Fitness Competition Facts

Welcome to the Fitness Competition Page!

Hey everyone! I'm guessing you are on this page because you are curious about fitness competitions...either that or you clicked the wrong tab. ;)

I started training for my first fitness competition just five months ago in April of 2013. Prior to that, I chose to convert my life to living a healthy lifestyle in September 2012.

From September to April, I went from 135 lbs to 118 lbs. I did this by joining JEFIT.com (an online exercise site that has an app for smartphones), following one of the cutting programs on the site, and watching everything I ate.

My goal weight was 118 lbs but after reaching it, I still wanted to challenge myself. Since I had already reached a healthy weight, I decided to start trying to tone up. At this point, I was invited to see a friend compete in a fitness competition. She took first place, and as I watched her walk the stage, I thought to myself "Hey, I could do this!" The next week I met with my personal trainer at Hitchfit and started towards my goal of competing. We decided to bulk-me-up a little bit before cutting for the competition and I went back up to 125-128 lbs. This was difficult for me to handle because I felt that I worked so hard to lose the weight the first time, but it was worth it. I'm so much more toned and stronger now. Once we began cutting, I quickly dropped back to 118 lbs. but my body fat was lower than before when we started training together.

I've picked up a lot of information on fitness competitions up to this point, but there is SO MUCH more to learn! As I learn new information, I'll post it on here for those who are interested. I'm competing in the Fitness category on October 5th with the WBFF for my first fitness competition so most of the information I post will apply to that, but I'm sure some information could be used for the other categories as well. Every organization is different, so be sure to check the requirements for your organization before taking my information as advice.

"Keep it sexy!"

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September 28th, 2013

Hello beautiful people!
Another week down and only one week to go until the competition! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! NERVES!!! EXCITEMENT!!! EEP! :) 
I'm SO ready to rock that stage!!!
It has been a difficult road to get to this point, but I'm finally able to live in the moment and really embrace everything now that it's almost here! Instead of thinking about my Sunday morning post-competition meal, I'm thinking about my posing, all the packing I have to do, and meal prepping. Not to mention the gallonS of water I have to drink today...ugh! Over-hydration is no fun, but I'm sure it's more fun than dehydration will be in a week. Lol...the grass is never greener! :)

Cost:

Competing in a fitness competition is extremely expensive! Suits, theme wear, dresses, hair and makeup, tanning, nails, shoes, hotel rooms, travel expenses, supplements, personal trainer, etc. all come into play and it adds up really fast!

Since last week, I've added the following expenses to my competition budget:

Hair & Make-up at show: Booked my hair and make-up appointment with the Hitchfit ladies (Hair will cost $100 and make-up will cost $65 - still need to pay)
Tan: (Still need to pay $100 on Friday before show)
Nails: Getting done on Wednesday before the show - coupons purchased through Groupon.com and livingsocial.com. Final price to be determined.
Theme wear: Had to be taken in for another alteration due to change of plans - $20

Travel expenses: I get to stay with my coach and her grandparents for the show! Saves me the cost of the hotel and expenses down there and back...AND it's much safer now that I won't have to be driving while completely dehydrated. :) YAY to saving money and having the support of my coach all weekend!
Potassium and diuretics (X-PEL from GNC) - (Potassium - around $5.00 at Walgreens - still need to buy
Dress for evening meeting: Amazon notified me that the dress I ordered was actually not in stock. New dress ordered from Fredericks.com for $70 including shipping
Dress for after party: Bought from Charlotte Russe with earrings and bracelet for $40
Silk Pajamas for the night of tanning: $20 including shipping from amazon.com
Food since Sept 18th: @ $120

Total added to previous week (not including estimated prices for items or items left to be paid): $270

Food:

My new carb-cycling has started. Three days of low carbs followed by one day of high carbs on Monday. Then it's low to no carbs until Friday. I get to eat three fat sources a day instead of two on the no carb days to provide enough nourishment for my body to keep functioning properly. Friday will be as follows: Meals 1-4 - boiled chicken OR tuna with no sodium and steamed veggies; Meals 5-6 will be the same proteins and veggies plus sweet potatoes. Saturday will be as follows: Meal 1: 2 pancakes and bacon; Meal 2-3: pb & j and rice cakes, chips, chicken, sweet potato, handful of sweet-tarts; Meal 4-5: Pizza (1-3 slices), 1/2 avocado, ice chips when needed; Meal 6: Chicken, sweet potato, oatmeal cookie if quick energy is needed. After awards: two gatorades or ensures. If I feel like I'm going to faint before the evening show, I'm supposed to drink a bottle of water before themewear. Also, I'm supposed to bring dark chocolate squares, more sweet-tarts, OR dark chocolate covered espresso beans to eat right before the evening show for a burst of energy. (WHEW!! That's a lot of eating and meal prepping to do!)
As far as water intake goes, I'm currently drinking 2 gallons of distilled water and will work my way down to ice chips by the day of the show. The idea is to give my body an abundance of water so that when I start my diuretics on Sunday, I won't get as dry (depleted).
***No-carb days are still dangerous around me so proceed with caution if you must approach. :) I generally just try my best not to talk to anyone on those days other than required answers. I may seem rude by doing so, but it's less rude than unintentionally biting someones head off because I want to eat EVERYTHING! (These last few sentences seem to ring true every week ;-)

