Let Peak Week Commence

Today was technically Day 2 of peak week but it was the first day that the "fun stuff" happened. For starters I tweaked my diet. I reduced my diet from around about 100g of carbs per day to 50 grams. That whole 50g came from 1/2 c oats and spinach, broccoli, kale, and green beans. My meals went as follows;

MEAL 1- 1/2c oats, 1 Tbsp almond butter, 3 egg whites & 1 whole egg
MEAL 2- Tilapia & green beans
MEAL 3- Chicken & broccoli
MEAL 4- Chicken & spinach
MEAL 5- Egg whites, spinach & onion
MEAL 6- Egg whites & kale

So far I don't feel deprived or weaker or anything. Then again my body is still running off of the carbs that I took in on Saturday & Sunday. Even my workout felt pretty strong. I don't expect this for the whole week though. In fact I predict that my workout tomorrow will be pretty strenuous. The purpose of depleting carbs early in the week and working out is to cause the muscles to work and deplete all of the glycogen they are storing. Then later on in the week when carbs are incorporated again they go straight to the muscles and not so much to the surrounding tissues. This is what gives the muscles the "full" look after the carb load. Tomorrow I will reduce my carbs yet again to just 1/4c oats in the morning. That puts me at about 30% of my usual intake.

My workout was just steady state cardio. 20 minutes on the stair master and 10 minutes walking at an incline. Followed by some stretching. Nothing too crazy. Tomorrow and Wednesday will be my last two lifting days precontest. And they will only be light upper body workouts. Other than that I am on a strictly steady state cardio workout agenda through Thursday. Friday will be an off day and then before I know it, it will be SATURDAY!

I also began taking my Xpel (water pills) and drinking my 2 gallons of water. Today and tomorrow are both 2 gallon days. Then 1 gallon Wednesday. 1 quart Thursday. Then none Friday! I am pretty sure that all of my coworkers are ready for contest prep to be over so I can actually go 15 minutes without having to leave to pee.

Lastly, this morning was posing practice. Yikes. Posing. Is. Everything. Posing will make or break you in NPC world. You're poses and attitude are what can and will determine how well you place. I have not been proficient in practicing my posing. As in I haven't hardly practiced at all. So you could say I had a rude awakening this morning! That being said I ended up practicing for 30 minutes this morning and another hour tonight. I had Charlie horses out the ying yang but I feel like I made some mad progress! It was hard to loosen up at first and just go with it, walk with attitude and put on a big grin for pretend judges. It seemed so silly! BUT I found my ticket to loosening up. The song Porn Star Dancing was just the thing I needed playing in the background to get the little pep in my step that I needed! Hey, after all, I'm strutting my stuff in stripper heals anyways so why not practice to a song that fits the part? :p

Off to bed for me now! Work, core & cardio and posing tomorrow! Adios :)

-B