Full Day of Eating: Low Carb Day

New VLOG up! My full day of low carb eating. I break down my macros, total calories, and all of the food I eat on these wonderful energy filled days. JK on the energy, but I definitely made sure I was full throughout the day, I didn't feel like I was "starving", and I ate good food! Yup, down there you see a turkey burger, bread, guacamole, and yes, those are tortilla chips. I use the If It Fits Your Macros approach in order to achieve my goals for this prep and I'm very happy with it. No, I don't try or claim to fit donuts and poptarts in, but I DO make sure I hit those specific macros in a clean way. See more macro fun in my refeed video on my YouTube channel. I do a 2500 calorie refeed day with the majority of the foods being clean (I fit a poptart and pancakes in :) )







If you guys enjoy my videos, please like and subscribe to my channel, it's greatly appreciated!



Mel

Powering Through the Sickness

'Tis the season to be sick, get colds, and slack off! Well, the first two things, no slacking off this winter. With the weather getting colder (or fluctuating from hot to cold in Cali), the risk of getting sick is higher and higher. While there are many things you can do to prevent the bug getting you, sometimes it just comes out of nowhere despite your careful planning. So how do you stay motivated when you're sick? Are you just going to throw out your plans and goals for a week in your bed? Are you going to power through and go to the gym sick? I'd say neither is a good plan, though there has to be balance. You can't just show up to the gym putting everyone in danger of catching what you have. Think about it, you cough into your hand, you touch a dumbbell, do your set, put it back. Someone new picks up the same dumbbell, gets an itch on his face or eye, or randomly decides to put his hand in his mouth, bam! He's got it too! The gym is a bacteria frenzy! Okay I know I've scared you now and yes there's a lot of risk in the gym, but you can take matters into your own hands by taking extra precautions during your workout.

1. Take a towel (or two) everywhere. For you to breath or cough into, and to wipe down the machines after use. 
2. Before use, use a wet wipe or spray and towel to wipe off everything you'll be touching. You never know what the person before you did on there or their condition. 
3. Don't go to the gym if you feel too sick. Which brings me back to what motivates you.

When you're coughing, sneezing, wiping your runny nose, I'm sure it's hard to build up the motivation to even get out of bed. If you have a goal in site like a prep or a fitness challenge you've joined, you'll need to get back into the gym asap. If you don't have a goal in site, by all means, take that time off to recover and get well. This is more for those of us who need to fast forward getting well so we can get back in the gym and attack those goals. You don't want to reschedule a show because you got sick. Could you imagine? Some great things you can do to keep your prep moving forward is move around! Go walking on the treadmill. I know it's hard taking a step from our hardcore workouts and jumping on a treadmill just to walk, but do you feel like running? That's what I thought. So walk for 30 minutes to an hour, keep your body conditioned throughout your sickness. A stationary bike is also a great choice! Sitting down might be all you want to do so it's probably the best choice. I mean, if there were a lying down cardio machine, I'm sure we'd all be in line for it. Don't want to leave the house? Below is an at home workout I've put together that's sure to get your heart beating, while letting you workout in the comfort of your own home.

Low Impact Burpees: Go through the motions of a regular burpee, only walk your legs one at a time back, push up, then back up. Stand up with hands in air, don't jump. (Unless of course you're up to do the high impact jumping)(As many as you can for one minute)

Jumping Jacks (One minute)

Body weight squats (One minute)

Stationary lunges (One minute)

Lying toe touches (One minute)

Repeat this cycle 3 times or as many time desired. That makes 15 minutes of moving around, getting active, and staying accountable. Don't let that cold knock you off your feet, you're better than that! In the same right, don't push yourself so far that you get even sicker and end up being out of the gym even longer. Listen to your body, if you feel you can do it, do it. If not, take a break. Now onto diet, because it's not all about the gym.

When sick, what is the LAST thing you want to do? Eat! And what is right behind that? Meal prep,

eat right, eat all healthy food. Who wants to be in the kitchen all day prepping meals? YOU do if you want to stay on track with your goals. This whole week when I was sick, I prepped every single meal and every single meal was clean. I thought, well if I'm going to be out of the gym, I'm at least going to be on point with my eating. You have push yourself to eat well, you must. The main problem when sick is that you don't want to eat. It's such a chore especially eating like clockwork like we do. My advice is to just do it the second it crosses your mind before you have a chance to think about it. Get up, cook, and soon you'll be able to lie down again. If you're lucky, maybe you'll have someone to cook six meals for you. That would be nice, but who has time for that? You have to want it, live it breathe it! No sickness will get you down. How wonderful it would have been to just order food all day and eat just that. Nope, we can't do that because we have goals to conquer! So dig deep and do what needs to be done in order to stay on track. You can do it! I did :)

Thanks for reading! I hope this inspires you when you're sick to get up and keep fighting for your goals. Bookmark this for when you are sick to try the workout and let me know how it goes!


