Tag Archives: Diet

So What is this “Clean Eating” Anyway?

Living the Fit Lifestyle, Nutrition/ Diet, Weightloss, , , , , , ,

When I first started working out and making healthier eating choices back in 2012, I kept hearing the term “eat clean” thrown around and I had no clue what it meant.  Did it mean eat organic?  Going vegan?  So, in true Mere form, I researched it.  That was over 3 years ago, and let me tell you, it takes some getting used to, but sticking to eating clean will make a tremendous difference in your life and is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Plus, it will help you drop pounds fast!  It did for Shane and me, and countless others we know, and it will for you too when you are consistent with it. I want to remind everyone that I am not a nutritionist, and I am not a trainer (yet).  However, I hope that I can use my L&L platform to share with all of you what clean eating means to me and how it has helped me on my journey.  This is a topic I am very passionate about, and I’m sorry in advance if I offend anyone, but my mission here is to promote health and fitness, and making healthy food choices is a fundamental part of that.

No matter how long you spend at the gym, you won't get results unless you eat clean.
No matter how long you spend at the gym, you won’t get results unless you eat clean.

We as a society are absolutely BOMBARDED with food propaganda.  Everywhere you look, you’ll see the latest and greatest drive-thru dollar menu special, restaurant deals and steals, or on the flip side the “healthy”, “low calorie” foods begging you to give them a try.  I saw this first hand when literally every freaking commercial I saw on TV while I was slaving away to cardio involved something with food.  It was nuts!  Our obesity rate as a country is higher than it’s ever been, and that doesn’t even include Americans who are overweight.  Nearly 1 out of 3 kids are obese.  It’s a problem that’s getting worse and worse, and is predicted to continue to skyrocket unless we as a society change how we eat.

A brief history lesson for you:  fifty plus years ago, the food landscape in America was a totally different than it is today.  Grocery stores carried staples—produce, meat, dairy and bread;  basically the things that you’d see in the 4 food groups.  Then came the arrival of the “fast food concept” and things totally changed.  People wanted to get food faster, started eating out more, and wanted “convenient foods”.  The business boomed, and here we are in 2015 with an obesity epidemic that is out of control because of how much JUNK is available for people to eat.

“Clean Eating” is essentially the concept of getting back to whole, natural foods.  It means consuming a diet PRIMARILY of plant based foods, protein, and carbohydrates coming from complex carbohydrate and whole grain sources.  Fats come from nuts, nut butters, olive oils, and avocados.  A “clean eater” typically abstains from simple carbohydrates (i.e. the “white carbs”—pasta, bread, chips, corn and flour based foods), sugars, alcohol, and keeps dairy and butter / vegetable oils to a minimum.  It means avoiding “packaged” foods like chips, cookies, packaged meats, frozen dinners, and anything processed or artificial.  Clean Eating also means eating smaller meals more frequently throughout the day to keep your metabolism burning and hunger at bay.

I’m not here to judge you and I am not perfect.  I’m human, and I’ll be the first to tell you that I love me some Double Stuff Oreos and that once in a blue moon I’ll go through a drive-thru (Chick-Fil-A for the win!).  However, clean eating is a lifestyle.  I promise you, once you get past the first few weeks, the cravings will subside and you will begin to feel a lot healthier and have much more energy!  Your body will thank you, and you will keep getting healthier and healthier!

Here are some good resources that helped me learn more about the clean eating lifestyle.  Tosca Reno is like the “mother” of clean eating.  All of her books are awesome, but I fell in love with the “Eat Clean Diet”.  The movie “Food Inc.” will make you rethink how and where your food comes from.  HBO’s documentary “Weight of the Nation” is incredibly thought provoking.

I’d like to  share some of our staples that we eat on a daily basis with you — my shopping list if you will.  This is list is not the be-all end-all, but it will give you a good starting point for your clean eating journey.

Here's my haul on a typical trip to the grocery store.
Here’s my haul on a typical trip to the grocery store.

