Competition Prep Has Begun (Day 3)
I have been so excited and anxious to start prep and it's finally here! I have been prepping for prep for the past couple weeks or so. The Type A in me has created a spreadsheet for my meals and macros to make sure I am as prepared as I can be and can tell my coach that I am meeting my exact macros so she can adjust them accordingly throughout this process. I woke my fiancé up an hour earlier than he's used to one Day One just to take my "before" pictures - it's a good thing he loves me ;)
To be honest, I have no idea what I'm in for over these next 16 weeks of competition prep. I have no idea what actually competing will be like on the day of. I'm reading blogs by people who have gone through the process and staring at pictures of competitors on Instagram so that I'll know come April if I'll have a chance or not. I don't expect to win; my hope is simply not to embarrass myself on stage by not having the physique for it or tripping in my competition heels.
Here is everything I ate one Day One: protein-packed pancakes, 1 cup of shrimp/avo salad, 1 cup of brown rice, a chocolate protein muffin, a banana, a bowl of puffed kamut with almond milk, a post-workout protein shake, and buffalo chicken stuffed sweet potatoes. I honestly don't know how I will eat this much everyday - it is a lot. But, I trust my coach that the macros she has set for me will work for my goals as long as I do the workouts she has planned.
As I write this, I am sitting on the couch sore from my shoulders to quads, and leg day isn't even until tomorrow. I am impressed by the killer regimen my coach, Melanie, put together for me. It includes 5 days of lifting and cardio, 1 day of just cardio (active rest), and one rest day. Originally, I had planned on today being the active rest day with just cardio. But with tomorrow being leg day, I decided to switch it around with rest day, at least for this week. My body needs to get used to working this hard. While I have no idea if my body will be stage-ready come April, I know I will see vast improvements between now and then. Before I sign off, here are some tools I'll be using during prep. A lot of these came from Santa, AKA my parents, so I owe them a lot of thanks for helping set me up for success: ► Yunmai Premium Smart Scale - reads weight, BMI, body fat (this is the important one!), muscle, water, protein, visceral fat, bone mass, BMR, and what they call "body age"
► Fitmark's meal prep bag The Box
► MyFitnessPal Premium - to track macros
► Hidrate Spark Water Bottle - because yes, I'm one of those people who needs reminders for something as basic as drinking enough water
► FitBit - because exercise only counts if you log it, right? :P
► Meal prep resources like blogs and cookbooks - I need more variety!
►Perfect Portions Digital Nutrition Food Scale - this is the coolest thing ever
If you have any experience with bikini competitions (or figure or anything related!) please shoot me an email with any tips, tricks, or words of wisdom.
-The Girl