My Figure Bodybuilding Journey

Having gone through a very long comp prep diet of almost 20 weeks I have learnt so much about listening to my body. Knowing when to eat and what to eat is so very important during that time in order to achieve my goals for my comptition at the time.

I also know that this theory still applies even on the off season. Being able to maintain a good balance is important now and with future comps on the horizon I still need to listen to my body. Sometimes though, the mind gets in the way of things and tries to interfer with my communication with my body. My mind tries to tell me that I have gained weight when I am bloated due to heat or the onset of a monthly. It tries to tell me I have gained weight because I didn't do cardio after a heavy weight session at the gym. It tries to tell my lots of things.

It has taken many years but now I am starting to trust more about what my body tells me, rather then my mind.

There are ways around it. On Sunday's I feel I deserve a day where I can increase my calories and eat what I desire (without going crazy). I eat perfectly for six days straight so I deserve this freedom on a Sunday. But Monday rolls in the next day and I wake up with guilt. It shouldn't be that way at all because that can be the start of a down hill slide mentally. It could mean a nutritional stuff up day. My mind might say "well you had too many calories yesterday so it's all over, what's the point in trying to be good today"? So you eat that extra helping of whatever it is you've eaten and it continues on from there. It really can snowball and throw you off your new lifestyle change of eating well.

I have learnt to ignore that part of my mind. I wake up Monday morning feeling a little bloated from the extra carbs I ate the day before, and I must admit, feeling a little guilty too. But, I don't let it get to me. I start my day completely back on track again. The funny thing is, it only takes until that afternoon for me to feel 100% again. You really can't give into guilt because it will control you and ruin everything.

Another thing I have learnt that if I come home in time for dinner and im starving, I must remember to eat slowly and not shovel my dinner down my throat. I eat my dinner, drink a large glass of water and wait at least 15 minutes before deciding if I need to go back for seconds. Generally I don't. But if I shovel it down, im still hungry and I end up eating twice as much.

The next issue I need to work on is not doing cardio after weight training. This is proving to be the most difficult for me. Yesterday was the first day I trained and then walked out of the gym without doing any cardio. But today I went in and only did cardio as it was a day off weight training. Tomorrow I know I will break the rules, I just know I will do both :-(

I understand the importance of needing to build muscle right now, but to think that I will gain too much BF scares me more then that. I will need to take this one step at a time.

Once I have gone over that hurdle, it will be great!

Hope everyone is well,

Deb

Posted by Splice on Wednesday, November 29, 2006 at 12:45 PM | Permalink