All about the husband (for Kristy)

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Training and Updates

This is probably going to be another long post so bear with me.

Firstly - training yesterday - absolutely caned the treadmill with some "four stage treadmill intervals with incline changes". Many of my clients will know exactly what I'm talking about! I like to "roadtest" all of my cardio before I prescribe it. I did 6 x 5 minute intervals + 10 minutes of warming up and cooling down on either side. Then I hammered the elliptical for 15 minutes.
In there I also managed to throw in my lower body training - front squats, Bulgarians (these are my most detested exercise) and Romanian Deadlifts. I am quite the DOMS princess this morning.

Today I am teaching "Core" at Fitness First and training my upper body. Cardio, if any, will be pretty light as I want to be ready to go at full throttle when I teach RPM Hi Performance on Saturday morning.

Now onto the grittier stuff. I wanted to say how grateful I am to everyone's support about my belly issues. I don't know if I have ever mentioned it, but that is the reason I decided to compete - I wanted to see how far I could take my belly without surgery. Yes, the belly doesn't look as bad in some respects but as I got leaner and did my ab and thigh pose the diastasis actually became more prominent - as well as sporting a relatively nice six pack, I also sported a nice raised ridge along the midline of my abdominals, kind of like a Rhodesian Ridgeback and for some odd reason the diastasis has gotten worse, not better, despite lots of core work and clinical pilates. I also chose to compete because I wanted to prove to myself after being overweight that I had it in me to actually reach such levels of leanness. Then I did it another two times just to prove to myself that I wasn't a "flash in the pan".

What has been stopping me from having surgery is that I am scared of the potential side effects and scared that I would not be able to return to doing workouts just like the one I described above. Yet, I also know that I'm not at my best either. My pelvic instability makes progression slow. However I haven't got enough evidence to suggest yet that the pelvic instability could improve with repair. So I feel a bit of damned if I do, damned if I don't right now.

As far as competition aspirations go, I know that I am more than capable of competing in a Figure Comp, surgery or not - it is obvious I would place far higher without the belly issue, but placing has never been a concern for me when I've competed. I also know that my true talent where bodybuilding/figure is concerned lies in the coaching area.

I would be left with a pretty big scar but my reasons for surgery have nothing to do with competing. I could care less about what some Figure judge thinks of me. I just care about what I think of me. Apart from this belly, I'm pretty happy with my physical appearance and who I am :)

I think this one is going to take some time to figure out.

Congratulations Lisa!

She's worked her tail off this year and made some stunning improvements so lets say....



Congratulations to Lisa on her achievements in the Commonwealth Powerlifting Titles in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Silver Medallist overall 56kg Division!

Gold- bench press!
Silver- squat!
Bronze-deadlift!

please feel free to visit www.power-preparation.blogspot.com to give Lisa your congratulations!

At a crossroads

Late last year I wrote a post mentioning that I was interested in abdominal repair surgery. I spoke to my GP who suggested leaving it a year and then deciding whether or not to go ahead with it. She thought that I would be a perfect candidate for it.

I've been considering it (a full tummy tuck) for two reasons:
a) I have a big diastasis (separation) which is affecting my pelvic stability. I broached the subject with my new physio today who was amazed by how much I can do physically with such a big separation. I have done five years of pilates and rehab work and whilst I have improved my pelvic stability greatly, I'm at the end of the road as far as repairing my diastasis is concerned. My physio thinks that repairing the abdominals will help my stability.

b) Secondly, I'm very self conscious about my stomach - after having a 10.5lb baby, when I perform an abdominal plank, a large amount of loose skin hangs down, rather like a pregnant daschund. People ask me all the time "when the next one is due". Unless I'm close to competition weight/leanness I get this all the time. It's something that has bothered me for years.

c) As this is classified as repair surgery, Medicare will cover a fair amount of the cost.

What's stopping me from doing it is the potential recovery time. I couldn't imagine not teaching RPM for 4 months - from what I've read, as the procedure is major surgery and I've been trying to locate others in the same position.

It's either that or compete again.

I really don't know what to do.

Experiments with my new blender

I have been lucky enough to score myself a new blender (Breville IKON) thanks my credit card rewards points (see not all credit cards are the work of the Devil!) and today I took it for my first test run with a variation of a Precision Nutrition Super Shake.

Here's what I had for breakfast this morning:

1 cup skim milk

1 scoop Ladybird Whey

1 banana (medium sized)

1-2 cups ice cubes

1 tsp peanut butter

I whizzed all of this together and had a beautiful banana smoothie - it made nearly 800ml of smoothie so I had no excuse to be hungry...yum.

I had Thai Satay burgers wrapped in Mountain Bread with salad for lunch

chicken mince tray 500g

1 large onion

3 slices Wonder White hi fibre bread

2 serves Taylors Thai Satay

1 egg.

Makes 8 burgers.

Then it was the old family favourite, meatloaf -with a twist. I did a semidried tomato and mustard crust for the top. This adds a lot of taste and few calories. That really helped me feel like I was eating "grown up" food. I served this with baby potatoes and steamed veggies.

My snacks today included some Easiyo yoghurt mixed with apple puree, rice cakes with spreadable tuna, cottage cheese and vegetables and a couple of juicy nectarines. I've just finished my day with a Diet Fruche (passionfruit flavoured).

People ask me from time to time what I eat - it varies every day - I think it really helps to make the effort to eat different food. That way your palate never gets bored!

Training today: Teach RPM and run easy 10 minutes (had a bit of a warm up pre RPM)

I am so sore!

I cannot believe how sore I am today - I had a deadlift focused day yesterday and I am sore through my legs (hello glutes!) upper back and shoulders. This morning, I taught Hi Performance RPM, which is RPM with two extra working tracks added in. I certainly knew about it when I got to the end of it.

I've spent the better part of the day doing the ironing and taking the girls to the local pool for a swim. Eating hasn't been all that stellar today - I can attribute part of this to feeling exhausted, sore and extremely fatigued. The key is trying to make the next meal a good one and getting back on track. I've been inspired by a few recipe sites lately, so that is my next project - different food :)

I included the puppy pic as I think that once we've built we are going to add a canine to the family.

An addendum

I must admit, I like to use the elliptical machine and I don't mind a bit of long distance running either. Just wanted to highlight that strong women are beautiful women.

What did I learn today?

Today was Bodystep day and my first shot at teaching Tracks 7-12 - Tracks 7, 8, 9 were taught well but 10 and 11 were a total nightmare and I found myself leaving class today feeling really disappointed in myself.

I know I've said it before but doing a "stinker" class sometimes makes the next ones so much better because you stop, really go over your choreo/teaching techniques and try to learn from your mistakes.

That (and other reasons which I can't blog about) put me under a bit of a cloud today and it got me thinking about how important it is to be "emotionally fit". A dear email buddy from the US who I "met" before our two youngest kids were born and I have been having some great email dialogue about it. She's really been working hard at this aspect of herself and her last email really inspired me to focus on this area as well at the moment - I know I need to! Being emotionally "unfit" can open the door to being nutritionally "unfit" and physically "unfit". It is as if the emotional fitness part is the bit of string that hangs out of a woollen ball waiting for life to pounce - pull the string hard enough and the whole thing unravels.

I just thought I would share this fantastic post from John Gilson of http://www.againfaster.com/ about fit beautiful women.