Produce—this makes up about 30% of my cart

  • SALAD, greens, spinach
  • Tomatoes
  • Avocados
  • A mix of fibrous veggies—asparagus, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, green beans, broccoli are our go-tos.
  • Bananas
  • Berries
  • Sweet potatoes and regular potatoes

Meat—this makes up another 30% or so

  • Lean proteins—think white meats. Chicken, ground turkey, white fish (tilapia, mahi mahi, cod).  Try to buy organic or natural if at all possible
  • Lean ground beef (for Shane – he gets a bit more fat than I do and needs more calories)

Grains / Nuts

  • Rice cakes (we get organic brown rice cakes and you can also find flavored rice cakes with low sugar)
  • Brown and white rice
  • Almonds! Emerald has awesome vanilla roasted and cinnamon roasted almonds that I’m absolutely obsessed with.
  • Oats
  • Quinoa
  • Nut butters (be very careful of added sugar – buy the natural versions)

Dairy

  • Nonfat Greek yogurt (plain is best, but you can get flavored as well – if you by flavored yogurt, be cognizant of the sugar content)
  • Eggs (try to go organic here too, or cage free at the very least)
  • Egg whites (cage free or organic)
  • Almond milk

Here are the “rules” I typically recommend for beginners. I’m not an expert, and this is just a general overview of clean eating, so you’ll need to do additional research.

  • Stick to NATURAL, nutrient dense foods. If it has a long ingredient list, comes in a box, or could be found on the center aisles of the grocery store (and isn’t listed above) it’s probably not very “clean”.  If it wasn’t around in 1945, it’s probably not real food or “clean”. I need to make one important caveat – there are certain processed foods like Quest bars and protein powders that serve an important purpose for athletes. However, if you don’t work out a lot or you aren’t trying to add muscle mass, then you probably don’t need those types of food.
  • Shop the perimeter of the store—here’s where you’ll find the produce, meats, and dairy.
  • Avoid alcohol and consuming empty calories in sodas, juices, etc.
  • Avoid baked goods and packaged goods. Also avoid breads, pastas, and chips, etc.
  • Cook at home more!!!
  • Aim to eat 5-6 small meals a day.

Lastly, be careful of foods that are supposed to be “healthy” i.e. low fat cookies, or baked chips, or low-cal yogurts and ice creams, etc.  They are often laden with added sugar, salt and chemicals, and they don’t provide much nutrition for their caloric values.  You’ll find that when you eat “packaged” foods, you’re hungrier more often because the carbohydrates are “simple” and digest quickly, and cause spikes in blood sugar leading to more cravings and hunger.  Also, there’s virtually no protein in them (protein also keeps your hunger at bay and is the main nutrient needed for building muscles).

Eating clean doesn't mean bad food. Tell me this breakfast doesn't look awesome!
Eating clean doesn’t mean bad food. Tell me this breakfast doesn’t look awesome!

My email address is lipglossandlifting@gmail.com.  I am SO HAPPY to answer questions and help you get started on the “clean eating” path.  Once you have been eating clean for about a month (the cravings will go away, I promise!), you’ll wonder how you ever ate any differently and your body will thank you for fueling it properly!  You can still enjoy eating out and “cheat” foods in moderation, and you will find that you crave them less and appreciate them more.  Plus, clean eating is a requirement to get big and strong muscles!

Till next time,

-Mere

Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming… sort of.

Contest Prep, Living the Fit Lifestyle, , , , , , , , , , , ,

I have officially decided that I am a creature of habit.  Yes, I love traveling and being spontaneous, but 90% of my day-to-day life (at least the Monday through Friday part) is spent with work, eating, sleeping, and working out.  Throw some TV watching and some Junior League in there and that’s pretty much it.  And I’m okay with that!  I have a great job, great friends that also pretty much have the same routine, pretty awesome family, and it makes for a relatively drama free life.  New Orleans and Florida were awesome, but I am so glad to be back in my routine!  Let’s not forget—this is the first week in 3 weeks that I haven’t gone out of town!  I don’t know how jetsetters do it.

