Fall Challenges (Workout and Diet)

Hello guys! It's been a while. I took a little break, but I'm back and I'll be posting more. Especially for my clients and people who want to see workouts and clean eating recipes. I'd love to help! So what's new with me? Well I've taken the fall season off from competing so I can have a life and not have to be so strict on myself. It's fall! Time for pumpkin flavored everything, cuddling with hot chocolate, maybe some bonfires, and relaxing without worrying about being so strict. Well... that was the plan. Last week Bodybuilding.com released a new challenge called Shred vs Bulk challenge by BSN Supplements. Contestants have 6 weeks to either present the best bulk or the best shred. Both winners will win $10,000! So yes I have started that. I just can't stay away! From the end of August until now, I have been having cheat days more frequently however, my diet was about 80% clean. My brain and willpower won't let me overindulge. I have goals for next year and I'm not trying to gain weight and ruin my chances. My goal is to kill it next year! I have a great chance, I just need to tighten my glutes even more (I'll get into that later with coverage of the Tahoe Show).

So I started this shred at 130lbs, 7 pounds up from competition weight August 23rd. No big! Nothing I can't handle. The great thing about competing this year and doing prep on my own is that I have gotten to know my body so well and how it reacts to every little thing that goes in it. I know exactly what to do to get rid of my extra water weight. I know exactly what foods make me bloated and what foods flatten me out. I know what not to eat the day of a shoot, event, or show. So I'm excited and I know I'm going to look amazing by November 30th (the end date of competition), but wish me luck! $10,000 would be freaking amazing right now! Especially when supplementing my business Lifting Ladies. I have a lot planned and am super excited about it. Money would help kick start it a lot!

Anyway, I've been doing more of a balanced diet style for this cut so I can enjoy the fall while keeping my bikini diet. It's more of a 90% clean, 10% cheat diet. My days look something like this:

Meal 1: 1 cup of oatmeal (half of my carbs for the day except Wednesdays which is no carb day and rest day)
Meal 2: Chicken, 2tbs avocado, baby carrots, mozzarella cheese (I don't cut dairy because I don't cut things I love :) )
Meal 3: Chicken, half sweet potato (2 eggs on Wednesday instead), 1tbs Peanut Butter
Meal 4: Shrimp, 2 cups broccoli
Meal 5: Ground turkey tacos, 2-3 eggs,(on Wednesday I make a GT bowl with eggs, cilantro, and salsa)

Calories: 1430-1600 Friday: 2000+

Friday I have a cheat meal because it's my super cardio day and I have to load up on calories, Saturday and Sunday are the same as Monday-Thursday. This is important guys! ONE cheat day a week, not the whole weekend because you're "rewarding" yourself for the hectic week you had. You have a week every week, do you think you need to be "rewarded" EVERY week? Reward yourself with an awesome body! :)

For my workouts I'm trying a new circuit style training by Ashley Conrad on Bodybuilding.com  (click link for complete plan). It's a 21 day cut, which I'm following the workout but not the diet. The diet is a little boring for my taste. If you want to survive in eating clean all the time, you need to be able to customize it to your liking. You don't need to eat bland boring food everyday to be fit, that's silly. This doesn't mean having cheat meals of course, it simply mean find a healthy alternative for each undesirable factor in the plan. If you enjoy following diet plans, then by all means, follow the plan word for word. Anyway, the workout plan looks like this:

Monday: Lift
Tuesday: Cardio
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Lift
Friday: Cardio
Saturday: Lift
Sunday: Rest


Lift days are a circuit in which you repeat the workouts below in a row with a 30 second rest in between. Once done, repeat the circuit 3-6 times depending on physical abilities.

1. Clean and press
2. Overhead medicine ball throws
3. Dumbbell rear lunge
4. Push ups
5. Bench dips
6. Sprint in place
7. Body weight squats
8. Wide grip lat pull down
9. Medicine ball jumping jacks
10. Incline push ups
11. Dumbbell bicep curl
12. Lateral dumbbell raises
13. One arm dumbbell row

Do each workout for 12-15 reps and repeat cycle for desired times. It's a great workout! I would definitely try it, especially if you're in need of something new. That's why I'm doing it instead of writing my own workout for the cut. I put in my own workouts to better fit my needs. For instance, instead of the medicine ball throws, I do kettle bell swings, Instead of rear lunge, I do walking lunges. I replace the incline push ups (because there is a ridiculous amount of push ups in this circuit) with stiff leg dead lifts or hanging leg raises for abs. I try to put more leg stuff in singe my goals are in my legs.

