POST COMP BLUES - FILLING THE VOID

Monday morning I woke up early, like 5 am – the house had sugar everywhere it was over whelming – I had some peanut m&m’s and then decided to make a greens shake I had a glass of it before realising I’m not even hungry.


I felt like a zombie and decided to go back to bed.

After another hour I woke up this time just lying in bed. I had nothing to work for? It was done, my goal was met, the deadline had past and the huge build up had only lead to another day where everything was back to normal? I was confused, overwhelmed, sad, happy – the whole process was so emotionally draining the thought of it being all over was too much and I started tearing up.


‘What do I do now?’


I felt lost. Matt came home from work and asked the question no one should ask when they can tell someone is upset…. ‘Are you okay?’ the sob turned into a full cry and the worst part was I couldn’t even explain to him why I was crying… poor Matt’s probably thinking I’m engaged to a nut job! I settled down and went to work – I felt so much better after work – I always do (again nut job!)


I was told about ‘post comp blues’ and at the time I was like as if I’m going to stuff my face full of everything and anything and love it once this whole thing is over!!!


It couldn’t be further from the truth – although during comp prep it was hard I may have felt tired at time it was also rewarding and put me into a routine. I now miss training already and surprisingly miss eating chicken and broccoli!!!


So do it again?


There is so many pro’s and con’s to the situation that make it not that black and white.


Pro is it gives me a goal and deadline to work towards – I now have more knowledge about the process and would obviously take stage looking even better. I love the fact that you work so hard and get to show off what you’ve worked hard for – I’m a competitive person so I now have that hunger to win.


Cons it is too consuming, I couldn’t have a normal social life, I was a shitty, temperamental person and I rather put my energy into my clients rather then my self. It was also an expensive process racking up over 2.5K over the 15 weeks!


In saying that I was to take this time to official thank my fiancé – words can not even describe how supportive he was the WHOLE time from the start where he told me it wasn’t going to be easy but at the same time telling me I’m too head strong and stubborn so I’ll get it done… right to the end where I was almost was over it and wanted to leave before my last stage walk. Mate, at times I was short, rude and down right nasty – he stood by me not once did he complain, want me to stop or sabotage me. I’m sure I snapped at him for looking at me, touching me and even eating in front of me. He listened to my worries and made me realised about 90% of the were made up scenarios in my head and wiped away my tears in my break downs – I’m so lucky to have you and even luckier to be getting married to you – you are actually the best human ever and I don’t tell you that enough!!!


So now what?


You’d think going back to normal eating would be a breeze – it has actually been a massive challenge the last 3 days I have had heartburn, headaches, body aches and have been bloated as hell all because I’m trying to eat what I use to pre-comp – my stomach has shrunk I can’t eat as much as I use to! I want to but I literally can’t! So I’m back to smaller meals and will increase portion sizes over time. Have I enjoyed my post comp feeds? In short not at all because they gave me the above symptoms I’ve felt like crap! I don’t even want to look at any sugar filled snack or will probably vomit!


How do I plan on filling my void?


With the comp over I want to put what I’ve learnt in both food and training into a 12 week guide – this is my next goal. This 12-week guide is not for comp prep it will be for girls who are already lean to take it to the next level of shredded. So I’ll by trailing the program on my self first before I realise it to others as I need to find healthier and more maintainable and realistic ways of keeping results earned, I’d love to hear if this is something you would be interested in as I feel many girls I train are not over weight they struggle to get that extra leanness about them and plateau easily… Inbox me or simply comment to let me know!


Stay Strong & Stretch,
Tel X

ALL FEMALE CLASSIC - THE DAY

Let’s start at Saturday night – after my second day of spray tanning I had a pretty chilled night just packed my bag ready for an early start and long day and made sure I remembered everything- I was nervous about not sleeping but honestly slept like a baby! I think because I had been water depleting (I had had 1L that day) I wasn’t waking up every hour to go to the toilet!!!!

I woke up fresh, excited and super tanned morning – you don’t wash the second coat of tan off what I got sprayed with Saturday I wore on stage Sunday (I smelt delicious!)

I had my rice cakes with banana and honey for breaky took my 500ml of water that I was allowed to have for the day and off I went to get my hair and make up done.