I were feeling a little more lawless, I’d gather all the copies of Cosmo and Seventeen, douse them in kerosene, and strike a match. I’d throw in reams of print ads from Calvin Klein and watch with delight as Kate Moss’ stick-thin image was reduced to carbon. I’d add copies of Shape and Runner’s World until the flames reached toward the heavens, and then I’d crank call the editorial desk at Muscle and Fitness until they stopped publishing pictures of women on steroids.I’d get the master tapes of America’s Next Top Model and dub over them with “Nasty Girls”, broadcasting the results on every television station in America. I’d skywrite “CrossFit.com” across the Boston skyline, and gently admonish the hoards of long distance runners trotting along the Charles River—with a bullhorn.I’d take every woman with mass media-induced ideals of beauty, and I’d show them what it really means to be beautiful. Beautiful women are strong and powerful. They are athletes, capable of every feat under the sun. They have muscles, borne of hard work and sweat. They gauge their self-worth through accomplishments, not by the numbers on the bathroom scale. They understand that muscle weighs more than fat, and they love the fact that designer jeans don’t fit over their well-developed quads. They know that high repetitions using light weights is a path to mediocrity, and “toning” is a complete and utter myth. They refuse to succumb to the marketers that prey on insecurity, leaving the pre-packaged diet dinners and fat-burning pills on the shelf to pass their expiration date.Beautiful women train with intensity. The derive self-image from the quality of their work and their ability to excel. They don’t wear makeup to the gym, and they wouldn’t be caught dead with a vinyl pink dumbbell. They move iron, they do pull-ups, they jump, sprint, punch, and kick, and they use the elliptical machine—as a place to hang their jump rope. They spend their weekends in sport, climbing walls, winning races, and running rivers. They laugh as they sprint circles around the unschooled, turning the image-obsessed into benchwarmers. Beautiful women don’t care if they’re soaked in sweat and covered in dirt, if their nails are chipped or their hair out of place. They care only about quality of life. Beautiful women are happy, healthy, and strong, and they’re right there beside me, tossing conventional beauty on the ever-growing flames of what used to be.
Be beautiful.

THank you John

Buffet anxiety

It's another post about life and learning today - I was wondering if anyone had ever experienced what I am going to call "buffet anxiety"? As part of our holiday we were fortunate enough to stay at a 5 star hotel, thanks to DH's conference and part of the stay included buffet meals at breakfast and dinner.

"Buffet anxiety" is what I call being totally overwhelmed at the choices of food available, coupled with stress of how you feel if you overdo the eating, mixed in with the sensation of "entitlement" - ie there are 10 types of dessert here, it's imperative I try them all....

I started the week feeling rather anxious about what foods lay ahead of me in all their glory. Being full of PMS didn't help my cause either but then I decided to stop and analyze the situation. There was no way I would know *exactly* what I was eating, so being anxious about what the meals comprised of was not worth my worry. Rather it was time to bring in the more intuitive side of my eating - I told myself that "I could have it if I really wanted it, but did I really want it?" I really listened to my body. Surprisingly it didn't take long to feel satisfied at all, though I had a few hits and misses along the way - some dishes I had taken a mouthful of and had decided that they weren't the taste sensation I was seeking . I was perplexed for quite a while to be hankering for fresh Vietnamese Pho Soup rather than dessert. I had tried a dessert or two and had been underwhelmed. I was worried that DH would think I was crazy to be craving Pho instead of smoked salmon but by the end of the week I had embraced my inner "Pho" princess and left feeling inspired to grow more coriander etc.

Training wise I did a rather sharp 40 minute run and trained my upper body Mike style. Mike refers to the actual strength training as "iron work"- he's not wrong - I upped all of my weights today and actually face pulled the entire cable stack, yea me :)

Catching Up

I have been missing, but I haven't been in action - rather I have been having a holiday with hubs and the girls on the Gold Coast, specifically the Surfers Paradise Marriott Resort. Hubs had to attend a conference there for Thursday and Friday for his work and we decided to tack on a few extra days and have a family holiday.

I got to have a few great workouts on the beach - to me exercise is as natural as brushing my teeth, so I partook in some runs along the beachfront, finishing with a few strength moves in the hotel gym. The only day I didn't do something was Saturday - which was a good thing as we had Les Mills launches yesterday.

It was definitely back into the swing of things today - taught RPM this morning and have been slowly moving through a mountain of paperwork. The coaching journey is as interesting as the competition journey and I'm learning to develop a thick skin. Today I was set upon by another trainer because his client decided to end their training relationship and come and work with me.

I must say that I was surprised by the vitriol and found myself getting rather upset, even though on reflection I had really done nothing wrong by this person. It is no secret that clients change trainers quite frequently until they find the right "fit". This doesn't bother me and if someone ends up working with someone else and the "fit" is better, well I am geniunely happy for them. This is when I am surprised that others think so differently to me sometimes and it throws me off guard as I would have originally thought that most would agree with me.

Lessons and thoughts from today:

a) Everyone has their own way of thinking, saying, doing

b) You don't like everyone, so why should everyone like you?

c) Celebrate diversity and celebrate other's successes, even if they're not your own. After all we are all reaching for the same goal to become a little bit better every day.

d) Sometimes the only thing you can do is "breathe and reboot' (thank you Lisa - I love this quote).

Back tomorrow with the strength training report~

on men, female only gyms etc

Many posts about men made by women are made out of frustration but today's post is one of gratitude to all the men in the gym that help me reach my training goals. Mike's program currently involves working in the 6 rep range and under and this means starting to lift some very heavy weights. Often I ask a guy who is training at the same time to spot me. All of the guys I have approached to help out have been nothing but courteous and supportive of me in my desire to improve my strength. On the other hand I cannot count on one hand (except for Anne) the females that have spotted me in the gym and have been happy to do so.

Having men in my RPM classes have added another dimension to my training as well. Sometimes I have more men than ladies in my RPM classes and their work ethic is amazing. This was the case with a recent CBD class I taught - once the lights were dimmed it seemed as if we forgot about our differences and focused on the task ahead.

Over the years I have noticed a number of different women's only gyms opening up and whilst I believes it makes the gym accessible to those who are perhaps rather self conscious, I don't think they're really a good idea. Even when I was overweight, the men in the training room were a vocal and steady support throughout my journey - it was "go for it" and "good on you" the whole way. In a female only gym you lose 50% of your potential support base!

I think we women sometimes create our own insecurites. The men in my life are rather uncomplicated. They don't worry about whether you look fat or whether you're good enough -they just want to go to RPM and have a good time. You trained hard? Awesome! You like sport - even better :) - I've had my best Australian Open conversations with my male training buddies.

My two cents worth to any potential gym goer is to embrace what men can offer you when you are training hard - you may just reach your goals that much faster!

To sum up then, today's post is a thank you to all the men I know and don't know who support me in my quest to be the best I can be. Thanks guys :)

Muscles..and best of luck Lissa!

Firstly best of luck to Alissa Carpio who is competing in the National NPC Fitness Championships this year in Dallas. Alissa narrowly missed out on a ProCard last time she did Nationals, may 2007 be her lucky year!

Back to me: today was taken as a "mental health" day and I decided to go dress shopping. Mind you I wasn't after anything glamorous, I was after something a bit more sporty to take me from the gym to the supermarket. Every dress I tried on seemed to accentuate my muscles in a less than flattering light - however when I got to Lorna Jane, I found a nice casual dress and realized that I have gained some muscle over these past few months. I definitely have cyclists quads going on there and I was surprised by how thick my upper body is looking.

I am in the process of taking a little bit of action and reducing my weight by a couple of kilos. I think then I will be able to better assess what my muscles are truly doing.

5 Random Factoids about myself~

I was tagged by Leslie for this one. The key to add five random facts about yourself people may not know about. Here goes....

1) I am a really messy disorganized person - I will stay on top of what needs staying on top but the rest of my life (and the house!) is a disaster zone. I am married to a neat freak and I drive the poor man nuts as I lurch from one disaster to another.

2) I don't have a full set of adult teeth. I still have my baby molars in the bottom jaw - I'll have to get a bridge put in when they fall out. They've been going strong for 38 years so hope I keep them awhile longer.

