Tricky Jackson Classic 2011

There are 16 weeks that I have to get my body ready for my first Figure Competition.

http://www.trickyjackson.com/tricky-jackson-classic/index.html.  I think this would be a good introductory competition for me to join before I hit the ripe old age of 40!

Diet:  I am not on an exact training diet.  I have read many websites especially on bodybduilding.com, Beverly International, and other various websites.  I already started on a super low carb diet, transitioned into the medium-low carb diet. I am a carb junky!!! Before this diet I ate sensibly but I would have the almost every other day carb junkout meal that usually hit at 3pm.  It would consist of a meal such as Stacy's pita chips and hummus, or Cheetos, or whatever cookies and boxed cereal I had in the pantry.  I would immediately put on at least 500 Cal in a single sitting, all of which was mostly processed carbohydrates.  The undersirable, insulinogenic, set myself up for a crash kind of meal.  

Now that is changed.  After much withdrawl from processed carbs (which included almost daily hypoglycemic events, headaches, and fatigued), I am now eating mostly if not all complex carbohydrates, and carbo's from vegetables.  We'll see how carb cycling goes.  I suspect this will be the next task when I meet with my trainer on Thursday.

INTRODUCTION

My name is Mirabelle (some call me Belle) and I'm a 39 year old filipino-american, single mother, and anesthesiologist.  Today is my first blog post.  This is about four months shy of my goal of doing a figure contest.  First this is dedicated to the two most important people in my life right now and that is my boyfriend Abel and my son Nathan.  And then to all working women who are tugged by life's demands of motherhood, relationships, work, and health.

On May 9, 2011 I started a very low carb diet.  This was instigated by two factors...first that my calorie restricted diet (when I do stick to it) rarely produces lasting results and usually ends in a few pound weight loss, nothing more.  Second my boyfriend Abel started a low carb diet a week before and started to lose weight.  His goal was to drop percent body fat, preserve muscle, and lose some weight by July 10.  So I started to read about low carb diets (primarily the Atkins diet), and began to modify my diet by eliminating almost all carbs.  The first week was the hardest and I went through fits of headaches, loss of energy.  By the end of two weeks I lost 5 pounds!!!

I was amazed.  I like to consider myself healthy, I eat "sensible" and exercise about 3-5 times per week. I was always considered by others as "petite".   After having a baby, I lost all the weight in a year, but when I stopped breast feeding I slowly put on 10 lbs and failed to lose it since then.  I took up running and did my first half marathon last year.  The most I lost was 4 lbs.  I also noticed that diet had a greater effect of my weight fluctuations than it had when I was "younger".

05/2011 Specs:
Ht:  5'2 1/2"
Wt:  129.5 lbs
BF%:   27

One pound over would put me at "overweight" on the BMI charts.  I was beginning to feel "fat"