It is Friday night, the night before the show. I have checked in, done my polygraph test (and passed ;D) and have my first coat of DIY tan on. I am super nervous and feel like I am going to make a fool of myself. I feel like I should be 3-4 pounds of fat less and I wonder if I am wasting my time and money. Lawd help me! 🙂

Peak Week

Peak week is not a time for trying to lose the last few pounds off. Peak week is like a deload week. A week for you to fill up on carbs and hold your physique.

Traditionally, and it is still common practice, bodybuilders dehydrate and sweat out all they can to make the skin tight and to look as buff and lean as possible. Really, I have seen this method go haywire so many times. Athletes look bloated and soft on stage which is the complete opposite of what you want and here is why:

The muscle stores glycogen (carbs). Attached to those carbs are water molecules. For every gram of carb, there are 3 grams of water. That is a lot of water! If you dehydrate and don’t have enough water, the carbs will just float around outside of the muscle cell under your skin making you look soft. Also, when you dehydrate, your body sets off an alarm system which implements a cascade of processes to hold as much water in as possible causing you to look soft and bloated… double whammy from water and carbs not getting to where they need to go.

Instead, super hydrate. Excess water is a diuretic itself. I have seen over night results from my clients when they have added on 2-3 liters of water over their daily 2.5-3 liters of water per day. It is like magic and far less torturous, except, you have to pee like every hour!

Also see:

My peak week plan

This is my peak week. Changes from my previous week are in purple.

Medium-Fri, Sat, Sun: Legs (rep ranges, 6-8) 30 mins SS cardio 130 Hrate

Refeed day-Mon: Push (rep ranges, 20-30 reps) 12 HIIT

Refeed macros 120 protein : 200 carbs : 40 fats

Medium-Tue: Pull (rep ranges, 10-15) 30 mins SS cardio 130 Hrate

Medium-Wed: Legs (rep ranges, 10-20) 30 mins SS cardio 130 Hrate

Medium-Thurs Push ( rep ranges, 10-15), No Cardio. Drink 2 extra liters of water (1.5 gallons total)

Med-Fri: Off day. Off Day Diet. Drink 2 extra liters of water (1.5 gallons total)

Off-Sat: Show time! Off Day Diet

Other important highlights of peak week:

Keep salt in
Keep creatine in
Avoid all sugar alcohols and artificial sweeteners
Avoid a lot of veggies on the day before and the day of show day so my stomach isn’t diestended

Progress via dexa scan

I got a dexa scan on Wednesday of this week to compare my progress and I was pretty pleased.

Notice the increase in lean tissue from July 29th, 2016 and September 29th, 2016 along with the decrease in fat tissue. That is when I kicked my training up a super notch at REDLine HP in Woodbury, MN.

When I started to cut in April 2016, you can see over the course of my 25 week prep I lost 13 pounds: 16.6 pounds of which were fat! How is that possible!? Well, I gained 3.6 pounds of muscle from March 2016-September 2016. 13 + 3.6 = 16.6. Since I started tracking with dexa scans I have gained 8.25 lbs of muscle.

So yes, it is entirely possible to build muscle while burning fat simultaneously with the right program!!!!!!!!!! Many factors come into play for body recomping to be successful such as gender, experience, genetics, diet, training program, rate of weight loss, sleep and nutrition.

During this 25 week cut phase I utilized a great combo of factors: I dieted slowly, watched my nutrition, utilized HIIT and intense lifting techniques and prioritized sleep.
Read more about body recompositioning here @ Build Muscle While Losing Fat: Fact or Fallacy

Fit 3D Measurements

I also had my measurements scanned on the Fit 3D at Dexafit Minneapolis. Results changed in a positive direction.

How the week went for me…

9-28-16

Tea.

Lately all I have been wanting is the comfort of tea. That comforting smell and taste of a combo I put together: half Tea Sources’ Evening in Missoula and half a blend of herbs my friend had grown in her garden. It makes me feel the warmth of friendship and comfort when I have a moment to just sit down and escape in the flavor and aroma.

While I sit in my tea leaf bliss I ponder how I just might make a fool of myself and how I just may be wasting my time.

As I stare at my incredible clients’ pics that will be my very own competitors and I am buggin!

The big meal post show.

