Bobybuilding.com

I buy a lot of supplements, especially whey protein and it's not cheap. Well, it can be cheap but you get what you pay for! If it's super cheap, cheaper than the rest there is probably a pretty good reason for that.


Recently I decided to try another brand, I am always searching for that rich, creamy, chocolaty goodness. I drink the stuff twice a day after all! 


I found one with a very well known name and it happened to be quite a bit less expensive than the one I was buying. They both had similar ingredients, so I decided to try it. I bought a big tub since I go through so much and it's cheaper that way right?


I ordered it through Bodybuilding.com, where I order the majority of my supplements.


The whey was so sweet I couldn't stomach it. I tried it time and time again, I tried it everyday for two weeks. I just couldn't do it any longer, it was ruining my day. My protein drink is actually one of the highlights of my day, I love it, this was changing that for me.


I emailed Bodybuilding.com and explained my predicament. There was nothing wrong with the product, it was me, I just don't like things that sweet.  Would they refund my money?

Yes indeed!

They said to ship it back and they would credit my account for 100% of the purchase price! Wow, and I had used it for two weeks (once a day, the other time I use a meal replacement protein).

It cost me just over $11.00 to send it back, I certainly used more than $11.00 worth.

I am a happy camper, I think that's great that they stand behind their products like that! Not only do their prices compare with other companies, but the customer service is out of this world!

Bodybuilding.com has a customer for life!

Julian Bakery Carb Zero Bread

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I am forever looking for healthy and tasty foods, ones that allow me to enjoy the "normal" foods more often and still not feel guilty or worry about my calories and starches too much.

I read about the Julian Bakery breads several weeks ago and was interested in their new "carb zero" bread that was to be released soon. 

There is only one store within 10 miles of me that carries their products, the rest are over the hill in Santa Cruz or up the peninsula towards Palo Alto. I called New Leaf Market and asked if they could let me know when the carb zero bread arrived.

They called me on Thursday and said it arrived, they would hold one regular and one cinnamon for me, I would drive out there after my noontime training with Roy. I told him I would get a loaf for him, and when we finished I zoomed out there only to find that every single loaf they received had been sold (except my two and one last cinnamon)!!!

I bought a cinnamon for Roy and swung back by BodyComp and dropped it off fo him, he was training Stacy. I also got the name and cell phone number of the fellow I can call to make sure they hold more for me if I want it!

I love sandwiches. Love them!! Scrambled egg are my favorite, or tuna with sprouts. Maybe rare beef....or chicken salad, I love them all. I rarely eat them though as bread is a simple carb and full of starch that I don't need and basically a dieters nightmare. 

Until now

If you are anything like me, you feel so much guilt when you eat a sandwich that it taakes away most of the pleasure. It ruins it. You should be eating a "complex carb" right?

This bread allows me to have a sandwich and 

enjoy 

every

single 

bite

This is my egg white sandwich with a bit of low fat mayo, mustard, salt, pepper and romaine lettuce. 

yum!

I made this when I got home and immediately texted Roy. It was good. Really good!

Each slice has the following nutritional breakdown:

59 calories
2.5 grams fat
9 grams carbohydrate
9 grams fiber
(this means it nets out to zero carbohydrates!!!)
0 sugar
9 grams protein!!!

It's all organic, gluten free and well.....great!

So even without my egg inside I had 18 grams of protein! 

It's not like sliced sourdough, nor is it like fine wheat bread. BUT! The nutritional break down is great- it allows me to eat something I love and not feel guilty and get the macros I want.

I also bought some of their carb #1 (1 gram net carb) bread and will let you know later how that is!

A New Year Diet

It's that time of year, everyone is thinking about losing a few pounds, it's America's favorite pastime.  Many people have mentioned it to me over the last couple weeks, they want advise, they want help. "What really works?" "How do you stay slim?" "What exercises should I do?"


In my opinion, it's not the exercises that will sculpt your body, it's the food you fuel it with.


Don't walk away thinking that weight training isn't important, it is, I wouldn't look the way I look if I didn't lift heavy weights on a regular basis. But you can lift heavy weights all your life and if you eat like crap, you will look like crap, simple as that.


Oh I have seen some young males who can get away with eating all sorts of fast food and still have beautiful hard bodies, but they should at their age, they are in the prime of life with testosterone surging through their bodies. Testosterone is natures way of making muscle and males have about 10 times more than females do.


So to get the body you want, the body we all want, you need to take a look at your diet.  Unless you are competing, you really don't have to weigh or measure everything, but you can if you are OCD or just plain bad at eyeballing portions.


Stick to the foods that have proven to be successful: lean protein sources, good fats and complex carbohydrates.


I was asked just Saturday, where to start? The obvious first choices are eliminate garbage like chips (they are evil), alcohol, candy, crackers, all packaged snack type foods.  


Then make the right healthy choices. 


Protein: This is the most important, after all the word protein comes from the from Greek prōtos, first.


Be sure it is a lean protein source which can be any number of things: skinless turkey breast, skinless chicken breast, fish, shellfish, beef, buffalo, canned tuna, eggs (or egg whites). Sure, you can eat some pork on occasion. Stay away from sausages though- bad joo joo!


