In this conversation, Cheryl McColgan shares her journey of preparing for a NPC Fit Model bodybuilding competition at the age of 52. This episode is in vlog format and best viewed on YouTube although it's still being released as an audio podcast. She discusses her training regimen, nutritional strategies, and the mental challenges she faces throughout the process.

Cheryl emphasizes the importance of protein intake, understanding ketosis, and the role of supplements in her routine. She also reflects on her daily activities, meal preparations, and the significance of maintaining a healthy body fat percentage while training for the fit model competition.

Takeaways

Challenging oneself can lead to personal growth.

Nutrition plays a crucial role in competition prep.

Understanding individual carbohydrate needs is essential.

Daily routines can help manage energy levels during prep.

Supplementation can enhance performance and recovery.

Protein intake should be prioritized for muscle synthesis.

Meal prep can simplify tracking macros.

Finding enjoyable foods can make dieting easier.

Maintaining a healthy body fat percentage is important for women.

It's important to listen to your body during training.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWat2qgDcsE

Episode Transcript

New NPC Fit Model Division

Cheryl McColgan (00:00.504)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 wanna 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.

When I thought about this in the, 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 wanna 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.

to do it, but I've been training, eating, doing fat loss for last 10 weeks as if I am definitely going to do it. So 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

challenging myself and putting myself out of my comfort zone. So that's why I started it. anyway, so this is kind of just my day, how I've been training, how I've been eating, bio hacks that I do, supplements that I use, all that kind of good stuff that will all be here in the video.

Yeah, I don't normally do vlogs, so this is totally new format for me, but 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.

Cheryl McColgan (01:55.946)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 we 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

you're tracking and I…

this morning, so despite yesterday being an awful day, we did have progress, at least in the sense of what the goal is right now, is moving that body fat down. So now, I'm just going to make some coffee, do some fasting 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 when you're in a cow

deficit especially for this long it gets to be quite monotonous 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 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

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 of teas. You can see all the different ones. I just put it on custom to heat water. anyway, when it makes the tea, it heats it at the proper temperature. So if you have black tea is 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

Cheryl McColgan (03:57.072)I have my burger grinder and then I have the pour-over so that's what's coming next.

Cheryl McColgan (04:13.646)So ideally you'd be taking more creatine just before a workout and I do have a lift today but 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 this so I will take it after for some reason I don't have as much trouble remembering that but then I also put a little 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

because it is getting plenty of protein right now, so I'm not doing that at the moment.

Okay, before coffee, 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

Cheryl McColgan (05:49.44)eating 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

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.

meter and putting in the strip and breaking the feeder. I 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 ahead and get this in here. So it takes a countdown of 10 to get the number and like I said I had about

yesterday. I'm waking up fast 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. Anyway, this is just a point of data to share with you. And then I've also been using my lumen. I test a lot of these things for my job, obviously. So I have the lumen. I've been using it occasionally. I actually used it the last three mornings, again, just out of curiosity. And what this tool does is it allows you, if you are a person that wants to check on your metabolic health, but be more flexible with the amount

Cheryl McColgan (07:34.547)of carbs you have, 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 different macronutrients you should plan for the rest of the day, depending on your goals. And so I've used that the last three 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 it'd be…

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 thought ruined it and you'd have the keto police to come after you. It was 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, I came outside to enjoy my coffee before I go for my walk. It is 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.

Cheryl McColgan (08:51.633)workout outfit ever.