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I’m a black and white person, especially when it comes to contest dieting. There’s no gray area on my nutrition plan. It’s very specific. It’s all written down. Unlike a map, there is only one route to get me from A to B, I can’t take detours and I can’t utilize shortcuts. I have to follow the plan as it’s written so I achieve the desired results.

Willpower is not something that some people are born with and others are not. Willpower is a habit, just like almost everything else in life that determines if you’re going to be successful…or not. Contest dieting is a mental game that requires willpower…a habit that comes with practice. When I started competing 3 ½ years ago it was definitely not as cut and dry to diet as it is for me today. I needed cheat meals to help me mentally. My body didn’t need them but my mind did. These days I don’t do cheat meals during contest prep.

So how do you develop the mental strength and the willpower to stay true to your diet? I have a lot of mental chatter that goes on in my head so I use it to my advantage. In fact, I was just telling Elaine yesterday at the gym that I tend to have really good workouts when I train alone (nobody take this personally!!!) simply because the mental chatter that goes on in my own head is what drives me the most and pushes me to those last few reps I maybe wouldn’t have done. Things like: “Would the winner quit now?” or “Everybody’s watching…you gonna get those last 2 or not?” or “Do you really want to walk away from this set knowing you didn’t give it your everything?” I hate letting myself down, so this talk usually works very well for me. A while back I started telling myself…TRAIN LIKE EVERYBODY’S WATCHING.

A few weeks ago I realized this carried over into my kitchen and so I started telling myself…

EAT LIKE YOUR COMPETITION IS WATCHING

If I imagine one of my competitors is sitting in my kitchen watching every move I make, I guarantee you there is nothing going in my mouth that isn’t supposed to be there. Being surrounded by a ton of “non contest” foods in my home, I have come to rely heavily on mental strategies to help me stay on task. Imagining the watchful eye of another figure competitor who will be on stage with me has been the best strategy I’ve found so far.

And if you’re reading this thinking…”I wonder WHO she imagines!!” My competition has no face, no name…she just IS. After all, my competition is really MYSELF. I’m not competing with any specific person. Just doing everything in my power to bring my A game!

Today is Super Bowl Sunday and many of you have families and obligations that require you to attend some sort of Super Bowl function that will likely include an array of junk foods and drinks. Maybe you have planned this as a cheat meal but maybe you are staying on task and packing your own foods. If you are in a position where you are attending a non-competitor friendly function today…try EATING LIKE YOUR COMPETITION IS WATCHING. It may just make the difference for you reaching into the chip bowl…or not. Remember your goal. That food may taste good but it probably comes at a pretty high price that you just don’t need to pay right now.

A big shout out to all the ladies who come out to Julie Michaelson Training yesterday for posing class! The positive energy and enthusiasm was infectious! Thank you to Elaine for being a wonderful instructor and to Diane Rudholm at ABB/ON and Shannon at BSN for the samples and goodies!

We got the Emerald Cup "green band" mojo goin' on!! Register and get YOURS!!

Be Fearless. Own Yourself.

~Julie~

Fearless, with cape in hand…in relentless pursuit of the GOLDEN tiara

www.juliemichaelsontraining.com

Twitter: @iriefitgirl

Tags: contest prep | diet | training | Posing | Mental Strength | 2012 Emerald Cup

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So, we’re just 10 weeks away from the 2010 Washington Ironman, or, if you live in my world, it’s been 15 weeks since the 2010 Emerald Cup. But, I’m no longer in “recovery mode” and actually starting to feel more like my normal self everyday!

