So You Train Your Body - Do You Train Your Brain?

We lift, we press, we pull, we sprint, we climb, we sweat, we TRAIN HARD!  We sculpt strong well defined bodies, but how many of us remember to train our brain?

Now I'm not talking about doing endless amounts of sudoku puzzles, studying vector calculus, and trying to solve the Kobayashi Maru. (Oh shit!  Did she just make a Star Trek reference?)  I'm talking about training your brain to benefit your fitness endeavors.

HUNGRY?  THIRSTY?  BORED?  CRAVING?

One of the biggest struggles physique athletes face is getting a grip on their diet.  There are a ton of ways to diet your body down to compete or for shoots, are to just plain look good.  Finding the diet that works for you is step one, actually sticking to it is step two.  If you've never attempted a competition diet, let me tell you it.is.HARD!  Mentally.  You're denying your body of natural urges, not always eating when you're hungry, not succumbing to cravings.  One thing you mentally have to train your brain is to know the differences between hungry, thirsty, bored, and craving.  Easiest way I've found of doing this, is simply to wait!  Drop whatever you're doing, drink some water and distract yourself for 5 minutes.  After that time is up, are you still hungry?  Usually not, just bored or craving.  If those 5 minutes are up and you are still legitimately hungry, reach for some veggies!  I like to opt for cucumbers because their high water content keeps my belly full.  If you're craving, it's definitely more difficult.  For me, I try to distract myself as much as possible. Watching a movie or tv allows your mind too much room to wander back to food, so try calling a friend, reading a book, playing a game.  I like to text the guy I have a ridiculous school girl crush on, because he usually tells me he's craving baked goods too, and that we don't need them, and then he'll change the subject so that we're not talking about food.  Works every time!

POST CHEAT PUNISHMENT

You messed up on your diet, you ate a cookie... or 12.  You meant to grab 2 almonds and ate 2 handfuls.  Just one little bitty spoonful of Nuts-N-More chocolate almond butter turned into eating the entire jar.  (Yes, these are all things I've done.)  So go to the gym and hop on the stair monster for an hour and burn off those extra calories, right? 

-Knock knock.
-Who's there?
-You... and you are SO WRONG!

Why are you so unbelievably wrong? Punishment cardio is training your mind to think you can delete a mistake with extra cardio.  It's telling yourself "Oh I can eat whatever I want because I can just un-eat it with extra cardio."  You're training your brain to do it again!  So what should you do?  NOTHING.  You messed up.  Oops.  Move on.  Feel the guilt for a bit, let it remind you that you don't want to do that again.  And then just move on.  One mistake isn't going to throw you off.  Several mistakes will!  So don't train your brain to think those mistakes are okay, train yourself to not make them again!

KNOW WHY YOU'RE DOING WHAT YOU DO

Do what your trainer tells you to do and ignore the unsolicited advice of others.  You'll hear that from a lot of people.  But do you ever bother to take the time to find out WHY your trainer makes you do what you do?  Why do you have to drink so much water?  Why aren't you eating fat pre and post workout?  What are those delicious BCAA's doing?  Why is that 619 Muscle protein such an awesome option for post workout protein?  Why does my muscle recover so much quicker when I eat Betancourt Nutrition's Glutamine Chewies?  Train your brain!  Learn the answers to these questions.  Consistency is the main key to progress, and when we know why we're supposed to do certain things, that consistency becomes so much easier!

So take the time to train your brain, it will only make your body better!

My Favorite Things of 2012

I frequently get asked what products I use and love, both for health/nutrition, and just life in general.  So I thought I'd wrap up my blog for the year with a list of my favorite things!

PROTEIN:

 Oh hai Brad Albertson

This is probably the question I get asked most frequently.  619 Muscle Foundations protein is my favorite. Yes, I am sponsored by them but I chose my sponsors based on products I use and believe in!  So what do I love about this one?  It's clean.  118 calories, 26 g protein, 0 g carbs, 1 g fat, sweetened with stevia, loaded with BCAA's and glutamine.  I absolutely love it!  The peanut butter flavor is my fav! 

PRE-WORKOUT:

This stuff will blow your MIND!

D-Stunner by Betancourt Nutrition is something that I've recently been introduced to and HOLY COW!  It was love at first try!  This pre-workout is not the cracked energy jittery type that makes you feel like Beavis when he turns into the Great Cornholio.  And no jitters means no crash!  Just a nice bump in strength, power and breathing.  That's right, it helps you breathe better! There is a bronchostimulator in this product to help improve your breathing during exertion!