3) I have dreams where I see a plane crashing. These happen to me quite often and I often find myself looking in the skies for possible imminent plane disasters. I know they're only dreams but they sometimes bother me.

4) Even though I am in the science area, my best subject at school was English and I got the top mark in my Senior year.

5) I am one of five kids - the eldest and get on well with my parents.

I tag Livy, Rene, Kerryn, Michelle S and Michelle M

Tag-a-Rama

I've been tagged TWICE, well three times actually by Rene, Livy and Leslie.

First the FOURS.

FOUR DISHES I LIKE TO COOK:

1) Veal proscuitto wraps cooked in Italian tomato puree served with sweet potato mash and steamed greens.

This is always popular with our guests.

2) Gourmet Pizzas - from scratch, dough and all!

3) Mango Chicken Salad with Asian Flavours -this has become a Christmas institution.

4) Donna Hay's Choc Chunk Cookies, yum!

FOUR QUALITIES I LOVE IN PEOPLE!

Honesty

Integrity

Compassion

Enthuisiasm /joie de vivre

FOUR PLACES I HAVE BEEN

Vancouver, Canada - lived there for a year and worked as a personal trainer for the very rich and sometimes famous, but mostly rich. My favourite client was a lady named Penny Perfect - we used to laugh about her name, she was pretty much perfect in every way.

Seattle, USA - DH and I went on an unforgettable salmon bender whilst travelling there - bought two salmon steaks EACH for dinner as well as seafood entrees.

Hong Kong, China. Loved the culture, loved the contrasts, loved the pace.

Whitsunday Islands - I went bareboating for 2 weeks and did a lot of snorkelling, fantastic.

FOUR THINGS IN MY BEDROOM

Reading lamp and books - on my table is a copy of "Julia and Julia", the latest Oxygen US magazine and my Precision Nutrition folder.

The ironing board: I never get enough ironing done to put it away completely and it accumulates all sorts of things.

My ear plugs: DH is a snorer.

Workout clothes laid out for an am workout.

FOUR DIRTY WORDS I LIKE TO USE:

Brothel (as in "the place is so filthy it looks like a brothel)

Crap!

eeewwww (though that's not a word)

I can't think of any more.

Have I burst your bubble yet?

Monday - what an original post name

Pretty busy Monday here - taught RPM, had a little run on the treadmill and just about to do my golf ball exercises.

I've eaten well, worked hard and I'm going to bed happy :)

Eating Out

Weekend nearly over and I'm just about to roll into another very busy week ahead. I don't think I have mentioned that DH and I are going to build a house! We bought some land about two years ago which has a view of the city (albeit - it is far away, but still!) and now that we are back in Brisvegas, we've decided the time is right to build.

We have spoken to various designers and the last few weekends have been spent trawling through display villages. We have two homes picked out that may fit the bill, but as our block has a slope, some of these project builders may not be too keen to work with us.

Today we looked at homes from Metricon and Adenbrook and by about house 4, I had already had enough! We decided to go out for lunch and we went to the "Coffee Club". I ordered a Chicken Tandoori Wrap with salad and when my meal came out, I reckon it could have served two for lunch quite easily. As someone who has been brought up to clean my plate, it was initially difficult to immediately request a doggy bag for half of it - but once I had eaten all of the salad and half of the wrap, I was glad I had made the decision.

Which leads me to the issue of how our eyes are bigger than our stomachs and is it part of the human condition that we're lulled into thinking "more is better" and "better get a Value meal" etc. However if we stop for one moment and think - "am I pleasantly satisfied?" half way through a meal, especially like the one I described, the answer will be "yes". I think the "clean plate brigade" have a lot to answer for - I don't know how many times I have cleaned my plate, just because the food was "there", but I'm slowly becoming more discriminating!

Exercise wise, it was double-RPM this weekend, Hi Performance on Saturday morning and my regular Sunday afternoon class. I particularly enjoyed Hi Performance and went in feeling a bit nervous about what expectations members have of a one hour sweatfest - some really want to smash themselves and others are apprehensive - so I really went to town on workload versus recovery - which worked really well.

Today's class was also fun and I got to hang out with a friend who has done her RPM course too. We got a chance to practice our new choreography and I swear that girl is a demon on Track 3~ ouch and double ouch!

Cheered and where to from here?

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been having trouble with my left knee and as I was not 100% convinced by Monday's physio explanation, I decided to seek out a second opinion at the University of Queensland Sports Medicine Clinic. I am so glad I did as the physio that I saw was fantastic. I do have popliteal and VMO issues but I'm lucky that I've caught this one early - the root cause of this problem is my wonky pelvis. I can still continue on with my normal training load and I have been given more pelvis homework. I am feeling so much better now about resolving this issue - what a relief.

Sam asked me about what my own plans were for the future. As you know, I have been doing some online work with Mike Robertson (www.robertsontrainingsystems.com )and I have been really happy with the programs I've been given. There are obviously limitations in working with somebody on line - how can they check technique etc, but since I've been doing Mike's program, a lot of my lifting has improved out of sight. My squat and deadlift technique is much improved and I've learnt a lot from Mike's perspective. In the upper body department I've been lifting a few PBs too.

The online business has been really busy and I have quite a few people to prepare for competitions next year and ensuring that their preparations are hassle free is my top priority. I could almost now get away with just training athletes, but I like a variety of people to keep me on my toes. That said, I'd like to don the bikini and the heels again in 2008 - however this depends on how I balance my own training, my clients, my hubby and children and life in general. All of these goings on however are no excuse to drop the ball nutrition wise or training wise - I try and live what I believe every day.

I am loving my classes at Fitness First - I have picked up a Bootcamp style class (Xtrain) on Wednesday mornings and now have a weekly RPM HiPerformance class to teach as well. I taught CORE today and really enjoyed it. It is such a change of pace from RPM and Step and I've really improved with the exercises as well.

The Lindor ball experiment unfortunately didn't last for long - it was not of my doing however. Poor Hubby, who is a chocolate fanatic, couldn't help himself and scoffed them in one sitting when I wasn't looking! He owes me a box of Lindor balls :)
Well that's about it from me for today. I have to feed Miss G - she tells me she's hungry :) (not unusual in our household!)

Coming Up for Air

Wow, it feels like forever since I was able to catch up but I've been on the run pretty much since Friday, with the Les Mills Quarterlies, a pharmacy locum on Saturday, Sunday RPM and my current coaching commitments.

In the middle of this, I have done something odd to my knee - something is rubbing against my meniscus as I internally rotate my tibia (this means that when I squat deep my knee is clicking as my tibia is rotating). I visited the physio, who didn't know quite what was going on, but when he palpated my popliteal muscle and hamstring tendon, I nearly went through the roof. I then had the most excruciating trigger point therapy...ouch.

A new program from Mike also landed on my desk today. Progression from my original plan which is nice. My deadlift technique is definitely improving, though I'm finding single RDLs hard going.

Teaching RPM tomorrow and really looking forward to it :)

Gene Elite results

A few months I posted about how I have started offering Genetic Profiling for clients and I recently decided to take up the genetic challenge and find out more about my gene pool - the good and the bad.

The GeneElite test looks at 16 different genes and their positive or negative variations. For athletic and fitness purposes they are divided into four groups - Bodyfat metabolism, Lean Body Mass Development, Recovery and Nutrition (how well your liver processes and removes toxic elements).

I scored poorly for Bodyfat Metabolism and "average" for Lean Body Mass Development - specifically my negative variation have to do with cardiovascular risk rather than muscle development. My recovery is good and my liver works better than most ("excellent" for toxin removal).