Mel

12 Days Until Tahoe Show!

I'm super excited for my next show! I look better than ever and have improved SO much since my first show it's crazy. I know I haven't posted in a while, but here I am :) I'm so much more lean than I have ever been ans it's crazy! I wish I knew EXACTLY what it is that has gotten me here. You know what I mean? Like I've tried everything! So many things, so I don't know if it was a certain combination of things I did or one specific thing. For instance: for my first prep, as a fat burner I used raspberry keytones, for this prep I used Liposide by Evogen which is a caffeine based pill. I took fish oil pills three times a day for all three preps. I did fasted cardio for five weeks this prep, none on my first and second. I did way more cardio this time around in general. It would just be great to know what to give the credit to for my fat loss lol. Oh well! In April I was 14% body fat, now I'm 11% and ridiculously vascular. I'm happy, 2014 has been an awesome year for me!

I've been doing show preps since February 1st of this year. So crazy! I took a couple weeks off after taking 6th at the NorCal Championships in Sacramento in June. I just ate clean and worked out normally with random cheat meals and maintain my physique until 5-6 weeks out from the Tahoe Show. Now I'm a little less than 2 weeks out and I just look great. It's awesome, I feel awesome, and I really don't know what I'm going to do mentally if I don't place in this show. seriously. WTF. I'm so sick of "losing" next to girls who don't even look like they spend any time in the gym. They just get on a treadmill and run until they're ridiculously skinny, put on a bikini, and call it day. Okay that's mean, but I'm venting. I just feel like the judges love the higher body fat girls in the amateur shows, but the pros are freaking 10% or less body fat. It's hard to keep up. Somehow I have stayed positive and I'm going to do MY best and kill it on stage. I know in my first show my hips and but were so much bigger than they are. It's crazy! I'm going to post my measurement changes and differences from April 12th show, to June 7th, to now. I'll do that in the post tomorrow! Minus all the water, this is what I'll look like on stage. And I'm happy with how I look. SO happy! :D

I've also improved my posing a little. I've learned to manipulate the stances to make my butt look better with different angles. One thing that I learned at the posing seminar at the NorCal show is to NEVER turn your back to the judges when walking (unless they tell you of course). So walk in sideways to hide that jiggle, and walk off sideways. Sounds so silly! lol My butt looks amazing, but it still jiggles when I walk. One sad thing about losing so many inches and so much body fat in this short amount of time is STRETCH MARKS!!! Ugh. So annoying. I'm not a self conscious person in the slightest, but man I'm noticing them more and more. I've been using the Frank body scrub along with Palmer's Cocoa Butter lotion for stretch marks hoping the combination of the two would fast track them away. I know I have to be patient... but be gone stretch marks! Haha anyway I've posted some new photos in the progress tab, check them out!

For the next two weeks, I'm going to continue carb cycling with a high carb day on Friday and moderate on Saturday, Monday-Thursday are low carb days. I still do the "eat a different meat every meal" thing to keep my meals interesting. It usually goes: morning carbs: oatmeal + 1/2 scoop protein, 2 hours later: 2-3 eggs, then chicken and bell peppers, then shrimp and broccoli, then swai fish and asparagus, then workout and shake, then dinner which is ground turkey and egg whites. On low carb days I have a rice cake with peanut butter on it before the chicken meal and before the shrimp meal. Low carb day is 60 carbs or less. I'm not going to switch it up on peak week, just going to do the same thing with asparagus to get rid of that water weight, take dandelion root, hit the sauna, and rock it! So no water depleting, no real sodium depleting since I don't use salt that much anyway, just what's in food. Can't wait, I'm excited! On a side note: I have not had a Quest Bar in like three weeks... so weird.

Thanks so much for reading! You rock! Feel free tom comment below :)

Mel

Dun Dun Dun My Competition(s) Results. Finally.

