Excuse me - is that your bum you are trying to cover up?

Need to order some more Lorna Jane shorts, and maybe one of those little skorts, I really like them.

Oh which leads me to the jumper around waist 'issue'. Those who know me, know I train with a jumper around my waist much of the time. Now, it seems that this causes much concern for many others who see me wearing this jumper. It apparently means I am trying to 'cover up my bum' because I don't want people to look at it (ie I must have 'body issues'). Over the years goodness knows how many people (guys mostly) I have had ask me why I wear it, and tell me that I 'don't need to cover up my bum'. Well, here's the big secret - I'm not actually trying to cover up my bum (well not in that sense of the word), but for those that are unaware, the jumper around waist, has lots of great benefits. Let me explain...

Number one - you see, I am a gstring girl - I don't own any other type of underwear. I actually do not like training in shorts - but, in this weather, it's a must. So, rather than worrying about having to pick out a shorts wedgie whilst I have my bodyweight in big iron plates sitting on my shoulders in the middle of a deep squat, I have a jumper to take care of that (then I can get rid of the wedgie when my set is done) :) Or, when performing a stiff leg deadlift, on the up portion - the wedgie, every time. Even when I have my feet up on a bench, the 'arms' of the jumper drop between my legs so you can't see what I had for breakfast. You see, I don't think that would be a very nice look at the gym. I've seen it before, and well, like I said, it's not.

Number 2 - the jumper stops the shorts riding up my waist when I run and therefore prevents me from having to yank my shorts down every 10 metres. Too cumbersome when I am usually carrying my moby in one hand, and my MP3 (when it works that is), in the other. If I was an octopus perhaps I would be able to cope.

Number three - I feel naked if I don't wear one.

Number four - it might get cold (you NEVER know).

Number five - if it has pockets it can be handy for stuff.

There you have it - the jumper around waist phenomena explained. Hehehehe :) I don't usually wear one when I can wear pants.

Bootcamp with Jodie today was great, we did about 50-55 mins I think, including the walk there and back. Bec couldn't make it so just us two today. Hilds, the place where we run (I will take my camera one of these days) has 5 flights of stairs, and all sorts of gadgets around and places to run/sprint etc. So, we do stairs for awhile, then run up hill/down hill, some plyo's ie pop squats, squat jumps, some star jumps, high one legged step ups with hip extension, toe taps, stagger jump, skaters, etc, more stairs, some short sprints, and so on.

This is quite disgusting, and don't ask how I know, BUT, the toilets at the gym have not been cleaned for at least 4 days!!!! Eeewwwww.

Had a great training sesh today, chest and arms. Upper body feeling rather heavy and achy tonight. Managed to push out an extra rep on each set on the incline bench, so that was good. I've been waking up fairly early most days so by night time I'm a bit buggered, which is also good. So I will be in bed early tonight. I got lots of jobs done last night, and today, so I feel 'ahead' this week already :) We finally got our books unpacked and into the bookcase - only been 4 months! Thanks to Damien, he did it, and very quickly, didn't take long at all. Now I just have to clean up the rest of the 'rubbish' hanging around my office, and hang my pictures and corkboard. Got to get a whiteboard too.

Found out about another comp in Melbourne that I may do, just before the INBA All Female. Why not hey?

Ok well I'm off to order some shorts and perhaps I should get a few jumpers to cover them up with too :)

For some reason I can't post pictures to my blog anymore :(

Have a great week everyone!

Oh dear has it been that long??

I got a bit of a kick up the butt from Di today, telling me I needed to update my blog :) Not something I didn't know as it's been on my 'to do' list for ages, but, the kick up the bum has gotten me here :)

So, let's see, what's been happening...

Well, hubby had the dreaded gastro last Monday - he said he felt that bad he wanted to shoot himself. I can't believe I didn't get it! You know it was just a couple weeks before he made the comment that he hadn't been sick for ages. I will never make that mistake again - have said those things too many time before and within days have come down with something!!

