Wired

On Wednesday evening I got my new supplements and yesterday was the first full day of taking them. I didn't really realize how much energy I had until after my afternoon cardio workout. I am usually wiped by this time even after a coffee. Yesterday was a different story and I was wired. This is the jump start I needed for my last 29 days. 29 days! Boo yah. Cardio and weights here I come.

My other challenge yesterday was to wear a sports bra to the gym. Just a sports bra. The whole objective in doing so was to practice feeling comfortable in front of people. It was a lot harder than I thought. As I was driving to the Oval, having a panic attack just thinking about walking into the gym in my green Nike top, I kept telling me that in 1 month I would be on stage in front of 100 times more people. Now is the time to get use to this "comfortable" feeling. I begun my cardio with my sweater shirt on and 2 minutes into it I took a deep breath, unzipped and running in just my sports bra. I actually forgot about the issue in the first place and just went with it. Baby steps, right?

I just made my morning pancakes early so I could eat them before my cardio session and took all my vitamins and now, I wait. T-minus 20 minutes until I'm bouncing through the roof. My sister won't be around this weekend to take my photos because she'll be in Vegas until Tuesday. So you'll just have to wait.

Did you all get up early to watch the royal wedding? I PVR'd it so I could watch it during breakfast but I'm sure it will be on every channel when I go to the gym...It was a very beautiful ceremony. I teared a little, but that's not much of a surprise considering the emotional roller coaster I'm on.

Today is just a cardio day so I am heading there now to check it off my list of things to do. Have a great day and weekend blog followers. Expect a full report on my trip to Superstore with Natalie to buy out the Blue Menu condiment isle.

Eat. Train. Sleep. Repeat.

Nic OUT!

Curious about cardio?

Good morning. Yesterday I had a quesiton about what I do for cardio in terms of speeds intervals and inclines. This is very dependent on each person. Years and years ago, I use to be a treadmill junkie and thought I was super fast but when I started running outside I noticed that I was short of breath and wasn't as fast as I thought. At first I was pissed and felt like I had wasted so much time on a machine that assisted my performance but it was because I wasn't training properly and I realized the importance of intervals and inclines.

The reason I wasn't successful in increasing or building my cardiovascular strength was due to the type of running I was doing on the treadmill. Another thing to remember is that there are other cardio machines and you shouldn't be intimidated to use them. Yes running is good for you but so are other machines. You will not bulk up by using a bike or get crazy arm muscles from using the elliptical. A really great book that I bought at Chapters, 101 Body-Sculpting Workouts & Nutrition Plans for Women, has several great cardio routines that you can mix and match to suit your level of fitness. No that's not me on the cover...just yet. When you get up to doing 60 to 90 minutes of cardio a day (which I'm not at just yet) it is important to mix up the machines so your body doesn't get use to doing the same thing day after day. It's also good to switch it up to help keep yourself motivated. Boredom is one factor why people stop going to the gym.

 A good way to determine what kind of intervals you should do should be based on your max effort. This didn't make sense to me at first but once I did a few workouts I got it. My goal for cardio is to break a sweat for the duration of my 60 minutes and intervals will do that to ya.

Here is what you should take into consideration. Say you plan on doing 30 minutes on the treadmill. You can do incline intervals at the same speed or speed intervals at the same incline. For example: I do speed intervals of 5/6/7/8/9 mph for 1 minute each, for 25 minutes with an incline of 0. This has increased overtime, but I determined my speed because I had tested out what my max mph would be if I ran at that pace for a straight minute where I was almost at a sprinting pace.

Remember when you are determining your max that if you are doing 25 minutes you will hit this max 5 times. The first few rounds might seem easy but the last few get harder. The first 5 minutes of my time on the treadmill are for warming up my body. I walk at a pace where I could keep a full conversation without difficulty.

Other options are the StairMaster. Machines are different and the one I use looks like a set of stairs. I use the manual setting and sometimes I will do 20 minutes at the same number of stairs per minute or I will do floor intervals. Again, the main thing for me is to break a sweat. Right now I have been doing 35 minutes at 1 minutes intervals of 90, 100, 110, 120 stairs per minute. I am basically jogging up the stairs when I reach 120 and about 10 minutes in I am sweating like a mad woman. When I started the stairs I was doing 50, 60, 70, 80 just to give you a sense of my progress. You don't want to kill yourself but find what works best for you. It's important to have a plan when you go to the gym. I always know what I'm going to do for cardio before I get there so I don't have to think about it and this helps me get through my 60 minutes. Test out a few options your first time to figure out where you feel comfortable and then write down your plan on a piece of paper and take it with you. This is not a faux pas, but a sign of someone who is on a mission!

I hope this helps and all makes sense. Don't cancel out a machine if you've never tried it. Sometimes its a love hate relationship like mine with the Stair Master. If you have any questions about this, let me know.

Eat. Train. Sleep (only 30 more). Repeat.

Nic OUT!  

