NPC Fit Model: Full Day of Eating, Training and What It's Like on Prep

So I'm back a little later in the day here, getting ready to make my dinner, but I realized when I started editing the video that I did not really set this up very well, so I want to put this at the beginning. I am sharing with you a day in what I've been doing for the last almost 10 weeks now, and that is training, eating, losing fat for possibly competing in the fit model category in the NPC, um, When I thought about this in the past, well, first of all, thinking about doing this at age 52 is quite daunting, never having been stepped on stage before in a bodybuilding competition. But if you want to learn more about that thought process, I have another podcast that I did on that, and I'll link that down below. But basically, I'm still not 100% certain that I'm going to do it. But I've been training, eating, doing fat loss for the last 10 weeks as if I am definitely going to do it. So, um, it's just a little scary and that's the only reason I'm thinking about not doing it. I think it'll be fun in a lot of ways. I think it would be a great experience and I'm all about just challenging myself and putting myself out of my comfort zone. So that's why I started it. But anyway, so this is kind of just my day, how I've been training, how I've been eating, biohacks that I do, supplements that I use, all that kind of good stuff. That'll all be here in the video. And, um, yeah, I have— I don't normally do vlogs, so this is totally new format for me. But, um, hopefully you'll find it helpful or somewhat entertaining. Or maybe while you're trying to get through your cardio, you'll be watching this video, which is how I've been getting through a lot of my things that I've been doing over the last several weeks. Listening to podcasts, watching videos, watching other people talk about their preps and things like that. So without further ado, let's move on to my day. Hey everyone, good morning. This is going to be a totally different kind of video for me. I've never done one of these before, but I thought I would take you through a day in the life of prep so you can see a little bit what it's more about. Get some of my feelings on it. Yesterday was a particularly difficult day, so— but made it through. Woke up this morning, actually the first thing I do in the morning that I did not video is get on the scale because that's what you do when you're tracking, and I had a new low this morning. So despite yesterday being an awful day, we did have progress, at least in the sense of what, you know, the goal is right now is moving that body fat down. So now I'm just going to make some coffee, do some fasted cardio, which by the way, there's still no great evidence that that's that much better, but I have been doing that right now just to go ahead and push my first meal off a little bit because, you know, when you're in a calorie deficit, especially for this long, it gets to be quite monotonous and a little challenging. So the later I can eat that first meal, the better. So, but first, coffee. And I do a pour over every morning, so I'll show you that. So here is my little coffee setup. I've got— I— this is the Breville. It's actually a tea maker, which I've had this for, oh, I don't know, 15 years now or something. I'm obsessed with it. It has a basket that goes in here to make the tea that actually, um, the handle in there like brings it up and down so that it puts it into the water. And you can change the temperature for the different types teas. You can see all the different ones. I just put it on custom to heat water. But anyway, when it makes the tea, it heats it at the proper temperature. So if you have black tea, it's a different temperature than green tea. And then when it's done brewing, the handle here, it brings the basket back up so that it doesn't steep too long. But anyway, delicious tea. But in the morning, I use it to heat up the water for coffee. I have my burr grinder, and then I have the pour-over. So that's what's coming next. So ideally you'd be taking your creatine just before a workout, and I do have a lift today, but, um, I find that sometimes I forget doing it pre-workout, so I like to just do it in the morning first thing Also, I'm very interested in creatine for its cognitive benefits other than just muscle building. So for me, I feel like just getting it during the day is more important than the exact timing. So I'll often just take it right here in the morning just so I get it in, and then I occasionally will also— right now my protocol is to take it before and after lifts. So I will take it after— for some reason after I don't have as much trouble remembering that, but then I also put a little, um, taurine and hyaluronic acid in my coffee in the morning. I haven't been doing the collagen just because of extra calories, which you do have to be a little bit concerned about while you're on a calorie deficit, and I'm getting plenty of protein right now, so I'm not doing that at the moment. Okay, before coffee, I just thought I'd share this with you because if you came to this channel for its original content, you may have been here because you wanted to try keto or had curiosity about the keto diet or being in ketosis. And