INBA All Female Classic 2009

Casey, Figure Novice - Stunning looks and a very impressive set of shoulders
Miss Selina - part of the "S" team , Figure Intermediate, 3rd

Miss Shannon, other half of the "S" team looking fab in pink...
Now that's a winning back! Shan, Figure Intermediate 1st. Red wine makes a good back even better!


Wow, what a weekend! There was so much going on I almost don't know where to begin, but I'll start with the purpose of my visit to Melbourne - to support the three girls I prepped for the INBA All Female Classic.

The weekend started on Friday when I met Shannon and her hubby Lins at the airport for our 11am flight down to Melbourne - was a pretty uneventful flight and I enjoyed my Virgin Chicken Caesar Wrap (I have this on every Virgin flight I take..yes, I know I'm weird, I like aircraft food) on the way down. We checked into our hotel, which was located in Chinatown, and then went in search of food and a place for Shannon to get her nails done. Once we had sorted Lins out with a steak, it was time to go home for another coat of Contest Colour and meal of sweet potato, veggies and chicken for Shannon.

Then it was time to polish up the routine. Shannon and I are very similar in that we are pretty laid back and often leave such details until the last minute.

So we started and Shannon said:
"I was thinking of this.. I'm not sure, " to which I then jumped off the couch faster than Tom Cruise and said:
"we need to walk in 2-3-4 and side chest 6-7-8 and then left hand, right hand, front double bicep and then TRICEP!!!! (Did you hear I said tricep!)."

Before we knew it, we'd put together a spiffy little routine interspersed with some Indian takeaway that had a less than positive effect on my bowels, but nevermind. Practised in our PJs, the only way to do a routine! Made up my mind to tell Jo Rogers I was a serious threat to her routine business..not!

Off to bed then and on Saturday morning we parted company and Shannon went off to meet Selina and get her hair done and I went off to Fitness First in Richmond for the 7.15am High Performance RPM where I caned my workout and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Then I had breakfast at a French Boulangerie (I don't muck around when I go away lol!) and jumped on a tram to St Kilda, eventually finding my way to the venue around 11am where I met the beautiful Casey and stunning Selina.

Casey and I have been training together online since January, met up in Sydney in April and I couldn't believe the transformation between then and Saturday. Fan- bloody-tastic! Casey won the "Best Routine" in her division, in my opinion it was one of the best routines of the night. Met her partner Lee for the first time as well, what a great bloke. Case, well done! Very proud of you!

Selina and Shannon both stepped on stage for Intermediate Figure. This was fantastic as both girls had so much fun together on stage! I was trying my best to be fair in my cheering "go Selina, go Shannon!" when I realized it was much easier to yell, "go Team S!!!!! go the sistas!" Both girls looked amazing - Selina's abs were sensational and Shannon's back was, in Lins' words, "BOOM!!!!"

Preliminaries over, we headed to Malvern with Kate and Linda (Mighty Mouse). I really enjoyed spending time with both of these girls - I cannot believe that Miss Mouse only had her daughter a year ago (I was about 35kg heavier post preg, so I was suitably impressed) and we had a great chat over scrambled eggs on toast and a hot chocolate to boot! Kate was fantastic as I asked her to watch my bag, hold my Dream Tan etc etc (sorry I was such a bossy boots Kate!). I even got to slap up Linda for the evening show! At my side during the whole backstage slapping, lolly dispensing pre stage prepping was Kerryn who kindly let little Miss Doubting THomas Liz try her Banana Paleo Pancake. OMG, sensational, is all I can say - guess who is now churning these little rippers out like the clappers? lol.

The evening show was great fun with all of my girls winning or placing in something (Case, best routine; Selina 3rd and Shannon 1st) - I must say I left with a rather swollen ego on Saturday night - went home and cleaned up and then we all headed to Lygon Street for Pizza and Koko Black (as you do after a show!) . What a great evening I had with everyone!

Big sleep and pancakes with Lins and Shannon on Sunday morning in a little "alley" cafe and then we headed off to Bridge Road for a spot of shopping (both Shannon and I scored a top and jacket each...yahoo) and then it was back into the CBD to catch up with Kerryn and Selina for lunch (as well as Shannon's sister, Kelly and her boyfriend, Ross). I bought a fantastic pair of boots from Nine West.

It was all over too soon - off to the airport and back home (but not before I bought two handbags from the airport in Melbourne..Shannon and Shelley have corrupted me - I am going to buy one of Shelley's bags for sure...now I just have to go out every five minutes.)

There's so much to say - so nice to catch up with everyone (Magda, Lia, Rae, Jeh, Friday, LJ, Kerry, Sara, Jo....just to name a few)

Flying High

Off to Melbourne shortly to help Shannon, Selina and Casey at the All Female Classic!

