Blue to Match my Eyes!

This journey continues to be an exciting experience for me. I keep feeling better and better and the Lord keeps affirming me that this is the path I'm supposed to be on.
As of today, Thursday the 21st, I am 13 1/2 weeks out from the competition. My meal plan and training has been going great! The only setback was this past weekend when we went out of town with my sister in law and her fiance. For the most part I tried to stay on track with my meals by taking my food with me for my breakfast and snacks. There were a few meals that weren't good calorie-wise but being that I was still 14 weeks out and had followed my meal plan to a "T" the previous 2 weeks, I wasn't too worried about it. I got right back on track as soon we headed home.
Since we were going to San Antonio, I looked up the suit shop that was sponsored for the competition I'm doing and found that it was only about 10 miles away from where we would be. So before we left town to head home, my husband and I stopped in just to see about getting measurements, style, time frame, shoes, etc. I met with Carie, owner of Caries Posing Suits (http://www.cariesposingsuits.com/) and she was VERY helpful. She had me try on about 6 different suits. We ended up getting my suit and Carie went ahead and took in the straps and sides so it will fit after I lose more inches. Of course If I need any adjustments I can always stop in.... Too bad she's in San Antonio! But no, I didn't find a suit shop closer and since my competition is in San Anontio, I'm not too worried about it. IF worst comes to worst and I can't get to her, I can ship it to her for any changes or head over there a day early before the competition.

Here is a sneak pre-view!

I didn't expect to leave the shop with my suit picked out much less in hand! My husband wanted to go ahead and get it to spread out the costs. Which was a good idea! I now have my suit & heels!

1 Week Down!

Thank goodness it's Friday and I get to sleep in tomorrow! Today is the last training day of my first week! It is still kinda surreal but I'm taking it one day & week at a time. I have weight trained the past 4 days and will weight train today as well. I have only done one day of cardio this week so I may use Sat & Sun to catch up on that.
I am pretty sore right now. On Tues one of the things I did was calf raises and boy oh boy do I feel it now! It had been a really long time since I REALLY worked my calves enough to make them sore. Maybe that's why I dont really have any! The past 2 days my husband has been training with me and helping me through my exercises.

I haven't actually told anyone that I am training for a figure competition. About 4 people to be exact, that include two friends, my mom, and yesterday, my dad. I'm not sure how my dad feels about it. He didn't say much but with both him and my mom I had to re-assure them that it is NOT bodybuilding & bulking.

What's the difference between Bikini, Figure & Bodybuilding??

In short, here is a little of what I've found of what the differences are in just my short time of researching:

-Bikini is mostly ages through 34, toned but not too defined. The competitions seem to be about sex appeal, sassy-ness, bling & divas!

-Figure competitors generally tend to carry more muscle than bikini competitors. "That is because as we age we lose the overall body fat that you see in younger gals. This layer of overall body fat is needed for the bikini competitors. They usually have a bit of a softer overall look because of that. Figure competitors, on the other hand, tend to get more lean, and therefore is typically a look that older competitors can more easily achieve."

-"currently the bikini genre has a bit of a "sassy" element. Figure is a bit more structured with its mandatory poses."

This is the type of posing done in Figure and you can see there is more muscle
than in the bikini

This is the muscle development for Bikini and the
type of posing, hense the sassy-ness!

While I think that Bikini is nice.... I just don't think it fits me to flaunt my sexyness! Hahaha! I'm a more structured kina gal. - Walk out, pose, turn, turn, turn, pose.... - I'm good with that!

It's mostly mental!

Through the day yesterday I spent a lot of time looking up information that just kept confusing me and eventually ended up working against me. I'd read things that would make me think that I can not do this, that it's more than I can figure out. I was giving myself a headache stressing over this and knew it was the devil trying to make me think that this is too big for me and FINALLY I listen to the voice in my head, my Lord, telling me, "I will lead you through this. You CAN do this, just stop worrying and let me lead." So, that's what I'm doing! I mean, I was able to get my food cooked for the week on Sunday and still spend time with my family. It doesn't sound big but when you don't have your food ready and any other items set out & put together the night before or the week before it will cause a lot of stress. I don't have to have that!

