17 weeks out

I am now 17 weeks out. Give or take a few days. Last week wasnt bad at all. Kept pretty on track. Added a few extra carbs & fats in a few places, missed one session of cardio but got in 4 extra MMA training classes. So it balanced out to the right amount of calories burned.

I took pictures yesterday & sent updates to GIna. Im actually 135.8lbs now. Apparently Im looking on track. I personally feel like and look like Ive gone backwards but as of yesterday I got one cardio session cut out.

This weeks schedule is : bi/tri/glutes & Cardio Kickboxing
Tuesday: Calves/ Abs/ Shoulders 25min stairmill 25 min treadmill at incline
Wednesday: Off from Weights Cardio kickboxing
Thursday: Track WOrkout - 25 min stairmill 25 min treadmill at incline
Friday: Legs ( glutes & Hams ) 9 am kickboxing
Saturday: JuJitsu & Shoulders Hams & Abs
Sunday: 25 Min stairmill 25 min treadmill & Interval treadmill workout

Almost 100% moved in to the new place. Im glad I found it and can get all my meal prepared the way they are supposed to be on time & everything hahaa... Love it!

Well today is long, I'll be at the store till 8 then headed off to the gym to train and get cardio in after that!!

I posted my front pic I sent to Gina yesterday.... LOL the only good part about it... I wont look like that in a few weeks thank GOD!

6:30am Came faster than expected... I was ready for it though

Happy Thursday Everyone!!!

Wow, yesterday was insane! I had some built up aggression yesterday so I decided to take it out on the gym. Wednesdays are my off days for weight training so I woke up around 7:00am had 1/4c oats with 1 scoop of Dymatize protein. ( I usually dont use that brand but my proteins at my old place ahhaah) Downed a BRN-2 and headed out to train Brazilian Ju-jitsu at 8am.

Class was fun. My usual partner in crime wasnt there but thankfully another girl showed up. We learned a few new techniques. There's a cardio kick-boxing class after that so I decided to grab my gloves and unload on the heavy bags for an hour. After that I headed home to eat meal #2. 1/4c oats with 5 egg whites... soooo good! Topped with salsa and spray butter it has to be my FAVORITE meal of the day hands down! I ran some errands yesterday then headed back to the gym for cardio kickboxing #2 with Billy.

Im not sure if it was the d-fine 8 I had before, the built up aggression or the fact that I was 5 meals in by that class but I had an AMAZING workout the second time around. I was sweating all over the place, landing tough punches and keeping up with everyone. It felt soo good afterwards.

Anytime Im struggling with things in my life, I head to the gym, listen to music or hit the book store for a refresher. Lately Ive been using the MMA training. Theres something about being surrounded with people who not only love to workout but they are doing functional training, with strategy involved. THings that bothered you when you walked in the doors of the gym, seem to fade with each bead of sweat, punch & heart pumping cardio training that you get from it. Nothing else exsits when you start training like that. I get like that during weight training as well. Sometimes I get lost in the surrounds but with any MMA training theres no room for your mind to wonder. It will end in an arm bar, wrong punch to the bag or not as effective of a workout.

After the cardio kickboxing I decided to jump into the Muay Tai class. Its not all about cardio which is a nice change up. Much different to have someone punching AT you instead of just punching the bag! ahahha.. but it was still a great time and a great way for me to calm my nerves & relieve the built up stress!

This morning I got up at 6:00 for a track workout. I headed off to a friends to meet them and then we headed to find a track. Since schools in session its hard to get on to the tracks on a weekday. We found a smaller soccer park and modified our workout. It took us about 45 min to complete I would say. Great way to get the blood going and metabolisim revved up!!

Got back to their house and had 5 egg whites with 1/2c oatmeal ( Todays high carb day!) lol.... sooo good!!! FAVORITE MEALLLLL

I have an SD card on its way for our flip video and I will soon be loading videos of the workouts and training so you guys can see what really goes down in theses ass kicking workouts!

Its almost time to eat again.... I'll be in the store all day today.. Hopefully I have enough food :)

Applesauce, flasks & sushi send off!!

Good Morning everyone!! Hope your weeks going well so far!!

Guess Ive been a little MIA for the past week. It all started with Monday. I decided to go out to dinner with a friend. Had a few drinks & sushi... then some more drinks. haha... Oh needless to say I had more calories than I should of. Missed a lot of workouts last week.

