At 51 I continue to feel humbled and overwhelmed with thankfulness that the God I worship and serve healed a broken & traumatized vessel full of shame and self-hatred. I am thankful that my past does not predict my future and that I no longer have to be a slave to my past and a prisoner of my faulty beliefs and lies that tried to pull me into darkness. I am humbled and honored to work in a profession where I can speak hope and truth into lives of those that are similar to mine- to have the faith in someone when they aren't able to... And walk beside them as they heal.
Three Unexpected Stressors:
1. I had to start the grieving process of saying goodbye to my favorite car that I've had for 13 years. My transmission just can't be fixed and my mechanic said its time. Now is not the time to have to think about buying another car. I had a rental for a week and now I need to figure out a way to make my life work with a car that doesn't shift. My mechanic said it's "drivable" but when the average temps are 110 it's just not something I need on my plate right now!
2. We just returned from a wonderful trip to Minnesota for our nephew's wedding. The weather was spectacular and I had forgotten how nice and friendly everyone is back there. It was refreshing and relaxing. But prior to arrival I had a big low-carb brain malfunction. I overpacked my suitcase so at early check-in I was rummaging through my suitcase trying to figure out what 5lbs needed to go. I had to opt for the blow dryer, curling iron and ..... My 16 oz of cooked chicken that was to last me through Saturday. UGH!!! If my brain was functioning I would have realized I could go thru security with the chicken and at least give it a try. I had 4oz of Chicken that made it thru just fine...argh. So I had to improvise. I found every hard boiled egg I could find, used my protein powder and found restaurants that would broil chicken for me. Of course it wasn't hard to find a carb ANYWHERE!!
We landed and headed straight to the grooms dinner where thankfully they had a bunch of chicken so I ate a ton of that along with plain salad. It worked. And I said no to this:
It had chocolate, caramel and ooey gooey all over it!!
Then I received a surprising text from my trainer informing me of changes in my food and training. He wanted me to have a "re-feed" on Friday and stop all cardio from here on out to the show. He also wants me to stop carb cycling. I am probably now at 9% body fat so no need to focus on getting the fat off since most of it is off. Now we prepare for the final phase of show-prep. Here is the meal I had on Friday evening (2 weeks out)!
What you see is 1 cup mashed potatoes, plain salad, about 2 oz tenderloin and 2oz chicken. What you DON'T see is the one lemon custard filled cupcake I ate for dessert! A refeed was very important because my body had adapted to the carb-cycling and we needed to fire it up and cause confusion. Which it did! I ranked up my metabolism and it was on fire- I was very very hungry which is a good sign.
Now I am eating carbs every day and enjoying every single gram!! I have changed my protein to mostly white fish, egg whites and some chicken. Carbs are still yam, rice and even rice cakes right after I train (for a fast sugar to stabilize insulin quickly).
3. So here is a picture of my suit
I have already had some stressful issues with it.... The back of the suit does not fit me properly. I had it "fixed" but today while practicing posing it still had problems. I am hoping when I drop water next week it will solve the "problem." If not, at the last minute I may throw my old suit on... As much as I don't want to do that!!
So that's it... Not sure if I'll blog before the show but if you "like" my FaceBook page Pure Heart Renwed Soul Strong Body I'll have updates there!
Until then be blessed and encourage someone this week!
