Prep life = no life (or at least no time!)
Hello world! How are we all doing? Remember that time I said I was going to try to blog once a week? Yeah… turns out prep life also = zero time life. Workouts, meal prep, full time job, teaching & managing communications behind the scenes at Drench apparently takes more time than I would have expected. That all being said (and as much as I complain) I am enjoying the experience. It’s exciting to see my body change and to knock off the days until I can devour a bag of boom chicka post-show!
There were a couple of things I wanted to actually discuss regarding this stage of my prep, including cheat meals, time management, what I’m eating, how I’m feeling, what I’ve had to do to prepare, etc., but, given the time that I actually have to blog, I am going to make a bullet point list of my major thoughts and what is happening at this stage in my prep:
At 8 weeks out:
I’m down just over 5lbs from where I started post-bulk. This is good because I’m on track as per my cut, and I haven’t felt too tired or hungry.
My workouts changed last week, so I’m now doing cardio five days a week (instead of one day a week with teaching class at West Richmond). This is good because I am sweating much more and burning more calories, but less good because I actually don’t like cardio that much. That being said, I do like Netflix, and cardio time fortunately also = Netflix time thanks to WiFi at the gym.
My meals are changing, so I’m going to be even more restricted than I was before. “Alicia what do you mean more restricted?!” This means no water-holding foods (bye bye eggs!), less vegetable options, and a lot more fish. The good news is that I can still have peanut butter (thank God) with breakfast, and I don’t have to give up my oats (yet).
I am slowly learning how expensive it really is to compete. I’ve got my suit, hotel room, photo shoot, supplements, spray tan, registration and shoes… and I’ve already spent well over $1,000. I haven’t even bought accessories OR included all the food that I’m eating. I’m fortunate at the moment that I can afford to do this, but competing is definitely not an accessible sport for everyone financially.
I did have an opportunity to have a cheat meal two weeks ago, but I didn’t really take it. I’m not finding that I’m really craving anything in particular (at the time all I wanted was a Quest bar) which I’m actually surprised by. I think that I owe this in part to the fact that I haven’t been trying to cheat as I go with sugar-free/low-calorie dessert replacements. I guess you could say my cravings actually lessened (crazy right?). This might change in the coming weeks when my calories get cut even further… but I’m hoping that I can hold out.
Overall, 8 weeks out still feels like ages away, but looking back I cannot believe it’s been over four weeks since I started my cut. Time is just flying by and I can’t wait to see what’s in store next!
