Carb Preoccupation

I love the Ultimate Diet 2.0 for this basic reason.....it works for me. I feel it is definitely doable. I can eat low calorie and relatively low carb Monday thru Thursday and then eat ridiculously high carb Friday and Saturday and often times Sunday. I have continued to lose fat on this program without losing muscle or my mind. But there are a few concerning things that linger in the back of my head about this particular diet:

1. I think too much about my carb load days during the week. I start to obsess over high carb foods that I will partake in over the weekend.
2. It is becoming easier and easier to eat 800-1000 grams of carbs
3. I have a tendency to obsess over certain highly processed terrible food choices such as Lucky Charms
4. I am having feelings of guilt and shame after eating the higly processed foods. I refused to log my food this past weekend because of this (wow......I am becoming a closet eater)
5. I maintain relative discipline through the week only to find I lose my mind over the weekend and my discipline goes out the door.

But the reward is this....I am losing fat while maintaining my muscle. But at the same time, I am concerned that my intense focus of food as a reward for my 4-5 days of low carb eating and training will lead to some type of eating disorder because of my extremist personality.....all or nothing.

Devil Annette tells me, ahhhh don't worry about this psych hocus pocus....look girl you are getting results! Angel Annette tells me...no Annette, what about the balance you are seeking. Aren't we working on balance in all areas of your life? And think about the processed yuk you are putting in your body. A box of Lucky Charms is insane Annette and not good for you. Devil Annette tells me.....EAT THE DAMN LUCKY CHARMS! You will be alright! You do have balance in the fact that you are not eating a box of Lucky Charms every day. Monday through Thursday you are eating fine! It balances in the end Annette. Angel Annette says, don't listen to devil Annette. She is so self-serving and lives for the now...the reward which can have later consequences in the future. Annette, you stated earlier you have kinda become a closet eater on the weekends right? How healthy is that? Doesn't that make you feel bad and what kind of example are you to the readers of your blog and your kids. Devil Annette says, whatever...look at you. You are a great example, just keep doing what you are doing and simply stop living in the closet on the weekends. You need a diet and lifestyle that you can live with, it looks like you found it....SHUT UP ANGEL ANNETTE YOU EXTREMIST GOODIE TWO SHOES!

It is Wednesday and I am dreaming about my carb load on Friday. I plan to make a sweet potato casserole that is relatively low fat. I plan to post everything that I eat.... I don't want to be a closet eater...even if it shames me haha. I will work on my balance but will not make any promises about being good over the weekend. When I say I will be good and eat low fat on the weekend, that usually becomes a high fat weekend. If I don't promise a thing, it is better. Go figure.

Tonite I plan to do some simple cardio. The good ole stairmaster.

I admit it...I am a mental case indeed!

Why do I want to compete? What is driving me toward the insanity of the stage? Do I really want to compete or it a means to an end in regards to my fitness goal? What is my fitness goal....I mean overall fitness goal?

Well, my overall goal is to be in the best shape of my life and maintain a healthy and shapely physique. I want to be strong and healthy and attractive. I usually do not have a problem attaining a goal but MAINTAINING what I have attained is indeed an issue for me. In regards to my weight, I am a yo-yo dieter. I lose weight then gain weight then lose it again then gain it back. I usually gain my weight over the holidays and then when the first of the year rolls around I start my diet and get in shape just in time for summer. Then I relax things a bit and start to gain a little weight around Septemberish. Then it is all bad from Halloween through Christmas.

This year I made a commitment not to yoyo diet again. This is a huge commitment for me and to be honest, a commitment that I feel may be a challenge for me. So to help me stay on track I decided that if I compete...especially during the holiday season, I will meet my goal...at least this year. So, that is why I want to compete....so that I stay on track over the holidays with my eating. How pathetic! So I need a contest to stay on a diet. Yep pathetic. Where's my discipline? Where is my control?

Do I want to prance around a stage almost naked showing my body for a group of people to judge my physique and compare me to other women? Nope....but I want to stay thin. Do I want to learn all the poses and learn to walk in high heel shoes??? Nope. Do I want to hire a coach to help me get my body in contest shape? Nope. Do I want to spend $800 dollars on a freakin posing suit? HECK NO!!!

Do I want to train like an animal and eat chicken breast and green beans for weeks? Well...yep I can do that without complaint. Do I want to look like a figure competitor....heck yeah! Do I like to be challenged? Oh yeah! Do I like trophies on my table...yep.

Hmmm.....so do I want to compete? Yes and no. I want the challenge, I want to place well, I want to shape my body. I want to train like an animal. What I really don't want is the emotional drama I will put myself in. When I want something I go hard sacrificing things around me to attain that goal. I am an extremist. To give you an example of my extreme nature...when I was going back to school for my Masters program, if I did not achieve a 100% on my paper or test I would wig out. I missed only 4 points in my entire Master's program and I argued with the professor in the class that I missed the points and got 3 of the points back. So, I missed 1 point in the entire Masters program. How did I do that? I poured all my energy into school and sacrificed everything else around me. I did enough to get by at work, my kids ate McDonalds and subway every night. I stopped going to church. My house was a mess, my hubby never got any and I gained 20 pounds. There was no balance in my life...and for what??? To say I got a perfect score in my Masters program??? How ridiculous.

Then there was the bb.com $100,000 challenge. I did the same thing. The last 6 weeks of the contest I became insane. I ate nothing but chicken and green beans, I did too much cardio, my plants suffered because I did not water them like I should, I did just enough to get by at work and for what? I did not place in the contest, I was moody and unpleasant to be around. I lacked balance big time! I don't have a clue how to have balance because I am an extremist.

So, I need to learn how to be balanced. That does not come natural to me. How do I become balanced? I don't know. But I need to figure this out. One thing I do is inadvertently continue to add stress in my life. I have a hard time saying no to people. I have a tendency to over commit. I will do things that I don't want to do to keep the peace or prevent hurting feelings at the expense of my own feelings. Then I begin to resent people then beat myself up for resenting people knowing that I am the cause of my own problem.

But ah.....at least I know this.....I am a mental case...lol.....a highly functioning mental case. That is a step in the right direction, eh?

So, as of today I am still planning to compete as I search to find balance in my life. I did the unthinkable a few days ago. In my quest for balance I grabbed a garbage bag and went through my house and got rid of all my high maintenance plants.....about 40 indoor plants. If they required alot of attention, out they went. I know....extreme. I could have given them away, but I didn't. And you know what......when I came home today I did not have the added stress of having to water 40 or so high maintenance plants. People who know me would think....has she lost her mind? She loves her plants.

Also in my quest for balance I started reading my bible and praying more. I need God's help to help me find balance spiritually, emotionally, and physically. I can't do it on my own.

Well....that's all I have for today.






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Ask yourself this...How fit are you?

I had my grand son over the weekend and just enjoyed him. I ate what I wanted and I did not train or do any cardio at all....thus the increase in my weight. My goal this week is 129 on the scale, however, chances are slim to none that I will see that due to the fact that my TOM is 2 days away and I am behind in my training. I am so looking forward to my depletion training this evening.

I got a chance to visit all day with all of my daughters and my grandchildren on Sunday. My last blog I posted a picture of my little man and now here is a picture of little mama


I took this picture yesterday. She is 4 months old and a bundle of joy. This baby actually belly laughs and it is sooooo funny. She is having one of her belly laughing moments.

I did not log all my nutritional stats during the weekend. Suffice it to say that I had a less than stellar weekend nutrition wise. I ate over in my carbs as well as fat. I was somewhat shocked at the scale...I did not expect to be in weight by 8 pounds, but then I realized that I my TOM is right around the corner. What surprised me was that I did not look like I was holding that much water...or fat...lol. I looked pretty lean in the mirror...not as lean as Friday, but lean. My guess would have been 136 pounds. Oh well.

I read the following article by Scott Able that hit really home for me. Here it is.....

How the Definition of “Fitness” Leads to Yet Another Reality Check for You!

At many of my workshops we begin the session with a basic question, and you can try this one yourself. Right now, off the top of your head, write down what you have learned to be the true definition of "fitness." Not what it means to you, and not as a personal mission statement either; simply define the term "fitness" as you know it, then come back and read the rest of this. Please go do this first.

Now, I usually use this exercise as a fundamental illustration of the paradigm blindness that exists in the industry. Almost everyone who does this exercise the first time receives a failing grade. Why? Because they cannot define fitness in real terms outside of their own industry bias. I will give you an example below. But it occurred to me just how ironic the true definition of "fitness" is, in light of the types of emails I receive and the level of struggles many of my clients endure. So let’s get into it here. But first, let me ask: are you even ready to let go of your industry bias, in regards to the definition of "fitness," in order to learn a greater, but sadder, truth?