That said, I was finally able to meet with the “boss” a.k.a. my coach Saturday, and debrief about the show.  It felt so good to have some encouragement and reassurance both from him and my teammates that what I had been thinking and feeling and, more importantly, what my body was doing the last couple of weeks was totally normal.  Coach and I were both were on the same page—I needed a few months to really develop some muscle and work on my legs more in order to bring the total package to my next show.  If you take into consideration another 12-week prep, that would put us into the fall show lineup.  In an ideal world, at least 3-4 months is needed to put on muscle and “bulk”.  So, as of right now, we’ve picked either the NPC True Strength Games on September 26th or the NPC Texas Fall Classic on November 7th.  One is just 23 weeks out (giving me only 11 to bulk!) and the other is 29 weeks out, which would give me 17 weeks to bulk.  More than likely, we’ll go with the November show, but the September one is a possibility.  Ideally, I’d like to try to do both, but we’ll see.  If I did both, I would have 2 chances to get NQ’d which means (nationally qualified) for next year.  The True Strength Games would also be a cool show to do, because a year ago it was the first bodybuilding competition I ever went to.  It’d be pretty neat to return to the True Strength Games as a competitor just one year later!

This meal is on plan during the off season. Yay!
This meal is on plan during the off season. Yay!

In any case, now that it’s “off season” my focus is to EAT and GROW!  This is the fun part!!  I can focus on lifting heavy, and making sure that I’m eating all of my food.  Cheat meals are back—HELLO!  My diet has changed considerably.  I’m now doing 5 meals a day instead of 6, and I have a higher percentage of my calories coming from carbs and fat in order to get the right macros to build muscle.  The water weight bloat is slowly coming off.  I’m now 8 pounds above stage weight, and could see 4 of my abs yesterday!  Thank goodness I’m getting back to normal!!  My coach advised me that in 2 weeks, I’d have a much better representation of what my “off season” body will look like, and I’ll likely be a lot happier with how I’m looking physically. He also said that it usually takes your body and metabolism 4-6 weeks (without a trip in there!) to get back to normal and recover after a contest prep.  Have I mentioned how much you really should have a good coach if you’re going to compete?  My workout split (or schedule) has changed too.  I now have 2 off days (WHAT?!?!) and I am lifting 4 days a week, plus a fifth that can be circuit training or hot yoga, plus I’m slowly tapering off on the cardio as well.  Hooray for spending the Summer building muscles!  I see some pool time in my future!!

This is a whole new chapter of my journey.  To be honest, I had to sort of do a mental check earlier this week.  Sure, a lot of competitors just do one show… and that’s fine.  But for me, this new diet and new routine are taking me to the next level.  It’s exciting but it also makes me nervous.  I’m human—the nasty, negative side of me was rearing it’s ugly head, and negative thoughts were creeping in.  What if I screw up? What if I can’t build muscle fast enough?  What will I look like?  Will I get fat?  What if I lose?  What if I’m not strong enough?  Then, I reassured myself and said “Self. You’ve already proven you are strong, you are capable, and you are building YOUR body.  Not anyone else’s.  Let’s do this!”

I have to eat all of the food!
I have to eat all of the food!

This is a process.  Bodybuilding is more than a sport;  it’s a lifestyle.  Prep is more than just 12 weeks;  it’s making the choice every meal and every workout,  and committing to a goal and making healthy choices every day that get you closer to that goal.  I’m so glad that I have shared my journey here and on Instagram because it motivates me and encourages me to see how far I’ve come!  I’m so excited to see how much I grow inside and out these next 6 months.  Remember, the outside changes are just an indicator of the changes happening mentally and emotionally as well.

Till next time,

-Mere

Worst Idea Ever

Contest Prep, Living the Fit Lifestyle, , , , , , , , , , , ,

So, going on vacation right after the show was definitely not my brightest idea.  As I mentioned in my last post, the “post show shenanigans” started right after the show.  I had a burger, fries, a cocktail, cake (oh my God, the cake was so ridiculously good), then Sunday it was brunch with mimosas, some treats on the drive home….I had worked hard and earned it, right?

