Dayum Girl....I can't help but to stare in amazement....custom made jeans, eh?

Today I had one of those jaw dropping moments that made me stare in disbelief. I was in a beauty supply store in Toledo to get some moisturizer and hair color for my hair. I was looking at all the beautiful hair pieces and weaves when she walked by me. The aisle was small and I had to move out of the way so that she could pass by. I briefly glanced at her and then I did a double take when I saw the most jaw dropping booty I have ever seen in my life.


She was a beautiful dark skinned sister with flawless skin, amazing weaved in braids that cascaded past her shoulders all the way down to her butt. She had about a 24 inch waist and I swear..... about a 48-50 inch booty. Now what made her booty amazing was that is was super round, did not appear the least bit flabby and it was ummmmm just out there. It was cartoonish but beautiful at the same time. I really wanted to take my phone out and take a picture of that butt. Weird but true, lol.....cuz it was just crazy!!

I forced myself to stop staring and got into line to pay for my hair products. She got her stuff and also waited in line. There were a couple of other ladies in line and I looked at them to see if they were looking at that girl's booty....and indeed they were looking too. After all, this "booty girl" was sporting her stuff. She had some painted on jeans with a cool double belt similar to the double belts that were popular in the early 90's. She had high heel boots and a cool small clutch purse that matched her boots. She was amazing.

I found a picture that kinda resembles her shape..... Pretty darn close

Are you kidding me.....really???

As I headed home, I thought about that pretty booty girl and I began to smile in celebration of the beauty of our black women. I remember growing up in a white community with a handful of blacks. I was one of 2 black girls in my class. For the most part all my white classmates treated me well, but I often got comments about my kinky hair and I was not popular with the boys.... at all. I remember wishing that I had long straight hair that moved with the wind. I remember wishing that the boys liked me....but they didn't. I thought I was ugly. I remember playing on the playground when this mean little girl came up to me and asked me if I was a girl or a boy. I had ponytails and I did not think I looked like a boy, but after that comment, I thought maybe I did look like a boy and I felt even more ugly.

But I have a GREAT mother who saw that I was struggling with self esteem. She went out of her way to tell me how beautiful I was all the time. She always talked about the beauty of a dark black woman. LOL, she always emphasized the dark part because I was dark-skinned living in a white environment. So, I thought I was a BEAUTIFUL dark skinned black girl at home......and an ugly duckling at school.

Just an average home town girl

Well, I grew up....with confidence thanks to my mom. And I think black women are amongst the most beautiful women in the world.

Celebrating beautiful black women today with these amazing pictures :)

Erikah Badu....amazingly gorgeous

Honey brown skin with a perfect face

Flawless 

Provocative!!

Just dang cute

AMAZING

Love this pic!

I forget her name...she is famous

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THIS PIC

Ethnic beautiful lips that I admire cuz I have none!!

Radiant

My favorite pic

In a few weeks I will celebrate the beautiful white girls in the house :)

Oh yeah.....this is a blog about my fitness journey...lol. I have digressed...hehehe. I trained legs today and I am hungry :)

More truths be told....

I had an amazing training week. I am loving my hybrid plan and am feeling strong. While my training was strong and on point, my nutritional efforts were lacking to say the least. Actually my diet darn well sucked!! I sent my report to my coach feeling kinda shameful about my lack of discipline. The previous 2 weeks went well and I was feeling mighty proud of myself....and the last week everything just fell apart with my diet.

Coach wrote, " Well that's one problem right there- attaching  "pride" and the opposite of "shame" to all of this. It should be something that just "is"--as in, you have a goal- it takes X,Y,Z to get there and you do it. Attaching emotion to it in terms of self-judgement-(good me, bad me) just makes it more and more stressful and difficult and stress seeks release and relief." He is right. I can get myself so worked up over even the smallest things when it comes to diet and training. I beat myself up more than anybody does. I can be my own worse enemy.

My report was long winded...which is my normal response when I did not do everything I was supposed to do. Then I start to justify why I behave the way I do...why I don't stay on point. At one point I wrote...."I know in the back of my mind that I don't need to be "ripped" for the photos and I am using this excuse to negotiate with myself to eat off plan". Coach writes....Yes, that is very immature thinking "I can get away with this so why do my best?" That's weak.

Coach tells me like it is.....just plain and simple and I need that. I am not used to that actually. Most people tell me what I want to hear or sugar coat things. I think many of us are used to hearing the sugar.

I usually do not share my personal correspondences that I have with my coach and won't make a habit of doing so, but there are times when I feel things need to be shared to get a point or lesson across to others that may be experiencing the same thing.

I want to share one more thing that hit home for me in the face of my choices this past week. He wrote, "anyone can do what is called for when it is easy or when they feel like it. Time to step up. Be the person you say you are-and own this, because your actions always tell the truth.

When I told him that I wanna cry over my lack of discipline last week he wrote, Really?, over this you want to cry? Do you realize how blessed you are in your life "this" is the circumstance you have to cry about."

