So I got picked on for the last time today for not updating my blog.  No I didn’t quit, get hurt, or picked up for drug dealing… I got insanely busy designing an entire precast concrete building from the foundation up.  Not only did I have to learn how to design in a material I had never worked with before but I also had to design it for a seismic event which adds an entire other layer of complexity in buildings as structures tend to not like moving a lot.  So for those of you that have skimmed over the last few sentences thinking they were in a different language… in layman’s terms… I had design a bunch of large concrete Legos that when stacked together would be able to handle an earthquake shaking the crap out of it.  Imagine a Jenga stack standing there and someone coming up and shaking the table underneath it.  Yeah… exactly.  So even though I didn’t miss a beat with the training and exercise all of my free time was suddenly gone and my creative energy was ZILCH!

But enough with the excuses I am back and things have really started to accelerate in terms of the training and show prep and I’m sure you are all dying to hear where things stand.  I apologize in advance for the plethora of information I am about to dump on you and the lack of witty quips but I want to make sure everyone is up to speed with where I am now so the following more witty updates make sense.

Here we go… back in September my coach leaned me down to near stage weight to see what my physique looked like to determine what we needed to work on (picture shows progress from when I started this in July to this point in September).  Let’s just say it was NOT hard to pinpoint.  God must’ve been doing the Atkins diet when forming me because I have NO buns in the oven!  And when I say “no” I mean “NO”… like Oklahoma plains flat!  It would’ve been insanely depressing had it not been for how comical it was.  Waist up I looked pretty good, waist down had no definition, no curve, and no chance of placing.  So we decided to take the next 5-6 months and go through a build phase focusing on the lower body.

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I spent the better parts of September – February walking around like I had just gotten off a horse I completed the Oregon Trail on.  My quads, hamstrings, and glutes were in a constant state of sore and tight.  I was hitting different parts of my legs/glutes 3 times per week!  Was BRUTAL!  The nice part was I got to be in a calorie surplus through the holiday’s which made that time waaaaay more palatable (pun intended).  Good news is… it worked!  Mamma got some junk back in her trunk!

In January we started to look at potential shows for the June/July timeframe in one of the areas I live in.  We decided to do a show in each!  That way I can tweak some things in the second show if I want to from my experience in the first show.  The two shows I’ll be competing in are:

Muscle Classic in Garden City, ID on June 2^nd
(https://craigproductions.com/idaho-classic)

Greater Gulf States in Metarie, LA on June 23^rd
(http://louisianamuscle.com/greater_gulf_states).

Side note – Definitely come out and support me if you are around one of those venues on those dates.  Crowd participation and support of an athlete can actually help your score!

With the shows selected and hard dates set we started my prep early – 20 weeks out – to allow for some flexibility and time to adapt as this will be the first time getting to true stage lean.  I am now 10 weeks into it and things are going well.  For those that are curious I am still around 2000 calories a day and am averaging about 1lb of weight loss per week.  However I am now up to cardio 5 times per week rather than just 2 HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) sessions and my training workouts are averaging between 1.5 – 2 hrs.  So I am in the gym 2 – 3 hrs every day after work.  It really is like having a second full time job at this point.

Anyway… now everyone is caught up to where I am at in the process.  I’m not going to turn this into a novel by posting all of the random, funny, and awkward moments that have happened in the interim but they will follow shortly over the next few weeks and I promise some should have you rolling assuming I can get into words even a fraction of what actually happened.  Topics will include getting a piece of fabric in the mail with an invoice for a posing bikini, the selection process of the stage bikini, my first posing sessions, and me going through the realization that I walk whatever the opposite of sexy is.  This is definitely not a sport for the faint hearted or thin skinned I can tell you that!  Stay tuned!

PS – The last piece of the building I designed was erected a week ago… and it’s still standing!  (check out my FB to see pics).

One accessory that I never seem to leave the house without anymore is the oh so faint (although sometimes not that faint) powder residue on my pants, shirts, shoes, and sometimes even hair.  No it’s not cocaine or dry shampoo or even that special fragrant deodorant that I splurged on at the drug store a few weeks ago once I stepped up my HIIT… but protein powder, BCAAs, preworkout, creatine, or any combination of these.

