There's nothing easy about easing back into "normal" life after a competition. On one hand, it's great. Your energy levels come back, your weight increases in the gym as your strength returns, you are generally a happier person as your low-carb paranoia, confusion, and anxiety fades away, and you can return to eating more than just chicken and vegetables 6 times a day. On the other hand, people expect you to return to "normal" life, or their version of it, and don't understand why you still don't want to down 6 beers in one sitting, go out for a fat-filled meal on any old random night, and most importantly why on earth you are still spending so much time in the gym when "you don't need to anymore".
GOALS PEOPLE, GOALS!!!!!
Ugh okay, so I'm having trouble easing back into the swing of things right now. My workouts post-competition have been absolutely fantastic. Cardio has been cut back, calories have been increased, and I've been able to kill it in just about every workout. Unfortunately, my stomach has not been very happy with the overnight return of certain foods into my diet, especially dairy products :/ Making things worse, I attended a wedding in Prince Edward Island, Canada this past weekend which made sticking to 100% clean, whole foods nearly impossible. Let's just say I need to buy a new pack of little green tummy-calming pills LOL.
While in PEI, I discovered a fantastic gym called Iron Haven. Every morning I got up early while everyone else slept in, ate a delicious breakfast of coffee and oatmeal with a banana and peanut butter whey (all of which I had brought with me) and set off for this lifter's paradise 30 minutes away. No offense to Canadians, Maritimers in particular, but life moves a bit slower north of the border. Having lived there for several years, I think I'm allowed to say that LOL. More specifically, when I say "early", what I mean is that the gym didn't open until 8am and when I left each day around 9:30 there was a max of 3 people in there! Man, if only World's was like that! The gym was 1-level with 3 rooms all containing the typical free weights, cardio equipment, weight machines, and various stretching and stability equipment. It wasn't a new facility by any means, a lot of the equipment looked like it was the 2nd hand stuff that World's sells off to make space for newer, flashier items. However, this appealed to me as it obviously weeded out the tools and yuppies and attracted only those looking for a serious lift, no frills attached.
After starting my day in a healthy way however, my diet continuously went downhill from there. I know I did the best I could given the circumstances but my tummy was just not in a forgiving mood. Each day was a massive food-focused event; a BBQ Friday, wedding meal Saturday, and a massive brunch on Sunday. While I tried to pick and choose the healthiest options, and did tell myself ahead of time that I was allowed two treats this weekend (wine at the wedding and ice cream since my favourite kind happens to come from PEI), my portion sizes were continuously inflated and included many processed items that simply don't sit well with me. I know it was only a few days and whatever damage was done has probably already been reversed but I just feel gross right now and plan to use the rest of this week as a detox. The one lingering problem I am still noticing though, now 10 days post-show, is that every time I have any kind of dairy whether super clean like whey or Greek yogurt, or super dirty like ice cream, my tummy gets tied up in knots! If I'm still having issues at the end of this week I may have to consider going dairy-free for a while. What's a whey-loving girl to do?! :'(
Switching topics for a moment here, I have now been able to get feedback from I think all of the judges at the Yankee. There were two main themes of note 1) tighten glutes and 2) tan was not dark enough. 1) I completely expected this since it was one of my areas of focus over the past few months and I know I still have a ways to go before I am as tight as I want/need to be and 2) WTF?! When you pay $135 for a professional tan done by the industry expert promoted by the event organizers, you should not be getting this kind of feedback. Not to mention, it was the same service I had done for the SOA where I didn't get any color-related comments. Needless to say, I'm very unhappy. I'm not sure what to do for my next show now as I don't have a coach or anyone else who could help me to apply the cheaper options like Pro Tan but I'd hate to show up with my best physique ever, and end up losing out on a 1st place score for something as silly as a coloring issue. Urghhh I wonder if other competitors have gotten the same feedback. I would think that since the majority of us used the same company that if we were all too light then it wouldn't be that noticeable when comparing us against each other. Anyway, I'll stop grumbling. Overall, the feedback was really good and I've kind of been convinced to do one more show this year as the next one could be "the one" ;)
No committing just yet though, I'm still taking the rest of the Summer to relax. Or, at least try my very best to introduce that very foreign term into my vocabulary LOL. I have one more day of PTO before I return back to hell, *ahem*, I mean work on Thursday. It's supposed to be a scorcher so I'm thinking I'll get up, get my leg workout out of the way early and hit the beach for some rays for a few hours. I'll probably bring my note cards with me and design my August workout plan since this is the last week of the July routine. I'm not sure how I'll structure it just yet but you can be sure there will be a lot of dead lifts and squatting going on! Anyway, I'm off to make a yummy salmon dinner here and then take the Mugs for a nice early evening walk. Be sure to visit the recipe tab as I added a delicious treat recipe today that all you gym rats will definitely want to try out! I hope all you loyal readers got in some fun workouts over the past week. Keep killing it!
