Giving up sugar again!

So the sugar devil was back!

After my last show...after all was said and done...after my once a week cheat treat it started.

First it was 2x a week...hot balls, a few chocolate bars...or 3. 

Next thing I know I'm stopping by my favorite market to pick up a bag of peppermints.

Then I would go way out of my way to get these gluten free gummy bears.

Yep I was back on!

Not as bad as I used to be...

No jelly beans.

No York peppermint patties.

But it was definitely 4-5x week. And definitely several pieces thruout the day.

No wonder the scale was going up....

Show day I was about 120ish.

And post 6 weeks of candy I was up to 124/125... A solid 4.5 pounds.

So last Friday (my birthday) was D Day!

Yes my birthday!!

I knew I had to get a grip.

I knew it was a slippery slope.

So I picked a super hard day to start. 

The hardest day!

Yep I like a challenge...

On my birthdays my amazing husband always gets me a made from scratch strawberry cake with cream cheese icing...the only cake I like! 

Well he didn't know I had made my birthday THE DAY to stop...so he bought me my birthday cake.

And guess what I didn't have a single bite...not a taste....nada! 

I froze the cake instead....for when I don't know but for now it's frozen.

So today's day 6 and I am officially over the hump.

I am down 1.6 pounds from the extra sugar candy calories alone...nothing else in my diet has changed...working out has been the same. All just empty candy calories. 

6 days 1.6 pounds.

Do I still crave it yes!

Have I cheated NO!

Am I going to cheat NO! 

For how long? I don't know....I have made it thru Lent. 

And I have made it with just one cheat a week...which for me a healthy way to do it.

For now I just needed to get a grip on my old sugar friend! 

And I have once again! 

 

Children's summer reading...

These are two from our Mensa list that we had never read....and wow are they both amazing! 

Read more Here about the Mensa book list...we've been working on it for awhile now. 

I highly recommend both...for old and young alike! Beautifully illustrated!  Great morals!

The Quiltmaker's Gift teaches about the importance of giving... It is a lovely book!! 

And If I Never Forever Endeavor....ohhhh how I loved this one! It's about always trying...going for what scares you...doing the thing you want to do! Wow...don't we all need to hear this! Even at my age....making ourselves happy...doing the one thing that you want to do but you are terrified to do it....

Isnt it always better to try and fail then to never try at all!?! 

And this this gem ...Freckle Juice....I was able to share with my sweetie...takes me back to my own childhood! I remember reading it for the first time! I don't know who enjoyed it more?? 

We have 12 more in our Mensa book list! Wow what a fantastic list of books we have read this past year! 

Reading....gardening....learning...

I love to read!

I love bookstores!

I love to read to my child!

I love her love for books!

However I find it hard to find time to read adult books...

But today I finished this little gem!

Amazing! 

I love the author! I feel like we are friends! 

Check it out for yourselves....

The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities

He did amazing things and built amazing gardens to help support his community.

Last summer you may remember I tried my hands at my very first container garden. Read more ....Here about how I started our first one. 

My flowers did fantastic...Pipiri and I loved it and learned together about the importance of watering, planting, pulling weeds, what works and what doesn't....we discussed so many thing together.

My veggies however didn't do so great. 

So this summer I decided to do just flowers. 

And they look great...I love them! I truly have enjoyed my little garden...it sort of makes me feel like a grown up...(as if being married and having a child don't). 

But....Will has inspired me...so our last trip to the library I noticed that they had many different varieties of seeds. For free! 

The deal with it is...once your plants or veggies have grown...you simply take some of it's seeds back to the library. What a great idea! 

So we planted a few types of lettuces.

I'll let you know how it goes. 

As always thank you for supporting and reading my blog! 

Liposuction caused me to NOT be able to compete in bikini show...what the.....?

So 17/18 years ago....wayyyyy back when I was in my 20s I had liposuction. 

I was young...and thought that it would make me look thinner.

