Although I've been meaning to, I've never gotten around to blogging about the results of the recent chapter of my life, "Time to Shine." The holidays got in the way, life in general, and it frankly got shoved to the back of my "to do" list.
It's time to shed light on this fabulous experience -- My First Figure Competition. Even typing those words, staring at them in unbelief, it still seems bewildering that I actually went through with this and that it ended up being one of the most rewarding things I've ever done in my life. But I did it.
I COMPETED IN A FIGURE COMPETITION
AT 51 YEARS OF AGE!
GO "FIGURE!"
And so my story goes...
On August 15th of this year, twelve weeks out from "showtime," I made the decision to compete in my first figure competition – Masters Figure 45+. I had just turned 51, and it was now or never. I wasn’t getting any younger – yet my passion for fitness and strength training was blazing stronger than ever before.
My inner voice screamed:
Do it, T! It's what you love!
It's what drives you.
The time has come:
MAKE THIS HAPPEN.
My first competition experience was a mostly positive one. The prep itself – both dieting and training – were quite challenging at times, but in retrospect, abundantly rewarding: The dieting (devised by my coach) paid off with my body responding in unprededented fashion to carefully chosen fuel, resulting in lean gains and noticeably progressive fat loss. The strategic training resulted in gains of lean muscle in my abs, back and delts, while stripping away layers of fat from my hips and thighs, a problem area for as long as I can remember (and will always be, since I gain there FIRST).
Implementing a rotation diet of rather low carbs while training six days a week, there were times when I became very depleted, did not get adequate rest (up too late and up too early), and my body protested with noticeable dips in energy, but I persisted, and my CNS eventually reset and progress continued. Reflecting back on conversations I'd had with my coach throughout the prep, there were a few comments that she made to me that seem to stand out, forever branded in my memory:
"You won't believe how much your body is going to change..."
"Your current weight (6 weeks into the prep and about 8 pounds lighter) will likely be your new status quo or maintenance weight from this point forward."
"You are not going to believe how lean you get a week or two out from showtime."
"Be prepared to have to buy new clothes for work, because even a belt and baggy sweaters won't suffice after a while."
"This is a prep diet. This is what you eat. Nothing else. You follow it to a T with no deviations. You eat every three hours regardless, no exceptions, protein at every meal."
We arrived at the event site Friday afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky: NPC Kentucky Muscle. At the briefing meeting after my tanning session on Friday night, I learned that this show was one of the largest shows in the country – how daunting! Had I known that going in, would I have decided to compete? Not sure. Yikes. Just glad I DIDN'T know.
As it turns out, there were 13 total competitors in the Masters Figure 45+ Division, and I ended up placing 8th. Would I have liked to place in the top 5? Hell, yes. But realistically, it was my first competition, and my goal was to leave the stage placing anywhere but last. Frankly, it suprised me that some of the women who placed in the top 5 were not as muscular or as defined as I am, but those women boasted an overall more petite frame and it's possible that’s what the judges were looking for “this time.” A petite frame I’ll never be. And that’s fine. I strive for MY PERSONAL BEST, and leave the rest to what is meant to be. Afterall, it was more about Me vs. Me. As it should be.
Regardless of the outcome of my first competition, the beauty of this experience was that I was able to get into the best shape of my life. My energy was out the roof, along with my self-confidence and mindset. Despite the rigorous training, I felt energetic, focused, strong, lean, confident and driven like never before – what an amazing high! That alone was worth the effort I had put forth in the last 12 weeks!
On the morning we left town, I packed my food that I was directed to eat, carefully weighed and placed into baggies, small portions of chicken, oats, sweet potatoes and fish. Water was cut back starting two days out from competition, and I tracked that closely. I hardly slept a wink the night before show day, excited out of my mind, a zillion thoughts running through my head. I considered getting out of bed several times that night to practice posing in the bathroom…I had practiced posing as much as I could, but it’s never enough, so they say.
My spray tanning session was eventful. We had to make an appointment for our spray tan, and the lines were long, but run like clockwork. The tanning sponsors insisted on two coats for the figure competitors (in fact, for most competitors), and I was shocked at how DARK I was walking out of that tent. All you could see were teeth! Ooh-lah-lah, I thought to myself, catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror ... very exotic, ethnic-looking! COOL. This is unreal! I had to wear all black, no panties, no bra, the entire first evening, sleeping in loose black clothing so as not to smear/ruin my tan until it had properly set. We were told to bring dark sheets so as not to ruin the sheets at the hotel (and yes,they WOULD charge us for the damage).