Then, your carbohydrate, the "starch": whether it is potato, oatmeal, brown rice, other whole grains; CUT IT IN HALF. That's right, whatever you would normally put on your plate, take half away and leave it like that.


Now, vegetables: DOUBLE the amount you would normally have. Yes indeed, and no butter or oil please. And if it is salad, don't put on salad dressing, that bottled stuff is typically chock full of calories. Of course, you can go in search of a nice low cal dressing, just be sure to check out the serving size and stick to it. Your best bet is to make your own with a very small amount of olive oil (good fat) and vinegar or lemon. 


Get used to eating and enjoying vegetables, they are your friend. Take a look at the picture at the top of the page, these are the vegetables I made on Monday for the next couple days. Some are plain, some are not. 


Clockwise, starting at the front with the red vegetable: Radicchio, a bitter green like a small red lettuce. I cut this up in thick pieces and tossed it with a fat free vinaigrette (balsamic vinegar, sherry vinegar, grainy mustard, truvia, pepper); then I roasted it in the oven for about 15 minutes.


Sauteed mixed peppers with some olive oil; curry cauliflower and carrots (I will explain below); Soo Foo (my very small container of a mixed whole grain); steamed broccoli, eggplant that has been roasted in the oven, and in the center, sauteed mushrooms.


Over the course of the next three days I will eat all that, and I will get a delivery of more and cook yet more produce.


The cauliflower is great! I will combine it with chicken and mushrooms, or maybe peppers, and a squeeze of fresh lemon.


To make the cauliflower, preheat the oven to 400 (hot oven); cut the cauliflower into small florets, place in a baking pan or large dish so they will be in one layer. Sprinkle over a very small amount of olive oil, toss well. Sprinkle a small amount of kosher salt and a generous amount of curry powder, toss well. Spread evenly over the baking sheet and cover with foil. Bake 10 minutes to steam, then remove the foil and bake another 5 to 10 minutes until some start to lightly brown, toss and serve warm or room temperature.

Vegan Diet

This was my purchase from the farmers market- hardly vegan. I bought grass fed ground beef (3), beefalo, pasture raised eggs (2), turnips (2), frisee (2), radicchio (2) and the big green thing is an Emu egg (I will be writing about that later).

My haul contains a lot of animal sources, a lot. 

Alix, a reader, sent me a very nice email and this article, which I found very, very interesting. As I explained to her when I replied, I know many vegetarians and they frequently ask me what they can eat to get enough protein. I tell them what I know, but it isn't much as I tend to shy away from soy products and a lot of starchy carbs make me big, bigger than I should be.

People will make a decision about what they want (or don't want) to eat for many reasons, and as long as they are their own personal reasons, they should be respected. Some reasons may seem silly to others, like I will avoid anything that comes from Monsanto, but I think they are akin to "The Evil Empire" and should be destroyed, so fat chance I will support them! By the way, avoiding Monsanto is difficult, they have spread like a cancer. 

A vegetarian would find no problem foraging for food at my house! A vegan might not have such a great selection though. I love meat and eggs, and could never imagine giving them up, but I still enjoy learning about other successful nutrition plans.

Here is a link to the article (and I love the sleeve on this guys arm!)

And you may want to visit Vegan Bodybuilding and Fitness for some more information!

Thanks Alix! Happy Surfing!

Final Prep for Competition

There is much to do, but I have it down to a science. When I started it was all trial and error. I used the checklist that Huong gave me, things I found online, advise from others. I could never have gotten here without all of the help and research.

I own my prep now, I am as successful as I have made myself. Although every competition brings jitters, I am comfortable with what I do. I don't have a coach, or a Figure coach to look at me and tell me what to eat, what to train, what to pack and do. I do it alone. I always think of the saying "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime"

Many gals feel the need for one, and power to them if that works. I don't want one, I get a sense of satisfaction knowing that I am the body I made myself, for myself, and not for others. I don't train so I can be successful at Figure, I train because I like to and the competition is a way to connect with a lot of other hard training women and keep me on my toes. A challenge. 

I have my diet slightly altered the last week, Kim Porterfield taught me how. I stop shakes and egg whites and I play with proteins and carbs ever so slightly. Every body is different, so what works for me may not work for someone else. It takes trial and error. You need to learn by ingesting foods and then looking at the slight changes in your body about 40 minutes later, all the way to the following couple days.

Kim first had me do this by setting my alarm at 3:10 am, take pictures, eat, go back to sleep, get up at 4:00 am, take pictures, train shoulders, take pictures...and study them. whew!

So this means I don't have a shake when I get up at o.darkness, I have a mixture of cream of rice and chopped chicken, like baby food.  I have the same thing (but twice as much cream of rice) for breakfast.

Protein is adjusted down near the end to shuttle the carbs directly to the muscles, then at the very end, Friday night I will eat a dinner designed to fill me out. A steak, plain baked potato (pepper and lemon) and a slice of homemade cheesecake. I will have the same thing for breakfast the next day.

