One of life's big curveballs...

I've had some really rough news that has pushed me to make the decision to postpone my comp date to later in the year. It wasn't just that - the pressure of work has been too much, and I really wanted to RELAX on my holiday - not run around buying and cooking chicken and beans and training 2 x day. Realistically, I still have to work a few hours every few days, so, dieting and training and still working, I wasn't getting to enjoy my time off. After all, holidays don't come about too often when you have your own business! I feel good about my decision now. I've still trained - in fact today I had a ripper of a leg session at Maroochydore Beachhouse. I squatted 60kg for a few sets and haven't squatted in ages. Then leg pressed 180kg for 3 sets of 8-10, then ball squatted, supersetted with pop squats. I convenienty 'forgot' to do hammies. My adductors are already sore, and walking down stairs I feel very wonky so I know I am going to be sore for days. I've done some running/walking on the beach too which has been lovely. The weather has been amazing!!

So, it's been a week and I finally feel like I have relaxed. Feel like it IS a break. I still had 9 programs to write the days after I arrived so I've really only just settled into holiday mode.

Carolyn arrived yesterday and we had a very brief posing 'lesson' at Di's today before going to get a spray tan. I hope it's dark enough. Tomorrow Carolyn is having her official 'after' photos done. She's going to look absolutely amazing people - Biggest Loser style transformation here (just much more toned and femininly muscular!).

Had an awesome massage here a few days ago. Now my butt needs another one.

Di is looking fantastic - so little!! She's been doing a great job with all our food surrounding her. It can't be easy!! Damien and I shared some nachos tonight (well really Damien's, I just stole a few bits) while Di sat and drank a herbal tea. Not long Di, not long. We have barely seen each other the whole time - not a lot of work talk done. Di is busy with her prep, and we are busy relaxing :) One of these days we will get together when NEITHER of us is dieting!

Ok, well I am getting very tired, so time to log off. Looking forward to the show on Sunday. We leave for Brissy on Saturday, and stay Sunday for the show, then begin our journey down the coast. It's our 2nd wedding anniversary on Monday, so a nice dinner is in order I think. We are going out with Carolyn tomorrow night to Harvest - that should be great, it's a fantastic little restaurant here in Coolum. We went to Lindoni's at Noosa (Hastings Street) a few nights ago and had the most divine pumpkin/sweet potato/ricotta gnocchi!!! Ok, enough food talk...

I'm goin' on a hol-i-day!

Katie, I'm glad I'm not in the 'freak' category :) Thanks for making me feel better...

Alicia, nice to hear from you! Yeah the routine looks highly confusing and I am certainly no natural so Jo will have her work cut out when she teaches me :) I'll definitely bring some winter woolies - I will NOT get caught like I did in September, having to wear Di's big snow jacket the entire time I was there!

Hilds - thanks for the heads up :) I think you are right, I definitely need to chill out for a while. Yep, have decided no more program writing until I return - other than the ones I have already taken on of course. I've already had 3 people take up the interim program offer, so I'm sure all will work out fine. It's just a bit of a logistical nightmare trying to figure out how to keep everything ticking over and keep everyone happy!

My weight is back down into the 114's this morning. That's 3-4lbs down since my start. Trained shoulders with Jodie today - LOVE the shoulder workout. Also did the dreaded abs - why is it that training abs is just so...blah and boring. Yesterday we did some cardio down at the rickety stairs. It was HOT!!! Both of us were feeling a bit ill working at a high intensity in the midday heat.

This morning it was hair day. Half a day dedicated to getting a new fro. The things we do. Well I think it's better this time, but if I'm not mistaken roots still look a tinge orange. And, I thought my overall colour looked a bit purple in the gym mirror!! I did manage to get a program done and some emails answered while there, but really my entire day was running around doing stuff other than work. Almost missed my chiro appointment AGAIN! Was already 5 mins late when I suddenly realised I needed to be there after glancing at my diary.

We finally have all our blinds - got the scaffolding set up yesterday and installed the upstairs ones. Now it feels like a dungeon :) Not really, but it's nice to be able to close up!

Well I am REALLY looking forward to relaxing while away. Only 6 more sleeps. I feel really good now I have made the decision to have a real holiday :) It's either that or go round the twist!

