Another week down and 4 more to go

Getting ready for a figure comp is an exercise in pushing mental boundaries constantly. You have the daily boundaries which involve the obvious-managing work, family, training, eating, recovery, fitting in yet another shower post training. Then there are the food battles, it has taken years of loving just a little too much food and training damn hard in a ballet studio or the gym that kept me from getting really,really fat. These days I have developed a functional relationship with food. The meals content and amount is strictly for results. There is a certain amount of relief when looking at food in this way, because choices become very easy. Not bad going for someone who was a founding member of choca-holic anonymous. (Mine was a five chocolate bar a day habit)

Probably the most interesting and challenging part of competition prep is the clear cycles of eating and training for muscle growth followed by a complete flip in thinking to leanness and eating smaller and smaller meals. Both are very challenging and both equally as difficult at times.

So this week contained some 'dieting fun' moments. There was the usual constant hunger, which you tend to get used to and are able to simply acknowledge rather than be ruled by. The difference this week? My body began the waking up in the middle of the night routine . As an early riser,getting up at the crack of dawn is not a foreign concept.I am usually up quite early for clients who like to train before work. This particular morning I got up as usual, feeling quite sore,tired and dragging my feet a little. I was thinking "Gees,I must have trained hard yesterday".I got breakfast ready, set the coffee machine for a fresh,strong double espresso (my only weakness),sat down to scan my emails and checked the time....to my horror the clock read 3.11am....WHAT THE?&^#$%....no wonder I am so stuffed, but I am so hungry it cant be 3am, I really want this breakfast...gotta go back to bed, no breakfast yet...gutted! So yes, that was an interesting day that went on forever...note to self check time before getting out of bed in the morning!

Training has been clicking along well, although I will confess that having my weekly massage set a day later than usual due to Australia Day certainly made me realise just how important it is to keep body management in check. You really need to give back what you take when putting so much physical demand on your system. Niggles, pains and aches seemed to screech displeasure at my lack of attention- soon silenced after some needling,deep tissue massage and manipulation.(Clarendon Clinic South Melbourne)
I am still reaching personal bests in the gym whilst steadily dropping weight so muscle preservation is in check.

The week that was:
-All cardio completed.CHECK
-All training completed to 200% physical capability.CHECK
-Feeling exactly as I should be 4 weeks out.CHECK

In the words of Rokette Rhonda I say "WOOP WOOP"!