It’s Wednesday night, 3 days til The Cal.  My weight is at a good place today – 117.8.  I’m having a bit of a tough time keeping my muscles full but so far, so good.  They're hanging in there.  Having the best trainer/nutritionist in the world helps.  I just let him tell me what to do and then I do it. Simple.  I can tell my body is getting tired. Two shows in two weeks was perhaps a bit of an aggressive goal but hey, it sounded good at the time I registered!  :o)

 We’re doing a couple things differently this show because my muscles are trying to decide whether they are going to stay full and tight or not.  We’re feeding me more, earlier on (had steak this past Sunday and then had it again Tues night) and I'll begin taking a diuretic a little sooner to cut more water to counterbalance. I’ve already been told to be ready to go for a steak and yam dinner Friday night. No problem! 

I’ll spend Thursday evening grilling steak, chicken, and salmon and will also cook up asparagus and yams to take with me. I’ll also pack almonds, oatmeal, rice cakes and peanut butter.  All the staples so I’ll be pretty set no matter what my trainer tells me I need to eat.

Because this show is held in conjunction with the pros, it’ll be a big one.  I like how they’re handling the athletes meeting/check in.  The figure girls are meeting on Friday evening and then bodybuilding checks in on Saturday morning. That’s so much better than trying to check everyone in on Saturday morning.  It also means that we don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn.  I’m planning on getting to the venue about 9:00 am on Saturday morning. I’ll get my hair and makeup done there.  I actually prefer having my makeup and hair done earlier but since the figure girls probably won’t begin prejudging til noon or so, I think it’ll be fine.  Who knows, maybe instead of having hours where we just sit and wait, the time will move by more quickly because it’ll be filled with make up, hair, tanning touch ups, bikini bite and posing oil within a shorter timeframe than usual.

Today was my last workout before the show. I worked shoulders heavy but did back and biceps lightly. I also did 20 min of stairs at an easy pace of 7 on the stair master. Tomorrow I’ll do some light cardio but that’ll be it.  As much as I enjoy working out, I’m ready to take a few days off. My body is tired. I’ll probably take all – or at least most of – next week off to recuperate and plan my next competition strategy.  More on that after this weekend!