Cure for Craving

Good thing I have a photo shoot on Saturday AND a cheat day. Having an event that is in the near future can help you hold out. Also, knowing a small break from the strict diet is coming helps keep sanity and from falling off the track.

I don't know what it is lately but Ive been wanting new things. I think it's maybe because of all the foods I ate after my competition last week. They say it takes 3 weeks for your body to stop craving foods that you used to feed it. Whatever it is, I just ignore it. If my coach told me I had to eat dirt to reach my goals, I would! But it is nice when I no longer have to ignore the cravings because I discover a substitute that keeps me right on track!

One of the things I crave is coffee, not black coffee, YUMMY coffee! Well here is what I do to satisfy that sweet tooth for a Starbucks Frappuccino. Enjoy!

I blend one serving of my protien powder with ice and water for 2minutes. IT MATTERS THAT YOU HAVE A GOOD BLENDER. A good blender leaves no ice chunks and makes a thick creamy texture. Then I add a cup or two, depending on how strong I want, of cooled coffee and blend for 30seconds.

Knowing that I am not back tracking makes this drink even more enjoyable than a full fat frappuccino.

Till next time:)
xoxoxo

Super Charged

Hey all!

So I am just settling in back home from a long, sleep deprived, but none the less very memorable, exciting weekend! Had a show and photo shoot in Cleveland. No behind the scenes photos to share this time:( but the prints are coming soon:)

I had two days off from diet/training and I didn't hold back...at all. I won't go into detail to spare drool on my keyboard but I have 10 weeks till Miami and am not afraid if all that scrumptuous food turned into a lb in hopes to build. that. bootyyyy!!!

I am SO fired up for this prep for Miami! For every show I clear my dry-earse board, make a new vision board, tweak my training and start over on my progress pics and come in with more knowledge than the last time. But ALSO, what has me fired up is I will be training at a new gym in SC! If your workout routine seems stale, try a new gym!  I will have two gyms available to me with every machine, every barbell imaginable. The military does a great job on providing the best fitness facilities.

Also, since I live in gym clothes everyday, the glam part of competing is always something I look forward to too. Thinking about my next look now:)

K, off to ponder what color suit for next show! Hahaha

Till next time,

Kelly

Where I Was Is Not Where I Am Now

It is never too late to makeover your metabolism. I want to share with you the unexpected, totally surprising changes that have happened to me this year.

I have always had a love for running. Track in high school and 5-10mi/day in college. I had a VERY difficult time throwing out my first pair of running shoes for all the awesome places they had taken me.

I was always health conscious too but remained the same weight and if I ate Taco Bell late at night with my girls, it would show immediately. I don't know exactly but I am guessing my BMI hovered around 25%

Well, my third year into college, I decided I didn't want to become a school teacher but rather a teacher of health so I transferred to an academy for personal training. While there in 2010, I learned proper technique and form in the weight room and got serious in there.

With that being said, I have been consistently weight training for a good 2 years now and my body has turned into a lean, mean BURNING machine. I have had more cheat days in my competiton prep plan than I can count now just to keep from crossing the border of too lean. (I am a stong believer in strong is sexy, not skinny, ladies!) And I kept leaning out too much.

How much cardio is in my plan now? ZERO. Did I ever think I would be that girl with this problem, definitely not. I STRUGGLED.

Here is my point, everyone is different, not everyone will need to eliminate cardio completely when they go from having to lose to just maintain. So see what works for you, but by using weights/adding muscle and a good nutrition plan, you WILL transform your metabolism. Most importantly, trust the process and give it time! My body did not change over night, it was a process, but it is never too late to give your metabolism a makeover! This I have learned firsthand.

