Two weeks into prep and feeling fine!

Just two weeks into prep and I'm already seeing the changes - leaning down, muscles filling out. God, I love comp prep!

We increased my cardio to 30 min six days/week. Bleh, but I know I shouldn’t complain. It’s not near as much as a lot of girls have to do. Kim said he likes to get me ready early and then just feed me til show day. My body reacts well to that strategy and I like that plan! :o)

I can definitely tell my metabolism is getting faster. I’m finally hungry for my last meal of the day. That ground sirloin and egg white meal was really hard to force down the first week but now I’m hungry for it and it’s a great way to finish the day.

My energy level is fantastic. I’m not taking any fat burners at all and at first I thought I might need some green tea extract to help keep me peppy during the day but I’m absolutely fine. In fact, I have more energy than I did just a few weeks ago before I started prep. Partly that’s because I’m actually eating quite a bit right now. It’s also because I’m just so darn excited to be prepping.

I’m also very pleased with the way my body is holding up so far. My elbows are doing great! The osteoarthritis in my knees is only troubling following legs days (2x week) especially if I do hack squats. The other injuries – my hamstring and hip – were somewhat troubling me when I started prep. I went to see Z-Health Master Trainer Lou McGovern. He worked with me for 2 hours and taught me a few joint mobility drills to help reset my nervous system. I do these very simple drills three times each day and then go for a walk for about 5 minutes. It’s pretty amazing. My hamstring pain, which I’ve had for 6 months, is entirely gone!!! Poof! Just like that. It’s hard to explain what this joint mobility work is all about but I’ll try. Let’s say you get an injury – perhaps a hip injury. Your gait changes as you walk to accommodate the injury. This can affect other parts of your body too as your posture, lifting form, etc. all work differently to compensate. Over time the injury itself heals. But – your nervous systems holds an image of the “old” way you moved, the change in your gait, the compromise in your lifting form, and you may not go back to a normal gait (and you may not realize you haven’t normalized). Eventually you may even get another injury which could be due, in part, to this new programmed way of moving.

The joint mobility drills work to “reset” your nervous system. Sometimes improvement is immediate (such as with my hamstring). Other times, it takes more work – and time – to reset the nervous system and make the pain disappear. Such it appears is the case with my hip injury. I’m still in a bit of pain, even with the drills. When I do the drills the pain definitely goes away but it comes back, sometimes within minutes, other times in a few hours.

This resetting can be done virtually anywhere. I’ve begun using it in the gym if I feel my hip act up. I do the ankle lateral tilt and then walk a little around the gym. Magic!

I’m going back to see Lou again in a couple weeks so he can check to see how I’m doing and learn some more drills. This stuff is fascinating and if it can take all my pain away, I’m all for it.

One of my friends on Twitter was complaining that Figure competitors don’t have much junk in their trunks. I asked my husband what he thought and he said I should post this picture. While I’m sure there are girls out there who need to boost their booty, I think it’s safe to say mine is not flat. :o)