Ordinary Days..Amazing Life: Becoming She-Ra

As promised, this is the recap of my last six months training for a Figure Competition. The last four days I have almost felt lost.. the pressure from training is off my shoulders but trying to figure out how to continue progressing and not lose what I have worked so hard for is a little daunting.

I guess I should start at the begining, "Before" pictures are quite depressing to take.. But I am glad I had them so I could see the progress I made along the way!

The next little table shows the composition change of my body during this process.

Start of Program Current Week Total Loss/Gain

Weight 151.6 lbs. 133.4 lbs. -18.2 lbs.

Body Fat 32.5% 16.3% -16.2%

Fat Mass 49.27 21.74 -27.53 lbs.

Lean Mass 102.33 111.66 +9.33 lbs.

How gross to think I had almost 50lbs of fat on my body! Glad to only have 20lbs now... still would like less but that can be my next goal!

This journey definately required a lot from me. The dedication to following my eating plan to the T and making time for my workouts made my social life a little more dull than it normally is :S I never liked fish so I really never ate it before now too. But the last month leading up to competition day I was eating fish and asparagus 5 times a day... so I am glad that I learned to ~~like it~~ at least not gag everytime I ate it :)

Some of the highlights from the week of competition prep include:

Only having to work 3 days that week Monday- Labor day and Friday-dehydration makes one crazy!
Wrapping myself in saran wrap to sweat while I sleep
Having to shave every single hair from my body to be spray tanned!
Being spray tanned!!! oh gosh!
Dehydrating....
Sitting in a sauna the last day just to sweat the rest of the water out of me.
Sleeping with my legs in the air the night before to drain all the fluid out of my legs!
Having to pee through a dixie cup to not splash my spray tan! LOL that was dang funny!
Going to Wal*Mart to get make up to match my new skin tone! (I hope I get on the website of ppl @ Wal-mart)
Eating a breakfast of real buttermilk pancakes the morning of :)

Driving there

Having Aub there with me for all the funniness and making me beautiful for stage! LOVE YOU AUB

The directions to the Venue were way wrong from mapquest so we got lost... asked some little farm couple for some help and found our way. Check-in was very anti climactic! They gave me a name card and my # and sent me to pick a mat. They had a little ~~hard~~ blue mat for each of the competitors! I was super intimidated by the other girls and felt like I didn't quite look like I should be there! We hung out for a long time waiting for pre-judging to begin and then it seemed like we were rushing to be ready for my turn on stage! So much adrenaline and all I could do was breathe and think "all the work is done, now all you can do is get up there and show them what you've done" Once I stepped on stage and hit my first pose, all my nerves vanished. I walked confidently and hit the poses I have been practicing for weeks and just let it be what it was! Walking off the stage I felt so good, just because I had done it! I had no idea what the judges had decided but I was so happy I could say I really did it!

For the night show we budgeted our time much better to be ready for stage. I had no worries since the judging was basically already done and the night show is just to strut and then place. I felt very calm and able to enjoy the experience. I had several friends come to support me and that really meant a lot! I had talked to more of the competitors throughout the day and found out that this was their first show also... so that was nice to know that more of us were at the same level! Getting on stage that night I was so glad I had made the choice to do a show, the day made all the struggles in the last six months worth it!

Alright, now a little photo drop. Mind you the quality of pictures from my ipod are not the best but its what I have right now.