3 Weeks Out: Yep...Now it's Real.

Hey everyone! I'm back again! I'm officially the worst blogger ever. I can talk and talk and talk, but the second I sit down to write a blog post, it's nothing but crickets in my brain!

So here we are....THREE WEEKS OUT from the NPC Atlantis Competition. I'm nervous and excited all at the same time! I can't believe it's almost here. 

As far as my diet and training go, I've started the dreaded carb cycling. 

(insert tears)

It hasn't been quite as bad as last time because I'm working with 1,850 calories. At least I'm not hungry!
(UPDATE: I actually JUST moved to 1,600 calories...so I will probably start to be hungry. lol)

It still depletes my energy, but I'm hangin' in there!

My cardio was just recently bumped to 5 days at 50 minutes. Holy moly....that's a lot. That's 5 days of cardio on top of my 4 lifting days that include their own metabolic conditioning and supplemental work. All of this work while constantly planning, measuring and packing my food while maintaining a full time job......I'M EXHAUSTED. 

But...I have my good days....

And I have my bad days....

The key is to just focus on one day at a time and one success at a time. And it helps to get myself excited about the very few fun parts of the process. For example, my bikini!!!!!!!

My best friend/bikini partner/therapist/fashion guru Shana and I went to our first bikini fitting!!! AAAAHHHHH!!!! 

I'm in LOVE with the fabric I chose and I can't wait to wear it on stage! We are working with Jeri Di Competition Suits and we couldn't be happier! 

She really took her time to make sure that she was fitting the bikinis to our bodies in order to really showcase the hard work we've put into it.

These are not the bottoms I'll be wearing. These are just serving the purpose of a pattern so she knows exactly how to cut the fabric for my "real" bottoms. 

We'll have another fitting next week where we'll be able to see our bikinis more put together. 

So I guess I will move onto progress photos. I'm posting a comparison of this week's photos vs. my photos I posted last- which were my "7 weeks out" photos.

That's pretty much it for now. I am focused/nervous/anxious/excited all at the same time. But, I definitely feel a lot better this time around. Shana and I are soooo excited to get on that stage....but more importantly... get OFF that stage to dive face first into some bread and wine! hahaha

Have a great week, everyone!!!!