No more Cheat MEALS! What the $(%)##_@+#)$(%($)#_# WHAT?!

So today I was training with David and we were talking about my goals for the upcoming competitions. David is my new trainer, in case you were wondering. He's awesome and we have a really great dialogue and finding a trainer that you click with is sooooooo important. Holla.

My last trainer was really good and there was nothing was wrong with him. He is an incredible trainer/guy but we didn't have that click that you need to have because that relationship you have with your trainer is very personal. PS. writing that email to my old trainer was the more uncomfortable thing considering he owns the gym but it had to be done and he was very understanding.

Hmmmm so here’s a little about my new trainer David. He has a very bubbly personality, is very hands on and pushes me to lift more weight which is awesome. He is really encouraging and has tonnes of experience. We have great chemistry and I am super happy that we will be training together for the next few weeks.

(PS, this picture is of me day dreaming about my cheat meal....)

Anyhow, onto the crappiest news ever! I told him about my cheat meal Saturday and was about to tell him what I had planned next and he looked at me and said, cheat meal?! There won't be anymore of those. $(*#)_#@$%)$ WHAT?! Were the thoughts that went through my head! I am still 9 weeks out! Ballick! So that’s it for me. No more dreaming about hamburgers or pie, lattes or bottles...glasses of wine. I guess that 9 weeks isn't really that much time.

Its funny when I hear myself talk about being X number of weeks out. It's like the opposite for pregnant women. How far along are you....oh 16 weeks. They still have 5 more months of being sick, not being able to sleep comfortably...etc. Yes, one day I realize that I will be that lady at 16 weeks, but right now I am super happy to be 9 weeks out and counting down! The thing is when I get to my 2 weeks out from the BC Championships, once that is over, I will be 3 weeks out from Toronto and once that is over I will be 13 days out from the Alberta Championships in Calgary, which means.....I will be spending 8 weeks doing contest prep.

David, whether you like it or not, I will need an itsy bitsy cheat meal in May, June and then go hard in July....how does that sound?! We can have steak and red wine, okay?

I know and understand you are just looking out for me considering I will be in a swimsuit-ish, if you can call it that, on stage in front of a lot of people, I appreciate you looking out for me. The thing that I have to remember is that Natalie won't be at my first competition because she will be in the first of three back to back shows she has. The cool thing is I will be able to watch her compete in Toronto because we will be at the same show. I can't wait to see her do her thing! She is amazing. Check out her web page, http://www.nataliewaplesfitness.com/.

Anyways, I guess I will have to accept the fact that I will be drinking plain water and not have any more soy lattes for.....at least 9 weeks. That’s only 63 days, right?!

So here's to the next 63 days of caffeine free green tea and plain water. Cheers!

Eat. Train. Sleep. Repeat!

Nicole

Yo, nuts aren't protein! Nuts are FAT!