In these workshops, before I get people to write down their definition of the term “fitness,” I give them this example: let’s say we have an author in our presence - a true, best-selling, prolific, career author. This author smokes several cigarettes while writing, and he writes for several hours each day. He admits to taking a few breaks and enjoying a “scotch neat” to relax him to keep writing. He gets no exercise at all and pays little attention to his diet. Question: is this person “fit?” Use your own definition of fitness you wrote out above to answer this question.

I will tell you in advance that most of you will be wrong in your assumption - and why? Because you’ve been led to believe something about “fitness” that is incomplete at best, untrue at worst.

I submit to you that this author is as fit or more fit than many of you who are passionately involved in the fitness industry and I will outline why below. This may be a painful pill for many of you to swallow. But if you don’t get defensive and react to this statement, you may have an “ah-ha” moment of truth and awareness by the time you finish this article/lecture. Some of you will get it, some of you won’t; and some of you will live in denial of it. But here is the truth about fitness you should consider:

How is it an author who sits at a desk and thinks and writes all day, smokes cigarettes, enjoys some hard liquor and gets no exercise or addresses his nutritional needs – how can he possibly be defined as “fit”? And how can Scott Abel suggest he may in fact be “more fit” than people who exercise, move around, pay attention to their diets, etc.? Well, here goes:

The Definition of Fitness

The most unbiased definition of fitness is this: “Fitness is the ability to meet the demands and vicissitudes of daily life, with relative ease, with some extra energy available for emergencies or unexpected situations.” This is the unbiased general and true definition of what fitness reflects in and of people. How does our author fair then? Well, if he has no physical issues from sitting and writing day in and day out, then he is fit. He is able to meet the “daily demands and expectations of his life, with relative ease.” He doesn’t need to be able to pass a cardio stress test to be fit for his life or in his life. But there is more.

The Triangle of Awareness

Most of you whom tried to define “fitness” above get a failing grade (unless you’ve attended one of my workshops) because you only entertain one dimension of the definition of the term. “Fitness,” however, does not solely exist in the physical realm. What about the aspects, of mental, emotional and dare I even say spiritual fitness? These are, after all, components of total fitness. So, in the three-dimensional sense, I submit to you, that our hypothetical author is more fit than many of you whom consider yourselves to be fit, but are in fact NOT.

I think of competitors who become so consumed with contest day that their level of mental and emotional fitness not only suffers, but is crushed. Remember the definition of fitness is "the ability to meet the daily demands of life with ease, while having energy to spare." And this definition holds in both the mental and emotional realms as well. Competitors exhaust themselves to the point of emotional and mental apathy. They have no "energy to spare" for anything else in their life. They are "unfit" and "not fit" by this real and true definition of the term. You add in the effect of metabolic damage or metabolic burnout, and then even what began as a pursuit of physical fitness is thwarted in the competitive experience.

By comparison, our author example above is looking more "truly fit" in real terms. Remember that I said this author is a career author and quite prolific, meaning he “produces,” constantly and consistently, quality material. How productive is our dieted competitor in life, by comparison? This author can mentally, emotionally and physically meet the demands of his daily life with ease. He is fit. His life does not go on hold for 3-4 months as he crushes his overall total fitness via punishing his mind, body, and spirit in another realm. Therefore he is much more fit than the average physique competitor.

And you don’t need to compete to fail the fitness definition. Many people are writing me lately having tried an internet guru’s new diet on the net. They have crashed and are not only gaining weight but suffering mentally and emotionally as well from another failed diet. Well, I’m sorry, but on the finishing end of a diet regimen shouldn’t you feel better rather than worse, physically, mentally, and emotionally? Another failed grade, only this time it's not so much because you failed the diet, but because the diet failed you.

Yes, our hypothetical author’s fitness level is looking better to me all the time. Are you getting the irony of all of this?

Let’s Get into It Then!

Some people view the pursuit of fitness as just another life stressor to add to their day. They pile their fitness goals and ideas on top of their “to do” list. Therefore it is not “freeing” as an experience, but imprisoning. The pursuit of a diet and training regimen as a “fitness” indicator is supposed to be in harmony with your life, not separate from it. A diet and fitness regimen is not an external to measure yourself by; it should be a means of self-nourishing to help you be better at everything you do. Your training and dieting “fitness regimen” should provide a means to both put more into your life and still get more out of it as well. That is what fitness means, folks. So ask yourself the honest and yet ironic question: is my diet and fitness pursuit leading me to be able to meet the daily demands of my life with ease? Pretty simple question.

What is your truly honest answer?

We need to address the elements of what fitness is supposed to be contributing to your life. Now, read below, and rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the greatest) on how your fitness pursuits (including diet and training) are leading to you meeting the true definition of the term. Remember, while assessing the points below, ask yourself the question in terms of your mental, emotional, and physical “ability to meet the demands of everyday life.” Consider how your diet and fitness pursuits contribute to these Fitness Indicators.
I have a sense of longevity, a happier, healthier life and lifestyle
I live happier because of my diet and exercise pursuits
I have better, more sustainable energy
I am now much more comfortable with myself because of my diet and training regimen
I am a much more focused person now, in all aspects of my life, both mentally and emotionally
Because of my diet and training regimen I have much greater self-esteem
Because of my diet and training regimen I fit into nicer clothes, all the time
Because of my diet and training regimen I am much more confident

You don’t even have to “rate” the above points on a scale of 1-10. You can just answer yes or no to these fitness indicators. How “fit” are you looking now, in terms of real and true three-dimensional fitness?

Are you now, having considered all of the bullet points above, "more fit" as a result of pursuing your "fitness lifestyle"? If not, then something is wrong here. And if you have a coach and still are scoring low on these indicators, then you need to fire that person!

Look at these above bullet points again and what they speak to. Your fitness and diet pursuits are supposed to be empowering to your life. They should be enhancing your self-awareness and body-awareness. They should not be making you more body-image conscious. AND SHAME ON THOSE COACHES WHOSE FEEDBACK TAKES AWAY THE FORMER AND INSTILLS THE LATTER. Fire them already!

Since when did how you look and how you feel get turned upside down with regards to the definition of “fitness”?

You need to ask yourself in terms of the bullet points (the fitness indicators) above, and in terms of the definition of fitness being “an enhanced ability to meet the daily demands of life with ease.” Is my life better, and am I more fit, because of my pursuit of the fitness lifestyle and my diet and training regimen? Many of you will find you are actually in poorer mental and emotional fitness than when you began. How upside down and backwards is that?

You need to be able to do a quick check list that enlightens the difference between what a diet and training pursuit is adding to your life and what it is taking away from it. For instance, choose yes or no for each of the following bullet points:
I have a fitness routine that works for me, mentally, emotionally, physically (Yes/No)
I have an eating plan that works for me mentally, emotionally, physically (Yes/No)
I feel results from my “fitness” pursuits, mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually (Yes/No)
I see the results, in my life, and for my life, from my diet and training regimen- mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually (Yes/No)

Remember, the true definition of "fitness" is "the ability to meet the demands and vicissitudes of daily life with ease, with extra energy to spare if needs be." This definition applies to your life mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, not just physically. This three-dimensional definition of fitness leads to wellness. True fitness is the key foundation for all aspects of triumph in your life, and for your life. Our hypothetical author above is “fit.” Are you?

How “fit” are you looking now? As fit or more fit than our author example above?

It strikes me as incredibly ironic, moronic, and even sad, that when viewed this way, a simple look at the definition of fitness shows how unfit many people become by compartmentalizing the fitness pursuit into the realm of training and diet only at the expense of everything else being "better."

And more's the pity that the coaches and trainers who get away with reinforcing this “unfit” and “not fit” element of focus back onto their clients! Life-fitness, folks, is about a whole hell of a lot more than how you fit your diet and training. It should be about how well your diet and training fits you! (And yes, I use the word "fit" here deliberately)

Coaching should be about coaching people, and seeing their needs and empowering them in process. The process “IS” the result.

So again, I ask the question, "how fit are you" because of your pursuit of diet and training? Is your life enhanced?

Some of you will get it, many of you will not.

But my hope is this serves as a huge wake-up call, especially for those of you whom actually pay other people to reinforce upon you a diet and training emphasis at the expense of an ability to meet with ease the daily demands of your life mentally, emotionally, and physically, rather than empowering your ability to do so!

A focus on externals like dieting and training, at the expense of internal subjective experience, is a travesty, not a skill set.

And so, let the bomb throwing begin.

I plan to blog about my thoughts on this blog as it pertains to me tomorrow. I have been doing some deep soul searching after reading this article.

Until tomorrow...... God willing that is.
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Being a grandma first today....