Yesterday, Monday & my first day on this program my food was right on, except for a few things in my breakfast that I need to cut out. I've started entering my food intake and exercise in www.myfitnesspal.com. to track everything I eat and the nutrition. This morning after entering my dinner and exercise info I noticed my caloric intake was over. So I looked to see where it was high and it came from the honey I put in my tea and the dried cranberries in my oatmeal. So.... right now I don't think it with hurt too much but I'm going to go ahead and try to cut it back or altogether. One big success was that I actually drank 8 8oz of water! This is HUGE for me because I'm not a big drinker to begin with. I really need to get up to 1 gallon a day. This is something I will be working on!
My workout was Legs & Abs yesterday. I didn't do cardio because I knew that my husband would be working at the fire dept today and I wouldn't be in a big hurry to get home other than to eat in time! It went well and I did leg exercises that I've never done & haven't done in a long time. The Staggered Deadlift was new and it was a challenge... it had my HR up and my hammies are def sore today! The workout called for 4 ab exercises. Those were tough too!
Overall it was a good first day! The minor mental set back during the day was just that, minor. My Lord reminded me He is with me and will not give me more than I can handle! I also reminded myself of the picture I posted on Facebook the previous day:

That's right, I'm going to have haters, people who don't think I can, don't think I will even finish, and those who simply wont understand the reasoning. . . Just don't interrupt me while I AM doing it!

Here we go....

My first figure competition will be Sept 29th in San Antonio!!!! Nailbiting!!!

Through this time of running these two 5k races and registering for the other mud runs later this year and deciding to compete in a figure competition I have also thought about my sweet and powerful Lord above. I can only give the credit to Him who has been the presence around me pushing me to do these things that are so out of my comfort zone and would have never imagined myself doing. I give all the praise & glory to Him for all of my accomplishments. He provides me with everything I need and will not lead me wrong!
I feel that God has a purpose for me in all of this.  I pray that I stay focused and am able to to show his light and glory through this process. This is going to be a tough challenge but I can do it. I know there will be people that don't understand the why's and there will be people that won't expect me to do well or even complete my 16 week training.
When I decided to attempt this I looked up upcoming local competitions and found one in San Antonio on Sept 29th. This date worked out perfect for several reasons. One being that it was just about the only date in that time that I have open and two because it was right at 16 weeks out. 16 weeks is the ideal time to prepare for a competition. This gave me the weekend to prepare to start with the meal plans and workouts on Monday the 4th.

First of all let me just say that I can not believe I'm doing this!! This is probably one of the biggest goals I've set for myself.... EVER!

How it started...

