Two weeks of my diet

I have been on my diet now for two weeks. I have been good, although I did eat a couple things I shouldn't have.

I took a bite of my husbands rib eye, just needed to compare it to my flank steak. I had a very tiny piece of fried potato slice. That's it, other than that, I have not strayed.

I feel good, and I look good, this will not be as difficult as I was thinking this time around, unless of course my vacation in Mexico totally derails me!

I decided to take pictures with my competition suit on, so I could see just how I look right now. I am happy with my progress. Now my weight has not changed since last week, but I only weigh myself on Sunday and I am in the cycle of my month where I tend to retain some water, so I would not be surprised if I weigh one pound less in a day or two.

I am just back from the gym, after 2 1/2 hours, haven't even hopped in the shower yet!

My body changes so much, I recall when I used to train with an IFBB Pro, that she used to tell me "Every prep is different" and I didn't understand, now I do.

I know I have no definition, but I shouldn't yet, it will come out in good time, after I have dieting for a while, I mean two weeks is really nothing in the grand scheme of things.

I can see that my backside looks a bit soft, and again, that is to be expected. I have a nice V taper, once I lose the fat, the waist will come in and the glutes will be more pronounced and not so "womanly"...they will be hard and tight!

The glute-ham tie in is looking good, no saggy stuff here! Again, when the excess fat and subcutaneous water leaves, the definition will pop.

What I noticed this time around is my body composition is very different. I don't know my actual body fat percentage, SC used to do that for me every week and I haven't seen him in a while, he will check it in March though. And that doesn't really matter yet, it's higher than it should be to compete, so I just have to diet for a while.

But the interesting thing I have noticed is that I seem to have gained a great deal of lean muscle over the last 6 months, and hardly any fat. Totally every one's goal, I know, so I am doing the happy dance.

Just how do I know this? It wasn't difficult to figure it out.

When I compete, I weigh between 118 and 120 pounds, at that time I wear size 0 pants. When I am not competing, and trying to add muscle I get between 126 and 132 pounds and wear size 6 pants (yes I have lots of clothes to accommodate these changes!)

My abs are already starting to show some definition, and this is usually the very last area to show it.

This winter, I got up to 130 pounds and never got into those size 6, I stayed in my 4's. Right now I am at 126 pounds and I am wearing size 0 and 2 pants. I still have 6 pounds to lose, so where is the fat? I am thinking that some of that "fat" is not fat at all, but hard, solid, muscle and I won't have to drop as much weight as usual.

Fat Loss

A friend of mine said to me "It's easy for you to lose body fat".  She was serious.

I want to publicly state for the record, that I never said it was easy to lose all your body fat. I am sorry if I ever implied it was easy or if I ever gave anyone the impression that it was no big deal.

It's hard as hell.

It's probably one of the most difficult things I have ever done. But I have done it many times and I am always successful. This doesn't mean it is easy though.

Anyone can lose body fat and get down to a ridiculously low figure, in the picture above I am fairly low, it's a week before a competition so I am about 6%. I am at the gym practicing my posing and laughing as one of the other members cracks a joke.

It takes will power, determination, patience and the desire to win. It also takes a huge amount of support from the people around you.

It means being hungry. That's hard, people don't deal with hunger very well. A lot of it is psychological, I mean, we are really an over fed nation, but we are greedy and want it all.

It means not partaking of meals with friends and family, you bring your own and are happy with it or you isolate yourself.

It means not having a great deal of energy at times, depending on where you are in your diet. You just want to give up.

It means learning to not be a whiner. No one likes to listen to you complain about your damn diet!  You chose to do this, so do it and shut up! (special dispensation is allowed for fellow competitors in the same boat, sometimes we need to chat each other to make it through the day).

But you can do it, anyone can. I don't want anyone to fail because I made them think it was easy. It's one of the hardest things you will ever accomplish.

Take the journey with me, follow along and you will experience my hills and valleys along the way.