15 Weeks to Competition

Well, I'm not 15 weeks away from my first figure competition.  I'm pretty nervous that I won't be lean enough, but I have to just be patient & I'm sure I'll start to see changes since I've been tracking every morsel of food I put in my mouth and I have been working really hard in the gym.

I've been tracking my food intake on an app called Nutritionist in case anyone wants to download it.  It's $3, but it works pretty good at calculating your calorie, protein, carb & fat needs based on your goals.  You can set it to Muscle Gain, Maintenance, Weight Loss, Rapid Weight Loss (only to be used for a few weeks since you will lose muscle).  Right now I have it set to Weight Loss.  You can also change it by the day so today I had it set to "Moderate" because I worked Shoulders & some cardio.  On heavy leg days I work harder so I set it to "Heavy" and on days off I change it to "Off Day" so that I get less calories, etc.  I've been having some sugar cravings at night so I've been making my "10 Calorie Hot Chocolate".  Here's the Recipe:

10 Calorie Hot Chocolate:
1 tbsp. cocoa powder (10 calories)
1-2 packets stevia (or other calorie free sweetener you like)
hot water (if you have a few more calories to spare, almond milk will make it creamier)

Here's what I ate today for a sample day.
7:30 a.m. 3/4 c. cooked brown rice, 1/2 cup raspberries, 1/2 oz. slivered almonds, 1/2 c. almond milk, 1/2 c. scrambled egg whites on the side (Carb, Pro, 1/2 serving Fat, Fruit)
10:00 a.m. 1/2 7oz. can tuna mixed with 1 tbsp. dijon mustard, 3 oz. celery, 3 oz. carrots, 1/2 oz. almonds (pro, veggies, 1/2 serving fat)
12:30 Asian Chicken Salad - 4 oz. chicken (cooked in crockpot w/lite soy sauce, ginger, garlic, tsp sesame seed oil), 3 oz. romaine, 1 oz. red bell pepper, 2 oz. snap peas, 1 oz. mushrooms, 1/2 oz. sunflower seeds, 2 tbsp. Annie's Lite Gingerly dressing (tastes great & only 35 calories & 3 g. sugar) (Pro, Veg, 1/2 fat)
3:00 pre-workout shake - 1 scoop protein powder blended w/ 1/2 c. pineapple (pro & fast digesting carb - you want to have fast digesting carbs before you work out & protein, but you don't want to eat some chicken because you will be digesting it while working out - whey protein isolate will digest quickly so you can use it during your workout)
5:00 post-workout shake - 1 scoop protein powder (for this, I used a blend of casein & whey isolate so I have fast digesting & slow digesting protein together to help my muscles from breaking down).
7:30 p.m. 4 oz. ground turkey breast seasoned with italian seasoning & carrot shavings - rounded into meatballs & baked.  Serve over 1 c. cooked spaghetti squash (great low carb alternative to pasta), 1/2 c. marinara (read labels, they often add sugar - I use Trader Giottis' from Trader Joe's only 3 g. sugar & natural from the tomato sauce), add in any veggies you like - I added onion, pepper, mushroom & spinach
Post Dinner - sugar craving so had the 10 calorie hot chocolate.

*This seems like a lot of food, but it's really not.  It comes out to 1458 calories, 141 g. protein, 117 g. carbs & 47 g. fat. I could probably cut the fat down a little since I went over my daily alottment of 20%, but it's only about 25% so not too bad.

For cardio I did a 25 min. Insanity plyometrics video & then I hit the gym & lifted Shoulders/Traps.  Was supposed to do calves but had to get to an appointment so I will do those tomorrow when I do legs.  I'm following the Jim Stoppani 12 Week Shortcut to Size free program on bodybuilding.com if you want to see what I'm doing for my weight lifting.

Enjoy!