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18 days left.
Alright, I’ve been staring at this screen trying to figure out what to write about, well, myself.
Ever since I got my new nutrition plan and even a little bit before that, little carbs. I’ve attempted stay away from dairy, sugars and anything extra…however it’s been a bust at times. Last week had been pretty emotional as my brain and body is trying to adapt to the change. I had a total failure/meltdown with my diet on Saturday. Pizza and a burrito. WOW. I felt like the worst person on the planet, because I failed majorly bad! With my own self-deprecating attitude the last two days about it, I’m back to eating clean. I have NO room to fail myself when I am now less than 3 weeks out from my competition!
Occasionally, I take advantage of my age and how fast my body responds to physical molding that competition training does. BAD BRITTANY! Need to make and sustain good habits NOW, not later.
The biggest thing for me to not giving in, is keeping my stress levels down. At times it can be difficult since I am non-stop Monday through Friday schedule and I am almost always traveling back and forth from my hometown on the weekends which in itself is only a 60 minute drive one-way. I’ve never realized how much time and rest that takes away from me! I’ve been going to bed earlier and earlier during the week so that I can maintain an earlier wake-up. It’s been rough when a house needs to be cleaned, laundry done and still squeeze in my work-outs while still heading out to the barn to take care of my horse.
AT THE SAME TIME - My life is pretty easy.
It’s grinding time. I’m almost into my depletion stage with nutrition to lean the guns out ;).
QUESTIONS asked of me:
“I was just wondering what kind of things you were doing for leaning out… any supplementation? Major cardio changes?” - Ceci Hall
In a sense, I’ve been leaning out this whole time. I didn’t have a high body fat % when I first started back in January. It was 19.06%, which is lower than the average woman. However, I have A LOT of muscle. For awhile, we weren’t too concerned to whittling my muscles down. I was taking amino acids to harden up until I got too hard. That’s when the leaning of my tissue came in. I went from 3-4x a week light cardio to 7 days a week, 3x HIIT and 4x 40+ min low impact cardio. Boy have I gotten smaller all around!!! The biggest factor in all of this was my nutrition. I would not have lost body fat without a CLEAN diet while eating small meals, 5x a day.
4 weeks, 5 days.
Nutrition is LOCKED DOWN. That feels good to say!
I wake up every morning feeling leaner. As you know, you dehydrate while you sleep, so you always wake up a bit thirsty and not so bloated. That’s when I see the biggest differences from my constant cardio. My legs have leaned out impressively and my upper body is looking really fine.
My biggest concentration is tigthening up my glutes! Don’t want those thing bouncing all over the place!
I’ve been somewhat bored of my work outs and not so motivated in the gym, however I’ve still been doing what needs to be done. I had a conditioning class with my trainer on Saturday with a few other girls from my team. We did hill sprints and plyometrics. I forgot how much I loved to just sprint, and it helped that I had what I considered competition, and I was deteremined to never come in second(Sorry ladies!). That refreshed some motivation I needed.
I drove down to my hometown Saturday, hottubbed with my friends and then went to a house to hang out. I ended up peacing out as everyone started to booze a bit. Didn’t want the temptation to drink so it was easier to say my goodbyes and head back home. Sunday was rest day. Slept in, read a book(the whole thing) and went to my barn. I went to bed at 10, but didn’t fall asleep until 1 am….my upstairs neighbors were having a bit too much fun…if you know what I mean!
Today I have planned to do abs(I love abs!!!), a little bit of chest and triceps. :)
I had a good breakfast of steel cut oats, but I’m out of eggs, need to go shopping! Then i snacked on an apple, had tuna fish, mustard and a pickle for lunch…ended with half an avocado! Still need to eat my soy beans and almonds. For dinner I plan on having some salmon, asparagus and a sweet potatoe! Mmm mmm mmm, my favorite!
I’m super excited as the weeks are starting to fly by! Can’t wait to pick up my suit.
Ciao!
-Brittany
5.5 weeks out!
Excellence!