Of course, that's if everything looks the way it should leading up to Friday. It is a fine balancing act.  Anything can change in a matter of days, seriously. It can go well and it can go sour, very, very sour.

I don't take diuretics, those are the most dangerous thing you can take, worse than any anabolic steroid or drug, screw up with diuretics and you die. No silly trophy, sword or pro-card is worth it in my opinion.

I take Thursday and Friday off from work, Thursday I will prepare all the food I need to bring to my hotel. It is simple: chicken breast, flank steak, brown rice, sweet potato, plain vegetables, asparagus if I can find it- the stores haven't had any lately.  I package it all up in serving portions and pack a lot of water too. I will bring some magazines or books in case I am alone in my hotel room bored. I will make cheesecake with a shortbread crust.

I load up my suitcase with sheets for the hotel (the tan can make a mess), my clothes, makeup and snacks for backstage. That is rice cakes, peanut butter, honey, granola, raw nuts. Baby wipes for the hands, that honey and peanut butter gets everywhere and the tanning solution is disgusting. I will also pack some dark chocolates caramels, bananas, Doritos and any other treat that sounds tempting at the moment. 

In the afternoon I will have a manicure and pedicure, french nails. I dislike the fake ones and used to use the glue on for the competitions, no longer. It's me and I have short nails, but they will be nicely groomed.

First thing Friday morning I have a hair cut. I will have my hair blown out so all I need to do is clip it back in my rhinestone clip. It will be long and flowing, but the bangs still add some dimension to my face. I don't care for the stiff "up do" look, too fussy. 

The athlete briefing and registration takes place in the host hotel on Friday evening at 6:30 for the Figure and Bikini. This is great as it used to be in the morning when they weighed in all the men, everything would get delayed and behind and just cause the event to go over.  At some point in the afternoon or evening I get my spray tan, also at the host hotel. 

I will leave a checklist for David- things to make sure are at home when I get there! This may change but currently the list is this:

Champagne 

Pinot Noir

a skirt steak

sliced sourdough bread (I will have a hot skirt steak sandwich with wine when I get home about midnight or so)

fixings for David's Famous Ramos Fizz in the morning 

The knowledge that he needs to go to Fleur de Cocoa to get some pastries Sunday morning as soon as they open. I am thinking some plain croissant to go with the fig jam I made.

Leaning Out

You don't see me with my clothes on often do you? Ha Ha!

I always get a little extra boost when I start getting to this point, I like to wear form fitting clothes, but I also like the "form" to be "fit"....

Here I am Tuesday after work, these are one of my Lucky brand jeans, soft and worn and they shall now be relegated to the "larger" end of the closet, they are size 2.

I have clothes arranged by size since it fluctuates so much throughout the year. I have 0's to 4's. I think I may have a couple 5's in there somewhere, but they must be "skinny" 5's if you know what I mean.

I can see how people go on a diet and get discouraged, it takes time! When I get to this point things continue rapidly so I have to be careful, and being careful means beef more often (it has more calories and slightly higher fat), and peanut butter! Yum!

Recently I wrote about the changes I made to my diet, but unless you follow me and have for a while, you have no idea what it was to start out! So, let me give you a run down of a typical day for me (now).

Keep in mind I am giving estimates and I am including the calories, carbs and proteins for the vegetables. Many people don't even count them.

4:15 am Supplements & Lean 1 meal replacement drink
       200 calories; 20 grams protein; 18 grams carbs

6:30 am Supplements & Endurox R4 Recovery drink (1 scoop only)
       135 calories; 6.5 grams protein; 26 grams carbs

7:45 am Homemade Waffles (egg whites, oats, flavorings)
       300 calories; 31 grams protein; 39 grams carbs (if you are counting only starchy carbs it would be 27 grams)

11:30 am Lunch #1 Supplements & 4 ounces chicken breast; 3 ounces lentils; 2 cups vegetables
       320 calories; 37 grams protein; 29 grams carbs (if you were counting only starchy carbs it would be 17 grams)

3:00 pm Lunch #2 4 ounces chicken breast; 3 ounces black beans; 2 cups vegetables
       320 calories; 37 grams protein; 29 grams carbs;  (if you are counting only starchy carbs it would be 17 grams)

Here is a picture of Lunch #1 and 2 the day before, I have a lot of it pre-measured and frozen, I assemble it the evening before.

5:45 pm Dinner Supplements & Homemade Curried Chicken and Cauliflower soup (I make a bunch and freeze it in bags)
      186 calories; 24 grams protein; 15 grams carbs  (if counting only starchy carbs zero)

8:30 pm Bedtime meal Supplements & 1 cup egg whites with 1 cup spinach
      160 calories; 29 grams protein; 14 grams carbs,  (if you are counting only starchy carbs, zero)

Add to this the nuts I eat, about 1/8 cup total (3 before each starch meal), using cashews as an example:

80 calories, 2.5 grams protein and 4 grams carbs (6 grams fat) Nuts add up!

9:00 pm Sleepy time tea.....
     

So grand totals:

Calories 1701; Protein 187; carbs 174 (but only 61 starchy).