I took a day off work to have along weekend with my grandson. He is so FUN!! He is 17 months old but he looks like a 3 year old. He is a big boy...in the 97th percentile for height. His dad is tall like most of the guys on his side of the family. His name is Cameron aka Cam. I think his first word ever spoken was ball. This little dude was born with a fascination with balls and sports. I bought him a Little Tikes Basketball Hoop. I am not kidding....he makes his baskets, can throw poke a five year old and can catch a football with no problem at 17 months old. How can that be????? It seems unreal, but he is an athlete already. You should see how he palms the football like the big guys and slaps it with his other hand like his dad before he throws it. Simply amazing indeed.


Last night his dad asked me how many pushups can I do. I answered, I don't know. I haven't done pushups for over a year or so. I then asked...why do you ask? He said, because I just want to rest assure I can do more pushups than you. I said, well let's see.... So I get on the floor and bang out 40 pushups with perfect military form without even starting to fatigue. I did not want to humiliate him, so I stopped at 40. I think I could have easily knocked out 20 more without problem. I was surprised myself.....and pretty proud that at almost 47 years old I could max my Army PT test without problem. Twenty five years ago, the most pushups I did for a PT test was 36. The run was never a problem but I did struggle with maxing the sit-ups but could do it. I am fitter in my forties than I was in my twenties.

I am steadily losing on the UD2 diet. I hit my weekly weight goal of 130 and continue to hit personal records in the gym. I know I am not losing muscle...I think I am still gaining muscle even though I am cutting.

Today is my high carb day. Trying to hit 800 grams carbs today. I am also trying to keep my fat grams low....around 50 grams. The low fat part is the challenge with a 4000 calorie intake.

This is a great day....carbs, off from work, and enjoying my grandson!!!
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A typical day....

The alarm rings at 0600 and I turn to my 15 year old daughter to wake her up. She is sleeping right next to me....which gets on my nerves. I have a really nice queen size bed and she likes the mattress so every now and then she crawls into bed with me while I am sleeping. I wake her, telling her it is time to get ready for school. She says wake me up in 20 minutes. I lie in bed contemplating if I should get up and take a shower before my daughter, but I want to stay in bed a little while longer too. So 0620 rolls around and I wake my daughter who promptly gets up and takes a shower. I get up as well getting my scrubs around for work.

Before getting in the shower I hesitantly step on the scale...after taking a long look at myself in the mirror I was pleasantly surprised to see my weight down another pound. Whew......I feel good about that. Then I shower and go downstairs to take my EC stack. I want some coffee, I thought....too lazy to fix it. Maybe I should fix me something for breakfast. Ah dang, I am out of eggs. I throw my hair into a ponytail and put my makeup on. As I apply my makeup I notice that I am definitely leaner in the face. Well...good, the diet and training is working. I brush my teeth and my daughter screams from the bottom of the stairs, CAN WE GO NOW??? I holler yes, throw my scrubs and tennis shoes on, grab all my vitamins and put them in my scrub pocket and out the door we went.


It is 0710 as I drop Erica off to school, then to work I go. I get to work and instead of heading to my office I went to the basement of the hospital to make sure that everything was set up for a 4 hour Advanced Cardia Life Support class that I coordinate and teach a portion of. I have a retired nurse who takes care of the logistic and administrative tasks of the class. She makes sure everything is set up, registers the nurses and physicians taking the class, and makes sure all my equipment is in place so that all I have to do is show up and teach. I walk into the class and my jaw dropped. We usually have a class of 12.... Which is a lot for this particular course. The class is doubled!!!! I look at all the people and I think....WTF??

Ummm...how are we going to do this class with this many people? I ask God for forgiveness for swearing in my mind....I am trying to work on that after Sundays sermon that left me feeling guilty about some of my non Christian habits....like mild swearing. I am down 2 instructors and this class is the biggest class we have ever had. I rally my 2 nervous instructors and we quickly come up with a plan to make this work to get everyone out on time...which is noon. Some of the nurses and doctors began to comment about the size of the class and I confidently assured them that we will get through the class on time and that they will have a good learning experience.

I down 2 cups of coffee in 8 minutes while I visualize in my mind how we are going to do this while appearing confident to my instructors as well as the class participants. (I was really having a mini panic attack in my mind...lol). I eye the spread of muffins and bagels that I wanted to have sooooo bad, but I could not have. I try to rationalize in my head how I can make an exception about the bagels......just 1/2 a bagel. I need that....ummm that would be about 17 carbs....whoa...cant afford that. I bypass the bagels and muffins and reach in my pocket and swallowed the handful of vitamins I take daily. We start teaching the class with our modified agenda and make the best of a challenging situation. We manage to successfully teach the class in the 4 hours...ending on time!! Yeah baby, and our evaluations were excellent....CHA CHING!!

12 o'clock and I wander to the cafeteria to see what they had on the line that I could eat. Yummy....chicken kabobs with chicken and pineapple. I should not have the pineapple, but....really...not a bad choice. I order 2 kabobs to go and head to my office to eat. I shut the door so no one would bother me and I eat and look through some email. I have a meeting from 1-3pm....so not enough time to dig into some of my piles. I read and answer a few emails and before I know it, time for the meeting.

Went to the meeting and was out on time. I go back to my office to make a few phone calls, answer some important email, and to wrap things up and call it a day. I am headed out the door at 1530. I am starving and am craving peanut butter. I have plenty room in my allotted macros to accommodate the calories, fat, and carbs in a peanut butter sandwich. But...I needed bread and some sugar-free jelly so off to the grocery store I go. I pick up only bread and jelly and head home. I throw the bread on my scale and accurately measure out 48 grams of peanut butter, zero the scale and measure out 30 grams of jelly. I start eating the sandwich even before sitting down. I must admit, that was one of the best peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I had. I then decide to write my daily blog, publish it and enter all my food and activity and stuff in my diet log.

I let my food settle 45 minutes and then off to the gym to do some cardio. I grab a Shape magazine off my shelf and grab a water and back in the car I go. I get to the gym not really wanting to workout. Yeah...nobody is on my stairmaster machine.....awesome. I set my iPod to my fav music, open the magazine and start exercising at a moderate pace. I look at the Shape magazine with a bit of disgust. I hate Shape magazine. It is so not for serious figure and bodybuilding folks. The only reason I have a subscription to it was to help some girl scouts out in their magazine sale. The closest magazine they had in the area of fitness that I could stomach was Shape. As I exercise, I realize how much energy I had. I could be on the stairmaster for an hour without problem if I wanted to. I decided to do just 40 minutes because I had to be at my daughters volleyball scrimmage within the hour. So I complete my cardio, run home and change out of my sweaty clothes into some dry ones....without taking a shower...no time. I slap some deodorant on and off I went to the scrimmage. I watch my daughter play and then left the game a little early because I promised my hubby that I would train with him. I pick my hubby up and back to the gym we go. He did a full body workout. I just sat around and watched him until he got to his biceps and triceps. I did not train biceps and triceps like I should have yesterday so I knocked 4 sets of 20 x 15 BB curls and 4 sets of tricep pushdowns.

We finish at the gym and I drop my hubby off at home and then I go to our other home. I am starving so I sneak a handful of saltine crackers and dip them in some really good sauce that my hubby makes. I am way below my protein macros so I mix a double shake and down it as I write this blog in the comfort of my bed. I really should take a shower, but I don't want to...so I won't. This is a very typical busy day for me. I rarely have time to do anything normal like watch TV or relax. I will publish this blog tomorrow since I am done now. Before bed I will visit all the bodybuilding forums that I belong to check in and see what is going on with my forum buddies...then off to bed.

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Nothing to talk about today so far

I don't have alot to talk about today. I will talk about my training.

Depletion Training B
Leg Press Machine 125 x 15 (6 sets)
Seated Leg Curls 70 x 15 (6 sets)
Incline DB Press 25 x 15 (6 sets)
Lat Pull Downs 62.5 x 15 (6 sets)
Lateral DB Raises 10 x 15 (6 sets)
Standing Calf Raises 160 x 15 (6 sets)

I did not feel like working my biceps and triceps....I will do that today with my cardio workout. Wednesday and Thursday is cardio. Friday should be my tension workout.

I had a long day at work today. Taught for the first half of the day and then the rest of the day I spent in meetings. Left work and went to the grocery store. I was really wanting a peanut butter and Jelly sandwich, so I needed to get some bread and some jelly to go with my peanut butter. The sandwich was very yummy....I just ate it and I am still hungry. Oh well...




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5 minute abs.....whatever

Ok, I am going to ramble again in this blog about infomercials and magazine articles one last time. In my last blog I talked about an article in a magazine that claimed HIIT cardio was the answer to blasting all that fat we have lingering on our bodies. I have an even bigger issue with the ab commercials. Do 5 minutes of the routine for 8 weeks and you will have abs of steel. Do a 100 crunches a day and the abs will pop through. The ab roller machine....remember that? It goes on and on and on. HEY PEOPLE, THE ONLY WAY YOU WILL SEE YOUR ABS IS TO LOSE THAT LAYER OF FAT COVERING YOUR ABS....DUH!!! NO AMOUNT OF CRUNCHES OR AB ROLLER THING-A-MAGIGS WILL REVEAL ABS COVERED BY FAT!!!!

