Competition Date Change

Hey Guys! It's been a minute! I'm sorry for the lack of content, my first year of teaching was so exciting, crazy and took up a lot of my mental creativity and strength. I also have some many changes in my fitness life which I want to share! 

I'm competing in the bikini division

              I started bulking or retraining my metabolism around October 2017. My coach at the time wanted to wait until my metabolism was in a better place before we decided on a specific show. I knew I wanted to compete during the summer since I’m in a Teacher full-time. That way, when I was going through my rough period, deep in prep, with a very restricted calorie deficit (for the very first time), I didn't have to worry about also working with my little kiddos. I wanted to know how I felt during that time without the added worry of making sure that at every turn my demeanor, attitude and positive energy was on point for a 1^st grade teacher.

              My coach wanted to see how my body kept changing before selecting a show date. After about 4-5 months, she told me (FINALLY) I was in a good spot to pick a show in August for me to have as an end goal. We decided on the NPC Midwest in St. Louis on August 11.

              Finally!! I had an exact date, a foreseeable end date to push for. I keep pushing along, kept striving for it.

              Well, due to my body being stubborn, some miscommunication, me not knowing how to properly use nutrition & flexible dieting to my advantage, I decided I needed to have more strictness and guide when it came to what I needed to fuel my body with.

              Once I found my current coach, she and I worked together for about 5 weeks (I was 4 weeks out for the St. Louis show) when we sat down and had a talk. I had lost a lot of time, so I was faced with a decision. Push extra hard; restrict calories more than I was comfortable with, up the cardio to a couple hours a day OR push my show date back.

              When I say, ‘I lost a lot of time’, I mean the reasons above and some other things. I hurt my hamstring, my ankle is giving me issues, my mindset is switching from a flexible dieting approach to a nutrition plan approach (it’s harder than it sounds) and I’ve traveled a lot recently. So I had to really think about it.

              I’ve been pushing so hard for August 11^th. I had steadily, consistently lost weight but I wasn’t mentally in a great place. My coach sensed that and brought it to my attention. I want my experience, my first experience, on the stage to make me want to keep going. I have big goals and I like the challenge of training. I already enjoy this sport and hope to have the strength to keep pushing, keep improving and inspire others.

              My coach was very nice while also being very honest and said that she wants my first experience to be enjoyable and fun, but if I want to push for August, I won’t enjoy the journey. She explained that I still have some work to do and we would have to grind very, very hard.

              I’ll be straight up honest with you all. It was a hard decision. I am a very stubborn person, very much a ‘finish-what-you-start’ person, obviously a challenge yourself person & an achieve my goals person. So I had all these emotions saying, ‘Just push, you can do this’ and ‘It’s 30 days. You’ll be fine’. But as I got off the phone with my coach, I remembered a talk I had with Tommy (my husband) and a promise I had made to him when we started this whole thing. I promised him that the moment it got unhealthy – physically or mentally – I would quit. He was (and still is) worried about me, how competing would affect my mental and physical health. But I promised him I would be honest with him the whole time and not do something that would potentially hurt my body in order to make a show date. So now faced with that exact issue, I fell back on that promise. I decided to honor him, honor my body and honor my coaches advice by giving myself some slack and understanding that I haven’t done this before so it’s okay if I take a little bit longer.

              So that all being said, I’m still going to go to the Midwest show in St. Louis but I’m going to be in the audience and learn. It’s going to motivate and make me so fired up to step on that stage, ready, in Little Rock, Arkansas on September 22^nd!