New Beginnings

So, it’s been awhile since I last posted.  Lots has been going on. I competed in both the Greater Gulf States Championships and Masters Nationals in 2011.  I did very well, including placing 4^th at Nationals.  I took the rest of 2011 off from competing and as 2012 came into sight, I began to plan what was next for me. 

I rather expected that I would do a building program in January and then enter contest prep in April, aiming for the same shows in 2012 as I did in 2011.  Yet life has a way of happening and my plans began to change.  For instance, my daughter had a baby and becoming a grandma changed my focus and split my energy.  Then, I realized a calling towards learning more about nutrition and helping others with their health and fitness.  I enrolled in the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.  This is an amazing school that teaches over 100 different diet theories and focuses first on primary foods (spiritual, relationships, career, and physical activity) and then on nutrition.  When I will finish my studies at IIN, I’ll be certified as a nutrition consultant, health coach and holistic health practitioner.  My husband and I are starting a new business, Healthy Harmony, and we will offer nutrition guidance, health coaching and personal training. 

We’re working on the new website now and I’ll be moving this blog over there, where I will focus my writing on nutrition, wellness and fitness topics – including discussion on the all important primary foods!

As soon as we’re up and running, I’ll post a link from here to there and let you know we’re ready for business.  I hope you’ll join me there.  I’d love to continue to support your journey.

xoxo

What’s next?

Since Masters Nationals I’ve been in off season mode, just maintaining my physique and resting my body.  I always stay within 5 pounds of my stage weight and actually right now I’m still at my stage weight, if not a pound under.  I began a new building program this week and am doing it on my own til the end of December.  I’ll then have a meeting with my trainer and make a plan for the 2011 competition season.

My physique goals include building wider lats (I NEED a bigger back), adding some size to my quads and just overall adding muscle. 

Because I have bad elbows, I’ll have to be careful during my building phase and not overlift.  I bought a mechanism called The Isolator (www.isolatorfitness.com) . It’s amazing in that it allows you to work chest, shoulders or back without the use of your biceps, or other helper muscles. I want to use it for my back. I’ve played with it a few times so far and it’s truly amazing.  I can actually do pull ups again, and I haven’t been able to do those for quite some time because of the strain they put on my elbows.  I’ve been working with the Isolator three weeks now and I can already tell the difference.  I can do 3 sets of 12 pull ups – with NO ARMS!  I bet I build wings with this thing, no problem.  )

Masters Nationals 2010

I’ve been remiss in keeping my blog up to date.  No excuse other than I’ve been crazy busy and had to put it on the back burner while I focused on work. 

 Masters Nationals was an amazing adventure.  I was one of 12 Oddo’s Angels competing. Unfortunately, our trainer, Kim Oddo, had to be in Connecticut the same weekend as Masters Nationals because the pro Angels were competing that weekend. He has never missed a Masters Nationals competition so I know it was very hard for him to be away.

 It was also hard for me. I have never competed without Kim there in person to guide me, manage my food, and keep me calm.  He stayed in contact with phone and text so I sent him photos the morning of the show and he called me to tell me what to eat and when.

 I had been warned by other competitors that Masters Nationals was in another league from the local and regional competitions I had competed in.  Boy were they right.  The minute I went to the athletes check in to register and saw the cameras rolling, interviews happening, and agents talking with people, I knew this was the big time. 

 There were almost 500 competitors and the hotel was wonderful.  The furniture in the lobby and common areas were draped with sheets so tanned athletes could sit without fear of ruining the furniture.  They had old sheets and towels from past year’s competitions that competitors could use if they had not brought their own, again saving the hotel’s linens and towels from the dreaded Jan Tana.  The hotel restaurant set up a special buffet with bodybuilding foods that was available all day long. 

