Sunday 21 February 2010

Quick update on short term goal...!



I don't have time to update properly as I'd like to get an early night for once and get up early to go to the gym...

You see, I have a short-term goal to work towards, and scarily short it is too!!

In 13 weeks from today I will be attending the FAME UK Champs in my hometown of London.

Gulp

In my usual impulsive style I thought about this a bit yesterday before going out and drinking too much for the 3rd time in the space of 5 days and woke up this morning thinking "that's it, I need a new challenge"

So I've entered! And now I'm scared.

I first heard about this a little while ago on facebook from Jay Benedetti who won the Maximuscle Body of 2009 Cover Model category, he has entered and will be blogging about his progress.

However, it wasn't until I looked in my latest copy of ultra-FIT (which does seem to get better and better with each issue I read :-) ) that I paid it much attention as they've dedicated most of the magazine to training for, and competing in, bodybuilding and fitness shows!

The mag featured the lovely Eleni Plakitsi who won the Fitness Model category and came 2nd in the Bikini Model too!

Her victory was facilitated by the equally lovely and very wise Audrey Kaipio, herself a FAME UK Fitness Model winner, 2 years earlier back in 2007, and who now trains and models and will be heading up the 'FAME Camp' that I'm hoping to attend next month as it's also, very handily, being held in London! :-)

So, it's good to have a new challenge but I'm a bit terrified in that it's only 13 weeks away!

The good news is that I've gotten back into my weight training and I think I've got a decent amount of muscle mass already in place.

The bad news is that I have a lot of fat covering these fabulous muscles, especially round my mid-section, which might be thanks to all the boozing, hmm

Basically, I need to sort it out, and fast, otherwise I'm just going to make a prat out of myself in front of a lot of people!

The alcohol is going to go out of the window (though not literally!), I'm going to try and not drink at all but my birthday is the week before the FAME champs so I'm going to be realistic and say that I'm going to reduce it quite a bit.

I've been reading a lot about alcohol for my Open University course and the effects of ethanol on the body, it's not great, especially if you're trying to lose weight!

You know that our body has no way of storing alcohol so it uses it for energy. Great you may think? However, that means that your body is not calling on its fat reserves for fuel and, worse still, if you've eaten a big meal while drinking (or grabbed a bite to eat while out because you've had alcohol-induced munchies), that food will just be stored. Great... not!!

So yeah, alcohol is bad news if you're trying to lose weight and, to be honest, it's something I could do without for a while as I'm going to try and make every calorie count, and that means avoiding any empty or frivolous calories... basically, if it's not going towards muscle repair, recovery and rebuild - or providing me with a good source of long-lasting energy, it's not going to get consumed. Fact.

So, tomorrow will be the first day of my new training regime. I'm going to sit down at lunch tomorrow and plan everything out for the next 12 weeks and really try and nail it! I'm also going to do some research into what's expected in these shows, I'll need to get a bikini, some fake tan and some ridiculously high transparent-heeled shoes too I think!!

Excited, but scared, more excited though, I think this is just what I need to spur me into action, I've been getting complaisant, it's time to kick ass!!

So, the only thing left is to ask who's going to join me in this little escapade?! JAG, Gym Ninja, Lucie...anyone?! :-)

TJx

4 comments:

  1. Thanks Foxy and congratulations on your fantastic news!! :-) x

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  2. Hi, just found your blog. I know what you mean about alcohol not being our friend. I love wine, but I limit myself to one glass a week instead of my nightly pour that I used to have. My trainer says that alcohol's dehydrating affect can diminish performance too.

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  3. Hi Karen, yes you're totally right, alcohol is just bad news when it comes to performance: http://www.criticalbench.com/muscle-alcohol.htm

    It's such a shame that red wine is so damn tasty!! I actually really enjoy non-alcoholic lager but you just can't get the same with wine... red grape juice is tasty but just way too sweet and is just not the same!!

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