Buongiorno!

Well I am off! To Italy, Germany and Scotland!! today at 10.00pm.

Here is the whirlwind trip itenaray!

First stop Roma!

We are here for 4 days.

Then Florence (Firenze) - going to get first hand look and compare the two Davids!! My husband and the Michealanglo's David. hmmmmmm

Next stop Venice - looking forward to the most as we are staying almost in St Marks square. Have warned hubby he must be romantic here!

Then we go to Munich by train over the Austrian Alps, pick up a car and drive to Fussen. The home of the romantic castle and start of our 'romantic road' trip.

We drive through 7 medieval towns and stop at at Rothenburg - hubby really really happy as we stay overnight in a German Pub -- Eins Beer, Zwei Beer, Drei Beer - Grosse Beer!

We then drive to Stuttgart - Hubby over the moon!!!!! Guess where he is going! yep like most men total petrol heads and we are going to the 'famous Porsche Museum' Had to give him some pleasure in order to get him to come on the trip in the first place. (not to mention I haven't actually told him of the full cost of the trip yet--- yikes!)

Now we hop on a plane and land in Edinburgh and meet up with a few friends (they are the ones getting married on Lochness)

From here we take a road trip up into the Highlands to Castle Stuart, where about 12 of us a meeting up for a few nights, a wedding and a very big drinking session! (part of the cost of castle, which by the way was very expensive, we get to have unlimited alcohol from the cellar)

So from Castle Stuart the group troupe on down to Lochness, have a wedding and go back for some serious partying!

We may have some uninvited guests at the wedding!!!!!!!!

so after all partying done, hubby and I travel down to Manchester for a couple of days then fly home! Phew - will need a holiday from the holiday!!!

Homeward Bound!

Then when home (16 days time) it is time to get so serious about the BEHAG! (Big Enormous Hairy Ass Goal). I will organise to talk to someone regarding the DNA test results, the talk to Sue re training and changes I will possibly need to make.

I would like to wish all those competing in the ALL Females if they read this blog. Good Luck and I hope to see you all at the Gold Coast!!! Would be so fantastic to meet you all, especially all those 'beautiful' people who I think inspire me.

Good Luck Carolyn with the start of your protocol for the next 15 weeks, getting ready for the INBA titles in October - can not wait to catch up with you again.

So until the middle of July, it is Ciao from me - I will miss reading blogs everyday, trust me!

Long Live Fitness!

Doris

X:D)

Gosh - 11 days and no post!!!!!

Ever had one of those weeks???? This picture just says it all!

Where will I start? Hmmmm!

Okay - work has been sooooooo busy lately, just when I want it to slow down, it gets horribly busy, never seem to be able to scrape the bottom of the pile.

Trying to get everything done before I go to Europe for a couple of weeks..............but just get bogged down more.

At home a bit of stress, no money - all money tied up in cars for hubby to work on, but with some good fortune we got some money last night! I can breathe now - at least we will eat while in Europe!

Emotions gone a little crazy at moment - just making life a little hard! Stupid sucky female hormones!!! I have had one period this year!!! But along with the stupid hot flushes and sweats, and the crying and self hatred, I seem to be having the cycle like a normal period, you know, the bloating and energy sap!

Eating hasn't exactly been to plan - ie not eating when I should be eating and only eating half of what I should be eating. The only thing that has been great is the weight lifting, but as previous posts have always stated, I love weights - can not get enuf of them..........would rather do weights than cardio. I have not let my cardio down though!!!!! I have been doing steady stuff most days and tuesday are my pyscho days - boxing for an hour then spinning! That after an hour of weights. I have pushed my weights up a lot more and can now bench press 80kg 6 reps with no spotter. I am feeling a lot stronger than before with weights and have been concentrating on more compound movements outside of my current weights schedule. I have set myself another goal to acheive and that is to be able to do chinups/pullups with no assistance. Got a long way to go as it is really heavy lifting a 90kg body up!!!! hehehe! I have been pushing myself on the weight assisted, and can manage 1 rep out with 15kg on the weight assisted machine (wide grip). Now I thought that it equates to say lifting a 75kg person but no I have been advised that you actually have to callibrate the machine and calculate and apparently it is a bit of funny sort of measure - for our weight assisted machine anyway. One day i will work it out.

