My path to North Americans

[Loni Pfeil]

Hey everyone!!:) My name is Loni, I am a nationally qualified Figure competitor. This is my first time posting in here and I am very excited about it! I will be posting my journey to North Americans in 10 weeks. I would start off with saying that I just competed in junior Nationals last weekend. My national ever, I placed above the top 10 and I am very happy with the placing because I only compete against myself and the progress I made from Ky Muscle last year to this year was night and day. My plan and goal is to keep bringing my physique down, come in lighter, and just keep polishing my posing and overall look:) My goals for this sport are huge and I am determined to reach them! As I get going on this journey I will posting progress and things to share with everyone. I think it is amazing that we can all share with eachother, possibly teach eachother, and most of inspire one another. Afterall I believe this sport is also about helping eachother and if you cant help someone then what good is it... This sport can very ego driven and a lot of people are very ALL ABOUT THEMSELVES. So for me, I intend to do and be the opposite. I want to help and inspire and also be inspired:) Cant wait to start following you all on your journey's!!!152927152928152929152930

[nic902]

Welcome to the world of journeling, Loni :) Congrats on Jr. Nats..Beautiful! I'm looking forward to following along on your way to the North Americans.

[The Prodigy]

YAY! Your here! Welcome to RX Girl! There is lots of love and support around here! Pop into other girl's journals and you are sure to learn a ton! It was great seeing on stage at Jr. Nats. I am following along in your journey for sure!

[Loni Pfeil]

Hey There!:) and thank u very much. I am looking forward to all of this! And thank you for the kind words, u look awesome and I look forward to following u also!

[Loni Pfeil]

Hey Gail!:) Yes I am finally learning my way around here. Very excited and happy to be a part of all of this. Thanks so much for all your help. You are awesome!

[Loni Pfeil]

Hi!:) And thank you. I appreciate that. I am looking forward to it all! Look forward to seeing your post also:) thank for u for the kind words!!

[Loni Pfeil]

Today officially starts my training again. In the past week I have only done and have been trying to add in carbs and other food to my diet slowly. I am being extra careful with my body and my metabolism at this point. As I am still in rebound mode and now contest prep again. The best way to handle this I have found is to introduce a light carb cycle and a few cheat meals. As your body will naturally want to "reefed" itself. Completely normal. But, the key is to NOT BINGE or over eat... Which can be difficult once you have had a cheat meal or "treat Meal" or two. What happens to the body in the last few weeks of competition prep and mainly the last week is: The metabolic rate slows down due drop in caloric intake or (calories) again completely normal for a competitor but only for a SHORT TIME. So, in turn once you reefed your body with some calories or a cheat meal or two, naturally the body wants to speed up metabolism wise. And this is if you have done the proper diet during your prep. A lot people will "Diet" too hard destroying their metabolism and binge out after a show or competition. This causes insulin level to dramatically increase making you even hungrier then causing you to gain tons of weight and fat. In my case, my metabolism is just ramped up again due to the "refeeds" I have incorporated. Which is a good thing but, has to be monitored until my body becomes more regulated... Which is going to be tricky seeing how I am in contest prep again.. IT CAN AND WILL BE DONE and I am determined to bring a better package to the NORTH AMERICANS stage!:) Ill be posting more on this subject. Hopefully I have helped someone today:) As far as training goes today I am starting off with LEGS my favorite!! This prep is going to be a lot of body weight and cross fit type workout.. As I am trying to still bring my physique down in size:)

[nic902]

Thanks for sharing your post competition approach..As it's always been something I've struggled with. Hoping to make this year much different...Looking forward to see how you do things.

[Loni Pfeil]

You are welcome! And my hope on here to learn things myself and also help!