Was measured on Tuesday at 129lbs, 15.49% body fat. It was a relief and somewhat humbling. I’ve been getting back into the groove of things after a two week stint in military school and then two weeks of recovering from that! Two weeks of essentially uncontrolled eating, coming home, and getting back on my nutrition plan was probably the hardest thing I’ve done this whole training cycle. Now I stepped on the scale this morning at 127lbs! My legs definitley look leaner with all the cardio I’ve put in and I’m feeling STRONG. Really strong.
The next couple of days will be a bunch of cardio, a leg work out, a run up spencer’s butte, a personal training session for my friend Gabby and some more conditioning with Brody.
I’ve started helping people get their diets cleaned up and work out plans to think about.
Here is Demi:
She’s 18 and aspires to be a children’s dental hygentist! All she wants out of her fitness is a healthy body.
At 5’1” and 120lbs, she’s roughly 30% body fat. We are working on her overall health. We hope for her to drop 20 lbs in body fat and gain 5lbs in lean body tissue. This plan is set for 12 weeks. Wish her luck! I’ll post her progress in a few weeks.
Much love
-Brittany
:) 6 weeks out, well almost.
Really tightened up my routine this week, work-out wise. Felt really good to step on the scale and for it to say 126lbs! Shedding the pounds I gained while in military school and really working on cutting with my diet. Had a good day in the gym yesterday.
Work out consisted of an 8:00 mile. The 12x3 15lb: shoulder press, bicep curl, tricep extension and double arm rows. Then I did double planks and hand touches for 4 minutes, 40 seconds on, 20 second rest. Then came the uh oh! I started to do weightless piston squats with the smith machine. I was attempting to sit on an exercise ball when it had rolled away on me. I squated to low and strained my right glute pretty bad! I’m fine now, but yesterday I was hobbling around with an injured butt! Not fun. I wrapped up my work out with 20 minutes on the elliptical at level 8! :)
It’s been nice being able to give other people advice based on my success so far. Been helping an Army Sergeant in my work building on his nutrition! It’s been great so far.
I’m also developing a website for myself! I eventually will become a certified personal trainer and that will be it’s main purpose. It’ll be called LT Fitness. It features my blog, my boyfriend’s health food blog and helpful tips! :) I’ll let you all know as soon as it’s done! :)
I have drill this weekend and will be taking time outside of it to work out my tush. Wish me luck!
Always
-Brittany
Future
As April is literally right around the corner, I am soon coming to the realization….I am 13 months away from my deployment to Afghanistan. Reality is setting in, I have less than 12 months to make myself known. To put my name out there in the fitness world. For 2011, I have to wrap up this year with smart choices and smart competitions.
I’ve made a choice to participate in at least three national qualifying competitions: Oregon Ironman Bodybuilding, Fitness, Figure & Bikini Championships, Seven Feathers Classic Bodybuilding, Fitness, Figure & Bikini Championships and Las Vegas Classic Bodybuilding, Fitness, Figure & Bikini Championships. Seems almost redundant to post all of them. You get the point. The first two are in Oregon and the reason I chose Las Vegas is because of the possible exposure.
With hard work, dedication and diligence, I am sure that I will place well within my height class. As far as I’m concerned, I’m sticking to bikini. That way I don’t have to change up my routine too much and I can work on my own for a few weeks after my first competition without real guidance.
Then I see women like Erin Stern. I absolutely love the way her body looks. Figure. One of the few Figure competitors that I see and I say to myself, “That’s what I want.”. The one thing that would make me completely change to Figure would be how I placed in 7 weeks. If I totally bomb it, then fine, I’ll take my awesome muscles somewhere else!
It’s one of the few things I truly worry about myself in this process, is getting too hard. My body reacts so well to exercise, weights and diet that it builds. If you saw the latest progress pics of my legs, it just WHAM in the face, hey quads…how are you doing today? I keep telling myself and with encouragement from my team members, stick to the work outs prescribed. It’s better to be too hard two weeks out instead of too soft and having to diet hard right before the competition.
