Did I just write two weeks out? How crazy is this? We are counting the days now. 12 days until competition. Week 17 into prep, and it is almost competition time. I definitely notice the length of prep straining me every now and then mentally and physically. At the same time, I feel like it flew by. Again, a lot happened in the last week. Let’s have a look.

Diet

Many changes are happening now, so it is pretty hard to keep track within one week. I check in every third day, and we make an adjustment almost every time. After the past carb-up, that I was talking about in the last post with the exact macro split (if you are interested check this link), we went back to the macros I was on before.

This past week weightwise, was quite frustrating. On Monday, I flew home after a lovely little Easter weekend away. I love going on trips. I have to say, though, that they are getting more exhausting the deeper into prep. The trip itself was pretty relaxing, although the weather at the destination was freezing. Not having much body fat left on me made it not very enjoyable being outside as I was just constantly feeling cold.

After coming home from my trip, my weight constantly went up. It was frustrating. It was climbing back up to where it was two weeks ago. My body form is almost stage-ready, but we are still looking for some more glute-ham-tie, so we decreased calories and increased cardio for the last week. We are pushing through until it’s there…

The macro split now for training days and rest days are the same:

I always thought I would not need to go below 1600 kcal on my prep, but I guess it is my own fault. I was not consistent in my salt intake. These past weeks, I took quite some trips, which made my weight and emotions go on a rollercoaster. If we underestimate rest and psychological stress, the body keeps holding on to everything it can. Also bodyfat.

Let’s see how the next week goes, but I am optimistic that this is it for now.

Meal of the week: Same as past week, because from now until competition I will eat pretty much the same every single day. If there is something that I would like to highlight is the nutbutters, which I absolutely still crave. I ordered them from naughty nuts (I do not get any money for promoting them here) and they are so delicius. They even have squeeze packs which have 30g of nutbutter per pack. They are awesome for travelling as they are small, individually packed, and light. Nutbutter on porridge is an absolute killer start to the day.

Workout

My workouts were good this week. Due to the lower calories, I feel I have overall lower energy going into sessions, but once started, they feel great. I notice that my body is not recovering as quickly anymore due to the calorie deficit and that I feel more exhausted after my workouts. On the weekend away, I had some days where my legs were just hurting for two days after leg day. A definite sign of not being able to recover as well anymore. Luckily, this got much better since I was home again.

Overall feeling

Overall feeling? Good question. I have days when I feel great and don’t necessarily recognize that I am on prep. On other days, it hits me hard; I don’t have energy and just don’t want to move. Especially when the weather is crappy, I struggle to get moving.

With my weight increasing, this completely frustrated me. I remember when we didn’t adjust the macros or activity for weeks beginning of prep. Now, we change almost every check-in. It makes sense because now it is fine-tuning, while in the beginning, we just had to decrease the majority of body fat first.

Apart from diet, exercise, and energy, I finally completed my bikini and love it. Let’s see how it looks on stage. Also, all makeup arrived, so I will now practice it a couple of times and do my hair to make sure it will be an easy task on competition day. I am definitely getting nervous.

Summary

I am two weeks out now, which sounds crazy to me. I notice how now everything is about making fine adjustments. I am almost stage-ready, except for tiny things my coach and I are still grasping for. That’s why cardio increased for this next week. At the same time, we reduced calories. Not the perfect combo, and I definitely feel the grind on some days. On other days I am okay and don’t struggle much. The goal is so close that I can smell it.

Interested in previous posts on this topic?

• 3 weeks out – My Road to Stage 2022
• 4 weeks out – My Road to Stage 2022
• 5 weeks out – my prep to stage 2022
• 6 weeks out – My very first prep to bikini 2022
• 7 weeks out – My very first prep to bikini 2022
• 8 weeks out! My very first prep to bikini 2022
• Week #9 – Road to bikini 2022
• It’s about halftime! Week #8 – Road to Bikini 2022
• Week #5 – Road to Bikini 2022
• Week #4 – Road to Bikini 2022
• Week #3 – Road to Bikini 2022
• Week #2 – Road to Bikini 2022
• Week #1 – Road to Bikini 2022
• My Road to Bikini 2022