Last fall, the end of September to be exact, I lost my second job due to the contract not being renewed. It was shortly after that I had this revelation to really get serious and disciplined on my exercise & diet. I did really good & had several people tell me that they noticed a difference and thought I looked leaner. Between losing my second job and Brandon, my husband, getting his job with the fire dept, I had a lot more free time to spend at the gym. In January I thought it would be a good idea to sign up for the Lean Body Challenge (LBC) beginning in at the end of January and ended at the end of April, a 12-week program. The winner of best transformation received a cruise. So we signed up for that and exercised, cooked the right foods, etc. In February I went skiing with my family and at first thought my skiing had improved 200%. Which, yes, it did improve a LOT since the previous year but I soon realized that what REALLY made it easy for me was because of the shape I was in. It was so rewarding to know that all my hard work, time, & sacrifice in the gym paid off on something. Skiing was a blast for me this year!
Still continuing on the LBC was not easy but I tried my best. I had my birthday, valentines day, and Easter. I never gorged on these holidays but I did indulge some while still trying to stay on track. It was defiantly difficult at times when Brandon had a hard time staying on track between eating at home and at the fire dept and that time of the month has also been the cause of sweet food binging at times. The deadline arrives for the LBC and I know that I'm in no way transformed enough to win the challenge so I did not bother to do my final measurements & pictures. I also noticed that I found myself eating more and more things that would hurt and not help my fitness "goals"/lifestyle. I quote goals because I never really had any actual goals like specific measurements or weight. I just knew that I wanted to be toned & defined.
Since I didn't have a regular second job now I would work different ones here and there. In March I worked a marathon that ran through The Woodlands in which one of the competitors was the wife of one of the guys I work with. I had followed her weight loss journey & training journey to this marathon (half). Of all the cardio I had been doing I thought to myself that I could compete in a run! I was not fooling myself thinking I do a marathon or even a half but I thought there was surly something I COULD do! So I take some time to think about this and in April I do some looking and actually found a 5k Trail Run being held at my local YMCA on the second weekend of May. Luckily Brandon was not scheduled to work & he said that he would run it with me. As much as I don't like cardio, especially running, I couldn't believe that I was signing me and my husband up to compete in a 5k. I was ready for the challenge.
I worked the CBI marathon in The Woodlands the weekend before our 5k and it just had me pumped up even more!
Well, we did it!! It was so rewarding to complete! I was so proud of us!

Brandon finished in 28 min & I finished in 31 min.
The week after our first 5k I was searching online for another one. Brandon & I decided on an obstacle mud run in Dallas in Sept. The Dash of The Titans. It is a 5k and is timed. I also found a female only obstacle mud run in Galveston the beginning of Nov. that I signed up for. WHOA! Who is this person who is signing up for all of these fitness challenges & where did the Elizabeth go that liked to stay in her comfort zone!? I really got into the all female run and got several other friends to sign up as well. This run is not timed and you can skip over obstacles that you dint feel comfortable doing but will be a HECK of a good time!

The following weekend I worked the Iron Man Triathlon in The Woodlands and it reminded me of my accomplishment the weekend before but left me ready for another challenge.... before September! So the next week I was looking at local runs again and found a 5k in Sugar Land the first weekend in June. Brandon was off work but when I talked to him he told me that he would be out of town for training. Hmpt... So I signed up anyway!

So the week before my second 5k I am still having this feeling inside of me for something bigger, more challenging. I'm on FaceBook and one of the pages that I have followed a while is YourFirstFigureCompetition. So I see posts from that page a lot. The administrator of that page, Kimberly, posts about her preparations for her competitions and miscellaneous tips for training and eating. I've always read what she has posted but NEVER considered even thinking about competing in a figure competition. . . Until now! I'm not sure that I could muster up the courage to present myself on a stage in front of judges but knew that there was no way I could do it without my husbands solid support.
I'm reading a Muscle & Fitness Hers magazine one night in bed and show a picture of a competitor to my husband and say that I was thinking about doing a figure competition. So he says, yeah, that'd be cool. You can do it. That gave me a little push but wondered if he said that thinking that I wasn't that serious so the next morning I sent him a text that said I was kinda serious about doing a figure competition and he responded with, "I didn't think you were serious." After telling him that I really was serious, we talked about it a little bit but I never got an affirmative answer from him until late that week. Two days before my second 5k he let me know in his own way that he was okay with the idea of me doing this. We went for a run that evening and I told him that if I was going to do this that the most important thing for me was to have his support because I could not do it without him. I told him that I wasn't fooling myself and know that it will be a hard and difficult challenge but it was something I really wanted to do.
The next day I purchased Your First Figure Competition training program! http://www.yourfirstfigurecompetition.com/

Then I ran in my second 5k race! I thankfully got my mom to tag along with me and even complete the 2 mile walk! I just as happy if not more than the first 5k! It was still difficult for me so I was happy to have completed it. My time was 20 sec faster than the first! Ha Ha!  I didn't train well for it due to the lack of time and being in the process of moving.

34th in my age group, 541st overall out of 937