[Loni Pfeil]

Well the new training approach has been awesome and has really taken it out of me, in a good way:) I feel my entire body. But, I also feel my metabolism EVEN MORE so my hunger has increased! I am still alternating my carb intake and today was a medium carb day. The next two days will be low. Because I have been more hungry when really I shouldn't be in terms of my caloric and days of fat intake, I have added in two supplements that are all natural to possibly help with this issue:) So far so good. I need to not only bring my physique down in size but I really honestly need to be a lot leaner for north americans.... My goal is to drop at least 10lbs then deplete. I have a little over 9 weeks. Pray I can do this and do it safely for my body. if it cant be done safely then I wont be doing North Americans. Don't believe in damaging your body or metabolism. So ill be posting about this subject also. We have to believe in our selves and the rest will follow!:) Tomorrows training schedule is 40 minutes of fasted morning cardio - Circuit crossfit traing full body- 40 minutes of post cardio. Pray for my drop in weight! until tomorrow:)

[Loni Pfeil]

Ok well we are almost at the 8 week mark for North Americans... Going right into this show from junior nationals has been a little rough only mainly because I feel my body is exhausted. Most mornings I do not even hear my alarm for morning cardio.... And my new training completely takes it out of me as to where I feel I have worked a 12 0r 14 hour day the next day haha. And I am also in need of an ice tank:) But I absolutely love the new training!! Love the intensity and how I feel that I am actually doing something. I am not one for low intensity training. Guess my body is just telling me it needs rest by not hearing my alarm some days... My body is also becoming more regulated with doing this light carb cycle. I was only gained 5lbs above where I depleted for Junior nationals. So I was able to control a major rebound, which I am very happy about! I think with each prep it gets easier and we get to know our bodies even more. After Junior nationals I enjoyed some sweets rights after the show and had a cheat meal. That night before bed I still had my scheduled protein. The next day I had a good breakfastfou and onemore meal that afternoon that I enjoyed and also some sweet stuff of course:) The next day, I enjoyed a good protein bar, and a couple other snacks that I wanted.. as I hit the 36 hour mark post show I slowly started adding in a light carb cycle that looked like this:
Day one: High carb and higher fat intake Day two: Medium carb intake low fat Day three: low carb and low fat Day four: same as day three Day five start over and repeat. And added cheat meals back in once a week on Saturdays. All my water rebound weight was gone in the first week:) I was hungrier than usual after having the first cheat meals after the show due to it speeding my metabolism. That is also now under control after adding in two all natural supplements for hunger issues. used them for one week and now naturally my body is under more control. SO far feeling good:) Minus the missing of some morning cardio at this point...

[Andrealyn75]

Hi Lori,

Hope you get some rest and good luck w/your new training, sounds awesome.

[IslandGirl]

Welcome to Rx Girl, Lori! Great to have you here! Congrats at Jr. Nationals. I was there. It was a great show!

North Americans has a special place in my heart. I'll be there this year so hope to meet you in person.

I'll be following along!

[Loni Pfeil]

Awesome and thank you very much!!

[Loni Pfeil]

Hey! And thank you! yes I am very excited about North americans and junior nats was so much fun:) you look awesome hope to see you there!

[Loni Pfeil]

Well here we go haha. 7.5 weeks to go! I am currently still doing the cross fit and circuit type workouts and I am still doing a carb cycle. We switched my carbs around and dropped some fats, and decreased my cardio by two days. THE SCALE IS DOWN 5lbs!!! So excited for that! So basically right now I am at the weight that I depleted at for Junior Nationals. This is my goal to come in leaner with longer lines this time. So... right now I feel pretty good minus needing an ice tank to lay in lol. Honestly I love feeling my workouts though:) I love love love a good beatdown at the gym or track. Most nights I have had trouble sleeping though and that has made it rough for morning cardio still at this point... But The scale is moving so I feel good with that. Ive added my ZMA back in and im also going to try adding GABA with it at night about an hour before bed. I will post about that also as im using it. Over all at this point I feel my body is way more regulated and it is a smooth running machine again. There is no better feeling than that!! Looking forward to todays gym session which will be a back/chest split. Basically im going to do 3 exercises for each body part with 4 sets of 15-20 in a circuit style including some body weight exercises followed by 40 minutes of cardio or even adding in some 400 meter runs in between circuts! Ice tank here I come haha. Have a blessed day all!!

[Loni Pfeil]

6 weeks out from North Americans. Over the past two weeks I started to feel horrible no energy, body temp was low, puffy stomach, and stalled weight... The start of andrenal fatigue. in the last few days we have added higher carbs back into my diet. The result, higher body temp, I am sweating again, weight has dropped almost 5lbs, and I am feeling better way more energy for all of this high intensity training and I have veins in my abs again! Its always such a learning experience with diet and nutrition. Right now I can feel my body resetting and I have also started a light cleanse to help clean up my system. My advice to anyone is to please listen to your body!! It will tell you when something is off. I listened and caught this right on time. Time enough to correct it and keep moving forward. So many girls don't listen their bodies or have incorrect coaching and actually really doing major damage to their bodies! a lot of this sport is trial and error with diet and training to see what works for you to get you to your goals. BUT PLEASE LISTEN TO YOUR BODIES!!!! ill post my results again later this week. Hope this helped some of you!!

