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!

Five Weeks Out and New Updates!

What's new? Lots! Let me start with my upcoming bikini competition. I'm competing in the Tahoe Show again this year on August 22nd in Lake Tahoe. Let me just say that this show is the most amazing NPC show I've ever been to! They put so much love into their production and it shows! They take care of their competitors and it's evident that it's about more than money for them. This is important to me so I don't mind traveling to the show to support them. My boyfriend and I decided we're driving there instead of flying to save the $700+ it would take to fly. It's a 7 hour drive so ROADTRIP!!! And meal prep lol. This is good though because I can now pack whatever I want without worrying about it fitting in a suitcase (like my own weights to pump up in my hotel room). See I told you I'm still cheap. :)

I'm five weeks out from the Tahoe Show which means strict strict strict! Up until now, I have done the IIFYM approach (in a clean way, not adding donuts and oreos). I eat a lot throughout the day and work out and burn A LOT of calories and there are a lot of different elements about this prep than last year's. For instance, last year's preps were 100% clean, no cheats, no "maybe this can fit", nothing that wasn't a whole food, grown, or natural. Which there's nothing wrong with that approach at all! It worked greatly, but I wanted to try something different. This prep I had a cheat day every Friday which included eating whatever I wanted with no guilt. Needless to say, this prep has been pretty easy for me. It IS my first show this year so I'm not burned out yet, thankfully! In my opinion, five weeks out is the time where you should be where you want to be despite water weight and final tweaks. At five weeks out, you essentially have three more weeks to be 100% stage ready (which pretty much means cardio). At two weeks out, you need to be stage ready. If you're still trying to make tweaks or build muscle, it's too late. Keep in mind the peak week strategies that can make or break your stage presence. Peak week can be approached in many ways, personally I will be cutting salts, sweeteners, extra fiber, and protein shakes because I know how my body reacts to these things. Water I'll slowly cut towards the end of the week, I'm not going to dehydrate myself all week. I'm very excited and feel that my progress and body looks way better than last years! We'll see how the show goes! 

Of course there will be way more posts about my prep for the next 5 weeks, but guess what, I started a YouTube Channel! Oh yes! So you'll get to see my Vlogs as well in case you don't feel like reading. :) Of course the two say different things but hey, people have their preferences. Please subscribe if you like my videos and want to see my progress and show coverage. There will also be workouts, full days of eating, and bikini prep tips! Here's my intro video I posted a couple of hours ago. 

I'm also a day out from launching my online training platform (BodiesbyMel.com). Right now I'm a personal trainer in Orange County and train my lovely clients in person one on one. However, if you don't live in sunny California, I can train you online. No matter what your goals are, I can help get you to your dream body. We'll have a consultation call or Skype at first so we can get to know each other and we can go from there. OR if you'd just like to buy the plan, by all means, buy away! 

LiftingLadiesFitness.com is now live and more to come from there. I went fabric shopping last weekend for fabric for.... LEGGINGS! That's right! I'm starting  legging line because I'm so tired of buying leggings that show my ass when I bend over. Also, having leggings for girls with big butts, bigger thighs, and little waists who don't want to resort in wearing high waist all the time (I'll have high waist designs too). This will branch off into jeans I'm sure. Isn't it so hard to find jeans having a 36 inch butt and 26 waist? Solutions are coming! Lifting Ladies is the platform for online training and merchandise (t shirts, sports bras, leggings, crop tops, launching soon!). Custom bikinis are also in order. So head over to my sites, check them out, subscribe, like, and thanks for following my fitness journey! 

Mel

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?