FlyBrownChick said:
Thanks ladies...I really do appreciate it.
Que, I've been lurking for a long time for good reason...these women know their stuff!
My ears are wide open.
Scorpio, I log my nutrients on fitday.com. I'm eating at maintanence right now...about 1700 calories.
haha Thanks, Miss24K. I have actually talked to the trainer this AM and seemed to have sorted things out. I'm not one to speak my mind, but I did and it helped.
First, glad you found us - HYUGE amounts of info & support here. I'm going to throw in a couple comments. Your diet does look clean & good. If you feel like you are stalled out right now, you may just be going thru a transition from that heavy phase to the cutting phase, but there are crazy numbers of examples of people who have made complete life changes via their bodies in 12 weeks.
The one thing you won't know about competition is how ready you are for a show until about 2 weeks before the show. If you don't try, you won't know.
TALK to your trainer!!! YOU hired HIM! HE works for YOU! Its your time, money, efforts & goals. Don't be afraid of comments he might make - its his job to provide objective critiques and tweaks to your plan. I would just throw in the caveat that I'm assuming this trainer is QUALIFIED to prep you for competition. Has he / she trained others for competition ? What results have they produced in the past? And does he/she talk to you? If you want to know WHY certain training or diet do you get an answer that you can understand or will the person patiently come up w/ a way to convey the idea to you instead of getting short w/ you or acting like "WTF? You don't know??"
You didn't mention how regularly you see your trainer. Once / week? Every day? If this person sees you every day or regularly , you should be able to also talk about changes. Get photos on a regular basis for tracking progress. I also like to get regular bodyfat testing done - not so much for the total bodyfat but rather to track changes in the different caliper skinfold points - this helps to show you how your body tends to lose or hold water or bodyfat. Keep a journal of all this info so you can go back & match your skinfold measurements w/ your mood, the diet & training you followed that day, track if its "that time of the month", etc. This allows you to see how the different combinations of all of that work together. If you are going along great & then it stalls out for a few days -you might notice that you are particularly stressed out from work or maybe not enough cardio, too much cardio, particular diet change isn't working.
I'm not sure if you had just started training - like you mentioned the last 12 weeks of heavy pulling, etc. If this is your history of trainign, then some of yoru challenge is goign to come from limited muscle development. And that will contribute to a higher bodyfat ratio - because it is a ratio of lean muscle mass to bodyfat . Doesn't always mean you 'have fat" but rather "less muscle". The one thing is that it is hard to build muscle if you are now on the last 3-4 months of competition prep as you are now in a cutting phase where your calorie intake isn't designed to support muscle building but rather fat cutting. The trainer will probably have you continue to build as you can, focusing on the bodyfat loss and shaping in general. I'd probably target the muscles that will show in the specific poses you are doing. I.e. you know the poses required, so shape your body to enhance those muscles that show the best in those poses.
My final suggestion is to keep in mind that even tho this is your target show, in the bigger picture, there is always another show. For all the work you are putting into this - its nice to have a back up show or two for a couple of reasons:
- especially when you are doing your first show, you have no real idea how fast your body will respond to the training, so you are trying to move in on your target date, but traditionally people tend to really need a few extra weeks of prep to be at their optimal for a show. I'm not saying you will come in unprepared, I am saying that most people always tend to not come in exactly as they would like to and a few extra weeks of diet would bring them to what would be perfect. So if you hit your first show ok but could use more dieting, you have a second (and even third sometimes) date to prepare a little more for.
- you are spending a crapload of money on the show. One thign you can't prepare is "how to do the show' -i.e. the initial stage fright, being judged for the first time in a real setting. You just can't simulate that until the actual show. So if you set yourself up to only have that one show to do, you will never get a chance to do a show where you've already been on stage once and that isnt' the biggest issue on your mind. You will have gotten some feedback on your stage presence, presentation, posing, smile & just "how to do a show' that you can bring w/ you to all shows AFTER the first, but not TO the first.
- You get to wear the suits again
- you get to see how you do on stage when you arent' so freaked out about all the prep & presentation
- you get a greater sense of confidence now that you know what you are doing.
- if for some reason you can't make the target show (coudl be sick, illness in the family, whatever) or the show itself might get cancelled for some reason. And all your work is kaput. W/ a backup show you have more wiggle room to get your chance on stage instead of all or nothing.
- also takes the pressure off the whole "OMG THIS IS THE SHOW THAT WILL DETERMINE IF I AM WORTHY OF COMPETITION OR I NEED TO JUST CRAWL INTO THE DIRT AND DIE BECAUSE I"M NOT READY FOR THIS ONE SHOW!"
My point is to take some of the pressure & frustratoin that it is so easy to build up around that one show date. If its your first show, you are not only competign w/ yourself to see what you can pull out of your body, your mind & yourself by the show date but also w/ girls who have already done shows and will have that more confident poise & presentation that may just contribute to your further stress.
Hope this helps some. I'm trying to bring down the level of highs & lows - you will encounter all sorts of panic moments & what feels like full-on life-challenging moments where you will doubt yourself & everything about what you are doing. It work much better if you are able to keep things in perspective. Yes, you need to dig deep & work like you've never worked before to stick to the diet, not panic when you feel a sugar fit coming on, drag thru miserable amounts of cardio. But you should also watch the dramatic changes. Become aware of what you are accomplishing. Focus on the things you can watch improvements on like your posing, your poise, ask more questions about how the diet & training are designed to work, etc. and BE VERY PATIENT w/ your progress. Even if you do start to lose bodyfat at a fantastic rate, your body doesn't continue to lose bodyfat in a linear fashion - changes may take place quickly, and then slow down. That's' why it is so important to monitor how you are changing and make tweaks as you go because your body is responding to the changes all the time. It is never static. The changes are more dramatic the closer you get ot show day so don't get pre-frustrated as far out as 16 weeks. The more objective you are able to remain about your progress, the better you are mentally - not to mention that additoinal stress will result in cortisol working against optimizing your metabolism.
And like I said before - if you are frustrated, talk to your trainer. A good trainer will be able to say things like I've said above. They may get frustrated dealign w/ yet anther newbie going thru contest prep, but they should be patient. The thign about competition is that regardess of how much you read here, how much we tell you or share with you or your trainer works w/ you, you still have to go thru it once to really understand what we are talking about. So the sooner you recognize when you do go thru one of the things mentioned, the less stress & doubt you will experience. Like when you realize that peanut butter is a great source of protein & fats, but more than 1 -2 tbsp will blow you up in a heart beat. But there's no other fun food in yoru diet so you can't help yourself, and then you have to literally throw the jar out the back door (ref: me & Bunny...
). But once you experience such food fits, you'll recognize what they are and deal w/ them better the next time they hit. Its just part of it - doens't mean you are less of a person or maybe should'nt be doign a show or you aren't cut out for it. Its just a further test of your ability to keep an even keel. Its the biggest learning process you will go thru in your life. But you will achieve it and be a better person for it.
And then you'll also have all these crazy stories to tell people when its all over!
You'll do fine & we're here w/ you and for you! Many of us have gone thru exactly what you are and survived! In many ways, it is much more of a journey than a destination.
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I don't know WHAT you're talking about ... 
That doesn't sound good at all!