Little did I know how much starting this process would quickly turn me into what looks like a drug dealer.  Not that I think drug dealers walk around sporting their product all over their attire but you will rarely see me anymore without a small bag or mismatched purse in tow.  Because let’s face it, I no longer get to select the bag by outfit or ensemble color scheme but rather by the amount of food and/or product I need to carry with me that day.  They are always packed with several different powders in small Ziploc baggies, little bottles of different types of liquid with small needless syringes, and a travelling scale.  Here TSA is worried about my juicy peppers and chicken and completely overlooked the drug stash I have taking up over a quarter of my suitcase.  Newbs!!

Although I am proud to say that I have now upgraded to a high class drug dealer because after pulling out small baggie after small baggie full of different powders I did start to feel a bit self-conscious especially after I was stopped by a sketchy random guy in the airport who asked what kind of goodies I had.  I splurged on the Blender Bottle GoStak containers (https://www.blenderbottle.com/products/gostak) and of course got them in hot pink.  I mean with as jacked as I am trying to get I don’t want people to mistake me for a boy, right?!  I highly recommend these to any athlete that is trying to avoid the “corner dealer” look.

However, beware!  You’re still not in the clear… the problem with these GoStaks is that if you are not using the shaker that comes with it, the opening tends to be much larger than most other shaker bottles.  So if you’re anything like me and have a tendency to make messes, you will still walk around sporting some residue.  Although take comfort in knowing that you’ve at least taken it down a notch from dealer to just a user! #fitgirlproblems

As if flying wasn’t pain in the a$$ enough… trying to fly while on a strict meal plan is next to impossible.  Have to stick to solid foods, you have no access to fridges or microwaves, and you have extra “luggage” now carrying around an array of mismatched tupperware.  Needless to say by the time I arrived at security I thought I had made it past the tough part… boy was I wrong!

Just a short brief on the Boise airport, it has a total of 21 gates and typically you can arrive 45 mins early, check a bag, get through security, grab a coffee, and STILL wait at your gate for about 15 minutes before boarding.  So when I showed up almost an hour early with only carry-ons, I was psyched that I would actually be able to treat myself to a coffee from one of my favorite local places (which I had worked into my macros for the day) .  Lol… joke was on me.

Well first of all this must have been training day for the TSA agents because they were processing approximately one persons’s bag per hour (ok – may be a slight exaggeration but go with me on this).  So by the time I actually get into the teleportation device that they like to call the “millimeter wave machine” I only had about 20 minutes until my flight started to board.

First of all as I stepped out of the human fryer, I saw my a$$ light up yellow on the weird corpse outline they have on their screen.  Ok, I wore my blinged out jeans… that was MY bad.  I’ll take full credit for that oversight.  Let the strip search begin!

However my little rendezvous was not over yet because when I went to get my things out of the 50 bins it took to lay everything out that they want to see, they pulled the bin with all of my food in it.  Ok… wtf now?!

“Ma’am… we need to do additional screening on this bin.  Can you please collect the rest of your things and meet me on the other side?”  Sigh… but my coffee!!!  Hmph!

As I sat there watching her inspect each container carefully I started to get a little nervous.  Since when can you not bring food on a plane?!  Then she said “Ma’am were you aware that you cannot bring liquid on a flight unless it is 3oz or less and can fit into a 1 quart Ziploc bag?”  I replied “Yes ma’am, but what does that have to do with my food?”  Her reply… and I cannot make this up… “Well your food is awfully juicy and I think that you have exceeded your allowed liquid amount AND it’s not in the proper container.”

Ummm… was that just a massive compliment??!!  “Your food looks too juicy for travel”?!  So much so that we think you are a threat to the plane’s security?!  I didn’t know what else to do but start laughing which unfortunately was probably not the right move as she became very defensive and adamant that I could not carry my food through.  Let’s just say laughing quickly turned into frustration.

I started to try and explain to her that I NEEDED this food for health reasons and that I hadn’t had an issue before but she was not having it.  I asked her to call her supervisor because I refused to blow an entire day and waste a ton of food based on one rookie’s decision.  Luckily the supervisor had a bit more sense and at least let me “drain” the liquid before he required it be re-run through the x-ray machine.  Once my chicken and peppers were finally not a threat to national security, I only had 3 minutes until the boarding door closed.  In fact they were already paging me as I was collecting up my food and of course it was at Gate 21… the last one in the terminal.  Let my cardio workout commence…

I’m sure you’ll all be happy to know I made my plane, chicken and peppers in tow… BUT I did have to re-program my macros for the day since I was not able to obtain my coffee.  #fitgirlproblems

Only 2 weeks in and I was put to the ultimate test… sticking to my diet while spending an entire weekend on the boat.  So for those of you that don’t know me, there is no greater happiness for me than to be on a boat, on the water, with a drink in my hand.  This is an absolute trifecta so missing any one of these pieces… collapse.  Although if I’m honest this theory had yet to be tested so it was pure conjecture.