Training has been great - I did heavy close grip underhand chin ups last back day and I could feel what felt like every muscle fibre tearing in my back. I got very sore from these, wide and lower lats, so I am going to continue with them. I had gotten to a point where I wasn't improving much on the wide grip pull ups so changed to these ones. I finish my program with Kim soon, and in the meantime, before I start comp prep, will write a program for myself. I started on this last night. Going to include some power deadlifting again, try and put on a little more mass. Trained with Jodie a couple of days ago, was nice to train with someone again. Did shoulders, and still improving my lifts, though when the weights get heavier the tempo gets a bit faster.

I've had lots of comments and a good response already from my Oxygen mag ad. It really does look great and is well positioned in the mag.

I'm looking forward to my trip to Brissy and to Coolum to stay with Di. That will be here before I know it. Must get my Next G network service organised this week.

My supplement store is doing really well, MRM are loving my work at the moment - and I'm loving theirs! Love the supps, great tasting powders (Whey Pumped in chocolate is heaven when I mix my raspberries or cherries in it! Tastes like a wicked dessert.)

Look out in the next issue of WH&F for a story on IBO client Hilde Brunnbauer - she has some really sexy after photos to show off!

If you haven't taken a peek, see the Latest News for the announcement of our NEW YOU winners...

Got my tready set up, and have used it a couple of times. I can see it being very very handy come winter, or when I have to do 2 x cardio in the final weeks before comp. It's a big 3HP motor, and has an incline of 16 and speed up to 20kms hour - so I can definitely sprint on it!

Jodie, Bec and I are getting together for a Bootcamp session tomorrow at 10am. Looking forward to it. I have to train chest and arms tomorrow as I ran out of time today. I did get to a step class this morning though. I'm doing 2 a week and really enjoying them, and burning a lot of calories without it feeling like a chore :)

Loving my salads at the moment - I throw together a bunch of lettuce, cucumber, asparagus, semi dried tomatoes, some low fat caesar dressing and some chicken baked in spices. Sometimes I add a canned artichoke.


Feel free to check my News & Views from time to time at IBO if you are interested, I am posting there mainly to my clients and to keep everyone informed of IBO happenings.

Di - please order some sunshine for me - minimum humidity thanks, you know the hair doesn't appreciate it.

Ali - I haven't really had 73 blenders, but I'm sure it won't take long the way I am going :) I still have an email to respond to from you - getting there!

Gillian - actually our home did very well! We thought the courtyard may get flooded but no, it was fine! Yes the water situation is not good anywhere - we can still use a lot more here. I can't imagine being on stage 4 or 5 restrictions...

Mike - thanks, yes there won't be any ant farms around here!! Not built my me anyhow!

Kerry - I should get an email copy of the ad, maybe I can put it on my site somehow. We'll see how it turns out first perhaps :)

Jacinta - lovely to hear from you! How are your plans for competing going?

Jodie - hohoho, yes it's all a bit of a laugh :) Not sure what's in store for me yet...

K - can't do without my blender/s!! Oh i've had the clothes horse gym equipment before don't worry - but not this time.

Sam W - I recieved your mail, I apologise, it warrants a lengthly response and I just haven't had time to get to it, but I will! I've put it with my feedback email to answer Monday or Tuesday. Thanks for being patient :)

Big Rexy has been the biggest sook today - he won't let me out of his sight, he's following me everywhere. He's lying in bed, stretched out beside me like a big bear rug as I type. He was lying on the edge of the spa watching me take my face off before that, and before that was lying across my desk while I attempted to work around him.

Ok guys, over and out.

Busy day!

Well today has been my day off training, so I try and use my time wisely and do all my 'jobs' around town that add up during the week. So, we followed up on our blinds situation - we have had to arrange another quote because we feel we are definitely getting ripped off by the ones we are dealing with at present. So, that took a little time this morning but we were rapt with the new place we found - they are 'can do' people :) So they are coming around tomorrow to measure up.

