My husband and I - National's 2013 Edition!!!

[ange_d]

Here we go again, we must be crazy, lol.

So kids are 18 months and 4.5 years this time around. More sleep makes prep much better!

I am prepping for the IFBB International Events Qualifier (formerly known as World Qualifier) being held in Winnipeg on April 27th.
I am 9 weeks from that show and up until this point everything has been awesome!
I am stronger than ever (bench 145 for 10, deadlift 225 for 12, squat (sucks, but good for me) 185 for 12, and I am leg pressing 14 plates for reps). I have never been able to train legs this consistantly due to my Ank Spon, so maybe I have put some muscle on my leggies! We'll soon find out.
The diet has been really easy until this point with having a junk day once a week.
It's time to take out the junk and only clean re-feed when necessary.
My weight is hoovering in the low 140's. I figure I will be sub 125 dehydrated onstage. Weight is not that important but it helps me track progress versus previous preps.
I have done no cardio up until this point. I am going to slowly add some in the next couple of weeks.

The goal is to be leaner and tighter than at last year at Provincial's (but I was 8 months post baby!). I need to work on posing to perfect it all!
We are sponsored by Cygen Laboratories and will be doing a video log of our progress, so we'll link that up to this thread soon.

My husband Steve is competing at the CBBF National Event being held (here!) in Halifax in July. So as soon as I am done my prep his will begin! Not sure how this will all go down since last year we dieted together and I think it was easier. It also made me competitive with him, if he was getting leaner - I was motivated to get leaner, lol. Who know's maybe dieting at seperate times will be easier. Maybe his prep will stop me from getting fat off season, lol!

For anyone who doesn't know us here's the link to last years prep (I think we have 4 journals over the last few years, but I'll just link to the most recent one):
http://www.canadabodybuilding.com/sh...highlight=wife


I am looking forward to your advice and support....it's a ripping time, AGAIN!!!!

[TT Eric]

Cool, nice to hear! We don't see Steve often on here these days, I was wondering what was going on!

GL on your journey!

Eric

[Delt King]

Always watching you guys transform. This will be good.

[countrychic]

Excellent, like following your logs Good luck with the prep both of you!

[steve_d]

Cool, nice to hear! We don't see Steve often on here these days, I was wondering what was going on!

GL on your journey!

Eric

I've been following a few of the discussions lately but haven't been posting much. I will be posting updates in this thread quite regularly. As most people training for nationals right now, things won't be changing too much for a while (in terms of diet). Still over 19 weeks to go so the goal will be to continue adding as much quality mass as possible before I begin the cut.

Off-season for me has been pretty good so far. I tend to not be able to put on ridiculous amounts of weight as some of the other guys I know. Currently sitting at about 195 morning weight, which is the most I've weighed. Last year at around this time I was a little lighter, and give or take same level of bodyfat. So all in all, I think I should come in heavier for nationals, and as always I will make sure to come in conditioned. I've never done nationals before, so this could be really fun - and probably a really humbling experience.

Goals I've set for myself:

1. Weigh in at 176 which would be top end of middle. Last year I weighed in at 171-172.

2. Equally conditioned or better. Last year I was the leanest I ever was by far on my lower half. However, I think my abs have been tighter, as well as my back. Funny how things change as you get older. I've always said that you can't tell your body where to lose, but somehow I feel as though I am wrong. Looking back to all the preps were my legs looked softer but my back and abs were tight as hell, I did lots of cardio. Last year did almost none. So perhaps a correlation there? Doesn't make much sense... But I'll play it by ear and hope to bring equally balanced not only in muscle size, but conditioning.

3. STAY INJURY FREE!!! - So far so good on this one. Last year, was, well.... pretty shitty when it came to suffering. Sciatic issues (couldn't feel my entire left foot, as well as parts of my leg top to bottom), the losing of my toe nail (twice), lower back injuries that prevented deads + squats for most of last year. Currently I am bringing back the heavier squats into my routine and have recently on and off started deadlifting again. I no longer am focused on powerlifting, so I am going to keep things as smart as possible from here on out. Throwing the ego out the window (this is definitely hard considering I feel like I was stronger at age 24 and 30 pounds lighter than I am now!)...

4. If all goes well in #1, 2, and 3, then I will be happy no matter where I place. Of course It's always fun to get a trophy (especially in my home town!), or a first call out, but I can't control who shows up. What I can control is looking like the best middleweight that my genetics can allow me to be. So that's the number 1 goal.

This thread will hopefully follow us both to our best year of competing yet! Pictures will hopefully come, and I'll throw in some videos along the way too.

[Hugheser]

Going to be following this one! Good luck both of you!

[ChristineD]

looking forward to following a fellow female always find it motivating best of luck to the both of you !

[steve_d]

Couple videos of Ange so far. First one was last friday. The other one was a day or so ago.

[ange_d]

Steve took a few pic's of me over the weekend and I felt a little "behind".
Never felt "behind" in a prep before, lol. I am usually "ahead". So after comparing pic's to previous years we decided I am actually right on target but feel behind because I am not ahead (hope that makes sense, lol).
Just for my sanity I am going to make this week really count and lower my carbs to near keto. This has worked very well for me in the past. I am also adding cardio a little earlier than expected and am starting 35 min's cardio before bed.

It is so funny how I always forget how little I need to eat and how much I have to do to get ripped!

We'll see what that does, going to be a tough week though!

[steve_d]

It is so funny how I always forget how little I need to eat and how much I have to do to get ripped!

The key word here is 'ripped!'. No one should need to suffer to get to the point where everyone stops to ask how you are so lean, or if you are competing 'soon'. The only thing is that in order to look good on stage, you have to start looking weird in the gym (some people outside the sport would probably use the word 'disgusting')... haha. 7 weeks to go until show number 1!