Hey all! Thought it was about time I started a journal on here... I decided two weeks ago to do a Figure Competition on October 11th. It's the 2008 Bluegrass Muscle Classic (you can add me to the list Olesya)! It is a National Qualifier here in my hometown... 14 weeks away... I am more muscular and leaner than I have EVER been, and I have been itching to compete for a while now... so why the heck not??? =D

A little bit of background:
I competed once in powerlifting (a spur-of-the-moment, why-the-heck-not kind of thing) in August of 2005. I competed in my first figure competition in October of 2006. I did not place very well. My posing wasn't great, and I lost a good amount of muscle dieting (I wasn't as diligent as I should have been about my supps, especially BCAAs... whoops =P) Then I competed again in March of 2007 and was not lean enough. I freaked out b/c I lost so much muscle prepping for the first show, that I didn't diet hard enough for the second. I looked more fit for a bikini comp than a figure comp... SO... it's time to redeem myself and step on stage at my absolute BEST!

Hope you guys will follow along! I will need all the support I can get!!

Molly

So, I just got back from family vacation yesterday...and I was SURROUNDED by bad food... but I did pretty well. I planned on having a couple of cheats while I was down there, and I still logged all of my food intake. I kept to my macros and cals pretty closely, but ate foods that I don't normally eat at home (kashi cereal, hummus, etc). My cheats while I was gone consisted of a small bowl of loaded mashed potatoes, a Thin Mint Blizzard from DQ (SOOO worth it! =D), some key lime pie, and on the last night, some hot brownies with cold milk... mmmm.... =D Oh yeah, and a couple of bowls of Honey Bunches of Oats! =D I had to cook my own food several nights b/c there were 22 of us, and the rest of the family was eating baked beans with bacon, hot dogs, potato chips, jumbalaya, yeast rolls with butter... and I couldn't exactly eat those kinds of things... so I usually made a baked sweet potato and bought my own whole grain bread to have with whatever meat we were having (teriyaki chicken, boiled shrimp, etc)... ANYWAY...


I weighed in before I left for my trip around 160. Last night I was 169 =D, and this morning I was 164. (I should be back to 160-161 by Wednesday or so).... while I am not planning on hitting a specific weight, I think I will come in around 144-149 for my show (after water depletion)...


I am back on the ole diet nice and strict like usual today... I plan on carb cycling with 2 high, 2 med, and 3 low days for at least the next 4 weeks. Then we will re-assess depending on my progress. I am going to be taking in around 2700 calories on my high carb days... this is about 100-300 less than I HAD been taking in on my high days, but the macro ratios are different throughout the week than what I had been eating, so I think this will jump start the fat loss process pretty well! I took pics two weeks ago, not quite ready to share them yet... will probably take them again in 2 weeks and MIGHT share them then... we will see.

I plan on lifting HEAVY for a while. I can usually keep my strength or even gain strength until around 6 weeks out or so. Cardio will be 5-6 days a week right now, but for pretty short periods of time. There will be some days when I do it in the morning after drinking BCAAs, and some days I will do it after my workouts. I will be lifting 4 days a week, two upper, two lower. The schedule that works best for me is:

Monday LIFT
Tuesday LIFT
Wednesday OFF/cardio
Thursday OFF/cardio
Friday LIFT
Saturday LIFT
Sunday OFF/cardio

Oh yeah, took last week off from lifting. Did lots of walking on the beach, some swimming and a lot of RELAXING! Hoping to hit the gym tomorrow refreshed and READY!

Guess that's all for now!

MMG

YES!!!! I have been waiting for you to post a contest prep thread!! Woo-Hoo!!
Totally looking forward to following your progress and cheering you on!
Go Molly!! This is going to be awesome!

I am so excited that you decided to do another show!
I will absolutely be following!

Yay! I'm so excited to finally get a chance to follow along on your journey! I can't wait!!!

Superb!! You've started a journal!! :-D

I was hoping you would! I'll be following along avidly!

Molly! Can't wait to follow along. How exciting!

This is going to be fun!

