Motivation Monday | No One Cares!

No one is going to work hard for YOUR goals, you need to be able to do it yourself. Listen to this message and be inspired. Entrepreneurs, people with goals, this is for you!

Full Day of Eating | IIFYM Bikini Prep | 3 Weeks Out | PV#20

A full day of what I'm eating three weeks out from my national NPC Show. I follow the macro tracking approach which has been a lot better for me mentally. I get to eat what I want as I'm getting leaner and leaner. Who wouldn't want that?! There's also some posing (of course) and pretty much day in a life of me! Enjoy, share, subscribe, like! :)

NPC Nationals Prep | 3 Weeks Out | BootyBuilding Clips | PV#19

An update of my prep for USA Nationals July 28th! Some glute exercise tips, my meals, and what I'm doing to prep for my first NPC national show.

8 Week Transformation Challenge

Join me in my first 8 Week Challenge with Lifting Ladies supplemented by Evogen Nutrition

I've launched and am looking to build my online personal training business so I'm having a "challenge". There will be openings for ten lucky people to receive personalized training plans from me which will include a training plan and diet plan (macro based) for the next 8 Weeks. Each will be individualized to each person's needs. You'll be required to follow the plan, check in every single week with photos, and release liability for me to use these photos for marketing (can crop face :) ). Be ready for change, to be challenged, and to get some awesome results! My method is tried and true and you'll be sure to get the body you deserve. The best thing about this all is that the training for you ten lucky people is only $150. AND the person who has the best overall transformation will win $200 and a fitness goodie box featuring Evogen Nutrition products to fit your needs! Super cheap training for an awesome body and a chance to win $200 and FREE fitness products?! Why not! 

 

How to enter: 

*Follow @MellaFit and @Lifting_Ladies on Instagram

*Head over to BodiesByMel.com, select "Join challenge", submit info and before photo. 

*Join challenge will be closed after ten people have registered. 

 

~The cap is ten people for the sake of time and individualization. I want to make sure I am 100% personal with each and every one of you. It wouldn't be fair to divide my time unevenly. 

~Previous clients are not eligible, sorry! 

~Before photos must include front relaxed, side relaxed, and back relaxed pose. This is the standard for following check ins. 

~MUST check in every week

~ Use code "MellaFit" for 15% EvogenNutrition.com orders 

~Be ready to commit to the plan for the next 8 weeks! 

If you have any questions, email me directly at Melanie@LiftingLadiesFitness.com

Motivation Monday | Don't Make the Process Longer by Giving Up!

You've heard it over and over yet you still are where you started, or worse, further back! Sometimes it's hard to keep going when you're seeing little to no progress, but it does not happen over night. Seeing your body everyday makes it even harder to see the tiny changes going on. I would suggest taking full body progress photos every single week. Put them side by side in Layout, and compare. You think there's no progress? There's definitely SOME change. Sometimes it's mental state as well. People forget how important mental health is. It's not taught and it's not pushed enough. Your mind has to be healthy enough to perceive progress and take on challenges. If you're in constant battles with yourself and dealing with self doubt, you're more likely to give up time and time again. So if you aren't seeing bodily progress, work on your mental state because if your workouts and diet are right, there WILL BE CHANGES. Actually, just workout your mind regardless of body changes. Learn to love yourself. Learn to be well rounded mentally AND physically. Once you've achieved this, you've truly succeeded.

Motivation Monday- YOU HAVE LEGS!

Do you ever find yourself sitting on the couch DREADING going to the gym? This will help you get a different perspective not only in fitness, but in life. Learning to be appreciative in what seems to be the smallest things in life, truly helps in the long run. But think about it, is having a functional healthy body really a "small" thing to be thankful for? What if you were to lose it all today? You're paralyzed now. I bet you'd look back and think of all of the times you could have gone to the gym but took advantage of your beautiful, functioning body. Next time you're feeling lazy, remember, you GET to work out, not HAVE to.



Happy Monday!

Bikini Prep Update 2015 + Why I Didn't Place

Hello! It is October 19th today and I just feel like I REALLY need to blog, and vent, and update the world on what I'm up to (to the .0093774 of people that care). Right now I am 3 weeks out from the Las Vegas Classic which will take place on November 7th. However, I have decided that I will not be doing this show, and as of now any more shows this year. Why? Many reasons. The first reason is we had WAY too much fun in San Francisco last week and spent way too much money. Having another show IN VEGAS right at the beginning of the month is not smart financially and it's just not worth it to be struggling. I want to be able to travel for the holidays, have fun, enjoy life, without worrying about saving enough money for a show and worrying about being on prep. Quality of life. I just feel like my money could be best used elsewhere than trying to bring home a trophy. I have nothing to prove to anyone, except for myself and I've already exceeded my expectations of myself and more. I still work hard everyday to improve more and more on my physique and I just shock myself every time I take pics, it's so rewarding! So a trophy does not validate anything, placing doesn't validate anything, although it would be nice to take home first.

