No Excuses

It is almost that time again. The time to start cutting for a show! So we’re the second year in to competing, it’ll be my third show and my first time competing in figure. To say I cannot wait to get started would be an understatement! Bulking, whilst being fun in the sense that there is an awful lot of food and you don’t feel like you’re going to die from lack of energy, I am glad that it is almost time to cut. This is what it is all about, stripping off all of that extra insulation to reveal what you’ve been working on…it’s like ripping open a nice little present. Hopefully the present will not disappoint as unfortunately, there is no refund policy here.

I will competing on the 18th August in BodyFitness (Figure) and all of the prepping fun begins in a week and a half…the 29th April. 16 weeks of prepping…I cannot wait but I know that undoubtedly, the novelty will soon wear off and I shall be desperately watching the food channel once again whilst counting down the seconds to the next chicken and broccoli meal. Well….I say BRING IT ON BITCHES, TIME TO GET LEAN AND MEAN AND GET THESE GOD DAMN ABS BACK! 

Whilst hanging out my arse, breathing heavy and being blinded by my own sweat teaching a spin class yesterday lunchtime, I found myself shouting out this question. It was about 30 minutes in, it had been a real tough one and I could feel people were wanting to give up. HELL NO. That shit is not happening on my watch.

When you hit that tough point, the point where you’re weighing up whether to give up or push through…just take a second to think “is this really all I have to give?”. Do you have anything left? If it was the last time you ever had to lift that weight, run that fast, spin that hard, jump that far…would you carry on and push that little bit harder? 

We have all been guilty of giving up, we have all been guilty of letting that split second decision result in defeat rather than triumph. If you say you haven’t, you’ll be lying. It takes an awful lot of mental strength to do this, to push through the barriers of pain, fear and temptation and rise above it all. The moment I’m talking about is that moment when you’re doing heavy deadlifts… you’re struggling to get it off the ground, it’s heavy, your heart is pounding and you have that seed of doubt..will it go up again? In all honesty, if you don’t think it will…then it won’t. It is as simple as that. You have to believe in it, believe in your ability, believe in your strength. If you doubt yourself, you’ve already lost. 

In my opinion, being the best at something, succeeding in anything is all down to your mentality. Yes, being a bodybuilder does have a lot to do with physical strength but when it comes down to it, the person with a stronger mentality will always win. They’ll have the strength to push through the hard times, to rise above the judgements, to do those last few reps others wouldn’t even consider doing and those few will always reap the rewards. It all comes down to who has more control over their own mind…who wants it the most…who will fight the most…who will sacrifice the most. Now that is what the true winners are made of.  

I dare you to try it…the next time you think you’ve hit failure, hit the wall, can’t do any more…just get one more rep, one last burst..it’s in there, you’ve just got to believe it is.

Dear oh dear you’d think I was on a contest diet or something…but no, I’m just angry because I’m still not well enough to train. It is my release, like my own version of therapy and now that I can’t do it I feel like I want to punch the wall and/or someone in the face. By Monday I want to be back on the wagon and ready for some serious shit or I really might end up snapping at someone….for the sake of all those I work with, I hope this will pass over the weekend.  

I had a pretty epic cheat meal the other day consisting of a disgusting amount of chocolate….it was pretty special and led to a severe sugar rush and subsequent crash that charlie of charlie and the chocolate factory would be proud of. 

My oh my do I miss cardio. Or more accurately, the results of cardio. I found myself actually wishing I was on low carb whilst eating my third meal with pasta today - I never thought I would say that! My abs are still there JUST and I’m finding it hard to accept that I’m not so ripped as I’m used to whilst trying to gain….it’s tough but I must suck it up and know that the shreddedness will come once again and before I know it I’ll be living off of chicken and broccoli, dreaming of pasta and sweet potato. But for now…this is what things look like:

My God, what is wrong with people. It’s been a matter of 3 days since the British Finals and already the haters are out in full force. Among others, the beautiful bikini tall class (the class I competed in) winner, Melissa Haywood seems to getting some really rather horrid comments: “Without the comedy boob job her body would look like that of a teenage boy”. Jesus Christ people, give it a rest, she’s fucking hot.

I simply cannot understand why people will sit behind their computers and throw out these harsh comments with no thought whatsoever to the person. Fair enough if you do not like the look of an athletic, fit, capable and strong woman (by the way, you are mad) but why feel the need to be plain rude. It takes an incredible level of hard work, discipline and sacrifice to reach the peak level of fitness of these competitors…maybe stop being so judgemental, get off your arse and go and achieve something. Don’t hate people for what they have achieved, it is not their fault that you have failed or cannot be arsed. Be inspired by them and use their acheivements to spur you on….don’t be that small person sitting behind their keyboard.

Go out and be a success, just like Melissa. How can you think this isn’t feminine and damn right sexy?!!!