Got my DNA results back and I am sooooooooo confused. Will have to wait until I am back from Europe to go talk to someone regarding the results and what it means for me. The first result on it really threw me a six as it states that I have a very good 'fat metabolising' genetic make up................what the! Then why do I struggle???? but it has a lot to do with everything else involved. Be interesting to hear from an expert what it all means!!! Will post when I know. Have been doing some soul searching as well.....................you know the normal mumbo jumbo that comes out of me while I have have these stupid fluctuations in hormones! Not going to go into it, just stupid shit!!!

I will leave you today with some brilliant lessons that I have posted on my inspiration board from Tom Veneto - something to make sure I follow through and live with on a day to day basis.
1. Set the big goal and go for it. If your goal doesn't excite you and scare you at the same time, your goal is too small - wellllll i think I have a big goal - to compete in physique next year with a hell of a lot of body fat to lose!
2. Align your values with your goals. I have to make a decision to be congruent with who I really am and what I really want - get my priorities straight! Tom saiys that when you do that, doing what it takes will be easy.
3. Do the math Stop looking for magic. a lean body does not come from any particular type of exercise or foods............it is as simple as the calories burned vs callories consumed.. I have to work out if it is better to drop the calories consumed or increase the calories burnt - an equation I will work out very very soon.
4. Get social support. Support and encouragement I already get from friends and bloggers and forum attendees. I need to work on more support from family as well.
5. Be consistent Nothing will ever work if you don't work at it every day. I know that the calories burnt is great as far as weights go, can do a lot better with cardio but must really concentrate on being consistent with food ie the eating of it.
6. Persist through self doubt If you think its going to be smooth sailing all the way with no ups and downs, you are delusional. For every sunny day, there's going to be a storm. That is what life IS! Tom says if you can not weather the storm, you will never reach new shores.
7. Redeem yourself Non achievers sit on the couch and wallow in past failures. Winners use past failures as motivational rocket fuel.. It always feels good to achieve a goal, but nothing feels as good as achieving a goal with redemption.


So now I must sign off but I will be back later tonite to blog some more.

Ciao for now!
Long Live Fitness
X:D)

The pump, the growth - Building Lean Mass

The main criteria for increasing muslce mass are:

• a sound training regime
• a diet that supplies the caloric level and right macro/micronutrients for anabolic growth
• recovery & rest.

Gaining appreciable muscle mass and dropping body fat at the same time is not optimal. One needs to concentrate on one or the other. The laws of thermodynamics demonstrate it is simply not possible, unless one is a very beginner. Trainees (myself) have to accept some loss in muscle mass when along for the ride to lose bodyfat and vice versa, you will gain some body fat when increasing muscle mass.

Generally, women, more than men, tend to overtrain and not eat enough. Most women bodybuilders spend hours doing cardio in addition to weight training - 2 hours, 4-6 days a week. On top most women do not eat enough for muscle growth for the fear of gaining body fat!

There is no such thing like 'if it works for her, it must work for me the same way'! There is a lot of information around on the subject building muscle and getting lean. These articles are always telling us how hard it is for women to gain some muscle mass due to our hormonal setup. I am reading articles left right and centre on how I can reach my long term fitness goal and they all come back to the same principles - Discipline, motivation, patience and perserverance! Saying 'practice makes perfect'.

Here are some short term goals I am going to follow over the next 6-8 weeks.

