12.31.08

I’m doing WHAT??

Posted in Uncategorized at 7:07 am by Ali

Hi guys!  A little update.  I’ve started dieting.  I’ve dropped a couple pounds of water weight, which puts me at 112.  This will be, what…9 weeks of dieting?  That’s enough for me.  It seems that pushing it into a 12 week cut gets me a little too lean, and at the point of losing muscle.  So, I’m just going to slam it for 9 weeks and be done with it.

Man, I’m still amazed people do 2 hours of cardio a day and eat nothing but protein and veggies during a contest prep.  No fruit, no dairy, no ‘bread’.  What?  I never would have done this had I had to eat like that.  Ya, it’s hardcore.  Ya, it works…but why toture yourself unnecessarily?  I mean, it’s hard enough!!  I can’t even imagine THAT rebound.  Ugh!  NOT that there aren’t some amazing physiques that come out of that…there really are.  I just don’t think it HAS to be that way.  Maybe people will listen if I do well.  :)  I don’t know why it takes that…but it seems to.

Did you guys see that video of Erin Stern that said she dieted for one week before winning the overall at Nationals?  Haaaaaaaaaa!  Although, I’m sure she worked out and ate well, anyway.  She is a track athlete.  High jump, I think??  She will be doing the Arnold -pro.  What a beautiful lady!!

Here’s a little of my thought process as to why I’m doing this show.  I am a SAHM of 4 children.  I am 37!!  Man, I can’t even believe that one!  Next year my youngest will be in kindergarten, and I will probably start WORKING…like for money.  Yippee!!  So, I figured that this is the year to do it if I’m going to…that is…hit a round of national shows.  Now, I’m not committing to any more than this because I just don’t know how I’ll feel after doing this one, but this is a start. 

So, when I sent in my application right before Christmas, I was excited…but then it set in…OH @#$%^&* !!  What did I just do???  So, until a week ago, I was walking around in a state of OMGIdontwantodothis!  I wouldn’t find a hotel room, wouldn’t start my suit, wouldn’t pay for my tan, and I was eating like a crazy woman!! (hey, it was the holidays, and I was baking up a storm!!)  I was just stressed about the whole thing.

Now, I don’t know what happened, really.  I just decided to calm the hell down.  I’m taking one day at a time.  One minute at a time sometimes!  I have to get in my ‘mode’, and then when I am in it, nothing can stop me.  I CANNOT do a contest on the fence.  I did that one time, and the results were horrible all the way around.  You HAVE to be completely committed to it.  It’s too hard, otherwise.  You’ll waffle. 

So, that’s my mental journey so far.  I am in it, now…just raring to go!!  Now my system just has to adjust to more protein and less…uhhhh….christmas cookies.  Argh!!  Pretty bad when that happens.  :-)

12.07.08

She’s Baaaaa-ack!!

Posted in Uncategorized at 8:13 am by Ali

Well, back to blogging, that is…I’ve been posting on my forum all along.  :-)  I’m in contest prep mode, again, so I figured I’d start blogging the process.  I’m going to try to do some video blogging, so that will add a fun, new dimension to this.  At the very least, I should be able to make someone laugh at me, and if I can get a smile…that will make me happy.  :-)
 
Just to get this blog up to speed from last May, I had hernia surgery in June, and then we took an active family vacation a week later to the mountains.  So, that gave me 3 weeks off.  Since then, I worked my strength back up.  My deadlift took the longest since I took the most time off from that (some before the surgery, even), and at least 6 weeks afterwards.  I am back 110%, now, though.
 
I kept my weight under 110 the whole summer…mostly 106-108, I think.  I started slowly gaining at the end of September and into October.  I took a little break from that in November (cut that fat a bit), and have been on again (eating) since the week of Thanksgiving.  I really don’t like the gaining process at all, so I try to keep the fat gain to a minimum.  At this point, I’m not going to gain a hord of muscle, so that fat gain just isn’t worth it.