Eve Dawes Training Journal

[Eve Dawes]

Hi. I'm so happy to have found so many fabulous, motivated like-minded women on here and excited to start my training journal. It's definitely going to keep me accountable! I started competing this July and have done NPC 2 Figure competitions so far and am eager to do more. Now that I've qualified for Nationals my goal is to improve each and every day and bring the best I can be. I travel A LOT for work; this Fall is the 1st time I've traveled for extended periods of time since starting competing so eating and training on the road's going to be a new challenge. I traveled some in the Summer but stayed in the same hotel for a few days at a time, made sure it had a 24 hour gym and fridge and microwave in my room. I cooked and packed all of my food on dry-ice and took it with me so I had no excuses to go off-track. However, changing hotel and city everyday and being gone 5 weeks at a time is bringing new challenges so any advice is much appreciated. I can't afford to really have an off-season as a Fitness model so my weight is pretty constant year round but maintaining muscle is as important to me as staying lean. Please feel free to find me on facebook and twitter, I enjoy interacting with everyone. I also create and post clean organic recipes on my blogg if you are looking for a little inspiration in the kitchen:) www.facebook.com/evedawes, https://twitter.com/EveDawes, www.evedawes.com, http://evedawes.blogspot.com/
Training photos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o75tA9l8C4&feature=player_embedded

Right now, off season, I'm keeping up my cardio and adding classes that I'm normally restricted from such as hot yoga, keeping my 6 meals a day, slowly reintroducing certain things to my diet and being more lenient with cheats as I don't want to bloat up like a balloon or have any adverse reactions as soon as I eat any sodium or lactose on my work travels.

[Sunnyday]

Hi and welcome to RX!

[The Prodigy]

WELCOME TO RX GIRL! What do you do for work that you travel so much? I would love that job! Who does your contest prep and trains you?

[Eve Dawes]

WELCOME TO RX GIRL! What do you do for work that you travel so much? I would love that job! Who does your contest prep and trains you?

Thanks for the welcome Ladies:) I do National sales for my husbands company, we sell Sorority merchandise to the girls at college. Team Bombshell does my contest prep and training, they have the motto 'There is No off season' but I'm listening to my body at the moment post competitions.

Todays training felt amazing, I did things off the plan that I enjoy; awesome cardio this morning and then my first Hot cardio barre in 6 months this afternoon; it felt soooo hard but so awesome to sweat so much and challenge my body by totally changing up my workout:)

[Eve Dawes]

I love waking up and feeling my muscles have been worked. 1 week into off season and I've managed to maintain my weight; I've been weighing in daily to keep track; this may seem obsessive but it's easier to make micro-changes day to day rather than wait a week and then have more to reassess. I think cutting down from the 11 meals pre-comp to soften up to 6 this week has helped! I'm still taking my supplements as normal and weighing all food and sticking to my meal plan about 80%-90%, just adding the odd treat such as a glass of wine.

[The Prodigy]

Thanks for the welcome Ladies:) I do National sales for my husbands company, we sell Sorority merchandise to the girls at college. Team Bombshell does my contest prep and training, they have the motto 'There is No off season' but I'm listening to my body at the moment post competitions.

Todays training felt amazing, I did things off the plan that I enjoy; awesome cardio this morning and then my first Hot cardio barre in 6 months this afternoon; it felt soooo hard but so awesome to sweat so much and challenge my body by totally changing up my workout:)

Awesome JOB! I was in a sorority..I wish I didnt will away all my stuff when I left. I would still sport my greek letters!

[Eve Dawes]

Awesome JOB! I was in a sorority..I wish I didnt will away all my stuff when I left. I would still sport my greek letters!

Yep, it's pretty fun and I love traveling and seeing different places. What sorority were you in? I went to college in England, I wish we had sororities over there, they seem so fun.

[Eve Dawes]

Weight: 1lb less than show weight last week as have been able to do my cardio again and cut back to 6-7 meals a day.
I was going to take yesterday off but my 11:00am was feeling guilty and decided to make it 'Sweaty Saturday' instead=Stairmaster, butt, bicep and tricep blast. Felt so much better, energized and awake afterwards. Off paddle boarding this gorgeous Sunday morning-keeping my off-season active and fun:)

[The Prodigy]

Yep, it's pretty fun and I love traveling and seeing different places. What sorority were you in? I went to college in England, I wish we had sororities over there, they seem so fun.

I was an A-Dee-Pi. It was the best 6 years of my life and most of my sorority sisters are still my bf today!

[Eve Dawes]

I got a little creative cooking yesterday, I needed a break from the monotony of my nutrition plan. This recipe is clean, organic and I weighed the patties to meet my regular meal requirements:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDFiYwKmtV0&feature=plcp

[Eve Dawes]

How fun, it's so important to have a great group of like minded, supportive women in our lives. Hope you are having a beautiful day.