The starches are very low but I make up for it in vegetables! The vegetables keep me full, provide fiber and energy and my muscles are super full despite the low starches. In this (rough) calculation I added the calories from any splenda too.

There are days when my starches will be much higher, and my calories might be also. For instance I occasionally have starch at dinner, the key is keeping it different so your body adapts to the variances.

Do not get in the rut of eating the same thing day in and day out, just like weight training, your body will make sure it adjusts to that and it will maintain it's weight, that's what it is designed to do. Your body was designed to survive quite well on what it gets, and survive with a layer of fat!

The Endurox R4 is a specially formulated recovery drink that is high in carbs. It is the preferred ratio of 4 to 1 (carbs to protein), studies show this is the best ratio of nutrients to ingest immediately after weight training. When not dieting to lose fat I will use 2 scoops of this.


I take a lot of BCAA (Branched Chain Amino Acids) and Amino Acids throughout the day. I will write more on my supplements at another time, because that's not where you start. That is why they are called "supplements", they are meant to be added to an existing good diet!


Add to this very low caloric intake my exercise today:


1 1/4 hours heavy weight training (it was leg day again!)
Stairs/jump rope at lunch, run up 300 stairs, run down 300 stairs, jump rope 300 times.

Tuesday is not a day I go to the gym after work.

Back in the saddle

I got home from Mexico Thursday night, the limo dropped us at about 11:00 p.m. it was oh so cold and wet, what a change. David stayed up and started laundry, Cooper took a very long, hot shower then switched on the TV he hadn't seen in days. I crawled into bed as soon as I could, I was exhausted.

I woke early, it was 5:30 and I couldn't sleep any longer, I crept quietly out of bed and started back into my routine. First, continue laundry. We would be leaving in a couple hours to go see Pop, so there was lots to do. After laundry I would need to pack some clothes for a cold, Central Valley climate!

I bundle up in a coat and go out into the garage to set up my weeks worth of protein drinks for pre-workout (first meal); amino acids for post training; and my branched chain amino acids for fluid during training.

I keep it all on my dryer in the garage, and since I am such an organized creature of habit, and always really tight on time, I find that getting everything ready for a week works well and I have what I need at all times. I can then just grab what I need and go.

I was actually craving a chocolate Lean 1 drink, and was happy to start my day with one.

I drink a Lean 1 combined with other supplements every morning. I also take L-Leucine, caffeine, Beta-Alanine and L-Glutamine.


For my drink while training I have X-Tend branched chain amino acids, and then afterward I take Gold Medal Aminos from Fitness Nutrition, a company started by Dara Torres (Olympic Swimmer).

Here you can see the concoctions all measured out and ready to go. The purple tops are the pre-training protein meal (and the other supplements added), it's like my own Ready-To- Drink, just add the mixture to water in a shaker cup!

The smaller containers in front center are the measured X-Tend (orange) and the medium sized ones on the right are the Gold Medal Aminos.

Every night I take one of each from the basket in the garage, put them on the kitchen counter and when I hop out of bed at 4:00 a.m. I have what I need. I mix my protein concoction with water in a shaker cup and take my supplements with it while I read the sports page, I then mix the X-Tend in my water bottle and take the Gold Medal Aminos in my gym bag to take immediately post training.

Supplements are also in daily pill reminder cases, I have four of them, morning, lunch, evening and bedtime. Again, all filled up on the weekend and the lunch times are carried in my purse, so I always have them.

Anal? A bit, but it helps me to be successful.

Sometimes when the sports page is boring I read my horoscope. I know they are silly and not true, nor can they be tailored for each individual, but sometimes it makes me feel really, really good. Today was one of those days and I know it was written just for me.

It said this:

You'll soon be involved in a project to restore, refurbish, or revive. What you wind up with will be an improvement on what came before.

Interpret it the way you will, I know what spoke to me, and it was immediate. Baby steps, giant leaps, zigs and zags, but all leading me in the right direction.

Proper Nutrition

My husband and son always laugh when I drink this right before bed, they say it looks like I am drinking melted butter.

It is actually amino acids.

I take a lot of amino acids and branched chain amino acids. They are the building blocks of muscle.

You will hear just about everyone say you need to eat a lot of protein to gain muscle, what you actually need is the amino acids that your body is able to pull out of the protein.

I eat the correct amount of protein, as prescribed by a nutritionist and I also drink a lot of amino acids.

Proper nutrition is a balanced diet, year round. You cannot go on a diet for a length of time, get ripped then go back to eating like the average Joe and expect to stay ripped.

Won't work, guaranteed.

You can relax your diet, but you can never give up the "clean" eating, not if you want to keep that gorgeous body.

Just like the human body adapts to training, requiring constant changes to keep from becoming stagnant and cease growing, the human body adapts to nutrition.

Eat the same old stuff day in and day out and soon you will suffer. You won't show gains, you may start having gastrointestinal issues, your body will rebel.

That is why it is imperative to eat seasonally. You need to include many different foods in your diet, one day you may have beans for your starch and one day brown rice (NEVER white). They have a different caloric value, and that is good, some days your calories are slightly higher than others. Keeps it guessing, just like in training.

