About Your Comments...About My Outfit...

Good evening all! Thank you for visiting.

This is a picture of the sun setting on our way home from the posing class that my husband and I traveled to attend today. Unfortunately it's the only picture for this post. I should have had my husband take some pictures of me in my posing class...but there's a reason for that...

First...I just really wanted to say that I got such a kick out of all your comments today when I came back from what seemed like a long, long hard day of flexing my muscles. Ha, Ha.

I know...I have a tough life..

I have five kids...one on the way...

And I spend my free time traveling around learning how to show off my muscles.

Ok... so why did that seem funny to me?

Anyway...I loved your comments about the suit bottom and shoes...

especially Dawns which was "speechless"

Amy "about fell out of her chair" because she thought I was talking about wearing a "business" suit"

And Amy from "They Call Me Mommy" thought I was "brave".

You guys are all so right in your reactions...believe me.

But Lindsey asked a very good question. Even though you would think that "less" would show more of what you don't want people to see...the cut of the suit and they way it is worn actually can enhance your figure and the symmetry of your body.

That is one of the reasons I was so shocked when I tried it on. The deep V combined with the higher ride on the hips created a slimmer, voluptuous image.

And, Lindsey. I don't see why you couldn't apply that to yourself.

And, just for the heck of it, SunshineMeg asked if I still crave some of my old favorite foods like chocolate covered cream filled bismarks, and nutty bars.

No, SunshineMeg, but thanks for making me think of them...they are all sounding really good right now.

Actually, I was really noticing milkshakes today and how good they looked.

But she did ask if I have any new favorite foods with my new diet.

I love grapefruit.

I splurged tonight, and had a second one for the night.

Lately I haven't been cooking up anything exciting because I'm just kind of tired and if I start making those protein cookies and protein waffles...I'll not want to stop eating them.

But, anyway...About the posing class today...

The class was divided up into three different classes.

One hour was spent in teaching the poses for a figure competition.

The second hour was spent in teaching the poses for the "fit body" category of competition,

And the third hour was spent in teaching the poses for the "body building" category of competition.

The difference in each competition class has to do with the woman's level of muscularity.

So, for example, the body building class is for women who have basically "big muscles" and who are just very muscular.

"Fit body" is for women who have nice muscles but not as big as in body building...

And "figure" is for women who are really toned, but who don't have a lot of big muscles and striations popping out of their body.

I attended all three classes so that I could get an idea of what I might do well in.

So...yes, I spent three hours flexing my muscles which is basically what you do in posing.

Would you all like to see me strike a few different poses?

Ha, Maybe I should do that for my early pregnancy pictures.

But, anyway, two of those three hours was spent practicing my poses in those new five inch heels that I just got in the mail...

SunshineMeg...by the end of those two hours, my feet were dying...plus I was just so tired from all that flexing and tensing and holding my muscles...

And there was so much to learn and remember.

I did, however, get some good feedback about what category of competition I am best suited for.

Can you guess?

Well, it's not figure competition.

With my level of muscularity, and the ease and comfort with which I executed the moves, I am best suited for body building.

I can also do "fit body" too, but may even be too muscular for that too.

Are you surprised?

I think it may be all those push-ups I've been doing.

-----------------------------------------------------------

I hope I'm not confusing everyone with all this new information on these types of competitions, but I thought it may be interesting to some of you. All of it is very new to me, especially working on all these poses which I will spend time practicing so that I can be more comfortable executing them for when I do a show.

Drawing tomorrow?

I think I will have one of our children pull a name from a hat tomorrow.

Sorry to be leaving you in all this suspense, Lindsey,

I know you like to know about things immediately.

Why I don't have pictures of me posing?

I was going to ask my husband to take some shots of me practicing in my heels and just some shorts and a tank...but, quite frankly, I was too exhausted and focused during the class and forgot.

A note on my calories:

Remember me talking yesterday about increasing my calories on double work-out days?

The gal who taught this class said I should also increase them on single work-out days too.

So, I will be shooting for 1,600-1,700 calories a day for work-out days.

I only got in 1,300 calories today because I was off, but I maybe should have had more because of all that flexing...because that was tiring.

Sunshine, expressed concern about the possibility of my low caloric intake "short changing" my growing baby.

So, I called a nurse yesterday. I actually had even researched this a little before I cut my calories...but...

She said, the baby will be fine because it will take whatever it needs from my body

A lot of times, pregnant women will not eat very much in the trimester

(I know I was never one of those kinds of women)

But some will lose weight because they are nauseous, so the baby just takes what it needs.

In all my reading, after the first trimester, you will want to begin increasing your calories by 200 to 300 calories a day.

Which I will do.

Also, I wanted to add that previous to three days ago...for the past five weeks, I have been taking in abundant amounts of calories like between 1,700 to 2,200 calories a day.

Remember the day I had a whole 8 oz of heavy whipping cream?

Which reminds me...the gal who taught this class said heavy whipping cream isn't a good fat because it has too much saturated fat in it.

The reason I thought it was a good fat was because I had read that some people who were training for shows would use it as one of their fat sources.

Sorry, for misleading you on that one.

Now...if you're still reading this and haven't fallen asleep...

Here's my food diary:

Food Diary:

1/3 cup of oatmeal: 100

6 egg whites: 96

1/2 grapefruit: 40

1 tbl of heavy whipping cream (before I found out it was bad...bummer): 45

total: 281

spinach salad:10

strawberries: 30

carrots: 7

cucumbers:4

radishes: 5

total:55

4 oz chicken breast: 80

total:135

--------------

running total:416

1/4 cup of brown rice:45

4 oz chicken breast: 80

total:125

-------------

running total:541

1/4 cup of brown rice: 45

4 oz chicken breast: 80

total: 125

------------

running total: 666

4 oz banana: 100

salad (same as earlier):55

4 oz chicken breast:80

total:235

-------------

running total: 901

sips of husband's mocha (shame on me, but oh so good!): 20

1/3 cup of oatmeal: 100

6 egg whites: 96

1 tbl of natural peanut butter:100

1/4 grapefruit: 40

5 oz of strawberries: 45

total:381

-----------------

running total: 1,302

Today's challenge: Are you kidding? All that posing!

Today's victory: Making it through all that posing and figuring out that I really, really liked doing the body building posing. Plus...with body building posing, you do it barefoot. No high heeled shoes.

Fitness: 3 hours of posing...I have no idea of how many calories that burned.

I've got a challenge for you folks...Just to get an idea, try flexing your bicep muscles in the mirror...as hard as you can for up to 30 seconds...Tell me how it feels...Then flex you leg muscles (like your quads) and hold it for 30 seconds.

Do this for a while...15 minutes, 20 minutes...um three hours and see how tired you get...

Ha, Ha...

But enough for tonight...I need to visit some blogs and see how you are all doing.

Good night!

Sincerely,

Sunshine Mama