So I am coming into the 3 weeks out phase of my competition prep. Super excited because I am seeing all my hard work finally paying off but these 3 weeks ahead of me are not going to be a piece of cake. Thank god I am a dietetic major, fitness professional and can cook, or I wouldn’t survive.
So a girl comes up to me after I had taught my kickboxing class and she said she was “admiring my muscle” and had a few question for me. I was very flattered and I found out that she is also trying to compete in a fitness competition. So she asked me the question that everyone has been asking, “when did you start training?” I always laugh at this question. Honestly I never had a specific date where I said- “I am starting training.” I always knew that I wanted to do a fitness competition, and I always knew where I wanted my body to be before I did it. I just reached that point in February when I decided to take the next steps to actually transforming my DIET to match a fitness competitor. So I started lifting like 3 years ago to gain what I have today and I started dieting in February I guess. Again, this is a marathon not a sprint. I am not one of those do it for the experience type of people either. I wanted to make sure I was 100% ready and that’s also why I pushed my first competition date back to October 20th to give myself more time.
On that note- Let’s talk about February and I’ll explain. Nate started training for his pro day in January and he was taking the Elite athlete line of Advocare along with some of their other products. I was interested in the products and he raved about how great he felt and how he would recommend them to anyone. So I decided to do the 24 day challenge. I did it mainly because I was working the Arnold classic again so I wanted to look good. By the end of it all I had lost like 10 lbs and my body looked better than EVER! I mean I ate pretty healthy and exercised everyday and for me to get those kinds of results was crazy. That moment on I knew if I worked hard enough, I could meet my goals and compete.
So on to supplements!
Ok so this is a tough subject to talk about because a lot of people won’t agree with me but I don’t care. I think supplementation is VERY important. There is NO way that if you ate perfect every single day that you would meet your perfect RDA for everything. I eat pretty perfect everyday now and I am still low on Iron, Vitamin D and potassium everyday when I calculate my calorie intake on MyFitnessPal. So I think it is very important to supplement… plus most people don’t eat perfect which makes it more important.
I take all Advocare because I 100% believe in their products and ever since I started taking them my body has felt like a million bucks and I have looked better than I ever have looked. Plus Advocare has a laundry list of scientist that constantly publishes on their site to back all their products. If you go to GNC you just don’t know what you’re going to getting. You paying a ton of money for fillers and the people working there don’t know what they are taking about. I always ask them why they are recommending me these products and they have no idea… and they sound like idiots. So I’ll take the line with the science backing to explain why certain ingredients enhance your performance and nutrition. That’s me, you can go waist your money if you want crap products but you’re going to get crap results.
So here is all that I take- These supplements work for men and women equal **
Omegaplex- Omega 3’s
Catalyst- Branched Chain Amino Acids
O2 Gold- Enhances body’s use of oxygen and helps build and recover the damaged tissue
Join Promotion
Nighttime Recovery-to enhance muscle growth and repair muscle tissue
Calciumplex- Calcium, Vit D and phosphorus
Coreplex plus Iron- Multivitamin plus iron
Probiotic Restore Ultra- To help stabilize my natural gut bacteria to function more properly
Amplify AT- To support my immune system and fight the aging process
Herbal Cleanse (Peaches and cream)- Have done this twice since the 24 day challenge and swear by it. I might do it right before my comp to shed a little excess water weight and get tight.
Sparks- Caffeine replacement
Rehydrate- Gatorade replacement
Ok so since I am a Dietetics major I know that I don’t need all of this stuff every day. For example I only take night time recover, O2 and joint promotion on the days that I lift. Also I understand what certain foods have micronutrients in them so I know if I need to take a Calcium, Vit D supplement or Omega 3’s- if it’s in my food then I don’t supplement. I also take Catalyst, Probiotic and Coreplex every day. It is very common for females to become Iron deficient so I know that I need that supplement in my diet and the multivitamin fills in the gaps that my diet is lacking. The BCAA are going to make sure that my body is maintaining it’s muscle mass in times when I am decreasing my calorie intake to shed fat. So Catalyst is very important in my Diet.
If you have any questions about any of these let me know- this is the site where I purchase these:
https://www.advocare.com/120215877/Store/CatalogView.aspx?id=D
Next on the list- Protein meals/replacements
I take Advocare’s Muscle gain- Vanilla and Chocolate and I am obsessed. It contains fast and slow digesting protein and BCAA for my pre and post workout. I add this to shakes, oatmeal, pancakes and pretty much whatever I can add it to. The meal replacement shakes that come with the 24 day challenge are also great (you have to try Mocha = AMAZING).
I also carry Advocare Snack bars and Meal Replacement bars around with me if I don’t have time to eat or already ate everything I brought for the day. I am trying to limit these a little in my competition prep but if it is needed, I will not go hungry!
Last but not least, on the days that I lift hard I take Arginine Extreme before my workout.
https://www.advocare.com/120215877/Store/CatalogView.aspx?id=B
**I don’t take all of this stuff everyday but instead I use it to fuel my exercise and to fill in the missing spots that my nutrition isn’t filling. I recommend their product line to everyone but everyone is different so your needs are different from mine. You have to select things that will help you reach your optimum level and I am here to help you if you have questions. My advice is to start slow and slowly add things in every couple of weeks so you can see how certain supplements affect your body and state.
3 weeks out:
This week I will keep my food prep pretty similar to last week. I am adding pumpkin into my meals to embrace those fall flavors that I love so much (my pumpkin blog will be out tomorrow). Also I want to make sure everything in my diet is unprocessed. I was very inspired by Live Healthy Appalachia and am going to try to incorporate some of their raw recipes into my diet. Yesterday I made my own hummus from scratch. I don’t want to eat the hummus from the store so I was playing around with it and kind of just threw it together.
Hummus:
Puree a base of chickpeas, lemon and garlic in a food processor. Now add extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, cumin, roasted red peppers, parsley or cilantro to taste.
Its practice practice practice for me in my competition heals and learning to walk and pose. I am figuring out what body angles work the best for my body shape and I will continue to practice up until my comp. I will end with- You have to have some curves to work it on the Bikini stage- Skinny is not pretty- Strong is the new Skinny!!!!!!
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