my first figure competition part 3

Show day

Show day started for me at about 5am.  Having done one coat of tanner before bed (Jan Tana  base) I had to do 1 more coat (Jan Tana competition color).  My hair/Make up lady was coming at 6 am so we needed the tanner to be on and dry enough for me to be clothed and seated.

We applied tanner, when Lindsay showed up to do my hair and makeup, Julie went down to have breakfast. Hair and makeup took a little over an hour to do!  I guess it takes a while to make me pretty J  We were supposed to report to the show by 7:45 but we were told by the show promoter at check in that figure competitors could come later because we wouldn’t go on until after women’s physique and all bodybuilding (and boy he wasn’t kidding). 

After hair/makeup I ate breakfast which was

1 sweet potato pancake See recipe here

1 “schmear” of natural peanut butter (it was about a tablespoon)

1 small apple

5 hardboiled egg whites.

I scarfed this down (carefully to avoid messing up my lipstick, as carefully as you can scarf food!  We packed up everything and headed to the show.  We arrived late.. after 8 for sure. My husband, dad and trainer were there waiting for us.  If you haven’t read my preceding posts, I suppose I should say the show was in a different city so I had just a small group of people there with me.

This is when we began the hardest part, the waiting.  The show was scheduled to start at 9. It didn’t.  In this post I posted a packing list. I mention food.. Lots of food. More food than you think.  Seriously. BRING IT! And tell your supporters to bring some snacks too. Most these shows don’t have any food at all and if anything, they only have some supplement companies/stores selling protein bars or something small. My Dad, husband and trainer at breakfast around 7.. they didn’t eat again until dinner time.  My friend Julie shared a pump up pop tart with me but that wasn’t really a lot of food.

So basically for the next 5 hours I waited… Touched up my tan, tried not to pee on myself. Peeing while in a posing suit it quite an adventure. I suppose I could delve into that experience real quick and give my two cents.  So some of you have heard the punch the bottom out of a Dixie cup in order to direct the stream and spare your tan. Well, I did pee, once..it was much more difficult that you would imagine and although I managed to spare my tan, I think the Dixie cups are more trouble than they are worth.  See, once you put your suit on, you don’t take it off until your done. So you kind of just pull it to the side to pee.  So imagine trying to  pull your suit to the side and hold a Dixie cup in place.. mind you the Dixie cup won’t hold the suit… anyway. In the future, I’ll be using both hands to pull the suit out of the way and forget the whole Dixie cup business.

Finally around 1 pm it was time for figure.  I think I must have been pumping up back stage for 20 minutes at least. They did an intermission that gave me a bit longer time. I didn’t really know what else to do.. at this point I’m just really ready to go on stage.  I should say for those who don’t know me, I’m an introvert. So don’t think you have to be this bubbly, outgoing, extrovert personality to do this sport. Now you do have to fake it a little on stage. Appear confident and comfortable, which I am still working on.  And it would be a total lie if I said I wasn’t terrified a little bit when I walked out on stage. Really most of it was because I knew my conditioning wasn’t what I wanted. I decided to do the show anyway for the experience, but being less than comfortable with the package I brought was really a challenge.

Regardless, here I was, lined up with a group of girls wearing teeny bikini’s and 5” heels.. and I was about to walk out and be judged.  Figure does a series of quarter turns.. so you’re thinking, you go out, turn, turn, turn, turn and you’re done.  Well it’s not quite that simple.  We had the smallest class, 6 girls. I’m not sure exactly how long we were out there but it feels like an eternity. You turn, the judges move people around, you turn some more.  Your cheeks are shaking.. honestly most of you shakes. I’m proud to say mine was due to nerves as I had been practicing posing a lot. (However my stage shots show I had pulled my shoulders forward so I was a bit disappointed that my posing wasn’t on)

I entered 2 classes, novice and open. You do the same process in each. Then you do a T-walk (I was competing NANBF).  I was so so nervous during my Twalk.  It’s just you out there, ALL ALONE. I’m not sure if I looked nervous but I shook like a leaf the whole time.

At the end of the day I walked away without any hardware. I walked away with experience that I will take with me in future shows. Yes, there will be future shows. Next prep begins in about 3 weeks.  I’m excited to do this all over again and hope to bring a leaner package next show.  

Weight loss and Nutrition

Probably one of the most common questions I get is, "What do you eat?" (or "What should I eat to lose weight?")  Well the answer is actually really simple, I eat everything, in moderation. Truth is I didn't have my nutrition totally figured out during the majority of my weight loss.  I was keeping myself at a deficit (if I was diligent about tracking my food). So I lost weight.  However when I found IIFYM (If it fits your macros aka flexible dieting) I had much better success and the results came a lot quicker.  Because I was eating a deficit but also a balanced diet.  I personally have a HUGE sweet tooth so I do treat myself to the occasional "bad" treat. But it's all good if it's done in moderation.  If you're eating on plan 90-95% of the time 1 candy isn't going to set you back.