Omg guys I can't believe I haven't posted, updated, filled you guys in on my life. Hopefully you've been checking out my Instagram feed and captions for updates. I have to say my first competition really left a bad taste in my mouth and I didn't want to speak badly about the company, show, anything like that... but it's been months now and I really don't care anymore. Sadly, the Muscle Contest Grand Prix show in April was not a fun experience. It was a drag, I felt invisible and an after thought on stage because I wasn't part of a team. I swear they had their winners chosen before the show. There were like 30 people in my class which is a BIG show! So imagine being a judge sitting through all of those classes. Novice classes A-D and Open A-F with 20+ girls in each class. The shows started at 8am, I thought I'd be on stage around one. WRONG. I didn't go on stage until around 3-4! The venue didn't have food and I hadn't planned on a 3PM stage time so I was starving! I had rice cakes but that was nothing. Definitely a "first show" mistake, I have learned from that. So anyway, by the time I got on stage the judges seemed OVER IT. I tried to make eye contact with at least one judge, not one was ever looking at me! At least FAKE like you're judging. Omg I felt like complete shit standing up there and could not wait for it to be over. You can see from my photos I went up there with confidence and all was well in that category, I just pushed through and rocked it. Of course it didn't matter, didn't place, didn't even get a real placing. They literally placed top five and threw the rest of us to the side. So. Yeah.

I was pretty pissed about the whole situation, experience, everything so I didn't even want anything to do with blogging about it, talking about it, anything. I'm not saying that my body was PERFECT and that I should have gotten first or anything like that. I know what I need to work on and know how I can improve, it just would have been nice to be seen by the judges. I spoke with some of the girls back stage and they said the same thing, that the judges weren't looking. So after the morning/ afternoon show I just said fuck it let's go eat! We went to Denny's and I ordered some fries and a quesadilla. I'd admitted to myself that this show was a waste of my time and money and nothing I do is going to change that. I couldn't even eat the food, it was too salty and greasy. So we went back to the hotel. When we got back to the hotel I thought maybe I can have a second chance to be seen. I switched my bikini to the red one, practiced my walk even more, and was excited to hit the stage again. So it's finally time for the night show (bikini is last) around 9pm, I get on stage, look down, the judges aren't even there! Ah so sad. I learned that the night show is for family so a lot of girls don't even come to the night show if they don't get first call outs. This would have been GREAT to know, otherwise I would not have wasted my time. Seriously, colossal waste of my time! So after the show, took pics, and left to The Cheesecake Factory for my mac and cheese :) I had no problem eating that lol.

I know, I know, I'm supposed to be positive and say "oh it was a great experience and I'm glad I did it", but you guys know me and I'm going for pro. The only good thing that came from that show were the awesome girls I met, and the pointers I got from girls who've done multiple shows. I've learned that you have to research what shows will work best for YOU. I am muscular, I have muscle, and ASS. I cannot be judged next to skinny twigs with no muscle and expect to win. More about that later. Not that those skinny twigs don't look great, have had an awesome fitness journey, and are just amazing, you just have to know what shows you'll have a better chance at. Research includes going on NPCNewsOnline.com viewing the shows, photos of winners, comparisons, etc. Anyway, that's in the past and I have moved on! I'm just very anti Muscle Contest shows at the moment, I feel like all they care about is money. Especially after the Spectrum Fitness Productions show I went to on June 7th!!

OMG. The professionalism, the coverage, the interaction, the venue, hotel, registration, EVERYTHING was amazing. Seriously, It was like a trip to the midwest vs a trip to Paris. The productions of show quality is miles apart. The SFP show was a lot smaller than the MC one, about 9-15 ladies per class instead of 20-30+. I think there should be a cap for national qualifier shows, but that's just me. They wouldn't want a cap though because then they'd be capping their income potential. Okay so the SFP was June 7th in Sacramento. I drove there from SoCal. Yes I drove that far just to NOT do a Muscle Contest show. Sadly, I had to go by myself because my boyfriend DeAngelo had drill (army) that weekend :( So I also have NO stage shots from the show. I regret not buying photos. Ugh. Anyway, man we were spoiled at this show. The event was AT the hotel where we were staying so we didn't have to freaking sit at an auditorium all damn day waiting until our time on stage. Another AMAZING thing: they text us when it's time for us to go on stage. I don't even think you guys realize how amazing and relieving this is. We don't have to be freaking out wondering when we'll be on stage, if we've missed our class, most of all we don't HAVE to watch the whole show. No offense to the physique men, but jesus there are always SO many of them and I get tired of looking at the same thing for hours lol. Throughout the prep they have you hashtag your photos with #NPCNorcal, feature athletes, say good luck to athletes, LIKE your photos, they post motivation everyday, it's just great. You can just tell that they care so much. Customer service is great, you can see that they respond to all of their questions on their site with no problem, they're just so nice! If you want to do a show I highly recommend SpectrumFitnessProductions.com, the next show is August 2nd!

