Taking That Leap

It's 5:45 on a Sunday morning and I'm eating my breakfast as I begin to write this. Breakfast is my FAVORITE meal of the day. I mean, I literally jump out of bed ready to eat! That is the kind of love I have for this meal. But with this show prep comes restrictions, and my fairly tail breakfast will soon become a distant memory (sigh). Although, I will say that what I'm eating at the moment is pretty damn tasty!

1 egg, 1/2 cup egg whites, 10g sundries tomatoes, handful of spinach, and a pinch of pepper and garlic salt (scrambled). 1//2 cup of oats. (Yes, plain old oats) with some cinnamon sprinkled on top! :)

This is the first week of the diet for my show and I feel pretty good so far! It's different, but it's good! For the past 3 years I've payed close attention to what I put in my body, but this is the first time that I have ever done carb cycling. And it's going to get pretty intense when it's all said and done! I'm kind of excited about it in a twisted way. I like the idea of challenging myself in a way that I never have before. It's part of growing as a person. We have to step outside of our comfort zones once in a while and see what we're capable of! This is one of the main reasons I decided to do this show. I am absolutely TERRIFIED of being in front of people. Speech class in high school and college were torture for me. I hated it. My face gets bright red, my voice quiver, and my heart races. EVERY TIME!!! It's brutal. But there comes a time in life when we can't sit back and let our fears and other excuses decide for us. We have to figure out what it is that is going to make us happy and go for it! Take risks. LIVE A LITTLE!!!!

As I said before, I've wanted to do it for a couple years now and it took up until August of 2016 for me to saddle up and decide it was time to prove to myself that I can do something that I once never DREAMED I'd be able to do. If you were to have bumped into me on the street 5 years ago and asked me where I saw myself in 5 years, there is NO FLIPPIN' WAY that I would have said, "I'll be a successful personal trainer up in the Twin Cities, running my own meal prep business, prepping for my first physique competition, and writing a blog about it." This just goes to show how much can change in the course of a few years. Life is crazy! I'm constantly amazed. Sometimes I just sit back and think about how far I've come and the people that I've met along the way. All of these people changed my life in some way shape or form. It's amazing to me. Okay, that ends my tangent. Back to the carb cycling!! :)

This will seem extremely boring for some of you, but it's a HUGE part of what I'm doing and since this blog is basically my exposed diary of the next 16 weeks, you get to hear all about it anyway! Sorry I'm not sorry ;) I'll be eating low carb for 5 days in a row (Saturday - Wednesday), and high carb for two days (Thursday and Friday). This is carb cycling in a nutshell. The way this works is every week he will drop my carbs on the low carb days and bump them up on the high carb days. The goal is to get as low as possible on the low carb days and to get as high as possible on the high carb days. What this does is it tricks my body into remaining in high fat burn mode while still building lean muscle. Low cab days consist mainly of lean proteins, healthy fats, and green veggies. I can also have oats, rice, and sweet potato, etc. as my main energy sources for workouts on these days, but they have to meet the macro nutrient guidelines. For example today I'm allotted 180g protein, 125g carbs, and 60g fat. My protein will basically remain the same through out the 17 weeks. My fat numbers will drop a little each week, but my carbs are what will drastically change. On low days they will drop not only weekly, but sometimes daily depending on how my body is responding. And they will continue to go up on high days. HELL YEAH!!! These days will be my saving grace as I can eat peanut butter AND cottage cheese!!! These are two of my favorite things. HALLELUJAH!!! If you hang in there and continue to read future posts, you'll get to experience the mood swings that carb cycling brings. If nothing else, I'll provide you with free entertainment! And hopefully some good information and motivation.

Until next time! :)