 I found out my hair and make-up appointments were for 3:30 am Saturday morning. Ugh. Although I do generally prefer to have my hair and make up completed before the athletes meeting (typically at 7:30 or 8:00 am), a 3:30 am appointment is crazy early!  I was done by 5 am and went back to my room to sit in a chair and rest until the meeting. (Couldn’t lay down cuz it would’ve ruined my hair.)  On the plus side of having to get up so early, I tend to look fuller and do better the more food I can get into me on the day of the show. Getting up at 3:30 am meant I was getting at least one more meal into than I would’ve had I gotten up at, say, 6 am.  (See how I was looking at the positives? )

 Although all the prep work went well – meaning hair, tan, and make up – and I had my pep talk with Kim, something happened to me when prejudging began.  I was off.  I felt off.  I felt overwhelmed, almost like it was my first time on stage.  I chalk it up to it being my first Masters Nationals. I tanked. I was in the 3^rd call outs. Yuck. 

 The bottom line – I was 9^th.  Not horrible by any means for my first Masters Nationals.  But not as good as I would’ve liked.  That’s okay.  I will kick butt next year.  My conditioning was great.  I looked good.  It was my stage presence and posing that sunk me.  No matter.  Those are easy things to work on.   Onward to 2011!!

Greater Gulf States Recap

  

I’ve been remiss in getting this post up. No excuses other than it took a bit of time to recover from the show and, of course, I’m knee deep in getting ready for Masters Nationals on July 24. Nonetheless, I want to make sure I give the highlights of the Greater Gulf States show and share my learnings along the way.

When we arrived at the New Orleans airport we met up with my bikini competitor friend, Jen, who was arriving at the same time, to share a cab. It took a good 15 minutes until we got one. He stowed all our luggage in the trunk (about 6 bags) and we all piled in. We went no more than 50 feet, telling him where to take us, when he pulled over and said he wasn’t going to take us there, something about it was too short of a drive (20 min) with that much luggage. What?! Yep, I kid you not. We all piled out and he set our luggage on the curb. We had to wait for another cab – another 10 minutes or so. That cabby took us to our hotel but unceremoniously dumped our luggage on the street. My husband had to put it up on the sidewalk and load it all up on a cart. Welcome to New Orleans!

We were concerned that this was going to set the tone for the entire weekend but luckily we were wrong. Everybody else from that point on was super nice and hospitable. This was a FUN show! Check in went smoothly and quickly. All meetings were on time and short and to the point. It was the fastest prejudging ever. The night show was a little slow at times, but really, in comparison to other shows, it wasn’t bad at all. In fact, I believe we were finished before 10 pm (with 189 competitors, that’s pretty darn good). The only negative comment I have is that in order to hasten things along, the competitors didn’t get to do their individual posing. In figure, we each came on individually and struck one model pose and then as soon as the full line of girls was on stage, we went into quarter turns. This was especially a bummer because some of us paid for photos and we won’t get any individual shots, it’ll all be comparisons. (

The stage had a huge step that we had to navigate in our 5 inch heels. We were concerned about that at first, but they had expeditors who were wonderfully adept at giving us a hand each and every time we had to go up or down that big step.

The competition was tough. I think a lot of people were surprised at the caliber of the athletes. I love it when it’s a challenge so I was in my element. I placed 2nd in Masters 45+. The girl who won first deserved it hands down. She has a beautiful physique.

I was a little bummed at first since I was hoping for 1st place, but my disappointed was quickly replaced with elation when I won 3rd place in Open Class D. The girl who won that class was the same girt who beat me in Masters and the girl who came in 2nd is one of my teammates (Oddo’s Angels) and she is 15 years younger than me and absolutely beautiful.

Especially sweet is the fact that due to my placings I have qualified for Nationals at all levels!!! I’m still in shock! I’ve qualified for Nationals before but who would think at age 51 that I’d qualify for Nationals in the Open Classes. Rock on!!!

Following the show I indulged in champagne and jelly beans – my favorite post competition treat. We then went out and I had some shrimp and bread – yummy! We spent the next day in the French Quarter and although I was careful to keep my tastes of local fare to only tastes rather than large helpings, I enjoyed a bit of gumbo, jumbalaya, red beans and rice, and then a wonderful salad with shrimp and crawfish. By mid-afternoon I was feeling a bit odd. I looked down at my feet and found my ankles were HUGE! I had edema big time. I texted a picture of my feet to my friend. Her husband’s a doctor and he immediately called me and told me that I needed to watch out for deep vein thrombosis, a potentially dangerous condition. He told me to put my feet up, put warm, wet compresses on them and drink water. He said that if the swelling wasn’t gone by the morning to go to Urgent Care and ask for a venogram. Potentially I wouldn’t be able to fly home if I still had swelling. Who knew?!

