Eat, Eat, Eat

Most of you know I'm training for my first competiton in August. It's pretty exciting because Bill from our site and Lisa my friend (and PNP member) are doing it with me. The training is going well and I wanted to spend today discussing lessons learned from the first four weeks of training.

Attention to Diet Works
It's so easy to workout hard and casually ruin it day in and day out. Since I started this process I have been very conscious of what I eat. Every week I am sent a menu to follow (and it has only changed once so it's boring as heck) and I have been doing great with sticking to it. Now, I do make changes but I typically do things like change up meat because something is going bad or sub a veggie because I need something I can eat in the car.

Sometimes it's very hard. I have had a couple of occassions where I fell into a jar of peanut butter. I get a splurge meal on the weekend but by Wednesday my body is screaming for carbs. PB is the only thing that truly tempts me. This weekend I made Chris take all the PB to work. We do have some Cashew Butter in the house for Logan but it's so expensive that I refuse to waste it on me. Took care of that trigger!

In four weeks I've lost weight and inches. Especially today, I look leaner. Two people at the gym stopped to comment that I must be doing something new because I looked tighter. It's very true and the changes are happening almost daily now.

I'm eating between 1600 and 1800 calories most days. I don't get hardly any carbs and that's tough but each week that gets so much easier. My carbs come from greens and a rice cake. Yum yum! If you go to my Sparkpage you can see typical menus of what I'm eating. Now, the total cals are low but I allocate 200 cals a day in supplements and Crystal Light. Don't forget each packet is 10 calories and I go through enough to purchase stock.

Workouts Gotta Be Tough
You want to look like an Oxygen model you better be willing to eat and train like one. Those girls work so hard because I'm not even training like them and it's kicking me in the butt. I'm on six days of cardio ranging from 30-60 min. daily (fasted if possible) and four to five days of strength training splitting my body parts. My strength training is usually 3-4 sets of supersets with a whole 10-15 sec. break in between. It's enough to make you vomit on leg day. A typical strength workout only takes about 40 minutes right now.

These workouts have taught me that most people casually workout. I look around the gym and see soft chicks barely breathing hard on the elliptical, girls sitting on a machine whipping out 15 - 20 reps easily and then just sitting there waiting for the next worthless set, and others who are truly grinding it. These girls make ugly faces when lifting, they hustle through the gym and tell their friends they can talk AFTER the workout, when doing cardio they need a sponge to clean up, and they chug a shake after the workout because they know that refueling is just as important as the workout. Starving don't do crap for you.

Sleep!
Seven hours a night. I wish I could get more but right now that's about all I'm getting and that's a GOOD night. Muscles don't build and fat won't burn unless you rest. This is a lesson I have to work on because it's a weak area for me. It's hard to go to sleep and exciting to get up.

Plan Baby Plan
Do you think eating eight times a day is easy? No! I eat meat and veggies six times a day and then take in some egg whites, almonds, and shakes some. You want to look good then you better plan to look good. I cook my food in advance, I prep my veggies, and I tote it all around in a neat little cooler that is in the bottom of my backpack.

I have learned to optimize my time and mix together autism, a competition, being a friend, wife, mother, daughter, mentor to 100's a women, and then just be Corinne. Some people would think I'm crazy but I just like to think I'm living life to the fullest. The last thing that will be written on my tombstone is that she didn't get to do everything she wanted in this life.

And, that is the lesson I'm learning most through all of this. I want a lot out of my life and I'm more than willing to work for all of it. I want...

- to bring my son into mainstream and out of the label of autism. It's not easy cooking all the time and running him all over town on top of spending our "playtime" doing therapy, but he's worth giving up TV, movies, and massages.

- to be a hot wife and have a husband who looks at me like I"m the only woman in the room. Sure it might mean arranging our schedules to have quality time when I would rather take a nap or go shopping, but he's worth every minute I get to spend with him.

- to be a figure competitor. That means eating like NO one else, working out when time allows so it doesn't interfere with family time, and walking in shoes that would break your ankle just looking at them while cooking. Crazy but it's the best way to practice.

- to inspire women to reach down and be healthy. I get to do that every day at PNP and I love it. I may trade a lot of personal time to chase this dream, but it's worth it. Trust me, PNP is no empire but what I get in friendship and seeing women bloom is more than worth it to me.

So, that catches you up on me. I am still working hard and staying on track. It's not the easiest life, but it's fullfilling and just knowing what I get to do each day makes me hop out of bed GIDDY to get started. Not many people can say that these days. I'm lucky!