1. Train with heavy weights - this I do already 95% of the time but now it is time to stimulate growth by working within a power zone of 3-6 reps ie only be able to lift max 6 reps! The kind of muscle fibres that yield the greatest power are also those who grow the most. If your muscles could handle the load of the whole set, your body starts to think 'ok we managed that one, there's no need to improve and recruit more muscle mass - we can handle it'. by asking for more ie by not having the ability to finish the full set, you are forcing your body to adapt.
2. Do Cardio separately from your weight training- too much cardiovascular training eats into muscle. Interestingly, I came across an article telling you not to do carido immediately after weight training. It went on to say that weight training is mere a stimulus for the muscles to grow and if you break them down too long (more than 45 mins) they will never recuperate and rebuild. When adding cardio afterwards, your body is so demolished and this destruction continues until you have a protein and carb intake. The sooner you replenish your muscles with some energy, the faster it will get back. Now my question is if it takes approximately 20-30 mins for you to start absorbing a macro/micronutrient, and taking the nutrient before you start, surely it is kicking in by the time you start your cardio, so ineffect you are feeding your system right at the time you need to being doing so. Hmmmmm something for more research??
3. Have many small snacks - LOL my husbands seems to think I appear to be eating all the time and 'there is no way you will lose body fat if you keep eating - you need to stop eating' What a mentality! I tell him he is full of S*%# and doesn't know what he is talking about and that is exactly what got me where I today. As my blood test previously showed, I have a higher glucose level and I don't eat anything sweet. I really need to feed regularly and far more regularly than I have been inorder to keep that blood sugar level steady and not produce insulance spikes, which in turn will help me lose some more body fat.
4. Eat the right stuff at the right time! - Did you know it takes a lot of energy for system to digest veggis and that makes you full. Try to eat too many starches and I get really sleepy and lethargic! Protein is my absolute priority and I ensure I have a serve of protein with every meal. Another article states that protein sources like chicken, turkey breasts, tuna, egg whites and whey powders, help build muscle and are least likely macrnutrients to be converted to body fat since they are the most metabolically costly for our bodies to process. Fats besides being necessary for healthy skin and hair, fat is invovled in the production of many hormones, including testosterone. That's why it's almost impossible to build muscle mass when on an extremely low fat diet. Fat also lowers the glycemic index of many high carb foods, so we don't get the huge fat producing insulin surge commonly associated with eating fat-free goodies by themselves. In short, we need a certain amount of fat to process body fat metabolism - Good fats that is. In other words, eating too little fat makes it harder for us to burn unwanted fat! What the!!!!

So I have listed 4 main areas to concentrate.

On a personal note, training is going great, doing some slower, heavier moves, producing some unbelievable DOMS! My butt was sore for 4 days, did the same exercise that usually produces that soreness but with a slight change - slower and heavier! Had some good steady cardio sessions as well, including getting 2 great powerwalks this weekend, one this morning before I got to work. Food has been good and clean, though I had 3 glasses of red wine on Friday night, I allowed for it. Went out to a party last night, tried to drink a glass of red and it burnt all the way down, so I stuck to water all night - LOL I think I drank about 4 litres!!!!! Lots of toilet trips hehehe. I baked myself a nice chicken mince loaf for my meals during the week, adding in lots of green veges into it. Then slice it up, all measured and put into individual bags, ready to grab the right quantity out of the freezer for the cooler bag to work. Did the same with salad protions and vege portions, just makes the week a no brainer.

Well I had better go and get into some work.

Ciao!

X:D)

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Goal Setting and Testing

Just analysed my last set of blood work to see where I am at health wise so here is the following results:

Thyroid Stimulating Hormone 5.00mU/L (this is over the higher lever I should be at but it is not any contributing factor to anything
Luteinising Hormone 2U/L (this is way under any normal level - need to read up what this actually is??? Anyone out there knows???)
Follicle Stimulating Hormone 7U/L (this is towards the low end of the scale in every cycles - again do not know what this means so will read up about it)
Oestradiol (Oestrogen) 400pmol/L again as above Hormone
Progesterone 21 nmol/L same
Testosterone .6 nmol/L (I don't know how much a female should have but doc says it is normal)
Glucose 5.0mmol/L (this should be lower, maximum should be 4.0mmol/L)
Cholesterol 3.26mmol/L (this is spot perfect - ranges should be between 3.6-6.9)
Triglycerides .6mmol/L (this is spot perfect - should always be lower than .85mmol/L - thanks to loving barramundi almost every night for dinner)
HDL 1.43mmol/L (this needs to be improved on - should be greater than 2mmol/L - more trans-fatty acids needs to be eaten, so more salmon and tuna maybe instead of barramundi)
LDL 1.59mmol/L (can be improved on - a good goal is to have it under 1.5mmol/L so almost there - means maybe less beef and more kangaroo)