8:30am – HAIR & MAKE UP– I just wanted a simple curl no fancy up-do’s here and the make up with air brushed I seriously felt like I was wearing zero make up and shocked myself every time I looked in a mirror! I was out of there by roughly 10am looking flawless!

10am Matt and I left Zora’s and headed straight to Moonee Valley racecourse…. I was pumped!!! I had Biggie Smalls blasting in the car and was ready for an epic day!!!! My tanner (Donna, who was unbelievable!!) wanted me to pop on my bikini straight away so she could check out my tan and also make sure the bikini was on properly.

No problems! I went and got changed and as I slipped into my bottom SNAP – my bikini broke. I kid you not.

What did I do?

Cry, quit and throw a tanty?

Nah – come too far for that bullshit I remained calm and quiet – remembering I packed safety pins – I managed to pin either side (as both sides snapped!!!!) it was a dodgy job but hey it if it was gunna come off on stage a) least everything was tanned and waxed and b) I’ll get noticed right? Hahah

The thin clips were plastic and I will be sending the company an email today as $400 bikinis shouldn’t break on SHOW day!!!!

After the whole bikini saga Donna fitted my bikini and oiled me up – I had another two rice cakes and started pumping up for my first stage for at 12:30pm –Fitness Model First Timers Bikini round Class 2.

Still not nervous?! What was going on? Surely I should be feeling butterflies? I stood next to these beautiful and absolutely shredded girls and kept thinking what the f%ck am I doing here? I’m going to look ridiculously on stage next to these girls!!!

Before I knew it my group of 10 was lead back stage and the MC was announcing us – being the tallest I was the last in the line up so didn’t have to walk right across the stage and risk face planting lol.

On stage you couldn’t see much just bright, hot lights shining on you like a deer in headlights. I remained calm in my mind but my adrenaline had other thought and I could not stop shaking not matter how many times I repeated ‘it is just like posing practice’

Number 18 Chantel Graham – It was my time to shine – I must admit I was super happy with my stage walk I didn’t stuff any of it up – I maybe went a little quick but I felt focused and awesome it was a huge high!!!

After the individual introduction walks come the quarter turns so judges get to look at all angles of your body.

The judges took for everrrrrr which I guess was good because it was a tough decision – I got moved from the end into the centre which was even more exciting and then boom before I knew it off the stage we went.

My heart was pumping out of my chest, my muscles felt like they were cramping from holding posing for so long and my cheeks were aching from smiling so hard!

Matt was back stage luckily to help calm me down telling me to take big breaths – I felt awesome out there! I knew I wasn’t the leanest/smallest but f%ck I haven’t been training my arse off to look small I wish I looked more sculpted but with the time I had I was super happy with my body it looked strong and fit and looking the video my arse was on point! (Thanks mum!)

I didn’t place and that’s okay I mean it would have been the icing on the cake but trust afterwards I still got plenty enough cake :P

This is just a brief run down of the day next post with me more post comp thoughts!

1 week out - My First Fitness Comp

Got my nails done today so this email is taking me x10 longer then what it usually would!!!!

I’m UNDER a week out – where did the last 15 weeks go?

My head is spinning – there are so many things I wish I changed but I’m over all happy with how far I’ve come!

I’ve learnt so much - I’m ready to take stage and go back to normal living and dieting.

My carbs were altered last Thursday so I have been running on no carbs for 5 days now – how? I couldn’t even tell you – I’m mentally strong and just going through the motions – I am super tired struggling to make it past 8pm over the weekend and not getting up until 8am the next morning plus feeling like I need a nap mid day as well!

I’ve had to cut back work because I physically just can’t! Training is becoming strenuous even though it is lighter weights for more of ‘pump up sessions’

Still not nervous I think because there is nothing I can change now I’ve done the hard work and it is time to put it all together and have a grouse time on stage! 

Wish me luck not to fall arse over!!!!

Stay Strong & Stretch,
Tel X

Achieve results with this simple method...

I posted a status last week saying I’ve hit a fasted walk every morning for 3 week (nearly 4 weeks now – pause for victory dance!)

I had an array of questions mostly asking what keeps me motivated to get up as opposed to pushing snooze 3 times before coming up with a shitty excuse in your head of why you can’t go (which I know can be oh so tempting)  

Just like any fitness/health regime if you are consistent it gets easier and you get results.