Currently searching for accommodation in Brissy, thanks to Hils for sorting out the logistics and making it easy :)

Michelle - I want your hammies :)

Buggered

Couldn't even make it out with the folks tonight. Just hit me all of a sudden. Had to have a little nap at 5.30pm and was still asleep when Damien left for dinner. Was leg day today - that must have taken it out of me. Jode was back at the gym this arvo so that was good. She gave me a lovely birthday prezzie! And thanks Hils, I received your cute card today!! You are both so thoughtful.

Had photo and measurement update today and phone call to Kim. My cardio has increased again, to 5 x 30 mins, which I don't mind because soon I will be doing it in QLD!! Bit bummed about having to pay for 15 casual gym visits while on holidays though. That would nearly buy me a year's membership somewhere!

My diet has changed just slightly. Kim doesn't want to bring me down too quickly and sacrifice muscle.

Got my routine from Jo today! I've barely had time to watch it through once. Even now my brain is mush so no point.

My lats are nice and sore from training. I increased my heavy leg presses today by a fair bit so be interesting to see how sore I get this week - last week I was incredibly sore which really surprised me.

I didn't get my morning cardio in today due to having to do photos etc, and then needing to get work done - so intead of having a day off tomorrow I have 25 mins of HIT cardio and then abs.

I really think I might take a break from work while I am in Qld. After all, it IS meant to be a holiday. If I continue to take programs, I won't have time to relax, with all the training I need to be doing as well! So, might have to bite the bullet and have people wait until I return - with an interim program in the meantime if they prefer.

Can't believe it's Thursday tomorrow already! Thank goodness I get my hair coloured on Friday - I'm so embarrassed to go out in public at the moment.

I'm officially old - er

Not that I feel it of course! I have had a lovely day, combination of lazy, versus active. I got up around 6.30am, Damien made coffee, gave me a lovely birthday card and then told me his idea for my prezzie - trip to Melbourne to see Phantom of the Opera! So, we looked around on the net for awhile at options for dates etc. Haven't settled on anything yet. Then I had my oat pancakes and went back to bed! Didn't get up until 10am! I was really hungry when I woke up and wanted to get the boring meal out of the way - protein and veg. I had some left over rainbow trout and beans so I put them together, added some salt and downed them pretty quickly. As I was doing it I wondered how many people (probably 99%) would consider this abnormal - eating cold fish and cold beans for a meal at 10.30am. I don't even give eating cold food a 2nd thought, in fact I eat cold veggies and chicken regularly! Hey if I'm hungry anything tastes good!

I went to the gym around 11am and trained shoulders and rear delts. I am not sure how I stuffed this up because as I was on to my first rear delt exercise I suddenly realised that my next session was back and rear delts again. Then I realised why I was feeling so fatigued in the shoulders - I'd trained chest the day prior, and, I wasn't meant to train shoulders today, I was due for back and rear delts! Whoops. It doesn't take much to throw me off. Friday being a holiday put me out :) So, I will pick up again on Tuesday and do Back and Tris, then back to normal schedule of Legs on Wed. I must have strained my forearm doing seated flys yesterday. It was hurting while I was performing the exercise but I pushed through it, and now today it's really sore.

Not having any eggs hasn't phased me one bit. I've never been into Easter Eggs - as a kid I used to leave my entire basked of eggs untouched, until they went white with age and then had to be thrown out. I really don't see the big deal - eating copious amounts of chocolate never makes you feel good, even if they are wrapped up in pretty colourful papers and shaped like an egg.

I had planned to do my cardio right after training AGAIN - but AGAIN, my plan fell in a hole. I saw my sister at the gym, so we had a chat for about 20 mins after I trained and so was kind of over the whole thought of cardio. Plus, stupid MP3 player had locked up and wouldn't work. So, came home did a bit of emailing, and then had another sleep!! Yeah, I'm actually feeling a little bit dodgy, and hoping that it's not what Jodie had. I slept for a while, got up and then dragged my butt out on the streets for 25 mins of running/stairs. I think I will go and run the spa now, and then, get ready for dinner. Looking forward to a chardy :)

Hope everyone managed to control their egg intake :) Funnily enough but I didn't see very many people out running the streets today - bet they are all easter egged out and feeling crap.