so what I wanted to share is, since I've been training more and doing this contest prep, I've actually been eating 100 carbs a day, which has been very different than what I've done in the past. But what I want to show you about that is that truly being in ketosis, if that's your goal, or, uh, eating, you know, what amount of carbs will allow you to get in that metabolic state is really different for everyone depending on your activity level and a variety of other factors, how long you've been doing it, that kind of thing, how easily your body goes in and out of ketosis, if that's truly your goal. So I just want to show you, I have my Ketone Meter here, and I thought we would check this this morning so that I can show you what that's like now that I am in fact eating more carbs. And for some people that want to have the benefits of ketosis but like having more carbs or miss their carbs, this can be really useful information for you. So this will just be a really quick thing, get the strip out here and put it into the meter, and then we'll go ahead and test it this morning. So got the meter and putting in the strip and pricking the finger. Haven't done this in quite a while, but you know, I always test— I used to test all these things quite a lot, so I have all of them. So let's go go ahead and get this in here. So it takes a countdown of 10 to get the number, and like I said, I had about 100 carbs yesterday. I'm waking up fasted this morning, and my ketone is reading at 0.9, which is a very therapeutic level of ketosis despite the fact of eating plenty of carbs. So anyway, this is just a point of data to share with you. And then I've also been using my Lumen. You know, I test a lot of these things for my job, obviously, Um, so I have the Lumen. I've been using it occasionally lately. I actually used it the last 3 mornings again, just out of curiosity. And what this tool does is it allows you, if you are a person that wants to, you know, check on your metabolic health but be more flexible with the amount of carbs you have, it actually directs you on a day-to-day basis of if you're in fat burning mode, so kind of waking up in ketosis or not, and then how many carbs and, and different macronutrients you should plan for the rest of the day depending on your goals. And so I've used that the last 3 mornings. It's come up with fat burning every single morning, and it's just an interesting tool again, especially if you're looking for more flexibility in your diet. And like I said, I test some of these for my job, so it's just kind of a curious thing for me. But definitely the, um, you know, being in ketosis despite eating a fair amount of carbs is definitely interesting information for a lot of people, especially way back in the day of keto. People were like, you know, if you had one little thing off, they were just that ruined it and you'd have the keto police come after you. It's quite a funny thing. But anyway, just for some extra information for you there. So I'm definitely not used to a vlog format. We'll see how this goes. But anyway, came outside to enjoy my coffee before I go for my walk. It rained last night. It's about to rain again all day, but I have a break this morning so I can get that in. But I'm just going to enjoy this out here with the birds chirping for a few minutes, and then we'll get on the road for the cardio. Well, I'm really known for having the lamest workout outfits ever. I just have the same stuff I've had forever, and I don't like typically try to wear fun things, um, when I'm working out. I don't know, it's just fine with like normal shorts or whatever, but I have gotten a couple of little things lately from Amazon just to try to up my gym attire. And, um, this is one of the things I'm wearing today. I really like this a lot because for cardio it's got pockets on the shorts that I can put my phone in when I'm out walking. I also have like a thing that attaches to my waistband is not a fanny pack. It's for carrying my phone, which is quite useful because you can— it's magnets, so you can attach it on any waistband that you have. But whenever I wear these, it's nice because it's got the pocket for the phone. I'll just show you the little outfit because it's super comfortable and I really have been liking it. But it's just these, um, it's a onesie kind of thing. It's got built-in bra. Here's the pockets, and then this fun shirt that's got like the fun back. So anyway, trying to look a little more presentable in my gym attire. So I found a new trail close by that's been really great for doing all this extra cardio, which I haven't shared about that yet. So, um, right now my cardio is at 45 minutes 4 times a week, and then I have twice a week that's 80 minutes that just turned on last week. And that's because I'm getting towards the end here, and we're just trying to keep the scale moving. So as you know, all of this is for a very specific purpose. This is not like a long-term thing, so it's just planning for this specific event, and that's the goal. So that's what we're doing. Um, But today is a 45-minute day, and, um, I just walk because I was a runner for 17 years and my knees do not get too happy about doing more aggressive things these days. I'm just happy to be able to walk