I was not fit.

The only working out I did was the elliptical for half an hour a few times a week. 

This was post college. 

I was not at my heaviest weight but I certainly was not healthy or very active. 

I was eating total crap foods. 

I thought that lipo was the answer.

I had lipo done on my stomach, inner and outer thighs...

I didn't lose one pound. I basically looked exactly the same except now I had ripples on my inner thighs and loose skin on my stomach, 

Not one person could ever tell I had it done. No one ever!! 

Total waste of money!! 

Now jump ahead it's now 2015....about 18 years later...

I am fit. Have been for a very long time...

I don't drink ...haven't for almost 10 years...

I work out 5-6x a week.

My diet is super healthy.

I have had a baby...gained 43ish pounds. And lost every single one of them! 

I have run halfmarathons...5ks...10ks...

I lift weights.

I strength train. 

So when a new "natural" bikini show was making their debut in my town I thought yep doing this one! 

By "natural" apparently they mean no steroids...no doping...no drug enhancing...

So being that the show is in just a few weeks I was going thru the info pages...finding out when I need to be where...it's a ton of scheduling and planning.

The only "drugs" I take are BCAA powders on days when I lift ...and the week of the show I take dandelion root for water weight. That's it nothing more. 

So I totally assumed I was clear with the "no drugs" part of the show being that you have to take a polygraph the day before. Yep a polygraph. 

I went thru the no no list and can completely say that I have never taken any of those drugs. Ever!

On the very last page under miscellaneous it states that a person can't have had any fat reducing procedures ie "ab etching".

Well ummm I have had lipo but it certainly didn't "etch" any abs for me! 

I thought well certainly there's a time limit...certainly being that it's been 18 years...I have given birth...certainly that would count for something...

Ummm NO! 

It doesn't....

I am "Ineligible to enter"! 

That's right folks...I can't enter because I had fat removed from my body in the 1990s!!!!!!!!!! 

I understand that they have rules...truly I do...

But even people that do steroids can enter after 7 years of being clean. 

But nope not me...not lipo girl...I can't enter! 

Yeah because this body was made from lipo....NOT! 

I made myself look this way thru clean eating day in and day out...

Lifting tons of weight...

Drinking 100 ounces of h20 everyday!

Cardio...

Repeat repeat repeat....

So what am I going to do? I was 2 weeks out from this show...

I'm not sure? 

Still working on it...maybe another show without these stipulations like the last one I did. 

I had such a fantastic experience at the NPC show...I will for sure stick with them!  

They accepted me lipo and all! 

Next Bikini Show...?

After my first show I knew that I wanted to do another one...but only after I took home second place. I knew then that I wanted to try to bring home a first and do better in the Open category (I got 6th in the Open in the first show)...(Open Ctaegory is against all other contestants). 

Having to balance homeschooling... being a family... working out... being a mom...having adult friends...cleaning my house...the list never ends...errands...sick kiddo....bank....grocery...grocery...grocery....doctor apts...hair apts...

It's tough. It's life.

Prepping for a bikini show is very time consuming.

For me I workout 5x a week year round. About 1-1.5 hours per day. 

I eat clean everyday. It just works for me. I prefer living a super clean lifestyle. And eating super healthy works for me.  Except my one cheat meal a week..(lately I've had two cheat treats instead of a full cheat meal.)

So for the last show I had to amp up my workouts the month prior to the show. 

I worked out 6x a week. For 1.5-2 hours per session. 

Stopped all cheat treats and meals 3 weeks prior. Which is super hard!! 

So I am prepping now for my next show.

I have one more cheat treat next weekend. Then none until after the show.

And starting this week it's 6x a week at the gym. 

I also hired new posing coaches. I'm loving my new routine!! Which I will continue practicing daily until it feels perfect. (Posing is the hardest thing for me! And it's a HUGE part of these shows!!!! HUGE)!!!

Soooo.....

Here we go show number 2!!!