Almost There!

Since I've been wide awake in the wee hours of the morning the last few nights, I thought this would be the perfect time to do what might be my last "pre-show" post! I can't promise that this will be coherent . . .

The last few days have flown right on by! This weekend I was dragging A LOT and felt like I could collapse at any given moment. I think I could pretty much fall asleep anywhere! I actually started to fall asleep in the middle of the kitchen waiting for the oven timer to go off on Sunday night! I also reached a new all time low when I saw an empty Skittles wrapper on the ground outside of Target and for a split second considered picking it up and licking it out just to get a tiny taste of candy - don't worry, I resisted this enormous temptation :)

Despite being exhausted, I have not been able to sleep more than 2 hours straight since Saturday night. Basically, I fall asleep at 9ish, wake up again between 10:30-11, get up, back to sleep until midnight - 1ish and then up again! Monday morning I just got up at 1:30 and never went back to sleep. Here it is 1:39am and I'm wide awake! I will probably read a few chapters of my book and then fall back asleep until cardio time (3:15am!) I go back and forth between being exhausted and feeling completely wired like I've had tons of coffee. The really funny thing is that I only had one small cup of coffee yesterday and one thermogenic for the caffeine which is nothing compared to my normal caffeine intake! I will probably just do without today in hopes that I can get a normal amount of sleep.

Thursday will be pretty crazy - I have a few little errands to run in the morning, will probably get in one last shorter cardio session, packing and then heading over to Bellevue to check into the hotel near the event. I am planning on doing early registration on Thursday night - one last thing to worry about Friday morning and then we also have a walk thru to get a chance to experience being on stage in our snazzy Barbie heels! I will get the first coat of my tan sprayed on Thursday night also!

Friday morning will be crazy again - up early for another coat of tan and then off to hair/make-up at 7am. Luckily I will have a little down time before the competitor meeting and then stage time!

I will be sure to post lots of pictures along with a full update! The picture above is from me during my mini posing practice on Tuesday night at Golds. Gotta love the little ankle socks :)

Zombie Mode

Wow, I can't believe that in a week I will be resting at home, taking a break from working out, and snacking away! Only 4 more days until go time!

The last week has been pretty interesting. Everyday I think to myself "is it possible to be any more tired??" and then the next day I realize that it IS definitely possible! The human body truly is an amazing thing! I have been amazed each and every day that I have made it through two workouts a day without taking any shortcuts. I'm pretty much delirious by the time I get to round 2 of cardio. The good thing is that I get to start cutting back on cardio starting tomorrow night (hopefully!) It is now a day by day process depending on how I'm looking each day. And yes, I'm seeing changes EVERY single day now!

So what have I learned this week?

It is possible to drink 2.5 gallons of water/day more than two days in a row without drowning or wetting my pants
Peanut butter might be the most amazing food in the world
It's hard to workout without chewing gum (yes that's right, I had to cut out gum)
Old men at the gym make amazing cheerleaders (luckily they don't wear cheer outfits!)
It is possible to drink a buttload of coffee and immediately take a nap
I hate tilapia - unfortunately I have to eat it at least once a day
Cardio without an iPod is an enlightening experience - I had to do without one day this week and it wasn't soooo horrible, kind of a nice change for a day
Dairy Queen commercials are evil

One more load of laundry to do, packing my food for tomorrow and then I'm going to plop myself down on the couch for awhile!

Beast Mode

Only 12 days left to go which officially puts me in beast mode! Or maybe Grumposaur mode :) I found this t-shirt last weekend when I was running errands and just couldn't resist since I feel like that quite a bit these days! The best part is that I can wear it under a sweatshirt and no one knows that I have my funny grumposuar shirt on and it makes me happy! 

Last night I realized that I only have 24 more hours of cardio to go before I step on stage. That's an entire day of cardio - holy cow!!! My diet was modified yesterday but its not too horrible  . . .. yet. It will change on Friday though and I have a feeling that I will be suffering a little more! I came up with a great idea for one of my meals which is basically 4 oz of lean ground turkey and veggies. I decided to get creative and stuff green peppers with seasoned lean ground turkey (chili powder, etc.) along with some onions and chunks of zucchini.  Yummy!! I haven't come up with anything super creative for my meal involving tilapia but I'm going to experiment with different seasonings to make it more bearable. 

Time for me to do some major food prep and then head over to my parent's house where my dear mother has  a dark chocolate bunny waiting for me. I'm really looking forward to staring at it for 12 days and then biting into those big yummy ears!

Happy Easter!

Less Than Two Weeks!

Holy smokes time has been flying by! Although there have definitely been some days that haven't gone by so quickly . . .

The last three weeks have been filled with ups and downs . .good days and bad days. Mostly I'm just tired, cranky and hungry! It's amazing how quickly it hit me! My diet hasn't drastically changed (you don't even know how grateful I am for this!) but I'm now up to two hours of cardio a day. Saturday was my first two hour cardio day and it was amazing how much that extra 15 minutes kicked my butt! I pushed myself extra hard during round two on Sunday since it was my one day out of the weight room - that paid off on Monday because I felt WAY better during round two of cardio.

Today was the first day that I have not felt just down right awful over the last few weeks - I powered my way through a leg workout after work and then hopped on the eliptical. I'm not sure what made me feel so darn good today compared to the last few days but I'm hoping for another good day tomorrow . . .and the next . .a nd the next . . .and well, you get the point!

