Starting at eDiets at my highest weight, I weighed 253 pounds.  That's a lot of weight to carry, and it felt miserable.  Now soooo many years later, that number has a new meaning, and who could imagine how incredible it feels?!

Below is my report from my very first USA Powerlifting Federation meet.  It took place on Saturday April 18, 2009 in Orlando Florida.  Crazy when I think about where I was, to half marathoner, and now to powerlifter.and now...record holding powerlifter?!  Crazyness!  It's happening, and yet I can still hardly even believe it!  253lbs has new meaning, now :)

~~~~~~

I didn't sleep at all the night before - typical.

30 lifters total, 7 of them (including me) were women.

Turns out that I'm the FIRST lifter of the day, which has me totally freaked out.  The time between when we got to the convention center and when that lift took place was ENDLESS, I was so nervous.  But once that first squat was overwith...I settled down, all was well.  Here's how it went:

Squats = 9 white lights!  And yes, they mocked the weight ;)

My squats were lame weight as far as powerlifting goes - but you know why as I mentioned - I had a specific goal in mind for squats  and it wasn't weight related (to get 3 white lights on each attempt - 3 perfect squats).

So I go out there, I was the FIRST lifter of the day with my opening squat, hahah...lame-o 66lbs LOL.  I make this with no problem, and the announcer goes "Hey Cathy I dunno if you know this but warmups are done in the back"

So second attempt, I went up by 10lbs and I make that with no problem and the announcer continues to rib me, "Hey Cathy this is *power*lifting..")

I also made my 3rd attempt squat and at the end you can hear them start to say something about being the announcer's new training partner..."reps all day" or something.

S'ok I don't care, I know they were just messing, and now I know I've *got* the squat, I've got a full meet under my belt, experience with all the lifts in a meet setting, and so in Charlottesville (my next meet, planned for late July) I can go in with confidence on the squat and at least do *some* weight :)

Sooo....onto Bench!

The plan for bench was to open with 80, then 95, then 110!

Decided to go conservative on the opener, then 95 again, and what I SHOULD have done at the first meet - 110.  I got the first two lifts with no problem, but on the 110, I missed it, gah! My coach/training partner says he thinks what happens is that I "go loose" in the lats/relax a little at the bottom of the bench, and that doesn't matter so much for me until it gets heavy, then I just die in the water.  I dunno - better than any theory I can come up with.

Benching took FOREVER, since in addition to the full meet lifters, there was a "bench only" class that consisted of another near 30 lifters.  Then after THAT, they did some cash prize contest, whoever got the most reps at 300lbs, 400lbs, and 500lbs.  Seriously - waaaaay too long of a wait with all that business going on, until we finally got around to deadlifting.  NOT to mention that this is inherently sexist, as very very very few, even elite female lifters, can do a whole lot with a 300lb bench press, nevermind out "rep" a guy at that weight.

When I FINALLY went out for my opening deadlift (209lbs), one of the judges said to me, "I see you finally decided to lift some weight today!"

Hah ;)

From a technique standpoint, these deads were a huge improvement from the first meet.  In watching the 2 heavier lifts from that meet, we noticed some "hitching," which was sucking power away from me off the floor.  You can see it, because the bar rolls away from me and then back into me on those lifts. 

We worked on correcting that in training since then, and I think it made a big difference!  Before lifting I am now setting my chest/arch, and then dipping my hips juuuuuust a little right as I started pulling, and that keeps the weight pulled in, no hitching!  Stronger lifts!!

So here are the 2 record lifts :)  When I went out onto the platform for each, I can't even tell you how my heart was racing, and how I was shaking!  It was nuts!

2nd Attempt - USAPL Raw American Record 148lb/Open Class @ 105kg/231 lbs

3rd Attempt - USAPL Raw American Record 148lb/Open Class @ 115kg/253.5 lbs

On my 3rd attempt, I did get 1 red light, boo!  When I asked why, I was told it was for "downward movement," of the bar.  That means one of the judges saw the bar go down at some point, after it started up - not allowed.  I don't see it at all, but no matter - I still got the lift!!!