So one thing I have yet to mention and explain it’s place in this journey… something very near and dear to me… alcohol.  I am allowed to drink 1 – 2 days/week.  However I have to take all calories consumed in alcohol, divide by 4, and subtract that from the carbs for the day.  Well by the time I eat the required carbs for breakfast and my pre and post workout it really doesn’t allow much for alcohol consumption.  So to maximize my intake I worked out in the morning so that my breakfast and pre workout meal were one in the same and only consumed protein and fat the rest of the day (yes… I was desperate).  Even with all of this effort that only left me with 6oz of vodka.  So the plan was to wait until the end of the day when I was drained by the sun and drink it all at once hoping for a decent buzz.  Yeah… no such luck.  I thought it was going to hit me like a Mack truck since minutes after drinking it I started to feel tingly but unfortunately that was as far as it went.  Sad story!  Needless to say the next day I went back to my normal diet and said “screw it!”.  I guess on the bright side by the end of this my tolerance is going to be super low and my bar tabs will drop dramatically! #fitnessgoals #savingmoney

PS- Apparently the trifecta wasn’t as strong as I thought it was.  I still had an absolute blast and was stone cold sober the entire time.  I guess it’s really just a bifecta… yup… making up words now.  I do what I want!

Ok, so you know the song All I Do Is Win by DJ Khaled?!  As I was sitting in one of our weekly design meetings – talking about a building foundation design ironically – and drinking my third protein shake for the day the following lyrics popped into my head to the tune of All I Do Is Win:

All I do is eat eat eat
No matter what what what
Got protein on my mind
Can never get enough
And when I wake up in the morning
All my shaker bottles go up
And they stay there
And they stay there
Up, down, up, down, up, down
Cuz all I do is eat, eat, eat
And if you’re full who cares make it stay there

Seriously… sooooo much food!  I know what you’re thinking “oh yeah, I feel so sorry for you.  You have to eat a lot of food.”  But have you ever tried to eat something when you are absolutely not hungry… or even feeling full?  It sucks!  My macro count did go up from what I was doing but I think it’s more from the fact that I am supposed to be eating every 3-4 hours where I used to eat very little during the day and then have huge meals in the evening.

It’s been about a week since I’ve started working on this foundation and the food is what has been the biggest change.  However the workouts, although seemingly similar to what I was already doing, have been a straight up kick to the a$$!  Gretchen must be the fitness equivalent to Houdini and just know what lifts to put together and in what magical order that raises the a$$ kicking level to expert!  The first workout was legs and I swear to you I was nothing short of a baby giraffe walking out of the gym.  Yeah… Google that for a very accurate depiction of this engineer’s pain.  Yeah… not looking forward to getting out of bed in a few days.  Ouch!

Like all buildings you must start with the foundation first.  The integrity of the entire structure relies solely on the foundations and soils below.  I don’t care how strong and redundant your framing is, if the foundation is not there the building will collapse and fail.  The foundation to this whole process is going to be establishing my diet and exercise plan which I got today.  So stinkin psyched to get this ball rolling!  Took Gretchen and I about 1.5 hours to go through it.  Soooo much stuff!  And holy cow… soooo much FOOD!  Eek!

The exercise regimen actually doesn’t seem to be too far off from what I have been doing.  It’s slightly less reps but more sets.  There’s also a lot more unilateral lifts which I haven’t really done before.  Apparently this is on purpose so that we can identify if any of my muscle groups are lopsided in terms of strength.  Huh… one of those things I never really thought about but will be interesting to find out.  She has me on a 3 days on 1 day off schedule.  The muscle groups worked are broken down into: legs, back, shoulder/chest/triceps.

She actually completely ex-ed all of my cardio minus 2 HIIT workouts a week.  Now you’re talking about a girl who used to do 30-40 mins of cardio everyday.  It would be nothing for me to put the treadmill on 11.0 mph (5:42 min mile) and take off for 20-30 mins.  So this was a shock to me.  Also realized I had no idea what actual HIIT was.  She told me it should be 20 seconds of effort and 1:40 minute recovery and that it should take me every bit of the 1:40 to recover and get ready for the next round of effort.  I’m super skeptical on this… I feel like I can do just about anything for 20 seconds and not need a whole 1:40 to recover but we shall see.  Actually looking forward to testing this out.  I mean… she’s talking to someone that has been called the Cardio Queen on more than one occasion.