Adam called in at lunchtime for a goodbye coffee. Very sad! The gym won't be the same without him. Maybe we'll get to visit him in Darwin later in the year.

Then we had an appointment with the Telstra manager, to find out some more about the Bigpond Next G wireless service. We are going to get it, for when we travel. It will beat dial up that's for sure!

I also booked my flights to Qld for late Feb! Thanks to Jason at MRM, they are flying me to Brisbane, to make this ad for Brisbane/SE QLD local tv - so this will be an experience! I will be there for a few days, and they are putting me up, too - very generous. We will also be doing some training together, and chatting about business. Jason is now the President of INBA Qld, so it will be great to see how he's going with the organisation of that. I will also be seeing Jo Rogers for some posing tuition, and then, Mrs Broeren will be picking me up from Brissy and taking me up to their beautiful beach 'shack' for about 5 nights. We will do some work, some training, and some RELAXING on the beach I hope! Note to self: I must buy a bikini that actually fits me. Then I will fly home from the Sunny Coast on a Monday morning.

Then, tonight I had a meeting with a friend who is pretty cluey in the IT department. He helped me iron out some image uploading problems. That took a couple hours.

I also took blender number 73 into the electical store, as I managed to get the receipt from Harvey Norman - it was a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack - and we found it!! Yippee, I can go back to having a back up blender when they replace it :) Speaking of, my MP3 is still in the same shop, getting it's 3rd hard drive installed. Note to readers! Be wary of Samsung MP3 players! This one is a lemon!!!

So, that's about it today. Oh we went out for a lovely dinner last night, to Spanish Grill at the Grand. I had lamb leg. Yum. And 2 Mad Fish Chardy's. Very nice. We had a huge rain storm late this afternoon. Apparently an inch in like 20 mins. Nice to see some of that 'wet stuff'.

Tried to post some pics but blogger playing up, as usual!

Di - thanks Mrs B. You were an excellent Backstage B..., so I look forward to doing it all again!
Jodie - yes, me and blenders don't mix - get it?? I'm such a comedian!
Alicia - lovely to hear from you! Yes I think I will keep my eye out for some on sale ones and grab them when I can :)
Ali - well I definitely hope to be sharing a backstage possie with you in July :) And I will miss the Melb Phat Camp crew too!!
Michelle - all right stop it, enough about my inability to keep a blender for more than a couple months!
Selina - STOP IT!!! Yes, and you can add MP3's to that list! Thanks for the good wishes :)
Sam - please email me, my address is on the web site :)

Oh and hey, I got my treadmill!! It looks like a bomb has hit it right now, we have a bit of setting up to do. Took 4 big blokes to carry it in, it weighs about 120kg.

Mourning the loss...

Of two more blenders!!!! Can you believe my bad luck with these things! One was dropped onto the hard tiles and smashed to smitherines (it wasn't me!) at Christmas time - and yesterday, my back up blender ($150 worth mind you) decided it just had enough. I know I work my blenders pretty hard, but this is just ridiculous! I think that's about 6 in 18 months. And of course, I cannot find my receipt for the one that packed it in, but, I will just take it in and see what they can do for me. Thank goodness I already ordered another backup which arrived today!!! My 'stick' blender just doesn't do the job I'm afraid.

So, last night I broke the "T" key on my laptop keyboard!!! How frustrating is it to type without a key! This morning was spent going to a repair shop, not much help there, and then spending about half hour trying to actually speak to a REAL person and not a voice message, at Dell. It was SO frustrating. The menu kept taking me in circles! Anyway, so I have plugged a regular keyboard into my USB port and I have to say, I LIKE IT!!

My day was significantly brightened when I received a package in the mail from Kara, a lovely client of mine. The card was just lovely, and it will take pride of place on my corkboard :) Let's say she has great taste :) Thanks so much Kara.