And I officially broke the record!  And then I did it again, hahah that is some kind of CRAZYNESS :)  And I qualified for C'ville, woot!!

I also got to see Honu, which was really crazy!  I mean how was she even there?!  Totally whacky coincidence!  But it was soo great having here there through that, even though I felt bad because at times it got soooo long.  But the added cheering section and the super GF hugs and support was excellent.  She's also quite the videographer :)  YAY!!

My coach/training partner was also super sweet and supportive all day long, totally wouldn't be able to do all this without that coaching uber-awesomeness, and also without those "voices" Honu talks about in one of her posts on her thread - the ones from here at eDiets cheering you on, the ones that won't let you give up on anything :)

I'm super tired today (Sunday 4/19) and low on energy, no sleep the night before and no sleep again last night..just really dragging.  This week will likely turn into another deload week for workouts, I'll just do some cardio and maybe 2 light fullbody workouts as I recover.

Raphael is going to try to help me with my nutrition, because I'm still struggling with that and ultimately it affects my strength and recovery - that'll help with the energy level too no doubt :)

Thanks so much you guys...:)

My first Powerlifting Competition!!!

Excitement was high, so consequently I had a terrible night's sleep on Friday night, and was up super early Saturday morning.  We left the house around 8:30 for the meet.  When we got there we had a "rules" meeting, and then warm-ups started for the first "flight."  Flights are by weight, all the meets I've been to have the lighter weights first, heavier second.  This was the opposite, so I was in Flight B, 148 weight class.

The meet started with Squats, and since I wasn't squatting, I had a loooong weight.  All of Flight A needed to squat (about 20 lifters) x 3 each, then all of Flight B (about 10 or 12 lifters x 3 each), then all of Flight A had to BENCH (same deal, x 3 each)!  Gah!  By the time it was time for me to start warming up for bench, I was sooo amped up I felt a little wired...weird feeling and hard to describe!  My warm-up felt really frenetic.

Myles (my training partner/friend) set a PR on his squat, 235, 270 then 280.
He set a PR on bench, 195, 210, 210 (missed 210 on 2nd attempt, KILLED IT on 3rd attempt)
He bombed out on deadlift - he got 405 for his opener but it was clearly heavy and it was a real grinder.  He missed his 2nd at 455 (former PR in october being 451), and his 3rd (repeat at 455).   Here's his 405 lift. 

So yeah...tough day for deadlifting, but...all in all though he set a PR in 2 of 3 lifts, not a bad day!!

Bench for me...I hit 95 easy!
105 - easy!
Went for 115, totally missed it.  Not even CLOSE.  For a while, I second guessed that decision, "shouldda gone with 110" but Myles pointed out that I would have put that up easily, then second guessed whether I should have pushed for the 115..so it really didn't matter.  He's right :)

Since he was lifting off for me, we had to have someone in the audience try to record them.

We got the 95 on video

They messed up the 105, so there's no video.

And I didn't post the 115 because I missed it but if you wanna see it just hang out on my chest, I'll gladly share ;)

My flight was SMALL and went really fast, it felt really frenetic and crazy, and I felt a little wired and out of control, it was weird.  I felt like I hadn't settled...maybe because it was first meet amped-upness, I dunno..but I needed to settle.

They had the lighter lifters lifting 2nd, so I had a good deal of time before I deadlifted, since all of flight A had to lift first.  I spent a lot of that time trying to settle down and get a grip ;)  It helped, I think.  Warm-up for deadlift did not go smoothly.  My last warmup lift was 185 and it felt HEAVY.  Shook my confidence a bit, and after that 115 thing I ALMOST changed my opener to 200, but at the last minute I was like "just stick with the plan Cathy, you can do this!"

So, here they are :)

205: smooth like butta!!

225: a PR on 2nd attempt, since I maxed at 215 in training!

And the big one...240!

