Well I think it's been about 4 weeks since I started training for this competition. Maybe a little longer? I'm on week 3 of my official diet plan with www.absrenewal.com and it's going really well! Week one was the carb depletion and it was DEFINITELY the worst! They told me that week would be the hardest and I wish I had listened. I did my carb depletion while working restaurant week at The Capital Grille and that probably made it 1000 times harder but let me tell you, by day 7 I was ready to quit this WHOLE thing! I was working like 8-12 hour days for 5 of my 7 days on carb depletion and it was HARD... I was exhausted, cranky, hungry, and more exhausted. Carb depletion really messes with your hormones too, at least it did mine. I very seriously thought about giving up and am so glad I haven't. I expected a big drop in weight after the carb depletion and that that would make it feel like the whole thing was worth it but NO WEIGHT DROP came! I was completely defeated. I knew that I was too far into my training and that I had commited to too many people and so quitting wasn't an option. After yet another amazing pep talk from my trainer I decided to buckle down, pull myself up by my boot straps as they say, and keep moving forward. I started cooking and portioning out all of my chicken ahead of time. I steamed a TON of broccoli and keep it in a giant bowl in my fridge. I steamed green beans, broccoli, bought brussels sprouts and asparagus. I STOCKED up! My food is planned out by my nutritionist in formulas from which I have to put my own meals together. This seriously stressed me out at first. I would get emails that say:
Meal 1: Protein, starch
Meal 2: Protein, fat
Meal 3: Protein, veggie, fat
Meal 4: Protein, fat
Meal 5: Protein, veggie
Meal 6: Protein
Trying to figure these out and actually put meals together as I went was totally daunting and a lot of the time I would end up skipping meals or not eating enough because I just didn't know at the moment what to eat. Finally I sat down with my meal formuals and wrote out exactly what I was going to eat for every meal of every day. It made SUCH a huge difference! Even if I felt like eating a cup of broccoli instead of 8 asparagus spears it made me feel better to have the veggie written down. Maybe I'm crazy! It has seriously helped me stay on track and helped make eating the same foods everyday a little more bearable :)
I am now in the middle of week 3 of the official diet and am finally starting to see some progress! My weight has dropped to 142.6 (I started at 148) in the last 10 days or so and we are measuring body fat percentage again tomorrow! Seeing progress is making it all worth while. Im starting to think I can actually do this! I'll post progress pictures soon and would love to hear any feedback, encouragment, or advice that you may have!
Thanks again for listening and supporting! 72 days to go!
Katie
