Training: Week One

My poor trainer...He told me I picked a very difficult time of year to decide to do a bikini competition, so I had to inform him that I've never in my life done anything the easy way, so why start now?

He had asked me to send him a few days worth of my normal eating habits, but of course the time frame that I would be tracking consisted of our work Christmas party (hello, free drinks!), and the Parade of Boats on Lake Lanier (hello, more drinks!).  He probably fell out of his chair when he saw what I consumed that particular weekend, but I did also send him a "normal, during the week" log so that he could come up with a proper nutrition plan for me.
My consumption at the time was probably an average of 1500-1700 calories per day, and that's with the added calories of alcohol, coke, and just plain junk.  I had also loosely calculated my macros, but I rarely would hit my protein number and was ALWAYS over my carb and fat numbers.  I told him from the beginning that the nutrition aspect would be the single most difficult thing for me, and I think he quickly realized I was right.

We set up our first two training sessions (two days at G.A.T.A., the rest I do on my own at home) and he sent over my nutrition and competition plans.  Oh. My. Gosh!  The workouts-not a problem.  I knew the exercises and was pretty much doing all of them already.  But the nutrition plan?  Shoot me now!  Four meals over the course of the day, meal one-3 eggs and and 1/2 cup oats (all gross!), meal two- 4oz lean protein, 4oz brown rice, and 6oz veggies, meal three- 4oz lean protein, 6oz sweet potato, and 6oz veggies, and meal four- a protein shake before bed.  I am also to throw in a protein shake and banana within 30 minutes of finishing my workout.  Doesn't sound too bad, right?  WRONG!  I could not make it through all the breakfast and still wasn't hungry when it was time to eat lunch, and was completely over food by the time I was supposed to have meal three!
Oh, and then there's the measuring and the cooking and all the things that I have no idea how to do!  It was a rough week to say the least!  But by a few days in I had figured out that I could break my meals in half and eat more frequently, and that helped so much!  Coach said he didn't care as long as I got everything in by the end of the day, so we'll try that.

And that first workout?  Leg Day?  Actually not bad!  Except for the fact that I wore high heels to work the day after legs and ended up with what I can only describe as a constant charley horse or knot in my right calf for approximately 3 days!  It was miserable!

But it was a good week, and while it's been the hardest so far, I survived it and am moving forward.  Week one was also the week I told my parents that I'm going to try to do this.  Reactions were mixed, and that's okay.  Everyone has different reasons for doing everything, and I'm learning that it's okay to not understand why someone wants to do something.  Different things bring different happiness to different people.
And Ben?  He's slowly coming around.  The first few days after I told him I wanted to do this he wouldn't talk about it, but around mid-week he sent me a picture of some oatmeal that was on sale and wanted to know if that's what I could eat. :-)