I know the Cal is right around the corner. Contest prep officially starts 15 weeks out from the date of the contest which is FEB> 13th!! Getting a head start on a contest prep is never a bad idea. In my mind I like to have one last crazy week/weekend filled with consuming whatever I feel like may it be Nachos, Drinks, etc. So thats what last week was! I ate terrible the entire week and now Im feeling the effects. My workouts are very slow & it takes me a while to get out of bed. It usually takes me about a full week or 5 days to clear all the toxins out of my body and be back to normal.

This morning I got in 25 min of stairmill at 24 hour fitness in Indio. It went by quick, especially after my friend Courtney ( whos getting ready for her first NPC Bikini competition. She'll be doing the Orange County Classic April 24th!!) Its always nice to have a cardio & workout buddy. Keeping you accountable to your workouts and also being there to push one another. For this contest prep, that is one thing Im going to get in more of. WOrking out with several others to push myself & to also help them out as well!!!

Im already down 2 meals.

meal 1: 5 egg whites w/ salsa & spray butter.
1/4c oatmeal w/ 1/4c homemade applesauce for flavor.

meal 2: 4 egg whites w/ 1.5 scoop of protein powder 1/4c oats with another splash of applesauce. Made into pancakes!! SOOO YUMMY. and of course, topped with SPray butter hehehe...

my next meal will be a salmon patty with green beans & a slice of ezikel bread.

Got a lot of planning to do, as well as orders to place in the store. Today will be busy busy!! Cant wait. :) I'm hitting shoulders & calves tonight. Should be an awesome workout. Then BJJ in the AM!!! :)

San Diego & picking myself back up

Happy Sunday to all!! Hope your day of rest is filled with recharging energy for the up coming week. Get outside, take a walk with ones you love, see a movie, DO SOMETHING!!! :)

Friday was a little rocky, I decided last min to head down to San Diego to meet with my trainer Gina. I headed out around 4pm after getting oil changed. Got to San Diego around 6pm. I headed straight to Worlds Gym off Garnet to get in my back workout that I had missed the other day.

I did wide lat pull downs, dumbbell rows, straight arm push downs for the lats on cables & finished with close grip cable rows.

After the mini back workout, I headed upstairs to hit the stairmill for 25 min. Then headed to the treadmill to finish the other 25 min.

Being back in that gym, seeing all the dedication surrounding the weights, peoples hearts pumping away on cardio equiptment with the cool crisp air of San Diego was an amazing flash back. I used to head down there several times a month to see Gina during my contest prep in 08. Something about that gym, its a calming feeling for me. Like a sportsman slap on the backside saying " Good job, keep going, you got this" I feel in my own focused world at that gym, its crazy.

After that headed to a friends house to eat my meals and get some sleep.

Saturday, woke up and had 1/2c of oatmeal with 1 scoop of high 5 pineapple banana protein. headed in to see Gina at 11. She looked amazing as always. Such a positive vibe from her. She showed my shoulders the workout they've been needing haha & we went over some posing. This year, I need to change up my posing and hit my hamstrings as hard as possible for the next 19 weeks.

Main things I need to focus on is being 100% with my diet and training. Getting in all the food that is recommended and hitting the body parts I need to as hard as possible. The biggest concerns I have this contest season, is not coming in showing drastic improvements. Building muscle is a slow process. It takes years to build good, solid, dense muscle. Being female, it just adds one more thing... ESTROGEN!!! It makes it even tougher to put on the muscle that I want.

So today, its back to the gym after I leave the shop. I have cardio to do today & thats it. I might throw some abs in there since I didnt do them yesterday.
I got an updated plan with track workouts & some new cardio varations so this week will be interesting. Ill try and get the track workout on video so you can see what I do.

Have an awesome Sunday!!!

Alarm went off, I hit snooze

Good Morning everyone!!! Well today I had the intentions of waking up with my alarm, which I did, but instead of throwing on my workout gear I hit snooze and drifted back to sleep for an hour and a half.

Yesterday was full of cardio!! I did BJJ in the morning for an hour. Learned a choke hold with the GI & got in some live rolling time. Did the cardio kickboxing at 6pm. It was a revved up class last night!! Full of high intensity drills & we even got to practice our ground and pound on some bags. I decided to stick around to try out a Muay Tai class. It was a nice change of pace, a little slower, but more technique driven. I so excited to learn the different styles of martial arts. Its a ton of fun & I get an amazing workout doing it! If there's a school by you I encourage you to stop in and try a class or two. You'd be surprised how much it helps you stay focused and burn off that extra weight.