Your left cheek is bigger than your right...but they won't notice.

What the heck is that suppose to mean! Today I was at the gym doing squats and two of the trainers were there watching my form during my sets. After I was done my second set, we were discussing what I needed to work on now that the weight was getting heavier and one of them said, "your left cheek is bigger than your right..." My face must have dropped because he quickly blurted out, "but they won't notice." Has anyone else cared to notice that my left cheek is slightly bigger than my right? Thanks for telling me! I thought I made random comments but that one definitely takes the icing on the cake.

Yesterday Natalie and I met up for some serious down time which involved pedicures and massage chairs = heaven! I felt so much better after bombarding her with questions about everything and catching up. Look how nice my toes look! OPI - A Grape Fit. It was a well deserved treat.

After our pedi's we hung out at Nat's and made plans for the weekend and discussed my new vitamins regime. More details to come Thursday. 

On Saturday we are hitting up Superstore hard for some of their PC - Blue menu foods/condiments which apparently made without sugar! They even have sugar free ketchup. If you know me and how much I love eggs with my ketchup, you know I am smiling ear to ear. Other items include BBQ (sugar free), chicken rubs (salt free) and much more. You can expect several pictures from the weekend including week 4 photos.

I have been spending a lot more time in front of the mirror at the Oval in the studio lately practicing my walk and posing. This is really my parents fault for letting me spend so much time as a child in front of the mirror. It has overlapped into my adult life...

The first time I practiced my posing I felt like a stripper (there was no nice way of putting it) bouncing around and grinning to "Firework" by Katie Perry. After a few times through, I realized that this is all part of my training and it needs to be considered just as serious as perfectly my form during dead lifts. I can train all I want for the next 5 weeks but if I skip out on practicing my walk and posing, I could freeze on stage and all my hard work would go out the window. My friend Briana, who grew up doing dance, watched me practice my walk and made some suggestions about what I need to work on. She told me I looked like I was doing a military walk and swinging my arms like I was rehearsing for changing of the guards. Just give me one of them tall bushy hats and were set. This is on my list of things to practice. Anyways, what it comes down to is that posing something I need to work on because it is a part of the process and I want all my hard work to come together.

Anyways, its shake time and off to the gym for cardio so I can come home and actually watch the game! I figured that people wouldn't be impressed with some blonde on the elliptical yelling at the TV's. This is something that is better done in the privacy of your own home...

And my cardio is still at 60 minutes, 7 days a week....for now so I am going to enjoy every minute of it. Literally. I know its going to increase, its just a matter of time.

Eat. Train. Sleep. Repeat!

Nic OUT!

Photos, 5 weeks out....32 sleeps until WBFF

Good morning blog followers. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend full of great food and chocolate. Mine consisted of chicken and asparagus :) 

Yesterday I had a mini meltdown on the phone with my trainer David (embarrassing) and then again on the phone with Erin. Sorry you two. Everything just seemed to hit a wall yesterday. With only 32 sleeps until my first competition I have a lot to do in the next few weeks. I will be travelling to LA for work, getting my first aid certification, writing my Personal Training exam, training, cardio...you get the idea. Things are a little hectic around here but I am really trying to stay positive and find time to do everything, including watching game 7. I figure I'd do my cardio at the Oval tomorrow night so that I could watch the game and the time will fly by. Great plan, I know...

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out whats causing me to hit these walls so that I can work on it and move on. I don't have time to be in a "slump." So this is what I came up with last night about why I had a the mini meltdown of 2011. I'm a planner and that is the hardest part for me because for next 5 weeks, even though I have control over my training and nutrition, I really have no control over my actual body. does that make sense? I can train it all I want and put all the right things in it but I can't tell my muscles to do this or that. This is why I have Natalie. She is my sanity right now and I have to learn to trust the process and that everything I am doing is going to get me to where I need to be when I am on stage in 5 weeks in front of a full auditorium in very little. Thank goodness for spray tanning so I don't have to worry about my bruises from dead lifting!

My meal plan is pretty lean right now and my cardio is still at 60 minutes, 7 days a week but that might change today as I have sent Natalie my week 5 photos to review along with my weight. I was pretty happy this morning when I weighed in at 128.4. I still have 4 pounds to drop in the next 5 weeks. This is all very manageable.

Yesterday when I was at the oval I tried out this new treadmill called Woodwav and its amazing! Its foot bed is like a conveyor belt of rubber pads instead of one solid conveyor like you see at the grocery store check out. It is so easy on your knees because it has resistance in the material the belt pieces are made out of. Try one out! Also, I did an awesome StairMaster speed interval workout. 1 minute intervals of 90/100/110/120 stairs per minute for 30 minutes = me very sweaty...very, very sweaty. This might have been a little too high intensity for one workout, but it felt good and I felt good so I decided to push it a little.  I need to be mind full to save some energy for the rest of the week though.

Thats all for now folks!

Eat. Train. Sleep. Repeat.

Nic out!