Say hello to my little friend...

Good evening!

Today has been a good day, but not nearly as productive as I had planned DOH! This morning my hubby's alarm went off at the crack of dawn (cock-a-doodle-do...yes, it is the sound of a rooster crowing and its equally annoying as it is cute.) Hubbs knows I am NOT a morning person and despite waking me up with soft kisses, I still arose from my trashcan bed like Oscar the Grouch and had myself a mini-tantrum (I may or may not have punched my pillow and kicked the covers to the floor.) I peeled myself out of bed, changed into my workout gear and trudged down the hall to the kitchen to pay homage to our Keurig. (Bless you, O Keurig, and the java you so abundantly supply!)

Today was Upper Body Work Out (UBWO), however I decided to do an hour of cardio instead because my main focus right now is to burn...no pulverize...excess fat and lean out. I decided I would head back to the gym later in the afternoon and do my strength training. Doing BFL for the past three months has been a real eye-opener when it comes to cardio. Throughout high school and college I did low-intensity cardio for as long as I could stand it, so doing High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) as part of the BFL regime was new to me. I was skeptical at first, but really love it and the results I see. However, right now I'm mixing things up with my cardio and on a weekly basis, so some days I do HIIT and others I read my book do steady state cardio.

Anyhoo, when I returned from the gym I ate my typical clean breakfast: 1/2 cup dry oats with 1 cup of almond milk, 1 tbsp bee pollen and 2 tbsp flaxseed. I also included a few egg whites and one Laughing Cow cheese wedge. (Let it be known right now that those little guys are one of my favorite things eva..) You can tell I'm a "newbie" blogger because it didn't even occur to me to take a picture of my bowl of goodness. In fact, I didn't take pictures at all today OOPS! I really want to start photographing my food and I'm even *hinting* to my sweet husband (hi, baby!) about the importance of investing in a DSLR camera. You know, to capture yummy food precious moments and all.

If you didn't already catch on, I'm kinda 'flying solo' when it comes to prepping for a body competition. At this time I'm not ready for a trainer because as I mentioned before my main focus now is dropping body fat. My set goal is to step on stage within six months, but being this is my first 'go around' I don't want to stress myself out beyond reason or enter an earlier competition date that I won't possibly be ready for. I'm steadily losing about a pound a week and my body is changing thanks to those heavy weights I'm liftin' (heavy for me, at least) so as I get closer and closer to my goal I will choose a comp date and go from there.

Speaking of bikini competition, I had the absolute pleasure of talking to Dawn from Excuses Don't Burn Calories last night on the telephone. I've been following her blog for a few months and she, among others, has made an impact on my decision to enter a body competition. If you haven't already checked out her blog, I encourage you to do so. She just revealed that she is entering another bikini competition in the near future and I'm excited to read about her training for her second competition! Anyway, I e-mailed Dawn a month ago asking about her own experience with contest prep and she has been so helpful in giving me a realistic picture of what it takes, especially since she was a rookie like I am! The only thing that made me frown was learning that I need to cut out dairy (waaaa!) The only dairy I really eat anyway is Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, and of course that darn' Laughing Cow, so I'm just soooo thrilled that I just purchased these very items in bulk at Costco (sigh). I decided I'll finish off what I do have (waste not, want not) and then say goodbye to my little friends until after competition. Thank you again, Dawn, for sharing your experience with me and I wish you the very best of luck as you rock it on stage for your next show! You know I'll be following

Welp, folks, I'm channeling my inner Golden Girl because it's past 9:30 p.m. and I'm ready for bed. Getting up at 5:30 each morning sure does make you appreciate sleep at night and I'm ready for some shut-eye. Before I go, I will leave you with a little something I've been workin' on: Meet Baby Bicep. Growing stronger everyday!

I apologize for the craptastic photo (both image quality and the fact that I had just come from the gym). I'm proud of my "guns", but this is only the beginning. I know when I lean out I'll get that definition I'm after, though I don't want too much "bulk" from this. I realize that every fitness and muscle magazine will tell you that lifting heavy will not make us ladies bulk up. I get it- I know I won't look like Dog-the-Bounty Hunter's wife (though I do have the boobs), but I do build muscle very quickly (again, genetics) and I'm just a little nervous about getting bigger. I've thought about incorporating doing lighter weights and more reps some days just to keep my body guessing instead of always lifting heavy. Any thoughts on the matter?

Goodnight, moon!

Questions:
1) Do you build muscle quickly?
2) Have you ever entered a body competition or thought about doing one?

♥,T