It is unbelievable that an entire month has already gone by. It makes me nervous that this same amount of time only has to pass three more times and I will be walking on stage. When people ask, “When is your show?” and you tell them… they usually say, “Oh that’s so far away!” but in our world – that is just around the corner. It’s true what they say… you aren’t going to lose it over night. The fit pictures you see of people in magazines or advertisements, they are usually at the “peak” of MONTHS of hard work. Some are blessed with the genetics to maintain a degree of leanness that is often admired, but most of us walk through our daily lives looking athletic but certainly not ripped.
When I look in the mirror, I see the changes but I know that I need to change a lot more. Is it weird that when I was heavier I thought, “Well.. I don’t look so bad…” but now that I am dieting for show I feel like I am soooo far from where I need to be! It is all a matter of perspective! This week was the first week where I really started to doubt myself. “Will I really be ready in time? When is all of the cellulite going to come off my butt?” (FYI.. Cellulite is just fat cells dimpling as they swell against the fibrous matrix of tissue in your body. Want to get rid of it… shrink your fat cells… by losing bodyfat!) I heard my own thoughts mirrored in the conversations with Julie as she also had been questioning her progress. The changes we need to make should be slow, healthy, and steady. If they are too fast, we risk losing muscle and we risk overtraining. They should be continuous, though.
Overtraining is something I DO NOT want to go through again. Last year I had so many overuse injuries that it made my final weeks of diet almost impossible and I came in to show too thick… earning an embarassing placement instead of earning a placement to be proud of. I remember being backstage and telling my husband, “Please just give me some type of pep talk right now because I am about to just leave and save myself the embarassment.” I was near tears, I was angry, I was moody. The brand new suit that I had just gotten made didn’t quite look right on me with the extra bodyfat I had and I changed into my friend’s suit last minute which she thankfully let me borrow. I knew that the only thing I could do was rock my t-walk and just bring it, and after my husband’s pep talk – I did just that. It was too late to really prove anything to the judges. They had overlooked me, and what was done was done. All that continues to go through my head is that I NEVER ever want to feel like that again. Lesson learned.
With that being said, week 4 was great. I ended up going over my calories by 50-100 for a few days and I was really really struggling as I doubted myself and my progress. I ended the week by STOMPING my insecurities and tuning my diet to adjust for my minor overages so that I averaged out on track. Last week was also when I started to really feel the effects of diet on my workouts. Drained, weak, tired… sleeping like a rock. Luckily we got to raise our calories by 200. Matt had suggested trying a reverse pyramid diet, so I am spending the first two months of prep experimenting with that concept. It is the idea of starting prep with your lowest amount of calories and gradually adding more as you get leaner and more depleted. Always staying in a weight loss area, but staying energized as you fuel your body for the intense workouts.
The great thing is is that my own beliefs and programming (which I have found align with what Layne Norton teaches!) would put my calories at the same 2000 with the same macronutrient ratios for the next four weeks.. so I will be in a perfectly comfortable place to either go back to the next steps of my program or continue the road of the reverse pyramid diet. I think it will depend on how lean I am. If I am dropping quicker with the extra energy and calories, I will stick with the reverse pyramid. If I am in a place that I have a lot more to lose, I will proceed with carb cycling, which will bring my total average calories back to an average of 1800, but with three to four low days and one high day so that I can tap into some more stored bodyfat but stop my metabolism from slowing down in the response to the low calorie amounts.
On to fun and exciting news – I got my hair done for the Community Living, Inc Charity Ball and I used the occasion as an opportunity to do a trial run of my show hair! Jen Estes, owner of Manestream Studio did an awesome job with my hair but the true test was if my hair would hold the curls.
Show Hair!
I’ll have to get my hair done VERY early in the morning and it will have to last 12 hours before I actually step on stage. The great news is that it looked BEAUTIFUL and I slept on it that night and the next morning it STILL looked fabulous. I pretty much felt like a princess with my dress and fancy hair, especially since I wear gym clothes all day. Buff chicks can dress up pretty too!
Dressed up! Fun!
I just hope no one noticed my biten off finger nails……. ha! 
I don’t know if anyone noticed, but I was also wearing my competition shoes – so it was great practice! Walking in 5 inch heels doesn’t come naturally to anyone.! Furthermore… my grandma gave me a pair of lucky earrings a while back to wear at competitions. They were the same earrings she wore for pageants and they look silly when I have my hair up so I really hoped that my hair would hold so that I could wear the earrings. SUCCESS!! The greatest thing about the evening, besides that they raised so much money for a good cause – was that Laura and I were able to stick to our diets! She talked to the kitchen and got our fish steamed and our veggies steamed, no butter no oil no sauce! She even brought Mrs. Dash for me to borrow! I added a little kick to my coffee by tossing a yummy chocolate hazelnut tea bag into it. Dessert, but not really On top of that, I stayed up until 3AM that night and was able to stick to the plan. I was so worried about faltering but I DID IT! Which leads to my next comment.. here I am kicking booty and my weight didn’t drop this week. In fact, it is reading 4 lbs up (which in reality, is impossible!) but I am just going to keep going!
Thanks for following our blogs!
Nicole Dudas