I'll be sure to update with some photos and post when I can.

See you soon!

Hey Hey Hey! Team FHMF are in da house!

By now a few of you may have seen team FHMF being posted on various blogs and wondered what the heck we're all banging on about. After our weekend at the All Females; Shelley, Shannon, Katie and I are committed to becoming fu*kin' huge and packing on the muscle. My goal is to be able to crack macadamia nuts with my glute cheeks. Or am I the one who's nuts :)

Gosh, I had such a fantastic weekend I don't know where to begin. Shannon picked Shelley and I up from her place on Friday and armed with a couple of huge salads we hopped on our flight to Melbourne where we met up with Katie, who had arrived from Sydney at the airport. We cabbed it to our accommodation at the Milano Apartments which had a rather interesting water feature in the foyer. Then we cased out the joint and decided to head off to Lygon Street for dinner. We had a fantastic banquet dinner at the Balti Indian Restaurant and then headed over to Koko Black for post dinner chocolate. I felt like I was going to explode at this point, so I opted to just buy some chocolate to take home.

Tossed and turned a bit after I went to bed - I must have been dreaming of RPM 38, Track 5 as I apparently woke up and said "hey! hey! hey!". We went to RPM Hi Performance at the Fitness First at South Yarra and did a bit of training beforehand. It was there we met up with Lisa S and Wendy and I had the pleasure of meeting Kerryn for the first time. It didn't feel at all like a first time meeting as after about 5 minutes of meeting I was pushing her to pump out some chin ups at the gym and generally being a big bad boss. Shannon hit the pull ups hard and I feared I had given poor Katie a massive headache. But she pulled out a stunning effort in RPM and I had Shelley next to me encouraging me all the way. We had a great instructor and I left feeling very accomplished and starving (this is par for the course for me).

Had an awesome breakfast courtesy of the cereal aisle of Aldi and headed over to the show venue where I got to head out backstage and meet Erica for the first time. Glued her in and helped her to pump up whilst the official barked out that Figure Novice were about to go ON.
Erica looked great and had a lovely big smile and I thought she'd done a great job on her back.

Saw all of the other competitors, Rae, looking thicker through the back than I remember and Shar, who looked stunning in green and really nice symmetry. Then there was Hilde who was the most stunnng sportsmodel I've seen - I don't know what the judging criteria for sportsmodel is but I thought Hilds should have been the winner - she looked curvy, lean and athletic all at once. I think Di and Ursula had the toughest line ups of them all in Open class - Di came in the best I have ever seen her (with a nice set of RPM legs I might add) and Ursula was breathtaking (I want to have as much muscle as her after I get heeewge).

I got to meet Magda, Kerry, Cheryl, Irene, Lindy (who I've already met but don't want to leave out), Lia, Rae, Shar, Di, Combatgirl, Jadey, Wendy and Charlotte at the show and some of us went around the corner and had a great lunch at a cafe in Caulfield. We had a look around Chapel STreet whilst waiting for the evening show to start and had a great time watching all the routines and posedowns. A highlight of the evening was Shelley winning one of two lucky door prizes - a $300 pair of sunnies.

We had a late dinner at a Thai restaurant on Lygon Street and I realized that with much pride that everyone at the table was actually a client of mine - I haven't really thought about it much, but the decision to focus on coaching has been very rewarding for me - I am lucky to have the privilege of being able to learn from my clients as well as helping them.

Rolled into bed after midnight and I think I was too tired to do the hey hey routine. Had breakfast and checked out of the hotel. The four of us went to Bridge Street and had a great shop - I hadn't planned on buying anything but with the help of my personal stylists Miss Shannon, Shelley and Katie, I was soon stylin' with a pair of new boots and two jackets. Then it was lunch at this great Vietmanese place where we ate buckets of veggies and talked and laughed some more. In fact I haven't laughed this much for a long, long, time.

Sadly it was off to the airport to say goodbye to Melbourne - Katie headed off first but not without a little massage first and then as I didn't want the shopping to end, picked up two handbags and a scarf from a store at the International airport.

Got home late but very happy. I think I've developed jaw DOMS from talking so much and a taste for the Melbourne cold - I have been roasting here in Brisso today.

I got a lot out of the weekend too - I feel so lucky to have become involved in such a great circle of friends through my blogging, I feel like I've known you all for years. I felt a quiet glow of pride that hopefully we've all started a quiet revolution in the bodybuilding world with our commitment to eating well and maintaining a sense of balance and I simply had a great time being more of a girly girl.

Making the commitment to my team to keep training and to do what I can in the light of my injuries and rehab, am committed to carving out time in my schedule for me to train hard and eat well also.