and hike pain-free. So I'm just— walking fast has been enough to do what I'm supposed to do right now. So I'm about a third of the way through at the moment, and I was just trying to get this in before it rains. So we'll check back with you when it is time for me to be finished with this and eat something. Okay, so supplements, it's kind of a lot. Um, keep in mind though, I test a lot of these for my work stuff, so some of them are things that I use for that reason, and then some of them I've added on prep. For example, boron That was something that my coach suggested, and when I looked up the purposes of that, it does supposedly help a little bit with fat loss, but it's also for maintaining bone while you're on a deficit. Then I take this vitamin K2, that's for heart health, and, um, let's see, my thyroxine, that's just thyroid support. Port, and got another bottle in the cabinet of that, but that's out. This one, Urolithin A, this is for mitochondrial health and also to help with energy and strength gains. It has some research behind it that shows that you get like 18% increase in strength over months. I've been taking this probably for a year now, and It's hard to say, but the one thing about supplements though is you, right, you don't know if you gain that much strength if you didn't have it, so it's kind of hard to tell, but I've definitely gained strength. Then I've also been taking Fatty 15, which is an essential fatty acid that was discovered more recently, so it's kind of a newer thing, and that's one thing I'm testing out for, just like I said, for my job. And then I have the MethylGuard Plus and this is because I have the MTHFR mutation, which basically means my body doesn't methylate as well. And when I did some of my testing before, I had a higher homocysteine level, which is bad for your heart health, and it's something that happens when you have that gene mutation. So taking a methylated B vitamin helps your body methylate better, lowers homocysteine, and that's definitely been the case since I've had it tested again since then. Then I have my Vitality Bits. So this has spirulina and chlorella in it, and those are good for energy, and it has superoxide dismutase in it, which is again something that really helps with cellular function. So it can be a lot of pills, but I I just take them one at a time and then it's finally on to eating. I almost forgot D3. That's so critical because that is really helpful with fat loss and also just overall general health and something that most people are low in, especially those of us that live further north and don't get sun in winter. Okay, now for breakfast. This is actually one of my biggest diet hacks. I've said this before, um, making your food boring. It's really good for fat loss. It also just helps you, like, you know, the same thing to make and to eat every day. It really just helps keep tracking simple. But I was eating this for a couple months actually before I started my fat loss thing. I've just kind of modified the quantity a little bit. So what I've been doing right now on fat loss phase is 1 egg and egg whites. Um, so egg whites is 150 grams. These are just for my macros. Obviously your mileage may vary. And unfortunately I couldn't find the one that I usually buy this time, so I've got something different, but it's still just egg whites. I guess I should shake that a little bit. And then a little salt and just whisk this up. So the egg, egg whites and cottage cheese that I'm about to have in the breakfast or breaking the fast, the first meal of the day is about 30 to 35 calories or 30 to 35 calories, 30 to 35 grams of protein. And this is a mis— I feel like this is a mistake that people make, um, especially when they're on fat loss, because I see a lot of women in particular, smaller competitors that will have meals that don't get up to 30 grams of protein. And the reason I say that, I think that's that is a big mistake, especially as we get older, is because what the research shows is it takes about 30 grams of protein to stimulate muscle protein synthesis. So every time you eat is an opportunity to stimulate that process of growing muscle. And as we get older, your body loses the ability to effectively kick in that process. It requires even a little bit more protein. And the real thing that you're looking for is leucine. There's like this thing, uh, theory called the leucine threshold for muscle muscle protein synthesis. And so if you make sure you're getting 30 to 35 to even up to 40 grams of protein in a meal, it can be more than that. That's just— this is just the minimum that you want to stimulate that process. Um, so I really feel like you should focus on that because I, again, I'll see the macros sometimes for women having these meals and they're like 20, 25 grams of protein, and I just think that's a huge mistake. So I always am at at least 30 in every meal, if not more. I shoot for more like 35 now that I'm older. And then if it's a bigger meal, like a dinner, sometimes it's like up to 50, 60 grams of protein. Actually, another recent study that's shown that your body will keep using that protein for muscle protein synthesis. So we used to think that there was an upper level for that. Um, but really it shows that your