"The Rock" Speaks!!!! A Story About Rbtrout.

People come and go in our lives and along the way we meet some special people that we just connect with. My friend Scott is one of those special people. I have not met Scott in person, but he is one of my dear online forum buddies on bodybuildingrevealed.com. Like I said before, bodybuildingrevealed.com is my favorite forum, and I belong to several.

Now about Scott

I found Scott's profile pic to be somewhat intimidating. Look at that pic...does that pic look kind of ummmmm.... Intimidating to you? To me that pic looked like it was telling me, hey...... If you can't lift a car you don't need to be here on my page.

Here is an example of one of his journal posts back when I started reading his journal last year....

Thursday - ME leg day - week 2
Banded squats
45/15/15
135/10/10
225/8
315/5
405/5
495/5/3
545/2
We don't have hooks on the power rack, so I have to put the bands through a 5er and then 3 35ers to hold them. If I use only 3 35ers, at the top of the squat, the 105# lifts off the floor slightly. The extra 5 pounds keeps it down. I know, then, that I'm adding about 105 at the top.

Pull throughs
150/15/15
195/10/10

Calf raises on leg press
4 1/2 pps/20
6 1/2 pps/20
8 1/2 pps/20

PPS = plates per side (45ers). 1/2 = 25er.




Now imagine little ole me...annette. I could not make out anything he was saying. All that macho gym talk and look at all that weight he was stacking on his body!!!! Yep, his workout matched his picture. I did not have anything in common with this dude.

And then there was his profile name, rbtrout. I gathered that he must like fishing and I was right about that.

Then his signature included this little saying....

BEER -
Now cheaper than gas, so
Drink, don't drive!

I liked his signature....made me smile, but still this dude appeared to me as a heaping mound of testosterone lifting heavy things lol. For a couple of months I would read a few of his posts here or there, but for the most part, I did not read his stuff.

Yeah....those were my first impressions of Scott and as we all know, first impressions are not always accurate.....especially online. What I found out about Scott was this...yes he lifts alot of weight, but he is the nicest and most sensitive person I have met on any forum. He is a great big Teddy Bear and he is my "go to" person when I feel like crying or feel bad about myself. I just private message Scott and he always makes me feel better with words of encouragement.

I remember the first time he hopped on my journal page. I was surprised to see that he took some time to read part of my journal. He said my journal was a good read. Wow....the ROCK read my journal. That's cool. A few days later he posted on my journal a comment in regards to a post that I wrote on taking some "me" time and relaxing and pampering myself. He wrote that it was good to relax and then he told me that he relaxes by fishing. After that, I followed Scotts posts and he followed and commented on my posts. Funny thing was/is Scott's ability to read between the lines. He can always tell if something is bothering me. And being the sensitive person that he is, he takes the time to ask me if everything is all right. And then I pour all my sorrows on him....lol. So that is how Scott became my "go to" person lol.

More about Scott......

Scott actually started lifting around age 13. His dad had bought him a weight set that consisted of a weight bench with a leg extension attachment. He also had some dumbbells, and a long bar with the cement filled plastic plates. If you are my age or older, you might be familiar with those cement filled plates. Scott took it upon himself at that young age to build a few more attachments- adding a few pulleys at different heights which he used for lat pull downs, tricep push downs, flyes, and curls. He used that set until high school.

Scott was a skinny kid, and like many kids he longed to be big and strong like the Incredible Hulk Lou Ferringo. Scott also had a cousin who was big, built and good looking...someone Scott admired alot.

In high school Scott played basketball and had access to a good gym where he continued to lift throughout high school. He was plagued with back problems but that did not prevent him from lifting and playing sports.

Scott has a passion for fly fishing. He frequently travels to Mammoth Lakes in eastern California to fish. During one of his fishing excursions, he slipped and fell as he was trying to jump across a small stream of water. He injured his back. He stood up where he fell in the middle of the stream and had an moment of truth......he had gained some weight (6 ft tall 205 pounds and about 24% bodyfat) and was out of shape. He told himself that if he wanted to keep fishing, he had to get back into shape.