[Eve Dawes]

So today is Day 9 off-season, although there's no real off-seaon, it's a lifestyle for me. Spent an hour in my neoprene wrap on the Cybex Arc, varying up the resistance and levels then some Butt supersets followed by stretching. I'm sticking completely to my comp nutrition plan today as I love being lean and having a healthy relationship with food, waking up feeling great and having clear skin. This journal is keeping me very accountable, I'd feel awful writing that I'd missed my workout or fallen off the wagon;) Hope everyones having an awesome Monday-start the week strong!

[Eve Dawes]

My plan has me always doing fasted cardio but with no more shows scheduled this year I'm trying to bring my passion back for training and train when I want to train, trying to find a balance between not really have an off-season and also not to over-train. I can't afford to not look good year around so that I can always be photo or video shoot ready. I started my workout with Shoulders (5 drop sets of Seated BB shoulder press, side lateral raise, 1/4 side lat raise, Arnold press and rear lat raises) followed by 30 mins interval trainer on the stairmaster. I really enjoyed it because I was there because I wanted to be and the pressure of competing's off. Had a cheeky martini last night so am back on my nutrition and supplements full force today!

[Eve Dawes]

My plan has me always doing fasted cardio but with no more shows scheduled this year I'm trying to bring my passion back for training and train when I want to train, trying to find a balance between not really have an off-season and also not to over-train. I want to make sure I look good year round so that I can always be photo or video shoot ready. I started my workout with Shoulders (5 drop sets of Seated BB shoulder press, side lateral raise, 1/4 side lat raise, Arnold press and rear lat raises) followed by 30 mins interval trainer on the stairmaster. I really enjoyed it because I was there because I wanted to be and the pressure of competing's off. I had Yoga DVD rehearsals this afternoon, it felt great to stretch and work on my balance. I had a cheeky martini last night so am back on my nutrition and supplements full force today!

[Eve Dawes]

Cardio on the treadmill this morning-lunges, squats and 1 minute sprints followed by paddle boarding. I'm adding all of the forms of exercise I love back in whilst I'm not prepping for a competition. I'm also really trying to encourage my husband to eat clean and healthy with me; started his day by making him clean french toast (2 egg whites, cinnamon, 1 slice of P28 bread, 1 tsp almond butter, 1/4tsp raw agave nectar).

[Sheena Ohlig]

Hi Eve!! Welcome!!...and UH OHHHH!!! sorority girls in the house!!! I sport my greek letters proudly!! Keep up the good work the OFF SEASON goes by soooo quick...lol...just two months ago i was liiiiiike "YAYYYY" cap'n crunch (doin the happy dance)!! and now i'm like..."mmmm...." egg whites....(having temper tantrum in my head) lol

lookin forward to keeping up with your posts, i'm journaling here too...just 9wks out til my pro debut!!

lets get it!!

Sheena O.

[Eve Dawes]

Thanks Sheena. Yay, another Sorority girl:)

This morning my weight was up 1lb since my comp 2 weeks ago (and I had my cheat meal yesterday), so Im feeling pretty on track and motivated. I took fat burners and did fasted cardio this morning just to really work on staying lean and burning off the sugar from the 2 glasses of wine yesterday. Also did some plyo mixed with my leg workout to keep my muscles tight and heart rate up followed by a quick ab blast. I love having a good solid workout and stretch pre-flight before sitting on my butt for hours! Packed my asparagus in my cooler for the flight to help with any water retention.

[Eve Dawes]

Day 1 on my travels went well, I got my morning workout in before my flight and had pre-packed enough food to get me through the day without having to resort to airport or aiplane food.
Day 2- breakfast in bed in my hotel room all of pre-made food I'd brought with me and put in my hotel fridge-chicken, asparagus, oatmeal & prunes. Meal 2-gluten and dairy free protein cookie. Meal 3- Grilled salmon and rainbow chard with olive oil and garlic (at a restaurant so I just portioned it). Meal 4-ground turkey and wholewheat pasta that I'd brought with me, Meal 5-protein shake and salt free rice cake. Meal 6-shrimp, greens and tomato (brought with me). No workout as Sundays my rest day.
Day 3's not starting out so well, but I'm determined to change that! I wanted to do fasted cardio but the gym doesn't open until 10am (I'm in tiny town in Idaho) and I didn't want to wait until noon for breakfast as I get mega cranky. So instead I started my day with my pre-packed breakfast and am now waiting an hour and then going to do some plyo, tabata drills and shoulders with the 10lb DB's I packed.