With that said, my last show, San Francisco Championships with Muscle Sport Productions, was one week ago. It was great, I felt great, I had a BLAST, but I did not place. Yet again! That makes five shows now that I walk away with nothing. Am I mad? Yes. Disappointed? Yes? In myself? No way! I look and feel amazing and am just simply not what the judges are looking for. If you're an over planner like me, you STUDY everything and what the judges are looking for. After "studying" the winners of my class in the last show... I've come to realize they just want skinny girls. Plain and simple. I'm not "fat" by any means and I'm not "not skinny", I'm just not THAT skinny. I have A LOT of muscle, I'm 10% (skin fold said 8% so I rounded up) body fat right now. My glutes and thighs are still a problem, as they are too big and my quads show separation with every step I take. Judges don't like that for bikini. They will choose a soft skinny girl over a muscle girl any day, which is what I've learned while doing these shows. I'll be the one to tell you girls, bikini prep is really just leg day and cardio (like crazy) to be honest. They do not care about your muscle. Now once you get to Nationals, muscle up and you'd better bring it because at nationals they are leaning towards the muscular, LEAN girls. Contradicting, I know. Maybe I'm in the wrong state? I see such amazing muscular winners of my class all the time and I just wonder why the shows I do are not this way. For the SF Champs, ALL of the other classes had muscle girls as winners except class C, our class was a softer girl. And the overall winner of the show was exactly what a bikini girl should look like. So it's confusing to guess what the judges like when one class they go for something and the next class they choose something completely different. There were PLENTY of muscle girls in my class, believe me. Also, the judges said it was a really hard class... yet they still chose the other girls. Not to offend those beautiful women who won, it just makes no sense at all.

Winners of Class C, So you can get an idea of the physique they were going for. You guys know what I look like. Picture me next to these girls. 

 Class C Winner. Julia, you're beautiful and great so take no offense :) 

  Now these are the number one girls in each class. Class C is in green. 

Overall winner below! She looks amazing, awesome job girl!

I hope now there's an understanding of what happened at the show, why I didn't place, etc. I want you all to understand, of course the show went the way it did, but I don't want you to think I'm just writing it off as "well I'm perfect and should have won, there's nothing I need to work on, blah blah blah". Because obviously I need to lose size in order to fit what the judges want. I think I'm very close, but not enough to win. I'm just at a point where I ask myself, "is it worth it to lose the muscle I've built, to get smaller just to win a trophy". Of course my plan and goal is to become a pro so it would HAVE to happen. It's just not worth the money right now to keep doing shows when the judges don't like my physique. So that's reason number two.

So what does "time off" mean? Most girls take time off to build muscle and get bigger for nationals. Luckily, I have no problem in the muscle area :) My time off means cardio cardio cardio. Keeping up my cardio plan while reverse dieting back into a healthy calorie range. From this day I'm staying on prep diet and plan for this week, then starting my reverse dieting next week. I'll be adding 10% carbs and 5% fats (every other week) based on my progress. Right now I'm at 1350 range of calories with carbs at 120. My goal for my reverse diet is to get to 200+ carbs daily and 60+ fats daily. To somewhat maintain my physique while losing the last bit of fat in my legs and butt. According to the body fat test I have 10lbs of fat in my body out of 122lbs, which doesn't leave much to lose which means I'll most likely be burning some muscle... Sadly, but we'll see.

I will definitely keep you guys updated because I've never done a reverse diet and I'm excited to see the changes. I'm keeping my cardio at 5 fasted sessions a week and lifting will be 3 lifting circuits a week. One leg day circuit, one upper body, and one full body. I love circuits! They're fun and keep your heart rate up for the entire duration of you're workout. Plus they're short and sweet... well not too sweet, they're killer, but effective. Circuits are a way to implement your lifting routine while also burning more calories. With circuits you're not lifting for weight, so no heavy lifts, aiming for 12-20 reps per exercise while also incorporating cardio moves like jumping jacks and pop squats. I actually don't lift heavy on anything anymore except back (actually I do heavy deadlifts still and heavy hip thrusts and bridges). I don't target quads specifically, nor do I target inner thighs, I only go light on hamstrings now. So yeah my workouts are pretty limited, so circuits it is! I build muscle fast and as far as my physique goes, I'm done building muscle, I don't want any more. I know that sounds silly to some people. I can always appreciate more back muscles though, I love my back!

So here are some photos below of me on stage from my boyfriend in the the crowd. I wanted to save on money so didn't spend the $85 on professional stage shots. I find $85 to be ridiculous... it might have been worth it though lol.

There you have it guys! No more shows for me this year, more traveling, more money, and MORE FOOD by the end of the year. Sounds like a good plan. I plan on doing another show in February or so before our EUROTRIP, but we'll see. We're also moving at the end of January aaaand updating our apartment to hardwood floors and stainless steel appliances and a huuuuge bathroom. I think all of that is better than paying for a.... trophy, right? :)

Keep following for updates and IIFYM reverse dieting, pre prep, and lifestyle upgrades! Thanks for reading :)