I have reached the stage in my diet when no amount food seems to be able to satiate my appetite. I just finished a shake (I changed it up a bit: a packet of Myoplex Lite chocolate mint with half a scoop of CytoSport's vanilla-flavored EvoPro, which has just three grams of carbs in it; together, the two are quite tasty), and I felt like I hadn't even eaten a thing. Astounding. I'm weighing right around 108 pounds and I have a black hole for a stomach. Not fun when it's less than seven weeks until a show.

Earlier today, I was munching on steak, seven ounces worth, and potato. Now, I've begun adding crushed garlic to everything. I'll try not to do this for the food being prepared for the Arnold trip. I want to keep vampires and mosquitos away, not fans! But this what I do, whether it's chicken, fish, egg whites, or steak. I crush one clove of garlic in my handy little garlic mincer that my mom bought for me for my first apartment while in college. I sautee it in a pan that I've sprayed with cooking spray. I then put the meat into the pan. If it's chicken or steak, I've already cut it up in bite size pieces, so I can readily eat it on the go. If it's fish, then I just cook each side of the filet and then it's soft enough to eat with a fork. And egg whites, well, if you need a knife to eat your egg whites, then something's very wrong with your cooking! Lol! Anyway, I use a little more cooking spray on the meat, add a bit of salt, pepper, cumin, and chili powder, spray a bit more cooking spray, and then cook completely. Sometimes I also sautee some fresh spinach leaves and a bit of shredded cabbage or I'll add in some diced onions and tomatoes or a bit of broccoli florets for flavoring and vitamins. And then, once it's all cooked, I shovel into my mouth within five minutes and look helplessly around for more and pout when I realize I've wolfed down my entire portion and can't eat for another two to three hours. Oh...wait! I forgot to tell you what I've been doing with my potatoes. I microwave a small three to five ounce potato until it's mostly soft. I then slice it thinly and put into a pan that is coated with cooking spray. I then brown both sides of the potato slices until they are somewhat crispy (this can mean burnt at times, but that's only when I'm forgetful and off doing e-mails in the other room and not paying attention until the smoke alarm rudely interrupts me), and I then I add a touch of salt and eat them with my fingers so I feel like I'm getting French fries. But three or four ounces of potatoes don't go very far. We're talking five, six, maybe seven slices, and I try desperately to eat them slowly and bite into each slice three times, but they're soooo good, that I tend to just eat and eat and suddenly they're gone, and it was my last carb meal of the day, and I have to wait another 24 hours before I get that taste again. Can you see me pouting???

To make a long story short, I'm staaaaarving! This is a girl who can down an entire large pizza, a salad, and a handful of cookies in one sitting. I might look pregnant afterwards, but I can fit it all in! The sad thing is I'm pretty proud of that fact! But I've really held myself back with my cheat meals this past season. I used to eat until I couldn't breathe and then I would say, "one more bite of ice cream, and then I'll be done." Now, I start off with much smaller portions and stop when I feel content and on the verge of being full...not stuffed. I had to really teach myself this lesson. It's easy to shove everything sweet and fried in your face when you've been deprived of it for so long, but the aftermath isn't pretty!

I've also learned something else. Y'all might be surprised to hear that I've been adding salt to my food. Well, by keeping sodium in my diet, my rebounds from the cheat meals are almost non-existent. I don't have the painful bloating and swelling. I don't gain five pounds within three hours. I put on a pound or two by the next morning, can see that my abs are bit smoothed out from the day before, can see my muscles filled out and the veins appearing, and am overall pleased and have satisfied my cravings for that point in time. I just keep my water at a gallon or more a day (I'll up it to two gallons after the Arnold), and I'll sodium deplete the couple of days before the show. But sodium in the system keeps your system hydrated, which allows you to be stronger, which in turn allows you to lift more weights and put on more lean muscle mass. This could be another explanation as to why I managed to put on a good three to five pounds of muscle in my upper body this past off season.

And my workouts are going very well. I am a bit tired. I've been going nonstop for weeks on end. The Arnold will allow me to take a break from workouts, and the recovery time will let my muscles heal, and then I will enter the gym next Monday stronger and may be able to add just a touch more size onto my back and shoulders. In my opinion, my shoulders need to be rounder and need to present a bigger cap. I'm satisfied with my back. It might actually end up being too lean by the time I step on stage, but I can fix that with how much I tense it when I'm in front of the judges.

You might have noticed that a couple of major bodyparts are missing from the progress photos, namely my legs and glutes. I wasn't pleased with how they looked in the photos and didn't feel they were accurate depictions. The next photos I take should be better representations, so you should get a chance to see the wheels and the booty! Lol! I can see the tie-ins from my glutes to my hamstrings. Now, if you look closely at some of my pictures, you'll notice that the left glute is longer than the right one. That's because my left leg is just slightly longer than the right, which I have to keep in mind when posing on stage. I feel like I'm cockeyed, but in reality, I'm standing straight. It's a weird feeling! But back to the description of my legs. My hamstrings are shaping up very nicely, and my calves have definitely improved. In fact, I'm hoping I'll get a few veins to pop out here or there during the week of the show. We'll see! My quads are always the last to behave. I can see the separation when I flex them, but I'm holding water there and fat stubbornly clings until the three weeks before I step on stage. I've taken a break from sprints for a few weeks, but will return to them after the Arnold. I detest them, but I'm going to change my frame of mind, or else I'll always procrastinate and never do them.

I did arms today, and got a terrific burn in my biceps. I've incorporated close grip EZ-curl barbell curls, and I supersetted those with incline bench dumbbell curls. Talk about pain! And when I did triceps, I utilized the V-bar on the cables and did close grip pushdowns. I did dropsets, starting at 70, dropping to 50, and then finishing at 35. And at the 35 pounds, I did 30 reps. By the time I finished, the entire back of my arms was bright red, like a lobster shell freshly taken from the boiling water. I know I worked those suckers!!

Okay, this entry is long enough. I will post quickly before I leave for the Arnold, and then it will be Sunday evening before I venture back onto the computer again.

Take care and train hard, work hard, play hard! Oh yeah, and get some sleep. I know I will be after my last meal of egg whites.

Jodi :)