For all the ladies who compete............

[Gymgurl]

OKAY....I need some advice and I know only I can make the choice....Huddy and I went to a novice show this weekend. I took him for two reasons...one so I could check out the ladies in the Master level and two so he could see what I am yapping about all the time....I love it he was a little freaked out about the size of the women...the BB's he said NO waythey are way to big and the fitness he thought looked to thin and unhealthy lol....

Well I can't make the choice to compete or not..After watching the show I know that I have the muscle base for it no problem the fat issue is another. I'm at 21% and I need to go way down. I need a GOOD diet for that..I did pull Daisy's cutting diet off of here the other day.....But I feel pretty old and that bugs me as awell...Hubby is worried about the time and the amount of dieting since I was bulimic and aneroxic when we dated...I was down to about 115 and wore a siza 0 at 5'7 1/2 so he tends to freak a little...I'm a 8/9 and he is happy. So anyway...any words of advice, tips hint anything to help me make my choice lol....one thing you should know is that this as been a goal of mine since I was in my late teens and I am now 40

 

[treilin]

OKAY....I need some advice and I know only I can make the choice....Huddy and I went to a novice show this weekend. I took him for two reasons...one so I could check out the ladies in the Master level and two so he could see what I am yapping about all the time....I love it he was a little freaked out about the size of the women...the BB's he said NO waythey are way to big and the fitness he thought looked to thin and unhealthy lol....

Well I can't make the choice to compete or not..After watching the show I know that I have the muscle base for it no problem the fat issue is another. I'm at 21% and I need to go way down. I need a GOOD diet for that..I did pull Daisy's cutting diet off of here the other day.....But I feel pretty old and that bugs me as awell...Hubby is worried about the time and the amount of dieting since I was bulimic and aneroxic when we dated...I was down to about 115 and wore a siza 0 at 5'7 1/2 so he tends to freak a little...I'm a 8/9 and he is happy. So anyway...any words of advice, tips hint anything to help me make my choice lol....one thing you should know is that this as been a goal of mine since I was in my late teens and I am now 40

Well.... Maybe you could find a trainer/nutritionist someone familiar with the diet down process, and gear it towards your specific body and the way it reacts to certain foods. Also, it depends on what show date you are aiming for? 21% is nothing, I'm at 27% give or take and will compete in July!

 

[Miss24k]

Well first I don't think you are too old to do this, there are plenty of hot older women that compete, hmm Sassy is 1, Sylvia Tremblay is 39, Dawn Butterfield is 39 also. 1 of my sister inlaws is 38 years old, and will be competing this year for the 1st time. I think you could do it.

But I would be concerned that you had an eating disorder in the past, because after the show it is very very hard to adjust back into your normal body, alot of girls get depressed and think they're fat, it is very easy to end up with an eating disorder after the show. Most people don't talk or tell you what happens after you compete and you start binging on the stuff you couldn't have while dieting and you think for some reason you will never be able to eat again so you eat and eat and eat, then once you've eaten a large pizza, a bag of cookies, a thing of ice cream, and still go to eat the jar of peanut butter with some chocolate chips, you look at yourself and think f*ck I'm fat, I feel terrible, oh my god what was I thinking why did I eat all that junk, I'm such a fat idiot, ahhhh maybe I should just throw it up. You feel extremely guilty for everything you eat, and keep calling yourself fat.

The above is how I felt at times after last season, it took awhile to adjust and realize that I wasn't fat and it was ok eat treats sometimes and I didn't need to binge like it was the last time I was going to ever eat again. I never made myslef sick, but I did think about it a few times, and that worried me that I started to think like that and was able to get my act together, but that doesn't happen to every girl.

I think it's great that you want to compete and you totally have my support, but I also wanted you to be aware of what happens after the show, because I really wouldn't want to see this happen to you, I've never had any issues with the way I looked. Just be careful that's all hun

 

[Gymgurl]

You know Miss24 this was my hubbys MAIN concern. He went through the worst of the worst with me and does not want to go through that again. He gets a little unnerved when I am at the gym 4-5 days a week and will ask me if I am overdoing it lol...so yes these are the issues I am looking at and the support this is big...Here I have a great bunch of ladies that know that drive and what your working towards..in the real world people can't believe that you even want to look like that lol

 

[Sassy69]

Here's a thought for competition prep - you can decide if you want to do figure or BB at 2 months out. Not that big a deal. Figure is a more conservative route to start with.