Sort of. Going into the week after the show, I knew that my body would be adjusting as I transitioned off of a very strict, clean, structured diet, and I had several fellow competitors, my coach, and friends all tell me that I’d put on a few pounds of water weight (hopefully mostly water weight) quickly, but I still thought “No way, I’ll be fine!!  Not me—I’ve got the metabolism of a genetic super freak, I can handle it!”

During Peak Week, my coach gave me a reverse diet and reverse cardio plan to adhere to after the show. He knew that I was leaving Wednesday after the show to celebrate my birthday in New Orleans, and we both knew that I wouldn’t really be on plan the entire trip, but I went into it with good intentions!  I would enjoy myself “in moderation”.  Monday I did my 30 minutes of moderate cardio like a good girl, and I ate on plan!  The Girl Scout cookies and crap I bought at Buc-cee’s went to work where someone else would eat them, and then came Tuesday.  I did the cardio, ate on plan most of the day, then had an amazing birthday dinner with my friends at my favorite Mexican restaurant with a couple of skinny margaritas and of course birthday cake… and beer afterwards!

Happy birthday to me!
Happy birthday to me!

Needless to say, by Wednesday night after our first day of New Orleans deliciousness, my feet were looking pretty swollen, and I could tell that I was definitely carrying A LOT of water.  By Thursday, I felt like Jabba the Hutt, and was starting to resemble him as well.  What the hell was going on?!?!  We were easily walking 6-7 miles a day, and I did cardio on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, but the combination of alcohol, sugar, fat, and carbs, was making my body go into a tailspin.

Hand Grenade away!
Hand Grenade away!
I'm a cool customer with my classic cocktail and killer shades.
I’m a cool customer with my classic cocktail and killer shades.

By Sunday afternoon I was literally WADDLING around the French Quarter, absolutely miserable.  My legs, feet, and ankles hurt from how swollen they were.  This was a bad situation.  Mentally I was feeling pretty good, just exhausted and kind of a little checked out.  I was enjoying myself and letting my mental and physical self just recoup a little bit.  We got back to Dallas Sunday night, and I was “good again” Monday and Tuesday.  I ate on plan—lots of protein, veggies, and good carbs—did my cardio and got lifting in too.!  I was starting to feel better, but in just a week, my body looked COMPLETELY different from how it did on stage.  I was embarrassed and self-conscious, and so discouraged.  Had I really just undone in 6 days what it took me 6 months to work for?  I could not stop Googling post-show bloat, weight gain, and rebound articles.  How long would this last??  Would it ever go away? Was I destined to be a fat cow?

An accurate representation of me in New Orleans!
An accurate representation of me in New Orleans!
Hello there cankles!
Hello there cankles!

Wednesday I left for Fort Lauderdale for a work trip, and brought my egg whites and oats to eat on the plane, and a couple of Quest bars and peanut butter for snacks.  I was only going to be gone 36 hours, but I didn’t want to do any more damage.  Wednesday night was dinner and more drinks with our executive team and then I headed back to Dallas on Thursday afternoon.  It was a great trip, but boy was I ready to get back in my routine!!!

Prior to my show, I knew that my metabolism would be in a funk right after the show.  Your body gets so depleted and dehydrated, to look “stage ready” for a matter of hours, and it is impossible to keep that conditioning for very long.  And it’s not healthy!  The problems come because (A) you will engage in post-show binging where you allow yourself to eat foods that had been so restricted for so long, and (B) your body will not be able to handle or know how to deal with all of the extra calories and carbs that you are consuming and therefore your body will turn it to excess water weight and body fat.  I was lucky because I had a couple of cheat meals during my prep, but I really think that it was the booze that did me in.  I had gone 12 weeks without it, and although we didn’t go crazy in NOLA, my body just didn’t know how to process it.  My saving grace was probably all the walking we did and sticking to my cardio.  That and trying to be at least somewhat healthy with what I ate on the trip. A po-boy with a salad instead of fries is a good swap, right?  The hardest part though is the mental part that comes with this.  You beat yourself up and think, “wow, two weeks ago I looked completely shredded and was in the best shape I’ve ever been in and now I’m a fat ass…  cool.”  It’s very discouraging.  VERY discouraging.

