Food Dreams, Photo Fears and Keto

I’m now entering week 20 of prep. It’s been an interested first few weeks as I’m feeling incredibly under the weather, yet I have managed to stick to my diet.

I’m obviously withdrawing from all of the food debauchery that went down on my trip to Philadelphia at the end of October because I’m having very vivid dreams about eating buttercream cupcakes. The kind of dreams that when you wake up, you actually thought you ate cupcakes and blew your diet.

In addition to that, this week I overcame one of my largest fears, letting anyone from my gym see me in a swimsuit. One of my biggest hurdles with prep is getting someone to take my progress photos and my lack of enthusiasm for taking progress photos. I never want to do it, my husband never wants to do it, so I decided to take them when I’m at the gym. I was too shy to ask any of the staff so one day I just asked a girl in the change room. This worked great until yesterday when there were no girls around to ask. Crap! I’m in prep now, I can’t put off sending in my photos to my trainer now! I had to swallow my pride and ask the gym owner to take photos of me. I was mortified, but he was professional and reminded me that I was going to stand on a stage in front of 1000 people in my swimsuit so it’s time to stop being shy. That was it, all the pain was brought on by myself, he didn’t make fun of my amateur posing and I sent off photos to my trainer. Virtually painless, except for one bruised ego, lol. But hey, I gotta do this 11+ more times in the next 20 weeks and then it’s showtime baby, so I better get used to it!

What’s going on for the next few weeks? KETO! Time for me to introduce some new veggies into my diet! I’m getting sick of broccolli and lettuce!

 

The Turning Point

WHAT WAS YOUR TRIGGER OR TURNING POINT THAT MADE YOU CHOOSE FITNESS AND/OR A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE? HOW DID THAT PROCESS GET YOU WHERE YOU ARE TODAY? WHAT OR WHO HAS HAD THE MOST INFLUENCE ON YOUR FITNESS LIFE?

Some of you already know that I used to be a very unhealthy person. I used to smoke, drink and live off of kraft dinner and boxes of cookies. I was luckily never overweight, but I was the definition of skinny fat.

In 2004, my father who has chronic lung disease and a number of other chronic ailments was told that he was very close to being put on oxygen. The idea of my father carrying around an oxygen tank just horrified me. I couldn’t imagine him lugging an oxygen tank while he worked in the garden or going fishing.

At the same time, I was in my second year of Multimedia Production at our local community college. Summer was about to start and I was thinking about how much I would have to work to be able to afford my next year’s tuition. It was around this time that I realized the reason why I was in financial turmoil. My financial disaster was direct result of the fact that I smoked cigarettes. To my surprise, I calculated the cost of my smoking habit and realized that every year I had smoked my tuition’s worth of cigarettes. I was disgusted that the only reason why I couldn’t afford school, and the reason why I was having to work fulltime while going to school fulltime was because I smoked my tuition away.

I quit immediately.

Quitting smoking to this day was one of the hardest things I have ever done and the best decision I’ve ever made. In order to be successful, I knew I had to replace my bad habit (smoking) with habits that would help me avoid the chronic diseases I saw my father struggle with, so I decided to start exercising. It started with drop in aerobics classes and then eventually it developed into an obsession with the treadmill. I grew to love running and was addicted to pushing myself to run faster and longer.

At the time a friend of my husband encouraged me to enter a local race and I was hooked. I spent the next three years running 5-6 days a week.

One day a sign at the gym for Team Diabetes Canada enticed me into fundraising and running a marathon on behalf of the Canadian Diabetes Association. What seemed impossible and scary became one of the best experiences of my life. I did something I never thought I could do with a group of other enthusiastic motivating people and I fundraised $6,100 for the Canadian Diabetes Association.