There is a whole lot of other measures but they are just measuring your red cell count, white cell count, platelets etc etc, a tad immaterial to my goal.

so here are some short term goals to follow:
1. Eat more fatty fish, add a bit of variety instead of just eating barramundi (but barra is so yummmy!)
2. maybe getting back into eating some almonds everyday or more flaxseed oil in protein shakes
3. Eat some leaner cuts of beef - some lean rump maybe instead of sirloin and have kanagroo - which I quite enjoy - being a girl who grew up on wild kanagroo while living out in the bush at Lightning Ridge.

Body Balance is on tonight, week 2 of the new launch which was just fantastic. Got so much work on at the moment, it is just great to stretch and unwind.

Well I best be getting back to work, had my little break. Talk to you all soon.

Long Live Fitness!
Ciao!
X:D)

Unleash the Secret Weapon

So what is the secret weapon! Hunger for Success!!!! Am I really wanting what I want. Hmmmm........time to digest.

Well am I just complacent to remain in any situation.............I thought I was a go getter but in reflecting in things from the past maybe I am just a waiter...............waiting for it to happen to me. Like the 17&1/2 years I spent in a job that I was not enjoying day to day and the people were not nice, had to work xmas and pub hols inorder to get a P&L out to the US!!! Like not going after my dreams still at 42 yrs of age.............. working at a job that is easy just to make sure we have mortgage money rather going after something I really want to do. Like wanting a fantastic body but just complacently chasing it year in year out. Working hard at my diet and the gym, but am I really working hard at it. So many variables!

So time to realise that I am just a complacent person and really need to put a bomb underneath me.

Just recently I have made some changes that is really rare.

1. I have acutally posted photo's of myself on the blog a week or two ago, considering I have been blogging for almost a year. So change number one is I accept who and what I look like today because tomorrow I WILL look different.

2. I have to eat irregardless if I am hungry or not 6 times a day. This is a work in progress, but a work in progress that is getting better, even I just have half a protein bar, or an apple, just eat it! This is to ensure that I keep my blood sugar levels at a even line and my insulin levels don't spike, to keep my muscles happy and my body working as efficiently as possible.

and lastly at the moment 3. Don't expect changes in a hurry, learn to have 'Patience'.

So working on complatency.......................... I have to figure out what works for me. I have to know where I want to go and when I want to arrive there and exactly what I will do on a daily basis to get there!

1. I have decided I want to compete in a physique competition - note this is physique not figure, so this means more muscle (yum yum) and more work on symmetary! This is classed as my long term goal, now I need to work out what time frame I want to do it in.

2. Am I asking a big ask if I said I would like to do in 12 months???? Can this be done??? See now I need to take the 'questions' out of my head and say it definately!!! I will do this in 12 months time - actually a little longer than 12 months - October 2009! there a date set.

So now I have set my long term goal and date to get there, time to start on some short term goals. These will be updated over the next few posts.

My knee is still giving me hell, so I am biting the bullet and making any appointment to go see Howard, seeing as my old physiotherapist no longers does private practice. I have to seriously strap it almost everyday just to do cardio, let along weights. Getting in good gym time though and good workouts - Monday 1 &1/2 hours, Tuesday 3 hours, Wednesday 1 & 1/2 hours.

Food has been quite good except.................................last night, I made the yummiest steamed barramundi with green beans and sweet thai chilli sauce, tummy was satisfied,..................then I went and had a hot chocolate made on trim milk (this is okay) but I also have a piece of crumpet toast with olive oil butter and golden syrup..........What the!!!!!!! don't you just hate that, you go along nicely and then you sabbotage all you good work in a couple of mouthfuls.

Well I had better start work, so I will catch you all later!

Long Live Fitness!

Ciao!

X:D)