I changed my diet around a lot leading up to the show. At 5 weeks out, I went to a protein/fat diet with very little carbs mostly from vegetables. I really started loosing on this diet and felt great. I did that for 2 weeks before I switched to a protein/carb diet with almost zero fat as a carb load trial for my contest. At that point, I also cut out all added sodium and artificial sweeteners. I only did it for 4 days, but it seemed that I really filled out and tightened up. Then I went to a diet with more balanced calories from carbs and fat...mostly protein still and kept out the sodium and artificial sweeteners. I kept tightening up and my weight kept dropping. I was feeling pretty good about my conditioning, but getting a little worried that my weight had dropped so low. With all the diet changes, I had kept my calories about the same and had started eating extra rice cakes and peanuts here and there, but I was still loosing weight. I had to get to 115# by the weigh-in to make the lightweight division, and I can drop 5 pounds in water the week before, but the week before, I was already dropping below 118. I knew I wouldn't have any trouble making weight.
The week before the show, I did a depletion similar to usual. The big difference was that I normally deplete of carbohydrates only, but this time I depleted of both carbs and fat. I weighed in at only 108#, which was the lowest I'd been since 2003. I looked tight but very small. In fact, at weigh-in I was told that I was the smallest one in the class...and when I got back stage the next day I could see that I definitely was. I stood waiting to get my competitor number and turn in my music for the night show while all the other bodybuilders went in front of me because the guy taking the music thought I was a figure competitor. I threw my cd down on his papers and said "I'm a bodybuilder. There's my music." He gave me my number and shuffled me along.
While waiting for the meeting to start, I came to the realization that my trainer, although I was only using her assistance this last week, had prepped another lightweight for this show. That's fine; she has the right to do that. However, when I met with her the night before so that she could check on me and tell me what I should eat for the next day, I had asked her what the competition looked like, and all she said is that there was one girl who was really big. She didn't have to mention to me before that she was training someone else, but at this point, there's no reason the she shouldn't have said "There's a girl that I prepped who is a lightweight too." Yet she decided to pretend that she didn't know anything else about the competition. I would have even understood if she said she prepped a girl and she shouldn't talk about her because it wouldn't be fair to her, but to just skip over that detail that night I thought was a little unfair to me. Oh well, it didn't really matter in the end anyway. I was just reminder of how different national level shows can be.
It's a new level of competition where less people are there to have a good time and to be the best they can be. Most of them are there to win, and not make friends...unless those friends can give them a leg up on their next show. It's been two years since I competed in my first national level show, and almost two years since my last. That first reminder was just one of the things that I had learned and forgotten in two years. Before I stepped on stage, I was standing in line with my fellow lightweights, and realized that they all had the 'voice'. This was my second reminder of where I was. I had this idea that at least in the lightweight class there would be several 'natural' competitors. I was wrong; I was it.
Once we were on stage, I stood in the front relaxed position, and thought about the fact that I hadn't practiced my posing enough. The head judge called 'quarter turn to the right', and by the time I was in position, I heard again 'quarter turn to the rear'. As I faced the back of the stage I thought that maybe it didn't matter that I didn't practice so much because it goes by so quickly. In the end it did because I didn't get into my positions quickly enough for the judges to see what I had to offer. I got feedback from one of the judges after the show who said that from looking at the pictures he didn't think I looked like the 4th place girl, but when he was judging, he had marked me as such. I didn't present myself very well on stage, so that's something I need to work on for USA's.
Before finals Saturday, Adam and I had gone to do a little photo shoot in a nearby park. It was fun and we got some good shots. My brother, Christian, had driven up to watch the show and hang out, so he and Adam and I went to dinner at the Ram's Horn Brewery afterwards. The food was great, but we didn't stay too long. Christian had to drive home and work in the morning on no sleep, and we had to drive North to see Adam's family who had been on vacation that week.
