So this week I have been clearing out my drawers of any hidden candy or chocolate. Finishing off the strawberries and raspberries in the fridge and emptying the last of my elderflower lemonade mix. Last week the cheeses, sauces and milk went. I am now 8 weeks out and that means serious changes to my diet. My only fat source will be almonds and the odd spoon of peanut butter. I will also remove all fruits apart from kiwi and any vegetables that contains a lot of sugar, like tomatoes and carrots. My main protein source will be chicken, salmon and tuna and of course my egg whites for breakfast. White fish is good but unfortunately I am allergic to it. Red meat I will eat occasionally. No pork meat but I never eat pork so that is nothing new. I love salt so I use Himalayan pink salt because it doesn’t retain liquid the same way as normal salt. But I guess in a few weeks that has to go too. The scales will come out tomorrow as I start weighing my food.
The question I often get is…Is it hard? Difficult question to answer. It is like a mindset for me. I don’t give myself any option. I just decide and get on with it. Its like fuelling a car. What I find most difficult is to keep the balance for the coming 8 weeks. Eat just right. If I eat to little I will be too lean and may lose muscles. All fitness athletes worst night mare is to peak early and get deflated for competition day. I have worked so hard on improving from my last competition season and I am not prepared to lose those leg muscles by cutting my food short during prep. It will be a few interesting weeks ahead. Thankfully I have been through this before so I hope to improve on previous mistakes and I also know how my body respond to the dieting. Determination mode is on.
When Davidson was given to me, only 5 weeks old, I could never have imagined how big part of my life he would be. For the past 12 years he has been my one firm point in life. People have come and gone, given me promises and expectations, disappointed me, hurt me and continue their lives but he has always been there. My little shadow. Wherever we are, even home, he still want to be able to see me and all is fine. He will limp after me to the bath room and sit on the bathroom carpet and wait for me. He comes along to the gym, and lies on his blanket, watching over me. If I disappear behind a pillar and he loses sight of me, the crying starts. My every day starts with his morning walk and ends with his night walk.
We all get that autumn flu that totally knocks us out. I was in bed for 5 days flat and on antibiotics. Do you feel it is hard to get back training again? I hear many people say: “I don’t feel up for it yet, let’s wait until I can give 100%. Yes, let’s start Monday again.” And so it goes. My trick is to start as soon as I am fit enough to go back to work, whatever weekday that may be. The more you wait the harder it gets. Why wait for Monday?
In Sweden, eating ecological food is nothing rare and you find it everywhere. In Marbella it used to be almost impossible but slowly with the demand, ecological fruit shops, restaurants and butchers are popping up around Nueva Andalucia and the Golden Mile. So great 🙂 I never use to think a lot about eating ecological but with my competition diets, I noticed how important good nutrition is. Now I only buy my fruits and vegetables from the new fruit and vegetable shop, La Freshquita in Nueva Andalucia. Yes, it is more expensive but both taste and quality is different ball game.
The other day I wrote about how I got back to the gym and how great it makes me feel. So to continue from there, I want to tell my story of starting to compete in bikini fitness at the age of 38. Many of you probably ask yourself: “What the hell got into her?” I actually don’t really know myself to be honest 🙂 I know that among the amazing new friends I met at the gym , two girls were competing in fitness themselves and they both encouraged and motivated me. They made me feel like I could do it too. I like achieving goals and that is probably what made me go for it. At first it was just a thought but once I decide to do something, I do it 100%. I was introduced to a well known Spanish trainer, Hector Defez and he set up a 3 month training program including cardio along with a tough diet plan. I have a very strong upper body but my legs and bum were lacking size so the training program included leg training 4 days/week. The following 3 months were really tough but mainly fun 🙂 It was so amazing to see my hard work pay off! It was like fine tuning a car haha, every little detail matters. Each meal is carefully measured and weighed. One thing I must say is, I wasn’t really hungry. I ate 5 meals/day of just the right quantities. It was just like fueling a car. The problem was the munchies, omg, haha, I was dreaming of cakes. We measured my body fat with calipers and I went down from 8.5 mm at the front belly and 19 mm at the back on the 7th February to 4.5 mm belly and 8 mm back the day before competing 1st of May 2015. To give you and indication, the fat on a normal hand is aprox. 3 mm. Another important part is the posing. Presentation is everything and the posing is very hard. Belly in, bum out, straight back and a relaxed and effortless smile to go with it.
Marianne Steneholm 