Dara the Figure Competitor Part 1

In 2009, I got the itch to try a figure competition.  I was three years out of competing in track and field, and I MISSED working hard for something and having a goal!  But I was scared and skeptical.  Anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE to eat, so I was very fearful of what the nutrition plan would look like.  And I was skeptical of myself more than anything.  I was one of those people who just thought no matter what I did, I could never have a real six pack.  But I was up for the challenge and through word of mouth, I heard about a man in the Tampa area named Tim Gardner who was highly successful in that realm.  I approached him and he agreed to train me.  

I started in March, but stopped about four weeks later due to schedule conflicts.  But I restarted in June and was all in.  Tim would send me my nutrition and workout plan every four weeks and in return I would send him progress pictures.  The first four weeks, the nutrition plan wasn't horrible.  I was still eating a normal amount of calories, but they were all good calories, so it was very boring.  The good news is I got a cheat day, and boy did I cheat.  I look back now with disgust at what I would consume on those days.  The workouts in the first phase were very long and challenging.  I would take a 45 minute brisk walk in the morning before I ate breakfast.  In the afternoon, I would do my lifting, and I had never done so many sets and reps before in my life.  Most of the exercises I did four sets of 10, 12, 15, and 20 repetitions.  Just imagine doing 20 repetitions of step-ups on EACH LEG.  Ugh.  And then in the evenings I would do 45 minutes on the elliptical.  Most days, this added up to three hours of working out.  

The second and third phases were pretty similar and they were awful.  The calories got cut and the food was still boring.  So I was hungry, but often, I didn't eat as much as I could have because I was so disgusted and tired of the same old foods.  The workouts were very similar to the first phase.  The problem was, I had a lot less energy to complete them.  I almost completely stopped going to my husband's baseball game because I didn't have the energy AND I couldn't be around the delicious stadium food smells!  Torturous!  And my poor husband and parents were dealing with a very crabby and moody girl.  My husband said it was like I was on my period all the time.  Yikes!  Looking back, I am shocked at how disciplined I was when it came to the meal plan.  The extent of my cheating was a dollop of Bar-B-Q sauce to dip my boring chicken in.  

Finally, it was time for the competition…

Here are my progress pictures from Week 1-Week 4-Week 8.