A Week In the Life - Contest Prep Update

by Kris Pitcher

A week in the life of contest prep. Twenty five one days and counting...we're all counting down the days to contest day! I thought I'd write a little each day up to your weekly update. We'll see how that goes. I registered for the contest this week. I'm in!

I'm tired of doing my cardio. The 45 minutes in the morning is easy. It seems like it's over before I'm awake. Probably because it's over before I'm awake. But the session at night is like 3 minutes for every one. I feel like I'm in a time warp. Around the 35 minute mark I get light headed, cold-sweaty, and have to play tricks on myself to get it done.

I'm cold most of the time. With my body fat approaching 10% my insulation is gone. My fingers are like icicles at work and I wear my ugly work sweater (the one I leave on the back of my work chair) most of the day. It's 90 degrees outside.

Every one's complaining about eating only fish. But I like it. Stop hating me. I eat it for five meals a day beginning with my 8:00 AM "breakfast" meal. I know it's breakfast because I put cinnamon on it. My final meal before bed is egg whites. I put cinnamon on that too...it's like the cinnamon circle of life. I like cinnamon.

My feet hurt. I have to pee every 5 minutes. The better we look, the worse we feel. In another two weeks I will literally be spending my spare time like a cat, falling asleep everywhere...anywhere - anyhow. Conserving energy where ever I can.

This week my husband said, "I've never been this strict." Meaning he's never dieted this strictly. It's a whole new game. I'm so proud of him.

Then he sat down next to me, took my hand in his and said something like, "Tell me about the pizza we'll have after the contest." I looked into his eyes, and tried to focus. "It will have cheese, fresh mozzarella and goat cheese. Some kind of meat," I crooned. "And kalamata olives. Canadian bacon is fine," he said. This is the kind of deep conversation we have at this point.

I think about what I want to eat on Sunday the 2nd of October. I want waffles with peanut butter and syrup. And the pizza. That's about as far as I can think. Oh, and a diet soda. And a piece of the natural fruit leather I hid in the pantry. And a banana. These are not unreasonable "wants".  Even still, it's early to be thinking about this. Too early.

I am grateful for all of our friends at the gym. They are so supportive, they understand, they cheer, they say just the right thing at the right time. Being around other competitors is a great thing. Thanks guys!

My suit fits, and I'm not even afraid the crystals are going to pop off and take some one's eye out under the pressure of my flesh. I'm excited that I blinged it out this year, I'll be all sparkly up there! I'll wear a different suit for prejudging, which also fits. Life is good. In May, I looked at my tiny suit bottom and thought I might just be crazy to think I'd ever get that on my body - maybe around my arm, but my butt?

I'm tracking to be at the top of the lightweight category which is 125. I don't know where I'll end up in 3 weeks time, but my goal is to be at the top end 122-123 ish. We'll see. I have no idea what I'm going to look like this year. No idea. But I think it's gonna be awesome. And with that, I'm off to hunker down for another week of hard work, dedication, energy conservation and contest prep (and fish). Here we go!