Post Comp feels..

So IFBB comp was 3 weeks ago & the post comp blues is what a lot of us experience. I’m sure you all know us who compete we’ve been eating very healthy and clean for weeks on end. I depleted earlier then everyone as I was trying to get myself looking good for a photo shoot with Charlie Suriano who was shooting mine and Emma’s Fitsister’s photo shoot together. So I didn’t have a cheat meal for weeks and weeks and cut out certain foods very early.
This is why after the comp all we want is all the food. We want Nutella we want cake we want hot chips we want whatever is bad for you we want to eat it. Now I feel like my post comp was a little harder for myself as I was off to Bali the very next day with my partner.. I did this last year after comp.. We went straight to Bali the next day. I like to be able to just get out of Perth and relax properly, not have to go the gym, not eat according to plan and just spend time with my fiancé who I hadn’t really spent any time with.

I was so excited to go to Bali as that meant I could eat everything I was craving from the last time I went to Bali.. this was pretty dangerous for me as I knew I had been eating clean for so long I need to be careful and introduce foods slowly like salt, sugar, carbs etc. otherwise you can do some damage to your metabolism and you will start to get a few problems.
Somehow this didn’t stop me yet it was always in the back of my mind and I knew what I was eating was wrong but I couldn’t supress the feeling to eat everything.

So I don’t know who wants to read everything I ate on a daily basis whilst I was in Bali - keeping in mind I’m there for 8 days so I pretty much ate this every day. But for anyone who does and want to compare to what they ate to make them feel better then I say go for it as you’ll realise how good you actually were compared to me lol.. I’m embarrassed to say how much I ate and I haven’t told anyone even my nutritionist because I was so embarrassed.. but im ready to share it all with you as hopefully itll make others feel better about themselves haha.

So I’m sitting on the plane ready to take off and start my holiday in Bali and I think to myself I’m hungry and what have I brought with me .. well everything I didn’t eat straight after comp – I didn’t go on stage till 11.30 at night which was seriously a nightmare so you can imagine after I came off stage everyone wanted to go home because it was so late, so I had no one to properly enjoy a post comp cheat meal with and by that time you can’t fit much in before bed.. Although I did try my best lol. Was mostly chocolate and of course a slice of this amazing 5 layer cake my partners dad made especially for me to eat ;P

 

 

So back to me sitting on the plane ready for take-off I whip out some Kingston biscuits – my ultimate favourite food and start eating them.. I ate the whole packet in seconds.. Now I’m still hungry so I open my other biscuits – start eating them. I did this for the whole flight I had biscuits, oreos, chocolate, pringles and whatever else. I just kept eating I don’t think I had a breath.. My partner just looks at me like you’re going to make yourself sick and I’m like nah I’m fine.

That was just the start of me over indulging. When I go to Bali I always and I mean always have banana pancakes for breakfast so its breakfast time and I order 2 banana pancakes (quite big) and some toast. I ate all of it of course followed by a strawberry milkshake or their specialty milkshake – like a tim tam milkshake:/. Afterwards I was like I’m still hungry – so I made a mental note to order more next time.
my usual breakfast consisted of having 2-3 banana pancakes, peanut butter on toast, donuts or banana bread or whatever the buffet sweets were that day, bircher muesli, and whatever else I could eat without looking to greedy.. Although that is seriously greedy I totally would have eaten more if I didn’t get looks or my partner looking at me going WTF Courtney lol.
Not even an hour or so later I’m hungry again.. I want Oreos, chocolate and tim tams because Bali do special Oreos flavours and same with tim tams and of course we all know Cadbury chocolate there just tastes better so I would get all of that and eat it whilst I tried to get some rays.

Lunch time!! I’m having a jaffle – I haven’t eaten bread for months so I want a jaffle and I want mei goring or nasi-goreng to go with it. I always had more than one meal at any given time of the day just because it was cheap and I wanted options.

Afternoon tea would consist of me eating more food that wasn’t good for me like the left over chocolate I found in my carryon luggage like Reese’s peanut butter chocolate and left over biscuits.

Dinner time – oh this is time to eat all the food, I want bread, entrée, main and don’t forget I want dessert. gosh I ate so much I became that person who you give your left overs too when your full. My partner couldn’t finish his and he’s a big build yet here he is passing his food to me to finish.. SCORE!

So I ate like this every single day but obviously different food and when I felt like there was a tincey bit of room in my tummy to eat then I would. So I loved eating all this food but the bad thing that came with that was after every single thing I ate I would bloat.. my stomach was literally pregnant looking and I had tummy pains so bad I would go to bed and feel like my stomach was going to burst.. I even took all the medication I was allowed to help it feel better but I don’t think anything could help me I was that bad. But what do I do I wake up the next day and do it all again..