So a few months later he and his wife joined Ballys and began a weight lifting program. They both had several lessons from a knowledgeable personal trainer who trained Scott to lift hard and heavy. Scott leaned out quite a bit to 185 pounds and 15% bodyfat.

Later that year Scott met a couple of guys that he ended up training with for 2 years. They were all focused on getting super strong and big and Scott indeed put on quite a bit of muscle, ate a boat load of food and reached a weight of 273. Mind you, alot of that weight was lean muscle at that point.

Scott continued to train but then took an interest in powerlifting around 2005. He was already squatting super heavy...455 pounds or so prior to powerlifting. His legs were his strongest body part and he continued working to get them stronger to the point that he was squatting 665, dead lifts 700, and benching 325. That is some seriously heavy weight folks!

​He did strength training 4 days a week and then played 2-4 hours of basketball on Saturdays at the young age of 46 years old. People frequently asked him how long was he planning on training hard like that and Scott would reply "I will train like this until my body tells me I can't."

​Well, his back screamed at him in June of last year to STOP! He had been having issues with his back (particularly his lower back with pain radiating to his left leg) through all his training, but he ignored the symptoms thinking that the pain down his leg was just a tight hamstring from all the heavy training he did. During a game of basketball, he took a hit that caused his back to pop badly. That stopped him in his tracks. No training or basketball for 2 months. He just went to work and came home. Despite his layoff from training, he continued to be in pain so he had some x-rays taken which revealed some spinal compression and a bulging disc in his lower back. That bulging disc was pressing on the sciatic nerve causing the pain down his leg...which he thought was a pulled hamstring. So he was probably dealing with a building disc for quite some time prior to the basketball injury.

Well Scott continued to have constant back pain unrelieved by rest, motrin, pain medications or muscle relaxers. He eventually had to have a couple of cortisone injections in his back to help relieve the pain.

​Instead of giving up and being depressed, which just isn’t like Scott at all, he went with what he told everyone – He would train like a powerlifter until his body told him he couldn’t. So what was he to do? Well since he I couldnt powerlift any more, He decided to trim up, keeping as much strength as possible and getting back into decent basketball shape. He had a new goal to not only be the strongest guy out there, but be one of the fastest, as well. He is on his way.

I remember Scotts posts about his back. We were all concerned about him, but we knew he would not give up. After Thanksgiving of last year Scott started simply on the treadmill at home. He was quite sore for a few weeks with the exercise but he pushed on despite the soreness.
​
He started back to the gym the first week of January, 2011. His workouts were low weight and high reps, incorporating lots of supersets to get his body used to it again.

​By February, he was nearly back to full-swing…….with the exception of no ultra-heavy squats, deads or forms thereof. Although he was back to training, he had not worked on his diet at all and thus he weighed in at 255 pounds with a high percentage of that weight being body fat.

Despite his high bodyfat his blood pressure remained good and his blood tests were fine...no high cholesterol or anything. Lucky guy!

In July Scott and his wife discussed several different diet plans that they could do together and finally decided to try the 17 Day Diet that Dr. Phil pushes. So on Sunday, July 17, 2011, they started the 17 Day Diet. He weighed in at 254.6 and his belly measured 45”.






Scott remarked, "thank God my shoulders/back are wide and my chest is thick, so my giant belly wasn’t as noticeable!"

The first cycle (17 days) of the diet consisted of as much protein as desired 2 pieces of fruit, and lots of veggies. No sugar, no starchy carbs.

The biggest thing about this plan was portion control – a really tough one for Scott who could sit down and eat a ¼ gallon of ice cream and a bag of Double Stuff very easily. But, Scott did cut back and overcame his vice with portion control.