body can use even more protein. So don't let that fool you or, or prevent you from actually doing a little more. It just all depends, of course, on what macros you're actually trying to hit for your goals. So since we're, you know, I'm in fat loss right now, I'm keeping the protein level at about 130 to 150 every day. So I don't have the opportunity to go too much over that threshold in each meal, but like I said, I definitely make sure I hit that minimum of 30. So I know most blogs probably, or most vlogs, like a day in the life or whatever, don't go into as much educational part, but I really can't help myself because you know that's what I do here on this channel. So I try to never miss an opportunity to share that information about protein synthesis because I just think it's something that not everyone knows, and you want to make sure you're getting the most out of your muscle building every single day, whether you're in a build mode or fat loss mode. So this meal cooks super quickly. I'm just about to have my eggs perfectly done here, and now I'm going to complete this by weighing out my cottage cheese. So like I said, with the macros trying to get to that protein amount, it's been 1 egg, 150 grams of egg whites, and 100 grams of cottage cheese. So that gets me to my protein goal for this meal. And this is the very best cottage cheese ever, Good Culture. It is so hard to find, it gets sold out all the time. The backup that I've found that has just— and what I love about this is the ingredients are so clean: skim milk, whole milk, sea salt, live cultures. That's it. Um, the one that I occasionally get as a backup that'll be on sale at Whole Foods Whole Foods is this Nancy's brand, and it's also very clean. It's actually organic, which I would prefer if Good Culture was as well, but all it's got is the organic milk, organic cream, salt, and 4 lactic. It's actually like, um, promoted as even a more probiotic kind of brand. So those are my favorites. And now we eat, and especially since it's a lower amount of food, I really like to be present with my food and savor it. So try not to eat while scrolling on your phone and all that kind of good stuff. It's nice to just chill out for a moment and appreciate your food. So one thing I've noticed about being on prep is finding, um, you know, still things that you can have like that are little treats. And this is one of my favorite things. I have almost pretty much every day. It's kind of my pre-workout. So you might have been wondering like, hey, where was the carbs in that last meal? That was just my first course of breakfast. This is the second course, and this is where I get the carbs to then go do my workout. So these rice cakes, um, I found are organic. There's a lot— a surprising amount of garbage in rice cakes. I— when I looked at these in the grocery store, I couldn't believe some of the ingredients. But these are super clean, it's basically just like rice and salt. So I've been using those. The brand is Lindbergh. Yeah, Lindbergh Organic. So anyway, those are great. And then I have this organic powdered peanut butter. And so again, for, for my macros that I'm working right now, what works for me is about 10 grams of this. And wow, that turned out right on the button. And so then I just, um, take this, put a little bit of water in here and stir it up. So that's what that looks like once it's stirred. And then the last thing is something— and then the last thing is something that I never had a lot on keto at all, which were bananas. They have, you know, a fair amount of carbs in them, so that was something I didn't use very much for years. But with peanut butter, it's really a great flavor. So put the peanut butter on the rice cake and spread that out. And then what I do is take— now, because if you're in prep, you don't want to waste like a spot of any of your food that you're allowed, right? So I take the bowl that the peanut butter was in and I put my banana, and I usually, um, I I do like half of a medium banana, which usually turns out to be like 40 to 50 grams of banana. So yeah, that's right at 51, so that's fine. And then I just chop up the banana and the rest of this like little leftover peanut butter so that I mix that around. I mean, this, when it's done, this is like, it reminds me of such a little like dessert treat. It's really nice, and it's, um, just kind of the perfect amount of carbs for a pre-workout. Now, that being said, I will say that I don't notice like a huge amount of increased energy when I have carbs before working out because I think it's just so many years of not having them that I'm pretty used to that. But I can't really tell that much of a difference, so to me it wouldn't matter maybe going back less carbs, but because I can still, you know, eat these, have a few more, and still be in ketosis in the morning, which is not the goal right now. The goal right now is like fueling my body for training, so I'm not too worried about it. But in any case, it is still interesting. So now I put a little drizzle of honey. This usually just ends up being about 4 to 5 grams of honey. Because obviously you're tracking all of this. And then here's the best part, you gotta have salt on the top of it. So that is my little second