The Wrap Up

I am struggling to write this final blog because I am overwhelmed with emotion. What do you do when something you have been focused so intently on is over? I'll admit although I am happy not to be so regimented and restricted anymore, I am definitely a little bit sad. Right now I am watching my mom and grandma washing and chopping the entire Asian Food market in our kitchen ( bok choy, mushrooms, kale, onions..etc.), a not so familiar, yet familiar sight. Today was very difficult reintroducing myself to normal things such as this scene in my kitchen and the ability to wear deodorant without messing up my spray tan. Okay...I admit it, I didn't scrub so hard in the shower so my tan stays on for just a little bit longer.

Here are my final thoughts...

I didn't win, I didn't even place. And I'm not going to pull that "everyone is a winner" bullshit either. I may not have won, but I learned and I earned... the title of a figure competitor.

Upon arrival and check in the day of the competition each competitor is issued a number. My number was 17. I was hoping for 7 or 11 but I should have been more clear with my request to the universe and picked ONE, instead I got both. I wasn't mad.

Mom and I had the LOUDEST and BEST cheering section out of all 75 competitors. Although we both practiced our routines at nausea, when we got up there we both strayed and did what ever we felt like. The first thing my brother Randy said to me was, "Kate, that is the most I've ever seen of you."

When all is said and done, I am changed for good and for the better. I am more comfortable in my own skin and more aware of my body. I have a new found respect for my mother and a renewed faith in the idea that hard work pays off. This experience has left me feeling totally, 100 % blessed. Blessed because I am surrounded with such wonderful people. To everyone who has been in my corner since the sand box and to everyone who I have picked up along the way, thanks. I can not stress how thankful I am to everyone who reached out to me this summer. Whether it be sending me free Egglands Best coupons, buying me flowers, cooking me my own special meals, sending me quotes, or hitting me up on facebook, it meant the world to me.

You are all probably wondering what the first thing I ate was. It was chocolate covered strawberries :) After that I went to the diner and although my mom and I went our separate ways after the competition, we both ordered BLTs without ever even discussing it. Weird I know...

Another question you might have is what the highlight of my day was. It was when my brother came back stage to congratulate my mom and I after our 1 min of fame and he had tears in his eyes.

Whenever I see the bronze foot print permanently stained in my rug, I will think back and remember this experience with nothing but fond memories. To everyone who made a t-shirt or a poster for the competition, hold on to it. You may be wondering if I plan on competing again... do you really need to ask?

"MUSCLING THROUGH"

I am kind of sick of writing about myself and I am sure your sick of reading about me...So don't worry there are only 6 more days to go! I figure that I would take this blog and write about someone else. Someone who I know just as well as I know myself.

Every athletic game of my career began the same way. A quick scan of the crowd and an ear scratch. My mom, who has attended 80% of these games, would recognize the symbol and do the same... our symbol of acknowledgement and an ' I love you.'

When my mom was 20 (my age) she was married with one kid. Every time one kid went off to kindergarden, another one popped out. My mom, who was a much better student then I am, did not have the opportunity to do what she really wanted, get her college degree. But that didn't stop her. It may have took sometime, but in the midst of raising three kids and managing to keep awake during night classes, she finally reached her goal, and at age 30 obtained her college degree. This is one example of her determination or what she calls, "MUSCLING THROUGH."

Yet again, she has "muscled through." I'll be the first to admit, my mom has worked 100 times harder than I have, having to do double the amount of cardio and lose double the amount of weight. On July 23rd she turned 50. Her birthday dinner was Tilapia and Asparagus, not one taste of birthday cake.

Today was a big milestone for her, 16 weeks and 35lbs ago, she decided that she wanted her competing weight to be in the 120's. For the first time this morning she weighed 129lbs! If we could have celebrated with champagne and ice cream cake we would have, instead we just high-fived and hugged. Go Mom!

For the first time I'll be the one watching her from the stands.

