Lean Bodies - Noel Clark

Well, we are only a few days away from the final show of the year. Erik just arrived in town and we will be heading to the gym later for my final workout soon. Things are all falling into to place: nails done, tanner arrived (thank you Tammy Pies) and now my coach is here :). We have a lot of people coming out to the show from both the Lean Bodies Fitness Forum as well as Lean Bodies Consulting clients. I just want to say thanks for all the support and well wishes that I have gotten from everyone. It means a lot to me! We will be taking a ton of pics through out the weekend and I look forward to meeting a lot of new people!

This topic seems to get brought up a lot on the forum and just with other people that I speak to that are into fitness and getting in shape.  The biggest question is why is it that our friends and even our family seem so against us eating the right way.  OR even worse…Sticking to a plan and trying to get LEAN.  I don’t get it and I haven’t seen it change over time either.  One of the most difficult things for people to understand is when you bring your own food over to their house.  Why is this such a bad or rude thing to do.  I mean, if you tell them ahead of time so they don’t go out of their way to prepare something, why is this not ok?  They wouldn’t say anything if you had some food allergy and couldn’t eat a certain type of food-nope-only if you pack your chicken and your salad or sweet potato.  Another big one is “You weigh your food?????”  Do they not realize that it takes two seconds to do this? I would think that these people would want to support you through this process. you know, build you up, not make you feel weird, or wrong, or OBSESSIVE. (i hate that one).

I think one of the good things I read tonight talked about inner strength.  A friend of mine, Jennie Hamilton said,  ”REGARDLESS however -while support from others is important to a certain degree nothing compares to the drive/passion that should come from within. That’s what’s always drove me. This is MY choice. Living for someone else, living for things with no meaning to you doesn’t yield happiness or allow your full potential to thrive. Sure it may not be easy, but it just makes you stronger.”  I thought that about said it all.  That is what you think about when friends and family doubt you or use words that aren’t uplifting…that is what you need to remember–mental toughness.

One more big rant and then I promise to move on to a bit more positive stuff.

I am just really tired of people telling me that I have it easy because of good genetics.  That I don’t have to work hard for what I have because of good genetics.  That dieting for shows is easier for me because I have good genetics.  Now I am not dumb enough to think that having good genetics doesn’t help but I can’t just sit my butt on the couch and get great gains.  I actually do bust my butt at the gym and I do actually work hard to stay on my nutrition plan.  I would argue with anyone that says that I don’t.  I don’t just go in the gym and lift pink dumbbells and have nice full muscles.  I understand the comment that someone with lesser genetics doesn’t have the same outer appearance after working as hard as someone with greater genetics, but it really doesn’t mean that that person with the better genetics didn’t leave everything they had on that gym floor during their workout! ok I am done

Training is still going well.  I had push press yesterday, which I love.  By the end of this training plan I am easily going to pass my previous bulking PR of 150.  My wave yesterday was a 5, 3, 1, 5, 3, 1 and I used 130, 135 140, then 135, 140, 145.  The 135 for 5 was the most difficult the 140 for 3 and 145 for 1 wasn’t too bad.  I will be moving up next friday. My Rowing is coming up and so are my Chins.  I also just realized that I am 16 weeks out from Nationals and am quite chubby GRRRR I know that prep begins soon and I just hope that I am in the mindset to tackle this one.  I need and want to bring the best me yet and I know that it will be a tough prep. 

Ok so it is no secret that I have been feeling a little burned out from the gym.  I discovered the longer you stay away….the harder it is to WANT to come back.  Now that I am back on a more regular schedule, I am starting to feel the drive again.(thank goodness).  The next several weeks will be having fun in the gym.  And fun for me will be hitting some heavy weights.  I didn’t realize how much I like the low rep ranges until we had to switch to a bit higher ones.  I will be doing some heavy Deads, benching, push press, and (brace yourselves) squatting.  One of the things that I want to improve over my off season this year (after Nationals) is my glutes!  I need a butt LOL.  Everyone knows that good squatters have nice bums so I think we are going to do this for the first time.  We have really just stayed away from quad stuff trying to bring my legs down, but now that we know how to do it, I think we are going for it over the winter.  THAT should be interesting. So for now, I will be working on very very low reps just to focus on control and form.  I was able to try a lot of this plus new movements this past week.  Erik and Laura were in town and stayed the week with my family.  We were all able to go the gym together (pregnant laura and all )  We even got out to Cindy and Ileen’s gym to workout with them as well.  We checked form and all hit a few PRs.  I was able to try overhead holds while Erik was here and was able to hold 185lb.  I also Squatted for the first time and hit 205lb.  Can’t wait to see what I can do on that in the future.  So overall the next little bit will be enjoying myself in the gym, eating clean but not crazy and then as the show gets closer, just buckling down and GOING FOR IT. 

