Where to from here

Whew, back in Woop Woop and don't know where to begin.

Back to the competition - I had a great day and lots of fun catching up with everyone. As I mentioned in my previous post, I came 4th out of the 4 participants in my class. I think it was pretty tight as the judge said after our muscularity and symmetry rounds that he felt sorry for whoever was going to come fourth, it was that close. I think I probably lost points for my routine, but won't know for sure until the score breakdown gets sent out. I achieved my main goal of really improving my back and shoulders from the last comp, so I am happy. The head judge even came up to me afterwards and told me that I had made huge improvements since April and not to give up competing which was very nice of him.

The ladies in my class were really terrific. It turned out that we were all mothers and it was fun trading stretch mark and "Mum" stories backstage - the atmosphere between the four of us couldn't be better and we all had a big laugh when I said "you all got these nice trophies and I got this lousy muffin and a bottle of water!".

It was great to see Deb, Alicia and Maraina compete. Everyone looked really terrific and did anyone tell you Maraina can dance up a storm without her routine music. I also got to meet Hilary (who is as lovely in real life as she is in her blog) and Andj (who I know well from Fitness First). I was the one yelling for you all!

The next day I met Jadey who took some wonderful photos of me in my Lorna Jane gear. Jadey is an absolute stunner and we hit it off from the moment we met. Jadey has a really relaxed way about her and I felt like I had known her for years. I was a bit nervous about having photos taken, but Jadey put me at ease. The above photo was taken with my very basic digital camera, so I cannot wait to see the photos from Jadey's camera.

Then it was back home to Woop Woop, which has been very flat to say the least. I've done a couple of workouts at home, but am worried that the intensity will not be high enough to produce a great result in Melbourne, to the point where I have been considering pulling out as my eating hasn't been exactly stellar either. I am probably going to have to go back to the gym to workout (and pay membership dues for a month) but seriously doubt I will be able to formalize an agreement that we will both be happy with. I also have the option of working with the local physio (who is lovely) and taking Workcover clients - she wants me to rehab two ACL people already.

I've decided that I'm going to give Melbourne my best shot, but given all of the drama with where we are living etc, may not compete at all next year and just focus on living a leanness lifestyle.