Schedule of the Week of the Show

Two weeks from today! So far I have been instructed that no more intense cardio is allowed, but to try to sweat as much as possible. Low intensity cardio and sweating do not seem to really go together, which may mean that I will be layering my clothes to workout. Within a day or two my diet will change slightly. The next step will be to start manipulating the amount of water in my body.

Things are really heating up at home. We should have a T.V show called "Two Moody Bitches Under One Roof." Take this morning for example... my mom called me a name so inappropriate that I can not even imagine writing it down, you can use your imagination...Granted I deserved it. In retaliation, I stole 5 dollars from her car and bought myself a water and did not get her one. Regardless, we still went to the gym together, had a solid leg workout and of course, shared the water.

I thought it would be fun to let you all in on our schedule the week before the show. All the appointments have been set..

Mon, Aug 23rd: 10 A.M Katie Wax...EEEK!

Tues, Aug 24th: 10 A.M Rosie Wax

5 P.M mani/pedi Katie and Rosie ( A French of course!)

Wed, Aug 25th: LAST WORKOUT! (or what Jillian might call, "The LAst Chance Workout" )

6:00 P.M Spray tan K.O -first one ever! I don't really like that fake shit. I prefer the real thing, laying in the bed!!!!

6:30 P.M Spray tan Rosie

Thurs, Aug 26th: 6:00 P.M Spray tan K.O

6:30 P.M Spray tan Rosie

Picking up Grandma from the airport. Poor Grandma! Gram, if you are reading this it is no too late!

Friday, Aug 27th: 4:00 P.M Driving down to Burlington to take lie detector tests to make sure that we have taken no illegal substances!

6:00 P.M Another Spray tan!

Sat, Aug 28th: 6 A.M Make up (Barbie status)

7 A.M Getting our hair did

10 A.M Pre-meeting

11:30 A.M Pre-judging

5 P.M See you there!

The Latest

Last night when I got up to pee for the second time, it hit me that in less than three weeks I will be walking out on stage in front of my closest friends and family and I was so anxious it took me another hour to fall back asleep. Here are some updates on what I have been up to...

1. My mom and I have officially picked our stage song and they are perfect. In addition, I have ironed out my exact posing routine. This will probably be the longest 60 seconds of my life. I hope that I go on stage before her because just thinking about watching her finish what she started gets me emotional.

2. I currently have blisters all over my feet from perfecting my strut in those damn high heels. I do appreciate how much better they make my legs look...I guess you

can say we have established a love-hate relationship.

3. My suit came in the mail. Clearly we must have ordered it from Baby Gap because the tiny bottoms did GREAT things for my butt and thighs. If you have ever tried on something too small for you, you can imagine what a great confidence boost this was for me (FML). A new suit is on it's way.

4. Last Friday, Alberto advised me to have a cheat meal. A cheat meal is meant to spike up your metabolism, which sometime will slow down if you eat the same amount of calories, fat and carbs every day. I happily (and totally guilt-free) housed four slices of Staten Islands' finest pizza. I could have eaten the who

le pie...

5. Yesterday, I got totally ambushed at the MAC makeup store in the Short Hills Mall. What I thought was a routine trip with my mom to simply pick out the color of our eye shadow and style of our fake eyelashes for the show, turned into an hour trial run. I sat in the

chair while a woman applied layers and layers of stage make up. The foundation and bronzer she used are meant to match my skin tone AFTER my spray tan and not my skin tone now. I'll admit she did a great job and I think it will look great on stage, but the walk through the mall back to my car (with my new Barbie face on) was a tad embarrassing.

6. I went from eating 2 cups of asparagus, to now eating three cups of asparagus. You know the rumor about how asparagus is suppose to make your pee smell? Totally true.

7. When I was a kid my parents would have to chase me around the house to get me to shower. I am officially sick of having to shower multiple times a day, therefore I have made the conscious decision to cut my showers in half. Feels good to be the smelly kid again. Judge me.