On a personal note, while Erik and Laura were here we were able to go out to dinner and meet a few new clients that we can now call friends.  I can’t begin to say how much fun that dinner was.  Tons of laughs and just really good company.  I also discovered this past week that there was another version of bowling in Cananda with 5 pins and teeny tiny ball–Maybe that is why I kicked everyone’s butt at bowling :lol:  they weren’t used to using a normal size bowling ball LOL.  Also seeing Laura was nice–FYI–she is adorable pregnant! 

I have a few more stage pics and then quite a few candid shots from this past weekend in chicago. 

Here are a couple that Jody took while I was on stage during the night show. 

Right after the awards..Jody took this shot!

My birthday cake that Scott got for me.  It was a very pretty cake ( but tasted so bad LOLOLOLOL )

Erik and TIm (Jody’s husband) Were sooooo excited for the pizza.  Me? I had a cheeseburger LOL

After stuffing my face LOL

“second place!!”

I know Erik has more on his camera.  Hopefully there are a couple of him and I after the awards :)  Can’t wait till November.

What a weekend!

Hopefully I will be able to get some pictures that Amy or Erik or Jody took to post up later, but we had the best time.  Erik did a great job of posting details on how the weekend went on his blog.  If you haven’t read about it you can check that out.

Friday night was one-piece prejudging.  I was definitely nervous for that one.  I didn’t do as well in my one-piece as my two piece.  We will try to sort that out for Nationals.  We then went out to have my fat load for Saturday.  That food was so good LOL.  Then Saturday morning was two piece prejudging.  Two Piece definitely went better.  I ended up getting straight 1st place votes for my two piece.  Then all of us went out to lunch-Jody, Tim, Erik, Amy, Scott and I.  I haven’t mentioned that I got a chance to meet Jody (Mrs. Michigan) another one of Erik’s clients.  She was a lot of fun.  This was her first National show and she did really well.  Not to mention that her and Tim kept us all laughing the entire weekend.  From there we just hung out until show time! 

The night show came and it was chaos LOL.  And I just mean there was no waiting around…all bazillion of us Figure girls were lined up in our one-piece to go on and be introduced and then off again to get into to our two-piece for the awards.  Now this was a different experience for me.  I actually got to go back up for awards (yay).  My goal this time was to place in the top 5 if possible.  So when it came down to just me and one other girl I was so happy.  I ended up getting second place and couldn’t have been more excited.  Here are a few pics that I do have from the competition.   

Here is Two-Piece Saturday Morning:

Here are a couple of shots getting the awards:

Hopefully I can get some of the backstage stuff up soon.  Overall it was a wonderful experience.  Best I have felt, best I have done!  Time for a break then plans for Nationals here in Atlanta in November!

So basically 2 weeks left of dieting and one week of getting all the stuff together.  No more all day cheats for me…boo! LOL.  I think this is the part in the prep where I start to get paranoid.  Am I ready?, will I be exactly where I want to be come show day?, Have I done ENOUGH?, Will I look my best?  I had my first really down day yesterday.  I was going to take pics and when I saw myself…I knew it wasn’t going to be a day for taking pics.  I am the type of person that looks at my pictures on a split screen and compares every detail LOL.  Good in one sense that I really just want to continue to improve, but bad in another because I think we are our own worst critics.  If I see something I don’t like…..watch out!  Hopefully I can get in a better frame of mind and take some pictures soon.  I do need to get some to Erik. 

My diet has changed up a bit for this last stretch.  My off day carbs have dropped and my fats on those days have gone up.  Training days have been left the same and I am still getting some good carbs in those days.  I think my calories are still the same just changed up the macros a bit.  Today is only my second off day since we changed the diet and I am hoping that it goes as well as the first.  I actually felt really good that day.  I thought that I would be starving considering that my veggies are still out, but I did well.  The veggies are still out only because we are so close to show and I don’t want to go through feeling bad trying to figure out what was the cause of the stomach stuff.  We will add those back in after the show.  I do miss my broccoli

I am very fortunate to have quite a few really great friends coming with me to Jr USAs this year.  Erik is flying in from Canada to help with last minute details and drive up there with me.  My sister-in-law is coming, which I am very excited about.  She was with me when I qualified for National shows and hasn’t had a chance to come again.  Of course my hubby will be going and then 4 other close friends: Cindy, Ileen, Amy and Lyn.  They have been planning the menu for afterwards YAY!! It will definitely be a fun time.  They have all been so very supportive and encouraging through this process. (THANK YOU GUYS).   

