Lean Bodies - Noel Clark

Lots of changes this past week. We dropped my calories a bit and also dropped my veggies like I said before…I saw a lot of differences. This past week my weight came down 5lbs and my measurements dropped a lot for a short period of time. Hopefully I will get some pics up soon. I am feeling a ton better since taking out the veggies, I think the culprit was the salad..so that is going to stay out of my diet. As for today: wow, This is my first all day cheat. Here is the reason why:

So you get to a point during contest prep where your calories are generally low and then maybe your energy for workouts is down a bit or their is a plateau in your progress–you have a two choices—you can continue to drop the calories and then up the cardio…Erik and I both DO NOT like that idea or you can start implementing things like refeeds and BIG cheats. I have seen so many girls do endless amounts of cardio…and I am not about to say that it doesn’t work because these same girls come into their shows…lean and looking good. BUT that option is just not feasible for me. I 1.do not have that kind of time 2.I am just afraid I would lose the muscle that I busted my butt for during off season and 3. the rebound from that seems to be bad. So we are going to put in a HUGE cheat day. Which is today. LOL This will help upregulate the regulatory hormones that govern fat loss, various aspects of metabolism–leptin. The huge carb/caloric intake on such days serves as a trigger to upregulate leptin levels and promote continued fat loss WITHOUT having to resort to continued calorie cutting and continued increases in cardio.

The thing that is hard about this is just the mental side. I have been ‘dieting’ for a while and have a negative mindset on ‘cheating’. That ‘cheating’ is BAD. I hit some nice lows this past week and feel like…uh oh, am I going to negate all that I did. But like Erik always says, this is to make progress BETTER. So I will weigh everyday this next week and watch the weight come back down and hopefully by Friday, I will have seen a nice change in my measurements. The funny part is I have most of this on video LOL and my kids are having a blast. Hopefully I can splice it together and put it up…

Hope your day is as yummy as mine.

Ok, so I have to admit I am feeling run down this week. I am sure it is a combo of many things. Not sleeping well, lower calories, no veggies …

So it has been several days since I cut the veggies out of my diet and I don’t know if it is that or a combo of that and my calories changing, but I have seen significant progress this week–visually and scale-wise. I am going to take pics and measurements on Saturday…not for a biweekly but to see if my measurements match up with my scale and my pics :). Then the food fest begins Wait till you all see what I have in store for my diet on Saturday.

I have managed to stay strong in the gym. I was able to do all sets of my DB Snatch with 60lbs but I will say that it has been hard to get my butt to the gym.

7 1/2 more weeks till show time

This past week has been a great training week. I have learned a lot of new movements and am really enjoying my training. I have now adjusted to not having my flavored water and don’t feel deprived now. I haven’t notice a difference in my physique but I have noticed a difference in my thirst. It went up without the flavoring. Now we are testing out another theory. My fibrous veggies. I noticed that with the high amount of salads I was eating … I was having tummy issues. Erik told me others that he was working with had similar effects and that I should cut that out for 2 weeks and see what happens :( Salad is the thing that basically helps fill my tummy. BYE BYE SALAD. So that night he told me I ate a HUGE salad; like a goodbye salad. From that, my stomach hurt. I feel so much better today and it has only been 2 days. So if you are having some bloating issues, you might want to look into the amount of fibrous veggies you are eating.

I have seen some nice changes in my physique lately. I have had a lot of ‘I told you so’ from Erik. There is going to be a HUGE change in my diet come next week. Something that I have never done (eek). Hopefully by next week I will have some interesting things to talk about in here.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter tomorrow I know we will.

