April Favorites

As the month of April approaches, it is quite typical for youtubers and other bloggers (at least in the makeup world) to post about their favorite products. I wondered if anyone in the fitness industry did the same. Perhaps we are too boring with our monotonous daily routines that call the same ol' chicken and protein shake with the oh so exciting weekly twist that we like to call a "cheat meal". But, thankfully, I exist to defy this rule and post some new and exciting items that could be useful to those of you who are fitness and bodybuilding enthusiast. Well, they are exciting for me and I can't be selfish and keep the goods all to myself.
In no particular order...I present to you my most loved and enjoyable things for the month of April.

Emerald Deluxe Mixed Nuts - Jeff and I were strolling through the supermarket aisle and as usual, I was craving mixed nuts. My body craves these types of essential fats in my diet...quite frequently actually. I came across Emerald Deluxe Mixed Nuts and I was in love. Not only where these on sale, but the word DELUXE along with the pretty pictures in the pretty packaging jumped at me immediately. Yes, I'm your marketing team dream come true as I'm a sucker for pretty presentation of just about anything. If it looks pretty, most likely I'll go uhhh-ahhh and buy it. So anyway, these are actually the freshest and best nuts I've ever tasted (GET YOUR MINDS OUT OF THE GUTTER...nasty people!). I also didn't know these are actually quite popular in the fitness industry. I saw a few girls backstage at my last show with the pretty green containers!
Uncle Ben's Whole Grain Fast & Natural Rice - the texture is not grainy but actually very very soft and rich. I could eat an entire box of this alone!
Steak - Can you believe that I hadn't had a piece of steak in over ten years? It's been so long that even the 10 years is probably not an accurate count. How come now STEAK made it to my favorites of the month list? Blame Jeff. He eats steak like there is no tomorrow. He makes his steak pretty raw...which to me was a huge no-no. But one of usual "I'm starving" days when I was at his house, there he was, joyously eating some steak. He looked so happy. I wanted to be happy to. Plus I was starving. So he let me have a small piece of steak, along with some rice, and I've been hooked ever since. I find it funny to even watch myself eating steak. It truly is very amusing to those around me also. Although I am in awe at how long I've gone without it, I'm not sure if this steak-red-meat-eating me will last much longer. You guys will have to check with me next month.
Crystal Light Iced Tea - PEACH! - I just don't understand what is happening to me? Early mid-life crisis perhaps? I used to HATE the peach flavored iced tea. But now, this is heaven in a little packet. Try it out, I promise you'd love it.
Aside food, there is something else that has become a favorite! Are you ready for it? IT'S CARDIO!!! I am now doing low to moderate intensity cardio for longer periods of time and I feel great! In the past I've stuck to high intensity interval training, which made me feel crappy, lethargic, and hungry most of the time. It was very difficult getting along with my day like this. But, doing cardio like this, I can go on forever. Just yesterday alone, despite a very long and emotionally draining day, I managed to get in an entire 75 minutes of cardio easily! I did break into a sweat but I wasn't dying.
So that's all I have for now. I am eager to see how things change this month and what things I will introduce into my life that will become favorites. In the meantime, please comment or share your favorites!

Songs SweetCapri is currenly loving...

Reflections about the Mets

As you may have heard or already know, I competed this past weekend at the Steve Stone Metropolitan show, otherwise known as "the Mets". Despite all the financial obstacles that I was faced with, I was blissfully calm this time around. But...the more I reflect on it, the more I am thinking this calm feeling might have been a careless feeling. I don't think I cared. I mean, I put in the work, I trained my ass off, but after hearing about my father's death, then all the other challenges that just seemed to pile up, I just couldn't keep up. I felt rather unmotivated but my mind was still on competition auto-drive, so finishing the goal at hand was what I had to do.
Some feedback from people that saw me during the process and up until the day before was that I looked good. Good as in competition/stage ready. I was doing everything I was guided to do. I felt ok. But again, I had that "whatever" mentality.
I guess it showed. It showed on stage. It showed on my prep. It showed in my smile. I was distracted. I was somewhere out there. I wasn't myself.
I didn't do well. And I'm not mad that I didn't. Some people take judging to the next level and complain and get frustrated. I am not one of them. I take it for what it is/was and move on.
I have some feedback for myself and from the judges. I spoke to 3 judges, 1 of which has been following my progress and my competitions for years. One judge was getting ready to leave after pre-judging and got a glimpse at me as I was talking to someone and said...girl, your "wings" are way too big. He was referring to my back. I looked at him weird because I never in a million years would have thought that my back being too big would be an issue. I mean, I'm like ...TINY! I brushed off his comment because I didn't think he was serious. Not until I finally got a chance to speak to that other judge who's seen me compete for years. She had always told me that I needed to bring down my glutes. Basically, my ass was too damn big for stage. LOL. So I immediately thought that's what she was going to tell me. I was wrong. She said she was actually pleased with my lower body. I wasn't quite ready to hear what she had to say next...she said my delts and back were too muscular for figure. Whaaaaaaat?! Never in a million years did I think that day would come. I wasn't upset...I couldn't be. I worked so hard for that little muscle so why would I be mad. Placings are relevance to your hard work in most sports, but for something that's as subjective as a beauty pageant, I just don't take it as that. Bottom line is I didn't do so well...and I am not mad about it at all.
Some of the things I would improve on for myself would be to brighten up my face and make-up a bit. I was so dehydrated that I looked like an 80 year old lady under those lights. At least that's what I thought. Then the spray tan. I love the color it gives...love it love it, however, on my skin type, it just doesn't work. It just darkens(not in a good way), burns and dries the crap out of my skin, especially around my tummy. I have to be very careful with pro tan too which is why I wouldn't do a spray tan again since it's like an overdose of protan all at once.
As far as hair...love my hair, love my hi-lights but...my hair doesn't like drying agents (just like my skin) and it reacts. So when I curl my hair and use hairspray and then use heating tools, it just makes it very brittle and frizzy and it ends up looking not so hot. Believe it or not, the best my hair did on the stage was when I left it at its almost most natural state. I think I will consider this next time.
And the suit, let's not talk about the suit. My man told me to wear the damn green suit. He said he didn't like that pink suit. I didn't listen to him cause I never do. LOL. I almost find it funny, in an ironic kind of way, how I'm inclined to not listen to him and do the complete opposite. Sorry Babe. He loved the green suit, and I actually loved it too. Love the way it looked against my skintone in all my photos but for some reason, I didn't feel confident in it. I felt like my ass was too exposed and you know what...IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN. The pink suit had way too much material in the booty area and covered it all. I also wasn't crazy about the material...it was okay but not ideal. So now I do plan to make some big suit changes! I am going to bedazzle in this new suit. Besides, I've been competing for long enough to finally decide to invest in a good, top of the line, national level suit.
So yes, even though I say that I only compete a couple of times per year, this is one of those years where I'm starting to feel the fire burning. I will be hitting the stage again soon!

Interview!

Check out this real nice interview by Jason Adam on his blog - Promoting Real Women.
Scroll down to read my interview.
http://promotingwomen.blogspot.com/2010/04/amanda-cumberbatch-interview.html