Yummy Recipe!

I just wanted to share this recipe that I found.  It uses ingredients that are all okay for you to have.  It does contain splenda so of coarse you still shouldn't have it all the time.  But for right now in my contest prep I am still able to have it.  The recipe I found is one of Jamie Eason's.  For those who don't know, Jamie is a fitness model.

This is a picture of me and Jamie at the Arnold Classic in March

She has a few recipes that she has opened up to the public, but this one is by far my favorite!  It is protein cinnamon swirl bread.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray loaf pan with non-stick spray.

In small bowl combine:
1/3 cup Ideal (Truvia) or Splenda
2 tsp cinnamon
(set aside)

In a large bowl combine:
(whisk together)
1 1/2 cups oat flour + 2 scoops vanilla whey protein
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup Ideal (Truvia) or Splenda

In a medium bowl combine:
(whisk together & add to large bowl)
2 egg whites or 1 whole egg
1 cup unsweetened almond milk (Almond Breeze)
1/3 cup or 1 4oz jar of babyfood applesauce

Pour a shallow layer of batter into the loaf pan (about 1/4 of the batter). Sprinkle heavily with half of the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Repeat with remaining batter & cinnamon/sugar on top. Draw a knife through the batter to marble.

Bake for 45 to 50 min. Let cool for 10 min. Bread will be dense. 

Mine turned out to be 75 calories, 1.2 grams of fat, 6 grams of protein, and 9.25 grams of carbs.

Supplements..

Supplementation is very important when cutting for a show.  The most important is a multi-Vitamin!  Your body needs to get the vitamins it needs to work properly.  It is very important to take a multi-vitamin while cutting because you might not be getting all of the vitamins your body needs from the food that you are taking in due to cutting certain foods out.  I recommend a protein powder..I like them because eating 5 or 6 meals a day is a lot of food and I have no desire to eat because I am not hungry.  I like using whey protein as my second and forth meal of the day.  I usually try to make sure I lift and get my cardio in before one of these shakes.  Another good protein to use is casein protein, this is a slow digesting protein that is very good in the evenings.  I use this as my sixth meal of the day depending on what time I got up that day.  Since some days I only get five meals in.  I also prefer to use a fat burner of some sort.  There are many different types of fat burners.  Use what works with your body.  If you have any questions about fat burners I would be happy to answer any questions.  I decided to create my own stack for my fat burner.  I am using ephedrine hcl (bronkaid), caffeine, and yohimbine.  I am starting off by taking two doses a day then increasing to three.  I want to work my way into it so my body gets used to it and I don't get sick.

Supplement Schedule as of right now
7:00am- 1 Multi-vitamin
              1 Fish oil
             
8:00am- 1 Ephedrine HCL
              1 Caffeine
              2 Yohimbine

1:00pm-  1 Multi-vitamin

                 1 Fish oil

2:00 pm- 1 Ephedrine HCL

              1 Caffeine

              2 Yohimbine

              

I am taking the multi-vitamin and fish oil before breakfast because my stomach can handle it but I need to wait til after my first meal to take the rest of the stack.  If you have any other questions about supplementation let me know!!:)

     

CONTEST DATE

I have had some questions about my competition date and location...the competition I am doing is in Grandville, Michigan and it is on August 13th! I will be competing in bikini then hopefully sometime in the fall move on to figure!...My fiancé is also doing this same show in the Mens Physique category.  He did a show in April and qualified for nationals and I believe that is a few weeks after our Michigan show! 

CARDIO!!!

The key to effective fat loss in terms of being in the gym is a combination of weights and cardio. Since I have already discussed lifting, it's time for cardio! The amount of cardio that one should do to prepare for a bikini competition is kinda hard to explain. It all depends on the person and how your body reacts. I know that my body likes the fat that I have and isn't willing to give it up easily, therefore I spend a lot of time doing cardio. I am doing an hour of cardio a day right now. I will bump up the amount of cardio I am doing when I am not lossing as much weight. Pretty much it will increase as it gets closer to my show. Start by adding an extra half hour a few times a week then, as time goes add that extra half hour every day. You can repeat this process of adding another half hour of cardio a day if needed. Make sure that if you are doing more than an hour of cardio a day, do multiple cardio sessions. I will split mine up once I get to more than an hour. For example, if I am doing 2 hours of cardio in one day..I will do an hour of cardio in the morning and one hour in the evening after I lift. This is very important because you need to refuel your body in-between sessions. You do DO NOT want to be burning muscle!

