Just another week

Well, nothing spectacular to report this week.  After a week of the new meal plan, I was able to report a 3lb gain this week and since I got the same reaction out of both Shawna and Jon ("GOOD!"), I am assuming that I am on the right track now.  Even with the amount of food and over all calories in this meal plan, I actually really like it!  Lunch is kind of dry, with chicken and rice, but I just love everything else about it and was glad when I heard this week that I will stick with it for now.  I joked the other day about how not all my peanut butter gets from the spoon to the monster shake...  Just gotta love licking it straight off the spoon sometimes!  I still get my cheat meal once a week and even though I sometimes plan way ahead for it, I usually have a hard time with it because I am so full leading up to it.  I really try to make sure I don't start my cheat until it is time for Meal 5.  I always try to get some kind of sweet treat in there, but I sabotage myself if I have it before the rest of my cheat.  This last weekend, I had my favorite no-bake cookie from Miss Ellie's Cakes before we headed out to Primo's for dinner with our daughter.  I was ready to dive into some pizza, but it just didn't happen because I just didn't react well to the darn dessert I had first!  Note to self on cheat meals...  Get the meal in first, and then go for the sweets!  I need to enjoy these while I can, because I am sure they get few and far between during the cutting phase!

In a 'not-so-brilliant' move last week, I managed to re-aggrevate my groin while doing clean and presses on shoulder day.  Ugh...  That meant no training legs on Saturday with Shawna, as originally planned.  Going to be smarter about it this week.  Get my icing in and don't do any moves for other muscle groups to aggrevate it again!  Jon is having me add leg extensions and leg curls twice this week, which won't bother the area and still get some sort of leg training in and then Shawna and I will give it a go next week.  Fingers crossed that it is better, because I miss training legs!

So, Saturday training was chest and arms.  Shawna loves her push-ups with a pulse, and at the end of the workout!  I thought I was going to die, but of course, I didn't.  I think I made the mistake of saying "I hate these!", which resulted in superseting 20 of the damn things after DB incline flies!  You could say I had a bit of shaky arm syndrome after that set!

Sunday, I met a friend who is also training for figure.  We met originally by lucky chance through the Bicep Bettie page, participated on the same team in the Dirty Dash, and she has been an inspiration for me since!  When I decided I wanted to give this whole competition thing a try, I thought it would be good to have someone do it along with me and luckily, I brought her to the meeting and she said yes!  Unfortunately, because we are just at different levels right now, we are probably doing different shows... (definitely sad about that, but so happy for her to tackle the bigger shows!).  Anyway, we have the same workout plan right now, so decided to attack our back workout together.  She can lift so much, that I did all I could to keep up with her!  She talked me into an extra set on single arm DB rows and so I took a shot and grabbed the 60's.  To my surprise, I got all 8 reps out!  Crazy what a little 'nudge' will do for you!  Thanks Suzzanne for a great workout!  I hope we can get together more in the future! 

Took a much needed rest day today...  My entire upper body is screaming at me from the last two days of workouts, but yet, it feels great!  I am excited to make gains and improvements.  The softness will go away soon, if I can just get through the next month or so until prep/cutting starts.  I am treating food and training just like I were in prep.  I figure, if I can't follow this now, what excuses will I have when actual 'prep' starts?  My diet hasn't been 100%, but I can honestly say that I have only had (4) meals that were 'off plan' (other than my cheats, of course) since I started on November 4th.  Even if they were not on the plan, I did my best to keep them as healthy as possible.  There were a few missed meals in there too, from being sick and that can be just as bad as an added cheat sometimes, but I am hoping I got any illness out of the way and can stay healthy until time for the comp.

I was excited to hear that we will have a chance to look at suit material around the begininng of January!  I am excited to look at it and pick out colors, etc.!  Another goal this week is to get shoes ordered.  Here are the shoes I plan on getting...  I am a little nervous about these, because this girl hardly EVER wears heels.  For some strange reason, my husband is excited about the purchase!  haha