Monthly Archives: April 2016

Not That Bad, but I Can Do Better

Contest Prep, , , ,

Hey gang!  It’s been a long two weeks!  I kind of took some down time after the show to regroup and rest!  Apparently contest prep really takes it out of you!!!  The NPC Southwest USA Championships was an AMAZING show!  I had forgotten how much fun it is to be in the bright lights on stage!  I had so much fun!!!  When it was all said and done, I came in 2nd place Novice, 3rd in Open.  Hooray for two trophies and being Nationally Qualified through 2017!  I had so much fun spending the day with some of my favorite people!!

Here’s the thing though.  It was an EXTREMELY small show.  There were only 90 competitors in the whole thing, and only 5 girls in my Figure open class!  CRAZY.  A lot of this we attributed to NPC Texas adding so many NQ shows this year—21 to be exact.  We got to Arlington Friday afternoon and I was a ball of nerves.  I just let my anxiety and my mind get the best of me, and by the time I met with my coach I was totally flat and watery.  Just a mess!  He told me to eat a burger (or 2!!!! WTF) and watch a movie.  I tanned, rested, and got up bright and early for hair and makeup.  It was a blast!  I still felt the entire time though, that I wasn’t where I should be with all of the work I had put into this Prep.  The scale wasn’t dropping like it should have, and I didn’t come in as lean despite my hour and a half of daily cardio, carb cycling, and meticulous diet.  I was so frustrated.  That said, I still had fun, got some stage time, wore an amazing suit, and got the privilege to compete again.

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The next week though, I wanted answers.  Jeff and I both felt like something was just off.  It didn’t mathematically make sense for me not to have lost more weight with the amount of work I was doing and what my calorie intake was.  Why was I not leaner?  Long story short.  It was all hormones!!!  I switched birth control shortly after the show last year, and got the copper IUD put in.  The timing matches up perfectly.  Paraguard to be exact.  Since it’s non-hormonal, it’s not supposed to make you gain weight.  We researched the hell out of this thing last week.  Apparently for me and thousands of other women, the copper toxicity from the device negatively impacts your thyroid and adrenal system, and makes you not only GAIN weight, but makes it extremely difficult to lose due to excess cortisol and estrogen in your body.  There was our answer!  I have now had mine taken out, and have gone to other methods (TMI) but ladies, if you have an IUD in I would highly recommend paying attention to the adverse effects it can have on your body.  Non-hormonal device or not, there are still chemical hormonal reactions going on in your body obviously since it keeps you from getting pregnant.  I’m pissed that I didn’t figure this out sooner, but we attributed my 25+ pound gain to being mostly muscle. And, a lot of it was, but I was definitely carrying a lot of water and dealing with a very slow metabolism that hindered me every bit of these last 15 weeks.  To be honest, had I not done this prep I probably would have gained more weight!  Now that the SOB is out, I’m hoping that my hormones level out and get back under control soon.  It’s only been two days, but I can already see and feel a difference.  For a lot of the women I found in a big forum, they dropped weight within days of getting their IUD taken out.  Fingers crossed my Hulk genes go back to their usual selves and I’m shredded AF in a few weeks.

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That said, I made the decision to post-pone doing another show (or 2 right away) until I feel like I am bringing my absolute best package to the stage.  That means no Ronnie Coleman, and unless I drop crazy water weight in the next 3 days, no Steve Kuclo.  We’re seeing how the next few weeks play out with me, but I’m shooting to do another show or 2 here in Dallas late summer/ August.  I could be really mad that I’m carrying around another 5-7 pounds more than I should be despite busting my ass for the past 15 weeks, and to be honest, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t pissed.  I followed my diet and training plan 100% but the results didn’t come like we expected.  I’m disappointed that I wasn’t tighter and more cut in these stage shots, but it is what it is, and I’m still proud of myself for getting up there.  Fortunately, I didn’t gain 50 or 70, or 80 pounds in the past year like a lot of women have with the same IUD that I had.  Instead of being angry, I’m just going to let my body level itself out, and keep trusting the process.  I’m still healthy, I can still train hard, and I can still love life.  Everything happens for a reason, and hopefully someone can learn from my experience.  Maybe this means I can get my NASM certification sooner rather than later, enjoy the summer, and do a much shorter prep as we get closer to some future shows.  3rd place and 2nd place certainly aren’t bad, but I want better, and will do better.  Thank you all again for your support and love on this crazy bodybuilding ride.  Love you guys!!!

 

Till next time,

 

-Mere

Here We Go Again!

Contest Prep, , , ,

I can’t believe it’s already the day before the show!!!  Well, the first show of the season at least!  This week has been a blur.  Peak Week as this is called is essentially a science project.  You drink a ton of water, eat more carbs then usual, then “dry out” and keep your carbs high come show day.  Your workouts are more moderate, and there’s less cardio–finally!

