My Bikinis!!!!

My Bikinis are DONE!!!! I ordered them last weekend and the owner of Sewninthesun.com worked around  the clock to get them done! Her name is Cara and she is the nicest most helpful person in the world. She was prompt in emails and sent me pictures of examples of things I wanted on my bikinis. She also had me send pictures of myself so she could see my body type. I am SO pleased with the final outcome! She sent me the pictures and shipped them off! Can't wait to see what they look like on me!!!

Feel free to leave your comments and let me know what you think!!!

10 Weeks Out

 These are my newest photos 10 weeks before the show. I have been training hard and eating well. I am staying on my program and should see the results of it on the stage. I still have some fat to lose but in the last two months I have lost 2% body fat.
 I got my measurements done the other day by my coach. Here are the current stats compared to my stats two months ago:                               Body Fat (11/22/12)- 17.6%
Body Fat (01/22/13)- 15.6%
Shoulders- .75" Growth!
Right Bicep- .15" Growth!
 Bust- .05" Growth!
 Waist- 1.10" Loss!
 Belly Button- 1.5" Loss!
   Hips- .45" Loss!
Thigh- 1" Gain!
Calves- .25" Gain!

My goal is about 10% Body Fat and 110-114 lbs for stage weight. This will most likely go up after I am done preparing for my competitions but I have another competition coming up on April 13th and I am doing the Emerald Cup on May 3th and 4th, so I will be staying at my goal weight for those competitions and will not switch into off season diet. Wish me luck!!!!

11 Weeks Out

Here is a picture taken at 11 Weeks before competition. This is also compared to my competition that was in September 2012 to be able to see the progress made from that time. As you can tell, my stomach has leaned out, especially in my love handles, and the side of my thighs have leaned out. I am not where I need to be but I have made progress since September. 11 more weeks to go!!!

12 Weeks Posing Practice- And Why Women Should Weight Train!

Today was an intense session of posing practice. Posing on stage, walking, and stage presence are all very important pieces of a bodybuilding competition. If you look great but your stage presence is bad then you grab the attention of the judges in a negative way. Today I practiced the "T-walk" and hitting my posing points. Walking on the 6 inch heels aren't any more helpful in pulling off a confident walk, they can be very painful and by the time the night is over, your feet will ache!

This is my physique as of now, 11.5 weeks away from competition. I will continue to take pictures to show my progress. Part of me feels like there will be no more progress- that is one of my biggest fears. Most people would say "you look fine! Why do you need to get skinnier?!". The idea is not to get "skinny" which implies fat loss with no muscle mass, just stringy and malnourished, like a lot of models. What I do need to do is lean out. Think like a judge at a bodybuilding show for a minute, what do you want to see? What do you see on me? The thighs can be tightened and toned and so can my mid section, especially around my love handles. Right now I am in between a great "lifestyle" look, and a "competitor" look. The goal is to gain muscle and lose fat, the more fat lost, the more muscle is shown- that's the point!

Why Should Women Weight Train?

Cardio Addict?

Hear me out on this for a second. I have always struggled with my weight, since I was 13 years old. I have fluctuated way up and way down with my weight. The highest being 180, and my average around 135. When I was in my "average" weight range, I would go up in down a pound or two each day. I ALWAYS


wanted to lose more weight. I tried kickboxing, Pilates  aerobics classes of all kinds, killing myself on the elliptical and treadmill daily and then doing very spotty, light and uneducated weight lifting for about 5 minutes and be done. The truth is that I didn't know HOW to weight train AND I thought it would make me HUGE like those crazy bodybuilder girls who take steroids (which I didn't know at the time!). When my husband told me I should body build I was sure he was off his rocker. But he told me that he thought bodybuilding would get me the body I really want. So I looked into it. I found girls who looked like this:

and I said "YES!!! THAT'S WHAT I WANT!!" And then I found out HOW they got these bodies... THEY ARE ALL BODYBUILDERS!!! So much for the manly looking frame that I once associated with female bodybuilders! So I started bodybuilding immediately. I got a trainer who had done figure competitions and I learned from her the basics of bodybuilding. I also learned that women do not have enough testosterone to be able to build muscle like a man!
Bodybuilding is SO much fun and you see results IMMEDIATELY!!! Unlike cardio which takes FOREVER   to see results and you get burned out on it after a week.
I am telling you women!!! If you do anything for your body DO THIS!!! Your muscles are furnaces, the more you build them the more calories you burn throughout the whole day. You will speed up your metabolism and burn the fat you want to burn. TRUST ME. Cardio is a part of a well balanced program, but it is NOT the answer. I challenge you, try it for a month, eat well, and see the results.