For cardio day: 
Interval training on treadmill:
Walk (level 5) 60 seconds
Jog (level 7) 30 seconds
Sprint (level 10) 60 seconds (dead sprint as hard as you can!
Repeat 10 times (25 minutes total)

Cool down: Incline walk 5 minutes.

If you only do one thing in this blog, do the cardio! It's great! I'm in week 2 now of 6 of the shred. It's going well and I think I look great so far. cleaning up my diet from 80 to 90% has done wonders in just a week. It's awesome! I think it's cool that Bodybuilding.com can release a challenge with 3-4 days to register pretty much saying "hey everyone, I know it's the fall and Halloween and Thanksgiving are coming up but we'll give you $10,000 if you drop everything and lean out or bulk up for the next 6 weeks!" And everyone drops whatever they're doing, joins the challenge, and starts cutting (or bulking). It's crazy to me, awesome, and inspiring. Good luck to everyone who joined!

As always, thanks for reading!


Mel
BodiesbyMel.com <--- Live in SoCal? Need personal training?

6 Days Out!

Wow guys I've been SO busy! Sorry for leaving you in the dark. My competition is SIX DAYS AWAY!! I can't believe it! I'm so excited that it's finally here. I have some things I still want to work on as far as my physique, but that will come after the show. For the show, I am ready. I am SO ready. I'm ready to rock that stage, I have my posing down, and after this final week of prep I have confidence my body will be exactly where I want it to be. Besides the glutes. As you guys know, I WANT bikini pro glutes. I have amazing glutes but I want pro glutes lol. That will take a little more time than I have for this particular competition, but for sure within the next month or two, I'll be where I want to be. That's right, after the competition I am continuing training and eating clean. Why on earth would I do anything else? Before the prep I always ate clean and had one cheat day a week, I trained heavy and hard too, so this won't be a problem or too strenuous on my body.

Depending on the results of this show, I'll for sure be doing another show within the next couple of months. If I place top 5, I'll be doing a show in June (so I can have time to perfect my glutes). If I don't place, I'll be doing it again in May. I hope I place! A lot of girls do this to do it for the experience. I'm in it to make a name for myself and a career out of it. I'm hoping to get sponsored and move on to get my pro card. Post shows I'll be training girls who want to take this journey too! It will be fun!

Okay so my diet and food these last six days. I've researched far and wide and have found out that either you don't change anything for bikini, or you go on an even stricter diet. For me, I'll be going on a stricter diet. For the whole prep, I never cut out carbs (which I'm not ashamed of AT ALL), so this week I will be having carbs for breakfast only and then the small carbs in my veggies and sweet potatoes throughout the day. I'll be pretty much eating chicken one meal, ground turkey the next meal, and fish the next meal, all with veggies (asparagus) or a salad. A lot of people have been doing this the whole prep, but I don't believe in eating the same thing every single day for 10 weeks. That's ridiculous. Just eat clean, count calories, count macros (to the T), and work out hard. Then get rid of water weight the last week. My workout schedule will go as follows:

Today (Sunday)- Leg day (glutes glutes glutes!!) + Posing
Monday- Abs- Shoulders- Cardio + Posing
Tuesday- Back day + Posing
Wednesday- Cardio + Posing
Thursday- Shoulders and some body weight glute workouts (don't want to be sore)
Friday- Rest
Saturday- COMPETITION!! (I'll be pumping my shoulders before I take the stage)

I'm taking diuretics and using the sauna this week (HATE the sauna) to get all of the water weight out. I had my period this past week so I am way fuller than I want to be which is daunting. I'll also be taking thermogenics, fish oil, and I'm not cutting protein shakes like a lot of people do. I'll  be bronzing Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Competition day I'll be "glazing" to make it all shiny and pretty. OMG my suit! I haven't even told you! I totally made a new bikini. EVERYONE has red. I hate it. So I went and got fabric a week ago and have been making a new one. It's almost done, I've been doing it little by little since I've been super busy with work. I'll make a different post about my bikini. One last thing! I'm only doing bikini open class. It's $120 each category and I just didn't want to spend that much on entry fees. My boyfriend and I are moving into a new town home at the end of the month (yay) and would much rather spend extra money on our place. :)

I'm sure this week will fly by! I can't wait for it all! And I can't wait to meet the awesome ladies at the show. As always, thanks for reading and don't hesitate to comment below :)

Mel

Those Legs!

