Happy Hour! is Baaaaack!

Good Monday morning everyone!

During my competition preparation I was not able to be here as much as I would have liked because my schedule was so tight. It's a joy to me to have more time now and share with you what I am doing in hopes that I can continue to encourage and motivate others.

The last two weeks I'vc been in an active rest mode due to some issues I an having with my back and I'm still being very careful not to overdue and listen to my body. I ate a few days off my normal eating plan, allowing myself some things I normally wouldn't eat. I'm reigning myself in again and am back on track and one of the reasons I want to get back to posting my 'Happy Hour!' is so that I can stay accountable.

Today was leg day, my favorite!

4 x 15 narrow stance leg press

Supersets of:
4 x 15 leg extensions
4 x 15 wide stance leg press

Supersest of :
4 x 10 leg curls
4 x 20 sec. spin on the bike at high resistance
3 x 30 jumping lunges

Supersets of:
3 x 10 stationary step-ups w/ 10# plates in each hand
4 x walking lunges w/ 10# plates in each hand

Extra credit: 100 body weight squats!

All of this took me 45 minutes. I'm keeping my muscles contracted during each rep and pumped, with weight that isn't heavy. There isn't much rest time at all. I'm working on burning the fat, building muscle and shaping my legs.

Enjoy your day!

A Detour

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment,
Full effort is Full Victory… ~Evan Flex Cousins~

One of my goals for this year is to bring my body back to complete health after half a year last year of not taking good care of my body. I set a date on the calendar to have my body in shape for figure competition in November - full speed ahead, focus was right on, didn't miss a workout, was nearly perfect with my nutrition, nothing detoured me - until last week. I had to make a very difficult decision after a series muscle issues in my back and bow out of competing this November. Pushing my body to the point of injury is not taking good care of my body and like one of my other friends said, "There are lots of competitions, but you only have one body." Success is still mine. I've transformed by body through weight training and nutrition. I took a week off from the gym at the wise advice of my nutritionist and coach, FLEXCHEF, and with the support of him, other wonderful friends and staff at my gym, I made it through and have been able to plan some new things to incorporate into my training to help my back to heal and to prevent injuries - yoga to stay flexible and regular massage.

This week a special gift arrived in the mail from my fabulous friend, Carolyn123. A bracelet I can wear at all times to remind me of what I am and what I want to be.


I'm a member of Team FabFit, a wonderful team of people who strive to live a healthy, fit, brave, bold, fierce and fabulous life. What great support they are!

Although I've been detoured, I won't let the detour bring me down. I'll do what I can to continue to build muscle and continue my transformation.

Here are the top five things I've learned in this journey:

1.  Don't overtrain. Follow a schedule which changes things up about every six weeks or so.
2.  Before hiring a trainer in the gym, ask a lot of questions about his/her qualifications and if questions are not answered to your satisfaction - run!
3.  Stay true to relationship committments during the comp prep;
4.  Follow and trust what the coach says in everything. Don't consult or allow other people's opinions and unsolicited "help" to sneak in.
5.  Have fun!

The Warrior Girl doesn't stop here so stay tuned for more good stuff to come!

Strong girl, Strong!

What Does It Take To Win?

What does it take to win?

Skill

Talent

“A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.”
Larry Bird

Passion

Consistency

Will

Your journey will never go as planned.  There will always be challenges and set backs.  This is not negative, but can be discouraging.  Having the will to fight through challenges will separate you from 99% of your competition.  This is sometimes easier said than done, but critical for your success in any venture.

Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”
Michael Jordan

Support

Making it to my goal.....that will make me a winner!

Real Motivation

You can have all the support around you - the right people, the right nutrition, the right workouts, but no one is going to carry it all out except for YOU! You make it happen! You go to the gym, you make the choice what to put in your mouth, you, change your attitude, you organize your life! Give yourself the credit! When you need motivation, what and who do you go to! Other's motivation lasts for a moment. The motivation inside you - that is lasting.

A friend of mine suggested a good book to read that I've probably mentioned before titled, "Life's Greatest Lessons" by Hal Urban. In it there is a chapter on motivation. He says, 'I don't believe in making wild promises like "you can have it all" or "you can be anything." I think people want and need something that lasts longer and helps them deal with life as it really is. We need to know two things about motivation, 1) Successful people accept responsibility for their own lives - the don't wait for someone else to motivate them; they do it themselves. 2) The origin of the word motivation comes from motive, which is defined as "that within the individual, rather than without, which causes him or her to act." In other words, all of our actions have motives, or reasons. They come from needs deeply felt inside and no one else can fill them for us.