After comp prep most people indulge for about 2 days or so. I know most people stay on plan pretty well after that – nothing like my 8day binge that’s for sure, and I’m sure they’d only have little indulgers here and there and takes them about 2 weeks to get back on plan, some people probably even take longer like a month to actually get back into proper routine. It is extremely hard to stay on plan as we are so use to being so disciplined and so strict for months and now don’t have a comp or anything to look - I guess ‘conditioned’ for so we let ourselves go.. Which in a way is good as it’s normal to have a few treats here and there but we all struggle with getting back on the wagon. We must give ourselves a goal even if it’s not competing you need to keep going because technically you should want to be living a clean and healthy lifestyle in general even if you aren’t competing.

When I got back from Bali I knew I put on weight and was a bit self-conscious on how I looked and what people would think. So the next day after I was back home I went straight to the gym.. I wanted my routine back as I wanted to get rid of all this holiday weight and I also missed the way all my healthy food made me feel.  I actually felt a bit embarrassed going to the gym as I was so puffy and bloated from the flight and from all the food I consumed whilst I was away. but I thought no if I want to get my body back into shape and to feel better I’ve got to start today – no matter how upset I am about how I look or how hard it’s going to be I’ve just got to start and I know within a week or two I would be happy I pushed on.
It took me about 1.5  weeks for my bloating and stomach pains to subside. I ate according to plan and I didn’t even want to binge or eat chocolate as I felt so sick of it. Seems I definitely ate enough bad food in Bali to put me off for a while.
 
So it’s now been a few weeks post comp and Bali & I’ve noticed I’ve been struggling to introduce new food. After Bali I was so set on staying on plan as I wanted my body back to normal as soon as possible. And when I met with my nutritionist Sinead at Naed Nutrition she asked how I was going with new plan and that’s when it clicked – I hadn’t actually introduced much of the new food, and I feel I didn’t because I was so caught up on getting my body back I was nervous to take on this new food as I wasn’t sure what it’ll do to my body. It’s funny how we get so disciplined with our plans that having something new like a piece of fruit and nuts or greek yoghurt was such an issue for me.. I wanted to be lean again or at least back to my normal self so I thought not having that type of food will help me get there faster. Sinead re-assured me that it’s ok to have this new food and it’s not going to be a big issue. She said I need to enjoy food and has made me a goal to come up with at least one new recipe each week and experiment with food more.. I need to realise I’m off season now and it’s important to have flexibility with diet and enjoy it all.
I definitely didn’t realise I was doing it so I’m so glad I had her to talk to as small things like that is what she picks up and keeps me on the right track.

I’m back to a flexible diet after seeing Sinead. It’s so nice to not have to think so much about food all the time and I’ve just been enjoying food a lot more now. I have been staying on plan but sometimes have a little leniency here and there or I have plenty of bad days too, like I made some lemon bliss balls. I just wanted to have 2 after dinner but then greedy me kicked in and I think to myself well technically I can have 4 because I’ve made them so small – so I go get another 2. I still want more so I’m like ok I’ll just have 2 more than normal so now I’m at 6. oh you know what I’m just going to have a couple more seeing as though I’m not in comp prep atm – I then end up having 10 before I realise I was about to go back for even more so I got up and threw the rest in the bin before I ate all 20 of them lol.. funny how in our mind we try and make excuses as to why we should have more and then by the time you’ve finished the whole batch of lemon bliss balls or jar of honey or whatever it is you let yourself eat its then you realise and think ahh what have I done. I think this is something I need to work on – I know I can’t ever just have one of something so now I try not to have any at all as I know I’ll finish the batch – might try freezing my batch of bliss balls next time so I don’t eat them all at once lol.

I still struggle a bit at the moment to introduce other foods into my diet because I’m not sure how much it will affect me but I’m taking it a step at a time and seeing how I go. I feel I’m finding balance now so I’m feeling much happier.
I always said from the very start of this journey it’s not all about competing for me it’s more about having a cleaner & healthier lifestyle so Sinead has made sure I have made some goals for next year so I stay focused and have something to look forward to. I think that’s one important lesson to be learnt after comp.. If you have just finished comp season and struggling with getting back on plan. Think of your next goal.. Whether that be another comp, wanting to just live a healthier lifestyle, personal goals and life plans – it doesn’t have to be comp related or eating related as long as you have a goal you will stay on track. As when you think you have nothing to look forward to you will stay in that negative headspace.. So if this is you at the moment think of your next goal.. It took me a while to think of mine but now I’ve got them I’m very excited for the future & I feel it’s helping me stay on plan.

I’d be interested to know what everyone else’s post comp was like for them.. so leave a comment for others to read will be a great insight or even give me a msg on my facebook fan page.. Even those struggling as I’m more than happy to help you get back on track.

I have also attached an amazing article that helped me with this post comp feeling.. It’s so insightful and helpful I found myself going yes that’s me to pretty much all of it so have a read ---->http://www.cutandjacked.com/Competition-pre-vs-post-show-finding-balance


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Sinead at Naed nutrition - https://www.facebook.com/naednutrition?fref=ts