The downside of being me - without attention to proper nutrition and training, I am a "heart attack waiting to happen". Coupled with my poor body fat metabolism I have a very high potential to develop Type 2 diabetes if I am not careful. I have to be more careful with keeping my weight down than most of the population. Whilst I felt disappointed in such results, I'm not surprised - I have PCOS, everyone who has passed away in my family has had cardiovascular issues. I need to maintain my cardiovascular fitness to help my heart health, I need to be particular with my nutrition. However, cardio as a tool for fat loss is not effective for me. Greatest fat loss for me comes from heavy lifting, according to my profile.

On the positive side - I recover particularly well from training, which means I can tolerate high exercise load without too much trouble. I also have an excellent liver which removes all sorts of junk. In my own experience I know I respond to good nutrition and healthy eating.

To sum up, I'm going to look into having some bloodwork done and check out what's going on with my heart health. I will supplement with folate and B Vitamins (this is specific to my gene variation). I will continue to maintain a healthy lifestyle - for example - whilst eating food with trans fats is not recommended, in my case eating food high in trans fats eg Nutella, is akin to poisoning myself ) and I will continue to keep working at keeping my weight stable.

This post isn't really intended to sell this product, rather share my experience of how I feel about finding out about my genetic makeup but if anyone wants to know more, they can contact me through my site.

I must say that given my poor fat metabolism, I've done a pretty good job of prepping for competition ;)

If I thought 2007 was a big one, look out 2008!

I cannot believe the amazing year I have had with starting my coaching business, teaching classes and moving back to Brisbane.

My general coaching and Figure Prep books are full and I'm really looking forward to what 2008 will bring. I must say that I am enjoying this aspect of things immensely. There is nothing better than to see people "bloom" as they progress with their training and nutrition. No two trainees are the same which means there is no set formula I use with people. It may sound hokey, but getting fit can be a life changing experience. I see the same thing in my classes - I have met such great people through teaching classes at Fitness First - I can see myself teaching classes for many years to come.

There are some other big plans in the works which I'm not quite ready to talk about (and no that doesn't include having more kids so rest easy).

I taught two classes today - RPM and Bodystep. I am definitely feeling a little cardioed out. I had to have a Lindor ball to bring me back into balance :)

Busy busy and the "off season" look

Here's a great pic of Alicia who is almost at the peak of her "off season" training. I'm particularly proud of Miss Alicia because she has totally turned her whole training and eating regime around in the past few months ... and as you can see from the pic, she is living lean and loving life as well as putting on a good whack of muscle - this is evident by the fact that she can do many many unassisted pull ups! Doesn't she look awesome?

I managed to put in a fairly decent week training wise and was absolutely thrilled to hit a PB on my dumbell press yesterday. I gave the girls a good thrashing in RPM yesterday.

Today, though, the traffic was so bad that I missed half of my class, my fantastic GFC stepped in and taught the first half - though my legs certainly weren't happy about starting at Track 5.

It will be a busy week with 6 classes to teach and 4 strength training sessions to complete. I am now looking for more progression from Mike which will be interesting. But first it is off to prep for Bodystep tomorrow at Toowong.

"befores", on post comp nutrition

I have finally managed to work out how to get Shannon's before pic up so you can see where we started from in April 2007. There is quite a difference there, don't you think?

Shannon and I have been working on post comp nutrition and have been focusing on gradually gaining weight in a healthy way. In our photo shoot, she is a kilo heavier than she was at the comp 10 days prior. Being around to support Shannon post competition is extremely important to me as many athletes, myself included often experience "post competition let down" as the goal you have worked so hard to move towards has been achieved and moved past. Celebrating the achievement, working through the natural lull that occurs afterwards and resetting the focus is another journey in itself!

Despite being saddled with really horrible TOM - I don't know why some months are worse than others but the old Nurofen are being treated like Smarties here - I did Lene's RPM class and then taught "Core". Brutal is the only word I can use to describe Lene's class - Track 6 was 3 x 90second repeats at close to 100% - I was cussing at him under my breath today.

Looking forward to hopefully seeing Anne and training lower body tomorrow morning.

Trying on a different hat!

Yesterday Shannon and I did our own "photo shoot" at Fitness First, Indooroopilly. We had been searching around for a good photographer to take some shots (unfortunately Jadey has been booked solid). Then we came up with the brilliant idea of doing them ourselves - so we got down and dirty to "Fergalicious" (what's a photo shoot without pumping music, right :) ).

I have to say that as a rank amateur, I'm thrilled with these pictures! I tried to remember my own photo shoot with Jadey and tried to work with the different textures and colours in the room/gym. Often Shannon would move into a certain position and the Gestapo in me would take over and yell out "Stop! Hold it right there!"

I'll be posting more pics over the next few days, but just wanted to give you an idea of how we did.

Today I did a cardio only training session - I can't remember the last time I got on the treadmill and I did what I call a "creep" run, steady state elliptical and these evil "row n race" intervals. I then blasted my legs with defensive squats off the step - 3 sets. Those who read my blog and are also clients know that I have a real penchant for giving my workouts different names. I think it's so much more interesting than "ride the bike for thirty minutes", names like "Bike Smasher" workout sound way more intriguing.

I'm off to send a few emails and watch "Bionic Woman".

quick catch up

Busy times as per usual! Let's see, yesterday Miss S was unwell and my dearest hubs came home early so I could go and train - I trained lower body and did some cracking "acceleration" work on the bike. Ouch! Unfortunately I slept weirdly on my shoulder last night and my neck/shoulder area is giving me trouble now. Not good when you do a lot of computer work~ it will be the wheat pack treatment and gentle mobs. tonight and physio if no better in the am.

This morning I taught Bodystep (did 5 Tracks from Bodystep 47!) and did upper body. My shoulder was not bothering me at the time. Then Shannon and I met for our own little photo shoot. Our first choice of course was Jadey, but she has been super busy - so I assumed the role of photographer and took 100 shots of Shannon - now I will have a pic of her for everyday of my blog - but she looked fantastic and well, she's worth it :). We put on some great music (think "Fergalicious"!) and got down and had a bit of a groove.

I'm still on an asparagus bender. I knocked off two bunches today - one with lunch and one as a snack with some of my Thai Chicken Rissoles - who said eating well had to mean eating bland, boring food? I obviously need an intervention!

The other thing I meant to mention is that Cathe's new DVD arrived. I immediately did the kickbox/Bootcamp workout - 53 minutes of sheer heart pumping madness. Woohoo!

Balance, Brilliance and Finding Success

I have been reading an interesting post by Peta today all about the subject of "balance" and what it's concept could possibly mean - might "balance" be a concept invented by the winners to trick the losers into claiming a false sense of dignity?" Peta then dances around the topic of obsession - looking at an article by a sports psychologist named Jeff Bond which basically states that " focus and motivation aka mental attitude is 90% responsible for successful results", and suggests that Bond is saying is, "how do you become obsessive (especially when everyone tells you otherwise)?" I think Peta is trying to point out here that sometimes you need an obsessive streak to achieve your goals, fitness or otherwise - a good point IMHO, and yes, I think you do need to have some "fire in the belly" to get the job done.

I'm leaving out the details of the rest of the post which you can check out by clicking on "Peta's" name on my side bar to check out the rest of it. I like Peta's posts, she is a real thinker and challenges the status quo.

But back to me..

I think the concept of "balance" doesn't have to be banal, neither does it need to be boring. Rather I think in some ways it could be called perspective. I don't believe you have to shackle creativity, passion, achievement or most importantly inspiration to achieve "balance". Balance/perspective is different for everyone. If your passion, calling or goals is blighting you physically, spiritually and mentally, it may be time to have another look. Passion, brilliance and heady madness can coexist with peace.