I received my feedback from Kim this morning and he is very happy with my progress! I was quite surprised at his very positive email. Which of course has made me even more determined. He was very impressed with my front lat spread width! I've managed to stay under 15% body fat after the comp and through Christmas, and I have to say, I'm really pleased with myself :) It's only too easy to blow out, but I was determined because I did not want to have to lose as much as I did last prep. Which brings me to the news - I have decided to compete at the INBA All Female show again, in July. I can't help it! Glutton for punishment but I have itchy feet! So, when this program ends at the end of Jan, I will be discussing my comp prep plans with Kim. He's given me some oats at my final meal (number 7!!) and some almonds at Meal 6, and I have a good feeling that this is going to help me stay well on track with the plan. Gotta love oats for after dinner snack :)

I will be announcing the NEW YOU winners this week sometime, stay tuned! Jodie and I got together and we both picked the same winners, so pretty cut and dried, though lots of great transformations as usual!

Jode and I did a bit of a bootcamp yesterday which was fun. 40 mins of non stop (well, just the odd rest to let the heart rate subside a bit) stairclimbing, running and plyos. Today Adam helped me out with my back workout again. Some more pullups (2 variations) and sumo deadlifts, and I did some heavy (55lb) one arm rows off the weight rack on my own. Then some rear delts.

Well that's my wrap for today. I don't get alot of time to blog anymore, and even less to read others blogs, but every now and then I check around. It doesn't mean I am not thinking of you all!

Look forward to hearing from you soon Bec. Glad the move went well.

Krystle - you are most welcome. I have faith in you, and you must have it in yourself :) Consistency and patience :) Never give up!

It feels like Sunday

I guess because we went out last night. It's amazing how having a bit of alcohol acts as a big time diuretic on me. I was in the 113's this morning - a variation of over 3lbs from earlier in the week! I sent off my pics and measurements, and feedback to Kim (trainer). I will no doubt hear back from him tomorrow or Monday with any changes he wants me to make. I think I need a little more carbs in my diet, to try and avoid that afternoon slump.

I trained chest/arms/calves today. Great workout. Adam and I having a little trouble getting our schedules in sync, and we haven't managed to catch up again yet! But we are set for Monday, another back session. I managed to easily calf press the entire stack on the Nautilus Leg Press machine - 495lb, for 15, 12 and 10 reps. I do have strong calves, have been blessed with good calves genetically.

I think tomorrow Jodie and I are getting together for a bit of a bootcamp cardio session. I must sms her to confirm.

We are about to go get some groceries, the fridge is a little bare. I might have salmon for dinner tonight, that's something I haven't had in a while, and I must get some asparagus this week too.

We were going to go out for dinner tonight, but overdid it a bit last night - we'll go mid week instead. Mum's for dinner tomorrow night.

Well, we are off to buy some provisions :) More later...

The year that was

I've been rather slack on the blogging these days, there's just so much going on - I really don't know how some people manage to write, complete with pictures, quotes, links - wish I could keep up! Here's my basic overview of what's been happening!

My hammies are so sore today! I lifted a weight I've never attempted before on the seated ham curl machine - 110lb. I managed about 5 reps from memory, but even the next weight down 95lb is really tough going, especially at a slow tempo. Followed with stiff leg deadlifts with the olympic bar plus 20kg. My hams are protesting! And tomorrow they will be even worse. I did have a massage today which was rather painful, but I like that :) Would you believe my biceps are still amazingly sore from Monday's pull ups? That's almost 5 days now. Tomorrow I have shoulders, might sms Adam and see if he can put me through some more tough sets. Actually he just sms'd me and we are all set to go for 3pm tomorrow.

I still have to learn how to run my Newsletter yet. The only spare time I am getting for this stuff is evening or weekend - and I am trying to give my eyes a break from the screen. I'll get there, am ahead this week with work so perhaps I will work on it tomorrow.

Hilds - I was starting to really worry about my shoes, but I have persevered and today while running on the tready they were fine. I have tried the different lacing, and, inner soles/half inner soles etc. It was just one shoe, the other was perfect! Hopefully it's all sorted - for $260 I would hate to not be able to wear them!