Right now I’m strictly doing maintenance on my lower body. No weights, a lot of lunges. Currently my “problem” area is my glutes. My glutes are much smaller and tighter than they were back in January. I’ve made progress but there is still more to go. To continue to tighten them I do piston squats on the smith machine no weight, one-legged bench step ups and sprint/jog intervals on the treadmill. This is part of my work out regime including my weekly kettle-bell class, two days with my personal trainer and a lot of cardio on my own.
I’m very excited to do some progress pics on Friday with my ever favorite, Bob.
Wish me luck! I’m excited. :)
-Brittany
7 weeks out
Good morning, Monday! Yes I am feeling chipper, and no, I am not feigning it. It’s a good way to start my next seven weeks. Over my lull, had a great weekend and am VERY excited about my transformation. It’s time to get serious, not that I haven’t been serious. The lackadaisical days are over. At this point in my prep, it’s all about me. ME, ME, ME, ME, ME. And boy do I have plans for me. Call me selfish all you want, but that’s EXACTLY what is happening.
It’s not about the day by day process, it’s pulling it in as the big picture. No more whining, no more crying and no more complaining. I have 46 days. I have to make every single one of them count. Down the my supplements, nutrition, work outs and day-to-day decisions.
You may not already know, I have a packed schedule. I have work, my horse, the gym, and a boyfriend. Soon to be finding a new hobby with him, probably co-ed soccer. Why? Those who play together, stay together. And I have to pack all of these things in nearly every day.
Here come my doubles. Double work-outs. Early morning work-outs and after work work-outs. Can’t over do-it but I can’t slack either. I’ll be putting up my seven week progress pictures later tonight.
The next important thing to my work outs are my nutrition. Things are about to get REALLY easy for me, yes I said easy. I’ll be cooking for just one instead of two, therefore the overindulge eatery won’t happen. My boyfriend, sadly, is leaving for three weeks to complete his national guard duty annual training. Sucky but very good at the time.
I’ll be getting my hair done in two weeks, can’t wait to be my very blonde self soon and a friend is hooking me up with a stellar tanning package that I can’t wait for.
Yes, here is to me. ME!
I feel focused. Focused is where I need to be.
-Brittany
Boyfriend is leaving, hooray!
Okay, okay. I shouldn’t be so excited, but I am. He’s leaving for 18 days. That means no distractions!
I have to admit, I love being around my man, but it makes me lazy! I’d rather snuggle on the couch and watch movies than doing anything constructive. So, almost 7 weeks out, and I need the motivation/dedication/discipline. He’s leaving at the perfect time!
Yesterday evening was probably the most productive I’ve been all week with my fitness. I hopped on the Elliptical at my Anytime Fitness Gym for a good fat burning 40 minutes. Took a swig of Muscle Milk and headed to NNPT for some ol’ fashion throwing metal around. I do have to say, my shoulders ache today! If you didn’t already know, my trainer is out-of-state, but he still directed what work-out we did in class. I wanted to yell, “asshole!”, but I was grinning the whole time nonetheless.
I can’t wait to get off work today and destroy my legs and core!
One other thing, I realize that I may be a girl, I love to model, I love fitness….but I can’t seem to “tap” in to my feminine side. I really want to do a photo shoot that can show my diversity to be glamourours, sexy and still “fit”.
Growl!
-Brittany
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Stress
Stress comes in all sorts of forms. For me, my stress almost always derives from my finances or drama. I’ll get this crazy anxiety to the point where I’m shaking. I hate disappointing people and I hate worrying about money. My first inclination to relieve stress was to eat something sugary or drink a beer. I won’t lie, I love beer and I love chocolate. Two things I’m basically not allowed to have during my competition.
Through this process I’ve realized two things about myself. I’m a glutton, and stress literally cripples me. The two things that should never go hand in hand, do for me, Oh Ve! At this point, staying on top of my nutrition and work outs have been so incredibly hard these past two weeks that it shows. The question is, how do I fix it? How do I take care of this issue, learn from it and move on?