If your passion makes you thrive and dance the dizzying heights and is energy giving - chances are that you're also balanced. If what you're doing sucks the life and energy out of you and possesses you like the Ring did to Gollum, then you're out of whack. You could call it positively or negatively "obsessed". Wow, I think I may have just gone around in a massive circle. I need to work more on my writing skills I can see.

Today I have had Miss S sick and vomiting. Luckily my parents were able to watch her whilst I taught RPM this morning. I am guessing that tomorrow won't be much better either. Time to break open Cathe's 4 day split - arrived today.

I've been on an asparagus bender!

I love this time of year when asparagus is in season. I chomped through two bunches today. I just steam it for a minute or so, then dunk it into icy water and it makes an awesome snack. I don't know what my work mates thought today as I did a pharmacy locum for the first time in months but they all commented on how much food I could put away. As well as all of the asparagus I had put together an absolutely gi-normous turkey salad for lunch and I munched on a Slim Secrets bar, smoked salmon and a small banana. Yum :)

However, I am not always perfect when it comes to eating and as Rick Kausmann writes in his fantastic book, "If Not Dieting, Then What?", everyone will overeat at one stage or another due to a multitude of different factors. Last night, it was all about the food. A dear friend of mine from Fitness First (who is Indian) made me a curry - a beautiful lamb biriyani with exquisite saffron rice and vegetables and nuts. DH and I fell on it like we had been deprived of food most of our lives and it was "game on" to see who could scrape out the casserole dish first! It felt good going down, but I definitely felt uncomfortable about 20 minutes later. It was just another thing to chalk up to experience - watch out for the orgasmic rice I say !

I managed to get in a third strength training session for the week - I am extremely proud of myself - upped the weights for all exercises, quite the thrill really and I am sitting here with DOMS from head to toe.

Definitely looking forward to some R and R tomorrow - slopping round the house and reading the paper.

I twang mai fu king glootes!

Had my second training session of the week - I started off with a 20 minute treadmill run - it feels like the longest time since I did this and then it was down and dirty with Mike's program, firstly using a foam roller to mobilize and stretch all my stiff bits (and there are a few of those), glute firing exercises and hip openers - yeah I was the crazy girl doing a "Walking Spiderman" up and down the gym. I got a few stares - I'm sure a few blokes thought I was going to spin a web and fly into the RPM room but it just didn't happen.

Instead I squared up in front of the mirror and did 5 x 5s of conventional deadlifts, finishing strong with my glutes. Then I gave my glutes the treatment with plate front squats - I did these side onto the mirror and as Mike predicted, my squat technique is so much better - here I am getting my butt lower than my knees, my shoulders lifted and the best part - my feet are solidly on the ground. Yeah Mike!

Then it was onto Single Leg RDLs - can I tell you how much I suck at these - had to use no weight in the end and focus, focus, focus on technique and not losing my balance. Jen Hendershott makes these look so easy in Oxygen Magazine....ugh!

Then onto lunges - on the third set, my tired glutes gave up on me and I felt a "twang" in my left glute - so I stopped, stretched, did my Woodchops and called it a day. I'm just about to get a heat pack to sit on. Ouch!

Shannon and I met up yesterday and we had Vietnamese - totally yum. We had a great time reliving our comp moments and having a good laugh and importantly coming up with a post comp nutrition game plan. She gave me a great box of Lindor chocolates and a gift voucher from Pure Indulgence (to treat the tan-hands: ) ) and I gave her the beginnings of where we are heading post comp. It is great to be able to take someone to a competition in great shape but it's even more important to get back on an even keel nutritionally afterwards and regain weight in a healthy way.

That's about it for me today - teaching CORE tomorrow at Toowong - I learnt last week that short shorts and BOSUs don't mix well - you have to watch out for "BOSU bum".

One for Lia!

Here is another photo of Shannon showing off her awesome back. I promise I'll stop soon, but I just can't help myself :) Somebody stop me ;)

Here she is!

Now honestly, who do you think has the best make up here? I certainly know who had the best body, that is for sure. Here is Miss Shannon, looking amazing again at the ANB titles last Saturday. Her upper body is sublime but look at those legs - they came in full, shapely and not an ounce of fat on them! I'm particularly proud of them because we both worked our tail off to bring this area on par with the upper body and I think that together we totally nailed it! Results is equal to commitment, trust and plain hard work! Yay Shannon! As you can see I was wearing my "Competition Brown" T Shirt - you can go out anywhere and nobody notices all of the Dream Tan marks on it!

This week has not gone according to plan so far. My poor Miss G has been ill with vomiting and diarrhoea - which has meant putting my training plans on ice for the week. I am certainly finding Mike's program challenging as it is forcing me to think outside the square more and to get away from what I call "bodybuilding mentality" ie training a muscle just to get bigger - sure you can train all of your muscles to get bigger - but if it's not done in a functional progression you end up bigger with all sorts of imbalances which hinders training in the long term, meaning that you may achieve "results" in the interim but they won't be near as good as the results you get from taking a long term view of the situation.

So here I am plodding along, slowly getting better at what I'm doing!

Tired and tanned!

Phew, another busy weekend with Shannon competing in the ANB Queensland Titles at the Tivoli.

It was another early start with my sister, who is a hair genius, doing Shannon's hair (and giving me a trim at the same time). We then headed off to the Tivoli for the Competitor's meeting which was a rather casual affair - then it was down to the business of applying Shannon's Dream Tan and helping her to "pump up", all the while promising her a jelly snake if she behaved herself!

She actually came in a little tighter and leaner than last weekend and we had the symmetry and muscularity rounds in the morning and the routine for the night show. We were able to get up close and cheer very loudly - it was great fun.

The evening show was a riot - I ended up helping out a few other competitors with their tanning and pumping (that sounds so funny written as is) - just loved the music that a lot of the other competitors were using for the routines and started making a few of my own up out the back. I'm sure Di and Jo are very relieved that I just do the training and conditioning for competitors, NOT the routines.

It was great to see Di and Tara (who looked considerably tighter this week too) at the show - the camraderie between all of us is what makes it all so much fun.

RPM this afternoon. I hope I don't fall asleep on the bike, I really do :)

Busy days!

Whew, it doesn't feel like I've stopped after Saturday, but here's a brief run down of my activities.

On Monday I taught 4 classes and did Mike's upper body program - 2 RPM, 2 Bodystep - absolutely caned it. Naturally on Tuesday I didn't feel up to doing too much at all, so I took it easy and today I did RPM with John - it was so nice to sit back and concentrate on my own ride and I paid particular attention to using my hamstrings in my pedal stroke today. I dipped out on my weights though - I simply couldn't face the thought of doing deadlifts after RPM, so I have them on the schedule for tomorrow morning instead.

I think I am definitely improving with all of this glute and hamstring work - I haven't paid too much attention to my physical appearance lately, rather I have been focusing on really putting the effort in with my training and ensuring good nutrition. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror today - I think I may have put on some size in the leg department -but if it means I can thrash my class that little bit harder in RPM then who am I to argue?

In other news, Miss Shannon and I are doing the ANB on Saturday. This is such an awesome fun show to watch and we are going to have a ball (as long as I keep drip feeding her those jelly snakes of course )

Stage pics one

Pics!

Even had some time to flash those triceps~

This photo was taken just before Shannon went on stage - having a bit of fun pumping up and popping out those muscles. We were really well organized with everything and had time to take these photos.

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!

I have just come home from the INBA titles, exhausted, but happy! I am so proud of my client, Shannon, who won the Novice Figure Division in a tough line up of 14 girls. I am so proud of her for being consistent, training hard and listen to her coach ramble on. That she got a big fat trophy, well that's the icing on the cake really!

We took heaps of photos and as soon as I can get some sent to me, they are going up on the blog!