Is it weird that I like to go to bed early so that I can wake up and eat my favorite meal of the day? Breakfast is officially my favorite meal because oatmeal is the only "carb" that I am allowed to eat and boy do I take my time eating it. Savoring, every, last, bite....Love my oatmeal. Have I mentioned that coffee was cut out of my diet?! OMG! I loved having my morning latte and now, no caffeine. Caffeine can sometimes affect your metabolism and therefore I have to cut it out. As the weeks progress I will slowly be cutting out other
foods and things like sodium. I don't use any salt right now, but chicken contains sodium so when I get closer to competition I will be poaching my chicken to get rid of any sodium in the chicken breast. How delicious does that sound. Poached chicken...
As of now, all my meals do contain a fat, a protein and a carb. Carbs are anything such as peppers, spinach, and fruit (with edible skin such as an apple or pear). The only time I am allowed something like oatmeal is in the morning because my body burns it off throughout the day. A lot of people have the perception that nuts are protein so they will eat hand full after hand full of them thinking they are being healthy when nuts are actually the fat part of the meal. Yes, they do contain protein, but you would have to eat 2 - 3 cups of almonds to get the amount of protein you need from them. So next time have 8-12 almonds, walnuts or cashews and make sure they are unsalted. So the ideal meal would be a piece of chicken or a half can of tuna, a cut of pepper and some almonds. Make sense?
Balancing each meal can be hard because protein isn't easily accessible compared to things like carbs (aka, muffins) and other things you can get in the vending machine. This is where learning to properly pack a lunch is important. A lot of the time we think we are being super healthy by buying bulk trail mix and munching away on it during the day. But if you are sitting at a desk all day eating what could be around a cup of trail mix at a time, you would be surprise by the amount of fat and sugar, never mind the calories you consumed.
It just goes to show that everything in moderation is a very true statement.
Whether you’re hitting the gym or not, including a shake into your regime could be a really great way to get some extra protein. Make sure when you are buying protein to really read the label. You want one that is low in calories, low or no sugar, low in fat and around 15 - 20 g of protein. If you ask someone at GNC or a health food store like Whole Foods, they are usually very helpful. I love my Greens+ Vegan protein. I go through one a week, but I am having 3 - 4 shakes a day.
If you start to incorporate a shake into your daily routine, remember that it’s your protein part of the meal and you should still have some fat and carbs. A really easy way to get both is by having 2 hardboiled eggs or 1 TBSP of nut butter. This will make your meal complete. And lots of people hate the smell of HB eggs at the office so who doesn’t love a spoon full of peanut butter?!
I also got to meet with Caitlin yesterday to see the rest of my photos from the shoot last week and they turned out so good! It was worth braving the cold. The next shoot I won’t look so much like a vampire because it will be in June after my May competition.

This weekend I am going up to Kamloops for a Femsport competition with Skechers. I will have lots of photos from the event. Skechers is sponsoring a bunch of athletes so it should be a blast. If you are up in Kamloops come swing by and say hi!  I’ll be under the giant Skechers tent. The event is a fitness competition for women that include tire flips, box jumps and much more! There are over 80 women competing and I am really excited because it will be great motivation to see other women training hard and competing. Good luck to Jessica and Maria who are on the Skechers team! You go girls!

I’ve got lots on the agenda today for work so I will be back tomorrow! If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.

Eat. Train. Sleep. REPEAT!

Nicole

5:30 comes early...

As my alarm goes off, I reach over to turn my phone off and squint through one eye to scroll through emails, but its time to get up. I lie there for a minute, debating whether to stay in bed for 5 more minutes, but as I lay there I know I will be late getting to the gym, late having breakfast and late starting my day. I get ready and make a quick shake and I'm in the car on my way to the gym. It hits me as I'm driving over the bridge that I drive past the River Rock every morning and look at it. In 9 weeks I will be on stage in that same building competing. This makes the drive and the day that much better.
The other thing that makes my early mornings better is that my mom is up at the crack of dawn to leave for work and she is getting ready when I leave for the gym. When I come upstairs to head out she comes smiling and waving down the hall to give me a big hug goodbye and seeing her bright smiling face puts me in a good mood and I am off and ready to train. The second best thing about my mom is that she does Costco runs for me because buying bulk egg whites is a lot cheaper there when you go through 3 cartons a week. It’s getting a little ridiculous. My parents are both very supportive of me and all my crazy ideas and ambitions. My dad I think is still coming around to the idea and understanding why I am doing this. I think once he sees me on stage and all my hard work come together he will get it.
My lifestyle right now isn’t ideal or understandable to a lot of people. Yesterday my friend Anthony and I went for a walk and we had been gone for awhile and I asked him what time it was and he said 5:30. I said okay well I will need to eat soon. He asked where I wanted to go and I told him I had brought my meal in case we were gone longer than expected. He looked puzzled and I told him I had a chicken breast in my purse. Immediately we were stopped on the side walk and he was inspecting my chicken and baggy of peppers with almonds. It was chow time. Who else do you know carries a chicken breast in their purse?
Getting up early to train, means being in bed early to get 8 hours of sleep and cuts out a lot of night time activities. Not being able to drink with friends cuts out a lot of social activities as well or it’s hard for someone to understand why you can’t just have one glass of wine. Training early is important so that I can be refreshed and ready to work during the day so that I have time in the evenings to do stuff with my friends. It is all about learning to balance and surrounding yourself with those that are supportive and even if they don’t understand listen when you said I can’t or can we do this instead. My dad’s new thing is whenever I leave to go to the gym, he tells me to “train hard.” I love this.
The weekend was a little tough. Nat and I were suppose to do plyos (plyometrics) on Saturday but we were both pooped so we took an active rest day instead and went for a long walk. This left me up to my own weights and cardio on Sunday and it took me a long time to get to the gym but once I was there it was all good and I am back on track! Oh yieah!
Shannon, a friend that is also training for bikini, and I had a very long conversation on the phone which was amazing! We text constantly about hiccups, meal ideas or random hellos, but talking was so great and we decided it was important that we call each other more often for support and sanity.  Here’s to 9 weeks left to competition and a great week ahead!
Eat. Train. Sleep. Repeat.