The Three Keys to Motivating Yourself
~Do you have enough desire to attain it?
~Do you have a real belief that you can accomplish it?
~Do you have a clear mental picture of yourself achieving it?

If your answer to all three things is a confident YES, then you're ready. Because these are the keys to being self-motivated.

Motivation starts with a sense of desire...When you want something, you become motivated to get it. ~Dennis Waitley~

The Way I Look Today

The way I look today isn't going to be how I look tomorrow! Today I worked my quads until they shook! Tomorrow I will have more muscle! Today I ate 100% on plan with clean and whole foods. Today I drank at least 128 oz. of water. Tomorrow my body will show me what I've done to it today.

My body will also reflect tomorrow the attitude I have today and today I feel the best I've ever felt in my life! I look the best I've ever looked in  my life. I feel vibrant, healthy and sexy! I've exceeded my own expections in my training for competition and my body shows my hard work! No matter what anyone else says, that is my truth and I believe it down to the core of me.

Last year my summer shorts didn't come out of the closet, neither did my bikini. The way I looked last year is not the way I look today. Change is possible. Amazing change is possible. I believe it and so should you!

Last week I started working heavily on my posing practice. Muscles have memory, even in posing and I want my muscles to remember the poses so well that I will know by feeling how to position my body. My poses need work and I'm glad to do it. Each step takes me closer to my goal.

This week the intensity and frequency of my workouts has changed. I'll be in the gym six days a week and increasing my cardio from three sessions to four. My eating is still geared toward muscle building so I'm on surplus calories right now. Staying on surplus calories has been a challenge mentally, but I've stayed focused on the fact that when in training for a particular event, one must do what needs to be done to prepare the body to perform at it's highest potential.

I'm six months away from the big event. I've come a long way and have more to go. The stage will be just a moment in time so I'm enjoying the journey there by celebrating a new me every single day.

Running on Rocks

My whole life I've wanted to be a competitor. I was a sprinter when I was young. I could run on rocks barefoot and beat anyone I ran against. There's one day I'll never forget when I was challenged to an unofficial race against a boy who later went on to win the state sprinting championship - I beat him! I grew up on a farm in South Dakota where I worked hard. We lived so far from town that staying after school for any extra curricular activities was nearly impossible. I had to get up early to do chores and come home from school and do more chores. My whole life was working on the farm. I credit all the heavy lifting of feed buckets for the animals for the foundation of my muscles. I loved that life, but I didn't have the opportunity to explore my athletic ability as much as I wanted. My dream was to go into ballet, but because of the beliefs of the church my family attended, I was not allowed to dance and was signed up for piano lessons instead...for five years. Needless to say, I did not excel in that.

Now, for the first time in my life, things have come together - my attitude, my support system, my finances, my determination - to make it possible for me to shoot for my dreams - to challenge my body to do things it has never done before and I just want to shout out that I'M LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF IT! Yes! I'm not going to let age stop me. There's a fire burning inside me and that can't be put out. I feel better at this time of my life than I ever have before - sore muscles and all!

Watch me train!

Lifting weights, running on rocks, I love it all!

Big Girl Weight

I'm doing one legged cross-overs on the bench

AFTER

I pushed 658lbs. on the Push Press with the assistance of my trainer

AND

did walking lunges with 40lb. dumbbells

I was making some noise in the gym today!

Down and dirty training! Love it!

'Nuf said!

Obstacles...take a hike!

We all have someone we look up to, someone who inspires us to be better and greater than ourselves, someone who has the body type we want. I regularly talk to a group of women who inspire and motivate me every day. A few of them write regular blogs that I follow. They are warriors, challenging themselves physically, always stepping up to the mental challenges that come with taking their bodies to new heights. These women are celebrities in my eyes and someday may be famous.

My famous celebrity inspiration is Pauline Nordin. I like her attitude, determination and mental focus. I like what she's done with her body, where she started and where she is now. Although her body rocks, I admire her more for her set mind toward what she wants. One of my friends described her perfectly as 'she is stop your whining and squat kind of girl!' I'm learning that's what I need to be a competitor. Knowing what I want, setting a goal, setting a date and working toward it with 100% of everything I have. That means consulting the experts, doing the training correctly, eating right, resting right and keep plowing forward no matter what! Obstacles will come! Obstacles have already shown up for me in the few short weeks since I've set my goal for competing. What do I do? I again and again refocus and set my mind on my goal, what's ahead and brush off the small stuff. What does it really matter in the grand scheme of things? Will I let obstacles stop me from reaching my dream? NO!