Let me tell you a secret, I can see my abs and I don't directly exercise my abs at all. I hate exercising my abs and I NEVER directly exercise them. Now don't get me wrong....I am not saying that I don't need to exercise my abs, I should exercise them...but I don't have to exercise them to see them. Lose the fat layer and the abs will appear. I still have a layer of fat to lose before I see my abs without contracting them. I can see some lines but not the entire abs yet. I am going to have to be around 10% body fat to see my abs without contracting. That is pretty lean baby. It will be interesting to see if I can pull that off without losing alot of my muscle. Hmmmmm.




In my most recent picture of my abs above I can see them, but there is a layer of fat over my abs....not water....fat. I have a long ways to go for sure. I will take another picture of my abs in 2 weeks and compare this pic with the next...same pose....around week 5 or week 6.

My depletion workout yesterday
Seated Leg Press 125 x 15 (6 sets)
Seated Leg Curl 70 x 15 (6 sets)
Seated Bench Press Machine 57.5 x 15 (6 sets)
Seated Row Machine 70 x 15 (6 sets)
Lateral DB Raises 10 x 15 (6 sets)
Standing calves 110 x 15 ( 6 sets)
DB Curls 20 x 15 (6 sets)
Tricep rope pushdowns 30 x 15 (6 sets)

I have another depletion workout tonite. 6 sets of 15 repetitions can be taxing indeed!!!

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Blast Fat With Cardio Intervals

I pick up a magazine to pass some time and I turn to this article that shows this chick running on a treadmill and in bold letters the article is titled BLAST FAT WITH CARDIO INTERVALS. So I read the entire article and it has some stuff in it I agree with. Although I am not a fan of HIIT (high intensity interval training) it does have it's place in a training regimen. This article claims that doing high HIIT will blast the fat off....yeah, just do this and the fat will melt right off. Not one place does it mention the importance of nutrition in burning the fat off.


Dang, nutrition is the cake and exercise is the icing so to say. And cardio comes after an adequate strength training plan. AGH!!!!! I remember being the girl that used to buy into these type articles and I would work my butt off and then go to McDonald's afterwards because I worked so hard and can afford the extra calories.

Yeah interval training will work with a solid nutrition plan that is cutting calories as well. And then there are those exercise-a-holic people who do cut their calories to an extreme...eating one meal a day and still wondering why the scale is not budging despite their ridiculous cardio routine eating nothing. AGH!!! That used to be me too. Losing all my muscle while cardio myself to death and not eating and wondering why I was not looking tone like the ladies in the magazine. Can you say toilet metabolism??? I find myself trying to explain these things to people constantly, but often times my explanation falls on deaf ears. And then the magazines feed into peoples misguided expectations by only giving one part of the equation.

In order to blast fat you need to train hard, eat right, sleep.....day in and day out forever, and ever, and evermore amen.



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Power workout

Power Workout



**= Personal Record

Squat or deadlift:
135 x 8
135 x 8
Flat bench 3 sets X 6 reps
85 x 10
100x 8
110 x 5**
115 x 5**
Bent over row
95 x 10
125 x 6
125 x 6
Incline bench
30 x 10
35 x 8
40 x 8
Pulldown
130 x 8
130 x 6
Leg press
290 x 10
470 x 6**
560 x 5**
Shoulder press
30 x 10
35 x 8**
35 x 8**
Rear lateral Machine
70 x 10
70 x 10
Barbell curl
62 x 8**
62 x 8**
Rope Push downs
80 x 8
80 x 8

I enjoyed my power workout. It was hard because I did my tension workout yesterday. I usually do 3 sets of each exercise, but I chosen to do only 2 because I trained hard yesterday and my depletion training is tomorrow and Tuesday





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What the heck......

Yesterday I decided to take a "nap" around 6pm after eating some watermelon and feeling quite uncomfortable.That was stupid of me because I was carb loading and had just ate a box of cereal for my carb load. Yeah....I know, a box of cereal???? Yep....a box of Lucky Charms. I munched all day by the handfuls and ate the entire box by 5pm. Sad thing is.....I could eat the entire damn box without any discomfort. Last week I ate alot of bagels and English muffins....and higher fatty foods and felt horrible. So, I thought I would carb load on Lucky Charms for 2 reasons....1) to satisfy my carb craving 2) prevent discomfort. Everything was good until I ate the watermelon which sat in my stomach in a big lump.

Well, any who, I thought I would take a nap and let the watermelon digest before my highly anticipated tension workout. I awoke 6 hours later after midnight!!! Crap, missed my workout and did not hit my 800 grams of carbs....got around 600 grams. I must have needed the sleep because I laid back down and did not get up til 9am this morning. Then my hubby and I went to Bob Evans's for breakfast where I ordered a stack of 3 blueberry pancakes. They messed up my order and they gave me plain buttermilk pancakes. I went ahead and ate those because I did not want to wait for them to make the blueberry pancakes. Pissed me off. I only ended up eating 1 3/4 pancakes and drinking a bunch of coffee.

I suppose today I will do my tension workout and do my power workout tomorrow, and then do my depletion workouts as scheduled Monday and Tuesday. I know that sounds insane, and a few months back I would never consider hitting my muscles that hard without any rest days in-between; but what I have found out is my body is amazing and adapts to the stimulus put on it without difficulty. This UD2 nutrition and training plan has helped me realize alot about my body that I would have never realized.

Now, as far as my appearance this morning....following my cereal and watermelon carb load yesterday....I definitely spilled over in my abs. they were still there this morning, but smoothed out. I forgot to weigh myself...but so what. I plan to eat more complex carbs today and tomorrow.

This weekend I am going to spend some needed time with my plants. I have neglected them just a bit and they need some TLC. People that know me know I LOVE my plants and have tons of them. I need to do some watering, fertilizing and pruning of my inside and outside plants. Check out the plant in the picture that sits on my coffee table in the study. I love that crazy Medusa looking plant. It is eccentric just like me.



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Progress Pictures Week 3

Progress Picture Day.........

 

I am happy today. I got on the scale this morning not expecting to see 131 pounds because I was so bad the Fri/Sat/Sun of last weekend I figured it would set me back 2 weeks. Well, I managed to hit my goal of 131 pounds regardless. Hmmmmm.......I am truly surprised. my next weeks goal is 130.






I am getting tired of taking progress pictures very Friday, but I am always glad when I do it. It helps me see the minor differences from week to week. I am always looking for a line here or there or the disappearance of a fat pad. I typically compare each week like the picture below. I do front, side, and back. It is easy for me to do because I have several cool picture applications on my iPad. I do my blogging, pictures, and everything on my iPad.




I took my measurements this morning as well. They are posted under my nutrition stats if you want to view them.




I need to start doing the figure poses and wearing my heels in the pictures. I could not stomach the thought of wearing heels this morning just to take some stupid progress pictures. My bikini bottoms don't fit either...lol. My back is leaner just a bit from last week. The separation in my legs is coming along great but it is hard to get in position fast enough to take the pic before the timer goes off. That is another reason that I hate taking the pics in the heels...not enough time to pose!!! I take my own pictures instead of bothering my daughter or husband every Friday morning.





Today is my carb load. Yippee. I will be much better than I was last weekend...promise. I am also excited about my tension workout at the gym.




Ahhh.....I am feeling like my 15 year old daughter posting all these pictures of myself. How vain, huh??? I always post my progress pictures at bb.com. I have over 150 pictures that starts Jan 8, 2011 to the present.





I am in dire need for posing lessons...huh? I have no idea how to expand my lats and I think I need to lift my shoulders up...haha...I don't know what the heck I am doing.

I plan to spend this next week looking for an online coach and a figure training camp somewhere. I have a few people and places in mind.

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The Perfect Figure Model.....

As I look at transforming my body I have a few visions in my mind for me to shoot for. Cheryl Brown has the ideal perfect body that I will never realistically have but I will model as best I can given my age, genetics, and natural drug-free state. I have no idea if Cheryl uses pharmacological enhancements to become super lean, but reality is that most figure models at the Pro level use drugs to get the level of leanness and musculature to be competitive. I do not have the desire to become a pro athlete at my age so doping is out of the question for me.

I may continue to compete as a means of keeping my drive to stay lean and be the best I can be. For me, at least at this point, I need short term goals to keep me moving forward with my transformation.