Now the diet… wow!  Luckily I have been on a macro based diet for the past 1.5 years so that’s not entirely new to me, otherwise it would be COMPLETELY overwhelming and intimidating.  For those of you that are not familiar with a macro based diet… you don’t count calories, rather you count grams of protein, carbs, fats, and fibers.  The calories tend to work themselves out as each one of these macros has a set calorie count (ie – 1g of protein has 4 calories, 1g of fat has 9 calories, etc).  Granted the diet I was following only counted protein and carbs so now there are two more moving targets I have to hit.  Not only that but the macro goals vary based on training verses rest days and I have to consume a certain amount for breakfast and pre and post workout.  Yeah… is your head spinning yet?!  Cuz mine definitely is.

All good though… if I can design a building surely I can do some math to come up with a solution that satisfies all four variables… maybe a matrices is in order?!  And they said you would never actually use calculus in real life.  🙂

I am going to assume you have read the “About Me” page to have some sort of idea about what I intend to ramble about on this blog… however if you have not might I suggest you take a quick minute to do so before proceeding.  I mean… you wouldn’t show up to school without having done your summer reading would you?!  (ok… really bad example… just read it!)

Today I officially hired my trainer and battle buddy for the next 6 months: Gretchen Quast with C620Nutrition.  She is responsible for laying out my diet and exercise plan and making sure I stay on track.  She too has competed so look her up and give her a shout out!

Just like in the construction, you have to start with an existing site that may or may not be ideal for the project at hand.  However to determine what you’re working with you have to run several tests and investigations.  So the process began with me filling out a huge packet looking at my current build, size, workout routine, diet, and what my goals are throughout the process.

So let’s start by looking at what we’re working with and some of the highlights:

Name: Rebekah (Schrock) Morlock
Occupation: Structural Engineer
Age: 34
Height: 5′-11″

Starting Measurements:

Starting Weight: 172lbs
Bodyfat: 18.5%
Bicep: L: 12”
Chest: 36 ¼”
Waist: 30 ¾”
Belly Button:  31 ½”
Hips:  36 ¼”
Thigh: 24”
Calf: 15 ¾”

Best body parts aesthetically? (In terms of muscle development (size/ symmetry):  I would say my shoulders and my back, although my arms in general have really started to take shape recently.

Worst body parts aesthetically? In terms of muscle development (size/ symmetry) DON’T say abs – that is related to body fat – not development.  My legs.  I have insanely long legs and that’s where I tend to carry most of my weight.  In fact I have always been so self-conscious about them that unless I was playing soccer I almost never exposed them.  However, since I started lifting over a year ago I actually get a ton of compliments on how “perfect my hamstrings are” but I still think overall they could have better shape, proportion, and definition.

From here Gretchen is going to put my plan together.  The first goal being to get me down to 15% body fat and see how I feel.  Apparently some women do not do well when they are that lean.  They get moody, feel bad, and have no energy.  Yeah… can’t have none of that!!  So the plan is to get me there and see how I feel.

If I feel good we will make the decision to keep going and start working towards getting me competition ready.  If I don’t, we will work on reverse dieting and getting me to a point that I can manage and be happy.

Not gonna lie… when I saw this part of my life spelled out in so much detail I was actually pretty proud of myself.  I knew how hard I worked to get this far and where I had come from.  This part of my life – health and fitness – has been a roller coaster ride of many ups and downs starting when I was just 4 years old.

I have been an athlete my whole life.  I started playing soccer when I was 4 years old purely to prove to my older brother that I could be better than he was.  Low and behold I was… that is relatively speaking.  It became a sport that I fell in love with and continued to play into college.  During my soccer career though I did also dabble in a lot of other sports: softball, volleyball, track, basketball, and even diving, but none of them stuck and was as dear to my heart as soccer.

Growing up I was always the “skinny girl”.  I couldn’t put weight on to save my life and it wouldn’t be abnormal to see me sitting at the kitchen table with a tub of cake icing (preferably chocolate or funfetti) and some graham crackers grubbing down to the last finger-lick.  (Man those were the days!)  So between my year-round soccer endeavors and my seemingly genetically blessed metabolism, I never really understood nor had to understand the importance of a balanced diet and/or exercise.  Well like most skinny kids, I heard those doomed words of “you gotta be careful… it will catch up to you” a million times over but never thought the day would actually come… enter COLLEGE.