Hi Ladies!
It's nice to see that everyone is doing so well!
Ok here goes (since i've been a little mia on pm lately)
Jr. Nationals was a great time! despite my 16th place finish (yes, i was actually 16th according to the scores even tho everyone has a 16 by their name!), so i missed my goal of top 15 by one... judges indicated i was too lean and needed more mass. Had great shoots with Dan Ray, Brian Moss and Cal from CSI Photo and enjoyed a wonderful weekend with the other girls and especially Ali n Rob.
Since Jr. Nationals, I took a good 2 months "off" and by that I mean, I still trained, but not super hard (except for legs with Rob
) and did cardio here and there, but nothing really consistent. Took some camping trips, had a great time while my dad came to visit me, all in all, just hung out with friends and lived a semi "normal, processed food and sugar" life... LOL. Those damn white chocolate mochas at starbucks! I say semi becuase i didn't go overboard, just didn't feel bad for having a cookie or 10...
anyway, it took me these past 2 months or so to gain my 8-10lbs back. the prep into Jr. Nationals was really so awesome! i really didn't have any grumpiness or bad mood swings, kept at least 1/2 cup of ezekial carbs in every day, in addition to some veggie carbs, ate 7x per day, kept a lot of water in during the depletion week and really, it wasn't depletion at all!
The diet was just on point and worked without the bloat afterwards.
However, the processed foods and sugar etc definitely put a damper on my energy levels, motivation and made me breakout like a teenager!
I've also been dealing with things I thought were depression (lack of concentration, irritable mood, losing hair while brushing, lack of sex drive, etc), however turns out they may just be related to the lack of testosterone in my body. Got a blood panel done last week, came back VERY low in test... SO, tomorrow i'll head down to the apothecary to pick up a topical test cream to use for 3-6 months, get another blood panel done and go from there...
SO, I decided September 1 I was going to clean everything up and get back at it like we all do... so far day 3, not much energy change yet but I swear in 3 days i've lost a lb or 2.
I'm unsure of my competition future. I fight for every fiber of muscle naturally and think i've realized it would be difficult for me to keep up with other national competitors in the NPC...so, if/when I get the itch again, it will most likely be in a natural federation.
No matter what happens, i will always stick to the lifestyle of a figure competitor...it just feels good!
Wishing everyone the best!