Luckily, the swelling was almost gone by the morning. After talking with my trainer, I was reassured that the swelling was most likely a combination of sodium intake in my very clean body, humidity, lots of walking and perhaps the plane flight too. I’m happy to say that I’m back to normal and will be extra careful with my post competition treats following Masters Nationals in July. )

Dealing with acidosis during competiton prep

It started a couple weeks ago. My stomach felt hollow, empty and slightly raw between my mini-meals. At first I thought, “Ah, my metabolism is speeding up and I’m getting hungry sooner.” And yet, something wasn’t quite right. The feeling in my stomach wasn’t exactly hunger. And, even worse than the hollow feeling was that although my stomach would feel better upon eating, within about an hour after my meal the pain would start up again. I also found that although I was hungry at meal time, within minutes of beginning my meal, I’d feel a little nauseous.

What the heck?! I didn’t understand it but chocked it up to comp prep stuff and ignored it the best I could.

After about a week, things got worse. The pain became more intense – burning, deep in my stomach, a hard belly, uncomfortable, painful. I started waking up several times per night in pain. It was becoming very hard to eat – and not to eat. I decided to email my prep coach to see if he could give me some insight.

Kim immediately emailed back and said it sounded like my body was turning acidic. He told me to stop taking my digestive enzymes and exchange all my poultry meals (3 at that time) for white fish and to add lemon and alkaline drops to my water. Hmm?! I thought that was odd, especially because, well, aren’t lemons acidic?

I did what he told me to do. The first day it didn’t make much difference but by the second day I could tell it did indeed make a difference. The burning feeling wasn’t as bad. I did some research and found out that it actually isn’t unusual for bodybuilders to develop a bit of acidosis from a diet that is so heavily protein based. The natural ratio in a normal healthy body is about 4 parts alkaline to 1 part acid. That ratio helps our resistance to disease. Being alkaline aids in healing too. Our bodies normally keep a reserve of alkaline but when the ratio and reserves are skewed, acidosis can develop, causing unease, discomfort and as the condition worsens, disease. Obviously competition diets are high protein and, well, for some reason my body decided that this time it wasn’t going to stand for it.

So, how do our bodies get acidic or alkaline? Well, the way I understand it, as our food is digested it leaves an ash. The food ash can be neutral, acid or alkaline depending on the mineral composition of the foods. Some foods leave an acid ash, some alkaline. Acidosis results when there is a depletion of the alkali reserve. (visit http://www.rense.com/1.mpicons/acidalka.htm for more info.)

What foods leave an acid ash versus an alkali ash? There are tables of common foods on the web that list food according to alkali, neutral and acid-forming and when I looked at those tables I was a bit worried. Most fruits and vegetables are alkaline forming while most fats, oils and animal proteins are acidifying. What’s a competition-prep athlete to do?! I quickly saw that cold water fish is the lowest of the acid producing animal proteins, chicken and turkey next and beef was ranked as the most acidic. That must be why Kim ordered me to change my poultry meals to white fish. Made sense. The problem soon became how the heck do I eat that much fish. I mean I like fish okay, but not that much! I found myself not finishing the meals and otherwise skimping on my calories a bit. I tried putting vinegar on the fish, but vinegar is acidic so that wasn’t good either.

Within 3 days my stomach began settling however my weight dropped 1.5 pounds, a bit much this close to competition. Kim has added salmon into my diet since it has more fat and that’s what I need right now to keep me from shredding over the next 3 weeks. Hopefully, my stomach will handle the salmon every night and to be honest, I’ve added a bit of chicken back in the hopes that my system is stabilizing enough to handle it.

A half lemon in each litre of water plus 10 alkaline drops three times per day (I put them in my coffee in the morning too to help neutralize the acid) really make a big difference so I’ll continue with that indefinitely. (BTW, what’s interesting is that even though fruits such as lemons are acidic, the ash that they leave in one’s stomach is alkaline.)

