3.5 WEEKS OUT FROM TAMPA

I can’t believe it, I am already 3.5 weeks out from Tampa Pro Masters. Tampa Pro Masters is Thursday night, so it is a few days shorter than when Open goes on, on Saturday. When it gets into the digits under 30… so 25 days… which is enough, but not enough all at the same time… it feels surreal. So how am I feeling? To be honest, I am tired and struggling with keeping the focus on checking all of the boxes. I think this partially due to an extended season, but also my cycle. When this happens, that is when I lean into structure and scheduling. If you do not PLAN to get it done, PREPARE to have your food ready, PLAN to get your cardio and steps in - it is easy to skip over it. So what are my daily non-negotiable right now? 12k steps (60 minutes total of walking): To achieve this, I am walking 4 mornings a week before breakfast and the 3 others I split up through the day based on my gym sessions. If I have an early morning gym session, then I walk 15-20 minutes pre-lift and cap it with a 45 minute walk outside later in the day between clients. Cardio moderate intensity: My heart rate level MUST be above 130bpm for me to count it as productive. To achieve this, I go on the step-mill for 15 minutes post-lift 5 days a week. I lift 5 days and rest from lifting 2 days a week. Posing: Routine focus right now for 15 minutes a day. To achieve this - I fit it in where I can each day, this is my biggest struggle right now getting this in. I do need to add 5 more minutes each day this upcoming week to spend time on comparison round practice and holds. Nutrition: I would say is one of the other most difficult tasks for me right now due to post show hunger, maintaining a leaner physique since end of May, and the need to dig right now to get a little under my previous stage weight for a little more tightness in my waistline and to anticipate a later in evening competition time frame. Currently I am still slightly flexible with foods and plan on reducing food type variability here over the mid week time frame as I lead into 3 weeks out. Lifting: That is the easiest part for me! I have a set schedule of Sunday (sometimes a swap for Saturdays), Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Fridays with set times. I am still pushing my lats, deltoids, and glutes to keep optimal fullness for my shape while hopefully tapering down my waist. Where am I at with my progress this week as we head into a new week? I do two check-ins a week, Wednesday and Saturdays. I do photos, quick measurements, and weight. I also monitor my weight via Happy Scale. I like this application because it gives you rate of loss and you can leave notes along the way. My current rate of loss is .5lb a week. I did just start my period, so I do look at my prior months cycle day and compare those weights. This is a good indicator for correct rate of loss. My 7 day average via the app is 107.0lb My prior stage weight was 106lb after the peak week manipulations. Start of that peak week my weight was 107.0 with a 7 day average of 107.1. Keeping this data in mind is important as I make decisions for my next move. So what would be my next move? Approach the deficit with nutrition, not add more output yet (except posing, which will ADD more of an output). I plan on pushing the next 16 days, until July 22 a Wednesday, then run a mock peak day so I can see how I look for a PM show. That is a typical rest day and hopefully my rate of loss will be where I need to be so I can skip my steps that day. That will be 1 week out and Thursday July 23 will be a great day to do my final push leading into peak week which will begin over that weekend at some point. Continue to follow along my PROLOG for weekly self-coaching updates as I head into my competitions to wrap up this season.