Tracking Progress and A Pity Party
I am a little under 5 weeks out from my 2nd figure show and 7 weeks out from my final show of the year. And if you have ever competed in a show, race or a some type of competition, you know that as the event gets closer, you have doubts that sneak into your head. Will I be ready? Can I do this? Am I where I should be in my training? The last week I have been stuck in this place. Every question that a person can have going through their head – I had it. Even the dreaded “maybe I should back out now”. Now, I am not your typical worrier – I AM THE WORRIER. I freak out over every last detail, obsess about what can go wrong and I have to double and triple check EVERYTHING to make sure I am doing not missing a thing. Yesterday my doubts came to a head. When I was training for my last show, at this point I was on a very different diet and my body was a lean, mean, muscle machine. My body had completely transformed and I was getting positive feedback all the time. This time around I am hearing less “wow you look so different”, I feel bigger, fluffier, and – as a female – THAT IS A HARD PLACE TO BE. Now, I am NOT one who likes compliments. In fact, they embarrass me. But, when you hear great feedback about how your body has transformed and the muscle that I have gained – it was almost like a pat on the back for all of the hard work I was doing. I emailed my awesome coach, Brandan Fokken, and expressed my worry. He explained to me that I was exactly where I needed to be at this point in training. His plan for me was to hold me back a bit from the “leaning out process” to help me keep the muscle I had gained during my time between shows. And in his words “NO WORRIES”. What? First of all – I was feeling like all I gained was fluff and second – no worries? What? If you tell me not to worry, I worry more!
Last night, thanks to a late afternoon coffee run to Dunn Brothers, I was wide awake at midnight. Being the only one awake in the house and not wanting to wake the hubby with the sounds of the crappy infomercials, I logged onto Facebook. Mistake #1. Scrolling through my newsfeed, I ran into about 4 million “Fitspiration” pictures. I stopped on a picture of a Pro Figure Competitor who is a few weeks away from competing at the Olympia. Mistake #2. I started comparing myself to her and the pity party started.
WHAAAAAAH! Someone call a WHAMBULANCE!!!!
“I won’t be ready”
“I need more muscle”
“I should have worked harder in my off season”
“I haven’t made any improvements”
“Blah, blah, blah, blah”
This is when I seriously had a cartoon light bulb going off above my head moment – OR it could have been my sleep deprived coffee buzz. Either way, I had an idea.
Type, type, type.
www.picmonkey.com.
Enter.
Click picture of when I started training. Drag. Paste.
Click picture when I was 1 week from show. Drag. Paste.
Click picture of Friday’s check in. Drag. Paste.
Click, click, click. Save. Viola.
***SLAP IN THE FACE***
On my screen staring back at me was the reality, truth and real life proof I needed. I was looking at my transformation over the last 8 months. I saw what I needed to see.
My first picture that I sent to my coach was in January and yeesh. That’s all I will say about that.
My second picture was when I was 1 week from competing. Not to toot my own horn, but I looked good. I had muscles that didn’t exist in the first picture and some big changes had been made.
The third picture was the picture I sent my coach on Friday. When I compared the 2nd picture to the one from Friday, I was kind of shocked. I HAD made the changes that I wanted to since my last show. My muscle mass had increased and I was pretty close to the same “leanness” as I was from my last show. And why would I expect to hear how I was transforming and my body was making all of these changes? I am only up a few pounds from “show weight”. All the big changes happened as I trained for the first show. This time around I was just staying on track.
Here is where the DUH moment settled in. In front of me was just what I needed to see. I see myself every day, so it was hard to see the changes that I had made. Looking at the proof in pictures made me realize how important tracking progress is. I was focusing too much on the end goal and what I needed to do, that I wasn’t seeing what I had done and what is happening right now. Every week I send check in pictures to my coach, but I wasn’t taking the time to really look at them. I never took the time to look back at where I had been, I was just too focused on where I was going.
PS – I won’t be sharing the pictures with you, but I will share with you this picture of what happens when I drink Dunn Brothers.