This is coaching at it's best.  He is able to help me look in the mirror at myself...my actions and see the real me...which ain't always what I wanna see.

I am blessed abundantly!!

My beautiful grand children......and one in the oven.

As for me.... here are my latest progress pictures....no progress at all this week...actually my pictures look worst....but it is what it is right? It's all good.

Eight Weeks to go.....

My 49er grand daughter

Well, my 49ers did not make it to the superbowl. Grrrrr..... I am still feeling that loss. But along with that loss, I am seeing a loss on the scale.... Good for me.

I am starting to see the benefits of Scotts training and diet program. I feel GREAT and I am starting to shed the excess holiday weight. I am down 12 pounds and I am feeling much better in the gym. I have more stamina and I can get through he workouts without sucking so much wind. It is AMAZING the difference that 10 pounds of weight loss has on training effort. It is much easier to train when I am leaner.

I have been on point with the diet and my body is adjusting nicely to the diet. I have not craved carbs since Saturday.

Last Sunday, my daughter had a huge get together at her house to cheer our 49ers on. Of course she had a crazy spread of food and rice crispy treats...one of my favorite snacks, second only to chocolate chip cookies. I walked in her house with my bag filled with salad, rice, potato, and some lean beef and frozen veggies.

Me and my 6 month pregnant daughter 

I managed to get through the entire night without cheating. We had a fun time until it got down to the last moments of the game. It was a bummer to see my 49ers lose to the Giants, but they played well and had a great season. I am proud of them.

I see an improvement this week with my physique. I noticed minimal change last week, but this week my abs and my legs are beginning to have some definition. I have noticed a bit more definition in my arms too. 

I am back to the look I had before Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

I am losing the boobs and my fat is feeling a bit squishy and soft. Although this is a good sign that I am leaning out, I hate the soft squishy look. My belly is a bit dimply at the moment and yucky looking. Thank God things do tighten up in time. 

A month has come and gone. I have lost 12 pounds and am hovering around 138 pounds. Last year, I leaned down to 126 pounds, but I looked quite thin at that weight. I am hoping to see the 3 pounds of muscle that I gained last year. I don't want to look thin. I want to look athletic and be athletic.

Month of Jan 2012

I can really feel and see the squishy fat in my back. Look under the strap and see the soft fat hanging there....yuk. That squishiness will be gone by the end of February I hope.

My diet has consisted of ample clean carbs such as fruit, rice, potatoes, and lots of veggies. My protein sources consists of lean cuts of beef, chicken and fish. I am not taking any supplements at all...nothing.

My training is geared around hypertrophy (gaining muscle) and consists of the traditional weight lifting training with some functional training added. I do have a couple of cardio days thrown into the mix between my weight training.

I purchased a MacBook Pro 15 inch laptop computer. I am loving it. Not only is it a beauty, it is a work horse that is fast and powerful. This is my first Mac, so there is a learning curve...although having the iPad and iPods have helped me be a bit familiar with the Apps and some of the programs that I use on my iPad that is similar to the Mac. The Mac comes with all the bells and whistles that the iPad does not support as easily. I am loving it. I traveled 1 1/2 hours to the nearest Apple store at the Polaris Mall in Columbus to purchase it. I have been saving up for this purchase for a couple of months. 

What a beauty!!!!

My hubby asked how much I paid for it. I told him, you don't want to know....but I saved up and used my own money and so don't you worry about it. He was gracious and said, I am not worried, I just wondered how much it cost because it is so nice. Knowing you, you paid a couple grand for it. Haha...he knows me too well.

So, I am in a happy place right now. The diet and training is going well, I am looking forward to sending my report to my trainer....and my report will be simple this week. It will consist of that I am on point with the diet and training and all is well. Nothing more :)

THE DREADED SEA OF RED

I had a good week. I stayed on point with the diet and training. I had a few challenges through the week, particularly yesterday morning. I had a constant craving for crispy cream long John donuts. I think it is a hormone thing. I have 9 weeks to go. I am a bit behind schedule because not following my diet to the letter week 1 and 2. I found it hard to get back on track after the holidays but coach managed to slap some reality in my head on Monday when I got my report back.

Haha....THE REPORT.....When I opened my email from coach, I was instantly overwhelmed by THE SEA OF RED. He writes his reports in red. He makes comments after sentences and those comments are in red to contrast from my own writing in black. Haha... There was alot of red. I felt like a kid in school that got a big fat "F" on an important book report. As I continued to read my eyes started watering like a baby. Yep, I was crying like a baby. I am a super high achiever and I don't like accept anything but "A" grades. I was in my office at work when I received the report. Let me tell ya, if one of my employees would have come into my office at that point and saw me crying like a baby they would have thought something major was wrong, because Annette does not cry.....at all, I keep my emotions to myself!!

So yeah....like a baby I cried and then I got mad. Scott just pissed me off...lol and I did a sista girl attitude and disrespectfully lashed out at coach.

