The real life of a female Body Builder – part 5

This is my 5th blog about my journey to compete as a figure competitor with the British National Body-Building Federation (BNBF).

Since my last blog I have been away on holiday for a week. I was able to use this as a rest/recovery week. I only trained twice for about 30 minutes, really to maintain what I had and not get out of condition. I relaxed on the nutrition as well, I didn’t go completely nuts even though I was tempted by the amount of cake and creamy deserts that were on display! I was good for the first two days, eating only meat and veg. After those initial few days, however, I indulged in some desserts in the evening… it was like heaven after having nothing nice to eat for the past 12 weeks!

My coach / trainer James Buckingham from www.pfpexeter.co.uk (PFP Exeter) measured my body fat before I went away. He wanted me down to between 6-7% but I only managed to get to 8%. I was a bit gutted that I wasn’t lower but he said it was fine and he was happy with the progress I had made.

When I returned from holiday he measured it again and I had gone up to 8.8%. I was actually quite surprised as I thought I would have put on more so I was happy with that. I had, however, also lost 0.7 kg of very hard gained muscle…damn!

I am now in to the final 11 weeks of training prior to the competition, everything now steps up a gear. James has changed my programs again back to a ‘Full body conditioning’ phase for the next two weeks to strip off the added holiday fat and lean me up further prior to another ‘build phase’.

My nutrition now has to be spot on. I am making sure that I am getting enough protein on board, which for me is about 160g from animal protein over the day. I have also stopped snacking between meals. I was eating a few nuts and ‘picking’ as I got hungry but can’t do that now, just have to stay disciplined until my next meal! 

I have started to work on my posing which we all have to do on stage. It doesn’t come naturally to me and is something I have to practice. We all do four compulsory poses so I must make sure I have them nailed. Also I have to perform my own routine on stage, so I am also working on putting that together. Weirdly, every time I walk past a mirror I find myself looking and judging myself… can’t help it, I want to be the best that I can be on that stage!!!

In my next blog I will discuss how the training's going and my latest body fat measurements. Thanks for reading.

Please click on the link if you want to read more, including notes from James Buckingham... http://www.precisionperformance.co.uk/wp/fat-loss/the-real-life-of-a-female-body-builder-part-5