GRIPS:

Yes... my grips are pink and black like everything else I own

I REFUSED to leave the Olympia Expo this year until I bought Versa Gripps because I didn't want to have to pay shipping online.  Well in the midst of all the excitement I completely forgot to go shopping - how incredibly unlike me!  In the last 15 minutes of the expo I frantically ran over to the Versa Gripps booth to snag my pink and black FIT model grips.  I absolutely love the control and improved grip I have when training with these. The FIT series is designed for my girly smaller hands and freakishly small wrists.  I lost these for 2 days and was devastated.  They enhance my workouts SO much!

SPORTS BRA:

The Robin Bra - named after ME!  Not kidding!

I am absolutely in LOVE with BodyRock Sport!  Kelly has designed some amazing bras that are not only the most comfortable and supportive out of all the gazillion sports bras I've owned, but they're fun and fashionable!  This year I was beyond flattered that she whipped up the fun green one pictured above and named it after me!  These bras are great because they even have hidden pockets to store a key or iPod AND it has a light layer of padding so that the whole gym doesn't know when you're cold.  Bonus!

GYM BAG:

Nice bag!

I don't travel lightly, that includes when I go to the gym.  I am an OCD organizational freak. Enter: The Peacoat Class bag by Fitmark.  It's like a dream come true, in a super high quality back pack.  Shoes go in the bottom, insulated compartment for your water bottle, padded back pocket for a laptop, anti microbial bag for your funky sweaty clothes.  SO FABULOUS!

BLOG THAT ISN'T MINE:

So badass!

Yes, I read other people's blogs.  This gorgeous lady is Kari Keenan - a figure competitor determined to earn her IFBB pro card.  She's hard-working, smart, sweet, a great writer, and she sends me pictures of cats.  Duh, of course I love her!  Her blog covers so many great topics from training, to dealing with the emotional hardships of prep.

IPHONE APP FOR THE GYM:

Did I mention I hate interval training?

I hate doing intervals.  Like really, A LOT!  They kick my ass and make me pray for death, but it's a very highly effective way of training, thus I do it.  I found this app and its AMAZING!  Again it appeals to the organizational freak in me because you can color code the warmup, highs, lows, and cool down periods.  You pick the length for each period, number of intervals and BAM you're on your way.  It takes all of a minute to set up.  

RANDOM GIRLY CRAP:

Game changer!

 I have horrible skin.  HORRIBLE!  Total combination skin, acne prone, just disgusting.  This stuff changed it A LOT! Much more even skin tone, faded old acne scars, just youthful glowy skin!

FAVORITE PERSON ON THE PLANET:

Alison Burgess

Annie Parker

Okay so it's a tie.  But they're both blond fit girls with names that begin with "A" so I figure I can post them both.  Shuddup, it totally makes sense.   Miss Alison Burgess and I met about a year and a half ago competing but developed a great friendship this year.  She's my go-to gal for advice about basically everything under the sun.  She always says things that makes my mind go in directions I've never contemplated so I can honestly say I really am a better person for knowing her. And also, she sends me pictures of cats.  And then there's my little pocket sized friend Annie Parker.  We have one of those friendships that consists of finishing each others sentences, laughing at things that no one else understands, and even started a business together!

So that's it folks!  My favorites of 2012!  Wishing you all the best in the new year!  xoxo

Screw Being an Adult- Train Like a KID!: The Key to Fitness Success

I'm a big kid at heart.  I am still intrigued by the magic of Disneyland.  I make wishes on shooting stars and dandelions. I hate doing chores.  I love watching cartoons.  I have aspirations of one day opening an indoor tree climbing gym. I think boys are icky - well okay maybe not that part.

Do you remember being a little kid?  Did you ever run so fast you thought your legs were going to fall off? Or feel like an Olympic gymnast swinging on the monkey bars?  Remember when PE was your favorite time of day because you'd get to be active?  When did all that exercise become a chore?  The point is, we were active in our childhood because we made it fun!  We ran around because we chose to, not because we felt like we had to!  Make your workouts fun again.  BE A KID AGAIN!  Involve your friends and family! Seriously, try playing "Duck Duck Goose" as an adult. It's exhausting.  Sit down, get up, SPRINT, sit back down.  Interval workout baby!

How many of you have ever tried to have a conversation with a 3-year-old?  I'm sure lots of you have, which means you are well aware that the favorite word of every 3-year-old is "Why?"  So what happened to that?  When did we feel like we know so much that we stopped asking "Why?"  Surely we're not so arrogant as to think we know it all.  When you're working towards your fitness goals - whether they be to build muscle, burn fat, run faster, run further, lift heavier, live longer - don't forget to seek the answer to WHY you're doing the things that you do.  Why should you lift in that repetition range?  Why should you be eating those sorts of foods at those specific times?  Why do you have to drink so much damn water?  If you know the answers to these, good job little slugger!