THIS. IS. WHY. I. GOT. FAT.
THIS. IS. WHY. I. GOT. FAT.
Gooey deliciousness. Oh so good!
Gooey deliciousness. Oh so good!

Yes, a week of eating and drinking and two trips had definitely taken a hit on my body, and I looked as bad as I felt.  The good news, though, was that I knew what it would take to get it back.  Get back in gym, and starting feeding my body with the right fuel.  As I write this, I’m 10 pounds above stage weight.  Is it all fat?  No, likely not, but some of it definitely is, and it’s not the end of the world.  I will work it off as my body readjusts.  Every day gets better.  But, I know that I will NEVER go on vacation right after a show again.  You need to have control over your diet as you reintroduce foods and recover from contest prep, and being out of town makes it really difficult to do that.  Clean eating and training has now become a lifestyle for me.  I feel better when I exercise and eat the right foods.  It’s not about just competing, or doing it for one show and then letting it all go to waste.  Bodybuilding is about building your body—physically, emotionally, and mentally.  I am ready to move forward and build an even better me.   Oh there’s my wagon!  I’m hopping back on.

Till next time!

-Mere

Are you going to look like the Hulk??

Contest Prep, General Fitness, Living the Fit Lifestyle, Weightloss, Workouts, , , , , , , , , , , ,

When I “went public” in October with my decision to compete and become a figure competitor, you can imagine that I got some mixed feedback.  Unless you really know the sport, you have no idea what the NPC is, what “Figure” really means, or what the different categories are for women.  Most people, quite frankly, just assume that bodybuilders (especially female ones) must take steroids and that they are all super jacked with mega-muscles.  For women, there are 5 categories in the NPC or “National Physique Committee”, and they increase in muscularity beginning with Bikini which has the least muscle, then Figure, Fitness (which has the same judging criteria as Figure, but with a gymnastics routine), Women’s Physique, and finally Women’s Bodybuilding.  They all, however, fall into the sport of “competitive bodybuilding”.  There are a lot of misconceptions about women who compete, but I definitely got some raised eyebrows from friends and colleagues who thought that I was going to essentially end up looking like, well, a cute hulk.  My really good friends and family, however, were very supportive and were thrilled with my decision.  I’m so thankful that I’ve had their support and encouragement, and I can’t wait to make them proud when I strut across that stage in just a couple of weeks!

In my last post, I mentioned that after attending that first show, I knew that I wanted to compete, but I also knew the next step would be to find someone who could coach me, teach me, and train me to bring my best possible physique to the stage.  I did some research, asked around at that show, and pretty much all roads led to the coach who I ended up working with.  He’s extremely knowledgeable in the sport, an  award-winning bodybuilder, and has also judged many shows, so he’s a guru.  Many of his clients have placed very well at shows, and several have gone on to compete at a national level and won IFBB Pro cards as well.  After our first meeting with him, Shane and I knew we had found the right fit for me, and were pumped (haha!  Arnold joke there!) to get the process going.

October 2014 - Just Getting Started
October 2014 – Just Getting Started

Most of you may not know that I am pretty petite.  I’m all of 5’4, and weighed about 120 pounds when I started training with my coach in October of 2014.  At my highest recorded weight in 2012, I was in the low 140s and about 26% bodyfat.  That being said, I was never fat or obese, and I had a good foundation of weight training from the 10 months or so that I had been training on my own before I started working with my coach.  I still had a long way to go before I would be ready to get up on that stage.  Especially in a figure competition suit—have you SEEN how small they are?!?