GOALS PEOPLE, GOALS!!!!!
Ugh okay, so I'm having trouble easing back into the swing of things right now. My workouts post-competition have been absolutely fantastic. Cardio has been cut back, calories have been increased, and I've been able to kill it in just about every workout. Unfortunately, my stomach has not been very happy with the overnight return of certain foods into my diet, especially dairy products :/ Making things worse, I attended a wedding in Prince Edward Island, Canada this past weekend which made sticking to 100% clean, whole foods nearly impossible. Let's just say I need to buy a new pack of little green tummy-calming pills LOL.
While in PEI, I discovered a fantastic gym called Iron Haven. Every morning I got up early while everyone else slept in, ate a delicious breakfast of coffee and oatmeal with a banana and peanut butter whey (all of which I had brought with me) and set off for this lifter's paradise 30 minutes away. No offense to Canadians, Maritimers in particular, but life moves a bit slower north of the border. Having lived there for several years, I think I'm allowed to say that LOL. More specifically, when I say "early", what I mean is that the gym didn't open until 8am and when I left each day around 9:30 there was a max of 3 people in there! Man, if only World's was like that! The gym was 1-level with 3 rooms all containing the typical free weights, cardio equipment, weight machines, and various stretching and stability equipment. It wasn't a new facility by any means, a lot of the equipment looked like it was the 2nd hand stuff that World's sells off to make space for newer, flashier items. However, this appealed to me as it obviously weeded out the tools and yuppies and attracted only those looking for a serious lift, no frills attached.
After starting my day in a healthy way however, my diet continuously went downhill from there. I know I did the best I could given the circumstances but my tummy was just not in a forgiving mood. Each day was a massive food-focused event; a BBQ Friday, wedding meal Saturday, and a massive brunch on Sunday. While I tried to pick and choose the healthiest options, and did tell myself ahead of time that I was allowed two treats this weekend (wine at the wedding and ice cream since my favourite kind happens to come from PEI), my portion sizes were continuously inflated and included many processed items that simply don't sit well with me. I know it was only a few days and whatever damage was done has probably already been reversed but I just feel gross right now and plan to use the rest of this week as a detox. The one lingering problem I am still noticing though, now 10 days post-show, is that every time I have any kind of dairy whether super clean like whey or Greek yogurt, or super dirty like ice cream, my tummy gets tied up in knots! If I'm still having issues at the end of this week I may have to consider going dairy-free for a while. What's a whey-loving girl to do?! :'(
Switching topics for a moment here, I have now been able to get feedback from I think all of the judges at the Yankee. There were two main themes of note 1) tighten glutes and 2) tan was not dark enough. 1) I completely expected this since it was one of my areas of focus over the past few months and I know I still have a ways to go before I am as tight as I want/need to be and 2) WTF?! When you pay $135 for a professional tan done by the industry expert promoted by the event organizers, you should not be getting this kind of feedback. Not to mention, it was the same service I had done for the SOA where I didn't get any color-related comments. Needless to say, I'm very unhappy. I'm not sure what to do for my next show now as I don't have a coach or anyone else who could help me to apply the cheaper options like Pro Tan but I'd hate to show up with my best physique ever, and end up losing out on a 1st place score for something as silly as a coloring issue. Urghhh I wonder if other competitors have gotten the same feedback. I would think that since the majority of us used the same company that if we were all too light then it wouldn't be that noticeable when comparing us against each other. Anyway, I'll stop grumbling. Overall, the feedback was really good and I've kind of been convinced to do one more show this year as the next one could be "the one" ;)
No committing just yet though, I'm still taking the rest of the Summer to relax. Or, at least try my very best to introduce that very foreign term into my vocabulary LOL. I have one more day of PTO before I return back to hell, *ahem*, I mean work on Thursday. It's supposed to be a scorcher so I'm thinking I'll get up, get my leg workout out of the way early and hit the beach for some rays for a few hours. I'll probably bring my note cards with me and design my August workout plan since this is the last week of the July routine. I'm not sure how I'll structure it just yet but you can be sure there will be a lot of dead lifts and squatting going on! Anyway, I'm off to make a yummy salmon dinner here and then take the Mugs for a nice early evening walk. Be sure to visit the recipe tab as I added a delicious treat recipe today that all you gym rats will definitely want to try out! I hope all you loyal readers got in some fun workouts over the past week. Keep killing it!
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