Week one is done. I stuck to my diet quite easily even when I was away from home this weekend. I just prepared my meals in plastic containers and took my cooler with me. The biggest surprise this week was my lack of appetite. I am not sure if it was really the fact of how busy I was or what, but I will need to watch this. A plateau is inevitable if I continue to skip meals. This week should be about the same. The fact that I know I get a cheat meal this weekend will make my focus a little easier....something to look forward to.

  I have posted my pictures for this week. Not much change from the front, but I do see a change in my backside just a bit. Typically I do not see much change within the first week, so I am not really discouraged. I will continue to weight lift this week and Thursday I will have my body fat done again.

  Today was a weird day. I was not very hungry at all. I was doing some work and at 4pm I realized I had not had my 2nd half of breakfast (grits), my lunch, or my afternoon snack. Up to that point of the day I had only eaten 1 egg and 2 egg whites, a banana and my protein shake. I knew what was coming. Hunger pains!
 I quickly ate my grits and my dinner later at 6pm. By the time 8:30pm rolled around I was starving. I was short on calories, carbs, and fat and my body was letting me know. So tonight I went off my regular routine of egg whites at night and instead had 1 cup special K cereal with a huge strawberry and 2% milk. I usually try not to drink milk when dieting so 2% was my only choice...skim would have been better. I also had two egg whites scrambled with just a hint of grape jelly. Hope that holds me thru the night.
  My workouts are going great. My legs hurt so bad and I tried to focus mainly on my quads on Tuesday because Friday will be hamstrings. Didn't matter, my hamstrings still hurt. I did 20 minutes of rollerblading too. I should have done another day of ballet, but I was too busy with work and kids. Weekend is coming up. No temptations yet, that's pretty good for the first week.

I have just about made it thru day 3. I woke up this morning at 3:30am starving. I finally got up and had two saltine crackers and went back to sleep. The rest of the day went pretty smoothly. It is almost 10pm and I am short a protein shake and 2 egg whites. We had a late night at church and I am off my eating schedule just a bit. I actually had to plan for this a bit. I stuck my yogurt and cottage cheese in a container and carried it with me to church. I made it thru the day without a nap, but I am exhausted. I will finish my meals and head off to bed. It is key to get all my calories in. In fact, it is probably more important at this stage of the game.

  I feel it coming on. Sugar withdrawals! Today was easy again, but day three is upon me and that tends to be one of the hardest days I will encounter during this 12 week period. I think it's because I am withdrawing from everything at once....sugar (carbs) as well as fat. I have been very moody today and so tired that I almost can't function. Instead of eating, I took a nap. It helps for a short time, then the cravings come on me like a tidal wave. Usually things get better on day 5 and 6.
  My workout was once again intense. Quads with back. That is a tough combo, but invigorating at the same time. Tomorrow is Chest and Abs. I am trying to be careful not to build my obliques too much this time. I am square shaped (not hour glass) and that can be a bad thing in the NPC where they are looking for that sexy figure with a tiny waist and wider hips. I have the tiny waist, but you can't really tell because I have no hips.
  Once again I am feeling hungry here at 9pm. I will do another spinach omelet and head off to bed.

Today marked the first day of this long 12 week diet. It really was not hard today at all despite the fact I had a lot going against me...my period, husband out of town (corraling kids by myself), tough workout, along with a new diet. I was extremely tired all day and even had to take a nap. I did manage to complete my ballet workout today as well. Now I am getting ready to have my last meal of the night. Spinach omelet with onions and a little hot sauce. I may skip the one yolk and instead do 3 egg whites and add a hint of reduced fat cheese, that is, as long as it stays within my requirements. After that, I am off to bed at 9:30pm.

Oh Goodness! Not the before Pics.

As much as I hate to do this, I felt I really needed to post my before pictures. I wish I would have taken these a couple of weeks ago before I started binging. Nonetheless, here they are. Abs are definitely going to come in nicely. Lots of fat to shed. I have done it before, I can do it again.

Get Ready, Get Set, DIET!

It's finally here; Time to start the 12 week diet for the show. I have done pretty good this off season. That is, until the last two weeks. A trainer told me I have Pre-anticipatory anxiety. Sounds pretty bad, but that probably explains why not only have I been binging on food, but I have been doing it with foods I never typically eat. An example is a donut. I don't eat donuts, so why am I craving it? I think just the mere thought of knowing I couldn't have something even if I wanted it, is driving me to binging. On the positive side, I only did it for 2 wks prior to taking on the diet. Last year I binged for a solid month. SEE, I have made progress. LOL
  I had my body fat done yesterday and I am disappointed by being at 20%. I did it to myself. That does tell me that I was maintaining at around 18% and that is a major change from where my body wanted to stay last year; 21%. I have to get in the zone. I think I am ready. I will post pictures this week and at least every two weeks from here on out. I will also make regular posts, no matter how little I may have to say that day.
  I have already met with the lady who will be making my new suit, I have raised more than half the money so far and am currently working on connections for booking a hotel. Now I need to sit down and write out my workouts for the next week. No "winging" it. I go in knowing exactly what I need to do. This keeps me from robbing myself of a good workout.  Diet is the same way. It will be printed out and the food will be prepared on Sunday. Planning ahead is the only way to prevent yourself from cheating. Oh, and speaking of that, I can have a cheat meal after two weeks. Check back in after Monday, until then, I'm gonna EAT!