November 2014 - Growing the Guns
November 2014 – Growing the Guns

After I started working with my coach, I spent October, November, and December of 2014 “bulking”, which means that I was eating more calories, carbs, protein and fat than I had before to help my body put on muscle.  My coach designed all of my workouts, so I just followed the plan, trained HARD six days a week (5 lifting, 1 free day to do yoga, or whatever) and did moderate cardio.  My diet was very structured—I carefully weighed and measured all of my food, and was extremely cognizant to eat my six meals a day.  Alcohol became limited, and I was a lot more aware of what I was eating for “cheat” meals.  I was doing more than just eating clean; I was eating with the purpose of FUELING my body.  If there is one thing I could tell girls who want to lose weight or tone up, it would be that proper nutrition is key to reaching your goals You can’t out train a bad diet, but you also need the RIGHT combination and ENOUGH protein, carbs, and fat to really reap the full benefits of the training you do in the gym.  Nutrition is where I had fallen short, and  poor nutrition (I wasn’t eating “bad” food, I just wasn’t eating the right combination of macro nutrients to fuel my body) is why I wasn’t seeing the best results that I could have for so many months.  I was eating a TON under my “plan”—hooray for bulking and “offseason”!  Needless to say, I could tell a huge difference in my progress within a matter of weeks, and others started taking notice too.  My clothes were fitting better, and I kept getting stronger and stronger in the gym. I’ll admit, the compliments that I was getting certainly helped motivate me to keep going!  I’m so glad that I have progress pictures and workout and food logs to look back to and see the path that helped shape me into where I am today.  With my coach’s guidance, I became even more hooked on what we competitors and gymrats call “the lifestyle”!

In November, my coach and I picked a show—the Phil Heath Classic.  Phil Heath won Mr. Olympia every year from 2011 – 2014.  When my coach first suggested that show, I probably had that deer in the headlights look.  I didn’t know a lot about the sport, but I knew that show is HUGE!  It’s one of the biggest in the entire NPC.  Held in Houston, it’s the first major show of the Season in Texas (which runs March through September or so), and draws a ton of spectators and people in the industry.  I had a trip planned for my 30th birthday on April 1st, so we had to be careful to keep that in mind when figuring out a contest prep plan, but ultimately the decision came down to my coach believing that I had the foundation, genetics, and motivation to do well at the Phil Heath Classic.  We were set—March, 28th, 2015!

December 2014 - Headed Into Prep
December 2014 – Headed Into Prep

That was just over 5 months ago.  I’m about two weeks out from the show, and yes, I have put on quite a bit of muscle, but I’m not green, and I’m not going around smashing things like the Hulk.  It would be pretty cool to be She Hulk for Halloween though, so that’s an option.

Till next time!

-Mere

From Clueless to Confident

Contest Prep, General Fitness, Living the Fit Lifestyle, Nutrition/ Diet, Weightloss, Workouts, , , , , , , , , , , ,

We left off on the last post about what ultimately led me to compete.  To be honest, once I started learning how to build muscle by lifting weights and doing resistance training in the gym, and more importantly once I started seeing the changes in my body, I was hooked!  To me, lifting as a woman is empowering.  It builds more than just muscles.  It brings confidence, and relieves stress.  When I’m in the gym, everything else good and bad in my life or day fades away.  It’s just me and my tunes, and my rep, and the mind / muscle connection.  I discovered quickly what “failing out on a rep” meant and fell in love.  The feeling of pushing myself to get through a tough set challenged me like nothing else had before.  I could feel myself getting stronger, and since I was recording and logging my workouts (I just used a journal, but Shane has a cool app called Fitocracy), I could see my improvements week by week too.

