Saturday, March 23, 2013

Nobody Can Take My Sparkle Away

Unlike Tierra, no one ever told me as a child that I had a sparkle. At least not athletically anyway. Rather, it seems I am just discovering my sparkle it now. Cheesy Bachelor reference aside, I feel like I've finally found a sport I can thrive at. Way back when I started writing this blog I talked about how I grew up hating sports, accepting that I wasn't remotely athletic, and would find any excuse under the sun to get out of gym class. Well, the problem was never that I wasn't fit enough or didn't have the drive, rather the problem was that no one ever introduced me to a sport I liked until I discovered the gym rat life back in University. I can't believe it but it's been 10 years now since I began to hit the gym on a regular basis and I'm just now about to step foot on stage for my first ever competition. I can't imagine where I'd be now if I had begun my stage training all those years ago! Better late than never though. And so it begins...14 days out!


Double-sessions today. Being Saturday I of course was up bright and early (a little too early I might add; the combination of excitement and caffeine keeping me overly energized these days) and hit up World's for some Stair Master and a shoulders routine. While my mental energy continues to be through the roof, my body needs a break again from the weight training so tomorrow is going to be a weight-free core and light cardio day. My muscles simply would not lift heavy today :/

I've decided I'm not actually a fan of the flavor of the all-natural whey I mentioned in my last post but it does seem to be helpful from the bloating aspect. Every Saturday I check-in with my CSF coach and include my week's food log and pics. I made sure to take my pics the second I got out of bed this morning so that I was completely bloat-free. Here's the latest and greatest:


Yes, that is my stage suit, but I plan to adorn myself with additional sparkle for the big day :P While my coach does not allow any sort of carb-loading or carb-cycling I have found over the past two weeks that after a week of normal carb depletion, doing a carb-load with dinner Friday night makes me wake up with much better muscle fullness. I was looking pretty flat in the gym last night!  I'm thinking this is probably a good plan to stick to since both of my shows are on Saturdays. When it comes down to it, I know my body a lot better than someone who only sees weekly cellphone pics does so if I feel like it's working then I think I should stick with it!

Post-workout I downed my yucky shake and a protein bar (which I'm also not allowed to have but again, it doesn't seem to be hurting me so I give myself one weekly "treat" LOL), did my weekly grocery order, came home for a bit to take care of a couple chores, and then went back to World's to meet a friend and fellow bikini competitor for some posing practice. I'm feeling much more confident with my walk now and I think we are going to try to practice several more times over the next two weeks so I should be an expert by the time show-day arrives! Here's a clip from practice:


There are definitely a few areas I need to improve but I'm certainly not going to point out my flaws on here haha. Felt a little weird trying to hold a smile at a pretend audience with all the passers-by staring in through the doors but oh well, at least there were two of us! I'm finally home again and done with the gym for the day. I'm being a serious procrastinator right now as Mugsy is begging me for a walk but the wind chill is about negative 50 outside...and it's supposedly Spring?! Brrrr

Well anyway, I hope all you gym rats enjoyed today's update and got in a good workout yourself. Remember, everyone has a sparkle so if you haven't found it yet, just keep on searching. Once you do, don't let anyone take it away!

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