This moment changed my life. Shortly after running that first marathon a position for a Team Diabetes Coordinator came up in the city of Thunder Bay. I applied for the position and got it! My life officially became about running and it was fantastic! I ran 3 more marathons, taped a national commercial for Team Diabetes, helped 20 people a year fundraise and prepare to run their first marathon. Sounds like a dream come true and it was. But sadly over time my body got beat up. I continued to push through injury and run marathons, but eventually by body started to hurt while I was running and also when I wasn’t running. Having spend thousands of dollars on physio, I had over-trained to the point where I had to give up running and let my body heal. In fact I was so filled with inflammation I had to give up all the activities I had learned to love and I didn’t know what to do with myself.

Honestly I spent a summer pouting, eating and feeling sorry for myself. I was so upset about not being able to run, upset about not being able to enjoy running with my friends and not really knowing what was next for me.

But eventually I got sick of myself and my extra fluff (I felt like crap and laying around doing nothing wasn’t going to make things any better) I signed up for dance classes. I knew if I was going to get fit again, I was going to have to find an activity to love. But eventually that dance class just wasn’t enough, I wanted to dance better, be stronger and regain my endurance. During my running streak I worked out at a local gym, which was a local sponsor for Team Diabetes. I had a membership there, but just played around with the weights and used the cardio equipment. I never thought of lifting heavy and the gym owner told me to stop wasting my time running and start bodybuilding, I just laughed at him, but now that I was no longer able to run like I did before I had a different perspective.

I went directly to Dave (the gym owner) and ask him to show me how to lift weights. I showed him a picture from an Oxygen magazine and said, I want muscles like this! The rest is history! After 6 months of lifting heavy, I wanted to compete. For me competing was exactly the challenged I needed in my lift to replace the empty void of the marathon.

Now 1.5 years later. I’m finally training for my first competition. There are many people that have influenced me along the way, but first an foremost, my number 1 motivator has always been myself. It’s always me who wants to go big or go home. It’s me who drags my ass to the gym even when I don’t want to go and it’s me that is going to make this competition be my best, because I am the one who will do the work. But, I’m not going to take all the credit. I have Dave (my gym owner) to thank for being patient with me and teaching a girl who once couldn’t lunch properly how to train and have good form. I have to thank all the people that workout at my gym who have spotted me or tutored me.  I have my friends and family to thank for being a sounding board and putting up with my crazy health priorities and most importantly I have my Bobettes, my online group of fitness friends who I learn from and enjoy the friendship of everyday!

 

The Down Lo!

Well, well, well, it’s been a few weeks and a variety of things have occurred in the life and times if Tiffany.  But let’s chat about the exciting stuff!

My fitness life is just getting better and better by the day! I really missed working out this summer, I didn’t have the opportunity to do as much as I would have liked 😦  However,  I’m happy to be training 4-5 days a week again and I’m really starting to look forward to my first competition prep.

I’m 24 days away from starting my first prep.  Last year I decided I was going to prep for show October 29th, 2011 in the fitness model category, but in June decided that was not feasible due to my work schedule (and boy was I right! The summer was ridiculously busy, I would have miserably failed if I tried to attempt prep in that madness)

Since then I have made the decision to switch from the fitness model to bikini category and here are the reasons why I’ll be competing in bikini April 7th, 2012:

