9 Weeks Out

It's been a while since I've posted but I DID move across the WORLD and all, so there's that.  Gimme a few months to get settled, sheesh, pressure. 

Lots has changed!!  We are now officially in contest prep!!  Exciting, I know.  For those of you who don't understand that and are confused at what I've been doing the last 8 months, WELL, I was building.  Building lots of muscles and fluff and now I'm leaning out for show day.  It's a slow process but it's becoming my favorite because I get to see what has been hiding under my fluff the last 7 months.  I started prep at 13 weeks out from show date and I'm now 9 weeks out, almost 8.  

So here's what show prep looks like:

1.  SWEATY PITS 24/7

I'm usually dripping sweat from my arm pits down to my elbows BEFORE I EVEN START WORKING OUT each day.  And then EVERY shirt I put on is graced with the presence of a nice wet ring of sweat.  YAY FAST METABOLISM! 

2.  PEE.  ALL THE TIME, PEE.

Lucky for you, I  don't have any pictures of this to help you visualize BUT drinking 1-2 gallons of water a day can make a girl become best friends with the bathroom.  Sleep is rough because I seriously am up about 6-7 times a night.  Not even exaggerating.  I daydream of having a permanent catheter.   

2.  Posing obsessed.

At any given moment, one could take my phone and look in my camera roll and see about 639 pictures of  ME.  POSING.  I always read that posing was the hardest part but I didn't quite understand until NOW that POSING IS THE MOTHER FREAKING HARDEST PART.  Holy body contortions.  When I FEEL like I look right, I look awful and when I look PERFECT I feel like a pretzel.  Twist, suck in, boobs up, legs facing forward, flex EVERY MUSCLE, booty pop, shoulders forward, back arched until it feels like it's about to snap, hamstrings flexed, toes out, quads popping, chin up to the ceiling, relax shoulders.  OH MY GOSH.  But I gotta keep practicing because you can look AMAZING and have horrible posing and a horrible routine and you're screwed.  It's all about showing the best of YOU and making it all look natural and like you aren't trying too hard even though you're trying WAY too hard.  ugh.  But thanks to my Coach Julia and to my sweet friend Heidi I'm getting better.  MUCH better.  Still not perfect but every day I practice, I get closer.  

3.  The missing boobs.

I thought I had lost them a long time ago but I was wrong.  Now I REALLY lost them.  Like, zero.  Like ribs stick out further than my chest in a sports bra or swimsuit.  It's totally sadness.  My 12 year old has bigger boobs than me YALL!!!  Thank goodness for padded bras and padded contest bikinis!!

4.  Cellulite Oil.

Okay I don't know if this really works but I'm willing to try because I have cellulite on my backside that I NEED TO GO AWAYYYYYY.  So I've been rubbing down with this stuff every day.  Jesus take the wheel on my cellulite situation.  

5.  VEINSSSSSSS.

Oh momma these are fun.  The more lean and thin my skin gets, the more veins be popping and it's kinda exciting when a new one appears.  I've wanted a bicep vein for quite some time.  I don't know why, it just looks badass, right?  Well, the past few weeks at the gym it would pop out during a pump BUT, yesterday I was just sitting at home doing NOTHING and guess who decided to show up?  Oh yeah.  

6.  Cravings.

Contest prep = NO CHEAT  MEALS.  Sounds awful but really wasn't too bad until like last week when my calories got reduced a second time and then something in my brain just snapped.  It's like I want everything I see and it's extremely hard to stay full of water to make sure I don't feel those hunger pains because they are EVIL.  I've started making a list of the items I'll need in my belly the day after the show.  I'm going to make it a day of food.  All day.  All food.  Sadly, I will probably eat two donuts and be sick for the rest of the day, but I'm being positive, surely I can ingest all of this in one day.  

And since I can't have my cake and eat it too, I just buy myself new workout bags to smile at.  I can't eat it, well I guess I could but it wouldn't taste like donuts.  Instead I just pat it and zip it and stuff it and be happy about it.  Look how cute he is just sitting there smiling at me :)

7.  PROGRESS.

This is the best one.  Each week I get to compare my pics to the weeks prior and it's so encouraging to see how much change I'm making.  It fuels me for another week to know that my body is working properly and being fed and worked to create these results.  I love science!! The front and back pics are from 1st week of contest prep and now, so like 4 weeks difference.  You can definitely tell I'm leaning out.  

And then these leg pics are about 2 weeks apart.  Abs are much tighter, legs look smaller but only because they're losing fat.  And we have a definite quad problem on the right leg and we're in the process of trying to remedy that.  Poor little quad doesn't want to grow as fast as his partner.  Still, I'm happy with this progress.  

Shoulders are coming along nicely as well.

And even my back.  These pics are a few weeks old and taken before contest prep started so I'm a little fluffy in the waist, but they still show a lot of growth muscle wise.  And I'm no figure competitor (YET) so don't judge my posing.  Flexing your back is like the hardest thing ever.  Go try it, you'll see.  

And don't forget the guns.  Been doing a lot of curls for the girls to get these suckers to grow.  Nice shoulder rounding, lat growth, even forearm and of course bi's and tri's.  

I can honestly say that I never IMAGINED I would be seeing this much progress by now.  It's so fun!  I love every minute of it.  Really I do.  I love looking in the mirror and seeing someone that I'm totally not used to seeing.  Who is that girl in the mirror?!?!  It can't be me!!  I love thinking about how hard I've worked and being proud of my accomplishments.  I love hearing my coach tell me she's proud of me, or Austin tell me he's proud of me.  I love when my kids tell me that they tell people at school that their mom is a body builder.  I'm just a small fry but it still makes me smile to think they they're proud of me too.  I'm so glad that I set my goals so high and am reaching waayyyyy far out of my comfort zone to grow physically and mentally.  

OH and one more thing!!  I changed my show date because it's a better more organized show.  So it's now NOVEMBER 7th in IRVING TEXAS.  

Until next time! Peace out!