Cool, cool, So how did I do?! I got sixth...Out of 9 girls. Not what I wanted obviously, but while in the line up I could already tell it wasn't going to go well. Now this is the complicated part of bikini, they judge you on how the other girls look. If the girls are muscular they judge on muscle, if the girls are skinny with... shoulders? They judge on that. Honestly, I can't stand by the skinny girls and be motivated by that. Not saying they don't work hard, but damn I work HARD on this body and I am not losing muscle just to fit in in the amateur shows. Yes, the amateur shows. These are FITNESS shows and to me being "fit" is not the same as being "skinny" and being a cardio queen. Pick up those weights! I chose this show for many reasons, but a main reason was because it was also a bikini pro show. Ah yes, the pros! They look amazing man, AMAZING! And let me tell you, muscle central! The judges swear up and down that they don't want muscle girls but ALL of the pros are jacked! I want to look like that, but I've had to tone down because all of the shows around me are "skinny girls" in bikinis. It's quite annoying. So yeah, I chose this show because I thought since the pro bodies are fresh in the judges minds, they'd judge us based on their bodies. Nope. Didn't work out for me. BUT despite my placing, I still had fun, it was a great production, I was taken care of, so it was okay. That's how every show should be! And yes I went to The Cheesecake Factory afterwards :)

So I know I need to work on my glutes and thighs. During the prep for SFP NPCNorcal, I did glutes TWICE a week, shoulders three times a week, added in biceps and chest again, I just went hard. I got super lean, I looked SO much better than my first show, I can't even believe it! For THIS prep I'm (sadly) becoming a cardio queen and trying to get rid of this stubborn thigh fat. Fasted cardio every morning should do the trick. I have about 9 weeks so progress should be amazing. The first show prep I did no carbs the week of the show, for the second show I did carb cycling which worked out way better for me. I still came in a little flat by show time because I thought I'd be able to get another meal in, but the show went by sooo fast since there weren't that many people in the classes. It sucks never knowing the exact time we'll be on stage, but it's okay. I've learned that carbs are VERY important the last two days before show. For this prep for my next show I'll do carb cycling again for five weeks. It's SO effective for me and I stand by it.

So what's next?! I've found two prospective show's I'd like to do in August. I really want to do the Tahoe Show (August 23rd)! I've added up costs though and it's going to be very expensive. Like a $1500 trip! And what if I don't even place? Not worth it to me. BUT to stay away from a MC show, I might just have to. Because (I know I talked a lot of shit about them but,) the other choice IS a Muscle Contest Show: Pacific USAs. It's in San Diego on August 16th. Unfortunately, there really aren't that many NPC shows in SoCal besides MC shows so I'll have to tough it up and do them anyway. At least I know what to expect this time! So we'll see what show I can do, hopefully this is the one I qualify. I've also looked into WBFF shows! Those girls look amazing. Who knows you might be looking at the next Fitness Diva :) WBFF appreciates muscle :)

THE PROS! AND WHAT I ASPIRE TO LOOK LIKE

It's been a crazy and awesome year and I have some amazing progress that I'm very proud of. I love this new lifestyle and I can't imagine not living in it. I'm glad I started competing! Thank you SO much for reading this, I can't even believe you read the whole thing and it's just great to know I have people to support me. Comment, share, be amazing, and thanks so much.

~Mel

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

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

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

Rest Days and Tacos

Oh hey everyone! This has been a crazy, busy, tiring, ridiculous week. I've been training really hard and working hard on my nutrition and macros. I over study and analyze everything so I spend at least two hours a day studying nutrition, physiques, new workouts, and pretty much anything fitness related. I LOVE motivating people and encouraging them to feel beautiful. So I've been on Twitter and Instagram "inspiring" and empowering people. I feel like any kind of encouragement can at least boost some one's day. After all, it is great getting compliments.

This weeks forecast of workouts consisted of Tuesday: morning fasted cardio, night back and calves, Wednesday: Forced REST DAY (I was so sore, could not even move), Thursday: morning fasted cardio, night leg day, Friday: cardio and some shoulders, Today: more shoulders and triceps and HIIT. Taking a rest day on Wednesday pushed my triceps day to today so I just have to pair it with shoulders. Should be a fun time.

Last night I made some delicious chicken tacos and I'd like to share them with you. I've never used basil, but I've always ordered it at restaurants and it's always amazing whatever it's in. So I bought some while grocery shopping yesterday and decided to make some tacos.

