On October 27th, 2007, I'll be competing in my first figure competition in Middletown, OH. I've never competed in a figure competition or even been to one, but getting ready for the show has been an amazing experience with lots of highs and lows. It's been incredible to see the results of pushing my workouts and diet to a new level.

Measuring my body fat

Every four weeks I go to see my trainer, Dave Uhlman. He measures my body fat percentage with a fat caliper to see what kind of progress I've made since my last visit. Measuring body fat is crucial to success. It doesn't matter how much I weigh, it only matters that I'm losing body fat. 18 weeks before the competition, I started at 15.6% body fat. 5 weeks before the competition I am at 10.76% body fat. What a difference losing 5% body fat has made!

I log my body fat measurements into Body Tracker so I can keep track of my progress. If you have no idea how to calculate your body fat percentage, Body Tracker will show you everything you need to know to do it.

Diet

I can't emphasize enough how important the diet is. Some days it's easy to stay on the diet, and some days I can't stop thinking about food. I do get one cheat meal per week, when my family and I go out to dinner. I'm really into calzone right now with pepperoni, mushrooms, and lots of cheese. It's all the things I don't get to eat during the week.

Preparing six meals per day is time consuming and takes extra effort. It would save a lot of time to just drink protein shakes, but I'm not a big fan of liquid diets so I cook. I love vegetables, too, so I spend a lot of time chopping those.

Working Out

I get up every morning at 6:20 and I workout for one hour. I've been doing some form of cardio several nights per week for 20 minutes, also. I have no trainer to help me with my workouts, so I read a lot of magazines explaining how to workout. I have learned so much about working out along the way, and I plan to build more muscle after this contest is over.

What I've Learned

From this competition not only have I gained a nice figure, but beyond the physical transformation I've learned I have the willpower, motivation, and self-discipline to do almost anything. It's been an amazing, uplifting, confidence boosting experience that I plan on doing again.

My Diet

This is the diet my trainer gave me. I stayed on this diet the entire 18 weeks of contest preparation. I could add raw or steamed vegetables to any meal. Lean meats are fish, shrimp, chicken breast, 96% lean ground beef, or turkey. For meals 2 and 4, the fat source could be olive oil, avocado, almond butter, cashew butter, peanut butter, walnuts, or any other non-saturated fat.

Meal #1
2 T oatmeal with 1 T flaxseed meal
4 egg whites plus 1 whole egg

Meal #2
2 scoops Beverly International protein powder mixed with 2 cups water

Meal #3
Large salad with 5 oz lean meat and 1 T olive oil OR 2.75 oz avocado and 1 T balsamic vinegar
OR 2 cups vegetables with 5 oz lean meat and 1 T almond butter

Meal #4
2 scoops Beverly International protein powder mixed with 2 cups water

Meal #5
Large salad with 5 oz lean meat and 1 T olive oil OR 2.75 oz avocado and 1 T balsamic vinegar
OR 2 cups vegetables with 5 oz lean meat and 1 T almond butter

Meal #6
4 egg whites plus one whole egg

Exercise
5 days per week - 15 minutes cardio followed by weight training (30 - 45 minutes) and another 20 minutes cardio (could be done later in the day)
1 day per week - 35 minutes of cardio