• Posing: I feel more comfortable with the bikini posing.  Especially since I still haven’t been able to wrap my head around the back pose/lat flare and there are no posing coaches in the city I live in, so I’m on my own here, much easier to practice bikini posing on your own.
• Expense: We all know that competing is not cheap.  But bikini is still less expensive than fitness model because you only need to buy a swimsuit (not a suit and a athletic wear/costume as required by fitness model.  This tacks another few hundred dollars onto your competition tab).
• No costume round in the Spring UFE Competition: My reasons for originally deciding to compete in fitness model was because I was going to participate in UFE Halloween Mayhem.  I wanted to participate in this event because I love Halloween, just as much as Christmas.  I was originally hell bent on competing in fitness model because I wanted to make buy a super cool costume that I could potentially use over and over again. However, now that I changed to UFE Spring Bash I’m not as excited about the sportswear round.
• Advice from a Trusted Friend:  Over the last year I have met a variety of amazing fitness gals online.  Just the other day I took some progress photos of myself and sent them to my friend Kari (yes, I’m still to chicken to post progress pics online, maybe in a month when I loose the flubber I collected this summer).  To give you a bit of background on Kari, Kari is an experienced figure competitor, who writes an awesome blog called Figure Girl World, blogs for Fitness RX Magazine and is very knowledgeable about bodybuilding culture.   When Kari saw my pictures and asked why I wasn’t competing in bikini? I really had to think twice.  Now that I didn’t have the exciting costume to look forward to, I really didn’t have a legit reason.   At first I just said I wanted to be a little but more muscular, but then she asked me to take a look at the bikini Olympia photos, immediately I was inspired by the look and conditioning of the athletes.  Seriously, when an awesome experienced girl like Kari says I’ll be successful in bikini, I’m going to take her advice.

So there you go folks.  That’s what is new in my life at the moment besides that I’m participating in Donloree’s Fitmass Challenge (and I’m loving the kick in the pants btw). I look forward to continuing to tackle each challenge.  But in 24 days, I’ll only be doing what my coach says so, because as Kari says, during prep do exactly what your coach says no more, no less 😀

p.s. I apologise in advance for any poor grammar.  I’m a wee bit ADD, I starting writing this blog at 9pm then did a little website updating in between, then came back to this a very tired girl.  My eyes are crossing and I’m not even sure I’m reading things correctly.  Time for bed!

 

Sugar and Wheat Detox

So last week I seriously got back on the wagon and unfortunately after a summer of eating oodles and oodles of junk food I’m now having to detox from all that sugar and grain.

Withdrawing for the white stuff (sugar and processed flours) feels just as bad a withdrawing from a drug (I am a reformed smoker).  Your body becomes so addicted to it, one little taste makes you want more and when you don’t have it your energy levels drop and you feel grumpy and lethargic.  It takes time for the cravings to go away, but eventually they do start to fade and you begin to really feel the positive effects of a clean food lifestyle.  Sadly you first have to feel crappy before you can feel good.

I’m in the rough stages, but I know there is a light at the end of the two week tunnel.  In the meantime I’ve been sticking to my guns and using hot water with cocoa and a wee bit of stevia to ward off any crazy sugar cravings. It always seems to do the trick.

Already enjoying having the time to experiment in my kitchen with grain free, dairy free and sugar free recipes.  I love fall!

How do you ward off your sugar cravings?

 

 

Look out Jack, Tiff is back!

It’s been too long.  Wayyy tooooo long.  This summer I buried myself in work. I buried myself in work so much I didn’t workout more than two days a week and I didn’t eat more than 3 meals a day (and trust me they weren’t healthy and I have the gut to prove it.)

Regardless, work is slowing down, but my body and mind have shut down.  I feel and look terrible.  But what can I say, I have done nothing good for my body and mind this summer.  The body needs rest and nourishment and the mind needs relaxation, so what did I expect would happen.

There have been many times over the last few months that I have said, I’m going to clean up my act, I’m going to get my shit back together, but to date I haven’t been successful.

I must admit I’ve been making myself feel guilty over dropping the ball this summer, but it’s really hard to get motivated on an empty tank.

Alas, it’s time for NO MORE EXCUSES, time to change and evaluate why and how I let things get out of control and take the necessary steps to avoid setbacks next summer.

1. Be Prepared: I should have known this because it’s the girl guide motto and I was a girl guide for 12 years. The first thing I will do to ensure my diet succeeds next summer is become my grandmother and stock pile a freezer full of food.  I wish I had a photo of her freezer to post on this blog, however instead I will describe it to you. Imagine a deep freeze filled with little labelled meals in recycled containers, enough meals to feed two people for probably 3 months (cooking instructions attached). My super grandma somehow manages to always have these meals so that when she doesn’t feel like cooking she just warms something up.  Well next summer I’m going to have this, so when times get tough, I don’t eat hot dogs!
2. Set SMART Goals: The R in smart goals stands for realistic, but I often times don’t set realistic expectations of myself.  I always want to do everything and expect to not have to compromise anything.  Usually it’s my relationships and mental health that suffer.  I must remember I’m a super woman not superwoman.