In terms of high intensity vs. low intensity I prefer low intensity while cutting.  If you are doing a low carb diet, low intensity is very effective because you want to burn fat while trying to keep that MUSCLE!.. If you start to hit a plateau add a a high intensity cardio session every here and there and keep your body guessing!!!

WORKOUT PLAN!

It is important to design your workout plan to fit your life style. First, you need to figure out how many times a week you are going to lift. If it is only three days a week then most likely you are going to do full body workouts. If you decide to do 5 or 6 days a week, you are most likely going to split up the muscle groups. I am going to do 6 days a week with one rest day.

Monday: Legs
Tuesday: Chest
Wednesday: Back
Thursday: Legs
Friday: Shoulders
Saturday: Biceps and Triceps
Sunday: OFF!

As stated earlier, it is very important to set up your workouts realistically with your lifestyle such as work and family. If you do not set up a realistic workout schedule you will not follow it and ultimately not meet your goal. If you need any information about workout splits or full body workouts leave a comment, I will answer any questions...since this is not only about my experiences but to also help others!

What do I get to eat and when do I get to eat it?

What do I eat?...Is honestly one of the most frequently asked questions even when it come to every day nutrition.  A lot of people do not know what "eating clean" is.  Eating clean is simply a set of guidelines that you use to set up your diet.  These guidelines are..

1. eating 5-7 small meals a day
2. never eat carbs alone
3. include protein
4. include complex carbs
5. include veggies
6. fewer ingredients the better

Now to break these guideline down for contest prep...
1) Eating 5-7 small meals a day will keep your metabolism high all day long.  While not preparing for a contest I tend to eat 5 meals a day.  During contest prep however, I am going to aim for 6 meals a day.
2) Never eat carbs alone..carbs should always be paired with some sort of protein
3) Include protein...every meal should consist of a portion of protein
4) Include complex carbs...complex carbs should be eaten in your earlier meals of the day. They should be tapered off in the last two meals of the day.
5) Include VEGGIES!!!! EAT UP!!! veggies are your secret weapon! These should be eaten throughout the day and into your evening meals as well.
6) Fewer ingredients the better...read the labels..the more ingredients that are on a label typically states that these foods are refined and highly processed..and therefore NOT GOOD FOR YOU!

Back to what you CAN EAT!!!

Protein                               Complex Carbs          Fibrous Carbs          Healthy Fats
-Chicken                            -Oatmeal                       -Spinach                    -Olive Oil
-Tuna                                 -Sweet Potato               -Broccoli                   -Peanut Butter
-Protein powder                 -Brown Rice                  -Green Beans            -Almond Butter
-Lean Fish                          -Wheat Bread                -Asparagus               -Almonds
-Egg Whites                                                             -Cucumbers
-Lean Beef                                                               -Onions
-Lean Ground Turkey                                               -Peppers
                                                                                -Celery
                                                                              
-when it comes to fibrous carbs, almost every veggie is game.  The only ones to typically stay away from are peas, carrots, and corn.  These veggies have higher sugar content then others.  And wheat bread should only be eaten for the first 6 weeks of contest prep.  I try to eat it very seldom just because you are not going to be able to have it later on.