It was 2 years ago this month that I decided to do my first show, the 2008 Washington Ironman. I really had no idea what I was getting myself into…I thought I did, but looking back and knowing what I know now, I was absolutely clueless. I hired a 20 year old trainer from my gym who had assured me he knew how to train competitors. At 20? Really? No offense kid, but that’s doubtful. But, like the good student I aim to be, I followed his advice to the letter along with the advice of my “nutritionist” who as it turned out was giving me diet advice she was getting from some bodybuilder who didn’t even know me. Considering the fact that I wasn’t following the best protocol in training and nutrition, I ended up placing 7^th out of 15 in my class. Also not bad considering I only recently got serious about weight training and when leaned out didn’t have much lean mass to speak of. No delts. No lats. No butt. But there was one thing I could do well…walk in heels.

After that first show I met my friend Jon. He’s a bodybuilder and a CPT, CSCS and was looking for a training partner. He offered to help me with my diet and training and I felt like I had just hit the jackpot! To have his knowledge at my fingertips and to be able to train with him was really exciting. Meeting Jon changed my “competition world.” I learned what it was really like to eat and train like a competitor and then when I was 12 weeks out from Vancouver ’09 Jon turned me over to the “guru”, Dave Patterson. After my first show I knew I liked being on stage and I knew that I wanted to do well in this sport, so when I met Dave I was prepared to do whatever he told me I needed to do.

This sport is not for everybody. I think that the biggest thing you have to be able to do in this sport is SUCK IT UP and the “suck it up factor” is high in competitive bodybuilding. Contest prep doesn’t often feel good. It takes a level of commitment that most people aren’t willing to give. To be successful you must follow a plan and you must make the plan fit into your life somehow. As part of my contest prep I do a lot of cardio. I do morning cardio before my first meal. Given my job and my family obligations, sometimes that means I’m in the gym on the step mill at 3:30am. While I’d obviously rather be sleeping at that hour, I want the results more than I want the sleep. Then, of course, most of us go back to the gym for “round 2” to lift and maybe do more cardio depending on our current level of leanness. It’s a time-consuming sport, no doubt. And to do it right, you have to be intense, you have to push yourself when you don’t feel like it, when you’d rather stop your set at 8 reps when you know you really could make 10. The competitor that loves this stuff pushes for those extra reps because we know…those are the reps that matter.

I haven’t even started on the diet yet. Almost every client I work with tells me…”oh, but I just don’t have time to eat well.” Really, people? Y’all know I have 4 kids, maintain a household by myself, work full time and train twice a day. Please take your excuses somewhere else. The diet takes serious commitment. Sometimes I feel like eating itself is a full time job. When you’re in contest prep mode you can’t miss meals, you have to be impeccable with your meal timing and your supplements. You can’t go 15 hours without eating (uh-hum, not naming any names). Most of us work, so we have to be prepared in advance with our meals for each day. For me, this usually means an afternoon of food prep on Sunday and sometimes a second day during the week so I’ve got everything ready to go for the week ahead.

Anyone who has competed before can tell you that the final weeks of contest prep SUCK. I will never forget one of my sessions (actually, it was probably many) that Dave told me…”Jules, you haven’t suffered before. You’re gonna have to suffer to make this show.” And I was ready…bring it! I’m ready to suffer and suffer I did. It sucked. Managing my daily life, my kids, my other obligations was very challenging, but I did it because I wanted it and I wanted it bad. To achieve the level of conditioning and leanness that it takes to really look your best on stage, you don’t have any options, you have to suffer. You have to put in the hard work. If you don’t want it that bad, you aren’t going to do it. It’s definitely not for everyone. If achieving the physiques of a competitor was easy, you’d see everybody walking around like they stepped out of a fitness magazine.

This is my life now. Well, I don’t suffer all the time, but I know that for me to look my best at a show I have to put in my “suffering time.” But even when I’m not in contest prep, I do my cardio most mornings before my first meal and then I go back later in the day to lift and maybe do more cardio. I keep my diet pretty dialed in most of the time because it feels good to me that way and also because when I try to differently it just doesn’t feel right. It’s just become my way of life and I truly find it rewarding and enjoyable.

So…how bad do YOU want it? Is it in you?

~Julie~

Fearless, with cape in hand

Tags: contest prep

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