Lean Bodies - Noel Clark

Like I have said, the goals that I was hoping to achieve this show I definitely hit. I mainly wanted to come out more confident than I had in the past and with an overall better presentation. Definitely still room to improve in this area so i hope that at Jr Nationals I am that much more at ease on stage. I got the score sheets this morning and turns out that I was 1 point from 5 and I think just a few points out from 4. This gives me hope that I can crack that top five in Chicago … that is what i am shooting for at least.

Aside from the competing part, I had a blast with all my friends. We all hung out in-between the shows and then had the after party at my friends Amy and Kevin’s house. They were awesome hosts for the evening. You should have seen the spread….we had way to much junk there. The table was covered with pizza, sushi(blech), brownies-all kinds, cookies, candy, puppy chow, chips, crack, ooey gooeys, spiced pecans, birthday cake for Ileen that didn’t even get cut nor did the ice cream get opened lol…and I am sure I am forgetting other stuff. It was really ridiculous. here are some random pics from the trip. Thanks again, for all your support. Luv you guys!

This is Laura and I (another LBC client) She looked AWESOME by the way.

Erik, Laura, and I

Me and hubby

Lyn, Cindy, Ileen, Amy, and Kevin.

Kevin

The crew

Erik, Lyn, Ileen

Scott and I I see you hiding that food in your hand.

Yes, Amy and I are jumping on their tramp. LOL

Yes, I do realize that my face is a different color … I just couldn’t put any make up on after taking all that off. Me and Amy

Here is me looking like a dork! We were taking down the balloons and sucking in the helium LOLOLOL I think it was about 1 a.m. at this point lolol a little slap happy!!!

cindy…:)  we wore her out!

I have so many more…..

Thanks for the great memories guys!

Prejudging started at 10:30 but we weren’t out there until around 2. Jr USAs is definitely a long long day but I have to say that I like it better than the 2 day events at the other National shows. We went out in our one piece first in large groups. We did our quarter turns and then came back out for our individual presentation. From there we had call-outs. During the first call-outs I was added to the first 5. This was a huge thing for me. After that we went and changed into our two piece suits where the process is the same except no individual presentations. This time I was called out in the top five. Here are a few shots from MD.

They don’t have any shots up in the two piece but here are some taken after the night show

We all went back to my room to eat in between the prejudging and the night show. Headed back over to the venue at about 6:00. The night show went pretty smoothly and I had a lot of fun. I was able to meet a lot of girls and catch up with some others that i hadn’t seen in a while. I ended up placing 4th in my two piece and 6th in the one piece with an overall placing of 6th. This is a great improvement for me and hope to keep progressing.

I will post some fun pictures tomorrow with all of my friends that came to support me and some with other competitor’s.

Wow. I am tired LOL

What a great weekend. We left Friday morning for Charleston (Scott, Erik, Elizabeth and me) and were meeting Amy, Kevin, Lyn, Cindy and Ileen that night for dinner. We did take a bit of the scenic route along the way LOL. We got checked into the hotel and then I went to check in for the show. I measured in at 5′ 7 1/4″ this is up from last year but down from the year before This put me in the tall class of F. From there we got to go out to dinner with the gang. I think Laura (another LBC client and friend) and I were ready to chow down on some steak and fries and cheesecake. Nice pre comp meal!!! Here is our group at Outback.

From there we just went back to my room to relax and then I had to put another coat of tanner on. It was late and we were off to bed.

Laura and I had apts to do our make-up in the morning at 8 with Laurie St.Michael. We actually worked with her assistant Stephanie Collins and she did a wonderful job with both of us. I have never had my make-up done for the show and she was great. BUT it sure was a TON of make up LOL

I also had Elizabeth help straighten my hair..THANK YOU!!!

Tomorrow I will kind of explain about the suit situation…I did wear a new..BEAUTIFUL PASSION FRUIT suit. Very very last minute (morning of the show). And I wanted to thank Berns a million times over.

I will fill you in on the rest tomorrow

Two days out and here is what is on tap…

Nails were done this morning.

and then there has been the baking. Erik claims to have “helped” which means he stirred once or twice. so sad.

Lot going on with the girls and getting them ready to go tomorrow to school and then to my mom’s house for the weekend. (THANKS MOM).

Still drinking lots of water but I have adjusted to that so i don’t feel so bad now. Here are some pics that were taken yesterday in the gym during my depletion workout with Erik. I am ready get there and get this going…:)

Erik arrived this morning. I am always glad he is here. I try to second guess myself and just having him say YES or NO is nice…that way I don’t have to think LOL. Plus he always has my best interest at heart so that is great. We went to the gym and did my depletion workout. Tough but knowing that was it for me this week was AWESOME. We ended up taking some pics at the gym, but erik still has to get them off his camera and I have to of course make sure I don’t look like a retard. Felt kinda silly posing in the gym…when it was full LOL. Hopefully tomorrow.