So today was leg day, gotta love it. Okay so a lot has changed in terms of my workouts and plans. My legs are getting ridiculous. I'm getting progress and gaining muscle way too fast. I need to completely stop lifting heavy and do all high rep workouts, low weight. Same for arms, my guns are getting too big. Which goes to show I SHOULD be prepping for figure, but I want to do a bikini show. I'm definitely a figure girl at heart though, I love lifting heavy. I've found that high reps are boring since I have to count up so high and blah blah blah. It's tiring of course and a great workout no matter what, I just prefer low reps. Unfortunately, I can't do the heavy weight anymore which makes me feel like a weakling at the gym lol. I'm so used to people looking at me like "wtf, that girl is lifting SO heavy". Oh well! I have 7 weeks to trim or maintain these legs, I can't afford to make them any bigger.

I'm also carb cycling now. My macros are set now to 40/40/20 (40% carbs, 40% protein, 20% fats) putting me at at least 158 grams of protein a day, around 158 grams of carbs, and 35 grams of fat. The fat isn't hard for me since I don't eat fatty foods anyway. I literally did not have to cut any foods out of my diet for prep, which is awesome! Well, I switched from buttery popcorn to kettle corn if that counts. Carbs, carbs, carbs. I love carbs. Everything I eat has carbs and it's just crazy thinking about lowering them lol. So I've been trying some low carb dinners which pretty much consists of a large amount of chicken, shrimp, or lean ground beef, lots of veggies, and egg whites. It's not bad, it's actually very good. It's nice to have a change from the brown rice. I get so tired of the brown rice, it's so boring. I love trying out new foods and switching up the ingredients. Yum yum! Seriously though, everything I eat is whole grain and carbs. Wheat Thins, bread, oatmeal, popcorn, peanut butter, yogurt, tortillas, I don't understand how or why on earth people would want to cut our carbs. It's silly. And unnecessary. You NEED carbs! Not just because they are good but because they are good FOR you.

So besides carb cycling, calming down my legs with high reps, and switching up my diet, I'm on track and excited for my competition. SEVEN MORE WEEKS!! It's going to fly by, I already know. So exciting.

Leg Day- Hamstrings, Inner thighs

Super Set
Dumbbell one leg stiff leg deadlifts
25lbs x 15 reps per leg x 4 sets

Super wide sumo squats with dumbbell in middle
25 lbs x 20 reps x 4 sets

Lunges on Smith Machine
135lbs x 12 reps x 4 sets

Stiff leg deadlift on Smith Machine
135lbs x 10reps x 4 sets

Wide stance 45 degree leg press machine
90lbs x 15 reps x 4 sets

Lying down leg curls
40lbs x 15 reps x 4 sets

Adductor Machine
40lbs 25 reps x 4 sets

Sitting leg curls
45lbs x 12 reps x 4 sets

Close and high stance leg press machine
90lbs x 15 reps x 4 sets

6 Minute HIIT
1 Minute of wide stance kettle bell swings
1 minute of shuffles on short platform
Repeat three times

Wow I did a lot lol GREAT workout!!

Thanks for reading!

Mel

Week Two Monday!

Ah so today's workout went well! Of course, it was abs and cardio day. Abs kill me but I can do abs all day long! I guess because it's great gratification for me and I love seeing results. I guess I can say that about every body part. I woke up today craving leg day. I just want to do it everyday and I want to see results NOW! I have to be patient though and I have plenty of time to get to where I want to be. I can't wait!