Just finished another biweekly. Weight was the same, but my measurements dropped. It is funny how when this happens to my clients, I tell them this is the best possible news, but when it happens to me, I get ticked. I guess the whole goal is to just drop body-fat and not to focus on the weight. I mean the whole goal of the offseason was to come in heavier –ie– more muscle! My new program has some new lifts for me in it. Ones that I have never done. The first was a one-arm DB snatch. Definitely a great movement, but what I initially struggled with was my left arm. I am right handed and throwing that weight up with my right arm was great. My left, well, I was worried I was going to launch it accross the gym. Hopefully my form and confidence will improve with each time I perform this- I used a 60lb DB. I also had on-arm lateral throws. I like these a lot. These movements get you really winded too - I think I used 40lbs for these. And the last new one that I had was full contact twists. I thought those were going to be a breeze, but dang they were very hard. They are all in the clip that I put together at the bottom. So things seem to be coming together — it is always nerve racking when you have a deadline though. Here are a few progress pics from yesterday.

This is 2 weeks ago

This is yesterday.

Here is full front shot…you can see where the legs are (hopefully) going to start coming down

So this past weekend was my Anniversary (11 years)  and Scott and I went out to eat.  Normally for me, I do not take cheat meals during contest prep.  Now this isn’t because I am not allowed or that it will actually hinder my progress, I think for me it is more a mental thing.  BUT I ended up taking one on Saturday night.  It was so good LOL.  Here is the thing though, now I wish I hadn’t.  It messes with me mentally.  Logically I know that one meal didn’t set me back, but I still get worried and hung up on the fact that I didn’t stick to my plan.  GRRR it is frustrating.  I have a biweekly on Wednesday and now I am concerned that it will throw that off…..    I do wonder with other competitors, how close to the show would they take an off plan meal?

 I did get a new program last week.  I love getting new programs.  I am doing a little bit of Steady State cardio for the first time during this contest prep.  Nothing terrible though.  Hopefully I will be getting some more videos of these crazy workouts :)  And soon (hopefully) I will be going to posing practice- I am looking to get help this year with that… I will get some good video of that as well. It is 9 weeks till show time and I have a lot to get ready.  Speaking of, I need to go order my NPC card! 

There has been a lot of talk about weighing out your food.  I have heard people say that weighing food is ‘obsessive’ and too hard to do.  Here is the thing, if you don’t know how much your eating, how do you know how many calories you are getting in?  If you are trying to get lean and you don’t know your calorie intake, how do you adjust them to drop more fat?  AND it really takes two seconds to drop your plate on a scale, zero it out, and put your food on it.  I think that when people say that they just use small portions or can eyeball it…they are usually way off.  I think that we tend to eat more than we think we are eating.  I even started weighing out some foods like the English Muffin I eat post workout…The serving size says 1  or 57g.  I decided to take it out and weigh them just to see and the one I got out was 67 and the next was 56.    I know this seems minor, but if you are trying to get REALLY lean then extra does matter.  I would do this with oats too….I tend to eat those very often and when you use 1/2 cup and then weight that 1/2 cup, well, it is WAY more than the 40g it is suppose to be.  My Hubby wasn’t too happy when I made him do it LOL-He was getting an extra 15g easy -each time he ate them.  All these things can add up so just be mindful of weighing your food–it might just make a difference :) 

Probably like most, I always feel things aren’t changing fast enough. You think, I have been dieting and training my BUTT off and it comes time to measure or weigh in and you just don’t feel like the numbers are where they should be. That is how I have been feeling lately. I told a friend yesterday that I wanted this competition prep to be ‘fun’ like it was before and that I just hadn’t felt like it was. Her response to me was something like–’fun?, I didn’t think competition prep could be fun-you are weird!” hahahaha so I am going to try to relax…enjoy the process as much as possible, know that Erik has everything under control, that the legs will come in and I will be conditioned enough for this first show. With that being said..Here are a couple of photos…and yes, I am still white LOL Back shot:  

Jan shot of legs and then now:

Abs…brace yourselves..the before is gross LOL

Still a ways to go but as Erik says, I have about 10 weeks to get there.

Here is another clip from a workout I did yesterday.  The thing about taping yourself is that you can definitely see when your form is slipping or your tempo is off (or when your coach sees it and points it out to you lol)  So…on my Rack Pull-Ups I need to be back more…more UNDER the bar than I am.  So keep that in mind if you are looking at form.