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

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

Loving The Process

Hey everyone! Things are going so great, I love it. I feel like I'm not even prepping for anything because it's become such a lifestyle. I don't even think twice when it comes to eating healthy food. Going to the gym isn't even a second though. The thought of skipping the gym is so far from my mind it's crazy! I can't even imagine a day without going tot he gym. My rest day last weekend consisted of practicing in my heels and googling fitness info. There are a lot of warnings and precautions about cheat day after the competition. It's so funny because I cannot even see myself not living this lifestyle. I love it!

So yesterday was back day and I made a video of me squatting 205 for three reps, yay yay! Watch, like, enjoy! Yesterday morning I also did 30 minutes of running when I woke up. I had a banana and a half a cup of coffee so it wasn't completely fasted cardio. I feel like my lungs are getting better and my stamina is increasing. I can run for longer without getting super tired which makes running more fun and doable. When I first woke up and did cardio I felt like shit all day, no joke. It was so tiring and just daunting on my whole day. Now I feel like I can conquer the world! lol So I will continue doing the morning cardio every other day, opposite of night kickboxing cardio. I'm hoping cardio will get rid of the fat in my lower back. My ass is so ridiculous it's going up my back lol. I know a lot of you will be like, what fat? It's there, I see it and know it's there! So I'm going to run it all off. Speaking of things I need to work on, my ass. Again, a lot of you will be like "whaaat? I love your ass!". Yeah it's great, but I'm disappointed. It still jiggles and it's annoying, it's just not where I want it to be at all. So commence "butt day" twice a week for the next five weeks. That should do it! Other than that, I'm very confident about my physique, I love my body, and cannot freaking wait for the competition.

A recent discovery: Egg whites are amazing! By themselves: blah, with other things as a main or secondary ingredient: amazing! Omg. I have been making egg whites and salsa for the past couple of days. That's it, no other ingredients! Try it, it tastes way too good :) I eat it as a brown rice replacement on low carb day.

Today I did three tricep super sets before my hour kickboxing class. 

Tricep and cardio Day 

1. Tricep cable push down (light weight)
35lbs x 10 reps x 4 sets

Tricep reverse grip cable push down
25lbs x 10 reps x 4 sets

2. Dumbbell overhead extension
30lbs x 10 reps x 4 sets

One arm overhead sideways tricep extension 
10lbs x 10 reps x 4 sets

3. Machine Tricep dips
50lbs x 12 reps x 4 sets

Body weight tricep dips
12 dips x 4 sets

1 hour cardio 

Thanks for reading guys! If you're not following me on Twitter yet, please do so, that would be awesome :)

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

Competition Update

So I've been working out well of course, eating well of course, but I'm new to the whole competition thing. So I have been researching OVER-researching to be exact lol. Literally spending every extra minute watch bikini and figure shows, watching poses, studying poses, getting bikini ideas, it's crazy. I just want to smack myself and just go with the flow. For me though, I am an over planner and I think ahead for everything so I can't really help it. Plus, it's not really a horrible thing, so whatever. I got my shoes in the mail last week! I have been practicing walking everyday. I'm telling you, it is a workout itself. It's tiring, especially for my feet. The shoes aren't that comfortable and they are very ugly too. That's good though so the judges will be looking at my body instead if my fabulous shoes.

Here are my lovely legs! I'm proud of them, I'd just like to see the hamstrings a little more and I'd be ecstatic. More photos to come! Omg I'm so mad because this water is just making me bloated every single day so taking pictures is just out of the question except right in the morning when I wake up. Who wants to take pictures when they first wake up?! lol Time to break out those water pills. 

Last Wednesday I got the shading and color on my tattoo. It's all done now, yay! I love it so much. It's my favorite piece of art on me done my Joel Bones of Gold Rush Tattoo in Costa Mesa, CA. The day before the tattoo I worked out obliques/abs. Bad idea. "Yes, yes carve into my sore ab muscles, it feels SO good!" Needless to say, it was painful lying on my side with my arm up for 2.5 hours lol. Totally worth it though! 

As far as food goes, I've been doing good keeping my calories up. Hitting 1800 is like celebration time! lol Crazy, I know. I've been eating every two hours pretty much and I have had to switch some things around and add some high protein foods. I'm trying to be in the range of 120-150g of protein per day, 200+ carbs, and 50-60 fat (essential, healthy fats). It's been improving every day so that's good! My diet as a whole is completely clean and I drink 1.5-2 gallons of water a day. 

I pretty much put spinach in everything and have added egg whites to dinner or night meals as well. Any way to get up that protein! I take protein shakes (Beverly International, Chocolate 80% Whey/ 20% Casein) twice a day, one a couple of hours after breakfast with a banana and the other after my workout at night. The middle photo is a recipe I found with whole grain pasta, spinach, broccoli, plain Greek yogurt, salt, pepper, and onions. YUM! It looks gross but it's good lol try it! Inspired by this (http://www.ezrapoundcake.com/archives/13338) recipe, I didn't have anything on the list except the yogurt and pasta so it looks nothing like that beutiful masterpiece lol. 

Alright, shower time. Thanks for reading guys! Feel free to comment, follow me on Twitter, all that great stuff!

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