I also had the pleasure of meeting Tara, whose journey has been nothing short of incredible. That back shot of her on the blog does her no justice....and Tara's routine, put together by my beautiful friend Di Broeren was amazing. Actually all the routines Di put together were awesome and it was great to see all those red "Fabulous Figure" girls running around and having so much fun together.

Bring on 2008 I say :)

I am getting fat..ooops I meant "phat"

I've decided I'm going to go to Phat Camp next year in Melbourne! I'm looking forward to it already!

Have had a great day - DH has joined the gym so I decided to inflict a "Liz Style" workout upon him. I easily outperformed him in doing some push ups on toes. I am going to enjoy this whilst it lasts as I'm sure it's not going to last for very long. Once DH gets going, he'll be unstoppable!

We then had to run a few errands in town and had "Sumo Salad" for lunch - as far as takeaway food goes, this is the bomb - I had Moroccan Lamb Salad and a small capeseed roll - I was laughing to myself as the salad maker asked me if I'd like a bread roll - after a hard training session and feeling a little carb depleted? Come to mama!

personality and the internet

I was reading LIVY's post about loneliness, social contact and the internet. I felt for her as I know only how awful I felt about living in Woop Woop - and Livy's personal "Woop Woop" is a lot more remote than mine was.

Some of you may laugh but underneath it all, I'm a rather introspective introvert (does that make sense). I love to hang out with like minded people, but on many days I liken myself to a crab - love a moment in the sun, but also enjoy scuttling back under my rock for a bit of solitude. I find the Internet a real haven for my INFJ (check out the Kiersey Temperament Sorter!) nature - I can interact with others in all sorts of deep and meaningful ways at my pace, my place.

Some people make the mistake of thinking that introverts don't like hanging out with others. I don't like hanging out with large groups of people I don't know. I am no party starter (OK, except in RPM), but with people who I know well and within small groups, I am passionate and intense!

To sum up, I think the friendships you can make online are really worth it. I've met so many great people in the Figure/bodybuilding area and have been lucky now to have met many in real life. That's why I'm contemplating Jen Hendershott's Phat Camp in Melbourne next year - a chance to get together and be passionate about what we're all interested in :)

Figure/Physique Preparation 2008

Just wanting to let anyone who has any interest in competing in 2008 and wants Figure or Physique preparation coaching that I have two spots available for potential competitors in the first half of the year. I cover all aspects of physical preparation for competition and have access to excellent posing/bikini resources here in Queensland. If you are interested, please contact me via the "Store Contact" form on my website.

In other news, today was all about RPM - poor John is unwell, so I taught RPM and the half hour technique class before it.

Girl got it done...ka ching!

Today, training has gone to plan....today I taught RPM and did Mike's Program. Yay me :)

Not much else to report from my end of things - "figure fever" is going to be building and very strong by the end of the week though!

Busy days!

I have had a busy couple of days - also featuring a migraine and a head cold. Ugh!

Yesterday I taught RPM Hi Performance which was great, but had problems with the mike. I was going to train today before realizing that I've worked out every day for nearly two weeks in a row, so thought taking a rest day may be prudent.

This week promises to be jam packed:

Monday: teach RPM, Mike's program #4

Tuesday: Cardio, Mike's program #1

Wednesday: Mike's program #2 , RPM

Thursday: Mike's program #3, cardio

Friday: teach RPM, Core

Saturday: possibly teach RPM, if not, Mike's program #4, INBA QLD titles..woot woot!

Sunday: teach RPM

Me and that bike are goin' be like peas and carrots!

An hour of madness

I have a wonderful client who a few weeks ago described a program that I had sent to her as "two pages of madness". That had me in stitches for quite a few days. Then the opportunity came up to teach a freestyle "X Training" class and I wondered how I could create an hour of sheer madness - so I put my thinking cap on and came up with a doozy this morning.

Coming from a freestyle teaching background, I had to make sure everything worked into my 32 count music.

The class went like this:

a) HiLo warm up, including sports drills
b) 3 rounds of various drills with recoveries
c) 3 rounds of high intensity Combat style drills
d) Cardio routine on the BOSU with combat drills
e) Squat track
f) Deadlift/upper body sequence
g) 5 minutes of bust-a-gut cardio madness
h) Pilates style ab training with the BOSU/hamstring training on BOSU
i) Cool down.

I had a lot of fun and we were all very hot and sweaty at the end. The rest of the day was spent on domestic duties. Now I'm all ready to go and watch
THe Chaser

I've been a naughty girl!

I joined Facebook last night. I'm having the same experience as when I joined Ebay - looking at the site often. I'm sure I will get over myself in good time :)

Training - feeling good and working hard. Lots of DOMS!

Sunday Waffles

Today's post is a follow on from yesterday's post - Batty left an interesting comment along the lines of whether I look at a competition like a 12 Week Challenge and if I think long and hard the answer would be "no". A "12 week challenge" is open ended (there is no consequence to the end date) whereas I approach a Figure Competition as an athletic preparation with discrete phases and an end date (ie Comp day). Even though getting lean plays a big part in Figure preparation it is by no means any more important than all of the preparatory work you do in the off season. For me, the most satisfying aspect of competing has been having definite goals during each off season. Between my first and second comps, it was all about adding back and shoulder mass and this training phase for me now is all about gaining mass in my glutes and back. Mike and I have been doing a lot of corrective work - I underuse both my hamstrings and glutes - yet thanks to Mike and a whole bag of different tricks, I am feeling the DOMS love in my glutes.

I haven't decided on a definite comp date for next year - depending on what happens with Mike and where the training goes it may be April, July or October. I have to stress again that I think it's more important what you do in the off season than what you do when you are closer to stage ready.

I also must talk about stopping at a scoop of icecream. I struggle with emotional eating sometimes, I can eat out of spite, I can overeat when I'm overly hungry, tired or lonely. However, if I remain on an even keel emotionally, then having a scoop of icecream is not a trigger for me (meaning one mouthful is too many and a thousand are never enough). Get me overly tired and emotional, then I can become a different animal - just like the rest of the population.

Ramble ahead

"Getting there isn't half the fun - it's all the fun". Robert Townsend

I'm in the mood to write about fitness "challenges" tonight - and to make a small confession about them. I'm not into "challenges" as such, I'm into making fitness a permanent fixture of one's life - meaning that whether you train for two or twelve weeks, the goal is the same - to move and eat in a way that is productive for your physique, your health, your mind and your spirit! Sure you "challenge" yourself along the way with how far you can take your fitness journey, but there is really no cut off point or discrete time where you say, "my journey is finished". Like every other part of life, maintaining and improving fitness is a fluid phenomenon - there will be periods in life where other things take precedence, periods in life where you won't feel like doing it, but will make the time anyway and times in your journey where you are soaring towards peaks and great things.

In other words, enjoy the journey! You may start with one idea in mind and end up with a completely different result or perspective. Be prepared to be open to where a so called "challenge" can really take you - hopefully to the door of my Not-So-Secret Society - lifetime fitness enthusiasts - we're the ones you see running around in our Lorna Janes with sweaty faces, the ones you see at the fruit market, the ones who get up early morning after morning, train and become one with the Universe. We're a society that's always looking for new members so tie up those laces and get busy as Cathe Friedrich says!

Today's training was Mike's "Day 2" Lower Body Program and I got busy with Plate Front Squats, single leg Romanian deadlifts and "Walking Spiderman" (what I was thinking by the end was "where does "Holy Batman DOMS" come in- still sore from Tuesday). Then I decided to be even more of a lunatic and teach my RPM class straight afterwards. Ouch!

I've enjoyed a relatively clean day of eating, except for a scoop of Cookies and Cream Icecream - unfortunately the protein powder version doesn't come close (the cookie bits are so small my hubby wonders if they are mouse poo...charming man)

Training :)

Oooh, it's an "all about training" post!

