CBBF Nationals 2013

   What a fun filled weekend to say the least. I have waited for this moment for over a year. Trained hard, ate well and trained some more. To step on the National stage with my fitness friends was a dream come true. So many memories. 

   I trained for this show for over a year hoping I would place at the BC Championships which were held on June 22nd, 2013. Placing third was a huge surprise with a sense of great achievement, this made me realize I got a two year qualification for nationals.

BC Championships June 22, 2013-3rd place

I decided to step on the national stage this year as I felt this was my best physique and I felt confident. Placing 6th was a little disappointing and I think its just human nature wanting to place top 5 and missing it you feel a little sad but not discouraged by any means.

   I am more driven than ever to push myself towards new goals and try to re-qualify for Nationals in July 2014 which will be held in Edmonton. I have a full year to train hard, eat well train some more and do it all over again. I am super excited to see what changes my body will make. 

   Since starting my fitness journey two years ago and loosing over 30 lbs and being able to keep it off is reward enough...Being able to step on stage is a bonus.

   I have to say this prep was the most fun for me....I took my time after the BC's taking a week off between shows...enjoying time with friends before getting back to the gym and training hard.

My meal plan was totally different. Not cutting really anything out and really just focusing on portions rather than no to this or that. I felt happy, energized and strong.

   I wouldn't change anything about my prep....Listening to my body and watching it transform week on week was a nice change.

   In the off season I will work on further conditioning my legs and building out my glutes. Finding balance is not always easy in the off season but having support will definitely help stay on track.

   Here are a few photos from the show and just based on the images I know what changes I need to make in the next year to bring an even better physique. A plan is in place and work has began. I can't wait to see my body make further changes....

 

And a few backstage photos:

With my girl Tyrer

TEAM BC

With Rachel Killam

With Kimberly Ho (we are both sponsored by Advanced Genetics)

With Paige Lodge

With Noya

A few between day and night show:

With my handsome husband.
My biggest supporter, life partner, best friend and
the man that sees no faults in me even during prep...Gotta love that!!!

With Natalie Dar and Traci

With owner and one of my sponsors Gus Manzano of NO LIMIT MUSCLE INC.

With Tarik Rahiman from Popeye's Surrey 

With Rachel Killam and Dar Ashmeade

With Derek Crossman from EON Therapeutics

With Magnum girls Heidi and Bryanne

And after the show pics...It's time to celebrate and eat:

With Lara Toma

With my PIC Stephanie

With Heather 

The Long-Term Effects of That Fast Food Meal

I thought of sharing this blog post from another site as I found it fascinating. What your body actually goes though after you have your planned cheat meal.

Don't get me wrong they are tasty and most if not all of us do it and embrace every moment of the experience. For competitors this happens every week for some maybe even twice a week....as we reefed with the wrong foods. What brings me to write this blog is the mental game I myself go through planning and deciding what my next cheat meal will be for some the new word is treat…Whatever you want to call it it’s probably BAD for you….

I myself have not had one since my birthday which was in early March and I must say I have had mental days where I just wanted to give up…I have had a couple reefed meals with clean wholesome foods but not a restaurant binge or anything like that…It has been hard to stay on track day in day out sometimes thinking how my relationship with food is now vs. before I started my fitness journey. Yes! Its all about finding balance….Its the HOW that is the challenge.

I have been able to balance it now but I did have a lot of ups and downs over the last year trying to figure it out…What is my maintenance level am I under my calories …way over and so on…Listening to your body can be a tricky thing. What to follow Blood Type Diet, Paleo, High Fat Low Carb….Low Fat…and the story goes on and on.

Currently I am prepping for my 4^th show and this thus far is my favourite prep of all…Why? Because in the off season I have discovered what my body needs vs. wants.

What foods I cannot tolerate due to sensitivities and how eliminating them has made a huge difference in my overall well being. I still have tough days where I have cravings and want to eat for 5…but this comes with the lifestyle of being focused on a goal of stepping on stage.

Am I hungry….No not at all…this is where my body tries to trick me and tell me what it wants vs. needs.

