For the last three months I have spent one weekend of month in Calgary taking my coaching training. Every month 95% of the class is made up of the same participants. Every month I have brought my own food and consumed many an Epic Salad while everyone else eats at the food court.
This month, I was SUPER prepared. I chopped, weighed, planned, and portioned out every single meal for 4 days and labeled EVERYTHING.

Ready, set, PREP! After a mere 2 hours of planning and working, this was the result - 4 days of meals perfectly portioned.
Once that was done, it was like Jenny Craig for a Figure Competitor. Just pull out the meal from the fridge that is for that day and eat it; no thought required.

Every meal I pretended like someone else did all the work to have such perfectly planned meals ready for me. It made eating the same salad for the 7th time bearable!
Today as I went to the food court with all of my coaching comrades, I was asked the best question yet about my eating habits from a very nice man.
Very Nice Man – “Do you have a medical problem or something?”
DL – “No, I am a Figure bodybuilder. I am very careful about what I eat, that’s all.” (I tried not to laugh out loud which resulted in some severe eye squinting.)
VNM – “Oh. My. Gosh. You don’t look like a bodybuilder…”
DL – “Uh, thank you?”
VNM – “I’ve been watching you for the last three courses and I just thought something was wrong with you…eating all those salads…”
DL – “Nothing wrong, just aiming for an audacious goal is all…”
VNM – “I see…” (but clearly he didn’t!)
Perhaps there is something wrong with me, but it sure isn’t a medical condition! One thing is for sure, I am a wee bit out of my mind…I think you have to be part of all this madness!
Who knew healthy food choices could lead people to think you have a medical condition! What’s next?
I think the VNM is clueless about FIGURE bodybuilding. Perhaps he would expect you to look like Arnold S. with a woman’s head attached? Maybe next time you need to strike a figure bodybuilding pose – or better yet challenge him to an arm wrestling match….
Totally. Jon also thought that I should strike a pose next time or apparently ‘show him the guns’. lol!! 😀
Flakey but rude! 🙂
Wow, really? That’s so rude. People just don’t think before they say things.
Love that! “Just aiming for a totally audacious goal.” Back in the day I might have said something flippant about HIM being the one who will likely have a medical condition based on what he’s eating. 😉 But, I think people are genuinely interested: you look great, you are a fount of happy/bubbliness and you aren’t marching to the same drum. Of course people want to know what’s up! I say, enjoy it and educate the masses. 🙂
Enjoy and educate. Love it. I am now implementing this plan.
Oh Donloree, this is like a page right out of my life. I recently went to a Christmas gathering that was serving appetizers. It was my scheduled ‘cheat’ meal so I had a couple (ok, six) appetizers. A co-worker commented that “it’s so nice to see you eating for once, you need to put on weight”. My immediate thought was that I probably consume more calories in a day than she does, but all of my weight training keeps the excess off. Instead, I just smiled and proceeded to enjoy my treats.
Six appetizers and you still got heckled! Oh boy!! You probably do eat way more calories than she does – hilarious!