Conquering!

I love holidays. I am so thankful for Monday off to give me the opportunity to get in a full workout bright and early as well as get my head in the game after sleeping in. I sent myself to the gym on the sunniest of days with freshly prepared meals, and gave myself some courage to continue. The pep talk. :) It basically consisted of me reminding myself that every moment in the gym is my opportunity to make myself better.
                                      
Diet: Now eating fish for 5 of my 7 meals . Woah! To be really honest, the fact that I don't care for fish much is kind of exacerbating my cravings. This has made the diet a struggle. If it were all chicken and fish once a day, I could do that no problem. And I'm craving everything now. Ugh. Particularly like crusty stuff: pie, lemon bars, etc. I can do cravings during the week, I have no problems during the work week. Its the weekends that are the problem where my cravings peak.
Tuesday morning was interesting when I first was on all meals at work consisting of fish. I had to pre-apologize to my coworkers for potentially stinking up our office and inform them that I was probably less excited about than they were. ;)
And by the way, salsa does not make tilapia any better. Which is sad. I feel like salsa usually makes everything better. Soy is working.
This is my last week on creatine, although I still get my Super Pump before workouts.

Training: Training has been a tad different this week. We decided to switch up my cardio into a less intense schedule this week in hopes of pushing hard the last couple of weeks. I'm honestly excited to get out of doing the elliptical every day, but understand it was necessary to force a plateau and see a spike in weight loss.


Posing: Still daily :) I just don't want to say I could have done it more or learned to pose better in this period of time. Its kind of embarrassing to do this in our gym's studio when there are people there. But I figure its probably good to do it in front of strangers. When I practiced at home last night, Patrick said that I don't look natural. LOL! I quickly replied, "That's because it isn't natural to stand like this," as I tried to stick my bum out even further. I guess it will look more natural as I continue to practice.

Progress pics probably won't come again until right before. I just don't have a lot of time currently. :)

Week 3 Check-In: Not until Monday. Crazy weekend coming for me!

Stage Stuff: Appointments: Waxing & Hair appts booked. Still have yet to book my nail appts.

Misc:
I feel badly that I haven't been around to post much. But focusing on every little thing in life has to happen at this point to where I don't accidentally mess with my meals, etc. I admit that I am not the best with weekends, but meal prep is having to take place multiple times a week as I just don't have room in my fridge all the time for every piece of prepared fish or chicken. As well as veggies. And Patrick's meals. Blah.

I am also not trying to think about how many days I have left. I am fully aware that I am under a month and could therefore count down the days, but I cannot. I get really stressed out when thinking about how many days so I am still around 3 WEEKS. lol! I'll count the days once I'm less than a week.

I have to admit I'm a bit glad that I completed my last wedding of the summer. They are fun to do, but it has been challenging during contest prep. ;) Some of you know the wonders  I have to pull to make a wedding happen with flowers. lol... But let me tell you, it has seemed that the second I added prep into my life, life instantly got even more busy. Maintaining a balance is a struggle. :)

Some of you know, I have another personal struggle going on in my life. I could really use some positive thoughts if you think about it. :) The problem with internal struggles at this point, is I have to be very diligent to not mess with my prep at all... focusing hard on my meal times and water. The cliche saying that major life issues will come to light during contest prep is not a cliche. It is a reality. A lot of times you suddenly are finding that you are more confident than you have ever been in your life, and aren't willing to bend on your dreams. Or you find that your insecurities come to light amidst a very emotional period of time, and you have to do everything to not take to food. And sometimes not even that, but you almost have to be more diligent ABOUT eating. And getting in enough food. My problem is when I'm really emotional, I don't eat. So focusing on my meal times and water are a HUGE must right now.

Weight: Still 109 lbs. :)
Gamesies!!!
*TO1D (The October 1st Decision): Patrick seems to have a notion that I am not going to want to go out to dinner after my competition. I answered that with an emphatic, "Are you crazy?!"
I am fully aware that it will be a long day for me, but the night show starts at a reasonable 6pm.
-The Onion: I love their fat steak fries, they have amazing desserts, beer & cocktails, as well as a large diverse burger menu. :) AND they are open until 11pm! They also have a bar for our friends who want to hang out but don't want dinner.
-The Satellite: Very interesting burger menu, plus it is a bar so again, our friends who don't want dinner can hang out. :) Also open late.
-Waddell's: Sweeeeeeet Potato Friessss!!! Served with a chipotle sauce! Also a large burger menu. Only serves beer & wine but that is fine with me... Keep me from drinking too much. When I looked on their website, it said "Open 11am to close." That's helpful. But I imagine as they are a neighborhood pub, that it might be as early as 11pm.
This week, taken out of the running was Red Robin. I just decided that if I'm going out, it needs to be a better than a chain. 
*My Surprise:
-Nope, not knocked up!
-Nope, not engaged!

Also, go give some love to Chelsea at Git It Girl and Doozy at Figure Girl Factory as they are both competing this weekend!! Good luck beautiful ladies!!!

Have a lovely weekend!!! :D