I have just done my second day of Mike's program and it has certainly been different, but in a good way - lots of work to help mobilize my stiff thoracic spine and some challenging upper body work today followed by a moderate steady state run at 11km/hr for 20 minutes. The focus is definitely on strength ~ like Kek, I've been walking around with major hamstring DOMS these last two days.

Tomorrow's training will be Spinervals and I am also teaching Core Class tomorrow. We have added in the back/glute track and I have been running through the best ways of teaching it.

It's been good doing all this stuff lately as my first Fitlink assignment is to take a postural analysis and core conditioning workshop next Thursday.

Aarrggh!

What a day!

It started off OK, practiced my Step choreo for this morning's class which went without a hitch but then got booked for speeding on the way to the gym. How does one get booked for speeding in the peak hour rush - try and take a shortcut - well my little short cut cost me 6 demerit points and a whole pile of cash - which will take several Step classes to "recover". Needless to say I was rather edgy all through step and forgot a whole stack of my choreo. Sometimes you need a "stinker" class every now and again to remind you to work harder and raise the bar somewhat.

Most of the day was spent doing jobs at Indro - had Vietnamese prawn rolls for lunch - but nutritionally my day was far from stellar, completed by a visit to the Subcontinent - Indian for dinner tonight as well as two Slim Secret bars to fill the gaps today. I did have 3 pieces of fruit today though - I'm looking forward to loading up on the veggies tomorrow. My tummy is already paying the price for such processed indulgence.

After much thought I called Fitlink and told them that I couldn't take the job - the hours were Tuesday and Thursday evenings, 6-9pm and all day Saturday - which didn't make it an exactly
"family friendly" proposition. They then asked if I would prefer to work more casually (perfect!) and next week I am teaching a Postural Assessment and Core Stability unit to the Cert 4 group.

You may all wonder what the little pic of Cathe and crew is doing above. On Cathe's site ( www.cathe.com ) you can see a six minute clip of the new DVD series. Cathe again proves that you don't need a gym to kick butt at home. I have several clients who work out at home who are proof positive of this! I will be offering the 4 Day Split for $99.95 - and free postage on this and any other DVD purchased. I will also be stocking new Tracey Staehle and Amy Bento workouts being released shortly. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Now that I've got my little advertising spiel off my chest, I had better go and check what Mike has in store for me tomorrow morning. I have the worst hamstring DOMS!

A quick one from my Universe!

Phew - I'm busy over here.

Thanks for all the supportive comments re: inlaws - it's nice to know that I'm not the only one that struggles sometimes.

Yesterday taught RPM at Toowong, tomorrow am teaching Bodystep at Indro as the regular instructor has sustained an injury and today I did Mike's training session. It was different, but very enjoyable - it's so nice to follow someone else's plan for a change. Plus the best part is that Mike's specialties are right up my alley so I'm not only going to make great physique improvements, I'll also improve my knowledge. What could be better?

In other news, I was offered the Fitlink job. I'm still trying to work out how I can fit it in and will thrash this out with DH tonight.

Forced together via marriage

Yup, this is a post about in laws - I've heard the saying that you inherit another family when you get married whether you like it or not. Plus you're forced to spend time with each other regardless of whether you've made friends or not. I did not grow up with Step siblings so I can only imagine the stress of moving in with a ready made family or inheriting a ready made family as such.

I must say that I've found blending with DH's side of the family extremely stressful. They are nice enough but I feel like if I had never met DH, I would never have been part of their Universe due to differences in interests, personality etc. Today, my MIL kindly offered to look after the girls whilst I did my BOSU course today - unfortunately we got our wires crossed - she thought I was coming back an hour and a half earlier than I had thought I had mentioned - however nothing was specifically said, only implied and I was left with a sense that I'd done something terribly wrong, only I wasn't sure. I mentioned this to DH who then phoned his parents who told him the error - then, angry he phoned me - to which then I took the bull by the horns, phoned them and apologized profusely for the error -I thought I had told them that I would be later.... only I just wished they'd mentioned it when I turned up - would have saved me a lot of indigestion. :(

Anyway, there's always a lot of unease around DH's family - I know they think my passion for all things fitness is a little bit weird but I have to tread my own path and realize that not everyone has to like me, just as I don't like everyone either.

The BOSU course was great though - DOMS is beginning to set into my thighs and my abs and I'm looking forward to waking up tomorrow knowing that I did something worthwhile..

Other workout today: 2 x Spinervals "sets" 30 minutes

Bodystep madness

This is what we do when we have Les Mills launches at Fitness First - this was Luke and I doing our Bodystep launch - the theme was "Angels and Devils" - Luke is very angelic, don't you think? Me, I was having a "devil" of a time trying to keep my wig out of my teeth and my horns from falling off!!

Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes! I really appreciate them! It's a bit weird without DH at home for our "birthday week" - he was on Saturday, I'm today and Miss G is on Sunday! I did scare him a little on Monday when I said something about birthdays and he panicked a bit thinking he'd missed my birthday with the time zone changes etc. I would have really enjoyed letting him know he'd forgotten my birthday for the rest of his existence - meanwhile he is breathing a sigh of relief that he really did remember!

I did end up doing RPM and team teaching with John and Lisa (who is a new recruit). Poor Lisa had to strut her stuff sandwiched between "Team Sweaty" John and myself.

Anyway my next move is the interview tomorrow and somewhere in there I have to my a computer mouse - mine is "cactus" and is driving me crazy :)

Gratitude, accomplishment and having fun

Have you ever had a day where you felt extremely thankful for your life and grateful for the opportunities that you've been given? Today I have felt a real sense of gratitude for what I've been given and the opportunities I've had over this past year.

Tomorrow I turn 38, so I've been reflecting on a tumultuous year, including two Figure Comps (Qlds and Nationals), two moves (one Further into Woop Woop and one to Brisbane), the beginning of a new business, and many lessons learnt. I know there is more to come, more to learn and more to have fun with. I am so lucky that I am now doing what I love and everything is coming together slowly but surely.

I taught Bodystep today, which made me feel rather accomplished as it was my first run through this latest release since launches (for some reason I didn't end up doing a lot of Step this quarter). Mike sent me a whole lot of reading and I've immersed myself in the ins and outs of thoracic mobility and how serratus anterior gets underused and how this contributes to shoulder and hip issues.

My other news is that a week or so ago, I met somebody from one of the Fitness Training Colleges here and had a conversation with them about what I did - anyway I was contacted by them and asked if I was interested in a position as a Lecturer in Exercise Science for both the Cert III and Cert IV students - so to cut a long story short, I have an interview on Thursday with Fitlink, who are opening up a bigger campus in Brisbane. I have no idea how I'll go as I felt my resume looked pi**poor on paper, but the fact that they've still persisted in organizing an interview feels good. Who knows? I'm keeping an open mind about the whole thing.

Probably doing RPM tomorrow!

Trainer gets a trainer!

Ever heard of the quote "sometimes the trainer needs a trainer"?

I have decided, after several years of writing programs for myself (the last time somebody actually wrote me a program was in the prehistoric era...you get the drift) to enlist someone else to design and help me with a training program.

Enter Mike Robertson - he is a Canadian exercise physiologist who majored in Biomechanics. He is also a strength and conditioning coach who does a lot in the powerlifting arena. Mike's speciality is "corrective exercise", that is specific training to improve movement issues - for me, this centres around my glute/hip instability and thoracic stiffness. My goal is to add more muscle, but to do it from a more functional perspective, rather than training as a bodybuilder as such. Sure we can train to add more muscle but I also want to train to be fitter, faster and stronger in every way.

I'm nervous and excited at the same time - I haven't been accountable to someone with my training for so long and I'm looking forward to soaking up all of Mike's expertise in this area. He has released two DVDs - one called Magnificent Mobility and another called Inside Out Training (all about upper body mobility and strengthening).