Pauline, I want to meet you someday!

Got Muscle?

Okay, there you go, I know I promised a tricep shot, but I opted for more bicep tonight. The tri's will have to wait. My trainer in Gold's Gym, Shayne Norton, was giving me a very brief intro to posing this afternoon so I was having a little fun. I l-o-v-e muscle.

The firm where I work surprised us and let us off work two hours early today because the sun came out in Seattle.  I left there and went to work in the gym, not caring about being in the sun. I was looking more forward to my leg session! Leg day is always fierce and today I did heavy squats. I'm up to 185lbs. now and Shayne promises me I'll be squatting over 200lbs. like some of my fierce girlfriends are doing.  Unless I knew they were able to do it, I would never imagine that I could squat that much weight, but I will do it someday and can't wait for that day! Having extra time to spend in the gym is like putting me in a candy shop. Those two hours sped by. After my leg workout, I did my third prescribed cardio session of 30 minutes and then I finished off with four sets to failure of wide grip pull-ups. That was not easy. My leg workouts kick my butt, but I always challenge myself to do a little bit more so I can get a little bit more.

Today Ruben, my nutritionist from Fit To Be In Your Kitchen, changed up my nutrition plan to include more fat and dinner tonight that was nothing short of heavenly. I got to eat real butter!

Sweet potato

Broccoli with parmesan cheese

White fish

Butternut Squash with a pat of butter

Small apple

That is muscle food! It may look like a lot, but my body incinerated that quickly and it's a good thing that it's almost time for my casein shake because I feel like I could eat that plate of food all over again!

Now it's rest and recovery time and ohhhhh, it feels so good after accomplishing good work!

My Body-The Machine!

This is my fitness journey, this is about what it happening to me, an expert I am not, but I can tell you what is working for me and what is aiding in my success in my quest for the competitor's physique. I love the gym, I love the iron. Today I lifted heavier than I did last week and this is why - I reviewed my workout, studied it, watched videos on how to perform the moves better, got to the gym, focused on what I was there to do, took my iPod out of my ears, set my mind on the muscle being worked and told myself that "I CAN DO IT!" My spotter friend was not in the gym this morning and last week I needed a spotter for my close grip bench presses. I asked myself, "What am I going to do?" I WANT to lift to failure, I NEED to lift to failure so I sat on the bench and spoke to my triceps - not out loud, but in my head and said, "Triceps, you are going to finish all the reps, you are strong, you can do it!"  I got it done and that only made me stronger to finish the rest of my workout. That takes me to another point. When I push myself in the gym, go harder, heavier than ever before, that fuels the rest of my workouts - my body - each part works together and when one part is strong, it makes the other part strong. My leg workouts since the beginning of the year have been nothing short of pure torture, but that's good! I love it! I need it! Strong workouts fuel other strong workouts and make my body as a whole STRONGER!

So, why do I have a picture of my abs in my blog?? I did abs and triceps today and I did abs stronger and better than last week. Each week my body surprises me with its strength and I celebrate it, look at it and yes, take pictures. Hanging straight-leg raises with a 5lb. plate between my knees was on order for today and I did more than what was prescribed - that's the way I build it - with one more rep or one more set! I know what my body can do and I like to challenge it!

This writing is from the fire burning inside this morning, inspired by a passion. One day I'll show you my triceps because they worked hard for me today and gave me more - that's the way I do it!

Thank you, friends, for your support. Now go get what you want!

My Dressing Room

Yes, you can come in! It's nice in here! In fact, it feels great in here and I'm enjoying it! This is where I am now putting on sizes that I use to wear. This is where I celebrate the fact that I've gone down four pants sizes since January 1, 2011! I'm walking proud and tall over that accomplishment! My nutrition and exercise both played a major part in my success. Gone is the scale and gone is the need to fit into a particular size. What matters is how I look and how I feel. I'm very happy with how I look now, but to compete, I must keep working to build more muscle and eat to adequately feed that muscle. I'm 5'4" and last time I weighed myself I was 134.5 lbs. and I'm wearing a size 4 pant. That's a testimony to the benefits of weight training and clean eating. Muscle weighs more than fat and takes up less room!

