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 Julie
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| 18 Weeks - Dear Santa... |
| 12.16.2011 23:59:20 | |
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I'll take a gold tiara, please. Delayed delivery (say, on April 20th) is perfectly acceptable. I've been really good and am working really hard....pleeeeeaasee...
“Opportunity follows struggle. It follows effort. It follows hard work. It doesn’t come before.” ~ Shelby Steele
18 weeks, Christmas, New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, My 37th Birthday, Easter…and then…EMERALD CUP 30 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!
I just made it sound like we have a lot of time between now and the Emerald Cup, but 18 weeks is nothin’…it’s going to fly by and before you know it, you’re going to be backstage getting spray tanned, eating rice cakes, wishing you could guzzle some water, doing pushups in hooker heels trying to get pumped up. Time never waits, so you better be doing what you’re supposed to be doing to be as prepared as possible come April 20th/21st.
Everyone prepares for contest differently and for different lengths of time. I have chosen not to take an “off season”. I have chosen to stay strict with my diet and very focused on my training. I have a very clear vision of what I want my body to look like on April 20th and I am committed to doing what I need to do to make that happen. I may not have the best physique on stage, but guaranteed, my body will look as good as it possibly can.
At 18 weeks out I thought I’d share with you what is pretty “normal” in my life. I always hear the “I don’t have time” excuse. Usually this comes from people with fewer kids than me, with a husband/wife at home to help out. Excuses never fly with me. It’s the one thing I cannot stand. A trait that I’ve probably always had, but was strongly reinforced by Dave Patterson, the king of “don’t give me your bullshit excuses.” It also dawned on me as I was talking to physique competitor, Keith Baker, yesterday…bodybuilders are among the busiest people I know yet we manage to make the time to eat clean and train like beasts. Keith is a father of 4, works full time, coaches his kids’ sports, just launched a supplement company (probodysupplements.com) and competes at the national level. People like us are definitely the wrong audience for the “I’m too busy” excuse.
As you all probably know by now, I get up at 4am every morning and knock out 60-70 minutes of cardio. It’s the only time I can do it and it works well for me and…I like it! Well, last week, my daughter, Hannah (5), had the flu. I was up with her all night, changing and laundering bedding, rubbing her back, holding her hair back…you know, doing that thing moms do when you have the stomach flu. I was pretty much awake all night. At 3:45am I got dressed and did my cardio, half asleep, I think. I had planned to take a nap with Hannah in the early afternoon, but I had too much work stuff to do that it just never happened. That evening I sucked down some AmiNO Energy and got my lift in. I was cranky as all get out, so luckily it was back day and I could work it out on the weights. (Something about ‘pulling’ that is a great release for me). By 9:30pm I was toast. Fortunately, that next night we got a few more hours of sleep, but not a full night. And then the next night we had a replay of the stomach flu. It was quite a week. I kept wanting to roll over in bed and say…”honey, it’s your turn”…only to realize in my groggy state “oh yeah, there is no ‘honey’ in this bed, it’s all me.”
To keep my nutrition on track, I plan like crazy and am a creature of habit – I know what works, so I repeat success every day. I eat the same things every day. It makes planning very easy and on my tired and foggy days it makes it much simpler for me. I usually spend 2 days a week shopping and 2 days a week cooking in big batches so I have plenty of food to cart around with me. I am always on the go, so I eat on the run more often than not. (Another excuse I love: I can’t eat that way because I’m not usually at home.) People often ask me if I get bored eating the same foods and my answer is always no. I don’t eat for pleasure, I am eating to fuel my body. When you shift your thinking about food it isn’t important that your food is less than “entertaining” to your taste buds. Don’t get me wrong, I love food. And like most bodybuilders, I can tell you the best places to eat a great cheat meal and get a crazy-good dessert. But day in, day out…I eat for FUEL.
My days are jam-packed beginning to end. Keeping track of myself, my business and my 4 children is constant busy-ness. There is never a dull moment. While some people might argue that I really don’t have time to train as much as I do, I would say I don’t have time NOT to. For me, training is my sanity. It’s the one thing that gives me reprieve and allows me to sharpen my mind again. Having a goal, a vision, to focus on really energizes me and gives me a sense of purpose.
18 weeks…make them count for YOU!
Be Fearless. Own Yourself. ~Julie~ Fearless, with cape in hand…going for GOLD! www.juliemichaelsontraining.com Twitter: @iriefitgirl |