A lot of people ask me how I started, how I figured out how to work out, how I went from being clueless to being able to confidently walk into a gym (we joined LA Fitness Memorial Day weekend 2014, which was really my FIRST gym membership ever) and know what I was doing.  I’m kind of a nerd at heart, and to be honest, I started researching online and just kept Googling, reading, Youtubing, and Pinteresting.  There is a TON of great information and numerous articles  available to you online.  As I mentioned in my last post, Bodybuilding.com is a great place to start.  The sources are credible, and there are awesome videos for form, training plans, etc. all right there at the click of a mouse.  I credit Jamie Eason’s Live Fit program on the site for really laying my foundation of weight training.

Baby biceps. Before we joined LA Fitness.
Baby biceps. Before we joined LA Fitness. Spring 2014.

The more I trained (that’s what we gymrats call working out), the more I absolutely grew to crave it.  I wanted to know more and learn more about this whole new world.  Beginning around January of 2014, and continuing through the spring and summer, I was eating clean 90% of the time and training 5-6 days a week.  I dropped my bootcamp membership in May, and dropped 10 pounds in 10 weeks when I began lifting 5 days a week instead of 3.  The bootcamp was fantastic, but I built more muscle by lifting heavy and often.  I now know that the muscle was burning fat, hence the weight loss.  I really wasn’t doing a lot of cardio at that point.  As far as nutrition goes, I was eating 6 meals a day, but wasn’t sure that I was getting the right macros, etc.  I was aiming for a lot of protein, and clean, “whole” foods, but I also now know I wasn’t really eating the right combination of macros to really build muscle.  Don’t worry, I’ll do several posts later on what I eat and what “clean eating” really means.

Now, back to the question of what made me decide to compete…  As of late summer of 2014, I had been reading Oxygen and Muscle & Fitness Hers magazines for about a year (I started reading them before I got serious about lifting), and I had seen girls in those magazines that just looked amazing.  They had the toned, muscular yet feminine look I was after!  I started seeing a trend that most of them were “competitors”, and I began to research things like the NPC (National Physique Committee—the largest and “grand daddy” of all Bodybuilding Federations), Figure, Bikini, Competition Prep, and I got very curious about the process and the whole competition experience.  I loved clean eating and working out, and had made it a lifestyle at this point, and competing would be the pinnacle of putting those two pieces together into a pretty extreme form, getting in peak physical condition, while competing against myself and fellow women to ultimately do something few others can say that they have done.  I was excited and nervous as hell at the mere THOUGHT of doing this.  Me, a BODYBUILDER?!?!?  I had only been lifting for six months!

Just after we joined LA Fitness. I still love hanging leg raises for abs! Early Summer 2014.
Just after we joined LA Fitness. I still love hanging leg raises for abs! Early Summer 2014.

I did more research, read more articles, talked to an acquaintance of mine (now a good friend, teammate, and mentor, Tonya!) who was also getting ready to compete and decided that I needed to see this in action.  Because I would be turning 30 soon, I wanted a goal to work towards, a challenge, something that could push me out of my comfort zone.  I loved this lifestyle and wanted to take it to the next level.  And to look AMAZING after a 12-week process, well, that would just be the icing on the cake!  Shane was totally on board, too.  We went to our first Bodybuilding competition in September of 2014, and I knew the second that I walked in and saw the tables of Quest Bars, friendly people with protein shakers in hand, supplement reps, meal preppers, sparkles, tans, and smiles, that I had found a crowd who “got” my obsession with this lifestyle.  I was surrounded by girly-girls who loved to lift too. Before I went to the show, I knew that one of two things was going to happen—either I would run towards the hills, or I would think to myself, dammit give me some stripper heels, some more muscle, and put me on that stage! As you all know, I obviously chose to get up on that stage and to rock it!

Till next time!

-Mere

How It All Started

Contest Prep, General Fitness, Living the Fit Lifestyle, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello and welcome to Lipgloss and Lifting! I’m not sure how you found me. Maybe we know each other in real life, maybe you saw me on Instagram, or maybe you just stumbled upon this page by happenstance, but, however you found me, I’d like to start off by saying thank you for stopping by and checking us out! I hope that my words and thoughts as I ramble on this blog will inspire you to live a healthier, happier life. As you may have gathered from my “About ” page, I’m just a girl who absolutely loves her life, a big part of which includes working out and eating healthy. I’m not a trainer (yet) or a nutritionist, but I’m more than happy to share a little about what has worked for me on my journey.