The Last 5%

It is much easier to do things that we are good at than to work on things that we are not so good at. If only I had a dollar for every client that I have trained that said, "Please don't make me do pushups, I am not good at them." Even though this usually only makes me add more pushups to their routine, I must admit that sometimes, I am no different. Unfortunately this has left me playing catch up in regards to getting my body ready for the show. I am much happier and confident withmy upper body than I am with my lower body, this is because I enjoy training my upper body. My lower body is much more of a physical and mental struggle for me and therefore it is my biggest area of concern. For the past 6 weeks I have had to go much harder and be much more dedicated to my legs than ever before in getting them up to par by August 28th.

Now that you are aware of my physical weakness (which is no longer a weakness), I will share with you my biggest mental weakness. This is the phenomenon of the last 5 %. Maybe some of you can relate. No matter what I am embarking on in my life, I always struggle the most getting through the last 5 %. Every single day while doing my cardio, I feel the last 5% percent kick in and I literally want to stop right before the finish line. In the past, I would have occasionally convinced myself that I had done enough and that there was no harm in stopping early, but I can honestly say in the past 6 weeks that has never been the case.

As the last 5 % of my training and preparation is quickly approaching, I am keeping a close eye on my dedication, enthusiasm and motivation to eliminate any tapering before it starts. Here is how I have managed and will

continue to overcome the last 5 %. And for this, I am eternally grateful for my teammates.

During my freshman year of college basketball, my team succeeded on making it to the Final Four of the NCAA tournament. Every game and every practice during March could have been our last, and we knew it. We truly understood that tomorrow our amazing experience could be over and this drove us to leave everything out on the court, every single minute we were on it. The motto we adopted was simple, "Limited Edition." Without even realizing it, this has become a philosophy in my life. I have one chance and one chance only to give it my very best every single workout. My last few remaining workouts, like everything else in life, are in limited supply, so stopping early or cruising through can not be options. Like the experience of the Final Four, realizing that their are no moments in life that we can get back, makes

us appreciate each one a little bit more. At the end of the day, this will leave us without that empty feeling of what we should have or could have done better.

"Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game, one foot from a winning touch down."

The Wanderer

There is something I feel really guilty about and need to get off my chest... My confession is the numerous gyms I have been to in the past few weeks without ever paying for an actual gym membership. There is no way around it...I am a straight up gym nomad, a wanderer. There should be a wanted picture of me hanging up in every gym in the tri state area. I can not say I am proud of all the times I have casually walked past the people at the front desk or how many times I have used the same three-day pass, but as a struggling college student who currently answers phones at a pizzeria four nights a week, I have to do what I have to do. On the plus side, it is more than just about saving money. I truly enjoy visiting all these gyms with a variety of different people. It keeps me on my toes. My workouts are fresh and exciting and my mind stays motivated. I will give you an idea of all the places I have been so far just in these three weeks.

1) New York Sports Club, Springfield- I have been on the same three-day pass for three months. Thanks Ari son.

2) Gold's Gym, Greenbrook- My brother Mike's been working out there for years, when I walk in with him I'm golden.

3) Lifetime Fitness, Berkeley Heights, NJ- I intended to use my friend's guest pass, but no one was at the desk, so the guest pass lives for another visit! YES!

4) The College of New Jersey Physical Enhancement Center- My home away from home.

5) New York Sports Club, Mahwah, NJ- Guest pass.

6) Planet Fitness, Staten Island, NY- All I had to do is flash my dad's gym membership card.

7) Core Connections, Stirling, NJ- great yoga! Great friend and occasional workout partner of the owner.

I wish that I was as good at figuring out ways to get into bars without an ID, but my extent of acting like I belong in a place that I shouldn't be only extends to gyms.

I will say though that I have one and only real home when it comes to gyms. Only one place where my sweat is permanently ingrained on the floor around the stairmaster. This is my brother, Mike's, gym, The Body Shop, in Stirling, NJ. It has got everything my mom and I need to have a bad ass workout, including a Rocky Balboa and 300 poster. Another benefit about The Body Shop is that it is less than a mile from my house. On days that I am crazy enough to wake up at 5:30 am, I workout with my mom before she goes to work. We take the dogs for a brisk walk and let them hangout in there with us while we do our workout. On our brisk walks the dogs get in their cardio as well. My mom probably could medal in the Olympics for speed walking and every few steps my pug, Rocky, and I must break into a jog just to catch up.