Thanks everyone for all your support and mom, can you pick up some egg whites for me.
Thanks J

Nic

Cheat day = stack of pancakes! Oh yiahhhh

So I got up this morning with every intention of doing Plyos with Nat but it was a group concensus that our bodies hated us and we were going to take an active rest day and go for a walk. I will train weights and do cardio tomorrow. Since I am taking my rest day today, I figured I might as well go all out and do my cheat meal as well. I had been planning my cheat meal for the last 3 days and man was it good. It took me awhile to decide what to have. The first thing that came to mind was a huge piece of apple pie from Aphrodites, but it just wouldn't be the same without my partner in crime, Mr. Chocolate Banana Cream Pie aka Louie. My second choice...a stack of pancakes (whole wheat of course...can't go nuts) and sugar free syrup, I mean real syrup. It is a cheat meal after all and that sugar free was ruining the whole "cheat" aspect.
Yup, another picture of food. If you'd like the recipe for these, I included it below. Not going to lie, I had one more...

For me a rest day means no cardio and no weights. Just rest. I do have an "active" rest day where I go for a power walk or swim for 20 minutes. My cheat day, or meal I should say, means that I get to have one "bad" meal. Hmmm...it's strange but now that I am eating more vegtables and less fruit I don't find myself craving sugar as much and wanting more salty things...interesting.
Rest is the easy part, feeling guilty about not training and eating something "bad" can be hard and that is why it's important to learn how to just take it easy. The first cheat meal I had was with my friend/mentor Natalie at the Keg and it was delicious. It was good to see that it was okay to splurge a little, but the hard part is to only do it once and not say well I could have a bag of chips because I did this, or to have a muffin becuase I did that. You get one meal. That is it and you don't have to feel bad about it. If you were having your last meal what would you have...? I will only get 2 or 3 more "cheat meals" before my competition so I'm going to make them count.
Having a cheat meal is important because some people get obsessed with this type of eating and can end up with eating disorders and eating a cheat meal is only hard because you are constantly measuring, timing and prepping your foods which also takes time so breaking that routine can play tricks on your mind so you have to get over it and just eat that fluffy pancake...my mouth is literally watering...I got to go eat my pancakes before they are cold so pass me the Aunt Jemima's!

Everything in moderation. Enjoy your cheat meal : )

Eat. Train. Sleep. Repeat! (Today I guess, Eat. Sleep. and back to the grind tomorrow)

Nicole

My pancake recipe...mix all dry ingredients first and thn add the liquids.
>1 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
>1 tsp Baking Power
>3/4 unsweetened apple sauce
>2 egg whites
>1 cup of water (you can use almond or soya milk too)
>4 packets of splenda (I think that works out to 1 tsp)
>1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
>1/2 tsp Cinnamon
Hope you enjoy!