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?