[Eve Dawes]

Yesterday I had to eat out twice but restaurants seem to be getting better at being able to accommodate requests (as long as you are choosing your restaurants wisely and not going to fast food joints). Although it wasn't organic I ordered a sirloin steak & sweet potatoes which I ate my approx correct portion of (you get pretty good at knowing what 2, 3 & 4oz looks like by eye after a while although I always still weigh at home). Then I put the other half in tupperware and in my cooler to eat a couple of hours later. In the evening I ordered steamed broccoli (no seasoning or oil/butter) and the celery Id seen them serve with wings and took them back to the hotel to eat with the Tilapia I had in my fridge for my pre-sleep feed. One thing I love about travel is I get to catch up on my zzz's and always get around 9 hours sleep besides on flight or travel days so I use this time to repair and re-energize rather than beating myself up about what I'm not able to do.

My fat burners got wet on the plane journey so I had to throw them out so I'm trying to make up for those with fasted workouts to get my natural fat burning going instead. You may think the simple cardio soultion is to just go for a run but unfortunately my knees are shot from pounding the concrete in my 20's so I have to be more creative and use low impact exercise. If you can run, great, a lot of hotels now offer running route maps with various distance routes marked. This morning started with Tabata drills (8 exercises-20 seconds of the exercise, 10 second rest = 4 minutes. Rest 30 seconds between rounds). I did this routine 7x and although it may not make up entirely for my gym routine but it's a lot better than nothing and was a good total body workout (I feel bad if anyone was trying to sleep in the room below me).

Push ups
Wide high jumps
Double crunch
Switch lunge
Tricep extensions
Shouder press
Alien squats
Scissor kicks

[Eve Dawes]

So life on the road was far from perfect; I enjoyed a glass of wine with lunch and dinner every day and didn't follow my "set" workout plan. However, I did eat 6 clean, organic meals a day, take all of my supplements, drink at least a gallon of water a day and got 3 workouts in (instead of 6) Sun-Weds. The result being I'm still at the same weight I was for my competition 3 weeks ago. I know I shouldn't just go by the scales as body compositions plays a big part but it's good to know I'm not too far off track. I did 90 minutes cardio yesterday and an hour this morning followed by a killer butt workout this afternoon. Now that I'm less regimented about my training schedule but still getting it all in and my weight down I'm enjoying it so much more in my off season;doing it when and because it feels good. I'm feeling stronger and more energized and have a huge post workout high that I haven't been having in a long time <3

[The Prodigy]

Stopping by to see how you are doing! I am jealous you are so close to your contest weight!

[Eve Dawes]

Thanks Gail, I'm doing good. I did my cook-a-thon for the week Friday so I can get back on my food plan whilst Im home for a few days and have enough to pack on dry-ice and take with me for the week. I also ordered MetRX protein and oats as Im interested to try this for breakfast as I haven't been getting my egg-whites in for breakfast on the road so thought this might be a good replacement. Yesterday I did another hour on the treadmill (lunges, jump squats, side skips, running backwards and forwards on varying inclines) and a 2nd shoulder workout of the week as I really need to work on my shoulder caps. This morning I went paddle-boarding for 90 minutes then to the gym to work out my booty and do another 30 minutes cardio. I'm finally caught up on cardio for the week; I missed a couple of upper body weight sessions this week but I don't want to create any more mass now, just maintain. This afternoon I've been playing around with a couple of recipes: protein carrot cake and protein nutty choc chip cookies. These are great for me to pack and take with me as I can just put them in ziplock bags and throw them in my purse without the need for a fridge. I normally have one for Meal 4 in between or during shows when getting a proper meal in is too time-consuming.

[Eve Dawes]

Great Morning: Back and booty trained followed by an hour spin class (Changing up my cardio a bit to keep challenging my body). Drinking lots and lots of water as it's a hot one at the beach today.

[The Prodigy]

Way to go RX Girl!!!! YUMMY!!!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9l5WNaWkCE&amp;feature=channel&amp;list=UL

[The Prodigy]

YUM_O

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbzXuW-L1Vk&amp;feature=plcp

[Eve Dawes]