List:
Whole Grain tortillas
Chicken breast
Chopped tomatoes
Chopped Onions
2 basil leaves
Salt, pepper, Mrs. Dash seasoning (I also used onion powder and garlic salt)

I'm a huge fan of skillet medleys, AKA chop everything up, throw it in a skillet, throw it in a bowl, and enjoy! So this recipe is quite easy and will take no longer than ten minutes. For my side vegetable, I steamed some seasoned baby carrots. AMAZING. The sweet and "salty" mix was a great contrast to the tacos, you HAVE to try it.

Cut all vegetables, sautee onions into a skillet with olive oil, once medium done, add the tomatoes (you can choose to keep tomatoes raw but I don't enjoy raw tomatoes), then add the basil. Once onions are cooked to desired (I like mine completely cooked as I hate raw onions), put vegetable mixture to the side. I used the mini fajita tortillas, I put them in the toaster to make a taco shell, put the cooked chicken in, and then the vegetables. The basil adds its own flavor so you won't need to top it with any kind of seasoning, cheese, or any other garnishes, unless you want to of course. I also had 1/4 cups of brown rice. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Mel

Chicken Bowl!

Yesterday was one of those days that I would have (if I wasn't in prep) just went out to eat (at a healthy place of course) because there was "nothing to eat". Instead, when we got back to the gym, my boyfriend and I put together what we had and ended up making a little masterpiece. Nothing too crazy or gourmet, but it was quick, easy, filling, and good! Isn't it funny how exciting the little things are when you're prepping or dieting?

1/2 Chopped onion
Cut up chicken breasts into bites
3/4 cups of egg whites
1 chopped up bell pepper
1 cup of brown rice

Scramble the egg whites, set aside.
Sautee bell peppers
Sautee Onions with chicken to give it that delicious taste! Also, season as preferred. We just used salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. Yum yum!
The rice was leftover from the night before, but we use the Success brand boil bag. Only takes 10 minutes to cook.
Mix all ingredients together in a skillet (fried rice style)
Bam! You've got yourself a chicken bowl with veggies and rice! Coming in at a whopping 275 calories! lol You'll be hungry in a couple of hours for sure, but it's a great quick meal.

(I'll post a pic tomorrow, my phone is being lame)

Thanks for reading!

Mel

Monday: Day One Prep Food

I'm going to break down what I ate today and what I plan to eat for the prep including calories and macros. Okay so I know you guys have heard of "If it fits your macros" (IIFYM) and some of you live by it, but I do not go by it. I feel like people do that just so they can eat junk food and not be accountable for their nutrition. I count all of my calories, carbs, proteins, and fats which is essentially your macronutrients. Yes, keep track of your macros! But don't eat garbage to get the calories. I also keep an eye on my sodium as well as my cholesterol just in case. I forgot to start out by saying, I am NOT a nutritionist by any means and am not certified or equipped with the degree to tell you what you should eat. With that said, I know what works for me and my body, so this is what I eat. It's pretty standard for a lot of meal preps so it's not like it's some ground breaking diet plan that's magically going to shed pounds. You're welcome to try it, so here you go!

Breakfast: 
1 Cup of Instant Oats Oatmeal (I add a little sugar as well as salt. Both to be cut out as the competition gets closer).
Lots of Water!
Supplements: LeanOut by Beverly International, Multivitamin, Fish Oil,

Two Hours Later: 
2 scoops of protein (Beverly International UMP Chocolate Whey Protein)
1 Cup of Greek yogurt
Supplements: Fish Oil, Glutamine

Two Hours Later:
2 half peanut butter sandwiches (one bread with PB folded in half)
32 Wheat Thins
Supplements: LeanOut

Post Workout: 
2 Scoops of protein
Supplements: Glutamine

Dinner (45 minutes after workout):
4 ounces of chicken breast
1/2 Cup of brown rice
1/2 large baked sweet potato discs (Sprinkled cinnamon and a pinch of brown sugar)
Supplements: Fish Oil

Macros for Today:
Protein: 151g
Carbs: 210g
Fat: 41g
Calories: 1773

This is pretty much what it will be like everyday until two weeks out. Give or take a couple calories and substituting chicken for fish or adding different veggies as sides. Unfortunately I haven't come up with a substitute for brown rice. It's so good for you and has a lot of calories so it's exactly what I need. It's just soooo boring ugh. Whatever though, I can do it! :)

Thanks for reading!

Mel