I thought a good place to start in my first post would be to give you all a little history on my journey with fitness and what ultimately led me to decide to compete. I will be the first to tell you that pretty much for the first 26 years of my life (that’s up to about 4 years ago for me) I’m pretty sure that I didn’t have an athletic bone in my body and I absolutely DESPISED working out. I never really played sports growing up (sorry Dad!), hated getting sweaty (now I love it!), and never really felt confident enough to explore working out or being fit. I was chubby around my awkward years when I was about 11-13 or so, but for the most part spent high school, college, and the couple of years post TCU (go Frogs!) as a skinny girl at a healthy weight. After working my first corporate job, however, the pounds started to creep up and I didn’t really like where I was headed. I tried bikram yoga for a little bit, and liked it, but I was still afraid to set foot into a gym because I felt like gyms were intimidating and I didn’t have a clue where to start. I’ve pretty much always been a healthy eater, but somewhere between a stressful job, an active social life, and dealing with the passing of my father in 2011, I had gone from always being around the 120-125 pound range, to 142 in 2012. Something had to change.

When I saw this picture I cried and wondered what the hell happened to me...
Me – Before – February of 2012     When I saw this picture I cried and wondered what the hell happened to me…

So, in April 2012 I joined an all female bootcamp (I got suckered into a Groupon!) and was working out in a parking lot with like-minded women with a yoga mat and 5lb weights at 5am (!!!! Yes, 5am!!!) three mornings a week. I can still remember my first burpee!   Soon enough, I started seeing baby muscles pop up and inches disappearing. I started researching clean eating and what a healthy diet consisted of. I grew stronger and more confident in my ability to finish workouts and I actually started to enjoy them! I stuck with my bootcamp for almost two years and learned so much from my trainer. I’m still thankful for all of our laughs and sweaty morning workouts, and I know that they helped pave the road to where I am now.

I changed jobs in 2013, which gave me more time to focus on me. I had come to a point where I LOVED working out, but felt like I wasn’t getting the results I wanted. Fast forward to January 2014—maybe I was being introspective, or maybe it was because it was my last year in my twenties, but I wanted a goal to work towards that would really push me with my fitness journey. I thought about a marathon, but I’m not a distance runner (I get bored) and I really didn’t want to lose any toenails! It was clear. I knew (after reading many an issue of Oxygen and Muscle & Fitness Hers— now my FAVORITE magazines!) that if I really wanted to get the results and the body I wanted, that I needed to start LIFTING heavier weights, which meant conquering my fear of the gym! I also needed to start giving my body the fuel it needed to grow muscles through proper nutrition and diet. I was still doing the bootcamp thing, but was now up to using 15 pound weights for our sessions, and I still felt like I wasn’t pushing myself hard enough or getting enough out of my workouts. I decided on a flight back from DC that I really wanted to make 2014 my year to get in shape and take my love of fitness and clean eating to the next level. My amazing husband (who was also unhappy with how he was looking thanks to a few too many happy hours and weigh (pun intended) too many dinners of pizza, wings, or fajitas) was right there on the bandwagon with me. We decided to research some weight training routines on www.bodybuilding.com (a GREAT place to start by the way!) and started training in our condo building’s gym that week. That was a little over 13 months and twenty pounds ago for me, and over fifty pounds ago for him. It’s hard to believe I’ll be stepping on the stage in just 3 weeks as a figure competitor! More on what happened between that American Airlines flight and the 9 month period to when I started working with my coach In October 2014 on my next post.

I have been lifting for about a year now and this picture shows a strong, confident beast! That wears lipgloss!
Me – After – February of 2015        I have been lifting for about a year now and this picture shows a strong, confident beast! That wears lipgloss when she lifts! 😉