course of breakfast, and then we're gonna go hit the workout. So this is yet another biohacking thing that I do, um, the Sunlight and Sauna, which is amazing. Um, had it for over a year now and, uh, really good for heart health, great for recovery. So doing that here after the workout, just completed another check mark. Um, out in the sauna for about 35 minutes and then going to get a shower and then eat again. So one of the things I've been enjoying for my midday meal is some Greek yogurt with berries, and because Greek yogurt has so much protein in it, um, I kind of cut back my protein serving of meat that goes with it. So right now I've got some chicken left that I already prepped the other day, so I'll weigh that out, and then the remainder of my protein for this midday meal will be the Greek yogurt and then some berries to go with it. All right, so you can see this is a good amount of yogurt and strawberries, very filling, very much of a treat. I put just like a little few drops of stevia on there, and then I'll put about 5 grams or so of honey, just to give this a little sweetness, and that will be the second part of my midday meal. Okay, so right now it's 12:40, just getting ready to eat the second part of my midday meal. The first part, like I said, was just a little bit of chicken breast that I had left, and so I measured out the Greek yogurt to make sure that I got to the 38 grams of protein like I was describing to you before. I am at 700 calories for the day right now and still have 2 meals left. Usually I will go ahead and have like my snack in the afternoon, a low calorie thing, and then save the rest of the calories for dinner. Um, but yeah, this is the point in the day, like I've done my, I've done my cardio, weightlifting's already done, sauna, showered, and now get to do a big chunk of work this afternoon. But, um, this is what I started to say about this is this is the part of the day where I really am starting to drag. So even after I eat this, I'll feel probably pretty low energy. And that's why I like to do all of this in the morning. For me, it works for my schedule, where it allows me to work a big chunk of the day later in the afternoon, but getting out of the way in the morning when I actually have some energy after sleeping is really useful. I know not everybody has the ability to do that. If you're working in an office or something, you kind of got to go into the office early, but, um, just due to my schedule, I'm able to do that. And so that is one thing that has really made this whole, um, training program and being in this much of a deficit doable for me. Um, so yeah, so we'll see how the rest of the day goes, but, um, there's a few things left that I'll share, and then I think that'll be the end of this day in the life. So this literally might be the best part of my day during prep. I resisted this for such a long, long time, but finally got the Ninja Creami, and it lives in this other— really loud when you turn it on, um, but I make a low-fat version of ice cream that has protein powder and skim milk, and it just makes me really, really happy. And it's a way to get in 30 more grams of protein during the day. So getting ready to make that now. Um, if you don't have one of these, I do have a code for it. Um, but anyway, super— so I got it on there and just turn it up, press that, put it on light ice cream because that's for ones that are icier. And then when you hear this noise, you'll see why it's in the other room. So here's the creamy in all its glory. This whole thing, 30 grams protein and about 160 calories. Okay, so time to make dinner, and it's Friday and my husband's out of town, and I decided that I wanted to have something that's kind of a little treat for dinner since I've been doing nothing but eating chicken for the most part a lot. So I got filet mignon, small 4-ounce filet. That's got about 230 calories. I think at this point I have something like 300 left. I need to check, um, so I need to figure out a little side to go with that that's around 100 calories. So we'll figure out what that is. And I think I have a few carbs left to play with as well. So I'm gonna get the steak started and figure out what I'm gonna have to Good. So I had some tomatoes left over from the other day that I didn't use, and, um, of course that's a great low-calorie option that is healthy and delicious. So I'm just going to use those, and I had a cucumber in the refrigerator as well, so that should get me pretty close to meeting my rest of my macros for the day. And you also got a little taste today of kind of if you're doing macros rather than a meal plan, how you can use real foods that you actually like to meet your calorie and macronutrient goals, switch things out. So you don't always have to do a meal plan if you you get good at this, and I've been doing macros and tracking for years, so this is pretty easy for me at this point. But if it's something that you haven't learned yet, it's really useful if you're doing something like this where you're trying to meet certain calorie and nutrient goals for the day. So this, um, I had already weighed the tomatoes out. It was about 200 grams of tomatoes, and I'll weigh the cucumbers here. So about 130 grams cucumber, and then