I am letting the cat out of the bag… oh yes I am

I am so nervous to do this but I am going to do it anyway because there is no other way for me to be accountable unless I put this out there. I have decided to take my fitness to the next level and what I mean by that is that I am planning on competing in the figure/bikini contest to take place in July in Culver City. Yes, you are reading this right. I have been inspired by some truly amazing women that I have gotten to know in the past couple of weeks and have changed gears completely. My focus now is on eating clean, getting lean, doing cardio and resistance training.

I had been afraid of saying something about my plan for two reasons, 1- I was waiting to “see” if I was going to start to get results on the plan I am following (and yes I am). The second reason is that of course, like with anything else I am terrified of failing. Regardless, I am taking it on. My goal is not to win (although that would be cool), but my goal is to BE there on stage. Yes… me, in my 40’s competing in my age category with other amazing, fit women…. and defying everything that people have told me (mostly women) about how when you have a child you can “never get your body back” I am out to prove that it’s not true, that not only can I but I am going to be in even better shape than I have ever been.  So far, I have lost 3 inches around my waist since I started this training and it has only been 2 weeks.

I expected this to be challenging and yes, it has been. But at the same time, it has been somewhat easy. For example. my trainer has me prepare my meals ahead of time for the whole week. I label everything, yes, every single container, bag, etc. 6 meals per day, I am to eat every 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Yes, it’s a lot of food and even though it’s a pain in my happy butt to prepare the meals ahead of time (it takes me about 3 hours), I am saving time, energy and the risk of failing. My trainer has set me up to win, (thank you Tracy). There is NO way I can fail my nutrition plan if I have everything there, ready for me. I drink lots of water, lots more than I have been drinking and I am eating REAL food which rocks and I get my cheat day in which I’m allowed to eat what I want (for a maximum of 2 meals). AWESOME!

My workouts have been all set up for me, well for all of us we are a total of 23 ladies doing this. Yes 23 of us! Are the workouts challenging? Heck yeah! Am I sore? You bet!. Do I love it? Oh YEAH! How can I fit it in my schedule? I’m still figuring it all out. Where is my hubby in all of this? Supporting me all the way, he’s my biggest cheerleader and has been insisting that I blog about it. I have other friends as well who have kept the secret for me (Marvin, my coach, I would not even be considering this if you hadn’t talked to me about P90X, Richard, thank you, my coworker Alana – not sure if you read this but you kept telling me “blog about it, you have to blog about it!” Barbie, THANK YOU for sharing Tracy with me and the other gals. And babes from the bikini group, you guys ROCK, every post, every challenge, every cheer for each other, my goodness am I lucky to be part of this! This is the most amazing group of women I have ever known So thanks to all of you who have been part of this, I appreciate it and of course Tracy, thanks for setting me… setting all of us to win. 🙂

I have come to the realization that I have added a lot more to my plate – I am getting certified as a Turbokick instructor. Turbokick is a program offered by the very famous Chalene Johnson, who is another one of the Beachbody coaches, creator of Turbofire, TurboJam and ChaLean Extreme. This Sunday, i will be ready and prepared to teach the class 🙂

Where does this all leave me with P90X? Are you kidding me? P90X started it all and I am continuing to use the Beachbody products, it’s a lifestyle change, there is no question about it. I wouldn’t even be here without P90X, RevAbs, Insanity and all the other amazing programs out there. I have a photo shoot on June 4th and the competition at the end of July… on to my biggest fitness challenge for me yet! I am READY for this!