XOXOXO
Kelly

Guilt Free Pizza

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 cup dry oats
• 1 TBS ground flax seed
• 1 egg

TOPPINGS

• 4 TBS marinara or spaghetti sauce
• 1/2 cup nonfat/lowfat cottage cheese
• sprinkles of frozen spinach
• 1/2 cup chopped tomato
• several pieces of jalapeno
• any other veggie or lean protein you want to add - mushrooms, onions, olives and chicken breast are all great choices

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a tin pan, mix up the oats, egg, and flax seed until it covers the bottom of a tin pan. I used a pie tin pan. No oil required! Place in oven at 350F for about 15-20 min until firm.
2. In the mean time, microwave the frozen spinach. Once thawed, pour out excess water and pat dry with paper towel.
3. Also, squeeze the cottage cheese curds with a cheese cloth or a few layers of paper towel. You want to get all of the water out so that it doesn’t make you pizza soggified.
4. Chop your desired veggies.
5. Once crust is firm, take the crust out of the oven. Slather with tomato sauce.
6. Then pile on the cottage cheese and veggies!
7. Place back in oven for about 15-20 min keeping temp at 350F. You can do 375F if you like your crust crispy.
8. Once your timer dings, take out, slice and enjoy.
About 300 calories for you own whole pizza pie…nearly 30g of protein and 8g of fiber. WOW is right. You need to try this! It’s one of my best creations to date!!!
Reblog and share the joy of clean eating! Seriously guys, this is phenomenal!!! Thanks Casey!

Next Move

http://youtu.be/QebtcJlRblI

Prepping Food!

It's Saturday! Which means I am in the kitchen preparing meals for the week :) (Watch out, the volume goes up at the end, if I was good with cpu's I'd fix it.lol)

http://youtu.be/H-JaS-EAqxQ

XOXOXO

Motivation...Come find me!?!?!

This morning I woke up before my alarm, sweet! I head downstairs to make a cup of hot tea when I start to wonder, "body, what did you do all last night?!?!"  Surely not recovery mode! Ouch, sore arms, sore legs, and are there bricks around my ankles cause walking is sure taking A LOT of energy.

I have a big workout on my to-do list today, where can I find that drive...hmmmm. "Photo shoot next weekend, keep pushing." I ponder on that thought hoping. But nope, motivation hasn't showed up yet. "In three weeks your going to be on stage in a teeny tiny bikini!!!" Nope, that fire hasn't ignited.

So what do you do on days like this? Sit on the couch? NO. You lace up your sneakers, throw your gym bag over your shoulder and get to the gym. Crank up that music, give yourself extra time to warm-up and usually by just being in this atmosphere it shows up. That is what happened to me this morning. KILLED the back today, energy is here, Mr. Motivation is in my face. Not even noon and what? Yep, ready for more! Putting myself in that atmosphere alone usually does the trick to knock out fatigue.

Here is one of my fav quotes that goes good with this blog: "Failures do what is tension relieving, while winners do what is goal acheiving." ~ Dennis Waitley

XOXOXO
Kelly

Timing is Everything

One way to better build results in the gym is to pay attention to the amount of time you are taking between exercises and sets. The length of your rest periods has a large impact on how much strength, size, and endurance you build.

Alot of people love a workout partner. I too, love having a spotter, it is safe and allows for heavier lifting. However, for me, I have to wear my watch otherwise 5 minutes of talking can easily go by and it felt like 30seconds!

As a rule of thumb, if it is my light days (12-15reps/set) my rest length is 30seconds. On my heavy days of 3-7reps/set, my rest length is 60-90seconds.

Eat right and train like a boss! Till next time,
Kelly XOXOXO

Practice Makes Perfect

Getting my stage walk down.
http://youtu.be/XyY1YO3JFV8

High Speed Metabolism

GOODMORNING:D My 1st of 5 cups of tea today:)



Q: What do I drink to keep my metabolism working at its' best?

 A: Tea and water. And that completes my list of beverages:) I do not put any artificial sweetners in my body. So many studies are coming out proving even 'diet' sodas are just as much of a cause for carrying extra inches around the waist as is regular full sugar drinks. To keep your body working at its best, stick with the natural stuff!

 i.e. Tea, water, coffee...  You will CONSTANTLY see me with my water bottle in hand through out my entire day. The response my body has had since I made the switch is phenomenol! 

