Aaah don't you just love the full belly feeling? its been a week since my comp and enjoying the many fruits of my hard labour.  I've put on 3kg (now 53kg) since contest day which has been from putting back sodium, water and carbs back into my body so I'm not too worried about the extra weight gain, which I knew was going to come! I'm still eating fish, meat and chicken but now I can add taste to it which I've missed while dieting. 

I've enjoyed the extra treats like hummus on rice wafers instead of plain. And sushi (which I haven't had for 6 months!), And yes ladies Sushi is a treat as it contains white rice and some places use mayonaise in their rolls.  Plus there's not enough protein in the sushi as the salmon or tuna content in the roll is miniscule so I end up having a protein shake with it. 

Loving putting back soy sauce and using curry paste in my food again although it does reflect in my 'panda eyes', ie my eyes go all puffy and I sneeze alot from my allergies.  But I don't care!!!  I don't need to look oh so glamourous now so time to let it all hang out. 

Well actually not quite. As I do have some goals for next year. 

But first lets look at this year and let me fill you in on what I learned about myself on this shape changing journey:

1. I know my client's bodies better than my own.  Its true, I can look at my clients bodies and say what they need to eat (other PTs are probably the same) or tell what's lacking but I found this very hard to do looking at myself.  I've worked with some clients for many years and know exactly (well most of the time) how they function. I know I probably should know myself but its very hard to judge how you're looking as you're always looking at yourself - I don't mean in a vain way!  but its easier for others to tell you what you need to do. 

This year I've learned how my body functions in terms of how it processes proteins, carbs and fats. Sure, I eat great all the time so its not a big deal but when it comes down to those final weeks before contest day that's when you need to know how your body responds to food in order to be able to fine tune it.

2. Rediscovered myself. Because I put alot of effort into other people, whether it be my clients or other publics of Go Figure, I lost track of my own passion for training. This year has been great way for me to get my enthusiasm for heavy training again.  Looking back on the past couple of years now I think to myself 'what have I been doing?'.  So now after competing and seeing how I shaped up, I'm all reenergised and ready to go hard in the gym and focus on putting on some mass, with the goal of competing late next year.

3. I try too hard.  Because I wanted to look decent onstage, because you know - I'm Lisa@ Go Figure!  probably other people don't care but I probably put the pressure on myself to look good.  So I did one of those novice mistakes of dieting and training too hard, and I ended up loosing mass. But hey, everyone's allowed to have an off comp or 2 eh.  I know even seasoned competitors don't always come in sharp. Bodybuliding's forever about tweaking so if you don't come in great for one comp, it only takes a small change to fix the problem the next time. That's how bodybuilders become obsessive about competing and want to compete again and again!

4. Be a little bad. Since my goal is to put on some muscle size in the next year I have to learn to be a little 'bad' with my food intake.  I know I eat too clean and I don't eat too many calories from fat, and control my carbs too much.  So this year, I'm going to not be concerned as much about what kind of sauce things are cooked in if I go out to restaurant, have more rice than I should, eat cafe food if/when I'm out with friends and eat the occasional pizza - usually I make this at home once in a blue moon! using gluten free pizza bread and mozarella cheese as its lower in fat.

Ofcourse I'm not going to pig out every week on everything mentioned but I do need to relax and let my body rest and grow.  There's going to be weight gain but that's all part of bodybuilding.  And you need that extra padding so that when you diet, when you drop the bad fat in the diet, the weight will go off easier.

5. Let someone else oversee my training programme.  Yes I'm a PT and I should plan this myself but you know what? its much easier for someone else to think of this for me as I've got 10s of other clients training to think about.  BTW  I don't see a problem with PTs seeking out other PTs advice. As I said earlier, its easier for someone else to look at you than you trying to analyse yourself.

I'm going to let my partner Grahame, who's an ex powerlifting coach and not a bad bodybuilder himself, set out my training this year.  They'll probably be some 'discussions' about whether I agree with him or not about the plan so should be interesting times ahead.  This takes the stress off me to think about what I have to do and gives me more enthusiasm to train as well.

All Set.  So there you go, I've got all the elements sorted for a challenging mass building year.  I've started my new training regime and I'm feeling oh so sore! and I love it.  What I've achieved this year has set a good platform for next year, at the moment I'm 53kg and I'd like to stay lean and not go above 55kg in the offseason. I certainly don't want to get back up to 60kg again. I'd like to put more on my delts and work on my abs, and little bit more mass all over would be nice.  This will be done through combination of heavy training and still doing cardio which I have got into the routine of doing now.

Here's to a bigger and better me next year!
Lisa, Go Figure

p.s in the meantime you can check out how all the girls looked in the Shape class at North Harbour this year by checking out the video link below!

08-LisaShapeSlide 

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