Children of the Corn High School & 2 weeks out

Today we're in Illinois, not really sure where though! Somewhere outside of Rockford, Illinois.

Wow, I'm really bad about posting! You know, I think about little things all day long that I want to blog about then I get out my computer and forget it all, haha. It's been hard lately because there hasn't been great cell service or internet. Needless to say, I still have a lot of catching up to do on what I've been up to the past 7 weeks, yikes.

In a nutshell:

We had a month of move-ins at Denison University. I had the opportunity to go train with my coach, Mike Davies, about twice a week. He really, really kicked my butt and completely changed my training style, for the better. I went into move-ins on May 20th at ~174lbs. I worked really hard, doing non-fasted morning cardio 6 days/week and weights and cardio in the evening. I tried my hardest to resist the temptations of the food on the food truck (pb&j,pancakes, lasagna, etc) but I slipped more than I'd like to admit. Although I saw some changes while I was there, I was still kind of dissappointed in my progress.

When I went home after 4 weeks of being with the Bluecoats, I was home and ready to work super hard. I guess just from being able to take time to sit and relax and de-stress, I lost 10lbs that first week home!! It was kind of scary, but also a relief. That brought me down to 160 lbs.

The first week was very rough, I was completely out of energy and it was hard to push myself during my workouts. That week I had started fasted cardio in the morning so my body was pretty shocked. I was home in Austin for 2 weeks, then got my wisdom teeth out. For 2 days I "ate" only greek yogurt and protein, haha. I'm not going to lie, that was kind of nice until about the 9th one. I had another week before I was going back on tour so I decided to surprise my family and go home for a week! They were very surprised. I pushed myself to stay on track despite all the sweets around my family's house, their meals and going out to eat a lot with my family. I got all my workouts in and only slipped into sweetsland the first night I was home. I felt really guilty about it but really pushed hard in my workouts.

So, now I've been back on tour for a week and I am 2 weeks away from competition. It's been hard finding a place to workout, running in the heat, and once again, avoiding all the temptations of the food truck. I'm down to about 155lbs though, so that's about a 20lb loss overall.... which I really can't even wrap around my head!! All I have to do is get through another 6 days though and then I'll be home, then on my way to Vegas for the show.

I am hoping so hard that I can keep focused during this last week on tour. I know that the circumstances that I have been under this spring and summer are not in any way conducive to a productive contest prep. That really shows in the fact that I "started" prep at 18 weeks out but have only seen progress in the last 7 weeks. I really wish I could see what it would be like if I had been able to truly prep in a scheduled environment, without all the traveling, for 18 weeks. I mean, I lost 20 lbs in 7 weeks, while living like a carnie, the stress of avoiding foods and being pressured to eat bad food and drink alcohol all the time, living on a bus, having no control over access to food or a kitchen or a store or a gym and walking everywhere I go. That's pretty insane. If I had been at home, with a consistent workout schedule, a consistent work schedule, availability of store, food and gym and less stress (and my bed), what could my progress have been? Oh well, who knows now!! All I can do is keep forging forward.

I think I look absolutely fantastic. I am so in love with my body and my athleticism right now. Before this training, I literally could not run for more than 5 minutes. Now I run 4 miles two times a week!! It's just amazing to me how the body can adjust. My taste has changed and I really don't crave sweets or bad foods. The food I"m eating for contest prep doesn't TASTE fantastic right now because I can't cook it the way I want to (no kitchen or seasonings) or season it the way I want to (no salt) but I know it's really good FOR me. People say all the time that they're glad that they're not eating what I have to eat. Well, I actually really enjoy eating these foods when I can prepare them correctly. In fact, if I weren't on contest prep then I'd probably be eating about the same things.

Back to what I was saying.... I am in love with how I look. I feel confident and back to my old self. I didn't think I was fat before but that wasn't me. I lived 24 years of my life at 145lbs and then went up to 175lbs for a few years. I get that I wasn't fat and that I still looked pretty good, but I was very uncomfortable with a body that I wasn't used to having. I hope people can understand that. Now that I am back to my "normal" size, I feel much more comfortable and confident in my own skin... not whoever that person was the past few years. That larger person also symbolized a lot of bad things that happened in my life and I'm happy to have to shed the weight and the other baggage from my life. I feel much lighter and happier as a result.

The reason I began saying that I"m happy with the way I look and feel is because I absolutely don't think that I will be lean enough to make a good placing at contest. As much as my competitive side wants to do really well and place high, I'm also going to be quite ok if I don't place high because I am so happy with how my body feels that it doesn't matter what judging they give me. This is the place that I wanted to be, for me. I just masked that depression of hating how I felt and looked, with a contest. People are understanding of that, they're not understanding of you being sad, that's a no-no in this society. One of the reasons I wanted to do a contest so bad was to drop weight and get to a certain place, so that I could be back to where I was and then be able to move forward from there. Sometimes it takes something to drastic to get to where you want to be, and that's had to happen for me to get there. Now that I'm here, I'm super excited about the contest but I'm super excited for it to be over so that I can have fun with food and really be this happier person. I'm giddy about eating clean and healthy and being locally grown, organic fruits and vegetables. I'm really excited about cooking and continuing to make good choices and feel clean and fresh and happy inside (my stomach). I'm excited about this lifestyle and continuing to be active, and you know what, I"m probably going to still be carrying my own food around, and that's ok by me. The fact of the matter is that I don't want to put junk in my body. That's all America has around, is junk. If I get hungry and I didn't bring my food with me, well then I'm screwed unless I want to pack in some processed white bread, 2 week old vegetables, sodium-filled, diseased, fried chicken and some sugar filled coke.