THANK YOU for all the lovely emails and text messages to wish me a happy birthday :) Made me feel very special...xxx

Relaxing day

Pretty relaxing day today - we went to the farmer's market this morning which was quite good, never been before. We bought some rabbit! And some lovely fresh vegies, most notably asparagus. Then went for a coffee in town along with a bit of shopping that was needed.

Poor Jode has some sort of gastro - so she was incapacitated today and most likely tomorrow. So, I trained alone. Chest/bis/calves/abs. I was going to do my cardio straight afterwards but piked it. With the abs it made it a long session already and I had enough. So, tomorrow, on my birthday, I will have to do cardio AND train! Now, there's dedication 'eh. But, I have dinner at Seasons to look forward to.

Tonight I had some Rainbow Trout with my fresh farmer's market asparagus. A few bones but I negotiated around those and it was quite nice in the end. Followed by supper of MRM Whey Pumped in chocolate, mixed with peanut butter. Mmmmm. I have figured out a way to avoid the temptation of the peanut butter jar. I portion all my pb out into little foil packets and put them in the freezer! Like another competitor said on her blog - 'it's like crack, man!!"

Put a fase mask on and just having a quiet night in front of tv/computer tonight! Last night we watched The Departed - awesome movie!!

Nigh night everyone!

My legs, my legs!

What the heck did I do to them? I'm still asking myself that question. My quads are so sore to touch - I didn't think I trained that hard :0 I was saying to Jodie I'm really surprised - because I have a few (what I call) 'girly' exercises in the program - we start off with heavy slow leg presses but following that we have swiss ball squats (no weight) and DB Front Squats. Last week my hammies got really sore, and hardly anything in quads. My hammies aren't as sore as last week because this week we tried a different hammy exercise. My gym is a bit 'hamstring machine challenged' - our single piece of equipment is the seated hamstring curl. And there are 3 of these - go figure. We usually do Stiff Leg Deadlifts for our 2nd hammy exercise, but this time we decided to try ham curls on the bench, holding a DB between our feet. Like Monica Brant in this month's Oxygen. Not real sure about it, it was interesting, was just getting used to the feel so didn't go heavy enough until the final set.

Had a day off yesterday, and today Jodie and I did a stair session. Walked down, 20 mins of stairs and running, and then walked home. 40 mins total. Gorgeous day here - but you can really feel winter coming on. I really hate that feeling.

Well I received all my goodies in the mail yesterday! It was like Christmas - or, well, a birthday! Thanks for the birthday wishes lovely people, even though it hasn't happened yet :) Kerry, I have a sneaking suspicion I know what your prezzie may be! Anyway, I ripped open my boxes of Ryka's like a kid :) I love them all! They all fit perfectly and are really comfy. I have been wearing them all around the house to wear them in. Wore my cross trainers out today, put my orthotics in and they were perfect. I also bought Damien a pair of brown and beige casual Sketchers. They turned up too. $35US, with postage $60US - still a bargain. Michelle, these things cost couple hundred bucks here - yeah we have stuff, it's just expensive!! Levi's for instance, cost over $100. In addition I received my MRM goodies, enough to keep me going for the next month. Along with a Triceps Cable Rope! Yep, come to think of it, our gym is not just hamstring machine challenged, it's 'equipment challenged' in general. ie barbells, close grip V handle, rope attachment...so obviously can't bring my own barbells but I can bring my own rope!

Di, I think PHAT Camp was planned well before the INBA dates - you can 'blame' the INBA for that one :) Yes, I'm sure that would have stopped a few people from attending on the Goldy, and probably why numbers were down for that particular amp.

Well in 2 weeks I'll be lapping it up on the Sunny Coast once more! Di will be killing me with her hill routes. I have to look into reciprocal memberships with Beachhouse - I have to talk to Brad - hopefully I can work something out because I don't want to fork out $15 5 x week for 3 weeks while on holidays!! Now that PHAT Camp has been cancelled, we have 3 extra days to do whatever. My IBO superstar Carolyn and I are still having some photos taken by Dallas Olsen, on the Sunshine Coast (just got your excited email Carolyn!). It was going to happen at Empire Fitness on the Goldy, but since that's no go, it's plan B into action. We still have to sort hair and makeup, and we are chasing up Di's suggestions for that.

Anyone in the Sunny Coast area have size 7.5 to 8 contest shoes they are willing to loan Carolyn for the photo shoot?? I'd hate to have her buy some just for this.

