Update! Final Four Weeks Plans

Omg guys it's been five days! I feel like that's a long time. Some things have changed in terms of goals. So I'm FOUR WEEKS OUT NOW! So crazy and exciting, I can't even contain myself. I seriously have been researching, watching videos, and obsessing over competition prep. Constantly looking for something I may have done wrong or may be doing wrong. It just seems so easy, I feel like it's TOO easy lol. I'm certain that prepping for figure would be WAY more intense. I guess it's because I've been living a "prep lifestyle" for over a year now by working out 4-5 times a week and eating clean. With the exception of one cheat day a meal of course. I was totally fine with that lifestyle, and now with no cheat days, somehow it's been fine. Weird. So naturally I've been researching to see if I'm doing everything right. It turns out I am! lol I'm totally fine and am freaking out for no reason. My body looks great and I could step on stage today. I'm very confident and excited!

With that said, as far as my own goals go, I still want to lose at least 1-2% of body fat and my butt still jiggles more than I want it to. I have some back fat associated with my ridiculous ass and my abs aren't completely exposed. They're there but not like I want them to be. So for the next four weeks I will be switching up my diet. Let me explain how my diet is set up right now. My macro split is 40/40/20, 20 being the fat. In all honesty it really ends up being around 42/38/20 with carbs being high. I love carbs lol and I find it hard to imagine life without them. I have been eating scrambled egg whites with my veggies and chicken instead of brown rice. My calories per day is set at 1580. If I don't work out that day (which is Saturdays or Sundays), I take in 1580 calories. If I work out that day, I take in the extra calories I've burned. So If I burned 500 calories that day, I need to take in 2080 calories to make up for the deficit. Why? Because my calories eaten are set at a -500 calorie deficit per week which is one pound per week. 3500 calories= 1 pound. -500 calorie deficit per day= 1 pound loss per week. If I burn those calories working out without eating them, that would put me at a net calorie (total calories per day) intake of 1080, which is too low! The deficit of the day would then be 1000 calories and loss of two pounds per week.

So now knowing the above, my next four weeks will go as follows. I'd like to take a more aggressive approach with the cardio in the morning. I haven't been doing the fasting cardio, I've just been doing it at night after my workout or having cardio days at night. So for week one I'll be doing morning cardio every day. For those days I'll take in 2000 calories for the day assuming I'll burn around 500-700 calories for the day. This might be on the low side, but I'd like to try it to see my results. If effective, I will continue to do that the second week. I've been doing low sodium for the most of the prep because I got tired of being bloated. For the last two weeks, no salt, and I'll be carb cycling. I'm thinking one day 150-180 carbs and next day 80-100 carbs. Something like that. My protein is always between 120 and 180 which is awesome so we'll keep that. Fat never goes above 40.

I've looked into tanning and have decided on just using bronzer for the show. I'm going to buy some this weekend to try it out. I'll show you guys the before and after photos. For all of you black competitors out there, I hope to help out with the tanning aspect. My take on it is that if girls are tanning to be MY color, why on earth would I tan to be darker? It makes no sense to me. I do agree that the dark skin helps with seeing those beautiful muscles!

I've been practicing walking and I've gotten very good and confident at it! I havlol. Oh well, I'll power through.

e to say, my feet still hurt in the shoes. My toes just weren't made for those shoes

In addition to my prep, I've been working on a pretty big project with Lifting Ladies. For those of you who don't know, I'm trying to make this a big thing. Even thinking of making a competition team! It's going to be great so stay tuned. In the mean time, please support by following Lifting Ladies on Twitter and Instagram, LIKE Lifting Ladies on Facebook, and stay tuned for many awesome things to come!

Thanks for reading!

Mel