The rest of this week will be pretty much the same as last week with measurements on Saturday morning. I'm hoping to not have to make many drastic changes going into the last two weeks but I know that the final week will be pretty interesting! I'm going to try to get as much rest as possible and enjoy what little carbs I have left :)

Four Weeks Ain't Nothing!

It is officially four weeks until show time! At this time in exactly four weeks I will probably be dragging myself out of bed to hopefully nibble something and then head to my hair and make-up appointment.

While I'm still extremely tired 99.99% of the time, I have managed to push myself this week. I haven't missed a single workout or meal. And I don't think I've been too grumpy - or at least didn't show it :) Instead of focusing on how tired I am, here is a list of things that I accomplished this week:

• All workouts done - didn't even quit a single cardio session early when my legs felt like lead and I was shaking (kind of crazy how much I start shaking about 20 minutes into round 2 of cardio!)
• Ignored my extreme cravings for a GIANT bowl of oatmeal with a sliced banana, strawberries and slivered almonds. Who craves that??? Apparently I do!
• Didn't have a single breakdown involving crying, screaming, etc :)
• Discovered Strawberry Energy Crystal Light - I'm trying to limit my fake sugar intake but I desperately needed something yesterday and this did the trick!
• Survived the week without the use of thermogenics to boost my energy - while I am allowed to use these and have an emergency stash in my purse I'm trying not to because the crash can be pretty bad. 
• Managed to sneak in one little 15 minute nap this week - hoping for many more of these this weekend!

Time to head off to work and focus on surviving another week of contest prep!

Five Week Blues

Friday was officially the "five weeks until show time" day. I was warned long ago that the last few weeks are the toughest . . .some say it starts sucking at 12 weeks out, others might say only the last two weeks really suck. I think it all depends on how long and hard one has been dieting and working out. Considering I started my prep a long ways out and have stuck to my workout and diet plan 99.99999% of the time (the only exception was when I was sick and couldn't get out of bed!), I haven't suffered much.

Okay now I'm suffering. I was pretty tired on Friday morning and for the first morning just flat out wanted nothing to do with the treadmill when my alarm went off. I dragged myself down to the basement and got my hour done. It wasn't easy and I was still having a hard time moving to get myself ready for work. I ended up stopping at 7-11 on my way to work and getting a Redline to make it through the day - basically full of caffeine and other energizing garbage minus the calories. Normally I wouldn't have one but it was either that or be completely miserable and dysfunctional the entire day.

I realize that I am the one that decided to do this competition. No one else is forcing me to workout or diet. It's MY choice and MY choice alone so I don't think I should be making others suffer by listening to me whimper and whine about  how miserable I feel now. So I kept my whimpering to myself all day on Friday but since this is my blog I can whine away in here :)

Although there are times in my life that I was miserable and felt like I wanted to die when I had the flu or some other illness, this is a completely different kind of misery. I literally feel like I want to curl up and just sleep all the time. I feel like I'm moving in slow motion most of the time. I don't think I have ever actually been so tired I wanted to cry. I almost lost it during round 2 of cardio yesterday because I was just so tired. And I'm grumpy. Oh so grumpy!

I have to admit that I thought about just quitting at least 5 times this weekend because I have no idea how I can deal with feeling like this for another 5 weeks. I'm not a quitter so I'm just sucking it up and doing what I need to do. Five weeks will fly by (hopefully!) with some good days and some not so good days but I will feel  amazing at the end knowing that I did it.

Time for round two of cardio, finishing up some laundry and then a well deserved nap!

Abtastic

Wow, I've been slacking on my posts but I've been a busy bee! And yes I'm still sticking to my diet and workout plan religiously. Between posing practices and all the other things going on right now, I feel like the days are just flying by and I will be on stage before I know it!

Before I go into the explanation for the title of this post, I will just make it clear those are NOT my abs in case anyone was wondering :) Someday maybe . . . .I have always wanted a six pack (abs, not beer, had plenty of those in my college days . . and twenties . . ) Anyone else ever heard the saying "abs are made in the kitchen"? I must say I completely agree with this! After weeks of dieting and avoiding some of my favorites cheats (dark chocolate and pizza!) I am starting to construct a six pack. The first time Andy said "Woah, check out that six pack!" I asked him what he was talking about because I didn't see any beer around! I also happened to be standing in weird lighting in our basement which created the perfect shadow effect on my abs. Then when my coach pointed them out and called another girl in and said "Hey, check our her abs! I actually kind of hate her right now", I knew I was on my way to achieving my dream of a solid, washboard stomach. 

The funny thing is that I still don't see what everyone else is seeing. Probably because I see my abs all the time so I don't notice the change as much. And no, I don't check them out after doing a set of crunches like many guys in the gym who think they will magically appear after one set of crunches! I am excited to see what will happen over the next 9.5 weeks! 

I am upping my cardio this week and we made some small tweaks in my diet so hopefully I will start to see the changes for myself. Luckily my weekly measurements have been going well - body fat % has gone down every week for the last three weeks. Maybe not quite as much as I hoped but I know I need to be patient and keep doing what I'm doing. 

I better finish my weekly food prep before I get ready for another round of posing in my fancy plastic hooker heels!