Check out her entire back side. High glutes not sitting on her legs, and I can see the desirable glute, hamstring tie in. Wow....amazing and her back is sick!!!! She continues to be ultra feminine and athletic to boot. She is a brick house to the max. Another thing I like about this chick is that she is not too veiny. I like veins mind you, but I think too many is detracting to the appearance.




Wow...perfectly shaped abs in my opinion. My abs do not look like that and will never look like hers, but I do desire he leanness. Not too much, just enough. Perfect. And her front legs....perfect, spot on. I personally like her aesthetics better than Nicole Wilkins, Erin Sterns, and Ava Cowens.

Realistically speaking, I feel that I may be able to be a national contender in my Master Level Class since I am almost 47 years old. When I look at some of the national level competitors I can certainly compete! I will need some coaching for sure. I would most likely go for online coaching and attend a weekend posing seminar someplace. I am doing my homework right now. I did have an online coach that I was not particularly pleased with, but in her defense, I asked for help 2 weeks toward the end of my challenge. I had done the bulk of the cutting myself on my own. What I did not like about her is that I felt like my plan was truly a cookie cutter plan. I used her for 8 weeks....the last 2 weeks of this challenge that I was in and then 6 weeks after the challenge. My goals had changed after the challenge but the plan she gave me to add muscle never changed much from my cutting plan. Plus I had to hunt her down for my updates and to be quite honest...she sucked and she is one of the major people advertising her services. So, I am a bit sketchy about online coaching, but I have not lost faith in it just yet. I will find somebody else and ask alot of questions before I give him/her my money.

I looked leaner his morning and am feeling better than I did yesterday. At least I am not in my pissed at the world attitude mode. A new day and new attitude.

One of my bodybuilding.com challenge is ending in a couple of weeks. We have to take a photo with a paper to prove the date of the beginning of the challenge photo and again with a different paper on the last day of the challenge.



I have not worked hard at all to compete in this challenge. My main goal with this past 12 weeks was to add muscle. I did add 2 pounds of muscle but my transformation is nothing compared to the last one I did where I went from being overweight to pretty lean.

My last challenge I did was from Jan 1 to March 26. I put my heart and soul in that challenge.





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So much work to do!!

I am hungry today and I want to cheat. I want to eat a box of Lucky Charms cereal. That is all I want.....just dry lucky charms. Even a bowl would suffice. When I start wanting to cheat, I have to pull out the current photos to snap me back into reality. Can I afford to go off my diet and cheat???? HECK NO!! Just look at my thick self. My competition out there is eating chicken and green beans and training super hard and probably doing some cardio. My competition out there is has her head on straight and her eye on the prize. My competition out there wants to win.

So how do I stop thinking about that box of Lucky Charms? Well look at this chick. She obviously did not dig into a box of cereal, huh?


Thank God I have 14 weeks. I plan to be really tight week the last 12 weeks. Currently I still eat whatever I want within my macro range. That will stop starting weeks out. I will be eating alot of chicken and asparagus....lol.

This morning I took a hard long look at myself in the mirror in the buff. I have some serious work to do




I think I am about 18-19% bodyfat and I need to get down to 10-12% to be presentable. That is some work indeed and I am hoping to do it with as little muscle loss as possible. My weak areas are my shoulders and calves. I have been working really hard on them, but still they are very weak.

I think as I lean down, my back will be alright and I think I am proportionate..at least I think I am. I have a tendency to lose size in my legs as I cut. I am worried about that. I have worked hard on my legs. I don't have the problems with the hip and thighs many ladies struggle with. I gain my weight in my upper body and I lose the weight LAST in my upper body.



By time it is all said and done I am probably looking at 122 pounds competition weight. I have a weight graph that I use to help keep me in check. My goal is to stay below the goal line as I do my depletion and carb loading. So far so good.




I record everything that enters my mouth.....the good, bad, and ugly. And I have been good and bad. Because of my sucky last weekend, I will not come near my goal of 132.0 pounds by Friday. I am kicking myself. I was pissed when I got on the scale this morning. I was at least hoping for 134.
So bad eating can set me back 2 weeks....so I better keep that in mind. But, as long as I stay on or below the goal line of my weight graph at all times I will not panic.

I find when I carb load with bagels and English muffins, I feel like crap. I am going to carb load this weekend with cereal on Friday...minus the milk. I am finding that I am having all kinds of issues with my dairy particularly milk, yogurt and DEFINITELY ice-cream. I get bloated, gassy, and just plain miserable. Even with my whey protein shakes I feel crappy.

I am still not getting my water in. AGH!!!!!!!!!SO MUCH WORK TO DO!!!!!!
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Victoria Secret Models are Overrated.....

So I am on the quest of transforming my body and it is taking time and effort. I know what I want to look like. I have the exact picture of the Annette that I want to see reflected back at me. I don't want to see soft gentle curves on a skinny body. I don't want to look like a Victoria Secret Model....or should I say Angel. Boring, boring, boring!! Soft, soft, soft!! Skinny, skinny, skinny. YUK!!

That is definitely my opinion. There are a ton of men and women who would prefer that look over my idea of beauty. When I see my reflection in the mirror I want to see lines, muscle, athleticism, abs. I want to see my shoulders popping, the side muscular sweep of the thighs, the tight booty lifted high OFF the legs. I want to see the beautiful Y frame from the back without any evidence of a soft bra bulge or a muffin top on top of my jeans. I want pure leanness. Not skinny by any stretch of the imagination, lean, lean, lean.

In my opinion calling me skinny is just as bad as calling me fat. I don't want to be either extreme. I want people to look at me and say....she had four kids??? NO WAY BUDDY!! I want people to look at me and say....she is almost 50???? YOU ARE OUT OF YOUR MIND!! I want people to look at me and say...If she can do it, I certainly can do it. I want to look 10 years younger than my age at all times.

I am not there yet but day by day I am moving forward. Some days better than others. Some mountains that I have to climb along the way. The highs and the lows with the emotions, the losses, gains, and plateaus are part of this journey. I want to take someone with me. I want someone to say, Annette helped me or inspired me along my journey.

Figure model....heck yeah. (Gina Allioti....she is my height)







Victoria Secret Model....HECK NO!!!!






My progress so far.
I am going to take my measurement Friday morning and I will post them under my fit day account which you will be able to see under my nutrition stats. I am choosing Friday because this is the day that I am most depleted...following my 4 low carb days. My weight is usually the lowest on Fridays. I will try to get some progress pics in on Friday. I did not get any taken on last Friday....too busy. I did take some on Saturday after a massive carb load :).

I only have 3 weeks left of the bb.com challenge that I have entered but have not been seriously trying to win. I will act right the next 3 weekends so that at the very least I can post photos that look better than the start of the contest...haha. I entered another one as well....who knows, maybe I might place in one of them. Last challenge I tried my hardest and did not even place. So now I have the attitude....if I place great, if I don't....so what. I invested too much emotional energy in the last challenge that left me disappointed. However, I did not stop. I joined the next challenge and I will continue entering the challenges until I get sick of it or win something.



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Erica.....

I took Sunday off from blogging. It's Monday and a new week. I am looking forward to this week of training. My weekend was a bit off plan but hopefully I can get things moving forward in the right direction. In this blog I would like to talk about my youngest daughter.

Erica is a freshman in high school this year. The youngest out of 4 children she is by far my most spoiled kid. I had thought that my child bearing years were over when Erica popped in and said hello...I am here. At age 31 I found myself pregnant and mad. I had been divorced for several years and had recently started a relationship with Erica's dad and boom...pregnant!! How do I explain this one to my other 3 children? Ummmm.....how do I even tell my mom that her innocent 31 year old daughter was pregnant out of wedlock? And oh the gossip....I could just imagine the talk.

Yep, Annette was a goodie two shoe girl growing up. I did well in school, did not even kiss a boy until age 16. Stayed a virgin throughout high school and some of college. Got a full academic scholarship to Bowling Green State University, graduated with my Bachelors in Science Nursing, got married, served my country and had 3 beautiful children. After active duty I moved to a small town in Ohio, got a job in the Emergency Room and life was good.

Within a year all of a sudden I was getting a divorce and found myself a single mom with 3 little children. Well thank God I had an education and a good job to help support the 3 babies. I also had an amazing mom who picked up and moved in with me to help with the children and money.

The eldest of 3 children, I always felt that I had to be the example for my brother and sister. For the most part I was the perfect kid...never did drugs, never drank alcohol or smoked. Straight A's and played in the band...haha. Even as an adult, I felt I needed to be perfect for my mom and my brother and sister. So when I became pregnant, I was worried that I would disappoint my mother and my family. I waited until I was 6 months pregnant before I had the courage to tell my mom and kids about the pregnancy. My mom was actually quite relieved that I was pregnant because she could sense something was terribly wrong with me because I looked bad and had lost alot of weight...even though I was SIX MONTHS PREGNANT. Amazing what stress can do to ya, huh? My mom was worried that I had cancer or something bad like that. When I finally got the courage to tell mom (yep...age 31 and still feeling like I could not tell mom about the pregnancy) she of course had no issue with the fact that I was pregnant. She said....well honey, you're grown lol. I told the kids and a few people that gossiped alot at work and soon the cat was out of the bag. After my little secret was exposed, I felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders and I actually became excited about the little girl kicking the heck out of me in my stomach. I ballooned in weight almost overnight...lol. I went from not looking pregnant at all to very pregnant looking in about 4-5 weeks.