Michelle - yeah I understand - I used to have a home gym that was used for a clothes hanger. I love to get out to the gym too, but it's just not time effective for me to do so 2 or 3 times a day - which is what often has to be done before a comp. If I didn't have my own business maybe it would be different! I think I will love it! I will roll out of bed onto the tready, and watch the news - for once I will be able to keep up with what's going on in the world :) And Seinfeld reruns :))

This is nothing to do with anything, but I have to mention it. If you use a stair climber at the gym, please take BIG LONG steps and push off with your heels. It drives me nuts watching these people 'stepping' with tiny little steps on their toes - almost like they are running on the spot. All they are doing is simply making it easy. It's like the people you see on the treadmill, with the incline ramped up to the sky and leaning back and hanging on like there is no tomorrow! If they let go they would surely topple off the end. Please, lean forward, like you are walking UP A HILL - use your arms to propel you - don't hold on - WORK HARD if you want results!

I am a bit late with this, but usually at the end of the year/start of new year, I like to go over the year that was and see what I accomplished. Often you tend to feel as though you didn't accomplish much at all but when you think about it, and write it down, usually there are many things to be proud of.

1. We built a house, sold a house, and moved into our new house. This was a HUGE accomplishment. As anyone that has done that themselves would know how stressful all that can be. The finished product was the result of 2 years of work! And all worth it. I now have a gourmet kitchen, a huge luxurious lounge room, a balcony, a large office with space to spare and, reverse cycle air conditioning throughout :) I am a 10 minute walk to the Murray River, and the centre of town. Love it.

2. I competed in July, amidst all of the above, and, whilst maintaining good health after some health issues plagued me throughout 2005 (I thought I may never compete again!) - that was my goal.

3. I went through a stressful period with website issues, and hence rebuilt and redesigned it throughout November and December. I now have full control of content and management. This whole project was very time consuming and difficult, but, I sorted it :)

4. I trained 3 Body Blitz winners (and many other wonderful 'transformee's)

5. I hired a new staff member, the lovely Dianna Broeren, and with Michelle and Lisa, we are going to make a great team!

6. I scored a great sponsorship and business deal with MRM Supplements. This was all quite by accident and all happened very quickly. We have some exciting opportunities coming up together in 2007.

So, that was the year of 2006. I am certain 2007 will be even more exciting!

Ok, time for a bite to eat before bed.

Back to blog

Well well well, it's been a long time! Too much time has passed to even go back to Christmas! Had a lovely one, but, was glad to get back to my routine when it was all over. I had a week of pretty much eating and drinking whatever I wanted - so many dinners and things to attend. Loved every minute of it but by Christmas Day I was over it!

I am in the process of buying a treadmill - just got a FANTASTIC price, thanks to my sponsor, and who by the way is now the President of the INBA Qld. :) It will be handy to have one at home rather than having to drive to the gym to use one. Time saving!

My training is going great, loving it as always. Today I had Adam help me out with my back workout. Did some pull ups, sumo deadlifts and more pull ups. I think I shall be sore tomorrow. I will miss Adam when he goes :( Not long now.

I bought some new Asics runners with one of my vouchers for Christmas. Not sure how I feel about them yet. They feel a bit strange - not sure if it's just getting used to them or what. One foot is fine, the other feels dodgy!

This week I have a few articles to write - a Success Story for WH&F, and another Success Story, for Exercise for Men only (US mag). Plus my Q&A for WH&F.

Tonight I have the munchies! I feel really tired, and hungry! Going to run the spa after Seinfeld is finished, and then I think I may have to have an early night.

Ok well I do have a lot going on and much more to write about but by the time I get a chance I'm all computered out. So, it's short and sweet again tonight!

News & Views

No time to post right now, but just wanted to say hi, and for clients especially to start reading the Sue's News & Views section of my website.

I'll be back when I get a couple hours to write about my Christmas and beyond!!