[nic902]

Oh no, I'm sorry you're dealing with this but you are a VERY smart woman to back off and listen to your body, so many of us dont. Wishing you the best :hugme:

[Loni Pfeil]

Yes! And thank u:) Doing much better now:)

[Loni Pfeil]

My decision to pull myself out of North Americans. I have been posting some of the things that I have been going through in hopes to help other girls. On sunday my fiancé stepped in and said enough is enough and called my coaches to discuss things... They were concerned and said that adrenal fatigue is causing all my problems.. Here is a list of symptoms I was experiencing. My speech was being impaired, I was forgetting how to write letters, hair falling out, insomnia, racing heart rate, hot flashes, crying for no reason, and uncontrollably irritable to the point where I couldn't function.. I came down with a bad fever and chills and still have the fever but, I felt a strong need to post this. With all of this happening to me there was always this little voice inside my head saying "am I eating enough?" "is this training/cardio too much for how I am eating?" well I am here to tell u all to ALWAYS LISTEN THAT VOICE IN YOUR HEAD! I finally sat down and figured out what my BMR should be as an athlete and the "meal plan" that I had been given was way under sometimes only giving me about 800 calories a day. On a high day I was close to maybe 1150 calories but with zero fats in my diet! People, fats especially for women are essential in our diets for hormone function. Also fats break down and help our bodies with energy and cellular function. The sad thing, I know better than all of this, I just trusted this person and I see this happen to so many girls:( so yes, I am experiencing adrenal fatigue. Why? well because I was way under my BMR calories wise for so long and doing almost two hours of cardio a day and taking fat burning supplements. what should've happened is I should've been eating way more calories and doing less cardio period because I was taking the fat burners also. Now basically the coach is saying I am not strong enough and my body couldn't take it.. She herself has health issues and looking at her symptoms I know what from now.. This was a red flag for me! Ladies, please do your research before working with a "coach" and always go over your nutrition and do lots of research!! The coach told me that I don't know what it is to push my body. She said there are competitors out there eating less and doing way more cardio. My response, I don't want to have long term health issues and not be able to eat anything whit out blowing up. NOTHING IS WORTH YOUR HEALTH OR MENATL WELL BEING. I feel I am awake from a very bad night mare. I am actually thank full I got sick, thank ful my body said hey! enough is enough. Ill be back and im coming back even stronger! This time I am talking to some coaches that are knowledgeable when u speak to them. They can actually calculate what your BMR should be and they give u a detailed meal plan. They don't get defensive when u ask them questions either. So, im on my way to recovery and that's what ill be posting about. I love competing and I wont stop but, im going to do it my way and a smarter way. The way I feel it should've been done all along. Ladies don't give up on your dreams but please be smart and safe!! xoxoxo

[nic902]

I'm sorry you're going through all of this, but I admire you for putting it out there and sharing your experience. You are a very smart woman..So many would have just pushed through it, you know cause they're "hardcore"..You are intelligent and listening to your body is the best thing we can learn to do.

I hope you feel better, physically and mentally :hugme:

[The Prodigy]