 

This morning my weight is back to where it should be at this point in comp prep. My stomach is fine in the morning but tends to gradually worsen during the day and is typically at its worst about 5:00 pm, following my two afternoon snacks which are both more acidic ash forming. It tends to calm a bit following dinner (I eat almonds with my dinner and almonds are alkaline).

An additional note: Protein sources that are more alkaline include: whey protein, tofu and cottage cheese. Eggs are so-so. Also, watch your sweeteners. Stevia is alkaline but aspartame, Sweet n Low, Equal, sugar, etc. are acidic in your system.

Traveling during comp prep

I’ve had to go out of town on business twice so far during this comp prep. It’s a bit of a challenge but I’m getting it down. Preparation is key. It starts with booking a hotel that has a fridge and microwave in the room. I then pre-measure and cook my food and pack it in ziplock bags and tuck them all into a soft sided cooler that I can carry on the plane. It’s a toss-up as to whether TSA will let blue ice blocks go through security. I usually bring the small ones and figure it’s only a buck if TSA throws them out. I’ve been told by several agents that they are supposed to let blue ice through as long as it’s frozen. If it’s thawed out, they throw it out. But, I also know that not all TSA agents play by the same rules so I never really know what’s going to happen.

On a recent trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma, TSA pulled my cooler aside after it went through the xray machine and pulled everything out of my bag. I explained that I’m a body builder and that this was my food for the next two days. They scanned my 3 blue ice packs and had a short discussion before deciding to let me keep them. The woman TSA agent was asking me all about my sport. She wanted to know when the last time was I had pizza (it’s been years) and asked to see my abs. We had a great conversation and she happily helped me pack up all my food. When she saw my oatmeal egg white pancakes she wanted to know how to make them.

As a matter of fact the oatmeal pancakes are the BEST thing I’ve discovered in awhile. I got the recipe from IFBB pro Nancy Georges. I tweaked it a bit because I needed it to fit my needs for my afternoon snack. Here’s Nancy’s original recipe:

6 egg whites
1 yolk
½ cup oatmeal
Stevia or splenda
Cinnamon

Mix stevia or splenda with the eggs then add the oatmeal and cinnamon. Pour into a small (6 to 9 inch) pan and cook like a regular pancake, or make several if you want them thinner. DELICIOUS!

4 ½ weeks out and my body’s really starting to come in now. My lower body is lagging a bit but that’s to be expected. I haven’t decided if I’m going to post any progress pics or just wait to unveil the finished project come show time. We’ll see. Meanwhile, I’m working my butt off to make sure I’m bringing my best self to the stage. I just love comp prep!

6 weeks out – a true athlete

I can’t believe it’s only 6 weeks and I’ll be standing on a stage at the NPC Greater Gulf States Figure Competition in New Orleans. This prep is going sooo fast! Following several months of rehabbing injuries incurred during the summer months I went into this comp prep cautiously optimistic. Deep down I wondered if this would be my last competition, my body was just so beat up. However, with the help of my Z-Health master trainer and my massage therapist, as well as the expertise of my competition coach and the support of my wonderful husband, I’m happy to say I’m in the best physical shape ever and I have full confidence that I’ll be bringing my best self to the 2010 competition season and beyond!

There have been so many thing I’ve learned this year. I’ve learned that being an athlete doesn’t mean to push yourself beyond all measure. It doesn’t mean to train when your body is screaming for a break. It doesn’t mean that the way to success is to eat right, lift weights and do your cardio. Rather, I learned that a true athlete is someone who listens to his/her body, taking rest days and realizing that those days are actually the best days as they truly take you closer to your goals. I also learned to take a holistic approach to reaching my goals. Training, cardio and eating properly aren’t the only pieces to the puzzle. In order to be the best I can be I must stretch (a huge learning for me) and take care of my joints because if they fail me it doesn’t matter how strong my muscles are, I won’t be able to lift to their capacity.

So, as I head toward the stage I must say I’m thankful in a strange way for the trials I’ve faced this past year. I’ve learned a lot and my body is so much healthier for it. I now have a fantastic team of body workers and fitness professionals working together to help me be the best I can be With their help I will continue to learn how to be a true athlete.