18 days till I leave for Nationals

Here we go – the final 3 weeks. This is probably the roughest time for a fitness/figure competitor. You are so close, and have to watch everything that you do. Your diet (most of the training), your training, for me routine practice, supplementary cardio (if needed), rest, your emotions (as sometimes they can be wacky), and try to maintain focus as the light is at the end of the tunnel is near.

I get very motivated at this time. Especially when I search the internet to see who will be competing in fitness. I know for sure from the previous year – Chantal Dicaire, Sylvia Tremblay, Allison Black, Tamara Vaughn, Ocean Bloom, and maybe Meagan McCurdy. All very talented fitness gals vying for the one pro card – an issue for another time maybe. It is going to be one tough show, as all the bodies of the girls I just mentioned are very different. The judges never give an indication of what they are going for. Everyone just seems to accept the fact that it is big, bad, and somewhat hard. I don’t want to say hard – as some of the girls last year (IMO) were not hard, just big and bad. So maybe they are going for more of a shape, than leanness. I can never tell.

This year I am focusing on bringing my best shape. One that compliments the physique that I already have or should I say – been given by my parents. For the routine – I always try to bring the hardest routine that I can. That is the fun for me. I love to show off, and have the audience reaction of applause. That gets me pumped.

Erik has reassured me that I am working hard enough. Even though my cardio is low, my weights are heavy and intense. Love that. It is great to be lifting heavy. Routine is coming along as I am running it full out now. Twice today. That is about as much as I can handle. Then I am spent and need to eat.

Now this week – again diet was on, training was on. I still have quite a few days to make changes, and I am only doing around 2 hours and 30 mins of cardio. The diet has been hard as we have had many social events, and parties at our house this summer. So I am baking and cooking, and not even licking my fingers – nothing. Cannot have one taste of sugar at all.
This week I am going to cut back on my yogurt, and cut out my sweetener – I usually don’t but since this show is so important I don’t mind making a few sacrifices. Right now I am only eating the following foods: oatmeal, egg whites, no fat yogurt, bananas, chicken, ground chicken, broccoli, asparagus, sweet potato, protein shakes and dill pickles. Sounds really boring, but it is only temporary and I know that all those other foods that I love will still be around after the show.

Here are some pics from this week – on Friday.

28 days to go.

I am home now from my 5 days in Toronto and then a 16 hour drive to the Maritimes. I spent around 9 days in the Maritimes. My training in the Maritimes was good. I was staying near the beach (which was a no brainer), but there was no gym in the area. So I had to commute to the city everyday. To and fro from, back and forth, to where I was staying to the gym on a daily basis, started to get a bit annoying. Where my home is, everything is very close, so having to wait to get somewhere is not something that I like. In my car anyways. If I walked a bit (like in Toronto) that is not a huge waste of time as I am exercising at the same time. Driving does not allow for that.

I also still have work to do from school, and other things in fitness to take care of so I needed to be home to do just that. Plus with my son, travelling with him, well, he was very reluctant to stay with relatives. Sure there is an adjustment for him, but if it is with the same person every day, that would be ok, but shuffling him to house to house well, has to be hard on him too. I know he enjoyed his time with the family too, but now that we are home….I can see that he missed being home too.

I LOVE the Maritimes and would stay there all summer if I could. Maybe next summer…..;)

Training has been good, considering the flux in my schedule. Diet has been perfect. One day I had a small blip as I went into town, thinking I would be back for supper. Well, got into my car to go home for the afternoon/evening and nothing happened. My car would not start/turn over, nothing….not one noise. Called CAA. Got a tow to the nearest shop to see what the issue was with my car. This can put a lot of stress on a person, but luckily I was at a friend of the family’s house, and well, they were very generous to help me. Found out that my starter had gone on my car – it is not that old – 8 years. But I hear that cars don’t last very long anymore. I would think they would last longer than 8 years – and I only have 110 000 km on it. Over 8 years…that is not a lot.

Still even with this I managed to eat properly.

