it's OFFICIAL.

As of yesterday, I decided to move up my show a whopping 2 months and 2 days to compete in...

The NPC Southern California Bikini Championships!!

After meeting with Coach and going over my progress over the past 6 weeks, we decided that I'm ready for the challenge of a full-blown Contest Prep and I'll be able to get there in the next 10.5 weeks. So here goes nothing! As he so wisely said, only I decide how I'm going to look onstage. So all of the choices I make in the coming weeks are going to determine where my body is at the end of it all. If I thought the last 6 weeks were challenging, I'm in for one hell of a ride because from this point on, my training & nutrition are going to be kicked up a notch...or ten.

In related news, I survived and absolutely LOVED my first day of HIIT! The intervals break up my workout and make me feel amazing and accomplished once I finish the cardio session. I've read so many fitness gurus and competitors rave about the benefits of sprints/interval training, but so far I'd been confined to LISS (Low Intensity Steady State) cardio aimed at burning fat...I had a feeling Coach was going to start mixing HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) cardio into my program and I was right. At first I was hesitant about it, but after my first interval I was revving to go! Yay!!

I hope last night's workout was an indicator of how I'm going to approach this next phase of my training. I'm so motivated to push even harder than I have over the last 6 weeks and just tune everything out, focusing in on the prize at the end--stepping on stage and showcasing the best body possible. :)