After I stewed for a few minutes and reread THE REPORT I felt bad about lashing out at coach. He was merely being my coach and telling me the truth, which I needed. I realized that I was not mad at coach at all, I was mad at myself. He was right...very right. So, I humbly emailed him back with an apology....and not a good apology at that. I think it took 3 emails back and forth before I really apologized. Of course, coach was sweet and accepting and told me that he was on my side. I knew that. I was just acting defensive to his constructive coaching. Go figure.....I think that when I first started with Scott, somewhere I wrote " I am coachable. " Haha, well I wasn't exactly being coachable for a few minutes or so.

Well, I needed Scott to be stern. I had a perfect eating week, even weighing all my food. I did not cheat at all. And guess what happened? I lost 3 pounds lol.

Well, hmmmm I did not have a perfect eating week. I did decide to change Scotts plan one day....combining 2 meals together and skipping breakfast because I was hungry at night. I did that without consulting with coach first. Shame on me! I thought it would still be fine since I was eating all the right foods...I was just combining 2 meals together for 1 big meal at night so I won't be hungry.

It worked good for me, but a little voice in my head said...you better tell Scott what you did and make sure it is ok. So I emailed Scott....and here we go again.....he emailed me back No, no, no!! But this time, I just said, ok coach, I won't do it again. Thanks.....lol. I probably drive him crazy. Poor guy.

In the rest of my blogs I am going to compare my current weeks picture with the starting picture. That makes more sense than comparing the previous week with the current weeks because the changes will be so minor. So week 3 down, 9 to go!!!





















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Week 2......Blah!!!!!!

Week 2 progress pics

Not the best week.....but this week will be better for sure! I don't even want to talk about last weeks diet. It doesn't matter anymore. What matters is the now. This will be a better week for sure.

Again, the pictures are last week compared to current pictures I tool yesterday. I will work on posing the same in each picture too.


















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Week 1 progress pictures and stuff.....

It has been one almost one week and for the most part my diet has been on point and I started my new training plan which I love. I did eat off plan January 4, 2012 which was my 47th birthday.

I don't care about the numbers on the scale...but I do weigh myself and in 6 days I lost 7.5 pounds....eating a good amount of carbs. In the pictures below, the first picture is the week prior and the second picture is this weeks photo.










Front view. I am starting to see a hint of my abs again. This is not unusual for me. I lose my abs and lower body weight first and my back and arms last.





Side view. No change





And the back..... I think my back, shoulders, and arms need the most work. I will probably begin to see some improvement in my back around week 5. The shoulders and arms are the last to look decent. It will take all of the 12 weeks or so for me to start to see nice cuts in my arms.








My No Bro-Science Tee from Brinkzone.com is a small. I can fit it, but not with much breathing room. It shows every bump and frankly, I currently need a size medium. I am guessing that I will fit into this around mid to late Feb 2012.

It's 2012 already. I have a feeling that this is going to be an interesting year indeed. I am excited about transforming my body, not for any particular reason, but just to do it for myself. It is exciting to see what kind of physique I will attain as I truly commit myself to Scotts diet and training plan. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my new hybrid training plan.



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A New Year and a New Plan!!!!

Ok first thing, first. Let's compare Jan 2011 picture with 2012 picture. Now granted....I look like crap compared to March of last year....BUT, I look better this year than I did last year at this time so I met my goal.....barely lol.

The pictures with the newspaper are the 2011 pics and the pics without the paper I took today.


















I am embarrassed to post these bikini pictures, but this is what I do when I am on a mission. I am "chunky" but not fat.

I am excited about my upcoming transformation because I have a GREAT coach and a GREAT new training program and diet. I predict that I will be close to my goal by the end of February and I will be spot on by March 28th!

I am committed to following my diet SEVEN DAYS A WEEK and following the training religiously barring no injuries. I will post pictures at least every 7 days and will be back to blogging a lot. I am excited because I have more muscle under the fat this year.

My coach has me on a diet with ample carbs, moderate protein. I am doing a hybrid 4 day training program that is designed for hypertrophy using traditional strength moves along with functional and conditioning moves. So, as I lean out, I should minimally maintain my muscle with hopes of gaining a pound or two of muscle as I get lean. We will see what happens.

Today I did Day 1 of the program and puked my guts out!!! Leg day...haha. Now the scary thing about this is that I only did the first 2 of 4 exercises within a complex to start out with. I won't be doing the full training plan for a month or so. I AM ALREADY PUKING ON HALF THE PROGRAM!!!!! This is scary stuff lol. I need to NOT puke.....I need the calories!!!

I have not even opened Day 2 of the program. I will wait to do that tomorrow haha.

I took some pictures in my new Brinkzone tee-shirts while I have some boobs. As I lose the fat, I will lose the boobs. I soooo hate that!!!!








I will take some "lean" Brinkzone.com t-shirt pics in March.

My new goal is to look better Jan 2, 2013 than I do today!!


Happy New Year!!

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