As far as the "sickly" look and all that - the important thing to remember is that you don't maintain that look - but by the same token,. you need to be able to manage the rebound. You WILL gain back 15 lb min within a week. So if you have issues w/ how you look that could be a nice big mindfuck. But if you just keep in mind that it is just part of the different phases of manipulating your body to look a certain way at a certain time of day on comp day, and then the rebound and then eithe rback to normal or start working on whatever you need to tweak for the next show.

 

[Gymgurl]

Great point Sassy! I did try to tell him that it is a SPORT....you diet down for the contest and then will go back to a more "normal "weight. I thought they all looked great. Sassy this was a great response thanks girl

 

[Sassy69]

Great point Sassy! I did try to tell him that it is a SPORT....you diet down for the contest and then will go back to a more "normal "weight. I thought they all looked great. Sassy this was a great response thanks girl

The thing is that when you talk about "how you look" to someone who isn't familiar w/ competition, its almost a useless discussion. Becuase you go thru very distinct phases where "how you look" is irrelevent. Its where you are going, how you look at 10 am on competition day and then what your body does to recover from that. But when you talk to someone about it, what they envision is that skeletal look on competition day. And then you spend an hour trying to explain that yes it is ok to look like that for a few days, and why does no one comment on "is that healthy" when they see someone pound fast food & beer all day, every day for years on end? And than that same person will continue to tell you that you look fantastic up to the show, but you feel like you are fat as a pig - because your points of reference are different - you are thinking in terms of how well can you make that skeletal show look look on you, and he's thinking you are leanign down & getting healthy. But then you pass that point where he starts thinking you are gettign to skinny and you think you look friggen great. Then the rebound part comes and you start crying because you blew up from that amazing 9% bodyfat and lowest you've ever weighed in your adult lift, and he thinks you look healthy again.

Its the biggest consentual self-induced mindfuck you will ever experience

But that's part of it. If you can accept every phase of the whole thing & be happy w/ yourself at every phase because that is what you have to get thru to compete, then you are doing great. If you let it mess w/ your mind and you start complaining, what will he be able to say to make you feel better? Nothing. He'll either say "oh honey you look great regardless of how you think you look" or "I dont know why you put yourself thru that to look like those corpses up on stage".

I'm not even sure you'd have time to worry anorexia / bulemia concerns because you are too busy looking at how much protein you are eating while worrying about if you are doing enough cardio. Its "like" anorx/ bullem but different. So, back to the biggest self-induced mindfuck you can imagine.

But my point in my first post - to keep things in perspective - you can go thru the competition prep and change your goal or even just stop pursuing the competition altogether at any point - really up to 8 weeks out. There are practical consideration like getting your suits in time, learning the appropriate posing for figure or bb, getting routines, etc. But you are never locked into anything at any point that you should pre-worry that much about.

The most important thing is just to keep all of it in perspective for yourself so you dont' send your SO off on an added stress attack because he is going to be reacting to how he sees you react. You go extreme on the diet & focus on the show, he will think you are obsessed. If you get upset because of food fits (ref: Bunny & throwing ANPB jars out the back door) or its low carb day, or you are too tired for making whoopie or whatever. That's where it is really on you to manage your goals and how you get there.

Anyway - I think you get my jist - if he's concerned about the really lean look - show him my pictures in the sticky : 7-8% on competitoin day, 20 % 6 months later.

 

[jenscats5]

I agree 100% with Miss24k & Sassy.........be prepared for after the show, get a plan for after the show & stick to it!! I didnt' have a plan and wallowed in an all-out gorge-fest for over a month and I'm STILL having a hard time getting back into "it." And by "it" I mean just a general, healthy plan.....you will have our support here as you know.