Form got a little shaky on 240, that arch could have been stronger!  And what a grinder huh?!!  But OMG what a freaking rush I got!  That was TOTALLY a maximal lift and I got it and I felt CRRRRAAAZZZZY incredible when I put that bar down!  Absolutely have never felt anything like that, it was amazing :)

And now I'm a record holder, thank you :)  In bench too!  It's a National record for both bench and deadlift in THIS particular federation (there are a few powerlifting organizations, and you get the record with the organization you lift with), which is RAW United.  That said, I also nailed  the National Record in the USAPowerlifting federation for my weight class, which is 225.75 :)  HAH!  Holy crap!! :)

It was a simply incredible day :)  I won't forget it anytime soon and I am totally pumped for whatever's next!

This week I'll be hitting the cardio and getting some sweat on, as I sort of miss it, that was toned down quite a bit through training.  Will also be doing only light and bodyweight training 2 x this week to help recover from the meet.  I'll be using this time to reformulate goals and figure "what's next," then hit it again hard, in one way or another, next week.

Done! Let me say that again… D-O-N-E. DONE!

Those 121 pounds are gone from me never to be seen again! I never ever could have imagined this at the start, and even now I'm not sure I really get it. See, I've been at this weight loss thing for a looooong time, my expectations for success at the beginning were low -- OK, non-existent.

Let me first be clear: I know and fully understand that there's no done. There's no end, just another phase. But that phase is no more weight loss; only maintenance. That's really big for me to make that statement -- "No more weight loss, only maintenance" -- because for so long my life was setting weight-loss goal after weight-loss goal, little tiny steps, baby steps toward this end...

So what's the plan now? Hah – good question! I basically follow the Glycemic Impact Plan, and I work out faithfully five to six days each week. I'm not going to make any changes to what I've been doing and I'm going to see where things shake out and settle. There might be another pound or two to come off yet, who knows. If it does, great! If not, that's OK, too, because I FEEL this is right, and where I'm supposed to be.

I used to wonder if it was possible for someone to know, really know, that they were at the right weight for themselves. I can tell you yes, indeed, I know it. It feels like a dream.

Why is this such a big deal? I've been extremely near to my goal for close to two years. In fact, it has been 21 months and 20 days that I've been bouncing around just 4 to 8 pounds from my ultimate goal weight of 132 pounds. My head was telling me, "Let it go. It's good enough. You're there!" But my heart was telling me, "Please don't give up now, you can't give up, you're almost there!"

There were a lot of tears over these last few pounds, and tons of frustration. Whether you're near your ultimate goal or your next milestone, I know you guys have been there, too.

In my role here as Testimonial Manager here at eDiets, I hear from so many people all the time, "I'm NEVER going to get there!" My response is lightning fast and is always something along the lines of "it doesn't matter how long it takes; you just have to stick with it."

And let me pony up to the truth here: At times I've felt like a big hypocrite saying that, as the number of times I've circled the same thought in MY head concerning my own goals is probably as high as our national debt!

But what I can tell you from my heart is that on Wednesday October 8, 2008 (and the day after that, and today, and for the rest of my life!), when I saw that number on the scale, all of the time that had passed really didn't matter. You know why? Because I did stick with it, I DID do it, and, um, who cares now how long it took?! Yeah it probably should have come a little faster, but I certainly don't regret it, because again...

I DID IT! That still feels magical to say.

It was a combination of things that finally did it for me, a lot of patience and help from our very own Chief Fitness Pro Raphael Calzadilla topping off that list. I hope he never tires of my gratitude for all he's done to help me.

Also right there at the top? All of YOU, my fellow eDiets members! You know I've had so much support myself -- support in the "hang in there" department, in the "don't listen to that voice that says you can't do it" department and in the "we believe in you" club as well. In my heart, I knew I couldn't abandon this goal, but still there was doubt, but... you guys, in one way or another, were all there helping me to never let that voice of doubt win.

I'm still feeling really overwhelmed, but a really comfortable calm feeling is starting to work its way over me. But what my mind keeps going back to is the amazingness of no more weight-loss goals and how that resonates with me after this long, long road.

There's no end, as we all know, just a new healthy living phase, and I'm so SO happy to be here at the start of it all again.

Everyone -- even if you're not a member and reading this -- please feel free to ask me anything about how eDiets helped me do it or share about your own weight-loss successes by commenting here!

Thanks so much for reading,

Cathy