Then the day came, August 5, 1996 Erica was born. The queen had arrived. And Erica has been the queen since. Her oldest sister Kathy became her first mom. Kathy did everything with Erica!! She was only 8 years old but was determined to help take care of Erica. She changed diapers, held her constantly and they were basically inseparable. Kathy was the "mom" and I was her food supply. When I was not nursing her she would be with Kathy. When she went to her dads, he would eventually call and ask Kathy to come stay as well because she would cry alot without Kathy. So, Erica was and still is the queen.

Erica is close to all of my kids and she has 3 sisters with her dad that she is very close to as well. She is ms. Spoilly royally and has the best of 2 worlds. The world with her doting mom and my 3 kids and the world with her dad and his 3 kids.

So what does any of this have to do with fitness and diet?? Well, Erica is on a diet with her mom. She is a beautiful girl, but she wants to lose a few pounds and she has watched me transform my body and would like me to help her do the same. So we are on this journey together.



What I hope to do is teach Erica the importance of exercise, nutrition, and health while she sees the fruits of her labor....a beautiful lean physique. She is an amazing athlete and will lean out very quickly if she stays on point Mon-Fri. I will let her eat what she wants on the weekend. She got an iPod touch for her birthday so she can listen to music during her workouts. She has Labron James Nike shorts and tennis shoes for the fashion statement in the gym. She should be good to go with her spoiled self. I so love my Eri Berri!!!!

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Confessions of a church girl......

Yeah...I admit it....I look in peoples grocery carts while standing in line like some self-righteous reformed junk food junkie. What the heck??? Who do I think I am? That cart looked like mine a while back so who am I to judge? I find myself feeling a bit ashamed at myself for even looking....and judging. And do I really think that the owner of that cart does not realize I am eyeing the contents of his/her cart? Duh...Annette. Stop it!! God don't like ugly!!



More confessions.....I walk into the gym planning on doing my steady state cardio session on MY STAIRMASTER machine only to find some lady getting on MY machine before me. She dawdles and plays with her iPod or whatever and then gets her harlequin novel out and sets the workout controls at a level one and casually starts her "cardio" session. I walk past her swearing under my breath and give her a FAKE smile and say hi and begrudgingly get on the elliptical....not may favorite machine...put the level up enough to sweat and get a good workout starting. Ten minutes into the workout the lady gets off the stairmaster machine like she has done some type of workout. I WANT TO DECK HER!!!!!! She ruined my planned workout for 10 minutes of nothing and now I am too far into my elliptical workout to stop!! At that point, I begin talking to God.....please God help me to calm down....please help me.

OK...and then there is the stinky sweaty guy in the weight room who finishes his 10th set of incline dumbbell presses and gets up and leaves his nasty sweat on the bench and goes to the next piece of equipment. YYYYUUUUKKKK!!!!!!!!!! I want to deck him!

Same guy goes to the Leg Press machine and loads it with 4 hundred pound plates and then adds 8 more 45's and does several sets and walks out the gym without unloading the press. I WANT TO PULVERIZE THE UGLY, SWEATY STINKY, INCONSIDERATE DICK HEAD!!!

I flip out.....but not at him. I find the nicest, most innocent looking guy in the gym and politely interrupt his workout and ask him if he can help me unload the dang leg press machine.

And then there is the circuit training junkie who feels he owns a section of the gym as he runs from one area to the other. I WANNA DECK HIM!!!!

Ok...I am done with the confessions. My carb load for Friday was less than stellar. My fat grams were way too high....but I got my carbs in. Today will be clean.

I am 14 weeks out from the competition. Here is another suit that I borrowed from a friend. Now, don't judge the figure just yet. Remember I have 14 weeks left to cut the fat and hopefully maintain my muscle. Also...I just took the photos this morning after eating 3800 calories of mostly carbs and fat...lol.

The journey never ends does it?

I got on the scale this morning and was 132.1 depleted (before my carb load). Last Friday I weighed in at 133.2 depleted. So I am very happy with the fat loss. I have quite a ways to go but I will get there.

Yesterday I was on the phone yacking to my girlfriend Sumi about my diet journey. It is so cool to have a friend that knows the highs and lows of gaining muscle, losing fat, gaining some more muscle, losing fat, maintaining muscle, losing fat, gaining fat to gain some muscle....and on and on it goes. She not only feels my pain, but she understands my pain as well because she is a personal trainer. And guess what!!! She is doing UD 2 for a while with me and so we have alot to talk about.

I met Sumi on the Body Building Revealed forum and we have been sisters since. Yeah...I know....another body building revealed person??? ...If you have read my previous blogs or some of my page links, I seem to mention the body building revealed forum or site often. Well....yeah I do because that site is my first love when it comes to learning and asking for advice and I have developed some special cyber friendships on that site. I can be myself on that site. If I want to brag... throw up some pictures that are showcased on the front page...(longer than I like). If I want to whine....I whine and people will listen and support me. If I want to learn...all I have to do is spend hours and read the forum responses and soak in all the knowledge. If I have a female issue...there is a fab female moderator named Ellissa that is there for me (as well as the guys who always chime in ). If I want to be lazy and not try to find the answer to something, someone will help me and my question ALWAYS gets answered!!!!! If I want to cry and complain I just private message Scott  aka rbtrout...and he always puts things in perspective for me.... If I want to act silly...no problem....the regulars act silly with me. I just love that site and it is hard for me not to talk about it or the people on it because they have helped me considerably in my transformation journey. OMG....I have digressed!


Ummmmmm where was I?? Oh yeah....Sumi...my sista in crime lol. I think me and Sumi joined the forum close to the same time. Yeah...I remember her...the cute little thang she is. Here she was being spot lighted on Will Brinks site with her cute self. Made me want to gag...lol. Just kidding.....kinda. Just look at her...

Ladies, doesn't she make you jealous!! What a freaking cutie pie. And what made me wanna gag even more was that she had such a dang cute bubbly personality!!  You just have to love Sumi (aka Robles ). Ya can't help it!!! Grrrr.....

And of course, Sumi would hop on my threads and tell me to posts some pictures!! Shut up Sumi!!(I never said that to her...but I thought it). I ain't gonna post any pictures until I lose some weight. Lol...those were the times I would cry on Scotts shoulder cuz Sumi was Fab and I was not. Do you sense just a wee bit of jealousy there.....yeah I admit it. But in the same vein I adored Sumi and we became sisters immediately. So I worked damn hard to get into shape so that I could post some lean pictures just like her. And guess what.... with the support of my girl and our forum family, I got lean. I love you Sumi!!

Can I tell you a bit more about Sumi?? Why am I asking?? This is MY BLOG!! Me and another dear friend Robyn (aka rojobo) shared a room together at the Arnold this year in Columbus. Yep...all 3 of us in one room. We were all meeting each other for the first time. Robyn...my girl flew in from Australia and we instantly hit it off. Robyn is beautiful and has competed in figure competitions in Austrailia...so all I did was ask her question after question after question while we waited for Sumi to fly in. Well Sumi finally arrives and drive to the airport to pick Sumi up. There she is....just like the picture and more. It was great to meet my sista in person!! She was just like she writes...fun, bubbly, and high energy. We got back to the hotel and quickly talked sleeping arrangements because there were only 2 queen beds. Guess who got the bed  to herself? Yep Sumi :). I forgot how we came to that agreement, but we did. Then the 3 of us went to dinner and had a great time. Three sisters from 3 different mamas....and daddy's...haha.

 We went back to the room and went to sleep. First thing in the morning we woke up to go workout in the hotel gym. Me and Robyn threw some clothes on and were ready in no time.Guess what Sumi was doing....putting on her LIPSTICK TO GO TO THE GYM!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME....LOL. That is so SUMI!!!!She looked like a model going to the gym. I still smile when I think of that story.

Wanna see more photos of Sumi, learn more about her, or do some online consulting with her? You can reach her at this link....Goddess of Fitness or you can find her site under my list of fav links.

So...Sumi call me after you read this girlfriend!!

Making Connections

I am inspired by people who overcome challenges and make positive changes despite the difficult hand that life sometimes deals. For instance, we have seen people who were morbidly obese become lean and healthy. And then there is the scrawny guy who becomes buff and confident. We have seen people climb out of the depths of poverty into the heights of wealth. I want to know their story and I make it a point to seek these people out and learn from them if the opportunity presents itself.

