In the Beginning…

…I did it all the WRONG way. 🤷🏻‍♀️

By the end of March, I had decided I would begin to train for the Spectrum Fitness Productions IFBB Pro League/NPC Northern California Bikini Competition on June 11th.

I didn’t realize that I needed to FIRST build up muscle and my body mass in general and THEN take off the body fat. To anyone out there that is sort of already lean and not very muscular, do not do what I did. It is VERY HARD to build muscle and LOSE body fat at the same time because the body needs to have a caloric surplus to GAIN muscle and a caloric deficit to LOSE fat. 🤦🏻‍♀️

But, at around 120 pounds, I began coaching myself (both nutrition and workouts) and started my “bikini” diet of 12 weeks with a daily calorie intake of 1,518, with a macro breakdown like this:
175g Protein • 124g Carbs • 40g Fat

Looking back, the calories were about right, but I was already depriving myself of too many carbs, which results in a less than stellar performance in the gym/not enough energy to lift heavy weights. 😩

Despite my mistakes early on, I did do a few things correctly and I did research HEAVILY. The idea of being in a bikini competition became my new pet project. I started listening to podcasts, watching YouTube videos, following multiple people on social media that are coaches, athletes, etc.

I’d like to take this post to thank a few people from whom I gleaned a lot of information during my “self coaching” period of time. Thank you to @stephdorworth @paulrevelia @miss_ally.bobally @pnbapro_figure_mama3 @theremingtonjames @willtenny @teamelitephysique @lisettehoward_fitness @rahul__kamat — I learned useful information from every single one of you!

Pictured above is one of the dinner meals I made from time to time and I was still drinking wine every other night at the time: 2 ounces vodka (& diet soda of choice) and 10 ounces wine (roughly 2 glasses). This little number is BBQ chicken breast tenders with Ray’s No Sugar Added Original BBQ Sauce, Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Acorn Squash. The meal clocks in at around 400 calories total, 54g Protein, 31g Carbs, 10g Fat.