Road to Skinny-Part 2

Soooo, where were we.....  Ah HA!  My first fitness competition.  So I sign up for this camp full of ladies with the same interests as me!  Well, not the wrestling part but working out and healthy lifestyle.  Awesome!  I go there and instantly fall in love with it all!  The girls, the coaches, the atmosphere just everything.  Chatting with girls and seeing the coaches and how the girls got ready to get onstage.  Watching several fitness routines.  I was in!  I get home after the weekend and immediately sign up with the coaching team.  I pick my show.  Ordered my suit and on my way to emptying my bank account.  LOL!  No one lets you know this part.  You are going to spend some serious cash when you compete.  My bikini, a freakin bikini I would never in a million years wear anywhere else, cost my $400.  Yes you read that right.  $400!!  That's a car payment!  But it's ok because I'm going to get skinny, get onstage, impress judges, impress WWE and of course get a job with them.  Duh!  $400 was totally worth it!

So, I get my plan for my show and it turns out it's the same plan every other girl is on.  Workouts are exactly the same for each girl.  Nutrition plans....Yup!  You guessed it!  All the same.  For a split second I thought "Wait.  This can't be right.  How is that 4'11 girl going to eat the same amount of food as me?"  Of course I just shook it off like a little solider and said "Noooo.  These guys are the professionals.  They know better than me."  Also, as a wrestler you just do as you're told.  No questions asked.  If you have to take 16 bodyslams in a row during a practice you just do.  Just like 1200 calories while doing cardio for about 2 hours per day while fitting in weight training you just do.

What else no one tells you is you will work like you never have before for about 3 months.  You will become this crazy little warrior and not think twice about your fasted cardio.  Wake up at 3 am to get to the gym by 4 am for an hour of cardio, go to work, go back to the gym for weights, get back on cardio, food prep, finally make time for a shower then pass out to repeat for 3 months.  This is why competitors get cranky everyone.  They aren't exactly living the life!  LOL!  I was lucky enough to get morning sprints that had to be outside in the Northeast during Sept, Oct and Nov.  Friggin COLD!

So on top of all that sunshine and rainbows I was also wrestling every weekend.  Practice was 2-3 times per week on top of all that.  Unfortunately, that was seen by my competition coach as everyday life and extra food would be considered cheating on my program.  Hello!  Wrestling practice.  Wrestling shows.  That was normal life.  OOOOKKKK.  LOL!  So I definitely got skinny!  I definitely dropped about a good 15-20 lbs.  But I was drained, beat up and struggling at my everyday job that I was still balancing.  It was hard to focus.  You would hear other competitors talking about starting to cry for no reason at all on their low carb days and the coaches say "Yea, that'll happen when we play with your nutrition."  That's normal?  At this point any liquid or food in your body needs to be saved!  LOL!

So finally it comes to show day and I had no freakin clue what I was in for.  Firstly, tanning.  You turn into an Ompa Lumpa.  That orange/brown.  You stop showering about 3 days before the show.  Shave absolutely every part of your body.  Slap on about 5 lbs of make up and another 12  in hairspray.  Up close we look like Ompa Lumpas in drag.  I loved it!  Oh!  And I had a match the night before my first show.  I also was water depleted and had to stop drinking water at 7 pm the night before the fitness competition.  Well, the wrestling show starts at 8 pm and my match was an hour into the match.  AWESOME!  After the match I thought I would going to die!  Lots of ice cubes!

Anyways, day of show I was so happy to step on stage as the pretty skinny tan girl!  I made it!  I followed plan, made my sacrifices and followed through to my goal.  I was so proud and exhausted!  LOL!  That night after the show I did like every other competitor and binged!  I ordered 2 different appetizers, a burger with fries, a beer and dessert.  I also threw up half way through and then went back for more.  My body had no idea what was going on!  And that was just the start!  There was a whole weekend ahead of me.  And that will be my next post : )

To be continued.......  Oh!  And here's some awesome photos  LOL.  My posing was absolute shit in these and I giggle every time I see them LOL!