Varying your foods is also good for your head- psychologically I mean.

I won't get into carb cycling, this is about a diet for life, not a diet for an event.

Include bright vegetables, greens, fresh fruit. If you choose what is in season (locally, not in Chile), then it will have the highest nutrient content, and you are sure to never get tired of the same foods as they will change with the seasons.

Cookie Dough Porridge

I am always interested in new foods, so life doesn't get boring. You will never read any recipe here that I haven't personally made and tested, I usually make my family taste them too and will report back what they had to say.

I read about a dish that Monica Brant supposedly eats every single morning, 365 days a year. Man, I would get so sick of the same thing.

It sounded interesting so I made it. I made some changes though. First, she uses some specific brand items, and I am always a little leery about recipes that have brand name products, so I looked up the ingredients and substituted. The first change was the protein powder. Monica recommended Proto Whey protein powder. I just wrote down the macro nutrients (carbs, protein, fat) and calories and used a protein powder that had the same ratios.

Next was a product called Myofiber. I researched that and it has ingredients in it that I already take (CLA and Flax) along with Psyilium  husk. It is a proprietary blend, which means they have to tell you the ingredients, but not how much of any one thing. Proprietary blends are usually really expensive too.

Myofiber is basically a filler/fiber to make sure you have regular bowel movements (that's the psyllium husk) and I eat so many vegetables that I really don't feel the need to add more fiber, so I decided to leave this one ingredient out altogether.



Here is the recipe as she provided it in oxygen magazine.

Cookie-Dough Porridge


Ready in 5 minutes •


Makes 1 serving


1/2 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup egg whites

1 scoop Proto Whey protein powder

1 scoop Myofiber

Stevia or natural sweetener of your choice, to taste

In a glass bowl, microwave old-fashioned oats with 1 teaspoon water for 1 minute.


Add egg whites, protein powder, Myofiber and sweetener. Stir.


Refrigerate and let cool.


So, what did I think? I thought it look horrendous when I made it. Raw runny egg whites, uncooked oats. I actually let it sit overnight. The egg whites are from a carton, so they are pasteurized, no need to worry about salmonella.

It turned out the oats soaked up a lot of the liquid, but not all. I think that if I had used the Myofiber, it may have been a thicker consistency. I would use some oat fiber I think, maybe try some of the stuff that Pauline Nordin sells on her Fighter Diet site.

Was it good? Actually yes! It was a creamy, sweet, chewy desserty flavor, I made Chocolate Peanut Butter (that's what the protein powder was).

What did David think? He thought it looked and sounded disgusting, and there was no way he would even come near it, in fact, our friend Virginia came by when I was out and he thought it was so disgusting he told her about it and I believe he even pulled it out of the refrigerator to show her. Next time I saw her she commented on it, saying it was probably one of the most disgusting sounding and looking things I have ever made.

Cream of Rice with Chicken

I have really been enjoying this concoction.  It is my breakfast pre-competition but I certainly plan to eat it more often!

1 serving cream of rice (or steel cut oats or oatmeal)
1 serving sauteed ground chicken breast or chopped cooked chicken breast  (for me that is 4 ounces)

Warm in the microwave, stir in plenty of splenda and cinnamon.

This provides the starches and protein you need for a compete meal, in place of my usual bowl of oats and a cup of microwaved egg whites.

Don't be afraid to eat "dinner" foods for breakfast, or "breakfast" foods for dinner. In fact, a favorite dinner of mine is a cup of egg whites, and about a cup and a half of mixed vegetables such as chilies, mushrooms, zucchini and then 3 ounces of brown rice or beans. Microwave all together, and if not in competition prep, you can add some fat free or low fat cheese, and plenty of salsa or hot sauce!

2 days out and looking good!

I took the two days off (Thursday and Friday) before my show.  I am standing in my kitchen in the morning and feeling pretty darn good about everything.


Weight is good (121), bodyfat is low (2.7%) and I look better than ever.

I am sure lots of folks think there is nothing to it, you just show up and wham, bam, thank you ma'am it's over, but no, that's not quite how it goes.


There is actually a lot to do to prepare ahead of time.  Let me start with how my diet changes today (Thursday).

Since Monday I have been on a modified diet, not a lot different than usual. I am a small person, I weigh 121 pounds right now and I don't need to make drastic changes, or rather I shouldn't as it could be disaster! Only small tweaks are needed at this point. First, I have been adding in more healthy fats. That means I am eating more flax or Udo's oil or peanut butter.