What is a "Bikini Competitor"?

So, I was thinking I should probably explain a little about what I am doing and what the bikini division is all about. To a lot of people when they hear "bikini competition" they think of spring break and a bunch of drunk women trying to get drunk guys to vote for them in their bikini. The Bikini Division in a Bodybuilding competition is MUCH different.  
There are three divisions, or "levels" of a Bodybuilding Competition. The highest division is "bodybuilder". This division is where you see the massive muscles. These guys (and gals), have decided they want to go all the way with their physique. Although I believe some go too far, meaning I know a lot of them do hormone treatments to be able to get that big. The women especially have to take extra measures to get that big because they do not have enough testosterone to look like a man, that is why they are a woman! There are guys and gals that do it Au naturel and get big muscles, but they aren't as hulk like as those who take hormones to enhance things.
Next is "figure". Figure is a step down from bodybuilding. It still has a lot in common with bodybuilding. They are required to do a gamut of different poses on stage to show the different parts of their muscles. They do "quarter turns" so the judges can see each side of them. They are usually very lean and have exceptional definition where you can absolutely see a six pack or a the delts popping out.
Then the "bikini" (far right). The bikini division is fairly new. It's for women who want to build their physique but still keep a "womanly form". The judges are looking for a woman who put in a lot of work to their physique but have a softer feel to their muscle definition. It is NOT the "easy" division to compete in. Bikini women train very hard, almost everyday in the gym with weight lifting and cardio. An hour and a half to two hours 6 days a week in the gym would be a normal schedule for a bikini competitor. Even though the bikini division is known for having "softer bodies", the women who compete and win are no joke. Their workout and eating plan would weaken the knees of most fitness buffs!

As you can see, the bikini girls are very fit! Many of them crossover to figure sometimes in the same competition because their physiques are very similar. The posing and the suits are different, but the bodies can look very similar. I love bikini because I think it captures "woman" in her leanest most fit form. It shows a body which is lean but healthy and fit, not stringy and famished or pumped full of testosterone.

Jaime Baird- My Biggest Inspiration

Just wanted to share about a woman who inspired me to do this whole crazy bodybuilding thing! Her name is Jaime Baird and she is a Pro Bikini Competitor. She places in the top five almost always and top 3 of 5 most of the time. She is incredible, beautiful, confident, professional, and consistent  She is super level headed from the bios I have read and super sweet for taking the time out to write me back on Facebook one time ;)
Here are 2 pics from the last huge competition she did; The Olympia in Las Vegas

                     BEAUTIFUL!

12 Weeks out from Bikini Competition

So, this is me. I am almost 12 weeks out from my big NPC competiton in Vancouver, WA. March 30th is the date. Right now my stats are:

Between 124-126 lbs (varies from day to day because of water weight and food intake)

14.8% BMI

18 lbs body fat

Height- 5'5 1/2"

I am currently weight training 5 days a week and doing cardio 6 days a week for 30 mins a day. I am trying to get back on track with my eating after the holidays. Normally I would have pre-made meals with veggies and protein sources like turkey, fish, and vegan sausage. Also, I am drinking about two protein shakes a day with 23 grams of protein per shake. 

Next Monday starts my 12 week countdown, BIG TIME FOCUS!!! I will start cutting carbs and carb cycling and then the last week will be no carbs. I have done this once before and it wasn't too hard, but I have a feeling it will be harder this time. 

The pics above are before and after pics. The first one starts with me in 2007, I was about 160 lbs and very unhealthy. The next pics are from earlier this year before I started bodybuilding. The arm picture is from July 2012 and December 2012- only 5 months got me those results on my arms. 

I am excited and nervous about the NPC show, it is MUCH bigger than my first show in September 2012. Here is a pic from that one (I am the second to the last on the right).

I will keep posting, this will get more interesting I am sure of that!