After five months of off-season, prep has now officially started! I’ve been counting down to this ever since Kyle started his prep 4 weeks ago.  Mentally, I love / need to be on a schedule of some sort. I thrive on the stability of knowing exactly how each day is going to go, from work to training to meals. Yes, I’m terrible with “last minute” plans and changes – I get a little anxious and irritated. So, needless to say, having my meal plan set makes me content.

The other day I told Kyle that I feel like I’m in a really good place mentally for this prep (as I should, it’s day 2…). I’m excited, determined, and driven towards my goal. This was my first off-season ever, and this is technically the first “real” prep I’ve ever done for a competition. Last year I registered for my first competition TEN days beforehand. Dropped a little body fat quickly, and then basically maintained for the next five months while I did 4 other comps. During that time I had weeks off here and there, and plenty of cheat nights, but there was never a big gap of time to fill back out and relax a bit.  I’m not complaining, it was an amazing first season and I learned a lot from it, but I’m excited to do the full prep before a show!

What does all this mean? I’m now 12 weeks out from getting on the provincial stage. We’re guessing that I have about 12 lbs to lose in this time, which has allowed me to wait until now to start my plan. The ability to do it slowly allows us to keep more muscle mass while losing body fat. Additionally, my diet is still pretty solid, so I’m happy to keep training as I have been with Kyle.

We’re trying something a little different to start my diet – keeping healthy fats high and front loading carbs in my day. The plan includes salmon most days of the week… I’ve never been a fan of fish (i.e., I hate it), but have learned to eat it for the benefits during prep. However, salmon wasn’t ever included last year due to the fat content. My strategy for all fish? Cook it, and then broil the crap out of it until it’s super dry. That, along with basic seasonings (low / no sodium), and plenty of hot sauce or mustard and it’s totally doable! Actually, I was surprised that I enjoyed the salmon.

Season it & broil it to death!

In addition to prep starting this past weekend, we made some serious progress at the house. We assembled all the kitchen cabinets on Friday, and with the help of Kyle’s parents, we got them all installed on Saturday! It looks terrific, and it’s starting to feel like we can move in soon. The appliances are getting delivered on Saturday, at which point we feel like we’re able to live there (really, we just needed the fridge, stove, and running water). While it won’t be totally finished, living there will make it so much easier to get small jobs done during the week. As it is now, we only go there on days off and the weekends. But, if we lived there, we could get our training done in the morning, go to work, and then have the whole evening free to do house stuff. The end is in sight and it’s looking pretty great!

No, our cabinets aren’t blue. I promise. Looks classy though, right?

I hope you all had a great weekend, and the time change didn’t hurt too much… I loved the fact that it was so sunny when I left the gym after class tonight 🙂  Have a great day!!