Let's play $10,000 Pyramid.  Goldfish crackers... plastic bag full of cheerios... peanut butter and celery...  granola bars... THINGS THAT YOU SNACK ON!  Ding ding ding! Winner.  We ate more frequently as kids.  We snacked!  Common meal plan as adults: coffee for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, mid-afternoon latte, dinner, DONE.  Bad idea.  3 planned meals a day all involving protein, carbs, and healthy fats, with 3 snacks a day, MUCH better idea.  Eat like a kid, small frequent meals!  

You know what else we did better as kids than we do as adults?  Rest.  We took naps, we went to bed at a consistent time.  We slept in without guilt.  So do it!  SLEEP!  Sure you may have to sit down and manage your schedule a bit, but you need sleep.  And I know some of you are saying "I'll sleep when I'm dead."  Well cool, if that's your attitude that whole "dead" part is going to come MUCH sooner than you think.  8 hours of sleep per night gives you 16 quality hours of day.  5 hours of sleep gives you 19 ass-dragging coffee-chugging fatigued-body hours of the day.  Not really a great trade-off!

So my advice to you - be a kid.  Train like a kid - make it fun! Think like a kid - ask why!  Eat like a kid - small frequent meals!  Rest like a kid - ni-night!

Trapped: What Metabolic Damage Feels Like

That's me.  Trapped.  Former me inside the soft squishy shell that is my current self.  I live in a world where I am surrounded by people who are the epitome of fit.  Who judge other people who don't fit their ideals of what "fitness" looks like.  Who think it's perfectly acceptable to call other people chubby.  

And so I'm stuck.  There's the girl I remember 20 lbs ago who was very proud of the physique she worked so hard to get.  And she's stuck inside me just begging and screaming to get out of this body that is keeping her trapped.  This isn't a body that came from mindless eating and laziness.  It came from being too concerned with the fit body I sought comfort in. 10 months of dieting... TOO LONG!  Regardless of changes to my diet, lowering calories, more cardio, my body stopped responding.  And then started to gain weight. And then would.not.STOP!

So how did that happen?  I've heard of metabolic damage before.  I've heard of countless competitors eating nothing but tilapia and asparagus and doing cardio twice a day - an hour in the morning and an hour at night.  I was SO FAR away from that.  My meals were balanced, I ate more carbs than most girls my size, and more variety.  Cardio?  Usually 4-5 days a week, maybe 30-40 minutes.  Nothing too extraneous.  So did I think I was putting myself at risk for metabolic damage?  Not really.  I've heard of girls achieving that state after prolonged dieting, but I didn't FEEL like I was doing anything remotely extreme enough to reach that state.  So I just kept going.  BIG MISTAKE.  My body basically started to think I was living on a deserted island where food is scarce and I needed to hunt for what little game there is on my island.  So it slowed my metabolism down to protect islander Robin from diminishing away.  So no more cardio for me (woohoo) so that my body doesn't think I need to save my energy for hunting.  And I slowly have to eat more food, so that my body thinks Islander Robin's food supply is becoming more plentiful.

With my current diet, most people would lose weight following the same diet without even exercising.  Me?  Lifting 5 days a week, still gaining body fat.  So I just keep going until my body gets used to this caloric level and stops storing everything as fat, and then add in another 50 calories a day.  And then repeat until I can get my body used to an extra 350 calories a day than it's getting now.  And in that process, I'll gain more body fat.  And people will continue to judge me.  They'll continue to look at me without even bothering to mask their expression of "What the HELL happened to you?"  And I'll continue to tell them that I'm bulking for bikini, because that's just makes me laugh every time. 

I feel okay about my current body.  I'm learning to accept it.  My ass and boobs are GLORIOUSLY round when I have extra weight on.  And I like the softness to my face better as opposed to how sharp my features get when I'm lean. I don't feel insecure about myself until I hit the gym because frankly that's the only time that people stare.  To a passerby on the street, I look average - huge thanks to the obesity epidemic in America. Not big, not skinny, too much body fat to see any muscle definition.  Just a soft curvy girl.  In the gym however, I'm "chubby". 

I have at the very least 8 weeks of continued caloric increase before I can start trying to get my body fat down again.  I think it will take longer than that for my body to adjust.  This is a much slower process than I ever imagined.  But I owe it to myself to take the time and get there.  Then it's time to cut SLOWLY down to a good maintenance weight for me - which is about 12 lbs less than my current state.  If I can do that comfortably, then I can start cutting for competitions and photo shoots again.  This is a very long road ahead of me... maybe I should buy more shoes!

The Fitness Elite: Did You Miss Share Day in Kindergarden?

"That's my treadmill."

"Some slutwhorebag parked in my spot."

"He's on my bench and doing chest presses with bad form.  I'm training for a show so he should move and let the real athletes use the equipment."

"She had the nerve to ask me what my diet is like.  Doesn't she know I pay good money for that?"

"He's taking up my space to do a bunch of curls. I bet he's never even done a squat."

"She's fat, why is she even in the gym?"

