Jaime's Phoneix Theory by Jamie Filer

Jaime’s Phoenix Theory contest prep

Another day, another dollar.



After I got feedback from my coach about my progress last week, he told me I was 2-3 weeks behind. At first, I was a little taken aback, because nobody wants to hear that when they’ve been making progress. But after I stopped to think about it, it occurred to me that I actually had no clue what he was talking about: “2-3 weeks behind from WHICH SHOW?” (Remember, I have 5 on my radar) He informed me that I was behind on the first one… the one in 12 weeks… the one I wasn’t planning on doing anymore because I knew I’d be behind. I didn’t even have that one in my sights anymore – but my coach still has hope. This would be a GREAT opportunity to go into a rant about how important it is to have people believe in you, but I’m going to save that for another time.

This week’s blog is going to be about knowing your limits. After I got my weekly feedback, I followed up the e-mail with another one, telling my coach that weighing myself every day was hindering my progress; allow me to explain: It’s the Team’s protocol to weigh yourself daily so that you coach can see how much your weight fluctuates from day-to-day, but also how much the weekly “refeed” affects you (the leaner you are the less of an affect it should have). Now, while this is brilliant in theory, in practice, you have to know your audience. I’d be beating a dead horse if I talked about my history with ED again. Needless to say, the scale and I haven’t always been friends.

But it’s because of that experience that I know my limits, and I know when enough is enough. If I’d weigh myself and see progress from Monday to Wednesday (that is, a steady decline in the lbs.), then on Wednesday, I’d tell myself that it was no big deal if I had a little extra ice cream that day. Now, the rules of moderation and normalcy say, “YES! That’s OK! Good for you!” but the rules of competition say, “You’re on a plan. You’re getting on stage. Stick to that plan.” Sometimes I forget the competition rules. Anyway, with all this in mind, I told my coach, after 11 weeks, that I couldn’t handle weighing myself daily. If I’m going to be successful at this sport, and healthy in life, I can’t take the psychological ups and downs that come with fixating on a number.

As always, he was more than accommodating. He told me it was no problem, he understood, and as long as I weigh myself 3-4 out of 7 days, then we’d be OK. Between July 9th and 17th,I’ve only weighed in about 4 times, and have made AWESOME progress (in both our opinions). I also feel less anxious, and have been sticking to my diet better.

12, 13, 14, 16 and 17 weeks out update:

WEIGHT:

Dropped from 162 to 160

CURRENT MACROS:

150/105/40 (p/c/f) – 3 days in a row
140/150/40 – Every 4th day

*I received a 10g drop in carbs going in to this week

TRAINING:

Sticking with the Upper/Lower - Power/Hypertrophy split. Holding onto muscle, baby!