I hear people use the excuse of travel as an excuse often but I'm back home after 9 weeks of travel for work which means changing city pretty much everyday; the longest I'll stay in one place is 2 nights. I didn't gain a single pound. Why? Because I went prepared and I put myself out. I called the hotels in advance and asked for a fridge and microwave to be put in my room; in over 80 hotels all of them have been able to provide at least the fridge if not a microwave. As soon as I land I go to the grocery store and buy my fruit, vegetables and gallons of water. I normally get to be home 1 day a week where I'll go to Wholefoods and buy all of the meat/fish/protein sources and carbohydrates I need for the week, cook, weigh and bag them and freeze them overnight. Then in the early morning I'll pack it all in a cooler (they act as ice-packs against one another) and use that as my carry-on luggage. I normally take a few bags out and put them in my purse so they'll defrost and I can eat them during the flight, etc. I only pack the protein and carbs as I don't find veg freezes very well and there usually isn't enough room in the cooler. If I know I'm not going to have time to get to a grocery store the other end I've even thrown raw asparagus and spinach in my checked luggage (its stays cold in cargo) and is fine eaten raw. Whilst cold egg whites aren't the yummiest thing in the World they are edible as is the oatmeal although you can always make this fresh by getting a cup of hot water from Starbucks or your hotel coffee maker (just run it through once to get rid of the coffee residue, unless you like coffee flavored oatmeal ;)).

I travel with my husband who doesn't follow my food regime at all so we go to restaurants for lunch and dinner. I eat my little baggie of food before we go in so I'm not hungry and then sit and watch him eat and whilst he felt uncomfortable the first couple of times, he quickly adjusted and is fine with it now. Whilst this may be harder at a formal business dinner you can always opt for a garden salad with olive oil and balsamic or steamed veggies without completely falling off of your diet or use that opportunity to have your cheat meal. When I'm not prepping for a contest I'll have a glass of wine whilst he eats or if it's a great restaurant use that opportunity to have my cheat meal which happens more than once a week off season. My 1st 8 weeks of travel I was prepping for the NPC Titans Grand Prix contest (I placed 2nd).

Not all of the hotels have gyms or they're often shut at the times I can go. Since I can't run I'll ask if they have an agreement with any local gym and/or if there's a gym close by and I'll use that. Check their opening hours before going as a lot of remote areas have limited opening hours. My worst case scenario I'll do Tabata, Plyo, abs, stretch and/or Yoga in my room. I won't do plyo unless I'm on the ground floor though; it wouldn't be fair to the people below!

The last week (which was last week), post-comp I let my body rest, I only did 2 cardio sessions last week, ate about 60-70% of my prepped, weighed food and then out and indulged and drank every night (I'm not recommending this, I'm just being honest)...and you know what? I didn't gain any weight. Whilst it may be my body composition changing, sometimes it's good to rest and change it up and my metabolism is still cranked pretty high so I'm taking advantage of it. I've had amenorrhea since starting competition training so ideally would like to rest enough/find a workout regime that will allow my hormones to get back to normal. Sorry, if I'm sharing too much but I want to be 100% honest about the entails of competition training.

I'm back home this week, back to training and consuming 100% of my prepped food but also adding back in cheats like raw agave nectar and a splash of creamer in my coffee, drinking wine, eating the odd 'non-organic, processed' food and enjoying it. I always drink at least a gallon of water if not 2 per day. I've heard of a lot of fitness people having kidney and gall bladder problems so I've also added more non-animal protein sources to my diet including a vegan protein powder. I have my birthday this weekend so know I'll be bad. I'd love to say I stick to my competition plan 100% year round but I'm working on finding a balance and life's too short to make sacrifices everyday, all year, always. I'm keeping an eye on my weight and photos; when my weight creeps towards triple digits I'll dial back the cheats and up the cardio and when it drops decrease the cardio and up the calories; simple maths. I also started lifting again this week because I missed lifting as I softened up to go from Figure to Bikini (I was just doing butt and abs) which will help keep my metabolism ramped up. I'd love to say I could completely taper off training and eating clean and organic but I love the way it makes me feel and I'm still scared of weight gain as I'm so used to seeing my body this way.

[Eve Dawes]

Photos after 8 weeks on the road, taken October 20th at the NPC 'Titans Grand Prix'. Qualified for Nationals :hmn:
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[Laurie Schnelle]

Congrats girl!! you look great :)

[Eve Dawes]

Thanks so much. I hope everyone's having a great weekend. I know some days are hard, especially when we feel we've gotten off track but rather than having regrets, jump back on it and you'll be back in shape and getting better and better in no time. I just got back from some very sweaty cardio to detox after my birthday celebrations. I'm not feeling lean and was feeling disgusted at myself for having overindulged last night. Rather than dwell on it I took action and will do so until I've undone the damage done!


Congrats girl!! you look great :)

[The Prodigy]

Thanks so much. I hope everyone's having a great weekend. I know some days are hard, especially when we feel we've gotten off track but rather than having regrets, jump back on it and you'll be back in shape and getting better and better in no time. I just got back from some very sweaty cardio to detox after my birthday celebrations. I'm not feeling lean and was feeling disgusted at myself for having overindulged last night. Rather than dwell on it I took action and will do so until I've undone the damage done!

But I am glad you enjoyed your birthday girl! Keep pushing forward!

[AVBG]

Nice shoulders!