At the beginning of my prep this time I am starting out with 45min of cardio 6 days a week- 2 days HIIT. My current split is:

Monday- Shoulders/abs

Tues- Legs

Wednesday- Chest and arms

Thurs- Back and light shoulders

Friday-Yoga

Sat-off

Sunday-Yoga and hamstrings/calves

My calories are up around 1800 with 2 days low carb and 1 day higher carb.  I have black eyed peas in the new program this time around.  I never ate beans in a pre contest prep before so it should be interesting   Love new foods.

This weekend is going to be pretty relaxing.  I am home…surprise! lol

I just got back from Tampa this week for a shoot with MetRx for the 2012 ad campaign.  I had to climb rope and do yoga poses.  The photos turned out awesome.  This week I am leaving on Wednesday to shoot with Bodybuilding.com and to go to their Xmas party.  I’ll be there until Saturday afternoon. Then the following week is Christmas!! It is so crazy that it is almost here!

Anyway, I hope you are all having a great day and are ready for the weekend. 

Oh! BTW, if you haven’t checked it out yet, go to www.fitnessmag.com and follow my Fit Life series each week!  And my new Motivational Calendar is now in the store on my site.

Until next time!

I just got back from Culver City last night where I competed in the Tornament of Champions in Figure and won!! My 7th pro win!

Now I am gearing up for the Olympia and hoping to get that title back. 

Today I am staying at Kim Oddo’s house until Wednesday when we drive to Vegas instead of me flying all the way back to detroit and then back again the next day to come out west.  I got up at 4:30, walked up hill with Amy for an hour and then came to the gym, answered emails, trained back and rear delts, did another 30min session of cardio on the stepmill and now I am just getting ready to go back home.  I had 70+ emails to respond to from the weekend alone.  CRAZY but it feels great to be caught up now.

I got a new IPAD!It is awesome so I’ve been playing around with that all day too.  I am going to download a few movies for the trip to India next week.

I have attached some photos from this weekends show.  My critique is to come in about a lb or two leaner and leave everything else the same.  I have a new suit that I am totally stoked about.  I can’t wait to wear it onstage!

Hope you are all having a great week!  Off to eat my 5th meal of tilapia of the day :p

Download PDF

Today was a busy day!  Got up, did 30min cardio, wrote out 37 DVDs, went to yoga, finished more cardio, went tanning, GNC, got a dress for the Olympia, post office to mail some of my suitcases out west since I will be there for 2.5wks, got my nails done, got mystic tan since I am doing a shoot this weekend, wrote out 11 client updates, updated my playlist on my ipod and cooked some salmon.  WHEW!  So much for my day off…. lol

Tomorrow I am shooting with my friend Dan Lippitt for a 2012 calendar!  It is going to b so much fun!Combo between training, swimsuit, fashion etc and ea page will have an inspirational quote.  I will hopefully be finished in the next 2 mo!

I also got a message from Maggie that my suit was shipped out today!!! That means I will get it Monday.  She used 4200 crystals on it.  The most ever!  I can’t wa it to wear it.

Tomorrow morning I will take progress photos and post them. 

I hope you all have a great night!

1. 5 minutes of light jogging – Followed by

2. 2 minutes of fast running – Followed by

3. 1 minutes of light jogging – Followed by

4. 2 minutes of fast running – Followed by

5. 1 minutes of light jogging – Followed by

6. 2 minute of full sprinting – Followed by

7. 1 minute of light jogging – Followed by

8. 2 minute of full sprinting – Followed by

9. 5 m inute light jog and walking, finishing in only 22 minutes.

WORKOUT 3:
On Stepmill:

5min at level 5
1min level 10
1min level 6
repeat 5 times
1min level 15
1min level 7
repeat 5 times
5min at level 5

WORKOUT 4:
Treadmill:

3min walk 4.0
1min jog 6.0
1min sprint 9.0-11.0
1min walk 4.0
repeat 10x
walk 3min at 3.5

WORKOUT 5:
Elliptical:

warm up 5min level 5 incline 10
2min level 10 incline 20
2min level 12 incline 10
2min level 5 incline 10
repeat 5 or more times