Check out my fav move to hit outter thighs!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R7q0kgWlt8

XOXOXO

Keep Moving Forward

Everything pointed towards an off day yesterday. I wake up to my training shoes shredded by my pup. So there goes an hour behind having to run out to the mall to replace them. Get my new kicks and head to the gym. What happens? My access card does not read so I am standing outside calling them. I hear the phone ringing inside and as if I am not already frustrated enough, it dawns on me that the facility is not staffed because of the holiday weekend! At that point I am like, "ok, this is just not happening today!" I head home, as I pull down my street I see my mom is over! She is a member at my same gym so I thought of her access card! Grab that with a piece of chicken cause by this time I am starving and head back up. For all the gas wasted I stayed double the time and today I have a booty so sore I can barely walk normal! What better way to knock off some steam than with throwing up some heavy iron right? No matter what comes your way, push through the obstacles and what seems like an ok justification for putting off a workout is NOT. Stay strong!  (Pictured above are my Nike Lunarfly + 2, my feet are in heaven! So light and comfy, would have stuck with my worn out old OLD Nike's otherwise)

DELICIOUSNESS!

Hello hello!

So this prep time has been SO much different than the one before. I was burning more cals than taking in and by 5pm I was EXHAUSTED everyday. This round, however, we have been able to up my cals a little and today is my second cheat day. Cheat day while preparing for a show?!?!?! Whaaaaat? Yep:) I was killing myself to get my fat percentage lowered before stepping on stage last show and now I am fighting to keep weight on. Super skinny is NOT cute! Strong is what's up!

So for my cheat meal tonight I:
1)boiled boneless skinless chicken breast (when it is completely white from the middle out and shreds easily it is cooked)
2) cut up fresh onion, broccoli and mushroom and steamed it in a pan
3)added the veggies to organic traditional red pasta sauce
4) mixed in the chicken and topped it with fat free cheddar cheese
SO GOOD! DELICIOUSNESS

XOXOXO

Typical Meal

Happy Monday everyone!

The number one email I receive from people is "What do you eat???"

There is no secret power food, I know, bumming answer, it is consistency in nutritious foods, portioning and meal times.

I eat every 3hrs, 6 x's a day. You have to be dedicated. Last week I was on the go everyday with my husband, I carried a lunchbox like it was my purse! (Luckily, they've come a long way and you can get some cute one's now! haha) He is a good man and patiently puts on hold whatever we are doing so I can get my next meal down. LoL

Here is a picture of meal #2 for me today. Chicken, greens, sweet potato, and a T.of liquid fish oil. My coach, Timothy Staggs, designs my entire meal plans. Also, if hiring someone to do this for you is out of the question, http://www.fitday.com/ is a great site to help take some of the guesswork out of meal planning.

XOXOXO
Kelly

Competition Footage

Detroit Grand Prix Bikini Overall

http://youtu.be/1E9jLr9plFs

Make the Ab Crunch Effective

http://youtu.be/0m6Q62JUtZg

Training: Leg Day

Warm up: Smith Machine Squat      1 x 20Reps

                 Followed by     4 x 8-10Reps

Leg Curl                            4 x 15Reps

Standing Gluteus Machine  4 x 15Reps

Stiff Legged Deadlift          4 x 10Reps

Calf Raise                         4 x 20Reps

Single Leg Deadlift            4 x 15Reps

Glute Bridge                     4 x 10Reps

                                 Ending with: 60lb plate squeeze and hold 30-45sec for all out burn

I choose a weight that brings me to failure on the rx number of reps listed.

Kelly Clinton: New Comp New Plan!

Kelly Clinton: New Comp New Plan!: " At the start of a new workout plan I always update my

New Comp New Plan!

 At the start of a new workout plan I always update my i-pod. My top eight:
-KidRock "American Badass"
-Wayland "Fire Down Below"
-Nicki Minaj "Moment for Life"
-Our Lady Peace ""Starseed"
Rise Against "The Good Left Undone"
T-Pain "Bootywurk"
-Waka Flocka Flame "No Hands"
Rise Against "Give It All"

Main goal I am working on bringing into my next show: Little more mass to the booty.

Thanks to my coach's Tim and Rebecca at Staggs Fitness for guiding me in all my nutrition and training!