The second cycle of the diet consisted of mild carb cycling, adding in beans and legumes and a few other carbs, but every other day. He and his wife went all the way through cycle 2 and decided that they both wanted to lose more weight, so they started over at cycle 1. They actually did this twice now and they are in the midst of cycle 3, which allows them a few more carbs; even a cheat meal here and there.

As of today, Wednesday, October 28 2011, Scott weighed in around 222 pounds – down 32 pounds!!!!! He has lost about 5 inches off his belly and he has maintained the majority of his strength. Actually he has gotten stronger!! His BP and heart rate has dropped even lower with the weight loss.








His workout schedule is Monday, upper body with military pressing. Tuesday is leg day. No heavy squats or deads, but medium (under 315). He is able to perform extremely heavy leg press because there’s no compression of his spine with this exercise. Wednesday is cardio, finished up with 3-4 sets of farmers walks. Thursday is upper body with benching.​Friday is cardio and abs. Saturday is basketball – only 2 hours at this time, but he is hoping to ramp that back up again. He is also hoping that he and his wife will start bike riding on Sundays.

His wife is down 20 pounds and several inches, as well. She’s doing awesome!!! She would not let me have any pictures of her. But as Scott says, she is absolutely beautiful!!

What has changed in Scotts life since the diet and training program? Alot has changed. He truly enjoys the taste of lots of veggies, the amount of processed foods he eats is minimal....which is a huge change (he had a big sweet tooth).


What does Scott and his wife eat now? A typical dinner consists of broiled salmon with a low salt zucchini cooked just a bit in olive oil, sprinkled lightly with sea salt. Or how about hamburger patties topped with onions and mushrooms, sautéed in olive oil and Worcestershire, with a bit of ground pepper and minced garlic. They steam some broccoli and then have a small helping of fresh tomatos and avacados with low fat Italian dressing. Good, healthy, low fat and good for them, eh? How about spaghetti squash with home-made chili on top.

I made my first spaghetti squash after reading one of Scott's forum posts about his yummy dinner.

Scott continues to enjoy steak, but only once a week. Instead of having a steak that’s 12-16 ounces, 4-6 is tops now and he adds more veggies.

One of Scotts favorite meals is an omelet. For the two of them they start with 5 eggs, throw in some red, yellow and orange bell peppers, some chopped onions, some chopped mushrooms, a handful of low fat cheddar cheese. Here’s the topper – they chop up imitation crab meat and throw it in, as well. Some mild Cajun seasoning and they are good to go.

I asked Scott what his current goal is and his response was....."Aside from being able to play basketball better, I want to be in overall better shape….for me, for my beautiful wife and for our lives together. Being in better shape will have me (us) feeling better and being able to do more things – kayaking, fishing, hiking, biking, etc."

"One of these years, I’ll get a personal training cert or two. I love lifting and I love what bit of training I’ve already done. I’m not gonna quit my day job, but it’s just something I’d like to do."

I want to thank Scott for allowing me to share all the details of his and his wife's success with me. I asked him a boat load of questions and he freely shared everything. He is an amazing guy and one of my BEST ONLINE BUDDIES ON THE WWW!!!!!!

(((HUGS))) SCOTT AND I AM SO PROUD OF YOU AND YOUR WIFE!!!!

Oh yeah......Scott has some amazing pictures of his fishing excursions. I have used some of his pictures as screen savers on my iPad and PC's. Check them out at
http://www.scottsshots.com/

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Super excited and humbled at the same time

I have been too busy to post any blogs lately and I am currently working on a special blog post about one of my friends that I hope to post by Friday. But I have some exciting news....I am officially one of Scott Abel's clients as of today. I am in for the long haul of coaching from one of the BEST COACHES AROUND! A guru of all guru's, an expert hands down, and a coach with all kinds of integrity. I was on track to start the full blown coaching/client relationship December 5th. I was able to start early. What a blessing indeed.

I had purchased a one time diet plan from him and have been doing his Ultimate Figure Workout. I am having great results from both his diet and workout.