Routine – started front half, back half. I am considering changing the music, but then again maybe not. Things are done and I know what comes next so maybe I will go with the familiar rather than something more current.

Today was my cheat meal – egg salad sandwich and peanuts – very exciting.

Here are some updated pics as of today. I still have 4 weeks to go.

Trip to Toronto

My trip to Toronto last week went great. It was a busy few days. Drove up on Wed. Shot on Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Then I drove back to Quebec on Monday, stopped in at my school to finish up a few things and then kept driving to the Maritimes. It was a very long day.
I managed to stay on my diet for the whole time away, with the exception of Sunday night, and Monday as I ran out of food. Even though, I still managed to eat well while travelling, and my cheat foods are not really full out binging cheats. I did get in 3 days of workouts, mind you they were not as intense as I would have liked. Saw some of the photos and would love to share, but I have to keep them underwraps until September.

No cover shoot for Oxygen yet. I did do some wonderful training shots, which is great. I am looking to progress to the next level. I do my own leg work, and don’t have an agent. I also don’t live in a hub that puts me in a more likely position to shoot with various magazines. This can be very frustrating. I also worked with Cathy Chatterton, which were have been emailing for 2 years now, so it was wonderful to finally meet her. Also with my sponsor – Slimquick Extreme – so that we could update all my photos. Hopefully those turned out, as I did work with Glen Grant. Great to work with him in a professional setting.

While in Toronto I made a few observations; I am not a ‘city chick’. I grew up in a relatively small town, or various small towns, and am quite shocked at the few random events that happened while in Toronto.
I do have to mention the positives – such as taking the subway and walking everywhere. I used to do this all the time when I was in college, and do miss it. What a great way to get in some extra cardio. My friend and fellow fitness gal – Liana Saadi – offered up her place to crash while I was in T.O. It was a wonderful area, near U of T, and everything was in walking distance. Since I live in the country, and have to drive everywhere, walking is not something that I do often and when I do visit the city, it is refreshing to just take in the sights and sounds.
With walking everywhere, you do up your chance of getting injuries – oh, let’s just mention almost being hit by a woman in her car, not paying attention to the crosswalk signs. Luckily I was paying attention.
There are many sights to behold when on the subway as well – couples making out without noticing everyone else watching them…or maybe it was just me watching; a guy with so many sticks, and piercings coming out of his face some could think he was a distant cousin of a dart board; and people just sleeping, randomly – everywhere. I guess if you live here, you learn to get used to these sights. I am a huge people watcher so for me this is very entertaining.
I think I could just ride the subway, and watch people.
It was also Gay Pride weekend in Toronto. Although I did not go, Liana did attend and shot some very interesting photos. I did not know you could just walk around naked for the day??

I am currently vacationing in the Maritimes and will post some pics soon. I am finding it a bit tough to get to the gym, so I am trying to keep my diet on track. I am staying 30mins from the closest gym so to train, and return home takes about 2 hours. Still have not started routine practice yet. I will be doing that for sure next week. Just wanted to get my bearings first. I am finding that I am hungry sooner. This can be a good thing, but I still have 32 days left to diet, and I just don’t want to get too lean too fast, and then I look too skinny. The other girls are so beefy that I just want to make sure I preserve all my muscle.

I will be moving to a different house next week. This should be a bit more consistent in my schedule. I am coming to realize that is the most difficult part of the summer – trying to keep a consistent schedule. Dieting in the summer is not what I would choose to do. It is all in line with achieving my pro card. I am not happy that the National show is in August, and really don’t understand why Canada continues to do things so backward. A late fall show – say in October/November, or an early spring show in April/May would not fit well into my schedule in terms of travel, but in terms of timing & the diet – for me it would be much easier. I would be at work, with a consistent schedule, not a lot of travel involved, be very busy all the time – which I find helps to keep me on track. Not sure if I am just making excuses, or am having a bit of a minor bitch session here. Ok maybe this is a mini-vent. Thanks for reading, talk soon,

A.