After an incredibly crippling situation, I figured it out. Planning. Preparation is Victory. And yes, I did steal that from “The Mechanic”. It is true to the very words. Planning ahead will not only make your day easier, you know what to expect. Even when the unexpected happens, it’s much easier to take the change of pace with ease when you already have everything else in order. This includes: schedule, meals, people, finances and events.
Another thing, taking the people out of your life that create negativity. It only causes drama and stress. Stress is crippling to your body, it cripples your advancement and stalls any improvement.
I’ve had to put a lot of thought about what I am doing this week. Continue to be happy, don’t drink, don’t over indulge and live life to the fullest.
Truckin’ along,
-Brittany
8 weeks out
First off, a little about me. I’m 22-years-old with a lot of aspirations. I’ve been in the National Guard for 3 years and I hold the job as Public Affairs Broadcast Specialist. I’ve held, what I like to call “office bitch”, job here and there since I was 18. I’ve wet my feet a few times in college but haven’t jumped in full fledge. I’ve always loved public relations but tend to hold myself back. I have a passion for horses, running, snowboarding and a big dream for many other things that include wakeboarding and rock climbing. I’ve always excelled at physical activities but I get bored easy with things that don’t stimulate the mind. I love my wrangler, cats and friends. Even though I live over an hour away from my hometown, you will see me there nearly every weekend I don’t have drill. Probably the most noted thing about who I am, I’ve lived on my own since I was a junior in high school and work very hard to have the things I do.
Now, how I got started in this whole competition thing. It all came down to Amber Orton. I had admired her from afar. She is well known in Eugene as the famous Campus Girls calendar girl. I ran into her once at “The Cooler”, I doubt she remembers it. I ended up doing what every other kid from my generation does; I looked her up on facebook. Over the course of about 8 months, I watched her post her process of getting ready for her first NPC Bikini competition. At first I was envious, mostly from low self esteem, wishing I was capable in doing something so “far-fetched”. After a few comments of kind words and encouragement, she inspired me to get involved.
I ended up contacting her trainer and boyfriend, Brody Nivens of Nivens Northwest Personal Training. He gave me the low down of how things work and I set up my first personal training session with him. At this point, I was wondering what the hell, was I thinking. How could I possibly compete in bikini? I had my qualms about myself, tearing myself apart. Nitpicking. “Oh my chest is too small, oh my thighs are too big oh blah blah blah blah”.
I went in for my first session, had my nutrition plan set up and then body fat measured. I was super nervous to find out how “fat” I was. Then it came to 19.06%. I shocked myself, after I went over the last time I really worked out. Was it four months prior to that? I had been sitting on my butt, doing nothing, unemployed and eating like a poor college-aged kid. Then 26 days of “hard” work outs(and I why I say “hard” is due to the fact that my body responds super fast and I was working out maybe four days a week), I was down to 16% body fat.
At this point, I got a bit cocky, cheated on my nutrition a few times and then WHAM, I was gone for two weeks. Two weeks of straight military school. I thought that I would have plenty of time to work out. Boy, was I wrong. Fourteen hours a day in the classroom. 4 a.m. wake ups, and army chow. I got back, and the scale said I gained a solid five pounds. Where did I gain five pounds? I watched what I ate, tried to take yogurt and oranges back with me for snacks during the day. High altitude, meant I drank more water and was winded all the time. What happened?
Now I’m 8 weeks out, and I’ve gone backwards a bit. I’m way out of my routine. Slightly discouraged and have been having a very hard time wrapping my head around what needs to be done. My biggest fear is getting on stage and failing. I keep telling myself to focus but I keep faltering. My mind is so out there. I keep reminding myself, how much I had been enjoying what I was doing. What I wanted to accomplish out of all of it.
Right now, I keep asking myself, am I good enough?
Goals – Win my height class, get my ACE certification, be sponsored.
How bad do I want it?
Keep eating.
-Brittany
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