I had my assessment done by him today. Humbling in some aspects, but I am excited to get started and to learn a ton! He has increased the intensity of my training quite a bit. This is going to be tough for me....but I asked for it in a round about way. I made the mistake of bragging that his Ultimate Figure workout is getting easier for me to do. MISTAKE!!!! Back to the dungeon I go!!!!!! I am dreading the workout tomorrow morning!!! God help me.

This is going to be interesting......



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Stop Hatin' Annette

I belong to 5 forums that I visit every day. I post my blog to the forums that I belong to in the journaling section. Yesterday I got a reply to my blog that went like this....

"So is this a blog or a training journal? I've been poppin in every once in a while and am just looking for training stuff."

I became a bit defensive and replied with this comment.....

"Thanks for popping in and out. My blog contains training at times, my thoughts at times, and pictures regularly. Currently I am doing MET training which is difficult to post...most people dont have a clue what the exercises are. I usually post progress pictures every 4-6 weeks. When and if I start training for a show or going to have photos done you will see more training stuff.....probably the stuff you are looking to read about. Until then....you may certainly choose to skip over my "blog"

After a great night sleep, I thought about this guys question in a non-defensive way and saw some merit to his question....after I took the time to read the small print of what is expected which states... Keep a journal of your bodybuilding lifestyle and training journal here ie. Training, diet, recovery, etc.

So I needed to flush my ego down the toilet. So I did just that. Then I wondered, who is this dude? He had made a comment or two on my thread in that forum but I never took the time to read his stuff. But today, you betcha I took the time to check out this guy. This is what I found out.

He is a GFX designer and he lives in Michigan....so he is practically my neighbor. Well, I did not know what a GFX designer was so I googled it and found some stuff. He works in graphic design which is really cool. So what this tells me about this guy is he is artistic and very talented. His forum name is "thecityalive". Very cool name that sorta speaks to his artistic side. His real name is Rob. He joined the wannabebig forum in May of 2008. He has posted 840 times. What this tells me is, he knows the site and is an active participant. Great! I browsed through some of his posts and what I found out is this dude is engaged in the activity of this site. Awesome. He is into muscle building for sure. He benches 250 pounds, dead lifts 425 pounds...which is a personal record....way to go Rob....and he squats 275 pounds. Wow. To look at his profile picture he looks like a kid....about 18 years old.

Now, after I took some time to read a bit about thecitylive through his forum participation, I saw him in a different light. My impression of his comment was negative at first. I thought to myself, what does this kid know! He has no clue about me. Who does he think he is to tell me what to put in my blogs?!!

Lol, he did not tell me what to put in my blogs, he merely stated he likes to read about training. All the rest of the information I thought about him came from my warped defensive mind.

Today I saw his comment in an entirely different light....more positive. I don't know what his actual intent is but I have control of what I want to think about his comment. I could think negatively and be defensive or I can think positively...use the comment he dropped as information.

We make things up in our minds....don't we. I am not the only one who does this. We read somebodies post and we agree or disagree and sometimes get defensive or think bad thoughts about the person behind the comment and we don't even know the person.

Well, thanks to Rob I am going to restructure my blogs in a way that will not take away from my reflections or thoughts....I will still do that. But what I will do is add a section on my training for the day and a mention about my nutrition and how I am feeling.

Lol, the one thing I love about the wannabebig website is the fact it is full of testosterone laden say whatever you want guys. I love and admire the straight talk that guys seem to enjoy. Feelings aside, most men just tell it like it is. I wish that women were more like that...not worried about getting their feelings hurt. Hahaha.....now look at me, acting like a wha baby girly girl hurt because Rob wants to read about training!! I am laughing at myself right now. Poor Annette.....doesn't Rob like all the pictures of my grandchildren? Oh, what about my spiritual reflections?? Lol.....Annette get a grip will ya???