This Prep flew by–overall, honestly, it was pretty easy despite the hour and a half of daily cardio.  My head gave me more trouble this time than my body did.  I’ll be the first to tell you, I’m my own worst critic.  It seems like the entire 15 weeks I was comparing myself to other girls, or to last year.  I was constantly questioning myself- “how do I look?”, “Am I conditioned enough”, “Did I do enough?”.   Man it has been a battle!   I just don’t feel as lean, even though everyone keeps saying I look amazing and fantastic.  I think it’s mostly because I weigh so much more now.  Like I’ve said all along, this sport is way more mental than physical, and I learned that with this Prep.  At the end of the day, I just have to be confident in myself, confident that I did my best, and be proud of how far I’ve come.  I am enough.  This is a hobby, a sport, and as much fun as it is, it’s not all of my identity.  I have to keep myself in check!  I’m so blessed to have such a great support group around me, that regardless of what those judges say tomorrow, I’ve already won just by getting there.

I’m hoping I’ll tighten up more over the next 24 hours, just like I did last time.  Yikes!  Hard to believe I’ve got less than that before show time!  We’re about to leave to go to the hotel, and I will have my first two coats of tan put on this afternoon, followed by the athlete check-in, and a check-in with my coach, and 4 more meals.  Yep, 4.  2 of them being filet mignon!  HA!  Makeup is at 5am tomorrow and I should go on stage somewhere around 10 or so for prejudging.

I’m thrilled to have the privilege of walking across that stage tomorrow.  Everyone has their own journey getting there, but each competitor should be praised for their courage and accomplishment.  The show is a celebration of the Fit Life!

See you on the other side!!

-Mere

Life Lessons

Contest Prep, General Fitness, Living the Fit Lifestyle, Makeup, Random Thoughts, and Other Things, , , , , , , , , , , ,

I’ve said this before.  There is so much a contest Prep teaches you.  There’s so much more to it than just workouts and dieting.  It teaches you about life!  There is so much mental work, dedication, and focus required to get through the journey to the stage.  You have to prioritize, juggle, make sacrifices, put in the time, and the results will come.  You have to push through the hard parts, keep pushing yourself, and get out of your comfort zone.  You have to be honest with yourself.  Are you sticking with your diet and training 100%?  Above all else, this process teaches you about ATTITUDE.  These my friends are LIFE LESSONS that I will carry with me long after any show, and in the whole scheme of things will make me a better person than any trophy ever will.

Let me share with you two interesting scenarios that came up just in the past week that threw me for a loop!  Both may sound dumb, but you girls will understand.  I have very short (a pixie cut in fact) hair.  I’ve never been a “high maintenance mane of hair” kind of girl, but I get it trimmed and colored every 4-5 weeks like clockwork.  Knowing how busy my schedule can get and how important good hair is on stage, I booked up appointments with my regular stylist for cuts and color all the way through June so I would be all set with hair from my photoshoot, which was April 3rd, all 3 shows, and all the way through our vacation to the Bahamas in June.  I had an appointment last Thursday for a much needed cut and color with my amazing stylist that would make me photoshoot ready for Sunday.  Plus I needed cute hair for my birthday the next day, right?  So I thought.  As it turned out, my usual guy was going to be out that day, and so the salon squeezed me in for a cut and color with two separate stylists.  I let both of them know there was a lot riding on this cut, and that James does such a great job that I was nervous letting them do it.  Shane’s aunt passed away last week as well and the Funeral was Saturday.  Throw in house hunting Friday afternoon, MY BIRTHDAY PARTY THAT NIGHT, family time and the service for the Funeral Saturday, if they screwed this up, I had NO TIME to get this fixed before my shoot Sunday that I had booked months ago with a very popular photographer.  And my birthday was the next day, and I had a Show in two weeks!  Long story short, by the end of my 3 hours in that salon chair, I was taken to platinum blonde and “fixed” to the worst shade of brown with blonde chunks in the most awful excuse for a pixie cut.  Shit.  I was exhausted, hungry, and this was the last thing I needed.  I still had two hours of training and cardio to do after my appointment and it was 8 o’clock at night.  I flipped—I HATED the color, but the cut was worse!  Could we fix it?!  What was I going to do?!?  On the verge of a meltdown, I left the salon Thursday night and fortunately was able to get into my usual stylist (who had dislocated his shoulder!) the next afternoon.  He worked his magic and brought me back to my usual blonde shade and (although he had to go shorter to fix it) my cut was at least manageable after he finessed it.  By Saturday afternoon I could breathe a sigh of relief.  Hair is just hair.  At the end of the day, screwed up hair is a total first world problem.  I’m not in a hospital, it’s not an emergency, it’s totally fixable.  Although, I must say that I definitely feared that my hair would fall out because of being processed three times!!!

