3 Weeks Out From SF Championships and Progess Photos

Hey guys and girls! Long time! So I'm sitting here THREE WEEKS OUT from my next show, the San Francisco Championships. I'm very excited (of course) and it's been four weeks since the Tahoe Show. "Well, what happened at the Tahoe Show?!" you say, well I will tell you and you can watch it all in the video below! 

So for the Tahoe Show, I felt great. I try very hard to keep a critical eye on my body since I don't have a coach, and while my boyfriend is also a trainer, he sees me everyday he'll always say I look amazing. Especially coming from a prep and transforming so much, it's hard to tell someone they aren't ready or that they need to work on something when they've done so well so far. Well, I'm not about that for the most part, I try to stay critical while also staying positive in loving myself. So with that said, I should have come in leaner, tighter, and downsized my glutes and thighs (What the judges said as well, I spoke to all five of them). This has been my goal forever, my problem is in my butt, it's ridiculous. Coming from a body with a 42 inch "fat" butt (as in a big butt consisting mostly of fat, not muscle), and transforming it to a mostly muscle butt wiht little fat, is A LOT of work. It doesn't work the way people think, muscle doesn't "replace" fat and fat does not turn into muscle. While building muscle, you must also be losing fat. Which means heavy lifting AND cardio like crazy! I've come a very long way! I'd say my butt is now... 60% muscle? You can see definition clearly, you can see my tie in, you can see my round glute definition and I am SO happy about it, it's great! The transformation continues though, as it was not "enough" to win the Tahoe Show. I got 9th place out of 18 girls in my class. Of course I wanted higher, there's no doubt about that. Unfortunately, in this category and industry, they'd much rather prefer someone who is skinny without as much muscle vs someone who is most muscular with some fat. Which means I need to kill it, kick up the training even more, and come in leaner and leaner than expected. Of course this all comes with knowing your body and how it reacts to diet and regimens. So let's just say the Tahoe Show was a "trial" show this year, because it really put fire under me to fight even harder for that trophy.

 My initial plan before the Tahoe Show was to do a show four weeks later (last weekend). I decided after the show after seeing my photos and what I need to work on, that I would do a 7 week prep instead and another one 4 weeks after that. I figured not much can change in four weeks especially with how much fat I needed to lose in my glutes. Well, I don't know if it was because I was still in such a fat burning phase with my body, the increased cardio (from 30 minutes fasted 5 days week to an hour fasted 5 days a week), the on point diet, or all of it, but wow I look so much different than the Tahoe Show. In just four weeks I have managed to transform even more to a point I felt I would have been stage ready last weekend. Well imagine what three more weeks can do! I'm more motivated than ever and I'm determined to beat not only myself but those skinny girls that are always favored. As always, no offense, but there's definitely a look the amateur judges go for and I'm not it. They don't like "thick" even though I see plenty of pros with thighs for days! lol Anyway! I can't wait to see my package in three weeks and I can't wait to take home the trophy from San Francisco. Fingers crossed! 

So three weeks, San Francisco Championships. My birthday is THIS WEEKEND! But no celebration because I'll be two weeks out, which is fine, I don't need cake and junk food. The Sunday after my competition I'll celebrate my birthday with my wonderful boyfriend in the beautiful city that I love, San Francisco. It will be amazing and worth it and hopefully with a trophy by my side. I can't go too crazy though because four weeks after that is the... LAS VEGAS CLASSIC!!! Which I have heard is a HUGE show. Let's see! I hope to win first in my class at this show and maybe overall. Big dreams? Yes. I think I can do it, and I'm going to try very hard of course. This will top off my season and I will be done for the year!!! I'll come back next year for nationals and go for that pro card. I wish there were more national shows at the beginning of the year. It's so dumb that they're all in the summer. I want to go to Vegas pool parties, I always miss out! :(

 Anyway, so this second show is in Vegas which means I will be celebrating afterwards for either winning or for the season to be over lol. Or I'll be sad and celebrating that the season is over... but secretly planning another show in December or later in November lol. Probably not though. After my Vegas Shenanigans, I'll be reverse dieting to get myself to a healthy daily calorie intake of 2100+ calories. I've never eaten that much consistently in my life. I REALLY want to be healthy during off season and start next season way leaner than I did this year. Normally, I don't count meals, I just eat whenever I want (which is seriously 2-3 times a day), and never get enough calories, but still go to the gym and kill it. This time I want to be fueled and get over 2100 calories consistently. I know it sounds so silly to people who love eating and eat all the time. Most people try to eat less or try to fit what they want into 2100 calories. These are the goals! Also: next March my boyfriend and I will be going on a... EUROTRIP!!! Ah yeah! lol And I won't be tracking anything. :) 

Thanks so much for reading and you can find more videos from peak week and more on my YouTube channel. Like and subscribe if you enjoy them and I'll keep making them. If you have any questions feel free to comment below. 

