You Can't Out Train A Bad Diet

I've read the saying "you can't out train a bad diet" many times before in articles, books, and words from very successful athletes.  It's very true.  Five hundred calories of refined sugar, trans fats, food colorings, and who knows what else, is going to effect your body in many more ways than burning off 500 calories from exercise will fix.  

Food is a big part of my life.  Not only because I LOVE to eat, I need it to survive, and I've studied nutrition, but because as a figure athlete it determines at least 80% of the way I look.  What food does to your body, whether good or bad, is grossly overlook in today's world.  Not enough people realize the importance of what you put in your mouth and unfortunately a lot of people end up paying with their health many years down the road after eating the wrong stuff for too long.  Food should make us feel good, look good, give us energy, feel positive emotions towards it.  Food should make us THRIVE, not give us cancer and make us fat and unhappy.

I am always seeking out new challenges for myself.  One of them for this week is to not step on the scale until next Sunday.  Obsessing over the numbers is only adding to my stress levels and preventing fat loss further.  My other challenge is to try incorporating different kinds of vegetables in my diet, and more of them.

Last week I pulverized and bunch of red cabbage in my food processor and added it to a lot of my meals.

I was amazed by the gorgeous purple color of this pure cabbage and every time I took a fork full of it, I thought about how much good I was doing for my body.

Something else I tried was mashed cauliflower.  I have read several times that it tastes like mashed potatoes and is a great substitute, but never actually tried it.  So I did, and it really does taste like mashed potatoes!  I chose to buy frozen cauliflower, steamed it and threw it in the food processor with some garlic powder and salt...wonderful!

One of my staple vegetables is broccoli, and my favorite way to make it is roasted in the oven.  Super simple and super delicious.  I wash and chop the broccoli into small "trees" leaving the stems as long as I can, pile them on a baking sheet with parchment paper, spray lightly with olive oil cooking spray, season with garlic powder, crushed red pepper flakes, and sea salt, throw it in the oven at 400 degrees until done to my liking, stirring half way through.  I don't time anything when I cook, but I like roasted veggies on the well done side, but not burnt.  They probably roast for about 45 minutes.

Get creative and learn to love your veggies!  The choice is yours.

Monday Workout

I'm sitting outside right now, March 19th in Vermont, and it's 66 degrees out with a high of 75 today.  Not the norm for Vermont weather in March, but I LOVE it!  Seeing the sun the past couple days and feeling the warm breeze instantly makes me happy.

I had a great workout this morning, felt focused, determined, and motivated, and took advantage of the nice weather.  Today's workout was chest, abs, and intervals.  Here's a recap....

Chest

1)  Flat bench press (I don't do this very often, usually incline dumbbell presses first).  After a couple warm up sets I did 115lbs for 5 sets of 8-10 reps (8 on the last one), with a spotter assisting the last couple reps.  The last 2 sets I did drop sets.

2)  Incline Dumbbell (DB) Flyes- 5 sets of 12 reps with 25 lb DB's.

3)  Walk over push-ups on a short step (one hand on the step, one hand on the floor)- 1 set of 14 reps followed by 3 more sets of 12.

Abs

1a) Bosu crunches with heels on a bench- 4 sets of 50 reps
1b) Decline leg raises on a bench- 4 sets of 50 reps

I decided to superset these exercises today, one right after the other followed by a 60 second rest for 4 total sets.

Intervals

So in spite of the warm weather, I decided to run sprints for my intervals outside.  Not only will this help me burn up the fat on my body, but it will also help me sculpt my glutes and hamstrings.  I always think of those sprinters with great glutes when it starts to get hard.  This was a nice change of pace today, being outside and using my body differently.  I'm sure I will feel the effects of this workout tomorrow :)

Less than 6 weeks until stage time...let's DO THIS!!

Motivation & Self Talk

So I'm less than 8 weeks out now from the Burlington show.  I'm adding a third interval cardio session to my week so hopefully I will start to lean out a little more with that.  Speaking of intervals, they are probably one of the hardest types of cardio training you can do.  The goal is to push yourself as hard as you possibly can for short bursts and then recover, like sprinting.  My interval ratio is usually 1 minute high, 1 minute low and usually done on the arc trainer at the gym.  I've also been trying to keep in incline sprints on the treadmill to change it up and work my legs differently.

The thing about high intensity intervals is that you have to go outside your comfort zone during that "high" interval.  You have to get your heart rate up close to your max, (I usually get over 200 bpm) and dig inside yourself to push through those last 20 seconds without backing down, and it's not easy and doesn't feel very good at the time.  But you CAN get through it, one interval at a time, and you will feel very accomplished when it's over.  

Everyone has different ways to get motivated and stay motivated.  Just like I talk my clients through each rep, each set, each workout, I do the same thing for myself.  Everyone has "off days", low energy, bad mood, discouragement...what ever it is, those are the times when you really need to dig deep and pull motivation from somewhere and just talk yourself through the workout.  I had one of those days yesterday.  Mondays seem to be hard for me.  Maybe it's because it's the beginning of the week and I get into a slump on Sundays sometimes with very slow progress and that just carries over into Monday.  My workout on Mondays is chest, abs, and interval cardio.  I love lifting weights, so once I get started it's not hard for me to push myself to the max on every set.  When I know I have a hard session of intervals ahead of me I sometimes make it so daunting and think about it so much, I almost fear them.  Mind set it EVERYTHING.  Don't let negative thinking get the best of you, JUST DO IT!

Some things I do to stay motivated and push myself to the max on every interval are having upbeat music, something to focus on (usually a magazine or affirmations and pictures), self talk, and visualization.  Yesterday I pushed through my bad mood, thought about my goals, how I want to look, what my competition is doing, and had a great workout.  During each sprint interval I would close my eyes and picture myself on stage, looking fabulous, and winning 1st place.  I tell myself to train like a champion, don't back down, visualize my abs, push, push, push....and soon enough the minute is over and I'm that much closer to the finish line.

Self talk will effect you, whether positive or negative, so push those negative thoughts aside and get it done. You'll be happy you did.

9 Weeks Out

So I am officially 9 weeks out from my first contest of 2012: The NPC Vermont held in Burlington, Vermont, April 28th.  The following week, May 6th, I will compete at the Jay Cutler Classic in Boston, MA.  These two shows will be "warm-up" shows for Team Universe following 2 months later.

My training is going well, cardio is not excessive at this point, so I can really focus on pushing myself as hard as I am capable on that day.  One of my biggest challenges at this point is continuing to trust the process as it happens, to be confident that I will be ready for the stage 9 weeks from now.  This is when having a coach becomes very important and helpful.

I find myself constantly analyzing my physique every day hoping to see changes, hoping to see the scale go down (just like everyone else), waiting for the fat to just disappear....which obviously will not happen over night.  Everyone's body responds differently to training and nutrition, mine seems to be very stubborn when it comes to fat loss, but all I can do is keep pushing and work with what I've got until I reach my goal.  I will not stop.

Taking it one day at a time...