Sleep:

Guess what? Sprints still suck! Especially first thing in the morning when I have to wake up extra early for them. The good news: it's almost over!!! Getting a full 8 hours of sleep is still difficult. I ALWAYS wake up around 3 or 4 am - like - wide awake! It sucks!!! It's also been hard to get home after running around for everything and then get my workout in and get to bed in time. Almost done...almost done!
Workouts:


Tonight will be my last heavy workout - fast legs day! Getting it done! :) Starting tomorrow, I'm limited to upper body exercises only with low weights and high reps. The idea is not to break a sweat, but to work out all of the water from my muscles. Leg exercises are stopped so that my legs have time to rest before the show. All that walking and posing in high heels takes it out of ya!

Current Weight:


This week I weighed in at 115.6 on my scale at home!!! BOOM! :) My coach will measure my bf% today and weight for my final numbers before water depletion starts.

Mood:


Feeling nervous and excited...as stated multiple times throughout this post! lol. I'm really in disbelief of how far I've come. After looking in the mirror last night, the difference is amazing! This has been the hardest thing I've probably ever done by far, but I'm really proud of the results! Still excited about my meals the day after the show, but more excited to just rock it and embrace everything for now.

1 Week left until SHOW TIME! EEP!

"Keep It Sexy!"


September 21st, 2013

Hey everyone!
Another week down and only two weeks to go until the competition! Thank goodness! I'm so ready to rock the stage and then feel like a normal human again! I think if I had started my training in April, it would be much easier to keep up my spirits and motivation, but after doing dieting/extreme exercising since last September...I just need a break from critically thinking about my training every second of the day. It's exhausting to the mind after a while.  Only two more weeks to go though and I can't be more excited to step on stage for the first time and really bring it!!! :)


Cost:

Competing in a fitness competition is extremely expensive! Suits, theme wear, dresses, hair and makeup, tanning, nails, shoes, hotel rooms, travel expenses, supplements, personal trainer, etc. all come into play and it adds up really fast!

Since last week, I've added the following expenses to my competition budget:

Hair & Make-up at show: Booked my hair and make-up appointment with the Hitchfit ladies (Hair will cost $100 and make-up will cost $65 - still need to pay)
Tan: (Still need to pay $100 on Friday before show)
Nails: Getting done on Wednesday before the show - coupons purchased through Groupon.com and livingsocial.com. Final price to be determined.
Theme wear: Bought a coupon through livingsocial.com for alterations $20 for $40 worth of work. The coupon covered the entire cost of the alterations so no extra money had to be spent there. :)
Posing Practice: Set up for the last Saturday before the show. Payment added in with personal training payment.
Personal Training: $300. Four personal training sessions and one posing session all at $60 a piece. This will take me to the week of the show.
Travel expenses: My ride just cancelled on me so now I will be driving myself - cost of gas to get down there: unknown but my guess would be around $120 - $160 round trip)
Potassium and diuretics (X-PEL from GNC) - (Potassium - around $5.00 at Walgreens - still need to buy; Found X-PEL (same type as GNC) online for $11 + $6 for shipping. Seems trivial to save $4 but every dollar counts right now)
Dress for evening meeting: Purchased from amazon.com for $29.99 plus $5 shipping. Not the color I wanted because that color was out of stock but it's one less thing to worry about.
Dress for after party: (Still need to buy or choose from one of my own)
Food since Sept 7th: @ $130
Facial/Massage: $40

Total added to previous week (not including estimated prices for items or items left to be paid): $522

Food:

Tuesday (Sept. 24th) will be my last day of carb-cycling the way I have been doing it. Then Wednesday I will start a new carb-cycling rotation going from High for one day to no-carbs for a couple days and it will continue to bounce around until the day of the show. My carb cravings are still hitting me sometimes but are almost gone. I do still have horrible chocolate cravings though so I've been allowing myself a 1/4 of an ounce of dark chocolate every now and then just for the taste to get the craving to go away. I have cut out protein shakes, oatmeal, brown rice, eggs, and most dairy to cut my sodium intake. This has left me with meat and veggie meals all day long (which is difficult for me at breakfast time!). No-carb days are still dangerous around me so proceed with caution if you must approach. :) I generally just try my best not to talk to anyone on those days other than required answers. I may seem rude by doing so, but it's less rude than unintentionally biting someones head off because I want to eat EVERYTHING! (These last few sentences seem to ring true every week ;-)

Sleep:


Waking up for morning workouts has gotten easier but sprinting first thing in the morning (or any time really ;) is difficult for me. I truly loathe sprinting! I would much rather wake up and do a cardio dvd or something than sprint, but I've been forcing myself to get it done. The zzz-quil helped a little. It said that it would help me sleep through the night but it seems that no matter what I try, I always wake up around 4am wide-awake and unable to return to sleep for a good 20 minutes. :(

Workouts:


I've increased my sprints this week because my trainer demanded it, but I'm still doing a few cardio classes here and there. This is mainly due to the fact that I see results with the cardio classes and not so much with the sprinting. Perhaps it's because my heart just isn't that into running as fast as I can for short periods of time. I've just never been a short distance runner...it irritates me. lol. I'm still doing two leg days a week (one heavy weights day and one fast legs day) and my regular strength training for Chest, Tri's/Bi's, Back and shoulders.

Current Weight:


This week I actually made it down to 116.0 which was awesome but weighing myself today - I am back up to 116.8 again. Although this can get frustrating because my weight is all over the place, this is normal and expected with carb-cycling and the fact that my higest weight this week was my lowest weight last week makes me really happy. I just have to stay positive and keep looking in the mirror and realizing how far I've come and then get back to the grind in the gym for these last couple weeks.

Mood:

Keeping with the same feelings I was going through last week, I think I have competition-itis! lol. I'm still SO ready to eat whatever I want without thinking about it. I think I will always eat pretty healthy anyway and workout around 4 times a week when I'm in my off season, but it will be so nice to eat without thinking about every aspect of it. Ah...and to eat bread again...or pasta...!!! Can't wait! Perhaps another trip to Italy is in order after this is all over. :)

2 Weeks left until SHOW TIME! EEP!


September 14th, 2013

Well hello sexy people! ;-)
This week has been less stressful than the previous week, but with the competition coming up in three weeks, it's hard to say that I'm feeling relaxed. I made good progress this week and hopefully I'll be able to keep it up as I work my way towards the show. Here's the breakdown on my progress over the past week for those who are interested (which I'm assuming is everyone if you're on this page :)

Cost:

Competing in a fitness competition is extremely expensive! Suits, theme wear, dresses, hair and makeup, tanning, nails, shoes, hotel rooms, travel expenses, supplements, personal trainer, etc. all come into play and it adds up really fast!

Since last week, I've added the following expenses to my competition budget:

Hair & Make-up at show: Booked my hair and make-up appointment with the Hitchfit ladies (Hair will cost $100 and make-up will cost $65 - still need to pay)
Hair coloring/cut/styling before show: $10 tip for awesome coloring done by Christopher at Salon Spice in Overland Park (Go see him! He's great!)
Hair highlighting before show: Decided against it. My natural highlights came out and my hair is looking fierce! Gonna rock that stage!
Tan: (Still need to pay $100 on Friday before show)
Nails: Getting done on Wednesday before the show - coupons purchased through Groupon.com and livingsocial.com. Final price to be determined.
Theme wear: Bought a coupon through livingsocial.com for alterations $20 for $40 worth of work. Themewear will be picked up next week with final price.
Posing Practice: No posing sessions this week with trainer
Personal Training: No payment for this week because I paid it last week
Travel expenses: My ride just cancelled on me so now I will be driving myself - cost of gas to get down there: unknown but my guess would be around $120 - $160 round trip)
Potassium and diuretics (X-PEL from GNC) - (Potassium - around $5.00; X-PEL from GNC at member price for $19.99 - still need to buy)
Dress for evening meeting: (Still need to buy or choose from one of my own)
Dress for after party: (Still need to buy or choose from one of my own)
Food since Sept 7th: @ $50
WBFF Training Camp pre-show: $60
Themewear props: $40

Total added to previous week (not including estimated prices for items or items left to be paid): $180

Food:

I'm still cycling through the high carb/low carb/no carb cycle every three days. My carb cravings for fats has been crazy high this week. It was everything I could do to keep myself from eating an entire jar of almond butter. I have cut out protein shakes, oatmeal, brown rice, eggs, and most dairy to cut my sodium intake. This has left me with meat and veggie meals all day long (which is difficult for me at breakfast time!). No-carb days are still dangerous around me so proceed with caution if you must approach. :) I generally just try my best not to talk to anyone on those days other than required answers. I may seem rude by doing so, but it's less rude than unintentionally biting someones head off because I want to eat EVERYTHING! (These last few sentences seem to ring true every week ;-)

Sleep:


Morning workouts happened twice this week with some sprints and cardio dvds. I absolutely hate sprinting but my trainer says it's a must to keep my legs toned and shred fat quickly. I've had a hard time getting to sleep at night this past week. I lay down around 10 or 11pm but my body won't let me sleep until around 12 - 1 am. I'm taking zzz-quil to try to help out with that issue. I'll let you know how it goes.

Workouts:


This past week I went crazy with my cardio level! I took 2-3 cardio classes almost every night at the Brickhouse Cardio Club down the street. I have no idea where all the energy came from (perhaps the thought of the competition coming up faster than I can comprehend...). My trainer wants me to tone down the cardio classes and increase my sprints...ugh!...sprints. Grr! I'm still doing two leg days a week and my regular strength training for Chest, Tri's/Bi's, Back and shoulders.

Current Weight:


This week I actually made it down to 116.8!!! WHOOP WHOOP! Lowest my weight has been in years! I'm attributing it to serious focus on my carb intake and the increased cardio sessions. I weighed myself on my low carb day (as my trainer advised me to do) and that's where I was at. The next day I weighed myself again (a BIG no no, for good reason) and I was up to 120. AAAH!! Of course the added weight overnight can most likely be attributed to water and I know I'll get back to that 116...at some point this week, but I will say it's frustrating to get there and be overjoyed just to get frustrated by the scale again the next morning. In other words, staying off the scale except low carb days from now on. Staying positive!!!

Mood:

SO ready to eat whatever I want, whenever I want! That's what is currently keeping me motivated at the moment. That and the weight loss that happened over this week. I really needed that! :) Yesterday I was pretty moody but I think it can be blamed on the fact that I haven't been getting the right amount of sleep plus yesterday was a no-carb day (those are always crazy roller coaster emotional days :-/). Thank you to my family and friends for your support! :)

3 Weeks left until SHOW TIME! EEP!

"Keep it Sexy!"

September 7th, 2013

It has been a bit of a stressful week for me here getting ready for this fitness competition. I still have to get my theme wear fitted now that all the pieces have come in (aside from my awesome fire wings which I should get any day now! :) Here is the latest update on my progress:

Cost:

Competing in a fitness competition is extremely expensive! Suits, theme wear, dresses, hair and makeup, tanning, nails, shoes, hotel rooms, travel expenses, supplements, personal trainer, etc. all come into play and it adds up really fast!

Since last week, I've added the following expenses to my competition budget:

Hair & Make-up at show: (Found out that one of the Hitchfit trainers can do hair/makeup...might save me about $100. She added my name to the list but I have to follow up for an appointment and payment)
Hair coloring/cut/styling before show: $45 (Booked for this coming Tuesday!!! So excited to be a brunette again!!! :)
Hair highlighting before show: (Still need to book and pay)
Theme wear: (Needs to be fitted - estimated at @ $50)
Posing Practice: $60
Personal Training: $300 for this past week and next week (includes posing practice cost)
Travel expenses: My ride just cancelled on me so now I will be driving myself - cost of gas to get down there: unknown but my guess would be around $120 - $160 round trip)
Potassium and diuretics (X-PEL from GNC) - (Still need to buy - cost unknown)
Dress for evening meeting: (Still need to buy)
Dress for after party: (Still need to buy or choose from one of my own)
Food since July 13: @ $80 - $100

Total added to previous week (not including estimated prices for items): $380-$400

Food:


I'm still cycling through the high carb/low carb/no carb cycle every three days. My carb cravings for sweets has been insanely high lately and on one day in particular, I had some serious cravings for Mexican food...maybe because my sodium intake is so low. I have cut out protein shakes, oatmeal, brown rice, eggs, and most dairy to cut my sodium intake. This has left me with meat and veggie meals all day long (which is difficult for me at breakfast time!). No-carb days are still dangerous around me so proceed with caution if you must approach. :) I generally just try my best not to talk to anyone on those days other than required answers. I may seem rude by doing so, but it's less rude than unintentionally biting someones head off because I want to eat EVERYTHING!

