal for the year. Stick it out you can do anything you put your mind to, link yourself to like minded ppl with the same goal as you and never forget what motivated you in the first place because there will be many times when the diet just seems too tough, workout is too rough, and you just don't want to get up and go to the gym. You're going to need those positive re-enforcements telling you to DO IT!

Manic Monday

Well it's Monday morning and I woke the kiddos up and got them ready, got my food packed and supplements and headed to the gym for morning cardio. I do the same ritual of carrying my magazine with the bikini competitors in front of me and my iPod. Today was treadmill with an incline of 12% and I speed of 3.0. I try to squeeze my glutes every step. My water weight is fluctuating but I don't care, I'm not concentrating on that so much right now. But I'm not stressing yet because my target competition isn't until November. I'm up to a gallon and a half of water a day. I try to picture what my body will look like when I'm ready to compete and it gets me excited all over again.This is my big goal for the year and everything revolves around it, but that's how it is with contest prep. You eat, breath, and sleep thinking about it. I plan on blogging the good, the bad, and the ugly b/c I want to look back at the end of all this and see how much I've grown and be proud of all the hard work I did. This afternoon is plyo and another 30 minutes on the treadmill at a lower incline. Can't wait!

The Beginning of my Journey

I guess my first blog should explore the reasons why I decided to do a bikini competition in the first place. I started this year with the resolution that I would get back my pre pregnancy body. I'm a mother of 3 and with my first 2 children my body bounced back pretty well I'd say. After my first son I got really heavy into weight training and got down to 114 pounds but when my first husband came back from deployment it slowly climbed back to the 120s and it stayed there so I wasn't complaining. With my daughter I wasn't working out and it took a little longer and my weight fluctuated between 128-131ish.

Fast forward to this year. My starting weight was 160-ouch! I had let myself go and my confidence was gone with it. I was stuck in a size 14 jeans and it hurt me emotionally. Sure I'd seen that size before after I had my children but it was short term. My average size was 8 and I missed it terribly. I'd purchased P90X a few years ago and tried to do it twice and quit about 2 weeks into it. But this year was going to be different. I was going to do P90X and finish it. I that was my initial goal.

But a few weeks into it I realized I needed a bigger motivator. And I admired the girls in the bikini division for their hard work, beautiful bodies, and lifestyle. That's what I wanted to do. So that's when it began, looking for trainers. I was still in the middle of my P90X. Yes I felt great and my body was changing but not like the people on the infomercial. I wanted more but I needed a coach. I searched online and through the BB forums looking for someone. I even put in my pictures to start with Team Bombshell but I realized financially I couldn't do that option. Then I got really lucky and found someone 30 minutes away from me, someone who had been there done that with the pro card to back it up. And I reached out to her with a positive response. And so that is where I am now, in week 2 of my 30 week contest prep with the goal being November. So the journey begins.