Training today: teach RPM

PS - Thanks to those who replied on the baking issue. I'll keep you posted!

Bursting the bubble

Gosh so many of you have written and said such nice things about me - it's time to let you in on the truth that I have definitely had some demons over the whole transformation journey. The major demons I have had to face are emotional eating and dealing with trigger foods/situations. The Leanness Lifestyle book sums up a trigger food pretty well ...

"where one bite is too many and a thousand are never enough"

Most people that have issues with food usually have a trigger food/situation and I am no different. For the most part, I keep it under control, but this week poses a particular challenge.

My "trigger" is baking - yep, that's right, baking. I could go hog wild on both my finished product or the batter that turns into my cakes, biscuits - cookies for the Americans and pies :) This week I have to bake three birthday cakes - Miss G's birthday is on Sunday, Hub's birthday was on Saturday, but I'm expecting him home on Miss G's birthday and cupcakes for the kindy. Ugh. I am actually thinking of buying them this year to avoid a trigger episode. I get around this trigger by purposely not baking any more. Surprisingly, chocolate is not a trigger for me. I'm one of those irritating people that can take a week or more to eat a block of chocolate.

It's been a rough day in other ways - Miss G has developed an ear infection and I spend a good couple of hours today at a 24 hour Medical Centre getting her seen to. Then I had RPM in the afternoon which was a welcome respite from the events of the weekend - unwell cranky children are never any fun - really caned it too - average HR 153, max 171 - woohoo! I also trained my shoulders - I'm committing to train at least one body part when I go and teach classes, that way all my training gets fitted in. I have quite a heavy class load this week, so will have to be mindful of pushing those weights in.

Feel like I've just sat an exam!

Yes, that's right - I'm "coming down" from teaching my first "Core" class today - I had the Cluster Group Fitness Coordinator filming me, I taught with the club GFC (that was no problem, we are great mates), the Club PTC (Personal Training Coordinator) came as well as one of the other PTs that has done the course. Not to mention forty seven other participants!

I'm not terribly gifted in the Public Speaking area, though as I get older (like a good wine), I am improving. I had to give a 20 minute talk about the class and what message we were trying to get across...eg BOSU safety, how to activate transversus abdominus, multifudus etc. Luckily my background of having a dinky SIJ (and several thousands of dollars spent on physio) has given me some foolproof ways of teaching people to activate TA, so overall I did well there.

Then it was onto the actual workout and whilst I made a few choreo errors, they weren't noticeable and we came through in the end. I was pretty nervous at the beginning and I felt such a sense of relief when it was over and dizzy with the triumph that I nearly remembered everything :)

Did I mention I have BOSU DOMS? Yikes!

back at it

Back in the saddle again today. I'm still feeling a little weary but that's probably because I did some smokin' intervals on the treadmill after my workout this morning!

Workout today:

Warm up: 20 mins running (5.15min km av HR 130)

Chest/Biceps including BOSU work (I'm teaching Core tomorrow)

Running: HIIT intervals 14.5km/hr 30 seconds, 10 km/hr 30 seconds x 20. Ouch :)

This afternoon, I am going to spend going over my notes and preparing for the Core program which I teach tomorrow. I think I've mentioned it before, but it's deceptively tough.

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes for a speedy recovery - those wishes definitely worked!

Off the pony and into the mud!

Grrrr... I have come down with a heavy cold (hope it doesn't develop into anything more ) and Miss G has had a recurrence of whatever was ailing her last week. I feel like I'm moving through mud right now. I'm wondering how much nose blowing actually constitutes a workout.

Can't do anything except wait for it to pass.

Eating a Small Pony

"Skwigg" referred to the fact that she's been eating so much she could devour a small pony and I feel like I am headed in this direction myself. I have increased my calories faster than what Precision Nutrition suggested for a "metabolic reset" and I have been absolutely ravenous! I hope this means that my metabolism has "woken" up further. I haven't weighed myself, nor measured anything - though I did log my food on a few days - yesterday's effort was in the vicinity of 1900 calories which I'm pretty pleased with. Visually I look no different and a few people have asked me if I've actually lost weight (gotta love that!)

The girls and I met my parents at Indro to have a Father's Day get together and cup of coffee which was very nice. Now I'm going to take the girls to the park for some bike riding and fresh air. It's a bit flat without DH around though. I have spoken to him though, he arrived in Cape Town on Friday evening and restarts his course at University of Stellenbosch on Monday.

Core and More....

I have just spent part of the morning revising our choreography for the new Fitness First Core Program which is launched in Queensland this week. It's been exclusively choreographed by Mike McSweeney (who originally designed Bodypump) and let me tell you, it is not an easy class to teach, nor to participate in. My hamstrings, glutes and abs will be sore for days after the pasting I gave them during our practice session.

I also ran 40 minutes at 75% Max Hr which translates into 5:15 min ks. I'm pretty happy with that. I also did some leg work.

Figure Fever!

It's officially almost the beginning of the Figure Season with six weeks to go until the INBAs on 6th October. I can almost smell the Contest Colour already! I have a client (she will be laughing at this because it sounds so damn formal) competing in Novice Figure and I am just as excited as she is about bikinis, posing, shoes, music and of course competing in top physical condition. I have no concerns there - we met today and she is in great shape.

I put together a rather impromptu upper body workout today followed by interval running on the treadmill. At one stage I got up to 14km/hr on my sprints and still felt like I had more in the tank when I was done. It's amazing how your mind can be self limiting - I've always had it in my head that I can't run fast and here I am on the slope running towards 40 and running as fast as I could in my 20s. Must be all of John Berardi's fish oil!

I am one blogger who is not participating in Craig Harper's Challenge. I know many of you have been positively affected by what Craig (correctly) writes, but somehow, he doesn't do it for me with his writing style. Is it exercise physiologist envy or what - I don't know - as I agree with most of what Craig writes - maybe it is just down to writing style and nothing more. However to all who are participating, happy Challenging - I won't say "good luck" because luck has nothing to do with good results when it comes to body transformation.

I'm glad I'm not the only one having bovine issues

Thanks for the votes of sympathy on my "fat bloated cow syndrome" - it's amazing to think that at any given time, 25% of the female population is probably going through the same conundrum. Even though it is a pain, I'm in awe of the complexity of the female body and all of the hormones that come into play for a shot at potential reproduction.

I had a day off today - it felt like everything was achy and bloated and I managed to knock over all the laundry and ironing, mopped my floors,vacuumed and generally unleashed my inner domestic goddess (yes, she hides in there somewhere!). I'm looking forward to some strength training tomorrow. Back to Week 4 of the Christian Thibandeau program, some BOSU work and some running.

DH leaves at the crack of dawn tomorrow to finish the final phase of his Management Development course in South Africa. He won't be back until late September, so it will just be the girls and myself. I don't mind it initially, but after a few days really begin to miss his company.

Going nuts on a Wednesday

I taught RPM this morning - pushed it hard but not as hard as I would have liked as TOM surprised me this morning. This evening, I'm feeling like a fat bloated cow. Which leads me to ponder...do cows themselves ever feel fat and bloated themselves. Too much green grass? Who knows?

My Precision Nutrition experiment continues - I would guesstimate that I've upped my caloric intake by about 200-300 calories and my energy levels (despite TOM) are very good. I did have a moment when I grabbed a few macadamia nuts to eat with my afternoon snack - that voice from the Nineties shrilling at me: "they're too fattening" - this wasn't a good feeling to match my fat bloated cow style physique right now, but I march onwards and upwards anyway.

I'm looking forward to finally returning to some strength work now that the craziness of the launches is over. Lift, girl, lift!