Sleep:


Morning workouts just did...not...happen this past week. They keep changing my schedule at work so my days off are always changing and I keep switching from showing up at 8 am to showing up at 7am. Believe it or not, this actually makes a huge mood difference for me when it comes to motivation. Lately, I just really wanted those extra 30 minutes of sleep in the morning.

Workouts:

I'm still doing the heavy legs/fast legs with my trainer, and I'm still doing two days of HIIT by myself. It has been more difficult to keep up with my weight training on all the other days along with cardio. I have been getting most of the cardio in, but by the time I'm done with that (knowing I have to go home and run errands and food prep or whatever, I lose the energy needed to do the weights too :( Maybe a workout buddy would help?!)

Current Weight:

118.0 lbs (So that's 0.4 lbs of weight loss since last week - Just....NOT...enough!) Getting frustrated about it. I was supposed to be around 115-116 by this point but it just won't happen. I checked in with my trainer and the good news is that my body fat has gone down a little, but I still have a lot to go (3-4%) just to get down to 15% (which is still 3% high for competition but I'll take what I can get at this point...since it's my first competition, it leaves me plenty of room to get better next time! Positivity is key! :)

Mood:

Still motivated for the most part but the body fat thing kind of has me down. I've had SERIOUS sugar cravings this past week and it's driving me insane! I am somewhat to the point of wanting this to be over so I can just eat whatever I want, whenever I want, but I'm also still full of dedication to finish what I started and try to end it saying that I did the best I could. Thank you to my family and friends for your support! :)

4 Weeks left until SHOW TIME! EEP!

"Keep it Sexy!"

August 31st, 2013

A lot of people are asking me how my competition prep. is going and apparently "good" is not a good enough answer. :) So I decided to break it down week-by-week until the competition happens. Maybe this will help answer some questions for those that are interested in competing. So, here it goes:

Cost:

Competing in a fitness competition is extremely expensive! Suits, theme wear, dresses, hair and makeup, tanning, nails, shoes, hotel rooms, travel expenses, supplements, personal trainer, etc. all come into play and it adds up really fast!

At this point, I've spent the following amounts:

Tanning: ($50 deposit - owe $100 upon show check-in)
Nails: $18 for manicure and $12 for pedicure (still need to pay/book pedicure)
Hair & Make-up at show: (Still need to book and pay - $200)
Hair coloring/cut/styling before show: $45
Hair highlighting before show: (Still need to book and pay)
Bikini: $160
Bikini Jewelry: $32
Theme wear: $100
Posing Practice: $120 (Two hours so far)
Personal Training: $1440 (Once a week from April 28-July 13; Twice a week from July 13-Present)
Hotel Room: $360 (Three nights at the hosting hotel)
Supplements: $200 (BCAA's, Protein Powder - since July)
Dress for evening meeting: (Still need to buy)
Gas for trip: @ $160
Bikini Shoes: $47
Food since July 13: @ $560 ($80 a week for food listed on strict carb cycling diet)

Total (so far with additional planned payments for items previously listed added): @ $3604

Food:

I'm currently on a high carb, low carb, no carb cycle. I rotate through this cycle every day and this helps curb the carb cravings and helps keep my hormones/mood in check. Believe what you want to about food not influencing those areas, but for me, it definitely does! Talking to me on a no carb day could be dangerous...just a forewarning. :)

Sleep:

I try my best to get to bed before 10pm and then wake up by 6:30am to get a quick morning workout in before work. This is difficult for me because I'm a night owl and I hate waking up early for anything, but it's getting a little easier over time.

Workouts:

I meet with my trainer at the Hitchfit gym in Kansas City twice a week for training. We are focusing a lot on my legs, so I do one heavy leg day and one fast leg day with her. I'm required to do all the rest of my weight training on my own at the local gym. I'm also required to burn at least 650 calories per day through cardio exercises. I do HIIT twice a week - on those days, I'm not required to do extra cardio (Thank goodness!!!).

Current Weight:

118.4 lbs

Mood:

Motivated for the most part, but some days are harder than others and I wonder what I'm doing or if I can do it. Those are the days I try to get to the gym and get in a crazy workout. Usually, once I'm done at the gym I remember why I'm doing this and I tell myself that I will make it! Some days sleep gets away from me or I feel hungry (no carb days) and my mood goes on an emotional roller-coaster ride until I can reel myself back in. So, thank you to friends and family for dealing with me during those days. :)

5 Weeks left until SHOW TIME! EEP!

"Keep it Sexy!"

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