I belong to several online forums two of which I frequently read or post questions on. One of my favorite forums is the bodybuilding revealed forum. I have been a member on this forum for since June of last year. Prior to this time I rarely visited a forum let alone participated on one. But, I liked this particular forum because all the members seemed to be serious about training and helpful. Also, the moderators are extremely knowledgable and helpful as well. To be honest, I do more reading than asking questions so often I will spend an hour just reading several different posts that interest me or pertain to something I am doing with my training. Over the past year I have become familiar with the regulars....people that post often. All I see is their profile pic, but their personalities start to present themselves through their posts.

Wesley is one of the guys on the bodybuilding revealed forum that occasionally popped in on some of my posts... mainly with words of encouragement or suggestions. He is a nice guy, humble and non imposing. I did not have much correspondence with him other than an exchange of some simple pleasantries here and there. I did not follow Wesley's posts as often as I did other regulars on the forum but I would read some of his threads here and there. His profile picture always popped out to me.



There it is....the dude with the abs. That is what I called him in my mind lol. I would take a bit of time to at least read some of his posts because a guy with abs like that ultimately knows a thing or two about getting lean......but I never took the time to reach out and connect with him until last month.

Early last month I was on the forum writing in my workout journal. I was complaining that I had no energy and that I was feeling blah. I was on week 8 of the UD 2 diet and was looking forward to my 2 week diet break but for some reason I was feeling crappy despite the fact that I was eating ok, got enough sleep and drinking like I should. Then Wes pops up on my thread and asked what day are you on now on the UD2 diet? I thought...what, does this guy know about the UD2 diet??? and he knows Lyle McDonalds stuff??? Really??? That kinda excited me. He wrote, "if I carb up over the weekend or Sunday, I find Tuesday afternoons can be quite sapping, think Lyle mentions this in the book too. Stay strong, as you know the great results are only a day or two away." WHOA....SOMEONE ON BODY BUILDING REVEALED WHO KNOWS WHAT I AM GOING THROUGH!!!! Well, that created an instant connection with Wesley, my new found buddy. We posted back and forth and then I asked him if he had ever done a 2 week diet break after UD2 and if so what did he do. He then went on to explain what he did.

He wrote..." my diet is always relatively clean, but there are certain times where I place extra attention on details to reach a certain goal etc. Because I am a type 1 diabetic my carb intake is never high throughout the week even when I am not focusing on a specific goal. high for me would be 50-100 grams Monday through Friday. I try to take training breaks every 8 weeks or so though it is hard to stay away. Often I will just do some cardio, box jumps or ab work to keep active, but no strength training."

Not only was his post very helpful and answered my question fully, he also mentioned that he is a type I diabetic. That blew me away because I am fully aware of the challenges that diabetics face to properly manage the disease let alone get lean like he is. Heck, you saw the picture of his abs!!

It is very common for diabetics to experience weight gain when giving themselves insulin. Insulins primary role is to reduce the removal of glucose (sugar) from the body, and any excess glucose is stored as fat. In order to stay lean, a diabetic must monitor their food intake super carefully to achieve a lean physique, manage the disease and to stay healthy. This takes a crazy amount of discipline to have abs like this and be a diabetic.


What inspires me the most about Wes is his commitment to his health and his appearance. I began asking him tons of questions in regards to his diabetes and training because I love learn and also because I have a friend at the gym who is an insulin dependent diabetic who trains faithfully and feels he eats correctly but is unable to achieve the leanness that Wes has achieved.

So, I asked Wes what his biggest challenge was in regards to nutrition and training. He stated that his biggest challenge is balancing his food intake between he sugar levels. For instance, if he is trying to lose body fat and therefore trying to keep his sugar intake down, if his sugar is low he is forced to eat carbs and this has the potential to throw his nutrition off. Also, if he finds himself in social functions where the food preparation is out of his control, he has to eat something...and it may not be the best food choice. One way he gets around this is ensuring that 80% of the time his food requirements are met. The other 20% when things may be off a bit won't hurt too much.

Wes states that one of the biggest things that people fail to do is learn about food and how food affects them (the affect of calories and macronutrients etc). Wes started learning about food around the age of 25. He started out rigidly recording everything he ate for about 2 years. Although this was time consuming, he took the time to learn everything about food....about carbohydrates, protein, and fat...and actually realized the scary fact that he didn't know what he didn't know. "Knowledge is power so to speak." for instance "it helps me stay away from foods that probably aren't ideal because I have goals in place that I want to lock into and that one muffin will throw my nutrition off. If you don't write it down or record it, somehow you can eat without thought."

Training is ingrained in Wesley's routine and he trains whether he wants to or not.

I agree with Wesleys advice and do alot of the same things that he does such as record everything I eat. I even weigh the majority of my food. I am so glad to have connected with Wes because I have another super smart guy I can bounce things off of. I love the WWW....cuz I have the opportunity to connect with people as far away as Sydney Australia...Wesley's home town.

Cheers mates!!!!







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Tired, tired, tired........

I am still trying to recover from being awake 27 hours from 6am Sunday morning to 9am Monday morning. I only slept 2 hours and woke up at 11am because I had a meeting at work that I could not cancel. I got out the meeting at 1:30 then went to my office to check on a few things before heading back home. I finally got home at 2:30 and had to stay awake to take my kid to volleyball practice.

I contemplated trying to go to sleep while she was at practice, but decided against it because I was afraid that I would be too tired to hear my alarm to pick her up from practice besides the fact that I feel worse when I sleep a few hours and have to wake up. I did a few things around the house and picked her up from practice at 5pm. Now mind you, I only got 2 hours sleep after being awake 27 hours....I decided to go train. Of course this had to happen on a glycogen depletion training day!!! UGH!!!! I took my ephedrine and caffiene and went to the gym. I also decided to use my entire carb allotment for the day pre- workout so that I have some energy to do the workout since I was so tired. I did my depletion workout and everything was going fine until I got to my last 2 muscle parts....biceps and triceps. I literally hit a wall so to speak. I got dizzy, exceedingly weak and very nauseous. I pushed through all that and did all the sets but literally had hardly any energy to walk out the gym.

Besides being tired, I believe that I ran out of gas near the end of the workout because I did not eat enough during the day prior to my workout and then carb loaded prior to the workout. The high reps and tons of sets ate through all the high glycemic carbs which caused an acute drop in my blood sugar. Not only that...the EC stack was probably starting to kick into high gear.  Oh well, I made it home and slammed a couple scoops of protein powder shakes and ate the rest of my daily food allotment. Even after I ate I remained shaky and wide awake but EXHAUSTED because of the ephedrine and caffiene. Needing to sleep but unable to sleep sucks!! I finally dozed off around 8:30pm but awoke at 1am to pee. Well, once I wake up it is all bad. I usually can't get back to sleep. So I was awake til about 4 am. Then I finally fell back to sleep. I was suppose to be at work about 8:00 am, but no way....could not do it. I slept until 10am Tuesday then got up, got dressed and went to work.

I got to work at about 11am. I felt fine...pretty rested. Stayed at work until 4:30 then took my kid to volleyball practice at 5pm. I ate my allotted carbs and went to the gym while my kid was at volleyball. I did my second depletion workout and felt fine throughout the entire workout. I picked Erica up around 7pm and we went home. I started cooking my meals for Wednesday and I ate my final meal of the day. I went to the grocery store, cleaned up the kitchen and by time it was all said and done, I was in bed by 10:30. I slept through the night. I woke up at 6:30 this morning and went to the gym to do some fasted morning cardio. It felt good. Around 10 this morning I started to become excessively drowsy and blah feeling. I think the lack of sleep with the exhausting workouts are just starting to hit me. I am out of steam. I am writing this on my lunch break and I am contemplating just calling it a day and going to bed. But, if I do that, my work just keeps piling up and piling up. I am already behind a day as it is. Decisions, decisions!!! I think I will just drag my butt back into work and finish off the day. I will try to get to bed early tonite. Thank God this is just a cardio day...no weights.

I am down to 132.4 pounds this morning. That is a 8.7 loss in weight since last Monday. It may be more than that because I am on my period and am bloated a bit. I know some of the loss is body fat in addition to water because I can see it in my face. Whenever I start to lose body fat I see it right away in my face. I also have more definition in my arms, legs, and abs this week. The UD 2 is working better than I even imagined. I usually plateau at about 134 pounds. My body hates to weigh less than that. I was shocked to see 132 on the scale especially in the middle of my menses. Well, I will take it!! BTW...I am continuing to hit personal records in the gym while I am doing this diet!!! Sweet.

Time to head back to work.

Being the best!!!