With my walks I have done nothing fancy, the first week I woke up and looked for every excuse under the sun as to why I can't go out and walk – this happened every day and I had to trick myself into it by going for only 20 minutes (literally thinking to my self it is just around then block)– then I upped it in week 2 to 40 minutes and now in week 3 I’ve added 5kg ankle weights to my 40 minute walk and no longer have to convince myself of the benefits rather the quicker the walks done the quicker to breakfast .

It has now become routine – the initial pain (getting out of a warm bed to walk in the rain, wind and icy cold weather) was overcome by the long-term pleasure (leaner body for fitness comp)

You can apply this method to anything….

Not eating chocolate.
Loosing weight.
Hitting every training session.
No take away.
Quitting smoking.

Whatever your goals are instead of looking at it as something far away and impossible to reach, take it day-by-day, week-by-week, and month-by-month and these small wins add up very quickly.

Try not to over complicate the situation – if you want to get stronger lift weights often – if you want to loose weight eat less crap.

It takes 14 days to make or break a habit – stick it out!!

Stay Strong & Stretch,
Tel X

Get ripped. Get Walking.

Many of you have distance-running goals & I want to ask you a single question:

Do you enjoy running, especially for distance?

If you answer no – why the hell would you want to run distance?

The MAX I’ll ever make you run at one time is the figure 8 (1.6km) and I rarely do this.

The more common running you’d do in HEARTCORE is a hill sprint or 500m.

This is not just thrown in my programming for shits and gigs it is for a specific outcome – both of these short distance runs are designed to get your heart pumping and muscles burning to make you stronger, leaner and faster as opposed to distance running which will BREAK down those hard earnt muscles.

You want to look lean, defined & strong?

-Do x1 sprint sessions per week a good start for sprints would be x10 100m sprints on a day were you are not training at Royale Fitness. Sprinting will not breakdown your muscle – sprinting is a quicker more effective way to improve overall running and cardio abilities.

-Fasted walk EVERY morning. Let’s take me for example I’m trying to grow muscle for my comp and still burn body fat. The ONLY cardio I’m doing atm is fasted walks. WHY? Because it is low impact (low risk for injury), it doesn’t eat at my hard earn muscle and by walking before eating I use fat as energy rather then food (meaning I burn FAT directly) It also helps clear my mind, I use it as recovery to loosen up my muscles from heavy training and it is simple! Fasted walking is a GAME changer and I truly believe in it do it - DAILY NO EXCUSES!

SO if your goal is running just because you hate it and feel like you HAVE to be good at it – re-assess and incorporate these 2 low impact exercises to only achieve better results.

Click the link below on a great article on fasted walks:

https://www.t-nation.com/training/get-ripped-get-walking

Stay Strong & Stretch, 
Tel X

Her magic secret for weight loss that actually WORKED!

One of my hardworking clients – lets call her ‘J’ – started chatting about work this week during our HEARTCORE strength component about how she was drained (whilst doing some perfectly formed push ups btw)

The conversation continued between the group and J explained how she has been working some killer hours - 64 hours (Mon-Fri) to be exact - she has a demanding job in which I’m sure she’s a bloody superstar at because she has the best advice on most topics, she’s full of knowledge, people skills and even more importantly she has her priorities straight and knows where she is going and that to get there she will have to work hard for it (both in and outside of the gym)

The thought of her doing a 64 hour week (and not getting paid over time) really resinated with me all night, not because it seemed like a crazy amount of work (which it is!) but because of the fact that she still makes EVERY training session – I could count on one hand the amount of sessions J has missed and when she misses them she will ALWAYS make them up.  She has never given me a shitty excuse as to why she can not make training, I mean f*ck I’d be excuse central if my hours were like that and unfortunately a lot of girls are.

But the more I thought about it the more it made sense – J is looking unbelievable – why? Because she asks for advice, listens and then applies.

She doesn’t over complicate the situation with excuses – she gets her ass to training 3 times a week and eats for her goals.

AND SHE GETS RESULTS.

Really simple.

If you REALLY want something you will find the time and work out a way and your excuses become irrelevant.

Put in the work get out the results.

Proud of you J – you’re a wonder women!

To the right are two photos - the first is J's measurements these were 4 weeks apart and the second is her progression photos - AMAZING I know!

Stay Strong & Stretch,
Tel X

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