Here is the website for the Body Shop so you can check it out...

http://thebodyshopstudio.com/Site/HOME.html.

So since I have unintentionally collected such a long list of gym's where I have got my swell on, why not make it a goal of mine to visit as many random gyms as I can before my show. If anyone wants to barter a workout in my gym, The Body Shop, for a workout in your gym, where ever that may be let me know. Hope to see you soon!

P.s. Six weeks till show time!

Stepping outside the comfort zone...

So three weeks have gone by and I still can not decided whether the time has flown or its dragged on...Either way a lot of thinks have things have taken place in this small amount of time. Fun fact, in three weeks I have consumed roughly 14 dozen eggs, over 5 lbs of chicken, over 5 lbs of turkey, 6lbs of tilapia, 42 scoops of protein powder, and 21 cups of asparagus. Multiply that by two and you can imagine the type of protein that is being manufactured in our kitchen day in and day out.

Before I started this specific training regiment and diet I weighed about 130 to 131 lbs, which is a normal, comfortable weight for me. However, currently I am weighing in around 124 to 123 lbs. My estimated weight the day of the competition is about 110 lbs, which I probably haven't weighed since birth. Anyway, anyone who knows my philosophy as a personal trainer, they know how much I hate scales and forbid my clients to use them. Unfortunately, I have to admit that I have turned into a total hypocrite. Every morning right when I wake up, I go pee, and then go right to the scale to record my weight and send it to Al. Although I eat the same thing everyday and roughly expend the same amount of energy, my scale weight is unpredictable and whether I will be up a pound, down a pound or exactly the

same seems completely arbirituary. I know my body and I know it is changing regardless of the number on the scale, so I do not get too bent out of shape. I have always preached that being obsessed with your scale weight is pointless and we should not use it as an indication of whether of not our hard work is paying off. I believe that now more then ever. Trust me, one thing I am looking forward too is getting rid of this dreadful morning routine.

This past week I realized how this whole experience is going to take me out of my comfort zone. It is actually going to throw my comfort zone out the window. This realization occurred with the arrival of my heels in the mail. They are clear and four inches high. The box they come in literally says, "Pleaser...Sexier than ever." Coming from a girl that wore the same converse sneakers to prom that I am wearing right now, I honestly can say I do not even remember the last time I wore heels. This is my first and hopeful my last pair of hooker heels. Although my mom and I are still searching around for our competition suits, I am getting a taste for just how revealing they are. Something about me you may not know is that I only started wearing bikini bathing suits at around age 18. And If I did wear one, I was always that girl who kept her clothes on over it. Yesterday I put it all together and strutted my stuff in a swim suit... and the heels of course. There were only three other people in the room and I felt like I was going to vomit.

TWO words...AWKWARD and UNCOMFORTABLE. There was only one other time in my life that I was on stage alone. I was seven and I played twinkle twinkle little star for my violin recital. I was so nervous that I was on the toilet the whole morning before the performance. And I thought that the diet and the working out were going to be the hardest part of this whole thing... Wrong.

(This is a picture of the classic flirty "dip and wave." Something I definitely need to practice)

WEIGHT LOSS TIP # 2: Concentrate on how your clothes fit, not what the scale says. The important thing is lowering your body fat and increasing your lean muscle. No matter what your scale says, nothing is more rewarding then when your hard work pays off by some saying, "Did you lose weight, you look good."

ALL OUT!

I have been on many sports teams in my athletic career. I would like to think that my teammates all have similarly nice things to say about that they and me would use descriptive words like hard working and team player. However, there is one thing that I am sure all my teammates will remember about me. It never took me long to establish the reputation as the girl who frequently forgets to shave her armpits. Wearing a sleeveless jersey most of the time, I might as well have posted a sign on my forehead. One of my teammates on my college basketball team took pity on me because of the daily heckling and gave me a razor to keep in my locker. Whenever I was late for warm ups, it was no surprise to any of the girls as to what I was doing.