Hey Molly! YEAH!!!! I'm super excited to follow your progress.....now about those pics... you KNOW how much we LOVE em..... :D

GOOOOOOOOO MOLLY!!!

If anyone is going to do great in their figure prep and comp. it is going to be you!!!
I will definately be looking at your thread for some advice!

Will you have a trainer this time around? If I remember correctly at one point for one of your comps. you didn't..

How exciting!! I bet it feels good to be working towards a goal..what do your buddies think about you competing in figure this time around?

Yeah Molly! I will so be following your journal. Welcome!

Hooray Molly Sue!! I'm so excited to watch you kick buttocks!

Can't wait to watch your journey!
Glad your doing another competition. You are always such a great support and help to everyone around here, now its our time to support you!

OMG! So overwhelmed by all the support already! You guys ROCK! =D Seriously... I really think having all of you guys in my corner will make prep much easier this time around!

Mom-in-Md

I DO have a trainer this time around. He is a friend of mine and actually trained his girlfriend, who is also my friend, for her first Figure comp where she beat out like 70-80 something girls to win the overall! =D I have posted her pics in the Vixen's Heavy Lifts Thread, her name is Autumn and she looked incredible at her comp!

This competition is 100% boyfriend and family approved (they are all excited they don't have to travel b/c it's in my hometown). My Mom is so cute... she doesn't LOVE that I do the competitions ("I just don't understand why you feel the need to show your body off like that honey..." you know?) But she is trying SO hard to be really supportive and she is trying to understand WHY I do this. I told her I was going to do another one and she said, "Oh, oh honey, that's...that's GREAT!" I laughed at all her hesitation and she said "I am serious. I know that you work very hard and I am very excited for you. Now tell me when and where so I can invite all my friends and colleagues..." (that last part was a MAJOR joke...she was totally being sarcastic)

My friends are pretty supportive. They think it's a little different, but cool and I have a girl from my gym competing too, so that will be fun.

I am just ready to get this show on the road!

I have light upper body tonight at the gym... I am going to see if I can do 9 or 10 pullups in a row! My max so far was 8... but before vacation I wanted to really work on them. So a couple of weeks ago I did 203 pull-ups in one week, and then the week after that I did 225 in one week... then took a week off at the beach... so hopefully I will be rested and stronger! Guess we will see... =D

Yay Molly! I am happy for you! This will be fun.


And girl, you know the rules, GET THOSE PICTURES UP!

Unacceptable.

Haha I gotta get rid of my belly bloat from my vacation before I post pics! I am back down to 162 this morning (OK 162.8.. but hey! I am in the 162's dammit!)

Like I said, I expect to be back to 160-161 by tomorrow or Wednesday...

its about damn time you started a thread! wooo hooo....can't wait to follow along. I think you have a lot of great wisdom the rest of us can learn from :)

NH wrote:
its about damn time you started a thread! wooo hooo....can't wait to follow along. I think you have a lot of great wisdom the rest of us can learn from :)

That's very sweet Diana! I read one time something to the effect of, "Wisdom comes from making mistakes and learning from them" and I have DEFINITELY made lots of mistakes... so hopefully this will be much smoother sailing this time around!

Thanks for everyone's support and encouragement so far!

96 Days and counting... ACK!!!!!

Goooo Molly!

I'm glad to see you have a thread. I am anxious to follow along...always eager to see what the tall girls like myself are doing. BTW, I think your avi pic is great!

Can't wait to hear how many pullups!
I'm thinking you hit 10.

hmmm, prepping for a contest - just another excuse to buy SHOES??

Yay! You started a journal! :D

Neely! great new avi. SWEET!

Hey Fab fit! Great to see you following along! Us tall chickies have to stick together! =D


Neely wrote:
Yay! You started a journal! :D

Miss Neely!! Where have you been sister? I have been wondering about you!! Hope all is well! =D

And Lyric,
I think I have the shoes I am going to be wearing... I love the style and height of them, but they need a little bling... I need to buy some crystals and get to hot glue-ing I guess! =D