P.S. This post is going live one week post SF Champ Show. Whoops! :) 

                                                   

What I look like now, Four weeks later! :)

2.5 Weeks out - Bikini Posing Practice

Here is my two and a half week out update! As I'm typing this, I am TEN DAYS OUT from the show. It's next freaking weekend! I can't believe it! I'm so happy, excited, an READY! It's going to be awesome and I can't even express how happy I am with my progress. I'm going to post another blog entry later of my progress and you guys will be shocked. It's ridiculous lol. In my defense, I didn't know I was competing again this year. But no excuses, I will NOT look like that at the end of my next off season lol. Anyway, here is my posing routine. I've changed my routine a million times these past months, but now I have one in stone that I have down to muscle memory. I hope you enjoy watching and it would help if you'd subscribe to my YouTube channel. I'm trying to update a lot! :)









Mel

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

Training Legs (aka glutes) With My Boyfriend

Well... not WITH my boyfriend, he trained me. I told him to kill my legs and glutes and he did! He even showed me some things I haven't done before (wierd, I know!) which is awesome! For those who don't know, I'm a personal trainer and my boyfriend is as well. We both have different approaches of training with our clients and often times we bounce ideas off of each other to stay inspired. As a trainer or seasoned athlete, you can learn a lot from other trainers and athletes. It's always good to surround yourself with knowledge and be open to learning new things. I'm totally that stubborn person who always thinks my apporach is the best, but I have to stop and remind myself that there's always more to learn. I saw something the other day that said "If you're the smartest person in the room then you're standing in the wrong room". I love this! Surround yourself with like minded people as well as those you want to learn from in order to excel and expand your knowledge in life.

The training video is below, I hope you enjoy! Subscribe to my YouTube channel for more fun videos!

Mel

BodiesbyMel.com <--- Live in SoCal? Need a Personal Trainer? 

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

Hardships and Bouncing Back

Wow it's been so long since I've blogged! I've been in prep for... 10 weeks now and of course have gotten back to social media, but last year I had to take a break. I had to unplug from the "fitness world" completely. Of course I kept up with my workouts (actually I toned it down a lot after prep) and stayed consistent doing whatever workouts I had planned, but mentally I had to check out. You see, when I want something, when I dive into something, when I start something, I go 1000%. I got to a point where I would wake up, track show hashtags, look at other peoples' progress, look at my own, obsess over shows and future shows, deciding on when to compete and I just decided to turn it off. I can't do half, I have to give everything 100%. It's completely unhealthy being in the that way of thinking and I just needed some time off.

The fitness industry in general is a hustle every single day. Making sure you post, hashtag, interact, blog, update, etc. is a job and a job you don't get paid for in the beginning. Maybe in the end it's worth it and it begins to pay off, but you never know until you're completely swimming in it. Also, a lot about the fitness industry pisses me off like companies using athletes as affiliate programs for nothing in return, people liking photos just to get followers and following people to make themselves look good, lying to customers and clients about results, making up BS to build a brand, the list goes on. I hate it so much. I want nothing to do with anything that's not passionate. I can't stand behind a product, company, or opinion without being whole hearted about it and believing in it 100%. I know I'm talking like I'm some huge name in the fitness industry (which I'm not), but I just don't want to get involved with most of it. I love being in the industry to help people reach their goals and motivate to love themselves. I'm in it for the passion.


With that said, I'm back! Now a little heart to heart. There have been some times of trouble and struggle towards the end of last year and honestly I did not think I would or could have any plans of competing in 2015. Competing is EXPENSIVE, and even in my frugal way of prep, I just knew I wouldn't be able to afford it this year. Well, let's not say I "knew" because at the beginning of this year I started working my ass off to build my brand(s) and it has proven to be worth it and I'm back in the game. I'm so grateful and happy at where I am right now and how hard I had to work to get here. There's no going back now and I'm in this to win it 100%. By "in this" I mean life. I will not fail, I will not suffer or ever be able to not afford what I want ever again. I know it sounds so silly and everyone says "money isn't everything". Well there's a saying back that "the only people that say that are people that have never had money". And it's so true! I NEVER want to be back to where I was and yes money is great! I shouldn't have to calculate how much money I have in my account to be able to buy something. NEVER AGAIN! I'm still SUPER cheap though and honestly, it has taught me to be more smart with my spending. So there is a lesson learned there, always come out with a lesson learned. If you're poor, there's hope, just keep on fighting and working your ass off. DO NOT STOP until you are where you want to be. Nothing is going to fall into your lap to change your life, only YOU can do it.

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