Training......
I had to peel myself out of bed to go train this morning. My alarm went off at 5 am and I did not make it to the gym until almost 7. I was thinking of every excuse in the world not to train today but I made myself go. I did day 3 of the dudgeon training workout. It is MET training. If you are wondering what that is....check out this link
YouTube Figure Workout
This training looks easy but it is a killer. It is also WAY different then my standard heavy lifting routine and definitely out of my comfort zone. There are 5 days worth of training. I do it at the gym looking like a damn fool lol. People ask me, are you doing that P90X program? Lol, nope. But anyway, you should see the spectacle I am with the stability balls and medicine balls and all the stuff in-between with the cables and bands. I used to laugh at the people that did this kind of stuff at the gym. Hahaha....who's laughing now? But, all I can say is this....let the results speak for themselves. I am seeing some new cuts after just 3 weeks and my shoulders are starting to pop out a bit....one of my weak body parts.

As far as the nutrition, I can't go into specifics because I paid for a specific nutrition plan from Scott Abel. I can say this....I get to eat lots of carbs and my protein is lower than what I am certainly used to and he took me off ALL MY SUPPLEMENTS!!!!!! I will post pictures at the end of this month of my results. With the carbs, I don't see my six pack as good as I did on low carb, but I can still see them, and if I decided to low carb it for 5 days, I am sure my abs will be better than before!! I see alot of improvements in shoulders and abs.

Scott Abel is one of the greatest coaches out there...so if he tells me MET work, then I believe him!! And let me tell you....it works :)

I miss the heavy strength training, I really do. I can't say that this MET training is my favorite thing to do, but it works and I am starting to see results. I am starting to get better at it as well.

As far as cardio is concerned.....NO CARDIO!!! The MET training feels like sprints!! I suck wind BIG TIME!!

So if you want to check out Scott Abel click here.... Scott Abel Website

If you want to check out the wannabe big website it is
Wannabebig.com







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We are blessed

There are some days that I just get plain emotional. This morning the alarm went off at 5am. I had plan to be at the gym around 5:15am. I did not get out of bed until 6 but I did make it to the gym to train. The training went well and I was done by 7. As I walked out of the gym I felt the cool breeze on my skin and got just a bit of chill because of the sweat on my clothing. It was still a bit dark outside, but starting to lighten up. As I walked across the street to my car I noticed how quiet it was on Main Street. Many towns would be awake at this time, but Fostoria appeared to still be sleeping.

I like Fostoria. It is a little town that many people complain about. I raised all 4 of my kids in this little train town. It is a neat town. I keep a camera in my car just in case I see something cool or pretty. I like the old buildings on Main Street so I decided to take a couple of pictures.






These buildings bring back the nostalgia of many days gone by. They are cool to look at and have so much history. I don't understand how some people can't see that.

I relish little towns and I am grateful to have the opportunity to live in Fostoria.

I got home and looked around and became grateful and sad. I have so many things, gadgets, food, and silly stuff that I don't even need. I am blessed abundantly. I don't have super fancy things....I am not a fancy foo foo person at all, but I have lots of stuff. I am blessed. As I look around I say thank you God. I thought about something I was doing yesterday.Yesterday, I was getting a bit irritated at the thought of planning my trip to Hawaii. I am not sure where I want to go in Hawaii or what I want to do. We hope to go some time in March. This morning I thought to myself....how horrible of me to get irritated about the details of planning a trip to Hawaii. What in the world have I become? How spoiled and selfish of me. Dang, people are hungry and looking for there next meal and I have the audacity to get irritated about the details of planning a trip? I became sad and ashamed of myself. But, I did not stay ashamed. I just asked God for forgiveness and he forgave me and I prayed a prayer of gratitude and thanksgiving.

We forget who we are. We complain that we have to go to work when we should rejoice that we have a job that can help put food on our table. Even if you are without a job, if you are reading this blog on a computer, iPad, phone or whatever you are blessed.

