Summer is upon us and like usual, my training intensifies and I can spend more time in the gym. I have my plate full with business goals and things to accomplish on that end. Mattie has restructured my training a bit and there is not officially an "event" day at this point. I am in the early stages of my prep for Pro Women's Worlds in late October and am still eagerly awaiting the events to be listed so I can develop a more thorough plan.

At the end of my last training cycle I complained that I lacked "umph" on event training. Mattie was quick to point out that I was missing my bloat. That was exactly it. My belt was on the last hole and it was too close to the competition to switch anything else at that point. Two weeks prior to US Nationals this month, I changed my eating plan to eat for bloat.

The midwest humidity was somewhat gentler this visit but over the course of the trip (and my poor eating), I picked up almost ten pounds. Like usual, I came back to town and dropped the water weight within two days. The scale continued to drop to almost the 55 lb loss mark and then all hell broke loose. I went on a binge and ate ALL THE FOODS! And it was TERRIBLE. There was nothing pleasurable about it. However, the positive spin is that I didn't gain any weight so no harm, no foul.

I am happy to report this week I am back on my plan and ready to drop some more weight. We've had Nutty Bars and and good, junky cereal THAT NOBODY WILL EAT. When I could eat it, it wasn't interesting. Today I am contemplating hiding behind the freezer door pretending to look for something to make for dinner and scarfing a two pack into my mouth in sixty seconds or less. In order to remain stealth about eating it, I would just stuff the wrapper back into the box in the freezer just like the kids do. Ya know, why bother throwing it away? Shoot, empty boxes stay in there too. Anyway, the Nutty Bars have been on my mind quite a bit the past two days. We'll see how that pans out.

In happier news, I bbq 17 lbs of top sirloin yesterday. God, I love beef. Here's a fun story...

When Mattie and I got married we were super young and BROKE. Two days after the wedding, we took off and moved to North Dakota for school. We were recreational lifters at the time and I wasn't super focused on nutrition or any of it really.

When we were moving in during our initial shopping it was a struggle to budget appropriately with needs versus wants. In total seriousness, I turned to Matt and informed him that my body required at least one pound of beef per day in order to function. I could FEEL it and if I didn't get beef, things wouldn't be good for either of us.

I was raised on beef and potatoes. A girl needs to stay fed. There are still many times even now that I have to pass on a "fun" meal and go grab a steak to keep the girl happy. Moral of the story, eating meat is the fun part of this whole process for me. And nobody can complain to me about it!!!

So, back to the grind and we shall see how the summer pans out with weight, training and competition prep.