Since Sunday my diet has been this:

Meal #1  4:14 am 1/2 serving cream of rice, 3 ounces chicken breast
Meal #2  7:45 am 1 serving cream of rice, 4 ounces chicken breast
Meal #3  11:30 am 4 ounces brown rice, 4 ounces chicken breast, 1/2 cup asparagus, 1/2 cup mushrooms
Meal #4 3:00 pm 3 ounces brown rice, 4 ounces chicken breast, 1/2 cup asparagus, 1/2 cup mushrooms

Meal #5 6:30 pm 3 ounces brown rice, 5 ounces tilapia, 1 cup green beans

Meal # 6 8:45 pm 4 ounces chicken breast

Thursday it turned into this: 

Meal #1  5:30 am 1/2 serving cream of rice, 2 ounces chicken breast
Meal #2  8:30 am 1 serving cream of rice, 3 ounces chicken breast
Meal #3  11:30 am 4 ounces brown rice, 3 ounces chicken breast, 1/2 cup asparagus, 1/2 cup mushrooms
Meal #4 3:00 pm 3 ounces brown rice, 3 ounces chicken breast, 1/2 cup asparagus, 1/2 cup mushrooms

Meal #5 5:30 pm 4 ounces brown rice, 3 ounces tilapia, 1 cup green beans

Meal # 6 8:45 pm 3 ounces chicken breast

What did I do? Cut protein by ONE OUNCE at each meal...and added ONE OUNCE starch at two meals.


You are thinking what the heck will that do? A lot, believe me!

Because I have carb cycled, my muscles needed to get more glycogen into them, and you do that with carbs. By cutting protein a bit, the glycogen is shuttled right into those depleted muscles, making them hold on to it and look full.

It is a fine line we walk, a little too much and you "spill over" and look flabby, a little short and you look like you have been on a hard diet, way too long.

The final change to the diet is Friday night, when meal # 5 will be:


3 ounces lean steak (really rare, only cause I like it that way)
1 whole plain baked potato (lemon and pepper added)

1 cup asparagus

1 slice of cheesecake

Here is the cake, I made it this morning at 6:00 am! My son woke to the smell of freshly baking lemony cheesecake.

I had to go grocery shopping and spent way too much, to make sure anything that I could possibly want was in the house when I got home Saturday night.

I was at Cosentino's picking up some PB2 for Deirdre (she will be at the Max Muscle booth Saturday, look for the hottie clutching two containers of PB2).

Frank wanted to chat, he works there and spent many years competing himself. He wanted to know what I take to get so lean. I told him L-Carnitine, CLA, Amino Acid Complex 4 times a day, BCAA's fish oil, cayenne and green tea. Not much.

He was happy, nothing bad, and the right stuff. He wanted to show me a bread I should be eating. I asked him about carrying Walden Farms calorie free peanut butter spread and he said he would check it out for me. I do really like the people there, they are more than willing to help me with any request I might have. We chatted for about a half hour, then he went off to work and I continued with my to-do list.

I have to stay in a hotel Friday night and it is not a good idea to rely on anyone else but yourself for food right now, they may have all sorts of sodium and garbage in it, it's too close to take a chance.

I will bring my steak dinner (cooked) and more food for the night and next day. Cooked chicken, steak, asparagus, rice and a small amount of sweet potato. I will have more cheesecake for breakfast too.


I cooked the asparagus and chicken Thursday, Friday I will cook the steak and sweet potatoes and baked potato.

I have requested a microwave and refrigerator in my room, they often run out, and if so, I know where the staff kitchen is! 

The reason for the steak and cheesecake is that my body will be totally primed and receptive to anything I put into it, I should look hard, full and healthy Saturday, not thin, skinny and tired. By eating these foods I will look the way I need to.

I had to pack my things, bring dark sheets so I don't get tanning solution on the nice hotel sheets...I will be spray tanned there in a room Friday night, it is very messy stuff.

I had a manicure and a pedicure. It was a slow day I guess, almost surreal. Do you remember when Dorothy and her friends got to the the castle of the Wizard of Oz? They all had to go the the salon and be "groomed" and cleaned first before meeting the wizard. I felt like I was there with them! I  was lounging in a huge reclining massage chair, one woman was working on my pedicure, one on the manicure on my left hand and a third on my right hand! The only part that made me realize I wasn't in Oz was the Bee-Gees on KBAY in the background......

My nails may be short, but they are neat and clean and nicely polished. I don't like the fake nails, they are a driving hazard! It is extremely difficult to drive down the freeway holding my can of champagne in one hand while trying to pry off the fake nails with the other!

I had to shave my entire body, and double check to make sure there are no stragglers. I used to get a body wax and besides being very painful and expensive, I found that my skin was just way too red and irritated by it.

I am not obsessed, I don't worry about shaving my back. I know men who need to, no women that I am aware of and if you are a woman that needs to shave your back, all I can say is, I am so very sorry about that!

Friday is time for a hair cut, Natalia is fantastic, she is at Atilier at Aveda in Santana Row. She will cut my hair and blow it out, so I don't have much to do the next day.

Pack up all my food and water in a cooler and off I go. I will check into the hotel, pull the bedding off the bed, put on my own blue sheets then unpack everything. When it is my appointment time, I will wander the halls looking for the Jan Tana room and then strip naked and get my spray tan, I will either have Kevin or Christina, they both do a great job.


Then it's back to my room where I will be sequestered all night. I have books and magazines, I don't enjoy TV and it's not like I can pop down and meet friends for a drink.