Di have you lost the humidity yet? Do I need to bring cool clothes???? We will be travelling down the coast so I imagine night times will get cool.

We've got a dvd for tonight, the one with Matt Damon and Leo Di Caprio - can't remember the name of it. Speaking of dvd's we watched Borat the other night, OMG, what a movie!! Quite shockingly funny - I think :) Today's pic is Borat in all his glory :)

Diet going well. I took a few days to get into it, and was wondering if my focus and desire was there after all - but, I have found my mojo again, feeling good and keen to get stuck in and watch the changes happen. The lovely man has allowed me to keep a ML in my day :) I love him :)

Was saying to Jodie this morning, I need a password protected blog so I can say what I really want to :) I think it would be much more interesting than this one :) It would be read at your own risk though!

Happy and safe Easter everyone.

Boo hiss :(

What a shame about PHAT Camp. Personally not sure it's a great business decision to cancel the tour - I'm not sure there would be many that would defer payments to next year, or that would book again next year if there is the likelihood of this happening again. Could be wrong and hope I am. However, there must be pressing reasons that it's had to be cancelled but I am so disappointed, as I know are lots of my clients! I do hope that people continue to support PHAT Camp and intend to go in 2008. I know Jen and Donna were really bummed about having to cancel at the last minute.

Training is going great. I looooove this shoulder workout. We had legs tonight, and I had some good hard cardio on my tready this morning.

Not doing much for Easter, probably will work on Good Friday since there is not a lot else to do. Sunday I hope to have off - since it's my birthday. :) No glittery banners - no pomp and fanfare here :) We are going out to Seasons for dinner. All approved diet food of course. Then I have mum coming for dinner on Monday night.

I've booked in for a massage tomorrow morning - my birthday prezzie to me, as I am rather sore in the back and shoulders - no doubt legs will start to feel a bit of DOMS by then too, so a perfect time for a rub down.

My diet consists of 7 meals a day thus far. Can't complain about that. Even though I have put on a couple lbs since I was in Qld, I am still sitting at where I was 7-8 weeks out from my show last year (and it's 14.5 weeks out at present). So I'm ahead. I was doing 8 cardios a week at this point so I am enjoying my 3 - though I predict this will change as soon as early next week when I talk to Kim again.

I am expecting my shoes in the mail tomorrow! That can be another prezzie to me :) And my big box of monthly supplements from MRM.

Very happy with our roman blinds! We just have the top floor to put up and it's all done. Have to get scaffolding before we can do that. Now it doesn't feel like a giant fishbowl anymore :)

Have a great Thursday everyone....

I am not a dwarf...

Am I? I have had a fitball for the last 18 months - with no air in it. Simply been one of those things on the 'to do' list. Well, finally we pumped it up last night. It is so small, I'm sure it's made for a dwarf. Not that I have anything against dwarfs by the way, but I can't even do full crunches on it because it's too low to the ground and I certainly can't use it for a chair. Unless I want to type with my arms up around my ears. :( Not happy - this was the size they recommended for me and it is one of those exy medi-ball ones, like over $100.

The blind man is here. And, as predicted, they stuffed up our blinds. So, not only does he refuse to take his shoes off on my lovely cream carpet, we have the wrong fabric in one of the bedrooms...grrrrr. It will be great to finally have window furnishings though!!! I bet the house will feel really dark inside now. Big pud is huddled up against the wall under my desk - he doesn't like the blind man either :)

I had a great 20 min HIT cardio session yesterday at the gym. Did 17 minutes on the stepper, and included intervals at level 15 and 16 - I was going flat out. I wasn't even puffing that much - heart rate in the mid 170's. I finished off with sprints on the treadmill at 16kph - I can sprint faster, but instead of faster, I went longer. I then took Rosemary, a new local client, through her program. I have 4 locals now, which is nice. I might do some local advertising one of these days perhaps.

We didn't get to go to RPM yesterday as Jodie had other things crop up and I couldn't go on my own because it was special invite by Jodie only :) Bummer, was looking forward to it, so maybe Jode, we'll have to go and do a normal class.

Thanks to Hils, Rach, Gill, Lis, Jode and Shar for your very lovely comments!! You guys are why I love my 'job' so much :)

Ok well I had better get to work. Hope everyone has a fab day.