   Now what’s in store for the fall!

   First and foremost I need to eat clean. Tomorrow I’m going back on the Paleo diet for two straight weeks.  After those two weeks, I go back on the off season diet my coach would like me to be on. Paleo eating everyday, with one treat meal.  This treat meal must be high carb so that my metabolism stays good and healthy.

   Secondly, get my ass back into the gym four days a week

   Three, spend Sunday’s at home watching football with the love of my life and food prepping for the week.  I love R&R especially when it’s paired with making yummy delicious healthy food.

   So there you have it folks.  There is my start to what is going to be an amazing fall.  The plan is to pick up where I left off last June.  Start prepping for my first fitness model show April 7th, 2012 (that’s only 199 days away).  I miss all my fellow blogging fitness gals.  Really looking forward to being back in the loop!

   xoxo

 

CSA time!

I’m so excited that it’s CSA time.  For those of you that don’t know what a CSA is, it’s Community Supported Agriculture.  As a member of a CSA you purchase a share in a farm and give them money up front to grow vegetables for you.  In Pass Lake, where I live my friends Brendan & Marcelle own a farm, called Sleepy G Farm.  The name comes from the farm’s location, which is on a peninsula/mountain called the Sleeping Giant.  Sleepy G farm is an organic farm and I work here two days a week in the summer.  Great food and friends what more can you ask for.

This week we received box number 1.  It has been a slow start to summer, lots of rain and overcast days, so stuff is growing at a slower pace, but our first box was still full of fresh veggies.  We recieved: bok choy, koho, cilantro, scallions, radishes and fresh baby salad greens.

My first CSA meal was fresh sauteed greens with onions and bacon.

 

Falling off the Edge of the Earth

For a moment it may seem like I have fallen off the edge of the earth.  But the reality is I was so busy living and making a living that I didn’t set time aside to blog about it.

Those of you that have been reading my blog for awhile know that I run a campground with my husband.  Since this is seasonal work and it’s summer time, we have now officially stepped into high gear (days off, what are those?).  Life has been busy.  In the midst of the June craziness, my prep start date was creeping up on me. I could feel panic setting in.  I was starting to crack.  Workouts and meals were being missed and I was just doing my best to try and get everything done (and obviously failing).  How on earth was a I going to be able to workout 6 days a week, when I’m struggling with 4?

I was hit with a brick of reality.  There is no way I can give competition prep 110% during the summer months.  As much as ONE truly can do whatever he/she puts their mind to, one should be realistic with their expectations of themselves.   I needed to tell myself NO.  Prep is something that will consume a lot of time and energy and at this point in time I would not be able to commit to both a demanding job and competition and maintain my sanity (or what’s left of it :P).  It was a hard reality for me to swallow. I didn’t want to share this reality with too many people right away, because I wasn’t even sure how I felt about it. I was relieved and disappointed all at the same time.

A few weeks later, I have finally made peace with the fact that Spring 2012 will be a better show date for me, I’m feeling much better, I’ve accepted this new goal.  Furthermore, after a weekend in Southern Ontario and having appointments with my posing coach, trainer and swimsuit seamstress, I’m getting excited about tackling a Spring show (instead of feeling disappointed).  I’m now motivated to use the extra time I have wisely.  There will be no doubt that by Spring I will be my best body!  I can’t wait to spend the next year practicing my posing, experimenting with my diet, supplementation and I’m eager to train, train, train.