SO F*CKING WHAT?!?!?!  WHEN EXACTLY DID FITNESS BECOME JUST FOR THE FITNESS ELITE????

I am so tired of the elitist attitude I've seen/heard in the gym as well as bragged about on social media.  People are actually proud of the snobby attitude they've developed.  Really?  We all had to start somewhere.  We were all a little lost, a little overwhelmed, a little intimidated at first.  We weren't born knowing proper form.  The knowledge of nutrition we learn in school growing up is minimal... you know in environment that now considers pizza a vegetable..

because it has tomato sauce in it...

even though tomatoes are actually fruit...

What was I talking about?  Oh yeah!  Sharing.  The gym is not YOURS.  The space is not yours.  The weights are not yours.  That treadmill or stair master is not yours - even if you may use the same one 29 days out of the month if someone else gets on that damn machine at your usual time it doesn't make them a bad person.  If someone isn't in great shape why do you question why they're at the gym?  They're there TRYING to make themselves better!  Why not walk by and say hi?  Tell them you've noticed they've been working hard.  MAKE THEIR EXPERIENCE MORE COMFORTABLE AND INVITING! Keep them coming back!  Make a difference!

I'm not talking about the people who come there and sit on equipment just to talk on their phone or check out people.  I'm talk about the people who are there legitimately trying.  Bad form and all.  They are TRYING.  They deserve to be there.  They have a right to be there.  The gym is just as much theirs as it is yours.

People like they way you look, they come up and ask what your diet is like... and your response is to tell them you paid a lot of money for it. TRUE STORY.  Yes you did.  And most coaches make you sign a non-disclosure agreement as they should.  No, you don't need to tell them your exact diet - it was custom made for you and likely wouldn't suit their specific needs anyway.  But what you can do, is give them general knowledge!  "I eat a lot of lean meats, veggies, complex carbs, healthy fats like almonds and avocado.  Muscle Egg egg whites are ALWAYS stalked in my fridge!  After I work out I have a 619 Muscle protein shake.  Try the peanut butter, it's great!"  See?  Didn't give away my plan, gave them some tips.  Gave them HOPE!

I'm a firm believer that knowledge isn't yours to keep, it's yours to share.

So help someone.  Make a difference.  Give some tips and pointers.  LEARN TO SHARE!

The Cool Kids Table

Do you remember what your school cafeteria looked like?  The tables all neatly arranged.  Those little food trays?  The almost too shiny freshly mopped floors that REEK of ammonia?  And of course, the segregation.  Every school cafeteria has a "cool kids table".  The kids who dress nicer than everyone else, who seemingly always have something interesting and fun going on in their life, who can make your day by asking you to borrow a pencil because OH MY GOD that means they know you exist!  That table is the topic of conversation, everyone dreams of getting invited to sit there.  

And then there are kids like me.

The little nerd girl sitting alone silently picking at her sandwich, occupying the last 6 inches of bench, rarely even looking up from the table.

That concept DOES NOT GO AWAY.  You'll see that in offices, and for me - in the fitness world.  In the southern California competition circuit, there is a very obvious cool kids table.  They're at every show either competing or watching one of the other "cool kids" dominate their height class, who do not accept anything other than first place as being a success.  They're the ones who pop up in just about every picture taken at shows, who have the largest cheering section of friends - and even people who have never even met them but have looked up to them for years, are constantly asked to shoot with the top photographers, who have a ton of sponsors, who have amazing parties to celebrate their victories. 

And then there are competitors like me.

I show up to the competition, excited if I even place (which I haven't).  My success is just even being able to get up on stage.  I get excited if absolutely anyone is clapping for me. I have one sponsor who are some of the most AMAZING and supportive people you'll ever meet.  After the show, I go home, alone, and shower and sleep.  And then I always seem to get a message on Facebook the next day, from some girl who competed in her first show - thanking me for making her feel more comfortable and less out of place.  And saying she looks forward to competing at another show with me in the future because I helped her have a fun and amazing experience.

And then I realize how much I don't want to sit at the cool kids table.  I'm fine sitting at the end of the nerd table - because I'll always move over and let you sit next to me.

I am HUNGRY

I am HUNGRY!

You know that all consuming feeling? You try to distract your mind, but it just gravitates back to one though? You want it more than anything, more than the air you breathe? The kind of hungry that courses through your body, you can feel it in your bones, in your eyelashes, in your soul?

I am HUNGRY!

But not for food, I hunger for the stage. I hunger for the tired body, for the smelly spray tan, for the drag queen makeup, for the bikini that costs more than my car payment, for the bright lights, for the hundreds of pairs of eyes analyzing every inch of my body. I hunger for the adrenaline rush of stepping on that stage and strutting the body I spent years sculpting and months revealing.

I will make it happen.

I will stay HUNGRY!