So ending last week, I went all out. I did cardio each day including a 20 minute death HIIT session. Waking up Saturday morning with the intention of another HIIT session, I knew my legs could not do another day. My inner thighs (for lack of a better term) were fucked! Omg I could not even walk lol but that's good. I had a great week and I took Saturday and Sunday off. I went shopping Saturday for new workout clothes and got a bunch of cute stuff. Ladies, if you have no other motivation, new workout clothes will help. It's so exciting wearing new workout clothes!

For my workout today I did 30 minutes of an supersets and finished with an hour of kick boxing. I burned about 650 calories.

Abs: 
Set one:
Leg lifts, front and both sides. Lie down on bench with handle or just grab on back side of bench. Lift legs up, back down to the left, and middle again, then right. Do this ten times.
Five leg circles- circles legs around five times really crunching those abs at the top.

Weighted side bends (45lbs)- 10 on each side

Then back to leg lifts. Four sets of this.

Set two: 
Woodchoppers with weighted cable (30-50 pounds) from bottom up. 10 sets on each side.

Plank for one minute set one.
Side plank for one minute set two.
Other side plank for one minute set three.
Middle plank for one minute set four.

Four sets of woodchoppers switched off with planks.

Set three: 
For the last workout I did three sets of 15 70 pound sit up curls on a machine.

There's a lot of abs in kick boxing so this is a good warm up for the class. You can feel the burn throughout the workout and always know and remember that every time your legs go above your belly button you're working those abs. So get those kicks high! Alright, I'm going to go cook dinner now.

Thanks for reading!

Mel

Wednesday- Cardio Day

Wow is all I can say about todays workout. But of course I will just have to say more! Seriously, what just happened? Today, instead of kickboxing at 6:30, I had to go to the earlier. Why, oh why would you miss kickboxing class?! Well because tonight was my second tattoo appointment to finish my rib piece. Ah! So amazing, I love it! So early gym session and a make shift hour cardio session. Have I mentioned how long it's been since I've done cardio on a machine for an hour? It's been forever! Let me tell you about me and cardio. I hate it. It's boring and all I think about when I'm doing cardio is when I'll be lifting next. It's essential so I must do it! So here I am at the gym, no plan really, just playing by ear and how I feel along the way. So here's what I did:

Treadmill: 
5 Minute warm up
20 Minute workout: Intervals on incline, every 30 seconds running and the next 30 seconds "speed walking" for 20 minutes straight. No rest.
5 Minute speed walking (catching breath), then adding more incline every minute.
10 minute incline walking (to get that booty!) Nice slow burn on the glutes

HIIT: 
Same concept as Tuesday's HIIT, only this time it's 4 workouts done 5 times. I'm crazy I know. It was intense! I wanted to die afterwards, no joke.

1. Kettle bell swings (down into squats and back up)- 1 minute
2. Lateral box shuffles- 1 minute

3.Exercise Ball sit-ups- 1 minute

4. Jumping Jacks- 1 minute

*30 second break*
Set 2- repeat
Set 3- repeat
Set 4- repeat
Set 5- repeat- Full out! Give it all you've got!!

And die.

Just kidding, please don't die. Please don't do this workout if you don't feel you are conditioned enough for it. You can also adjust the rest period to be longer if you need to. I burned about 600+ calories with this workout. I have a heart rate monitor (and you should get one too if you're serious about anything involving calories, aka life) and when doing cardio, I always make sure my heart rate is at or above 140 rpm the whole time. As long as I do that, every minute of my cardio time is worth it. With that said, have a great workout! Comment below, tell me how it went :)

Thanks for reading!

Mel

Tuesday-Back & Calves Day

Alrighty so yesterday was back day.It went well, but I had to do it later than usually because of work because I was sooo tired. I didn't want to take pre-workout because I didn't want to have trouble sleeping. Blah! So needless to say I was exhausted, but powered through and got a great workout! Below is what I did, play by play, and how much I lifted. I'll be lifting heavily as well as doing cardio everyday (6 days) as well as hitting my calorie goals everyday. This is the perfect formula for ME to come out successfully on top, in my opinion of course, on how I look. Hopefully the judges agree! :)

 Back and Calves Day 

Five minute warm up, 18% incline on elliptical. Stretch.
Warm up pull ups to engage the back. 3 sets of 5.