Anyhow onto the blog post…here it is. Have a read and maybe when you’re planning your next night out you will make better choices and focus on the company around you and not so much on the overload of fast foods you’re planning on consuming…

Source: Kimberly Snyder Blog

No matter where you live, the Fast Food Machine (FFM) will try to get you. They want you, me and everyone that ever eats a meal (yeah, in other words everyone!) or has a dollar in their pocket to support their ever-expanding empire, which is built on a sickening foundation of the cheapest, most processed “food” that contributes to myriad diseases and sickness.

So what I propose to do here is to start you thinking, really thinking, about the implications of every fast food meal. Some will say “Everything in moderation,” but I say not so with fast food. Each fast food meal digests to leave hormones, steroids, next-to-impossible to digest oils, cheap refined sugars and so many other horrible substances in your body that we made a whole infographic (below) on the subject.

Please share this with friends and family members that eat fast food. Maybe next time old Micky D’s calls out to them they turn their back and go somewhere healthier to eat or just eat a simple, but infinitely healthier meal at home.

Courtesy of: Kimberly Snyder

Update

A little update on what’s has been up with me and Andrew in the last month or so since my last show. 

We are officially in our off season. Yay!!!!

What does that mean? We are eating volumes of clean wholesome food and lifting HEAVY.  Working hard on building those juicy muscles. The sacrifice is that we have lost our lean look. TEMPORARILY that is…

The abs are still in and the muscles are nice and full and we can’t wait till prep starts to see how much muscle we have put on…Andrew’s prep will start a little sooner than mine as his show is end of April mine end of June. So exciting!!!

A lot has happened since Andrew left his position as a Restaurant General Manager and became a full time personal trainer at Steve Nash…

He was promoted to Assistant Fitness Manager after just over a month and shortly after that promoted again to Fitness Manager and transferred to Port Coquitlam. He misses his Langley team but feeling at home at his new location. I am so proud of him to just one day decide and follow his dream.

Training with his last trainer Dean really allowed him to tap into what his passion truly is. He studied hard while he worked 10 hr shifts at the restaurant, trained and prepped for the Nationals all at the same time. It was a roller coaster to say the least and the risk was very high to just resign and start something totally new. I honestly don’t know how he did it.

Being promoted has been a huge change in our life’s because Andrew is home every weekend…Veronica and I have not had a full family weekend since she was born unless there was a special event going on and Andrew requested the time off….It will be an adjustment to have full weekend family days or just lazy pj mornings….Looking forward to that for sure.

So what have we been up to in terms of training, meal planning and supplementation in off season?

I will post more on that tomorrow :)

Thank you for reading

Grace

Contest Prep, Results and Goals!

Sandra Wickham Fall Classic 2012

Two Weeks Post Show….Ahhhh Life is good!!!
It’s been almost two weeks since my last show Sandra Wickham Fall Classic which was held on November 10th, 2012 in New Westminster…

What a ride to this show prep was….The last 12 weeks have been busy to say the least

• New Plan  
• New Training Style
• Team Photo-shoots
• And Yes 6 am Cardio Dates :)

Team Elle Fitness

5 days in Vegas for OLYMPIA weekend smack in the middle of my prep …Nothing like a little distraction to meal planning, training and all those samples at the EXPO…Not easy but it was a fun filled 12 weeks.

I Placed 4^th and super happy with my progress. I get it now….the training the meal planning and how much manipulating goes into creating a bikini class body or any class for that matter.

Morning Show just got back stage getting all settled in

Me and Elle 

Huge Thank you goes out to my coach and trainer Elle Iakovenko my Sponsors, PureForce Nutrition and No Limit Muscle as well as Derek Crossman and of course my cardio and training partner my hubby Andrew along with the rest of my friends and family.

My lil medal and lucky number :)

Having  placed 6^th in Masters and 8^th in OPEN at my last two shows for being too lean …and working towards presenting a softer look at this show felt really good. Yes my glutes, hamstrings and quads could have been tighter but that was the risk I had to take to not come in shredded…lol …I like the lean mean look and I am rocking my 6 pack abs proudly two weeks after the show….I so missed them. Not sure how long they will stick around…

Eating clean sure helps….Have only had 3 treat meals since the show…I must say pretty good! First one the night after of the show followed by one for Ashley’s Birthday at Romer's Burger Bar…those lil doughnuts were killer!!!  Oh…and that glass of wine with dinner I had last Sunday with Bex was glorious!