 

The Year of Colourwork

Those who know me know I’m an obsessive knitter.  It’s my “me time” activity of choice.  I love to relax and just happily knit a long to an audio book, the radio or a tv show/movie.  I’ve always admired beautiful intarsia and fair isle knits.

Intarsia and Fair Isle are two methods of adding colour into your knitted pieces.  Both are challenging and require time and practice to get nice tension.  In order to force me to make the leap into colourwork pieces I have titled 2011 as the year of colourwork.  From beginning to end I have planned and acted on numerous colourwork pieces.

I thought I might show you the large projects I have planned.

Highland Dance Kilt Hose

PROJECT #1 – Status: In progress.

Some of you may know my favourite kind of cardio is Highland Dancing.  It’s fun and I take classes with 6 other awesome women in my age group, BONUS: it’s a killer workout.  The socks that you see to the left retail for approximately $200-$300 dollars.  Yeah you read that right, they aren’t cheap and now I know why. Being the crafty knitter I am, I decided to take on the challenge of knitting my own argyle kilt hose.  They are knitted out yarn the size of thread and will most likely take me over half a year to complete (who on earth would knit these by hand and sell them, you’d make like .50 cents and hour.  Regardless, I have cast on these babies with hopes of finishing them before our local dance competition in November 2011.  Wish me luck!

I'll be smokin hot in this sweater for the library's Don we now our gay apparel day!

PROJECT #2 – Status: yarn on order!
Everyone needs to have a Christmas Sweater and I admire this sweater for having both classic appeal with a twist of tackiness.  My friend Ruth and I are going to cast on this sweater in July so that we are armed and ready for Don we now our gay apparel day at the Brodie Street Library. Ruth is a librarian and I’m a wannabe librarian who dives at any opportunity to wear festive garments.  So once I finish this fair isle and intarsia sweater I will be wearing it every Christmas until the day I die, grow out of it…or knit another ha!  A quick side note about this project. I purchased this pattern from the designer because I have a great deal of respect for her design talents, sadly H&M did not feel the same.  They blatantly ripped off her design and had it mass produced overseas and then sold it in their stores a few winters ago.  As a result of discovering this, I now boycott H&M for there complete disregard of the artist’s intellectual property and I am happy to give the designer the money for all her hard work.

 

 

Lopi Dress

PROJECT #3 – Status: I gotta hurry up and finish Project 1 & 2
I love this dress.  In fact I love pullover dresses that I can wear with leggings in the winter.  I have Juicy Couture one, a lululemon one and hopefully this fall I will also be the owner of this Lopi dress.  I bought the pattern book, now all I have to do is get crackin on that Christmas Sweater.

 

When Lacking Time I like Meat and Potatoes – Fitness Blog World Post #2

Your 5 most FAVORITE exercises or routines to do when lacking time. What’s a fast, effective workout? Or how do you structure your time effectively when its a busy week and can’t get all your normal workouts in? What are the important elements of your fitness that can’t be sacrificed when unexpected obstacles come up?

There are two kinds of excercises for those who are wanting to put on size, your meat and potatoes exercises and your dessert exercises.  The Meat and Potatoes are the most important for helping you bulk up and the dessert exercises are there just to slaughter your muscles a little more.  Since my ultimate goal is to build larger muscles, when I run short on time I make sure I get in my Meat and Potatoes.

Back Squats:
My life has become all about squatting.  Every week, sometimes twice a week, I squat, squat and squat some more.  When leg day is rushed, I make sure I get in my squats as they are the most important exercise for gaining size.  I squat ass to grass and as heavy as I can, till going up those two weenie stairs to the water fountain feels like climbing a mountain.

Barbell Curls:
Welcome to the gun show!  A while back we posted some of our exercises that we love to hate.  I used to hate barbell curls.   I think it was because my form at one time stunk and I was just plain terrible at them.  Since then I’ve perfected my form and I now love working arms.  Barbell curls give me a pump like no other arm exercise and I must admit, it’s kind of fun to flex 😉

Overhead presses:
Shoulders, shoulders I want to turn you into boulders.  Nothing makes a woman look more strong and fit than a nice part of sculpted shoulders.  Military Press or Standing Dumbell Presses are a go to exercise for this girl. It is an exercise that simply cannot me missed or skipped.  I schedule my shoulder day with a trainer so that I make sure I get the best workout possible.  I always want to ensure that I have a spotter and that I leave nothing back on shoulder day.

