Happy Hound

December 23, Friday and the start of my holiday! 11:30 to be precise. I am off until Tuesday, January 3 at 7:30am! Yahoo!


The good thing is the University shuts down, so it's not like vacation where you go away for a week and come back to 350 emails. I will have only a few.


I left work and went straight to Roy's, it has been very, very cold. In fact, this morning when I got up at 4:00 am it was 27 degrees. I live in California. This is not funny, not one bit. The morning before it was 47 and even that was way too cold for me. 


We trained shoulders and I had an especially good time, I felt good and full of energy. Barbell shoulder press, back is pretty straight up but Roy would tell you some precise percentage, 70% incline or something....


Warmed up then I am not sure of the weights, I was only doing 6 to 7 reps and I think maybe 95 pounds. I did 5 sets I believe then a drop set of 25.


Then onto dumbbell seated shoulder press with the bench back straight up, he said to be careful and not to tip forward and fall down on my face. That would really put a damper on a great holiday break wouldn't it?


We started with 40 pound dumbbells, making sure they are slowly lowered, all the way down to get a good stretch in the deltoids, then power up. The weight was slowly lowered till we ended with 35 pound weights, and we did 5 sets I think.


Then boxing! I am not very good but that doesn't stop me from having a good time. It's like the people you see on the dance floor who cannot dance even if their life depended on it, but they are having such a great time they make you laugh out loud. That's me boxing.


After I fought my way out of the traffic (the next day is Christmas Eve), I get home and David and I put a cold bottle of sparkling wine in a bag with two plastic cups and we are off to Happy Hound restaurant.


I haven't been here in years and years, I grew up here so ate here in high school! I had made plans to come here after my last competition, just for the fries and I never made it!


We ordered one medium order of fries, one cheeseburger cut in half and two waters. I found a table with hot, bright sun shining right down on it, a gift from heaven. It was so hot I took off my sweater.


David cracked the sparkling wine and poured it into the cups. We kept it down, the restaurant is directly across the street from the police station! ha ha ha


We sat in the sun, enjoyed the fries and burger, sipped the sparkling wine and had a wonderful time. Kind of like the wine scene in the movie "Sideways"...

Then home to make caramel cupcakes for Christmas Eve dinner, everyone is coming to my house as usual, but I will be at the gym at 6:00 am when the doors open to hit the legs! 

Lobster Rolls

Yesterday David and I celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary. We decided to go out to dinner and have lobster rolls.

I find it interesting that some people restrict their diet year long, depriving themselves of every pleasure, every wonderful taste treat, yet most of them really don't look as though they do, honestly.

It makes me wonder if they are really sticking to their diet, or they just think they are eating the right things.

I eat a well balanced, healthy diet year round, but I certainly don't suffer and deny myself when there is not reason to.

When I am preparing for a competition, as I am right now, I start buckling down and I don't have those little tastes here and there, no spoon fulls of peanut butter at night, no sips of wine, and that, really, honestly does the trick. I mean, if you maintain a well balanced diet anyway, it isn't that hard to tighten it up.

Last night I went all out, and didn't even think about the food, and this is what most of the population does on a nightly basis when making food choices.

Here I am at the Old Port Lobster Shack in Redwood City, California enjoying a Maine lobster roll. They import live Maine lobster daily, have a bakery that makes the special rolls and they fry an awful lot of their food and I enjoyed it quite a bit, and I won't feel guilty. After all, as I always say "Life is not a dress rehearsal!"

Cooper, David and I ordered appetizers (called shaketizers) of cheesy garlic fries (for Cooper really), beer battered onion rings (for Cooper again) and beer battered coconut shrimp (for me). I was at a party at a friends house a couple weeks prior to my last competition, and she made platter after platter of coconut shrimp, which I was forced to decline....so this was perfect!

David had a cup of great clam chowder that even the 16 year old liked.

Then came the lobster rolls. These things are packed and overflowing with huge hunks of sweet lobster meat. We ordered the Maine rolls that come mixed with Hellman's mayo (it's Best Foods west of the Rockies), green onion and salt and pepper. Stupendous! Not too much mayo at all, in fact it was a very light mixture.
David couldn't eat all of his so I was obligated to finish it, it would be a crime to let that go to waste. He turned to me and commented "You are an amazing eating machine!"

So I went home, very full, but feeling like we celebrated and enjoyed life together once again.

Tomorrow, it's back to the same ol, same ol. I had lost three pounds in the last week anyway, so I will be up a bit, then back down, I have time, no worries.

It will probably be a couple years before I go back again, although Cooper did ask if we could return to try the fish and chips.....

The point I want to make is, be good to yourself, eat right and respect your body. Understand it's limitations when you don't provide it with the proper nutrients. Don't be so rigid with yourself and your diet that you cannot enjoy a meal out with those who care about you and want to be with you. Don't obsess!  Remember, you are hearing this from a person who competes and restricts her diet for months on end. If I wasn't going to stand half naked on stage, I wouldn't be so manic about it, believe me. Put it into perspective.

Enjoy life, enjoy the people around you, remember that everything you do affects those who love you.  Don't ever have regrets. That's one thing my mother taught me early in life.