How do we teach our spoiled kids that we are blessed. My children have never seen the likes of abject poverty. I can't really say that I have either. We hear the words that we are blessed but do we really know it deep inside?

We are doing the United Way campaign at work now. They got me on a good emotional day...lol

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The dreaded state patrol!!!!!

I was cruising in my vehicle appreciating the beauty of the morning, feeling good, sipping on my coffee, listening to my iPad reading some Scott Able blog posts to me. All was well as I cruised right by a State Patrol Car who was driving the opposite way. Of course the radar gun on the patrol car was poised proudly on the hood as it was clocking my speed. I looked down at my speedometer and lo and behold I was going 65 in a 55mph area. I prayed that the officer would continue on his merry way in the opposite direction, but you know what happened. He turned right around and as I slowed my speed down to the correct mph, he sped up
and quickly approached my bumper and the the pretty lights went round and round.

I smiled to myself stating, well Annette you certainly deserve this ticket. I slowed down, turned down a country side road so that we would not slow the traffic down on the busy road and I stopped, reached in my purse and got my license out, reached into the glove compartment and got my registration and insurance card out before the state patrolman approached my window. I was surprised to see the state patrolman to be a woman. I thought to myself, dang it is all bad now. She won't cut me any breaks. She approached my window and promptly stated that I was going 65 in a 55 area. I shook my head yes in agreement and handed her all my stuff. She then asked me if I had any moving violations within the past year. I told her no. She smiled and asked me where I was headed. I told her that I was headed to Toledo to see my mom. She smiled again and said she will be right back. She took all my stuff and sat in her car....you know the drill if you have ever been pulled over. I took a deep breath, accepted my fate and turned my iPad back on as Scott Able discussed some positive spiritually profound information. I told myself I will not get angry over this...I deserved it. The patrol woman returned to my car with a smile and gave me back my stuff and told me to travel 55 mph and have a nice day. I was stunned. As she walked away I shouted to her God Bless you and I PROMISE TO GO THE SPEED LIMIT....and I have indeed decreased my speeding to no more than 5mph over the speed limit and will try my best to keep my word to the statey. I felt bad for judging her response to me. I was wrong. She gave me a undeserved break of which I am appreciative for.

Fast forward to this morning. I was up bright and early at 0445 and was at the gym promptly at 0500. I had the entire gym to myself and I liked that. Who in their right mind would be at the gym at this time, right? At 0510 a nice guy named Richard came in. So it was me and Richard. I was done with my training at 0555. I was pretty happy finishing my leg workout in 55 minutes. This is the same workout that took me 90 minutes 4 weeks ago. I am stronger and can endure the dungeon now!! I am even doing more reps. Yeah baby.

So day 1 done as far as training goes. Wow, I have the evening to devote to family. I have been on point with the diet as well. I spent half the day at a training in Toledo. Of course there were all types of bagels and donuts, fruits and fruit juices and pop to choose from. The only thing I consumed was coffee, a piece of honeydew, a piece of pineapple 2 cheese chunks and a strawberry. I drove an hour back to work and spent the rest of my time tied up in my office. I headed home at 1530 and ate some brown rice mixed with lean ground beef. I also had some mushrooms. Then I helped my daughter with some questions about diabetes....she is studying the illness in her college nutrition class. I love teaching about diabetes....really I love teaching anything. We spent an hour or so on that and then I headed out the house to my freshman daughters volleyball game. And it is at this game that I type this blog....in-between plays of course. When I get home I will chow a bit of sweet potato and a salad and my eating will be done for the day.



My daughter and her friend cheesing as usual.

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Reflections of me.....

I awoke to the cries of my granddaughter this morning who was squirming between my daughter Kathy (her mom) and I in my queen size bed. I glanced at my watch....agh...5am. Kathy popped out of the bed and briefly asked me to entertain Karmen as she rushed to make a bottle. I smiled and tried to do my baby talk, but Karmen could care less about me and all she wanted was her bottle. Well heck....all I wanted was to go back to sleep. Kathy rushed back with the bottle and all was well and we slept until 8:30 am.