Stiff Legged Deadlift:
Not only is this exercise amazing for building nice, big, juicy hammies, it also happens to be one of my favourite exercises.  My whole life I have had notoriously tight hamstrings, this exercise has not only helped tone and strengthen my hamstrings, but helped me become more flexible than I have ever been before.

Dips:
Tri day is all about dips.  At the moment I can only do horizontal ones.  I have been doing negative horizontal dips because I dream of one day being able to pump out 10.  Performing both forms of this exercise have been instrumental in developing my tris.  I like that you can do horizontal dips anywhere (all you need is two chairs or a chair and a bench) and I love the burn of the vertical dip.

Tips for making it all fit in:
Schedule your workouts like you schedule your activites.  If it’s written in your calendar you will do it. Furthermore, find a workout partner or trainer who will hold you accountable on the days when you just don’t feel like it.  When you make an appointment to work out with someone else you are less likely going to cancel when the going gets tough.  We are so quick to let down ourselves, but not as quick to let down others.

Visit http://fitnessblogworld.wordpress.com and click on the links to other fitness bloggers to get their perspective on this topic!

 

I’m in the thirties!

In 30 days I start my very first contest prep! and in 31 days I turn thirty.  (well that was the count when I first started to draft this a few days ago)

I’ve been looking forward to starting this process for almost a year.  Now that the moment is almost upon me I’m a mess of feelings and emotions!

oh the unknown, you are so exciting and scary!

I’m not going to lie, I’ve been slacking off a bit lately.  Not in the sense that I’ve thrown all caution to the wind at started eating McDonalds.  But over the last two weeks I’ve allowed myself a square of dark chocolate here, an extra Paleo muffin there.  I guess I’m being a little bit liberal with myself knowing that I am entering some strict times, so why not allow myself some guilt free treats now for long term prep success.  I’ve also missed a few workouts because of work scheduling (something I normally do not allow to happen, but it’s either let the workout slide or run myself into the ground and prefer the first option).  This is my tricky time of year.  The husband and I run his family business and it’s go, go, go, 7 days a week until the end of June when our new part time staff is trained, out of school and able to take lots of the pressure off us.  Conveniently that is also when my competition prep starts.

Other than that I’m just starting to be in disbelief that this is happening.  Within the same day I’m excited and also afraid that I’m totally off my rocker for wanting to do this.  It’s no surprise to all my fellow bloggers that I haven’t been blogging lately (hubby reminded me it’s been 8 days this morning).  Part of this is due to my chaotic work life at the moment and part of it is due to the fact that I have been going to bed at 10 – 10:30 instead of forcing myself to stay awake until 12:00am every night.

If you want to know what’s been going on in my brain, here is a sample of my current inner dialogue:

• will I be muscular enough?  You may not be the most musclar, but you are the strongest you have ever been and you will work your ass off during prep to make sure you are your best body.
• am I organized enough? It could be rough around the edges, but when it comes down to it you know you always get shit done.
• will I be intolerably cranky from strict dieting? Will my husband want to take the ring back? He loves you and will do anything to support you, that’s why you married him.
• can I really stand confidently on a stage in front of a group of people in a skimpy outfit? Fake it till you make it sister!
• will competing give me crazy unhealthy body image issues? You will stay grounded. You know that a competition body is just that, a competition body. What you have right now is fabulous and after prep when you regain weight you will be new and improved.
  
  and last but not least, before all of this prep business starts.  To I treat my almost 30 year old self with Birthday Cake??? Hrmmmm.
  
• 

  Birthday Cake?