Headed to get nails done in the morning and then just a ton of family stuff to get done. Hopefully pics will be up here or in Erik’s blog tomorrow

I am so excited!

Just a few days left until Jr USAs. Water is up…wow is it up LOL. The bathroom and I are now best friends. Did a depletion workout today…that always makes me feel like such a wimp because you have to lower the weights so much to hit the rep ranges! Sent Erik updated photos on Saturday and he seemed to be pleased with them. I am definitely going to be about 10lbs heavier this year and it is funny to say that that is actually a good thing. I am going to be doing some serious baking the next couple of days…boy is this a test of my willpower. I have a couple more days in the gym and then it is time to rest and travel. We will be heading out Friday morning after we drop of the girls at school. I know I have said it before but I have a huge support system coming with me. YAY! Regardless, we are going to have a blast. I am bringing my video camera with me to keep track of the weekend. I might try to VLOG a bit of the journey. I am very excited and ready to show my stuff

With one week before we leave for Charleston, I am definitely getting excited. I just finished getting my hair cut and some highlights put in….still blonde, but some other colors in there to give it some depth. And STRAIGHT as an arrow! I need to do the whole nail thing in the next few days. It will definitely be crazy because my husband is going out of town Sunday through Tuesday. Then Erik arrives Wednesday morning. It will be go go go. Not to mention life doesn’t stop just because I am competing..although sometimes that sure would be nice. My youngest has a performance at school Thursday night as well. I guess it is better to just be hectic than to sit around thinking too much though. I am definitely feeling better about things…even after the “your too fat to do figure” comment I got yesterday at the gym LOL. You gotta let that slide right off …right? lol Water is going up tomorrow…Me and the restroom will become best friends.

I am going to the Eastern Seaboard tomorrow to support a client of Lean Bodies Consulting…GO CHARISSA! And to also support a great member of our LBF forum –Jen. Good luck girls. I know you both will look awesome

This obviously will not be a revelation for most people, but it has been a huge hurdle for me. When I first started this journey of prepping for a figure show, I think that my mindset was: I will just train hard and diet hard and wala…I will be a figure competitor. HA! If it were only that easy, right? I definitely feel like I have come at this stuff from a different perspective than a lot of other girls that I have spoken to. First and foremost, I consider myself an athlete. I go into things looking at them as a competition…This is both good and bad. I have been told so many times that if you bring your best package to the stage then you are a winner….the only problem with that is that I have been raised ( in sports of course) that when you get 1st place…you are a winner. I think that I have had to find a middle ground with this. My biggest weakness this past year has definitely been my presentation and, I would say, a lack of confidence. I also think this is one of the areas that I have worked the hardest to change. A good friend of mine told me that I need to come across like this is the happiest day of my life. I think to be able to do that, you need to feel really great about the body that you are presenting. So after all the effort that Erik and I put into the program planning in the off season to bring up my weak areas physically, I am hoping that this has set me up to ‘feel’ that I am presenting a new and improved me. It is difficult though when you have improved the areas that have been pointed out as your weaknesses and then you are told…you look like a bodybuilder or you aren’t going to do well. I have really had to wrap my brain around the fact that everyone will have an opinion and that I am putting myself out there for people to judge my body…so i can’t get too upset when they tell me what they think. It comes back down to how I feel about the way I look. Erik had to remind me (along with some other close people in my life) that I needed to put my game face back on and stop listening to those that were giving me negative feedback–at this point–…because in the end, it will show all over my face when I step on that stage. And they are so right…I suck at hiding my feelings LOL. So after my attitude adjustment LOL I am approaching this show with a much more positive attitude–I know that I have done all I can to improve from last year and have to just go show everyone that I am happy with myself. I guess I just never realized how much of this was going to be me battling my own body image issues, as much as competing with others. LOL

Just under 2 weeks till show time. Watched closely the Pittsburgh PRO/AM to see if the judges were going to go softer and they did. I think at this point for me though, it will all depend on presentation. I think that I would rather come in conditioned (to some- too lean) and be able to NOT flex then come in too soft. As most know, I don’t like the soft look anyway, but understand that the judges are after a bit softer appearance. I also wonder if it will be consistent throughout all the shows. I just have to remember that in the end I have to be happy with what I go in looking like. I think the hard part with that is I am very competitive as well. And I understand that if I am too hard that I will go un-noticed again. I have worked really hard this year to bring up the things the judges said I was lacking…thicker back, better triceps, STRAIGHT HAIR lol. I will also be competing about 10lbs heavier than last year…that to me is crazy LOL. I just have to stay positive and keep practicing my posing/presentation….