Agh, ok I have to pee (2 gallons of water a day!)

Bye bye

It's been awhile!

It's been quite awhile since I've posted last! I really need to get back on this, this post is a step in that direction haha.

I am 18 days away from competition now! Things are going well. My carbs are really low for a final push into the last 2 weeks before peak week. I actually feel really great and have more energy than I thought I would. I'm at about 1500 calories - 65g carbs and around 300g protein! whoa! The workouts are just as demanding and lengthy but they are getting easier to accomplish as my endurance is 110% better than it used to be!

Wow, I have so much to say about the past 6 weeks or so. I might have to come back to this and add a whole lot more. I have compiled pics from throughout this transformation time and wow, there is a big difference. Looking in the mirror I didn't see any difference but now that I put the pictures side by side, there definitely is. I included a pic up there for ya.

I'm going to do a bunch of posts to get caught up! I downloaded an app so that I can upload blogs more often while I'm on tour. I can't always get online while on tour and sometimes I just don't feel like getting out my laptop.

17 days!!

Staircases, Blueberry Pancakes and getting my butt kicked!

It's been awhile since I"ve updated because I'm lazy. I also haven't used my laptop in awhile.

We're well into Bluecoats move-ins now, tomorrow will be a week. We're here until June 15th so we have quite awhile left thankfully.

What's fun about being here in Granville, OH at Denison University is:

1) I don't have anywhere to go.... no errands, no driving anywhere. Everything is right here within walking distance.

2) There's no stairmill, which is ok because the place is just rolling hills. There are few brutal staircases that I have made my personal enemy and try to beat everyday.

3) Instead of running inside on a treadmill I have a bunch of other options, that once again I don't have to drive to!! The stadium track, trails through the forest, hills through the campus, "the Hill", running through the town.. all kinds of fun places!

4) the food truck is open to the outside so it's fun to cook in there and talk to people and be pseudo-outside.

On that note, I met my trainer/coach/nutritionist Mike Davies on Tuesday and got my ass handed to me. I definitely haven't moved that fast in a really long time. Granted, I had worked out back on Monday and then showed up to him and we were working out back... awesome.

Also, I'm having a lot of trouble recovering. My legs are so tight and swollen and painful. and my back, and shoulders, and neck, and lower back and shin splints.... and everything haha. and I have blisters on my feet. and my arches hurt. haha. I'm on contest diet so I can't use carbs to recover. and there's no chance for rest.

Currently I work out 2.5-3 hours per day. I have ~45 min lift everyday, plus 3.5 miles of running, plus 30-45 min stairs, plus another 30 minute cardio program. on like 1300 calories...ouch.

I have faith that Mike will get me to where I need to be... I think. I don't feel like my body is responding though. I feel like I look exactly the same as I did 3 weeks ago... which isn't good. I have been really good with my diet... despite the food that they serve on the food truck. Omg... the food from the food truck!! Pb & J, brownies, chili hot dogs, blueberry pancakes and bacon, cereal, hamburgers, waffles, sausage...uuugggghhh not fair!!!! I have found that if I allow myself to have one bite of things sometimes then it helps me to not go over the edge and just blow my diet. I had two bites of blueberry pancakes, a couple scoops of pb here and there, and a bite of a brownie last night. I know I'm "breaking my diet" but seriously, if I didn't have just one bite, I know myself... I'd go crazy and just go on a binge. Thankfully I do get to eat greek yogurt with protein powder, and it saves my life!

I felt like I had a lot more to say but that's all for now! I'm meeting with Mike again today to work on legs...yikes :(

Training, Bluecoats & Awesome Tan Lines

I'm sitting in the airport in Dallas... who hates sitting around all day in airports? I do!! I pulled an all-nighter last night getting everything ready to go so I was pretty tired when I (barely made it) got on my 7:00am flight (at 6:58am). The kid next to me started to kinda freak out and I was a little worried. Turns out he left his MacBook at security, well the dude got SUPER lucky. We were on the runway and the pilot came over the loudspeaker and said that we had mechanical issues and would be going back to the gate. The attendants let the dude get off the plane and run to security, he got his laptop and made it back on the flight!! Fantastic for him, crappy for me... I missed my connecting flight by FOUR minutes. So I got to DFW at 8:34am (it's not 11:57am) and my new second flight was delayed by an hour. Well, that means that I'll get to Columbus at 4:30.... the Bluecoats bus leaves at 4:00. So I'll have to wait in the Columbus airport until 7:15 to take the van. Haha, sweet. well good thing I always pack my food!!