Ugh. Awful.
Ugh. Awful.

We got through the weekend just fine.  The funeral was sad but perfect, and it was great to see our Houston family.  The photoshoot with Jay Fuertez was AMAZING and exactly what I needed to give me the extra confidence I needed to be ready to razzle dazzle at these shows.  We had so much fun!  It was the perfect celebration of all of my hard work these past few months.  I can’t wait to see how the pictures turn out, but here’s a sneak peak.  Who is this girl?!

No words. Just incredible.
No words. Just incredible.
Transforming into the Hulk!
Transforming into the Hulk!

This week, another situation presented itself.  If you don’t know anything about the suits (or bikinis) that competitors wear in shows, you should know that they take WEEKS to make.  I ordered my suit in a beautiful shade of Gunmetal Gray metallic fabric from a renowned suit designer (who is extremely well respected in the industry and a WPD Olympian herself) in January and paid $650.  I’d be all set—she did my suit last year and it was gorgeous, so why should I worry right?  She has a 12 week waiting list, and my suit was expected to arrive any day now.  We were cutting it close to show time!  The designer emailed me last week that she had started stoning it and it would be shipping soon.  I got home from the gym Tuesday night and Shane was beaming.  It had arrived!!!  I felt like a kid on Christmas.  Shane was camera ready–I opened up the package and case and pulled out my suit.  It was BLACK.  The fabric color was completely wrong and I HATED IT.  The stoning design was right, but the color was awful on me.  This wasn’t going to work.  Even Shane and my coach both said it wasn’t a good look.  My first show was 11 days away.  If the designer couldn’t fix it, I would have to wear my suit from last year, or be forced to wear this one.  Neither option was ideal and I was heartbroken.  Cue the water works and meltdown.   The SUIT is a big deal.  It’s the icing on a cake and you better love it, especially if you’ve worked this hard and paid that much for it.  After 14 weeks of Prep and I had yet to have a breakdown (even after the hair) but I barely slept that night and was a hot mess for cardio that morning.  Yep, I totally cried crocodile tears on the Stairmill.  Thank goodness I was sweaty enough that no one noticed!  I’m not a very outwardly religious person, but I will assure you that I believe that God works in mysterious ways and often in ways that we don’t always understand.  He sure was looking out for me in this situation.

I spoke with the suit designer the next morning, and this worked out even better than I could have planned.  She was extremely helpful and apologetic, and had the perfect solution.  It would be impossible for her to remake my suit before the show, but luckily she had several high-end suits that she rents out to competitors as well.  Most of them were used by IFBB Pros and are just beautiful.  I could “borrow” a brand new for-rent suit that had never been worn and wear that for the first show or two while she remade mine.  She sent me pictures of 4 GORGEOUS suits that were 2 and 3 times as expensive as mine for me to have my pick from that would fit perfectly since they were the same cut.  I would have a beautiful princess suit that would be even better than the one I had originally planned!  It was all going to be fine.  The cool part:  She had received an email from another girl the day before inquiring about my “mistake” suit that she had seen on the designer’s Instagram.  She wanted to purchase it for her suit in a couple of weeks, but with the designer’s time frame that wouldn’t be possible at all.  Guess what—she’s close to my size and will be able to buy that suit now because of what happened.  My loaner suit should be here by Saturday, just in time for my final posing class.  The gunmetal fabric I originally wanted has been discontinued as we’ve come to find out today, so I’m deciding on whether or not to just buy out the loaner suit (it’s discounted J) or just pick a different fabric color.  But it all worked out!!!  What did I learn from both of these situations?  That you cannot control everything no matter how hard you try.  You have to role with the punches.  Your attitude will make or break your happiness.  I could have been really angry and mean to the designer and yelled and screamed, but that would have done NOTHING.  Instead, I chose to believe that all things were working together for my good, and that everything happens for a reason.  The result: I will get to wear not one but two fabulous suits and another girl will get her dream suit.  Win win!  Also, in the whole scheme of things if I had worn last year’s suit or the black suit next weekend, the world wouldn’t end, and I would be fine.  Really, I would have been fine.

Pretty but not for me.
Pretty but not for me.

Life is all about road blocks.  None of us know what’s coming and things can change in a heartbeat.  As much as you control EVERYTHING in Prep—your training intensity, the cardio, your heart rate, your food intake, your supplements, EVERYTHING, there are still things and situations you can’t control.  Lou Holtz and Charles Swindoll both have said that life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to what happens to you.

I couldn’t agree more.  More updates coming soon—we’re in the final stretch of this Prep!

Till next time,

-Mere