I have been following along on a series that Lyle McDonald is writing called
Why The US Sucks At Olympic LiftingIt is a fairly interesting read. Instead of attempting to explain why the US Olympic Lifters fail to win, he has dug into what winning teams or people do that make them win. In part 1 he talked alot about the Kenyans who dominate in the area of moderate and long distant running events. The Kenyans win over and over and over. What is it that they do every day that makes them win? What gives them a competitive edge/advantage? Well in his article he points out several things that the Kenyans do consistently. One of the things that jumped out at me was their 110% commitment to the sport and their discipline. Lyle writes "they train like maniacs." To train like a maniac they have to be committed and disciplined. He also looked at many other factors that attribute to the Kenyans success.

The most intriguing thing that I learned about the Kenyans is that they train in groups even though running is pretty much an individual sport. They are constantly competing with each other and helping each other to be better and better. After reading Lyles article I watched a YouTube video about two Kenyan women competing in the same race with many other women from other countries. The two Kenyan women used each other to pull ahead of the other competitors. Throughout the race they took turns taking the lead to keep their pace high and they fed off of each other....like they train in Kenya. When they both got a considerable distance ahead of the other competitors only then did they compete against each other til the end of the race.

I don't read this kind of stuff just to be entertained. What can I do to get the results that I want in my sport of transforming my body? I asked myself these questions based off of Lyles article about the Kenyans.

1. Do I have the body type to have success in figure competition?
2. Do I have a genetic tendency to be skinny, muscular or fat?
3. Do I have all the resources I need to truly be competitive?
4. Do I train like a maniac?
5. Do I have commitment and dedication to the sport?

If the answer is no to any of these questions, I ask myself...is there anything I can do to improve in the areas because I do know this...I want to compete and I want to win. I don't want to compete just to compete. I want to win. To me winning is not necessarily being the winner of the competition. Even if I am 5th and have done everything I could do and given 100% with what I have I am still a winner inside.

Articles like these inspire me!!



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No Rest For The Weary!!!

Start weight 141.1
Current weight 134.9
Loss/gain -6.2

I was called into work last night at around 1030 pm. I was not expecting to have to work, so I had not slept all day. I usually don't work on weekends and rarely do I have to work the nightshirt. But my staff needed some help so off I went to work. I was up for 27 hours before I had the opportunity to lay down for a few hours. I had a really important meeting today at noon, so I only had time to sleep 2 hours. So, I am exhausted!!! I am trying to figure out when I am going to train. I think that I will just stay up and go to the gym around 4:30 pm. Outside of my meeting, I took the day off from work. I feel like I have a hang-over. You know...nauseous and just fuzzy in my head.

Today is my depletion workout in the gym. Not the easiest workout to have to do, especially being that I am running on fumes. I will get through it I suppose. I think I will leave around 5:00 pm. I am not looking forward to the 6 sets of 15 reps per body part routine. To get me through the workout, ai will be thinking about all the fat burning that I am doing.

This is the first time that I have not been 5-7 pounds heavier on the Monday after my crazy refeed weekends.....well used to be crazy. I stayed on point this weekend and it has made a drastic difference!!!! Despite the fact that I started my period yesterday and I am retaining some water, the scale has been kind to me. Totally depleted Friday morning, I was 133 pounds. Saturday my weight was up 3 pounds or so and remained up on Sunday. this morning I was down a few pounds....134.9. UD2 works well for me and I really think I will lean out quicker than I imagined. It remains to be seen however.

Below is a picture of my beautiful mom. She is 66 years young and has the energy of a 30 year old.



I wanted to be just like my mom when I grew up. My mom is an RN and is still working full time with no desire to retire in the near future. She is an amazing lady. She raised me, my brother, and my sister as a single mom. She divorced our father when we were ages 3, 2, and 1. Unfortunately she has never remarried. She taught all of us to be fiercely independent and encouraged us all to get our education and not to depend on anyone. We did just that and all of her kids have successful careers.

As you can see, my mother is absolutely beautiful and not only is she beautiful; she is the best mother that anyone could possibly imagine having. I NEVER missed having a father because my mom was my mother and father to us.

I am blessed with an amazing family!!!!

Aha Moments.....

I am still hanging on the fact that I had such a hard time eating 700 grams of carbs in Friday. I was so unprepared. You know the saying...I use it all the time..."fail to plan, plan to fail". I hate failing, like we all do, but I try to use my failures as stepping stones and growth opportunities.

One thing that I learned is this...it is not easy eating over 700 grams of carbs without fat in just a few meals. But the biggest thing I learned was how crazy high my fat intake was when I was not watching what I eat. When I used to carb load....I never accurately documented what I ate...I just ate what I wanted for a few days. One of my typical meals on my cheat day would be this:

Lunch at McDonalds

Quarter pounder with cheese
Large fries
Medium coke
3 McDonald chocolate chip cookies

Let's look at the damage of that meal....

Calories 1750
Fat 75g
Carbs 250g
Protein 41g

I would eat this meal in one sitting and then be hungry for dinner and snacks in between. For breakfast I would have pancakes with syrup, bacon, eggs, yada, yada, yada and then for dinner I would go out to eat again. Major damage indeed....and the worst part is that I was really setting my body up for fat storage. I can't believe that I did as well as I did on the UD2 diet when I gorged for 3 days.

One of the biggest issues with pigging out like this is all the fat consumption. I can be pretty certain that my body is going to store all my fat grams as fat when I overfeed. The carbs and the protein are not the big issue really on the cyclic diet. You might ask, isn't a calorie a calorie? The answer is no. In the cyclic program, Monday through Thursday I eat low carbs...less than 50 grams a day. I also eat really high protein and keep my fat grams below 50 grams. Doing this along with a special training routine depletes my muscles of glycogen stores. I keep my protein high to maintain my muscle so that my body doesn't pull from my muscle for energy. Also, it takes more energy for my body to utilize protein in digestion so I burn more calories trying to digest protein. Since I am not giving my body many carbs to use as energy my body will pull from my fat stores for energy....yes!! Just what I want. So during those 4 days I am in fat burning mode by keeping my calories low, keeping my carbs low, keeping my fat low, and keeping my protein high.

Well my body...and yours...is smart. My body thinks I am starving it, so it starts doing all kinds of hormonal crap to prevent me from using too many of my precious fat cells. One thing it does is lowers my metabolism so that I don't burn as many calories a day. Dang it!! That is where the cycling of carbs comes in. By time my body has figured out what I am doing to it....burning that precious fat, I feed it tons of carbs....which makes my body happy. It makes my hormones happy, and my body doesn't think it is starving. So it takes all the carbs and use them. First it fills my glycogen stores back into my muscles.Yeah!! That is where about 300g of carbs go first. Then the rest of the carbs are used as energy to fuel my body. Now this works great if I keep my fat low!!!

Now dietary fat is the devil. It takes ALMOST no energy to digest fat and store it. My body..and yours LOVE fat...because it wants to store it just in case a famine arrives. Unlike protein and carbohydrates...my body will store the body fat readily for future use. It won't selectively pick fat to burn as fuel for my metabolism especially when carbs are available with the fat. So let's look at my McDonald lunch. That meal had a combination of fat, protein and carbs. My body will first burn the carbs for energy. It will also work on breaking down the protein for amino acids and other good stuff. Now...that 75 grams of fat...where do you think that is going??? Yep, it is going to my hips, butt, abs, as storage. Fat will not be used for energy because I have given my body tons of carbs to use as energy. Now do you see why I have to keep my fat low?

So with this cyclic diet I am in fat burning mode for 4 days and muscle building mode for 3 days. All in all, if I do this plan right I will lose bodyfat. When I carb load, the weight will definitely go up....but the cool thing is this.... It is NOT bodyfat weight, it is all water. Because for every gram of carbs I eat, 3-4 grams of water follows the carbs. So on Friday I weighed 133 pounds. Today I weigh 136.2. I am up 3 pounds...but who cares?? It is just water. And when I look in the mirror, my muscles actually look fuller and I look leaner than I did on Friday if I did my carb load correctly. I have abs on Sunday if I did my carb load right. If I overate carbs and fat, my abs disappear and I know that I spilled over in my carbs which will set me up for some fat storage. Sometimes, I do extra cardio if I see a spill over so that I can burn some of the fat that I had maybe stored.

So now I get it. I am going to keep my fat low on refeeds so that I keep losing bodyfat. I dig learning about all the hormone changes that are happening while I diet.

I just learned that low carbohydrate diets affect seratonin levels...lowers the levels...which is probably why I am cranky during my low carb days when I am not taking ephedrine. My ephedrine and caffiene stack help increase my seratonin levels...that is why I feel so good on that stuff. not only does it help burn fat, it helps mood for some people. A win/win!

Picture of my 21 year old son..he will be 21 next month actually

Always has his nose in a book like his mom...lol.