So like I said, Hopefully I will be in a better frame of mind to take some pics and get them up. 

Hope everyone had a terrific weekend! 

Just a quick update on how that went on Saturday.  The plan was to walk with my Mom to raise money for research on Multiple Sclerosis which most of you (if you read this) already know, my mom has been living with for many many years.  This was a 5K walk so most that were walking were loved ones of those that have been diagnosed with this disease.  There were quite a few people pushing those in wheelchairs and then there were those that had MS and were doing the walk on their motorized scooters.  My mom and I had planned on taking the first mile or so and then heading back.  BUT….we ended up walking the entire 5k.  I was so proud of her…she really did an awesome job.  Tons of people showed up for this event and it was really great to see the community support.  We talked after and then the following days about how continuing to lift and really eating right has helped her enormously.  Overall it was just a great experience!

I have had a lot of people ask me lately what my diet looks like for a figure competition.  Also, if it is different this go around.  So I thought I would talk about that a bit today because I think there is obviously a million ways to diet down for a show successfully.  Now when I talk about the way Erik and I do it…it DOES NOT mean you can’t do it another way, but this way just works for both me, and goes with our philosophy on contest prep in general.  This year has also been a little different for me as well. I am about 4 weeks out from Jr USAs.  At this point I have seen other girls eating very little carbs and for me, I am getting quite a few and seeing great changes.  I think last year we had more lower carb days then we do now.  I get 6 meals a day and on training days (which there are 4 a week for me) I am eating carbs in 5 of the 6 meals.  Things like potatoes, sweet potatoes, PWO carbs, and oats (my favorite yum).  Not a ton of fat on those days.  Then on my off/cardio days. I am getting carbs in the first 3 meals.  Then it is just protein and fats after that for the last three.  Those carbs are oats, rice cakes and potatoes.  AND YES–WHITE POTATOES.  And then of course for the past 4 Saturdays I have been having an all day Cheat.  We did not have these last year.  We chose to do refeeds instead and they did work, but I will say that they were harder for me.  I find that the all day stuff is a bit easier because I am allowed to hit high caloric numbers and include fat.  I am one that likes fat better than just the bready carbs that you seem to get on a refeed.  And the other thing that I find so easy is knowing that Saturday is coming, the week’s dietary adherence is a cake walk.  To me this seems obvious–stay tight on your diet all week and then on the Saturday-eat what you want, when you want it.  Go out with my family, go to birthday parties, have a little of this and a little of that.  It fits right in to my life.  Then boom back on Sunday.  I have seen great measurement changes from this as well.  I don’t think competition prep diets have to kill you.  They don’t have to leave you starving day in and day out.  And I have never (thank goodness) had to do the hours of cardio to get lean.  Now I will never say that dieting for a show is easy because it never ever is.  Are you hungry–hell yes, you are dieting, not to mention you have probably been doing it for quite some time to get to the point that you are ready to step on stage.  Is it a sacrifice–YES, but one that I find a challenge and in the end…well worth it.  So when I say that this way is easier…I am comparing to other diets I have seen or other competitor’s experiences.  But I guess easy is all relative. LOL.

Starting last fall I worked on making some much needed changes to my physique.  I tried to bring up the body parts that the judges felt were lacking.  I think that I did a pretty good job following their instructions.  One of the other areas that I needed work on was my presentation.  I am definitely going to be presenting a different look this next show..Jr USAs.  After looking at pics from last year, I am darkening my hair and going straight.  What we noticed was 1.  my hairs was way too light on stage and 2. with curls, for some reason my back and shoulders never looked as wide as when I would take progress shots with my hair pulled up…(thanks Neely).  I have also hired Laurie St. Michael to do my make-up at the show.  This is just another way to make sure I have all my bases covered not to mention a load off my shoulders.  Last but almost the most important is POSING.  We all know and have heard that it isn’t just about what your physique looks like.  I mean, everyone up there at this level looks GOOD.  You have to make sure that you have your posing down.  I am fortunate enough to live close to IFBB figure pro Heather Green. 

I am meeting with her tomorrow to begin practicing my posing.  I am sure she will be giving me great tips and insight.  It is always nice to have another (much better) competitor, with her kind of experience helping out.  Hopefully I will video some of it.( I am nervous )