You woke up disoriented with no recollection of the night before. You’re surrounded by candy wrappers, an empty bowl with remnants of popcorn seeds, orange finger tips from what seems to be some sort of cheesy-powdery substance, & a purple tongue from God know what! We’ve all been there…morning stomach aches & protruding belly’s still outlined by abdominal muscles that were so intact & lean from the night before. Swollen knuckles, feet, cheeks, & joints from all the excess sodium!
You swore you wouldn’t do it again. You swore you’d go easy this time around…Perhaps just a victory steak dinner & a small cupcake for dessert to celebrate your 12 weeks of sacrifice. You vowed to keep your physique on point, not to get too crazy & so far off track that your jeans wouldn’t slide up past your thighs. How could this have happened…again? All that preparation & nothing to show for it the morning after…is it possible you’ve destroyed 90 days worth of hard work for 90 minutes of binge eating just to taste every flavor you could in as many forms of food known to mankind?
Now the panic sets in. As the day goes on you remember foods you had totally forgot you had even ingested, the box of mini cakes your ex brought you the night before, the late night drive-through cheeseburger, fries, & milkshake from In n’ Out, & that pit stop at the market to pick up cookie dough….you begin calculating the calories, the carbs, the fats, & sugars. You step on the bathroom scale & you’re in shock- 15lbs. in only a few days! You know it’s mainly water retention but it’s too much to handle. How could you have consumed so much so fast?
Now you’re left all alone, feeling guilty & chunky, unable to leave your apartment for fear that others would see what you have done- how you have destroyed yourself. The guilt becomes unbearable to the point you sneak into your local gym one hour before closing so nobody will see you & your bulging belly trying to burn off the fat on the stair mill. The worst part is this continues for days, now a week has past, & you’re on to the next…every day you wake up with a belly ache & say to yourself, “This has got to end, time to get back on track, no sugar or sodium today, egg whites & oatmeal for breakfast then a morning cardio session, today will be different”. You fight the cravings till noon but it’s just too late, you’ve had a taste & you want more. Besides, the show is over & there really is no reason to deprive yourself anymore. Unless you can find another competition to work towards in the next 6 weeks you may never have that body back from 10 days ago.
And so the vicious cycle continues…
If you’ve ever competed you may have experience something similar to this- maybe a milder version than what was described. I know personally that I have felt this to the “extreme” as that is what I’m known for…this is totally a diary of my experiences dieting & the aftermath of binging & how I got back on track. As a foodie, I love to cook & love to eat even more so for me this is a reality. When I finished my first competition I experienced the post competition rebound. My body & mind went haywire. I frantically searched for an answer to this madness. I felt so alone & guilty for binging because really I had never heard anyone talk about this side of competition. I knew about the cravings & food obsessions & all that as I was experiencing those things throughout my journey but I didn’t know how life would be after competition. I didn’t know how to find the balance or what that even meant. All I knew that the only way to get over one obsession was to start another, but I’ve learned now that it doesn’t need to be that way.
 
MIND OVER MATTER!
You did it when you were prepping for your show- visualizing success before you reached it, talking yourself out of eating junk food when you were dieting, dragging you booty to the gym even when you were having a depressing “fat day”, knowing & believing that your legs would shrink even though you were only 4 weeks out from the show, overcoming the panic feelings of “Will I be ready?!”. So if you survived that, made it onto the stage to strut your stuff, & accomplished all that in such a short period of time then really, you can do anything! Once you set your mind to something that becomes your reality even before you reach it. But the same goes for negative thoughts & one not believing in oneself. I can talk myself in or out of anything….I mean anything!
Remember, the way that we see ourselves is so far off from reality. You become a perfectionist & your own worst critic after taking your body to that next level- beyond any average gym rat. You have high expectations of what being fit & in shape means. Nothing is as good enough as what you are when you are on stage so in your mind if you don’t look that way then you’re just not good enough. Maybe nobody mentioned that but if you have an obsessive compulsive personality like me then you will experience this 10 fold! When those negative thoughts consume you that it when you need to take a step back, slow down, & start talking yourself back to reality. It is impossible to actually gain 10 or 15lbs. of pure body fat in 3 days! LOL….the REALITY is you’ve basically overdoses on sodium & sugar causing you body to go into a whirlwind of chaos. You’re a woman so please believe your hormones too have gone a little haywire. Think of this as a major PMS meltdown. You may THINK you life has fallen apart before your very eyes & there is no way to gain control but, just like with PMS, life will go back to normal as it always does, & you will look back & see how silly you were behaving & how wrong you were for even thinking that way. If you can keep this in mind while you’re going through these ups & down’s you will survive.
 
THE AFTERMATH…GETTING BACK TO BASICS!
From my experience I’m able to say the worst thing you can do after going off the deep end with the sodium, sugars, fats, carbs, & calories is to try & stop everything cold turkey & go right back to your competition diet. Sometime this may work- if you never got that lean in the first place, if your body fat never dropped below 12 or 13%, or if you didn’t diet that long or completely deprive yourself of sodium & sugar then maybe the cold turkey method would work. I have found that for long term control, “weaning” oneself on & off the goodies has been the best method to find balance again. Wean yourself off of everything but DO NOT QUIT cold turkey as I believe this is what sets your body into that rebound mode. Once you’ve rebounded it’s even more challenging to get back on track. The Aftermath…It will take approximately the equivalent amount of time you were rebounding to get back on track. Remember, no quick fix, no cutting corners, just hard work- the same dedication you had in preparation for your show is exactly what you need to make it through this. You can do it!
 
So you’ve skipped steps one, two, & three & made every mistake in the book. Not to worry! There is always a solution to everything. Although there is no quick fix, if you remain consistent & are intent on making a change then I promise you’ll be back to your fit self in no time at all.