7:00 pm and water is cut off. Meaning, I can not longer suck down liters of it, I can only sip a tiny bit if thirsty. I will try not to drink much. The next day, I will do my best to make 12 ounces last all day. That's not much when you are used to drinking three liters.  This is really important as fluids make you look smooth, you cannot see muscle definition. I want no part of smooth on Saturday, I want hard, ripped, definition showing everywhere.

Up early for feeding time, then I will put on way too much make-up, it is stage make-up and you need to have a lot on to be seen under the harsh lights.

I made the boys Costolette di Maiale ai due Vini (Pork chops braised with marsala and red wine) with some new potatoes and salad. They always get a little antsy about now, knowing that I will be back and ready to eat for a couple weeks before going back to my routine.

What did I eat? Buffalo chicken....ground chicken with white vinegar and cayenne pepper. Not bad, not bad at all!

Week Prior to Competition Diet

The final week prior to a competition, you make sure that you eliminate all the extra sodium so you don't retain water.

That means that I can no longer have protein shakes, they are loaded with sodium. I cannot eat egg whites either, they have lots of sodium too.

So when I get up at 4:00 am, I usually have a thick, delicious chocolate meal replacement shake, but no more for the next week. 

And I need to eat protein for breakfast and right before bed, and I usually have microwaved egg whites, plain right now, but when I am not within a month of a competition I will put on salsa, ketchup, hot sauce, all sorts of things. 

What's a girl to do?

Ground chicken breast.

Yup,  I will get up at 4:00 am and start eating chicken. I will also need a carb so I will have cream of rice. I may mix them together too, like some homemade baby food.

And when I get home from training, meal 2 will be ground chicken breast, and cream of rice again.

Right before bed? Ground chicken breast.

It is very important to read labels when you buy your food, including chicken.  Many companies are notorious for adding a sodium solution to "plump" up their meats, so they weigh more and they are charging you for salt water. 

You may think you are doing everything right, but in reality, you may be buying garbage just because it may be less expensive, and it is pumped full of a 14% solution of sodium.....and you will swell like a balloon. 

Read the labels. A 4 ounce serving of chicken breast should not have more than 70 to 75 mg of sodium in it, that is the naturally occurring amount. They are also required to state on the package if there is a sodium solution used, it could actually be a heath concern for some individuals. The label is very, very tiny though.

If you buy your meat at a butcher counter, they have all the data in the back, they can tell you, make them check. 

Here I have my ground chicken breast all cooked and weighed out. I have packages ranging from 2 ounces to 4 ounces each. My week will vary, I will have higher protein and lower carbs through Wednesday, then I raise the carbs and lower the protein, to shuttle all the carbs into the muscles. I am not so keen on the meals where I get only 2 ounces of protein, it's like a garnish to tell you the truth!

Friday night will be a big meal, steak, baked potato, cheesecake so I look full and healthy the next day.  I will surely write about that meal, I get to make my own (famous) cheesecake, and enjoy it Friday night and Saturday morning for breakfast too.

Milk the best recovery drink

Those ads you see where they say "Milk, it does a body good" are right. It is one of the best drinks for athletes available.

Milk is inexpensive compared to any sports drink or meal replacement and in fact, out performs them all around. 

This is my son, Cooper. He likes chocolate milk. He is 16 and plays lacrosse, running around all the time, so this is the perfect snack for him. Even though the chocolate milk tastes exactly the same when it comes in the large 1/2 gallon container, for some reason he likes these little ones, and that's OK because he drinks them and that is all I care about.

I read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, on September 8 titled "Milk might top sports drinks for athletes' muscle recovery" and it supports everything I have been telling him, and others about the benefits of milk.

According to  researchers, there is scientific support regarding the benefits of milk for athletes. It has carbohydrates, electrolytes, calcium and vitamin D. It also contains the two best proteins for rebuilding muscles: casein and whey. 

People pay big money for powdered casein and whey. 

Milk provides the building blocks for what you need to build new muscles. Sports drinks mainly replace lost carbohydrates and electrolytes, and don't usually have the necessary nutrients for muscles to regenerate themselves.

There really is no need to spend the big bucks on fancy protein meal replacement drinks for pre and post training, go for a 16 ounce glass of milk.

I would recommend low fat or non fat for most people, but for those trying to add mass, or active teenagers, you can feel confident they can use the added fats and calories from whole milk.

Egg Whites and Blogging

This is my nightly ritual. I microwave a cup of liquid egg whites, top with black pepper and a little low sugar ketchup, grab my jug of water and start blogging. I somehow manage to keep most of it off the keyboard too!

Were you wondering when I actually had time to do this? I mean, I get up at 4:00 am to go to the gym, I then go to a full time job and I have a family and they have lives too.

But we all manage to make time for things that are important to us. For most it is watching TV. I don't do that, I prefer to read. 

I read many books, often I will have 5 or 6 going at once. My mood or energy level will determine which book I read on any given day. I also like to write, and to share my sometimes crazy ideas with people, hoping that I can inspire some of them.


My son Cooper spends most of his free time playing lacrosse. He strings heads for his friends, he practices in the backyard and across the street. I think he even sleeps with his stick(s) sometimes.

