The countdown is on

As you can see by the countdown ticker at the top of the page, there are just 121 days left until my Natural Nationals show. That's about 17 weeks. Only 4 months! While this might sound like a lot to some, it's not a lot of time to drop a bunch of weight and gain a whack of lean protein. It's time to get SERIOUS.

So what does "serious" look like? Well, to everyone it'll look different. For me? It means only ONE cheat meal a week (if that). It means being cognizant of every bite I take and understanding how it's going to help me get to where I want to be. It means going to the gym at least 5x a week. It means adding an extra plate, and pushing out that last rep on every set. It means visualizing how I want to look on stage in a few short months.

Quitting - it's so easy to think about and do. But what do we end up with in the end? I know that I'll ultimately end up with regret. And one of my life's long mottos has been to live life with no regrets.

I think back to when I was a little girl, taking ballet class in a freezing cold classroom at the local skating rink. I loved ballet. I loved watching it; I loved dancing it. Was I good? Not really. I was a tall, inflexible, shy girl who didn't really quite understand what I enjoyed doing and why I enjoyed doing it.

Until... one year I had a ballet teacher I really didn't like. While we were all wearing our short-sleeved leotards and tights, freezing our poor little a$$es off, she was donning warm leg warmers and a long-sleeved leotard. While trying to stretch my hamstrings - something I've never been good at - she would come behind me and push on my back, forcing me to touch my toes in an oh so painful way. Each time I attempted the splits (not something easily accomplished by the inflexible), she would look at me with a disappointed look. I didn't want to be miserable because of her anymore. So... I quit.

I told my parents that I didn't like ballet anymore. Which, years later, I realized wasn't true. What I didn't like was the teacher, and the way she treated me. To this day, I still visit Toronto to go see the National Ballet of Canada perform, and each performance I watch a little part of me inside desires to be up on that stage, wishing I had never quit ballet all because of a bad teacher.

Today, I think of this lesson. What did it teach me? Life is going to throw at all of us some pretty crappy stuff. Will it be challenging to overcome? Yes. But, ultimately, we need to remember what it is we want at the end... why is it we started down this path?

I started training because I wanted to prove to myself that I too can be just as ripped as those girls I saw on stage 5 years ago when I went to watch my first show. Now, having proven that, I'm training to prove to myself that I can be even better than I was two years ago at my last show.

It's time to start unveiling the new me. And that time starts now!