This past week was a MUCH better week, yay!
I had no travel, used my pre-frontal cortex to pre-plan alllll of the things to make prep “easy” and executed! Now it wasn’t perfect, but it was 180 degrees different from last week.
the competition
If you’re new here, I’m competing in The Natural Viking in Bloomington, MN on 9/30/23. This is the same show I did last year, but different than the first one I did in 2018.
My overarching goal is to get my Pro card as a bodybuilder in the bikini class. Ambitious? Yep. Impossible? Nope. I’m all about finding out my personal capacity.
What is a Pro card? It’s a status earned when you take first place in the Open or Masters category of your division (again, mine’s bikini), and I could qualify in either since I’m currently 39 years old and Masters is 35+.
Check out what that looks like for the OCB federation here. You’re also then able to compete for prize money, which isn’t really what I’m shooting for. I just want to see if I can do it!
the numbers
Since I’ve competed twice before (and did a mostly okay job of tracking important metrics), I have some data to compare my current prep journey to.
For reference, I round up to 5’9. Part of my strength training goals are to maintain my height, ha!
- 2018 – 2 weeks out: 146.4 pounds, 17.7% body fat
- 2022 – 2 weeks out: 146.6 pounds, 19.2% body fat
- 2023 – 2 weeks out: 139.2 pounds, 16.3% body fat
I feel STOKED when comparing this year’s numbers to my previous two shows… this is new territory for me and it makes me even more motivated to keep going and see what’s possible!
The diet
My diet was much more on point since I’m back home and no longer traveling.
I’ve had moments of hunger (mainly in the evening before bed), but have been able to navigate them pretty well. I’m 97% there when it comes to my coach’s rule of being with 5 grams either way of my macros.
Current Macros:
- 130 Carbs
- 40 Fat
- 135 Protein
Here’s an example from this past Sunday where I had to flex a bit as we were out and about at church and indulging in fall activities at our local pumpkin patch.
the training
My coach, Peter Fitschen, has me on the following training split (he also sets my macros):
- Day 1 = Lower + Back
- Day 2 = Shoulders + Arms
- Day 3 = Lower
- Day 4 = REST
- Day 5 = Back + Chest + Shoulders
- Day 6 = Glutes (focus lower)
- Day 7 = REST
While I’d ideally take Thursday and Sundays as my rest days, my schedule doesn’t always work out like that. Most weeks I do strength training plus cardio M-F and cardio-only on Saturdays and Sundays.
My total steps for last week were 145,091 – averaging almost 21k per day. I’m giving it all I’ve got!
That’s the best way I’ve found to track overall cardio efforts. If I just work at my computer all day, I’m likely to only get in 3k steps.
I also did a little side-by-side from the last 10 weeks, which is about the same amount of time I doubled down on prep for this show and started working with Peter…
A picture really is worth a 1,000 words!
Looking for help?
While I don’t coach other competitors, I am a weight loss coach for hire and my approach is different than any of the fad diets/workout programs you’ll find online. Learn more about my approach, based on life coaching, here.
Also, have you checked out my guide to help you answer the question: Why am I not losing weight? The answer might be different than what you think!