Now that we know what to eat, we have to figure out when to eat!
It is very important to eat every 3-4 hours, this keeps your metabolism boosted throughout the day.
Not only is timing between meals important but it is also very important to time calorie intake and macronutrient intake.  Calories should be tapered throughout the day, this means that your first meal should be  the highest in calories and your last meal should be the lowest.  In terms of macronutrient timing, complex carbs should be eaten in the first few meals of the day and should be tapered off in your last two meals of the day.  The reasoning behind this is because these carbs are your energy throughout the day and by dinner time you do not need the amount of energy as you did for breakfast.  At breakfast you are taking in fuel to get you through the day, while as for dinner you are pretty much just eating to keep that metabolism up.  Healthy fats should be eaten through the day, typically I eat them every other meal because that is what works best for me.  Fibrous Carbs should be eaten in as many meals as possible and protein should be in every single meal!!!


Dairy is very controversial, at 12 weeks I am cutting it out of my diet completely.  Many dairy products are full of fats and make you retain water.  If you cannot live without your dairy, eat fat free varieties and they need to be cut out by 6 weeks.  By this time you should have noticeable fat loss and  when cutting the dairy out it will amplify it a little more and aid in thinning the skin out a little bit.  Even though thinning of the skin is more important in a figure or bodybuilding competition.

NO MORE REFINED SUGARS!! NO EMPTY CALORIES!! NO SWEETS!!


Hmmm whats next....WORKOUT AND SUPPLEMENTATION!!

Pre-contest prep homework! Caloric intake and Marconutrient breakdown..

This blog is designed to help others that have hopes of doing a bikini competition and like me can not hire a competition coach. I am a personal trainer and have played around with my own diet to know how my body is going to react. I have done a ton of research about this topic and find it frustrating that it's not all in one place until you want to front the money for it. This inspired me to put my contest prep into a blog along with the facts, figures, diets and workout plans I use. Along with progress pictures along the way to not only motivate myself by to hopefully inspire others to have the will power to change there body image and ultimately better their self confidence!!!!!!

One of the most important aspects of preparing for a bikini competition is nutrition. When it comes to nutrition, it all seems to be a numbers game. The best place to start is finding your BMR. Now, BMR is your Basal Metabolic Rate. These are the amount of calories your body needs everyday just to sustain your bodies regular functions, such as breathing. For the average person to maintain their weight, they need to consume a few hundred calories above their BMR. While cutting for a competition, you typically consume a few hundred calories less then your BMR. Now all of this information is not going to help unless you know what you BMR is, so the formula is...

655+(4.35 * weight in pounds) + (4.7 * height in inches) - (4.7 * age in years)

For me, I am 5'7" and 150 pounds, my BMR is about 1,523 calories. Now to cut for my competition I have decided do decrease my calories intake to 1,300. Calories intake is important, but another key factor is the ratio of your macronutrients along with the types of food you are eating.

Macronutrients consist of protein, carbs and fats. The ratio that I recommend to start out with is 40/40/20. In other words, 40% of your diet comes from protein, another 40% comes from carbs and the other 20% comes from fats. This is a healthy ratio to start out at, even if you are not cutting for a competition. This ratio will be adjusted throughout the contest prep as it gets harder to get rid of that stubborn fat. The next step is to take this ratio and calculate it into calories. Each gram of protein and each gram of carb is 4 calories, whereas, a gram of fat is 9 calories. The first step is to figure out the calories you need from protein each day. To do that, you take your total calories times the ratio of protein. In my case, 1,300*.40= 520. Now, when you look at a nutrition label, they do not talk in terms of calories for your macronutrients. Therefore, we must take the total calories of protein needed in a day and divide that by 4. Because there are 4 calories in a gram of protein. This comes out to 130 grams of protein a day for my contest prep of 1,300 calories a day.
The same formulas need to be used to figure out the grams of carbs and fat that is needed daily. For the carbs,in the ratio we used, it is the same as the protein. So for my diet I need 130 grams of carbs daily. For the fats, 1,300 needs to be multiplied by .20 to get 260. The 260 is the calories from fats needed daily. That needs to be changes into grams. As stated before, 1 gram of fat is 9 calories. Therefore, we will divide 260 by 9 to get 28.8 grams of fat daily.

This is just the start of nutrition for contest prep. More to come in the next few days :)