Today I was feeling a little bit bold, actually a lot of bit bold. I went into the "European Wax Center" that just opened up by my house and asked if anyone was available. (I have the tendency to think I am European after my three-week trip to Greece.) I instantly signed up for an armpit wax...and a bikini wax. As I may have mentioned in an earlier blog, waxing is as common to female body builders as is the excessive tan and the gallon jug of water. Going in, I

felt as cool as a cucumber. I told my mom that I really had no idea what to expect and she laughed and said, "It is better that way." The last thing I remember was the size of Nicolette’s hands as she greeted me with a smile. And sure enough, an hour and fifteen minutes later I was a little bit more of a body builder than I was yesterday.

The competition used to seem so far away, but the more I begin to prepare, the more I realize how quickly it is approaching. My mind set is changing... JUST competing isn't good enough anymore. What I want more than anything is to stand up there and know that I did everything in my control (even the little stuff, like visiting Nicolette one more time). Last 5 weeks and I am ALLLL OUT, everyday.

The workouts

It may be difficult to stop starring at the picture on the side of the screen over there...But focus! I will introduce you in a second.

Whenever I tell anyone what I am training for they are always most curious about what my workouts consist of. However, before I start I want to preface by saying that my biggest pet peeve is when people brag about how hard their workouts are. There is no need for that, it doesn’t make you sound cool and workouts are completely relative… as in I am willing to bet that what is hard for you is probably what my mother does on her off day (gettttttttt it mom!!!). So do not expect any bragging here. However, what I will tell you is that change is hard and changing your body is no easy task. No matter what level you are at, raising the bar requires you to be physically and mentally uncomfortable.

For the first two weeks, I have been working out 6 days a week. Twice a day on most days. This includes a 45 minute cardio session in the morning and either another cardio session and/or a lift in the evening. My cardio is either running or stairmaster and a few times I have added a swim to give my feet a break. My lifting schedule consists of two days of legs, two days of back, two days of shoulders, three days of abs and one day of arms. This is all subject to change depending on how my body changes. Actually, this week I have just been upgraded to 50 min cardio sessions and told to increase my ab workouts.

You may be wondering how I know thet level of intensity and frequency of my workouts? That is where Al comes in. Al is a pro bodybuilder, a personal trainer, and has led other female figure competitors to victory. When I asked him if I could write about him in my blog he said of course only if I stay away from words like “slave driver, asshole, dungeon master, and prick." Don't worry Al, I had no intention of saying any of those things about you because after all, you write up my workouts and my meal plan. As you may have guessed, that is a photo of Al after winning his show last year. All you need to do is take a good look at him and you can imagine the hard work and dedication he not only lives by but demands from his clients.

Just this past week my mom and I trained legs together with Al. Sounds fun right? One of our sets consisted of me doing the leg press until my mom finished doing two set of walking lunges across the gym floor. I could not stop until she was done, no matter how long it took her to finish. After, we rotated and completed this circuit twice. You know how you hear about those mothers who miraculously lift cars to free there trapped enfants?...That is kind of what I hoped was going to happen. In a desperate attempt to tap into her motherly instinct of doing anything to avoid pain inflicted on one of her children, I managed to get out, “mom…think of me!” I would like to think I was not heard rather than ignored…

Tupperwares r us

The one strange thing about doing this competition is never being able to go out to eat at a resturant. I now realize how going out to eat has a lot more to it than the eating factor. Missing out on the social aspect of dining with my friends is what sucks for me. While I was in Greece a couple weeks ago we would sit at dinner for three hours. Of these three hours, actually eating took up about 20 minutes of our time and the rest was drinking wine and living up to our reputation of obnoxious Americans. But those days are long gone...