I met lots of wonderful people at the competition, both men and women. an amazing group of focused, dedicated, disciplined athletes, all with reciprocal respect for each other. We talked, laughed, exchanged stories, training tips, diets, suit makers. We pumped up backstage together, borrowed each other's lipstick, hairspray, whatever other essentials. Encouragement flowed freely, as did the excitement and anticipation of showtime. (This was one of the things that I was worried about, hanging around back stage for hours in nothing but a very tiny bikini -- in mixed company! How daunting it seemed at the time.) Having put in my time and followed the directives of my coach, there was nothing to be embarrassed about, as it turns out. I was in the BEST shape of my entire life, and it seemed perfectly natural to be in that bikini amid all those athletes, strutting our stuff, proving ourselves worhty of our hard work. It was so uplifting to be included among this group of competitors, and we made it a point to exchange email addresses at the end of the day.
There were stressful times during my prep in which I wanted to just sit and cry – namely when my competition suit was late arriving for my first fitting, only to find that the woman/seamstress from whom I’d ordered it sent me the wrong suit – wrong fit, wrong color! Great. And it was already late in arriving, the competition only a week away, which allowed me ZERO time to pose in my suit, and presented even more stress not knowing that the replacement suit – assuming it even arrived in time for the competition – would fit properly. It was indeed stressful beyond words, and all when my dieting was being "dialed in," so they call it, making me more irritable, more depleted, yet still having to keep up with the training and cardio demands, juggle work and life and family and …
well, S T R E S S
unlike I’d ever experienced before! Ultimately, although I had ordered a purple suit, I ended up having to settle for a “stock” color because she would have had to order the purple fabric, and we only had a week left before competition, she having admitted screwing up my order to start with. She offered me a modest discount for my “inconvenience," but that hardly helped calm my fears and misgivings. I settled for pink (Pink? I never really liked pink, frankly), and it arrived mercifully in the nick of time, the evening BEFORE I left for the competition. Last-minute mending adjustments were necessary as it turns out, and with the clock ticking my coach adjusted and fitted me with the suit Friday night following my spray tanning session. Looking back now, it still pisses me off how unfair that was to me, the whole suit screw-up ordeal!
Indulgences: We were told by our coach to pack a few things that we'd been craving the most to have just after the show. I was careful to pack my beloved Ergo, a wonderful Spanish red wine that I delightfully encountered a bit more than a year ago and have never let go since
(there was no way I was leaving for the competition without it) some Pretzel M&M’s, Parmesan Pita Chips, and homemade Mississippi Mud that a friend had made for our family a week or so before (I saved my servings in ziplocs in the freezer to take them with me). I was allowed to have half a glass of Ergo just before going on stage. It would help calm me while also helping to shuttle the glycogen to my muscles for the coveted "pump." When other competitors saw my Ergo, they begged me to share, which I of course did. The wine was a hit -- of course it was! It's
Ergo!
Following the competition, we all went out for pizza in Louisville’s best-loved pizza place, Wick’s Pizza. I ordered a 10” chicken pizza with lots of veggies and ate it all by myself! (Inset pic showing the morning after pizza pigout) I proceeded to eat with reckless abandon for the next two days (although I had intended to limit it to the next 24 hrs only), and I don’t even want to guess at how many calories and/or carbs I ingested in that amount of time. Shameful doesn’t come close. Afterward I felt miserably bloated and disgusted with myself. (But that’s fodder for another blog entry perhaps!)
Competition having come and gone, I now have to decide if I want to compete again. Following the rich and off-plan holiday indulgences, I'm anxious to get back to clean eating and training. My goal is to maintain as closely as possible to my competition weight, no more than 5-7 lbs above. I loved feeling that way, looking that way, at that weight. My energy was out the roof, and I’d never been happier, more confident. I want to relive that feeling! "Oh, sometimes, I get a good feeling..." as the song goes. You did it once, do it again, T.
So. It’s time to work off this post-holiday bloat and get back to business, working on perfecting my problem areas, and dialing in on definition. Build it, Baby.
Flashback: Late 60's, early 70's...I see a little fat girl, stuffing cookies, cakes and candy in her mouth, terribly shy, lacking self-confidence, teased about her weight by her classmates, seeking purpose, meaning, wanting released from her shell...years pass, now a teenager, dieting, fighting the fat demon, the scale, wishing she could be "normal" like her friends/classmates and eat pizza without guilt, sentenced to a life of watching everything she put in her mouth, trying to make sense of this never-ending cycle...could she ever conquer the demon? Would she eventually become a healthy, fit young (older) woman...?
Life Comes Full Circle.
Will I compete again? I'm not ruling it out. Time will tell. In the meantime, I plan to return to ME VS. ME. My agenda? MY PERSONAL BEST. It's my passion, this whole fitness thing, a burning fire in my heart for what I love...and it should be no surprise ... I aim to Keep It Lit.
This is my 