Cookie treat from Tyrer...Glorious!!!

Learned my lesson from my previous two shows…to avoid blues, bloat and serious rebound you've got to keep it nice and clean and slowly add different foods as if you were testing for an allergy.…and same goes for cardio slowly reducing it has made a huge difference in keeping in great post competition shape…besides its nice to stand in front of the mirror everyday and see yourself lean and healthy rather than sluggish, bloated and totally not motivated. Been there done that….Never again!

This was a huge change from my last prep doing everything gradually and with thought process.

I have reduced cardio to twice a week now and just  little post workout and have gradually increased my food intake over the last two weeks…I didn't feel hungry this prep and some might say I didn't prep hard enough if I didn't feel hungry. 

Well I guess I didn't then…I am fine with that!

I certainly will never live my life hungry…Cranky due to limited things I can have during prep YES but not hungry! 

It’s honestly not worth it for me and a total set up for failure in my opinion.

Anyhow this was a great experience and it’s “GROW season” now. I will work on coming in tighter in my lower body for the next show which is held June 28th, 2013 and hopefully put on some much needed upper body muscle…..

It will be my daughters 15^th Birthday a week before my next show and I am attending a wedding a week before that…so those events should be interesting….as I have a hard time not celebrating special occasions…So maybe a sip of bubbly and a bite of cake will be in the cards J

Me and Veronica at Popeye's Booth where she worked both Day and Evening shows! My lil athlete...

Veronica will start prepping for her show in January and will enter OPEN class at the Western Canadians held in Kelowna, BC on May 18^th, 2013

I am very proud that she has decided to look at fitness as a part of her life and excited as her body is showing some great progress since she started training with me and Andrew about 4 months ago so I can’t wait to see her step on stage.

Initially I was a bit worried how she could handle the prep, the training, that little bikini…the plastic heels and all. But she’s not …She’s confident so why am I worried! Tough cookie!!!

She is having her suit custom made by Colleen Campbell aka “The Suit Lady” in Langley BC. Which is great because we can customize the size of the top and bottom to Veronica’s comfort level and her Dads too…He is going to have to watch her practice her posing after all…I can’t wait for that…I laugh every time I think about it.

Since becoming involved in the fitness industry and Andrew becoming certified as a personal trainer and getting a diploma in fitness and nutrition I have learned a lot about positive self image and that you have to work hard to stay healthy not just slim…I want Veronica to learn about her own self image and what she wants to look like and not have her body image be dictated by the food epidemic going on.

You control how you look but eating healthy wholesome foods and training your body like a machine to look the way you want it to look. It’s simple as that. There is a lot to learn about your body and how it works on the inside before you can see how it will look on the outside.

I guess it’s the same with who we are as people. “Never judge a book by its cover”. Someone may look slim but be totally unhealthy or have a bigger frame and be totally fit and healthy. Everyone has a story! As a family we strive to find and maintain the perfect balance.

You can follow our journey

https://www.facebook.com/TheFitLife247

or join in and follow Veronica's journey 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Veronica-Bukowsky-Fitness/246655942123415

There is always some negativity that comes from stating you opinion and sharing with others how you choose to live your life as a person and as a family. Some you motivate and inspire and some you don’t.

I have learned to listen to my gut and only accept people in my world who have a positive outlook on life and bring out the best in me…All others sadly don’t matter.

I have tried to look past negativity and find goodness in everyone but unfortunately it’s too much work and I have more important things to worry about than keeping up with others…lol

My focus over the last 6 months has been on my family, my life and a few close friends that have supported me through phases of my life some good and some bad.

Other than that not much else has been happening in our little Fit Life world.

We are looking forward to spending the holiday season together with friends and family attend a few holiday parties along with hosting our own for all of our fitness friends and then celebrating the New Year with a BANG! Then real work begins….not really it’s already began but I like to be on the wagon for the New Years resolutions craze. Not sure what mine is yet…

Make More Money…Spend Less…Ya that’s a good one I think! Ha ha

Thank you for reading and hope you visit again.

Grace