we'll see if we got room for anything else. So normally I would not do this, but I have just a little bit of calories and fat left, so I'm just going to put this nice high-quality extra virgin olive oil on there, and that's just 2 grams, so not a lot, but it'll add a little extra flavor. All right, so that is Friday night dinner, such that it is. Of course, more salt. And going to eat this, enjoy it, and then I usually— and it's 6 o'clock right now, So I've usually been just quitting eating by 5:30 or 6:00. I do that for a few reasons. It's really important for your brain health to digest your food before you go to bed and have a couple hours to do that. Um, one of my doctors that I worked with at Wild Health was talking about that in relation to Alzheimer's and dementia. You don't want to have food so close to when you sleep. I can't remember the study or if I looked that up after we talked about it, but Also, just for me, my digestion is a little slow, and so it really helps me sleep better if I quit eating early in the night. Um, so this will be the final food of the day, and then we'll just do some wind-down activities, and it'll be time for bed. So, um, a couple other biohacks I usually do before bed, and I will of course share those with you so that you have a full picture of the day. Okay, last thing before, uh, starting to relax for sleep is I have on my Pulsetto device, which is something that is a vagus nerve stimulator, and it's supposed to help with sleep recovery, a whole bunch of things. I actually interviewed the founder of the device a while back. He's a big biohacker himself, and he discovered this technology, started using it and found that it helped him so much. So anyway, I've been using that just about every night for a little while. And of course I got my blue blockers on, so when I'm looking at the screen, it's all red and it's just telling my brain that it is time for sleep. So if you are going to be on devices in the evening, this is a good idea. It's not perfect, but, um, you know, if you're gonna do it, you might as well I'll make it as least detrimental as possible. So anyway, that was my day in the life of training for this crazy fit model thing. Um, I don't know if I said this before, but really the only reason I decided to seriously consider this was because they brought in the fit model category, which is not nearly as much muscle, and theoretically you don't have to be as conditioned. So not quite as low body fat. I mean, it's still going to be very low body fat, especially based on the winners that I've seen thus far, but it's not the total extreme of bikini, which at, again, my age and having just trained for a couple of years in this section of strength training, I think that getting the muscle for bikini would be nearly impossible if I was actually going to do well. I mean, it's another thing if you just want to compete and be on stage, and if that was the only category that there was, I, I probably wouldn't be doing this at all. I don't know, maybe I still would have thought about it, but the fact that there's this new fit model category that is much more appropriate for where I am, both in age, health, muscle mass, all that good stuff, that's really the whole reason I decided to do this. So, um, anyway, I will keep you updated, and this will be continuing for the near future. It's pretty much a day-by-day thing. I mean, I think I mentioned in the caption in one of them, like, the first several weeks of doing this process and really starting my fat loss was, was not that taxing on me. I mean, it was definitely— it's all work and things that I do on a daily basis anyway, but doing it with a lot less food is definitely more challenging. Um, but it really wasn't until the last week or two where I started to have some days where I'm just seriously low energy, and that's because now my body fat is getting much lower. I started at a body fat that was already in the healthy range, right at about 26%, higher than I really like to be, but because like, again, I was doing this building phase, I just decided to go with that for a little while, but that's not really where I've stayed for most of my life in the past. And then now, as of my most recent DEXA, I'm down to around 15 or 16%. So that's definitely a significant decrease, and it's a level where your body is going to start, you know, fighting you a little bit. Because for women, we have a critical, um, need for body fat, and because we're, you know, designed to build little people in our bodies, basically. And so our our bodies don't like it when we start getting too low in body fat. So that's definitely part of it, but it's not so low yet that it's, um, dangerous or should be a significant impact to health or anything like that. So anyway, for now we'll stay the course. Again, it'll be, you know, like day-by-day decision-making on how I'm doing and how I'm feeling about this whole thing. But for today, got through another day and actually felt pretty good today. Definitely tired, did not have the crushing, um, kind of day that I had a couple days ago. I think part of it was I did a little refeed in between, and I think that really helped a lot. So anyway, I hope you have a great night, and I will see you next time.