On the plus side I get to eat almost every one of my meals out of a tupperware container! Every morning when I wake up I measure out all my 6 meals and put each one in its own container. This way when I go out somewhere all I have to do is grab my tupperware, put it in my cooler and I can have a resturant in my car, it's great! Sometimes I even label them with pink post-it notes! Okay maybe its not so great, but I really don't mind it. I am not ashamed to say that even when I am home I have also restored to only eating out of tupperware containers. For some reason this really pisses my mom off. Sometimes she'll say, "Come on Kate, why don't you treat yourself to eating off of a nice beautiful dish." To me a nice beautiful dish is not a treat, an ice cream sundae is a treat, and well thats not going to happen for another 8 weeks. To me transferring my meal to a new "beautiful dish" only adds to the stacks and stacks of shit already in the sink. This leads to my next complaint about only eating home cooked meals, the amount of dishes we can accumulate been two people is insane!

Here is my method of dealing with all the dirty pots and pans. After I am done making my 4 egg white omelette, I put the pan in the sink to "let it soak" with hot water and soap. While this crucial "soaking" period is occurring I'm hoping my mom will walk by and casually wash the pan without realizing it was mine. Just today the funniest thing happened and I knew right away it was something I had to share. My mom attempted to tackle the leaning tower of tupperware in the sink (slightly hungrier and grumpier than usual). She forcefully pulled up the faucet handle. Well, I guess all those bicep curls are paying off because as she did so the faucet head broke right off causing the water to go into some kind of fire hose mode. Her bangs shot straight up in the air and I am pretty sure her glasses got knocked off her face with the force of the water. Needless to say since then she has forgotten about the faucet head being out of commission and I have gotten to relive the magic four or five more times.

WEIGHT LOSS TIP #1: In all seriousness... If your looking to get lean, invest in some tupperware. Doing so can help you portion out your meals and this can make it very easy to carry snacks with you on those long days when your unsure when your going to get a chance to get a heathy meal in. Also, this will prevent you from grabbing that snickers bar in the clutch.

My first blog...How exciting!!!! (8 weeks and 4 days til judgement day)

Yea I will be honest, as a kid my favorite class was always P.E. and I enjoyed every minute of rushing to soccer practice from basketball and then making it in time for the first pitch at softball. However being in a gym full of dumbbells and squat racks, my ipod on full blast, sleeves long gone off my t-shirt, is what really gets me going now. This love affair is nothing new. One of the earliest memories I have of being around weights is in my dads basement. He had a nice old school little set up, a bench, a bar and some dumbbells. I vividly remember being down there when I shouldn't have been and dropping one of his 5lb weights on my foot. I was so scared I was going to get in trouble I never said anything and kept my black and blue toenail to myself. But this did not keep me away. I became a sponge. Any piece of information regarding strength training that I read or heard or saw, I stored. Yeah...I agree this is a slightly uncommon hobby for a young female, but I come from a long line of equally freakish family members who were also beckoned by the clangs and clamors of metal weights coming from the basement. Nature or nurture? Both. This shit runs in my blood. I didn't pick it, it picked me. It finally occurred to me, why not take my passion to the next level? Why not make it more than a hobby? That is exactly what this summer is all about for me.

So now that you know a little about me, I am going to share with you what exactly a "figure competitor is." Fitness and figure competition is an event class for women. Unlike female bodybuilding, it emphasizes muscle tone over muscle size. Don't worry, there is no need for steroids! Each competitor appears on stage in high-heeled shoes and a two piece swimsuit. They line up in a side-by-side line that faces the judges. They execute a series of quarter-turns to the right and the judges view and compare them from all sides for symmetry, presentation, and other aesthetic qualities such as skin tone, hair, make-up, and stylishness of clothing. Basically, they are looking for conditioning, leanness, and how "feminine" and "athletic" your muscularity is.

When I first thought of competing in figure, I thought how hard could it be? I thought..hmmm I am already pretty disciplined with what I eat and how hard I train. Currently, I am two weeks and 3 days deep into training and I can tell you I was dead wrong. Stay tuned and I will share with you my meal, my workouts, and my bouts of success and failures along my way to the stage...oh did I mention that my 50 year old mother is also competing in the same show?