Every morning I'm up at 4:30 a.m. to pack up my food for the day, pack my work clothes and head to the bus stop to catch the bus to my gym downtown. I arrive at 6 a.m. and work out for an hour or a little more and then I get to work by 8 a.m. My training now requires a full hour for strength training and then I still need to fit cardio in three times a week so I'm at the gym two times a day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday-in the morning for strength training and in the evening for cardio. You may wonder why I get up so early! Nothing else in my schedule demands those early morning hours and I'm an early bird so it works out great! I'm not particularly fond of evening workouts, but if it's what I need to do to be a competitor, I'll do it!  It doesn't feel like a sacrifice because I'm fulfilling a dream and loving every minute of it.

Eating whole and healthy and physically challenging my body has many rewards. I've been blessed as I take care of the temple that I was given. I want you to experience the same so come along with me and I promise you, you will also be blessed beyond your wildest dreams!

Walking tall, proud and smiling all the way!

Where I Came From and Where I'm Going!

 January 1, 2011

April 4, 2011

Change is possible! Transformation of body, mind and spirit is possible!

I started the year at the highest number on the scale I had ever seen. I'd been successful before in weight-loss and building muscle so I knew that I could do something about it again; however, I didn't want to do it the same way as I'd done before. Previous nutrition plans left me starved nutritionally and unhappy inside, not to mention, looking "gray" and "gaunt" as my close friends told me.  Last year some life issues really brought me down and I  gave up on my fitness. I turned to food for comfort, stuffing myself until I hurt with nothing but chips, candy, and McDonald's fries and other high calorie greasy foods with empty calories. Those foods were not contributing to my well-being, but causing me to sink deeper into a pit of despair! On January 1 I decided that enough was enough and that I was going to regain control of my life.  Wasting no more time I contacted Ruben Sandoval with Fit To Be In Your Kitchen for help in getting my nutrition back on track in the hopes that I would regain my health and vitality.  I had known Ruben for quite some time and saw the remarkable results his clients achieved on his whole, healthy meal plans. After just a couple weeks, I was delighted to realize that I was shedding the fat without starving, felt good inside, didn't feel deprived, could make healthy food tasty to satisfy my palate and that I could maintain this way of eating for the rest of my life! I quickly realized that I would be able to achieve another dream of mine - to compete in a figure competition. His plan has helped me to regain my confidence and to believe that I can shoot for the stars. It has been a wonderful experience which I'll be sharing with you more as time goes on. The benefits of eating whole, nutritious foods continue to show themselves in wonderful ways.

Clean living, setting goals, taking steps of faith - what a great path! I'm determined to stay on it! Come along with me, I'd love to have you join me!

The Building Has Begun!

Yes, I am 47 years old, embarking on a new challenge of competing for the first time in a figure competition on November 19, 2011!  I'm ready and excited! This has been a dream of mine for a long time and now everything has come together for me to finally be able to work toward it.  I plan to catch all of my readers up on my progress pictures and my story about how I got to this place so please stay tuned!


Today marks the beginning of Week 3 of the building phase in my training for competition. It's time to keep some running blogs about my progress like so many of my lovely, beautiful, predecessors and friends who have gone before me have done. I want to remember how I looked, how I ate and how I felt throughout. And most importantly, I want to challenge and encourage you to know that you too can transform your body to total fitness!


This is what I call my "honeymoon" phase - I get to eat more calories to build more muscle. I love how what I eat shows up on the outside so that keeps me from the cheat and keeps me motivated. I'm learning so much. Last week I began doing a leg workout twice a week. I've hit two personal records two weeks in a row - last week I did 185lb. squats and this morning I hit 210lbs. with leg presses. My backside is shaping up, still remains stubborn, but progress is being made. It feels tighter, higher and stronger. I love how I feel. I feel strong.


Sleeping...oh....when I hit the bed, I just sink into it and go, "Ahhhhhh!" I go to bed no later than 9 p.m. during the week, take a nap at lunchtime and take two naps on Saturday. That's because I train DIRTY or in other words HARD during the week! Monday through Friday I'm in the gym lifting heavy! Saturday and Sundays are off days for me and I need them! Sleep is so important in growing muscle so I go to sleep with a smile on my face knowing my muscle is growing while I slumber.


This week I'll be in the gym twice three times a week so I can get sufficient cardio done. 30 minutes each session, with the first 15 mins. high intensity.


I'm not here to get cozy, I'm here to get CRAAAAAAZY!!