Anyway, I thought I would do a few posts on nutrition and how to lose weight while still eating normal food.  That being said, I don't eat out often. Mainly because I follow my macros strictly (It's really necessary when trying to get stage ready lean) and I need to know EXACTLY what I am putting in my body.  I do have the occasional meal out but I keep it to a minimum right now.

So my husband did a big costco run this weekend and I took some pictures of the fridge, freezer, pantry and fruit/veggie bowls so I could kind of summarize the "staple" items I always have.
I do not eat the exact same thing day to day.  If you follow me on  www.myfitnesspal.com (user name JenniBeanxo ) you'll see that.  All my meals are pretty similar day to day, but rarely exactly the same.  But I do have basic foods you'll always see (chicken, egg whites, green beans/broccoli etc)

So.. let's go to the pictures shall we?

Ok so it's all pretty normal stuff. Fruits (I limit to 1 a day or less), veggies (sweet potato, white potato, celery, asparagus, bell peppers etc), egg white, eggs, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, almond milk, lean meats (chicken, turkey, lean ground beef), natural nut butters .. Not pictured, whole wheat bread, wheat pasta. Which are also added in very sparingly right now.

Of course there are 3 other people that live in my house (note the toddler photo bomb in the last pic). So there are things in there that I don't eat. Also I'm trying to get incredibly lean for a show so for an overall healthy and fit physique you could still be a little more flexible than I am right now. 

7 weeks out and Diet info

Hello everyone!

It's been a while.. where does the time go??  I've been super busy working and hitting the gym. We've been doing a lot of decision making.  So I posted about a month back that we decided to delay our original "debut" show date.  We hoped the extra time would help with my conditioning (leaning out for the stage)  It's still been REALLY slow coming on the fat loss and progress.  We have been carb cycling but I still haven't had much success.  This week we are starting a keto diet. Half way through Day 1.. I'm not as hungry as I thought I'd be. However, my meals have been pretty interesting. Switching from high protein to high fat has really been difficult.  I think I'm getting a better handle on it. I even found some flax meal muffin and pizza crust recipes I'm going to try out. (will post them if they are edible!) :)

So, I wanted to post a little bit more about my diet. Now keep in mind if you're not cutting for a show you probably don't have to be SO strict but I've had a lot of people comment on how lean I'm getting and ask me what I've been doing.  So carb cycling. The last several weeks we have been carb cycling. I started with 6 low and 1 high day, and we moved to 3 low days, 1 high, 2 low, 1 high rotation. I prepare 99% of my own food. Even on my high carb days I rarely went out to eat because you really can't be sure what you're getting. I think I had some decent progress doing carb cycling. I count all carbs (even veggies) I guess a lot of people don't.. I'm not sure if it would have been more effective to get more starchy carbs and feed my metabolism that way?? BUT...

We are getting into super crunch time here and my legs especially have a way to go. We are going Keto.  I also started tracking my macros and water more diligently with my weight fluctuations so we can track changes more effectively.  This whole process is a lot of trial and error. There is no right or wrong way to do this.. ok, there are probably a LOT of wrong ways, but different things work for different people. This is the first time we are doing this so it going to be a HUGE learning experience. I've already learned a lot and we still have so far to go.  I'm going to post below a few examples of what I ate on different low and high carb days.  You can follow me on myfitnesspal (Username: Jennibeanxo ) to see what I'm eating everyday.  (but please don't follow it blindly, it's based on my height, weight, goals and activity level)  I've also started to track ALL my cardio with my Polar watch too. Because those machines and even the myfitnesspal estimates are not accurate to each individual.

Low carb day 

High carb day:

Just a note.. I kept my fats relatively low and protein high. This isn't typically how carb cycling works. Protein stays consistent and fats and carbs cycle (one high, the other low). This might be why I didn't see the results I hoped for. I think when I try again in the future I'll have a better handle on the process. It's all a lot of trial and error. The key is to stick with it and continue to make adjustments. 

What I ate today. High carb day.

Hello there fitfam. So a little update. I've been hard at work (at my job and the gym) things are progressing slowly. I am carb cycling currently. Today is a refeed/high carb day so here's what I ate. 

Meal 1 

I made baked French toast with 1 egg, 2 egg whites and the wheat bread. 

Meal 2

Meal 3

Ok. I got a little hungry and forgot to take a picture. But this meal is pretty self explanatory. :) 

Meal 4 

 

I think I've posted the truffle recipe on my Instagram.. I intend to post more recipes here for easier access. If you want to

See this one (or any others) comment below and I'll add it to my list. 

Meal 5 

Meal 6 

And meal 7 (the Casein logged in with meal 6.. My fitness pal only has 6 meals) 

Casein pudding. 

To recap, I eat every 2-3 hours. The casein pudding I ate right before bed. I'm also putting my daily totals below so you can see how it all adds up at the end of the day.  I'm wrapping up my super busy time at work so I plan on posting a lot more often. If you have questions or things you'd like to see. Leave me a comment.