  

The Road to Skinny-Part 1

Once upon a time I was a bookkeeper.  Yes, I had this happy little desk job and I worked 9-5 and had a little cubicle in an office with no window and strangely resembled the movie Office Space.  At this point I hadn't dieted or watched what I ate.  I drank beer, smoked butts, ate pizza you know, the healthy type of girl. My normal weight to walk around (without exercise) was 138.  138!!!  I wore whatever I wanted and didn't think twice!  Beach in a bikini bahh!  Not even a question.  I owned like 50!

Then one day I decided I wanted to change.  I wanted to get healthy.  I had started hanging out with a group of people who went to the gym and did their idea of healthy eating.  I wanted to give it a go.  I was 21 and started trying to run around the neighborhood.  Funny thing is I grew up in Boston.  Now, in the above paragraph I fessed up and said I was a smoker....in Boston....IT'S F'N COLD!  I literally almost threw up the first time I went running.  I thought I broke my lungs!  So, I took my broken lungs and started at a gym on this crazy elliptical machine.  I didn't even know the name of it!  I knew I had a similar effect of broken lungs but no frost bite to go with it.  Bingo!  Now I'm a cardio bunny!  1 hour on the elliptical?  No problem! Once I quit smoking lol!

Now I'm working out, I'm trying to research in magazines what eating healthy actually is, I'm quitting smoking, going to the gym and then I find pro wrestling.  For the first time in my life I'm actually decent at a sport!  See I danced for about 10 years and sports just weren't my thing.  Give me some ballet shoes and I'll plie like a mofo but throw a ball to me and we're more along the lines of Marsha Brady in that amazing Brady Bunch episode.  

I LOVED WRESTLING!  The training was a little tricky being one of the only girls but I kept going back and working as hard as I could.  I wasn't super strong so I tried learning more about weights from the boys.  The only thing was boys (no offense) like to lift for boy muscles.  i.e. arms, chest, shoulders and back.  You aren't going to get much more than that lol.  But I didn't know anything so I followed and kept up as much as I could.  Just when I thought I was doing well and getting my groove someone used the term SkinnyFat on me.  I didn't quite understand what that meant.  How can I be Skinny and Fat???  Then they were kind enough to elaborate.  "Well it's when you're skinny but jiggly".  Yes, this was said to my face and numerous times.  How the F*&k do I fix skinny fat???  So I went to work and listened to every bit of advice I got.  "You need to eat more to get muscle" "You're already pear-shaped so don't work your legs.  They'll get bigger."  "You need more cardio to tighten up"  "You need to eat less to lean out"  "You should try Atkins.  You get to eat bacon!"  So starts my lovely road to skinny....

At the beginning of wrestling I was known as the little girl.  The one everyone threw around.  Yeaaaa  I'm 5'8.  It's pretty awkward to throw around a girl my size even if she weighs 138 lbs.  After awhile I got better at my craft and was able to actually hold my ground some.  Then I started to get some weight on myself.  Traveling became a big part of my life and I lived on and off in Mexico for a year and a half.  It was amazing!  I loved it!  AND....I was able to get strong and put on some muscle while I was there since my main focus was wrestling and working out.  When I came home I was a different lady and proud of it!  My wrestling style had changed along with my body.  No more skinny fat for this broad!  I was feeling confident until one day when I was going to send in video of what I thought was good work and a fit looking chick and my trainer turned to me and said "Do you see those girls on TV?  Do you seriously think you look like that?"  How do you answer that???  You know he was asking for a reason.  So I never sent the video.  I then decided I would again see where I could get info on how to "eat healthy".  

Through my research I found out about competing.  How amazing was this???  I get to workout, eat healthy, get the look of the girls on TV and I get onstage (where I love to be) and look like a barbie.  And wait!  No one is going to punch me in the face???  BRILLIANT!  I'm all in!  I was lucky enough to meet a young lady who was getting her nails done at the same time as me and she was tan.  Oh I mean tan.  And cranky!  LOL!  My guess right away was she must be a competitor.  Lucky she was and I didn't look like an idiot when I asked her.  LOL.  She gave me info to a woman who was close by and had a smaller team.  I reached out to her and bam!  I was getting ready for my first competition.  

I've added some photos from this time and will be doing Part 2 of my Road to Skinny soon.  Hope you enjoy!!  Love any feedback : )