My decision to pull myself out of North Americans. I have been posting some of the things that I have been going through in hopes to help other girls. On sunday my fiancé stepped in and said enough is enough and called my coaches to discuss things... They were concerned and said that adrenal fatigue is causing all my problems.. Here is a list of symptoms I was experiencing. My speech was being impaired, I was forgetting how to write letters, hair falling out, insomnia, racing heart rate, hot flashes, crying for no reason, and uncontrollably irritable to the point where I couldn't function.. I came down with a bad fever and chills and still have the fever but, I felt a strong need to post this. With all of this happening to me there was always this little voice inside my head saying "am I eating enough?" "is this training/cardio too much for how I am eating?" well I am here to tell u all to ALWAYS LISTEN THAT VOICE IN YOUR HEAD! I finally sat down and figured out what my BMR should be as an athlete and the "meal plan" that I had been given was way under sometimes only giving me about 800 calories a day. On a high day I was close to maybe 1150 calories but with zero fats in my diet! People, fats especially for women are essential in our diets for hormone function. Also fats break down and help our bodies with energy and cellular function. The sad thing, I know better than all of this, I just trusted this person and I see this happen to so many girls:( so yes, I am experiencing adrenal fatigue. Why? well because I was way under my BMR calories wise for so long and doing almost two hours of cardio a day and taking fat burning supplements. what should've happened is I should've been eating way more calories and doing less cardio period because I was taking the fat burners also. Now basically the coach is saying I am not strong enough and my body couldn't take it.. She herself has health issues and looking at her symptoms I know what from now.. This was a red flag for me! Ladies, please do your research before working with a "coach" and always go over your nutrition and do lots of research!! The coach told me that I don't know what it is to push my body. She said there are competitors out there eating less and doing way more cardio. My response, I don't want to have long term health issues and not be able to eat anything whit out blowing up. NOTHING IS WORTH YOUR HEALTH OR MENATL WELL BEING. I feel I am awake from a very bad night mare. I am actually thank full I got sick, thank ful my body said hey! enough is enough. Ill be back and im coming back even stronger! This time I am talking to some coaches that are knowledgeable when u speak to them. They can actually calculate what your BMR should be and they give u a detailed meal plan. They don't get defensive when u ask them questions either. So, im on my way to recovery and that's what ill be posting about. I love competing and I wont stop but, im going to do it my way and a smarter way. The way I feel it should've been done all along. Ladies don't give up on your dreams but please be smart and safe!! xoxoxo

I am sorry you went thru all this! I went thru HELL after competing so if you need support, or need to vent I am here! I am working with a wonderful doctor now who is doing TONS for me! Hang in there!

[Loni Pfeil]

Good thing is Gail, there IS HOPE. I am sorry that you went through a rough time also. I guess some people just shouldn't be doing nutrition plans and especially for women. Even though you circumstances may have been different.. I can tell you now that even with a 102. fever at times I feel so much better. Like I am back to life. The whole time I knew better and should've just listened to my inner voice. The "coach" has major health issues her self. RED FLAG! But, I am on the mend and working with great people that are also going to work with my text results from my doctor to get my metabolism built back up and im coming back stronger to compete! I was eating sometimes 800 calories a day, going off of what she gave me and really no calculation. STUPID ME! But I sat down and figured out what my BMR is what my body as a very active athlete needs and its somewhere around 2,700 calories just just function. CRAZY! that's why I want to get more involved and help other women/girls especially:) I really enjoy posting on here and working with u. ill be talking to u soon!!

[Loni Pfeil]

Happy sunday:) Just a quick update, today is day 4 with no fever and my energy levels seem to be coming back slowly. Sometimes I believe god works in crazy ways... Im actually very thank ful I got sick when I did and I couldn't compete in 3 weeks. Now I believe it was caught in time and my body can heal. I started by going to the doctor and have a full metabolic panel, a chemistry test, along with other test... a full hormone panel as well. Should have the results sometime next week. All in all we go through things in life and we can either let it define us and bring us down or we can choose to let it make us stronger! My choice is to fight! I cant wait to compete again. This time though ill start out eating way over 2,000 calories a day and training very intensely with weights again. After all weights is what gives us shape. I am looking forward to feeling and training like an athlete again. I also plan on writting an article on how to recover from METABOLIC DAMAGE. Ladies, DO NOT let anyone ever tell you that there is no such thing. It can happen and it can happen without you even knowing better and leave you wondering what is wrong with your body, leaving you extremely frustrated and not feeling well. Since all of this happened and I was eating 800-1100 calories a day (without even realizing it but, always questioning it) I am now up to 1400 calories slowly adding in healthy fats and very slowly adding in healthy carbs. Also I am back in gym! I refuse to give up and I try not to blame anyone but, it is hard. Easier just to walk the other way and start over. What happened wasn't right and no one should ever have to go through it! but, it happens everyday. Ill continue to post on how things are going in hopes to help more girls out there:) until next time, HAPPY SUNDAY ALL

[Loni Pfeil]

I have decided that since I am no longer on the path to north americans that I will start a new journal on my recovery and my new path:)