Todd encouraged me to make more out of this than "just doing a show" - He encouraged me to look at this as a spiritual fast and to use this time of "deprivation" to press into God and look for Him to teach me spiritual truths. On my low days he kept saying, "Jesus did it for 40 days you can do it too". Even though we laughed together, it was truth.
This is something that takes a lot of focus, time and energy, especially the last few weeks. As I've tightened up my food, reduced the carbs and began the final preparation I realized how much time I have spent on myself. I feel convicted. Todd and I were talking about the fact that if we spent half as much time with God as we do training and preparing for the competition, imagine the spiritual growth that would result! This process has taught me a very important lesson as I transition back into a normal pattern of living. I can make more time for God if I want to. I have proven to myself if I want to pursue Him I have the self-discipline to do so!
Training: Today was my last day to train with Todd. Yesterday we worked on shoulders and today we hit the back. Workouts are still tiring and I feel somewhat weak. The remainder of the week involves posing tomorrow one last time, packing and flying to San Diego.
Food: Today I stayed at 225gm of protein and 25gm of carbs. Todd instructed me to keep this through Friday. At this final phase water becomes very important. I am flooding my system with water to reduce water. It REALLY worked for me. I was amazed! Here is what Todd had me do. Saturday - Monday I consumed 2 gallons of water daily. Today I drank 1 1/2 gallons and tomorrow I decrease to 1 gallon. Thursday only 32ozs and Friday, half of that -16ozs. I remove sodium from my diet as best I can.
Carb-loading the day of the show: As of TODAY, Todd is letting me choose my carbs. I decided on brown rice cakes with almond butter and raw honey. I could have chosen to eat pancakes or even munch on peanut M&M's. Even though I'm craving every sweet, salty, caramel, nutty and chocolate decadence available to man, I settled on something clean and nutritious. I carted my sweet self to Sprouts and just truly enjoyed loitering in the peanut butter and honey isle trying to pick out my sweet sweet lovely food. Tonight I am packing all of this into my suit case along with ALL of my lotions and hair products!
Body Fat: I went to my doctor's office to get my body fat checked one last time. DXA scans are the most reliable and I only pay $50.00 and was able to use my HSA account to pay for it. I was thinking I would come in around 13% and so did Todd. I was very surprised to hear that it was 9.3%. Very interesting since I know I still have fat on my body that is visible. One would think that at that percentage I would look anorexic and "skinny."
Concluding Thoughts I won't have time to post these last few days before I leave for the competition. Tonight I am blessed that God brought someone like Todd Chambers into my life to train me and prep me for the stage. I would not have done this without him and I would not have chosen anyone else but him, he is trustworthy and safe. I have sincerely appreciated his integrity, love for the Lord and patience with me as I ask some of the most insane and redundant about my body, nutrition and exercise questions.
Do you struggle with selfishness? I am convicted but need to stop and remember that I have already worked through false guilt "rules" that tried to tell me that I wasn't worth much unless I was "giving" and "sacrificing." I created my own rules that prevented me from doing things that made just ME happy - the guilt was paralyzing. Now I can observe my convictions and make changes accordingly - NOT feel false guilt but make adjustments. I may do another show. I may take three months of my life AGAIN to focus on self-discipline. Who knows. That's where I'm at today.
Interesting.... Until after the competition...
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