It's been awhile. Let's catch up! How have you been?

My last blog post was in January, 2 months after the October Border States show, and 3 months before I started prepping for the June Armed Forces show. I fell off the blogging wagon! In a nutshell, I tore both my hamstrings at their insertion point just under the glutes and was sidelined from any sort of lower body activity for 2 months. Well, my biggest area of improvement is my glute/ham tie in, so I was pretty discouraged. Discouraged enough to stop training? NO! I just put all my efforts into my upper body! Let’s grow them delts! I did some PT for my hamstrings (useless if you ask me) and started lightly stretching. My problem isn’t tight hamstrings, it’s hyper-mobility and over stretching. Combine that with too-fast lower body progressions and my hams just gradually started to tear. But I got better, I now maintain a good easy stretching routine, and I don’t go too hard.
I competed June 9th in the San Diego Armed Forces/So Cal Championships, my one year anniversary show! I placed 2nd in the Armed Forces category, and 4th (again!) in the open. Now, as you may recall from my post “Winning,” I am ALWAYS fourth. But that’s ok. One year ago, I was 4th out of 5th, then in Oct I was 4th out of 7, now I am 4th out of 11. So even though my actual placing has remained the same, I am actually improving! I have always maintained that your toughest competition. And I still fully believe that. I made even more improvements from October 2011 to June 2012 (even with the bum hams). So I cannot be happier. Strive to always bring a better you! That being said, I am NOW READY to focus on bringing home a class win.

My next competition will be Excalibur in San Diego on Dec 1st. It is a rather large show, but I am ready for the challenge. My main goal is to remain in first call outs; however I am training like I want a class win! I officially started my off-season (improvement season) diet and training. Time to fill out the delts, work on biceps and triceps definition, and slim down the legs. The judges told me that my lats were wide enough, so that is one area I can just focus on maintaining.
My training will be moderate to heavy on the upper body, with shoulder training twice per week, emphasizing the rear delts. Lower body will be all bodyweight stuff for now. Cardio will be running, and I HATE HATE HATE running (did I mention I am not a fan?). Official prep will start immediately following Olympia Weekend. I am hoping to get to Vegas to watch the Olympia and that will be my last hurrah! That is 10 weeks away from Excalibur.
In other AMAZING news, I decided that if I ever wanted to be anyone and go anywhere in this industry that I love and am so invested in, I needed to start taking some risks. You have to put yourself out there to be known, and sometimes you will succeed and sometimes you will fail. Its life, deal with it (talking to myself here). I entered a Facebook contest with Myotropics Physique Nutrition, a company that recently sponsored my friend Francine Sablan (you may have heard of her? Overall Figure champ at USAs? New IFBB Pro?) Well, long story short, I won this photo contest, and with it a one year sponsorship, protein and a trip to USAs in Vegas and a photoshoot with Myotropics and renown photographer George Kontaxis. (Squee!)
The beginning of this year started really rough, catastrophic even. I bore you with the details, but there were deaths, illnesses, and financial heartaches, blah blah blah. The last 3 months have been so amazing, new experiences, dreams starting to come true, etc. I am grateful that after so much hard work, it is all finally coming together. I have so many more blogs to post about these experiences, and they will be up shortly (within the week!). Anyway, thanks for reading and being a part of my life and experiences, and I hope I can inspire you to live your dreams as well.
Happy Training!!

Winning...

Winning….

Well, I did it. I competed in my second NPC figure competition on October 29^th in San Diego. I had an amazing time! I learned a lot about myself in the process….

I have always been one of those people that reach for the moon but expect to grab nothing but dirt. In other words, I aim high with low expectations. I usually say things like “I so failed that test….NO, I KNOW I failed it” when it turns out I really got like a B+ or better. Well, that kind of attitude can get very annoying to people rather quickly. So when I went into this competition, I went in with realistic expectations, a positive attitude, having worked my ass off, knowing that the only variable I can control is myself.

It’s not like taking a test, where the harder you study, the better you do. You cannot control who you compete with. You may step on stage with women who have never competed before, you may only have 2 other women in your class, or you may compete with 15 other people who are practically pros at this! The only thing you can control is yourself. I told myself all during prep, and during the show, It doesn’t matter how I place, because I KNOW I am bringing a better package than my last show. And guess what? I actually meant it. I mean, who doesn’t want to bring home a trophy? But the reality is you cannot control it.

I competed with seven other women, all who looked phenomenal. I was so happy when I took 4^th. I took fourth in my first competition, but I competed with fewer ladies, and they didn’t bring the same packages. I feel like I came in slightly leaner, more muscular, I hit my poses as best as I could as a second time competitor, and my hair, makeup and tan were phenomenally better. All in all, I looked and presented myself much better!

Because of everything I WAS able to control, my diets, workouts, posing practices, etc., I was better. Who cares if I was fourth, AGAIN? That is SO GOOD! So for all competitors out there who are so focused on the win: Yes, reach for the stars! Work your ass off knowing that other girls are bringing their best. Try your damndest for that first place spot. But most importantly, strive to be a better YOU. If you came in looking your absolute best in that moment, then you ARE A WINNER, no matter what spot you stand in on that stage. And you know what, next time you will continue to develop. You are your biggest competitor. Beat yourself every time, then you are WINNING always.

The red suit is my first competition in June, the Blue is my second in October.