David likes car racing, specifically Formula 1. Nascar is NOT car racing, it just doesn't have the same panache.  Unfortunately there are only 19 races a year. Of course, that needs to be multiplied by 3 because you have practice, qualifying and then the actual race. He also spends a lot of time on his wine making.

My point is that we all make tome to do what we enjoy and what we feel is important to maintain our sense of balance. If you don't "have the time" to train or eat properly, you need to look inward and decide if it is really important to you.


I will bet that you will find the time if it is.

I want it all!

Put your training into perspective. Here is another excerpt from "Winning Ways: How to succeed in the gym and out"

Self-Canceling combinations.

"I want to get huge, shredded, strong- I want it all." It's a familiar refrain, and it would seem that with a little creativity and a lot of effort, it's possible to pull it off. As you know, however, appearances can be deceiving. As much as you might like to believe you can have everything, you can't. In fact, the best way to get nowhere is to try to get everywhere at once.

It's easy to see why you can be led down the path to the everywhere-nowhere syndrome: every day images of everything from pro bodybuilding victories to Olympic gold medals are around to tantalize you. One moment you may be captivated by someone winning the World's Strongest Man competition, and the next you may be thinking triathlons. Left, right, up, down: add them all up and you land just where you started. That's the problem with trying to combine too many things or, more important, things that work in opposition to each other. It's those self-canceling combinations that can really block your progress.

Let's oversimplify things just to illustrate a point. To get bigger, you need to consume more calories than you burn; to get leaner, you need to consume fewer calories than you burn; Thus, when you simultaneously want to get bigger and leaner, you should eat more calories than you burn and you should eat fewer calories than you need. That's the classics self-canceling combination- whatever you do  in one direction is offset by what you do in the opposite direction, so you end up where you started. It certainly is possible to simultaneously increase muscle mass and decrease fat, but the point remains that some goals are easier to combine than others, and some goals are largely mutually exclusive. It's the mutually exclusive goals that you need to learn to manage, not just for your physical progress, but also for your peace of mind. 

At the heart of these conflicting goals is the unwillingness to make choices- after all, if the game show host only lets you choose one of three possible doors, your decision automatically requires you to give up the other two. In real life, with nobody enforcing rules like that, you want to try to open all three doors- at once no less. Part of the problem here is just knowing, or not knowing, what you want most. You can argue that one of the best ways to figure out the answer to that question is to give things a try, to see how they work for you.

The first thing to realize is that no choice, no matter what you think, is going to be perfect, and as long as whatever you choose isn't lethal, you can probably correct your course if you want to. Most people stumble in the first part of the process because its too easy to get fooled when we consider things like potential goals. Research psychologists talk about "focusing illusion" when people make judgments. You make focus on something that's actually inconsequential, or you may exaggerate how much something will change your life. For example, you may think that if you can add five inches of muscle to your upper arm, your whole life will change for the better, but what you may find is that having a bigger upper arm means just that: your upper arm is several inches bigger than it used to be. You didn't get smarter, better-looking, more merciful, or anything else that's good in the process-your arm just got bigger. Sometimes that's exactly what happens, and you can imagine the cold showers awaiting all the commercially ambitious Olympic gold medalists who didn't end up on the Wheaties box or with a Coke contract.

The point is not to denigrate any goal you may have but to make it easier to pick your goals by realizing that nothing is perfect- and that the concept works in both directions: whatever you give up isn't likely to be the be-all and end-all any more than whatever you choose is. Once you realize that, you can lighten up on yourself a little and use the breathing room to pick one goal or maybe a couple that go together. You may decide to train for size and strength at once, but combinations such as simultaneously trying to gain weight and run a faster marathon don't mix.

In a word that has a lot of compelling choices, sometimes it's hard to pick one while giving up another. The way out, you think, is to mix a little of this with a little of that- a reasonable approach, as long as you avoid self-canceling combinations.

Hard work or Excuses?

Hard Work. Excuses.

My husband will tell you I see one or the other, there is no in between with me.

It's either black or white, there is no gray.

So how do I maintain this year round?

It takes a lot of hard work to train every single day, to wake at 4:00 am in the dark cold; to pull on your shorts and lace up your shoes, still wishing you were asleep in the soft, comfortable bed. Standing at the counter, drinking a protein carb replacement meal, attempting to wake up enough to hoist a huge barbell countless times.

It takes a lot of dedication to eat a strict diet when you would rather enjoy almost anything else. Wishing you could sit and eat ice cream from a carton (I have never done that but I have read that many people, especially women do it often); to eat a small bag of chips; to have a couple cocktails and snack on nuts!

To come home from a long day at work, only to put some shorts and training shoes on yet again, and then push yourself out the door for a session of running stadium stairs, track intervals, plyometrics, kettlebells.

Hard work pays off though. I see it in myself everyday. When my muscles grow rounder and fuller with the weights, when my strength increases from the constant pounding.

My skin grows tighter against the muscles as I continue to diet, forming a smooth canvas against the hard roundness of lean muscle mass. I can feel the skin becoming thin, I can feel my body transform into a machine that is almost running on auto pilot.

I do not make excuses, I work hard, everyday.