Alexa Rae

May 22, 2013

So,

It has been a llllooonnnngggg time since I have typed a blog, but here I go …. If you are new to reading my blog then please go back to Jaunary 2010 when I started, grab a glass or water or wine and check it out!!! My journey started with my goal of going from BLUBBER TO BUILT!!! I wanted to lose weight and compete in a figure competition, checking something off my bucket list. In May of 2011 I did that and became so inspired by the sport of competing and what you could accomplish with your inner and outer self that I continued the journey. The journey has been, by no means, an easy road!!! I have now taken this bucket list item and turned it into my lifestyle and now I am driven to be the CHAMPION!!!

With being the best you can on stage comes the mind games it plays with you. Unless you can competed you wouldn’t fully understand, but with any high there is a low …. Like after you graduate from school, get married or run a marathon … after that it is a feeling of being lost and not really knowing who are you for a while. With competing, you go from having a six pack and being depleted to drinking some water, enjoying some treats, not living a strict scheduled life …. Which leads to a common outcome … a fast and large weight gain!!! After my first competition I gained about 30+ lbs back, 20lbs within 2 weeks …. After my 2^nd one, same sort of deal …. Then you become obsessed with your body image and feeling awful about your body.

A lot of athletes continue to do this weight gain and weight loss battle through their years of competing, but I made a goal to not do this after I won my show in October of last year. I managed to stay at a comfortable weight and actually eat clean through my off season. At the same time I did a lot researching and reading on how to balance my life and remember how far I had come since the beginning of my weight loss journey. When I first started I learned how to love my body for who I was that day and after my show in May of last year I had completely forgot it all and became very depressed again …luckily for a short period of time and worked very hard to climb out of it!!!!

Since I was able to find an appreciation for my body and not turn to food in my off season I have come back with a HUGE BANG this year!!! I teamed up with Kim Tilden  IFBB Pro and she taught me that the life of competing does not mean that you have to consume yourself in the sport and have tunnel vision (until 6 weeks out lol)… she helped me see that life is about balance and that you can go on a trip, enjoy yourself and not have to feel guilty about it. Being a transformation coach myself I totally believe and teach this philosophy as well, but we are our own worst critics so it’s hard sometimes to do things for ourselves. I put on a good amount of muscle because I ate clean and my emotions were more stable because I wasn’t filling myself with junk food. This causes your blood sugar levels to spike and drop and this can cause mood swings etc …. It also helped my mind from feeling guilty because I worked in free meals. Processed food is also full of high fructose corn syrup, chemicals and hormones that screw with your equilibrium and so without that I have been overall healthier!

Okay guys, I think that is enough for now….stay tuned for more blogs because I am digging the old skool typing, takes much less time than editing a video lol!!!! I will also be posting little videos pre-show just so you can get a little of both!!!

Take care and Namaste xoxo

Alexa

July 20, 2012 ~4:23 pm~

It has been a very long time since I have typed a BLOG entrya nd not done a VLOG, but I thought I would change it up and give you a chance to use your brain and read instead of just watch and listen :)

I competed on May 19th this year in figure and I also tried out bikini for something different with OPA in Mississauga, On. I had a great time at the show and worked harder than ever to prep for it. At the end of my prep I was still not quite as lean as I would have liked, but I was okay with it!!!

After my show I had post-show blues badly and was very hard on myself and it took a bit to get out of! After Dr. visit and some research I realized that I had adrenal burnout!!!! When your body is going, going, going like mine was it can take a toll on you and your hormones. I was doing up to 2 hours of cardio a day at the end and training intense and my body went into flight/fight mode…my cortisol levels were high because I was extremey stressed out between training and my work life that my body was retaining whatever it could. When cortisol levels are high in someone, your adrenals get to the point that they can not keep up and you crash!!!! When cortisol is high it also makes it hard to lean out completely in the abdomen area and this is what happened. I have now started taking adrenal supplementation to help me with stress (Adrenal Pro) and I will see how it works.

I had surgery on June 7th and so I could not workout full body until yesterday. This also took a toll on my mind. I fell into a time where I hated my body again and just couldn’t shake it!!! I knew that if I wanted to be a longterm and successful athlete that I had to change my way of thinking FAST!!! I ama  person that believes anyone and everyone falls at some point and that is completely okay, but you need to be able to catch yourself and jump over the obstacle before it gets out of hand. I went back to the way I was when I first started my weightloss journey and began meditating, deep breathing, journaling etc … to understand what my feelings were related to food and why I was eating. A wonderful person and National level Physique athlete Julie Lockhart reminded me to look at the postive things in my life and journey. “You need to focus on the positive and enjoy the way the positive experiences make you feel,” she told me. This is why I surround myself with the people that I do, to push me!!!!

So many positive things have happened this past year including being in two magazine’s (Inside Fitness and FIRST)…placing top ten in my competitions….building PHAT2FIT…being deeply in love….continuing to build my life in the right way and my fan page reaching almost 3000 LIKES…Why was I sad??!! lol

I feel like myself again and I am ready ….. I am shooting with Mark Bradfield and Wayne A Forrest on August 29th, and let’s just say I have my work cut out for me to get into the shape I want in 5.5 weeks :) I know I can do it though :)  I have bought some new suits etc for the shoot and I am ready to show off the new ME ;) I am teamed up with the wonderful Contestprep.com for my nutrition and I am taking care of training myself. Since I spoiled myself my meals are very lean, but I am re-focused and am loving it!!!

My training is going to consist of 75+ minutes of interval training on my fabulous spin bike and training 4 x a week. I am going to the cottage tomorrow for a week, so I will be implementing plyometric routines outside with my lover and friends :) I will also hit up the gym when I can in Apsley!

I want to thank Chad, my man for being there and making sure I stayed positive. When I wasn’t he would continue to give me the tough love I needed because life ain’t sooo bad :) Thank you to everyone for your support !!!!

My clients and fans motivate me to stay on track and keep doing what I am doing and for that I am grateful … Good things to come!!!

Namaste,

Alexa xoxo