THE STEPS TO A FULL RECOVERY:
Sounds like you’re a recovering drug addict, doesn’t it?! Well technically you are! Think out it- competition prep is this huge build up…days & months pass by & you’ve been going through the daily motions of waking up & heading straight to the gym, eating meals like clockwork, popping supplements all day, & training till the wee hours of the night just to catch some sleep & do it all over again….you’re addicted to the structure & the feeling you get seeing your body change little by little every day. You’re a machine, a masochist, an addict for sure! After competition is over, whether you win or lose, you’ve just been on this major high running on adrenaline & then, all at once, it’s over. So what happens next? The comedown! Just like the comedown off a drug, you have withdraws. You’re mentally & physically exhausted & emotionally drained. It took every muscle &bone in your body to make it to this point. I mean, really, dieting, training… that is the nuttiest thing anyone can put themselves through just for 5 minutes of stage time!
Day one will be the toughest because you have to make the conscious decision that enough is enough. You need to decide if you really got the cravings & binging out of your system. For me, it’s usually a situation where I wake up in the morning & I’m thoroughly disgusted by the way I look, feel, & the kicker- the way my clothes fit…or should I say, Don’t Fit! I decide in that moment that I am done- play time is over & I am happier when I feel good about my health, my body, & what I put into it. The days that follow usually get easier because you’re on a roll. Every day you see little changes that may not be visible to the rest of the world but are very apparent to you. You feel a sense of accomplishment just by the mere fact that you took control of your life once again & you’re back on a path of recovery.

EAT YOUR WAY BACK TO LIFE:

DRINK PLENTY OF FLUIDS: WATER, GREEN TEA, & EVEN COFFEE!

CUT OUT ALL FATS FOR A FEW DAYS. THIS WILL HELP TO REDUE THE WATER RETENTION YOU MAY BE EXPERIENCING & WILL HELP SHED YOUR BODY A BIT.

SCARF DOWN VEGGIES THAT ARE NATURAL DIURETICS LIKE KALE, ASPARAGUS, & ZUCCHINI- ADD THESE TO AL YOUR MEALS.

EAT WHITE FISH, TUNA, & EGG WHITES AS PROTEINS- KEEP IT LITE IF YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE CONSUMING CHICKEN BREAST OR TURKEY.

START WITH A GOAL OF GETTING IN 4-6 CLEAN/SEMI-CLEAN MEALS, WITH SOME SODIUM INTAKE, & SOME NATURAL SUGARS FROM FRUIT.

INTRODUCE MORE “CLEAN” STARCHY CARBS LIKE BROWN RICE, OATMEAL, & YAMS. JUST EAT VEGGIES AS YOUR CARBS FOR AT LEAST THE FIRST COUPLE OF DAYS & IT WILL HELP YOU SHED THE SODIUM EVEN QUICKER.

GET PLENTY OF SLEEP & TAKE YOUR VITAMINS!

Today is low carb day.Which means I have a fat source in 4 of the 6 meals in place of carbs. My weight has been steadily dropping and I am feeling leaner each day. 4wks out is when I start to notice the most change. 

Friday my boyfriend is coming to visit. We are going to lay low and hang out   He doesn’t live in MI so we have been long distance for quite some time. It works but is definitely hard.

Let me know what videos, info, recipes etc that you want me to share. I love the input.  I want this site to be amazing and it is about 15% there. Lots more content to come!

I just got back from an hr and 15min of Vinyasa yoga.  My Sunday regular   I always go with my two friends- Amanda and Maureen.  Afterwards we either go to Caribou or Starbucks and just have a sit down relaxing time.  It’s so nice to surround yourself with girls who understand each other and how we live.  They are both very involved with fitness so we have a lot in common.  We help motivate each other.

Today is my sisters Bday!! Unfortunately we are going to Buca de Beppo… which for those who have never been, is seriously the best Italian food joint ever.  They have the best pizza!  I on the other hand will be bringing my own food with me.  I am 4wks out from the TOC and 5 from the O, so no screwing around here.  I don’t even want to take the risk of ordering off the menu to have them bring it to me cooked with oil and no know about it. 

I got her a swarovski necklace, a shirt, Clean Eating mag subscription and two lip glosses.  I went a little over what we normally get each other, but I couldn’t help it.  I am so proud of her.  She just got a job advancement, and moved into her first apartment.  So lots to celebrate!

As soon as I get home, I am going to go to the gym again to get in an hr of cardio.  I am thinking half stepmill and half treadmill.  Today is high carb day.  Meaning I have 4 servings of sweet potato instead of my usual one.  I am going to utilize this energy today and tomorrow and work HARD!  This title means so much to me come Sept.  If I win the Olympia, not only will I get my title BACK, but I will be the first person to hold the figure international and Olympia in the same year.  Pretty sweet.  No pressure

I hope you are all doing good and training hard! I will be posting more photos, videos and blogs coming this week.  I have attached one progress photo here 5wks out. 

Train hard!!

I have not done crossfit in a few weeks because I am very cautious of the powerlifting and it making my waist thick.  Figure is all about the X factor.  Meaning the shape of the body has to be symmetrical.
My legs are always the last to come in so I know I just have to be patient and let the next 4wks do its thing.  
I am going to take photos tomorrow morning so I will post them this weekend.
Off to have 4 egg whites, spinach and 15 almonds
Good night!