My daughter left my house shortly after they got up. I got dressed and took my daughter Erica to volleyball practice. I hate when they practice on Sundays!! It is ridiculous to practice on Sunday. Can't we have just one day of the week to relax and enjoy family anymore??

After I dropped Erica off I came back home and started washing some clothes and cleaning up. I stood on the scale and looked at myself in the mirror. No abs popping out but I did not look bad. I looked normal....I am looking like normal Annette.....everyday Annette...not carb depleted 6 pack abs Annette. I haven't seen her for a month now.

Then I hopped in the shower. After my shower I headed to the mirror. I noticed the grey hairs showing at the edge of my hairline as I pulled my hair up in a ponytail. Dang....I just dyed my hair 4 weeks ago. It is getting harder and harder to hide my age...lol. Then I looked in the mirror and saw the puffiness around my eye....much more pronounced than it used to be when I was younger....yep the bags are there and they ain't going away. I smiled. One saving grace is that I have been blessed abundantly with my mothers skin....no wrinkles at all. My mom is 67 years old and does not have a wrinkle on her face either. I attribute that to our ABUNDANTLY OILY SKIN!!! My skin is sooooo oily, but I have learned to embrace it not disgrace it. I don't try to diminish the oil either. People ask me what I use on my skin. The answer it plain water. I do not put any products on my face whatsoever other than water.

One thing I do have is uneven skin tone, dark here, light there so I do have to break out the foundation daily if I want to look my best. The foundation even things out and it makes me look better. Thank God for foundation!! I need it.

And dang.....what happened to my eyebrows?? They are getting thinner and lighter each decade. I NEVER have to pluck them anymore.....they just stay thin. It is almost to the point that I need to use some pencil highlighter on them. That will probably happen at age 50.

Then there is my hair!!! I have the thickest hair in the world and my hair dresser just loves my hair. She gets upset when I go to her and ask her to just straighten it out so that I can manage it and then braid it and put the weave in my hair! Yes...I have weave in my hair and I love it!!! Not because I don't have great hair, I have great hair, but who wants to curl it and straighten it and my hair does not lay perfectly like my weave. But on the flip side, after a while the weave starts to feel itchy and as my hair grows the weave gets loser and more obvious. I got a new weave in yesterday. It is actually shorter and the length of my real hair and it is straighter...not so many curls. It looks ok I guess, but I like the curly longer look better. This weave has more of the white girl look, not that I dislike the white girl look, but fact is...I am a black girl..lol. I will just have to get used to this one I guess. I will have it at least 6-8 weeks.



I am aging.....we all are aging. I am beginning to accept that I will never look 20 or 30 again in my life no matter how hard I try. Why try to fight it, right? I am 46 almost 47 and instead of looking 37, my goal should be the best 46 year old lady I can be. I am a grandma.....and proud of it. I had 4 babies and have the stretch marks to prove it....and proud of it. My eyes are starting to age.....I will need reading glasses soon......the first time I have ever had difficulty reading little print. I accept that.

This week I will probably be back to my blogging daily. I took some time off to truly do some reflection about where I am currently and where I need to go in regards to my life in general....not just fitness. The more I read Scott Ables stuff, the more reflecting I seem to do and my mind is heading in a new direction....for the better.

I am spending more time with what matters.....such as family time. While training and nutrition is very important to me, I am trying to get to the point where it is not my number 1 priority. My family is my number 1 priority. I am planning to train really early in the morning and make sure my meals are packed for the entire day so that I have plenty of time after work to focus on spending time with the family without constantly worrying about when I am going to get my training in. That will be a start.

So my goal for this coming week is 5am morning training.

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Happy Mondays!!