This year Im really trying to focus on functional training. Not only do I want to continue to build lean mass but I want to be athletic as well. So far, its working out great & I cannot wait to continue my adventures. Thanks for checking in..

TOnight: I still need to get in 25min of stairmill 25 min of treadmill on an incline. 10 of those min are inclined while holding 10lb dumbells.

weight training tonight is: Abs, back & Calves. :) Love love love training back so this will be an easy night followed by my cardio. :)

Oh My Quad!

Happy Hump Day everyone!! Hope all is well & you are all one step closer to your goals.

This morning woke up about 7am, made my 4 egg whites with 1/2c oatmeal. Of course I watched Keeping up with the Kardashian's as I munch down my first meal. Usually I wake up, take my fat burner and head into the gym for round one of cardio but Today it was BJJ at 8am.

Today's class was more technique than just live rolling, but I still got a good sweat in. Im going to go back tonight and get some kickboxing in just to make sure I got my cardio on for the day... plus I got new handwraps I need to try out... & there's always some good motivation there.

Second meal was 1/4c oats, 4 egg whites, 1/2scoop of High 5 pine/ban with one strawberry cut up & topped with spray butter!! Sooo delicious. After that I headed out to get my nails done.

Cant wait for tonights class then relax time!!! Its my day off of weight training, I need some R&R my QUADS ARE KILLING ME!!!!! I CAN HARDLY WALK STRAIGHT.

Salmon Patties & Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Currently 20 weeks out from my contest.
current weight: 135.5
Current Cardio: 50 min 4x's per week, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu 3x's per week & Kickboxing 1-2 times per week 1 hour each.
Favorite food at the moment: Salmon Patties from Trader Joes


Happy Tuesday everyone!! Im a couple weeks into 2010 & things are going well so far. Ive been working with Gina Aliotti for the past few months now in preparation for the 2010 California State Figure Championships in May. So far Im down 10lbs on the scale & at least 12-15lbs of fat. This year I hope to bring a fuller package to the stage with some added wheels.

This year I decided I wanted to change things up from the usual indoor cardio I do for my contest prep. Ive started taking some Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu classes as well as a few kickboxing classes at Technique inside World Gym of Indio. Im so excited to get off the stairs and on to the mat to burn some extra calories. As I type this my body is sore, Ive been downing XTR & Glutamine all day like its candy. Not only is it a great cardio workout, but I love learning the technique used to submit opponents. Its like playing Chess. After my BJJ class on Monday, we had an hour of conditioning with jump squats and some ab work. It was an amazing start to the week!

Gina has cut my regular cardio down to 4x's a week. 50 min, 25 of which are on the stepmill & the other are on the treadmill at an incline. Aside from that I am doing the BJJ 3x's per week plus a class or two of Kickboxing when I feel the extra Umph to get in there.

Food has been cycled as always. I have higher carb days & low carb days. It keeps my body guessing and constantly burning all day long I love it!

Ive been really challenging my cooking & taste buds this year so far. Im stepping out of the traditional chicken and rice. Gina has shown me that not only can we eat delicious food but we can get lean doing it!!! My new favorite new food item is something I found at Trader Joes. I love salmon but I can only eat it at one meal because its usually higher in fat. WELL NOT ANY MORE!!! I found Salmon Patties that have 1.5g of fat 3g of carbohydrates & 21g of protein!!!!!! THey are already packed in 4's and only cost $4.80 a package. Stop in the store today and grab some. I cannot wait to stock back up. They come in handy while Im in the store. I just grill a few packages on Sunday & they last me the whole week. REheat for 2min and Im ready for my meal!

This year Im really focusing on building more leg muscle as I stated earlier. I need to bring out my hamstrings, glutes & calves. Ive been doing legs 2-3xs a week and incorporating a lot of supersets & plyo type of training. The MMA conditioning is going to help me not only get tighter, but get just that little bit extra cut in some of the areas I need. I cannot wait to see how I develop of the next few months!! The contest is at the end of May so I only have 5 months to go.

I'll be posting progress pictures up very soon & Im going to be adding videos of MMA training as well as some weight training that I'll be doing.

Thanks for checking in. If you have any fitness questions you can email me @ maxinemuscle@gmail.com :)