Being that I have a show in 3 weeks from now on Oct. 22nd I am trying not to get into the mentality that I can eat whatever I want after my show. It is WAY too hard to pull out of that mentality once you are in it post show. In previous years it has taken me at least one week to get my head back in the game. The problem with going nuts on food for a few days post show is that your body is ready to lay down the fat after having dieted for so long. If you gain that fat in this time frame, your metabolism is not in a spot to be able to lose that fat by your next show… so be good Heather!

My weight is up!

My weight went up on Wednesday from about 134/135 to 137 lbs!!!!…I feel fat as hell. My period was supposed to be this week and it hasn’t come yet. Usually most women will hold water the few days leading up to their period. Once you get your period, your weight will drop but alas, no period.

Waxed

I hit up Waxing the city and had the goods waxed. I really don’t want to deal with shave bumps or irritation on show day up in front of a zillion people! And waxing fucking hurts like hell! and it did.

9-30-16

Still feeling kind of fat and bloated. Period soon? ugh! My weight is hovering at 135.8 on Thursday and Friday! ugh! I also haven’t been as hungry this week. Especially yesterday and today as I had no cardio yesterday and no workout today.

But, I did get my hair did to freshen up those roots!

Pushing it.

As I am looking at all the awesome things the winner of Mayhem with get (fitness photo shoots, swag, a pro card etc etc).. I am thinking of cheating on my diet and saying fuck it, I won’t win.. blah blah blah. But what if I was that close and didn’t give it my all!? Then I would really kick myself.

I used to swim in HS and college as a sprinter. By the end of a sprint race you wanted to die but if you didn’t push it to the end past the point where you think you might pass out and you lost by a fraction of a second… then what? There are not do overs. You lost. You didn’t give it your all. You have to push to the end even though you think you might die!

Sleep Issues

I started using a sleep app called Sleep Cycle over two weeks ago and found that my sleep quality was really shitty. I kept waking up feeling like crap and I wasn’t sure why. Sleep cycle was a nice data point to help me really make sure I did everything I could be improve the quality of my sleep.

Sleep affects everything! Especially my workouts even more so than not having enough food and my workouts were suffering big time so, I made some changes. You can see the improvement in sleep in 9-21-16. What did I do to improve my sleep quality?

Well, I had already been using blue blocking glasses after the sun sets to block blue light from electronics and artificial light to make sure my melatonin production was optimal (See more in this article 4 Ways to Avoid Blue Light to Boost Metabolism. In other words, your cell phone is making you fat). And, I was getting to bed on time. I chalked it up to the fact that I am hungry and dieting. My body thinks I am dying of starvation so sleep can suffer. I decided I had to bust out the big dogs. I started taking 1.5 mg of melatonin and 100 mg of 5-htp. That made the biggest difference in the world! The first night I took these supps I decided to pose while they kicked in. Well they kicked in fast and I went straight to bed. I felt SO good when I got up in the morning! And, my workout rocked that day! Also check out 17 FIT GIRLS BEDTIME HABITS – BEDTIME ROUTINE THAT CHANGED MY LIFE.

How I feel about hair extensions and false lashes…

When you are on stage the lights are coming from the top down accentuating not only your muslce but creating shadows on your face. When girls wear extra long fake eye lashes, they tend to remind me of miss piggy or the wild man from the Muppets. If you do false lashes make sure they look some what natural. During photo shoots super long lashes may look great but on stage, they just look too fake.

Hair extensions… I am all about hair extensions. why… they add fullness (key word) and length. Here is my problem with many girls that wear extensions, they will get extensions that are WAY longer than their real hair. Fine for photo shoots where you are not moving, but on stage, you are turning, moving and walking. The shorter hair and longer hair swings around becomes evident and looks fake.

Your hair will look MUCH better and totally gorgeous if you go with something that adds maybe 1-3 inches in length but go for fullness over length. It will look much more natural and give you volume and youth to your appearance.

Food

My #1 fav recipe this week:

The Big Man’s World Low Carb Low Fat pancakes. UGH! They are fluffy and yummy!!! I can barely stand it. Make sure to fluff the egg whites and not to rush the cooking process. They don’t cook as fast ans regular pancakes but super worth it!!!

and the rest of my meals this week have looked like this… pretty tasty but I really need chocolate. 😀