Since I only slept from 4 - 4:45am, I didn't have time for breakfast. When I got to Dallas I began the search for something other than Starbucks muffins, Cinnabon, Dunkin Donuts or beer. After about 45 minutes I found a Pappasito's and ordered my 4 egg whites with red peppers... they didn't have rice cakes though, damn. It was kinda nice though. I sat at the bar and had my egg whites and coffee and wrote out my workouts for this coming week.

Bluecoats move-ins rehearsals start bright and early tomorrow morning and unfortunately for the members, they start with me :) hahahahahahaha, this'll be fun. Last year I started them inside on the first day.... but doing plyo, allll plyo. an hour of plyo. Now I know you've talked about making sweat puddles before, but you have no idea about sweat puddles until you see 150 fat marching band kids doing plyo for an hour. It was evil, I admit. This year is a little more structured since we had a solid strength and conditioning program in the off-season. I'll be determining group leaders and see who will be the leaders of the pack and the fat kids. Last year I didnt' do too much of standing in the food line and taking food off people's plates.. but this year I will be. It's kinda fun when a kid is holding a ladle of ranch dressing over his plate and they look up at you and you just shake your head. The disappointment in their eyes is thick but it's for the good!!

So on to training. I CAN NOT WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait to have TIME to train how I am supposed to. I'll post some pictures of the awful hills around campus so you can get an idea of what I'm up against. The gym there kinda sucks but they do have a rockin weightlifting room with like 20 platforms, chains, etc. I'm stoked that I'll get to actually physically train with my trainer Mike Davies and get my ass handed to me. No one has ever been able to push me to the edge or make me throw up... I think Mike will and I'm ex.ci.ted!

My diet will be on point. My training will be on point. and I'm gonna look gooood.

The BEST thing about drum corps is that clothing is optional. If you wear a shirt people look at you funny. Shirt off, roll those shorts up, throw on a hat and flip flops and get your tan on haha. I loooooovvee spending three months in a sports bra/bikini and shorts. Let me tell you, my tan is gonna rock. You'll be jealous. I probably have skin cancer after 8 years of this but oh well. Once thing I don't miss about marching is the horrible shoe tan lines. At least as a staff member I can wear sandals and get rid of that tan line.

Okee doke, battery is about to die.

Oh wait!!! News from the past week. I slammed my toe with a sledgehammer and it's been all big and purple, hurts. Also, from the wreck with the semi truck, my back and neck are a complete mess. The numbness and tingling in my arms went way but the whiplash is really bad (super stick neck, shooting pain, stinging pain) and my back is so so tight that it's been spasming for days now. I've been to therapy everyday and it's helped but there's still a long way to go to recovery. Right now I hurt pretty bad and it's just so uncomfortable. No position feels good and it just hurts all over, yuck. Oh well. On with the show...

Update Pics - May 15, 2011

75 days

the "Inner Winner"

From: Rationale and Coaching Points for Olympic Style Lifting to Enhance Volleyball Performance

"Motivation - Coaches strive to develop the "Inner Winner" by emphasizing the consistent pursuit of excellence. These concepts help the athlete see the benefits of investment of time and energy. Teach, encourage, repeat, communicate and help the athlete set goals that are sport-specific, not weight-room specific.

Vroom Vroom - Full Speed Ahead!!!

Ok, I feel like my last posts are so down and negative. Most of that was because I was so super stressed but it's dying off, thank goodness!
Today is a stormy, rainy day and I just feel like being lazy.... and I have been haha. I slept until 10:30 and don't feel bad about it at all! My body needs to heal, mentally and physically, so I feel perfectly ok sleeping for 10.5 hours.
Just an update on the wreck: I've been going to therapy and the chiropractor everyday because of the injury that I got from the wreck. My car made it out ok, with just a crunched trunk and broken light. We'll see what the inspection says though. As for me, I have a C3 compression and some whiplash. Those are causing a pretty tight neck, and the inflammation from the compression is causing pressure on the nerve roots. That pressure has caused some vision problems, makes it hard to breathe, and numbness of both arms. The left arm is better but my right arm is entirely numb and tingly. With therapy, NSAIDS and ice, the numbness is getting a little bit better. It's really just annoying! I've still been working out though... my strength is a little diminished though.

Other than that... football is on break, grades are submitted for the classes I TA, finals are done and all I have left is a big, fat paper that is coming along nicely (as my arm heals...)

Like I mentioned, my trainer wants to KILL ME!! hahaha. I have 5 lifts/week and 14 cardio sessions, woowoo!
I've gotten in my workout everyday and yesterday was the first day that I did two-a-days.. since I finished up everything with school (YAAAAAAAYY) I'm pretty excited to see the changes that arise from all of this and being to go full out. Next week I leave on Friday to go teach Bluecoats from a month, from May 20th - June 19th. I'm super excited to be able to just totally focus on training and have the time especially. No errands, no driving anywhere, no driving to the gym, nowhere even to go! The town is literally one street haha. The only downfall is that there's this really fantastic custard shop on that one street, dangit. I did only eat there twice last year. I might have to just stop by once to test it out, make sure it's still good :)

Alright..... time for training. and meal #2