My eyes pop open automatically a little before 5am as I look at my watch and think to myself "I beat the alarm again." Amazing how in tune my body is even when I am sleeping. I jump out of bed head to the bathroom to pee then stand on the scale. 138 pounds.....well not surprising since I did indulge a bit over the weekend. No harm done...time to shower. It's a bit chilly, so I welcome the kinda hot water as I shower. Burr...it is dang cold as I hurry putting on my underclothes and then my scrubs. My makeup is where it always is....gotta put the foundation on and a little eye makeup to help me look decent right? Forget the hair, throw it in a ponytail and I am out.

0615 and I wiz into work earlier than usual because I have some stuff to knock out before 0730. I hate doing things at the last minute, but I am trying really hard to balance work and my home life. I refuse to take work home if at all possible...which is new to me. I SNEAK into my office and shut the door so that I can knockout this project really fast. Yeah baby....done in 20 minutes. Now I can open my door and say hello to my staff. I ask one of my new nurses to come into my office to chat a bit after he gives report. We chat about his orientation and all that good stuff and off he goes.

More coffee before I dig into the tedious job of reconciling time cards. I really hate time card Mondays, but it must be done. It takes me a good hour and 20 minutes to knock out the timecards then comes the email and all the other stuff involved in a normal workday for me.

0930 I head home to make me some oat bran and to chill a bit. As I eat I get on my computer to log in at work and continue working as I eat and drink some more coffee. For some reason I can't remote into my work computer.....dang it. 0915 headed back to the office and I am there in 3 minutes. On the way to the office I see my IT friend and tell him that I cannot remote into my computer from home or on my iPad. We head to his office and he does his computer thing and before I know it, I can remote into my computer with my iPad. Love ya Shawn!!!! I am on my work computer all day even away from my desk. That's why I love this iPad so much. I can work away from my desk. The iPad is big enough that I can type comfortably and get alot done.

1330 I head to the cafeteria and order a sweet potato and 3 servings of veggies. I have a great conversation with a friend of mine about my new diet and training and then it is back to work. I pack things up and am headed home around 1530. Facebook time as I prepare my 3rd meal consisting of some brown rice and I cook up some lean ground sirloin to throw into the rice. Scott Abel's new book is out ....Food Issues and You: Finally Facing “The Phantom Menace”. I will buy this book as soon as I finish the book I am currently reading from him titled "The Other Side Of The Mirror". I really like that book and am learning alot, so I am looking forward to his new book.

Scott really makes me think about the the why's behind my desire to get fit, compete and all that jazz. At this point, I am not so sure that I will ever make it to the stage....not because I don't think I can, but because the more I study his stuff the less desire I have to hit the stage. I am learning alot about me and my mindset and if I am honest with myself I have used the competition deal as a means to get lean or maintain my leanness. This is not a reason to compete. I am starting to figure that out.

I have some deep seeded emotional events that I carry from my childhood that sometimes interfere with my thoughts and when I start to do extreme things such as extreme diets and such, what I am realizing...thanks to Scott...is that I am compensating for some issues that I have not adequately dealt with from my past. I have a tendency to be an extremist. I will blog about this another time....maybe tomorrow.

What I really want at this point is to get leaner and maintain a lean physique. I don't really need to be ripped right now but I am not counting that out. As a challenge I like to get to a ripped state at some point for some sweet photos. Maybe I will see the stage as a possibility...for a challenge, not a means to to get lean. Who knows.....we will see.



Ah today is leg day....a killer workout. I am looking forward to it. My R glute is fine and I will pay special attention to warm up adequately for this training. I can't wait to see if this workout is easier than it was for me last week. This will be the third time doing this workout. I hope my digestive enzyme pill kicks in a little better. I am still feeling my last meal and that is not good going into a killer leg and glute workout.

2230 and I have finished my training. It IS getting better each week. I am alot more coordinated with the moves and I can go at a faster pace. I look crazy in the gym doing the plyometric like moves. People are starting to ask me where did I get that routine. I worked my butt off literally. I am going to feel it tomorrow.

I am exhausted.



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