Seated close grip row (on cables)
120lbs x 12 reps
130lbs x 8
140lbs x 5
140lbs x 5

Calf Raises on hack squat machine
180lbs x 15 reps x 4 sets

Leverage high row machine
90 x 12
140 x 8
160 x 8
180 x 8

Seated calf curls (works "shin" muscle)
50lbs x 15
70lbs x 15 x 3

One arm lat pull down (Great Isolation!)
50lbs x 8 reps per arm x 4

DEADLIFTS! 
135lbs x 10
185lbs x 5
205lbs x 2
225lbs x 1

Reverse grip bent over row with barbell
90lbs x 5 x 4 sets

Calf raise on stairs 
25 reps x 3 sets

Leverage iso row (machine) one arm at a time
45lbs x 10 reps per arm
70lbs x 8 reps per arm
80lbs x 5 reps per arm
80lbs x 5 reps per arm

*All workouts are done 4 sets, 45 second rest between each set. Don't let those muscles heal all the way! By this time I'm totally dead, but time for some cardio! I had my boyfriend come up with a HIIT workout for me. So 5 minutes working, 1 minute per workout, rest 1 minute, then do it all again. Death lol. But here goes!

Front Box Jump- 1 minute
Sit ups with medicine ball throw (throw to partner, partner throws back, catch it top, go down into sit up, throw back to partner on the way up. Ab killer)- 1 minute
Burpees with dumbbells (jump up when you stand up, push up when you go down)- 1 minute
Kick punching bag (High kicks)- 1 minute
Punch punching bag (jabs and hooks)- 1 minute

*1 minute rest*

Repeat top five workouts. 

Protein shake. Go home and crawl in a ball.

Had great sleep last night lol If you try these workouts, please be aware of your physical ability. Know when to stop, don't sacrifice form for reps, take your time and get correct form, have fun!

Thanks for reading!

Mel

Monday: Day One Prep Workout

MONDAY: CARDIO/ ABS

So since I'm focusing a lot on cardio for this prep, I'm doing kickboxing three days a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) and sprints and HIIT (High intensity interval training) on opposite days with Sunday rest day. Today I paired abs with my cardio. I generally do abs everyday, at least one ab workout at the end of every workout. Today I focused on obliques (side abs) and did a little of the main core.

Oblique Static Holds: Lay on one side of your body with your back completely straight and slowly crunch your legs towards your torso. Really squeeze your side/obliques. At the peak contraction point, or the point where you’re squeezing the hardest, hold it there for 45 seconds. Don’t worry if you’re unable to get 45 seconds right away, hold it for as long as you can and slowly build up to 45 seconds over time. Repeat for the other side. 

Side Crunches: Side crunching while really squeezing the abs at the top. It really gets those obliques. Alternate super set style between these and oblique static holds. 3 Sets.

Oblique Cable Crunches: While on your knees with hands above head on rope (or bar) attachment, bend over squeezing the abs all the way to the floor first straight down, then to the side, then to the other side. 3 Sets, 70 pounds.

Cable Wood Choppers: Grab the pulley handle far enough away that you can feel a nice stretch in your obliques and lats. Fully extend your arms and powerfully swing your arms across your body. Hold for 1 second at the end of the movement and slowly return to starting position. Here's a great video to show the motion! 3 Sets, 50 pounds.

Side Plank W/Legs On Bench: Put your legs on the bench with your elbow on the ground in side plank position. Do 8-10 dips/bends downward. Switch sides and do it on the other side. 3 Sets. 

Standing Barbell Twist: Place a barbell on your shoulders, twist your waist back and forth to each side 15 times. Next, bend abs to the side back and forth 10 times. 3 Sets. No rest. 


Cardio Time! I take the kickboxing class at my gym Turbo Kick. It's great, very high impact, and a great group setting. Of course you can just go run on the treadmill for an hour, but this is way more fun. The class can be fun and after time you might get used to the moves, just make sure to always go full out and execute all of the moves. Even OVER execute the moves. Always make sure your heart beat is elevated the entire time, at least 140rpm. Get a heart rate monitor so you always know for sure how many calories you burn. I do take LeanOut by Beverly International which is a fat burner and makes my heart beat faster thus, burning more calories. I take this every day before my workouts. Which reminds me, I need to make a supplementation article. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. 

Thanks for reading! Try these workouts out!

Mel