Turkey Chili

This is a recipe adapted from one that my nutritionist, Kim Porterfield gave me. I love chili, but most chili is fairly loaded with fat and calories. This is healthy and even kids will eat it!







2 pounds ground turkey breast
2 cans chicken broth or 30 ounces water
2 cans chopped ready cut tomatoes, or any flavored cut tomatoes
4 tablespoons chili powder
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced carrot
1 cup diced celery
4 diced jalapenos (or use canned)

Brown the turkey, break into small pieces. When cooked through add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil. Cover and simmer 15 minutes. If too thin once done, remove lid and simmer until some liquid has evaporated. Remember that you will add beans later so you want some liquid. I like mine fairly liquid, so use less and add more later if you like, cooking is an art, baking is a science!

Add beans prior to serving, warm through.

If pre-making making this for your dinners and lunches, measure into equal amounts (I eat 4 ounces protein at a meal, so I would measure this into 8 equal zip lock bags), then freeze them. When ready to eat, empty contents into a pot, heat through then add your beans (I add 4 ounces beans before lunch and 3 ounces beans for dinner).

Top with hot sauce, fat free sour cream, diced onions, and jalapenos.

Here I am having it with a salad and balsamic vinaigrette (balsamic vinegar, pepper, mustard and splenda) along with a big glass of water.

Rock Hard Abs

Here is a picture of my abs the evening prior to my last competition, which took place on May 22, 2010.

My waist was the smallest it has ever been, and I think it looked great! I just finished watching the videos, I didn't really see what the head judge said about my leanness, I don't think I was any leaner than most of the other competitors.

How do you get abs like this and can anyone do it? I am not sure if ANYONE can, but I do honestly think just about any reasonably fit person can have abs like this. I am 49 years old, I have had a child and I have not had any lipo suction or surgery.

It really boils down to the hardest part of all of this and that is the lovely DIET. When I speak of diet, I mean a long term, healthy, low fat, high protein, vegetable rich diet. Not a crash, fad diet, but one you can live with.

I do actually adhere to a really good diet most of the time, I will splurge and go off it after a competition, which I have just done and frankly, I am feeling rather sick to my stomach at this point.

So I have allowed myself to eat like a horse, and if you have ever owned a horse, you know they will eat and eat and eat until they explode.

I am prone to a bit of exaggeration though. hee hee hee

Of course you must exercise daily and you cannot just eat right then be a couch potato. You have got to combine it all together, a proper diet, a rigorous exercise program and a drive to make it all happen.

I do throw in supplements too. I do not take any "fat burners" but I do take CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid) 2,500 mg three times a day; green tea extract 500 mg twice a day; cayenne 500 mg twice a day and forskohlii 385 mg twice daily.

These are all supplements (oils, herbs and roots) that have shown to have a thermogenic effect.

While you could say these are "fat burners", I know what I am taking, it is not a ridiculously expensive proprietary blend with a lot of garbage in it that I am unsure of. Most of these are pennies compared to the $50.00 price tag of one bottle of a 'miracle" fat burner. If you need the "amp" in the morning to get you going, just buy powdered caffeine and toss 200 to 400 mg into your morning protein drink, along with taking these and you will have plenty of energy to keep you going.

Oh I hope I have not confused you now, but as always, feel free to ask questions.

So, as I am preparing for bed, after watching the show and thinking how I have gained 6 pounds in one week, I have decided it's time to back out of the barn, and get back on that darn diet again.

July 10 will be here before you know it and I want my abs to look just like this again....

Coach "P"

If you have been following my posts, you know my son plays varsity lacrosse, he lives for lacrosse.

I am writing this on Friday evening. One of his coaches, Coach "P" died today, he was 21 years old.

As a mother I cannot even fathom the depth of pain that the family has been through. Although I lost my own mother to cancer only a year ago, the thought of losing a child is something I cannot even begin to imagine.

Coach "P" was a presence, a huge impact on many lives. He volunteered his time to coach young men in a sport he loved.

He died as a result of a weight lifting accident.

I am having a difficult time explaining it all to my son. He doesn't understand, I don't understand, none of us do, how could this happen? The tears have not stopped, at least not for long. We all walk around like zombies, repeating the same thing, feeling the same pain, but oh so alone in it all.

I am not going to go into details, I only need, and want to say that he was a wonderful, intelligent man and something didn't go right, he got hurt.

Hug your children, tell them you love them, forgive their errors, remember the small gestures, cherish the moments. They may be taken away before you have a chance to savor them.

Coach "P"- we love you and thank you. Coop says you are the best "bro" he has ever known.

Get Big Worksheet

My worksheet for the next couple weeks is 7 days, lifting heavy! I am not training with FP for a while, and not sure when I will see SC, looks like he won't be able to train me for a while, now it looks like I will be on my own, so I wrote my own worksheet.

I have learned that you need to lift heavy if you want growth, it needs to be difficult and the last rep should not be as easy as the first, or it's way too light.

I wear a night guard on my teeth at the advise of my Dentist because I clench my teeth when I lift heavy and it keeps me focused now, I can tell if the weights aren't heavy enough if I am not chomping down on that guard.

I am hitting legs heavy two days a week, shoulders and back twice a week, but one of those days is focused more on back than shoulders.

One day on glutes

One day bi's and tri's

One day on some interval training, maybe kettlebell swings or fartlekking. What does fartlek mean?

fart·lek (färt'lěk)
n.
An athletic training technique, used especially in running, in which periods of intense effort alternate with periods of less strenuous effort in a continuous workout.

A workout using this technique.

[Swedish, speed play : fart , running, speed (from fara , to go, move , from Old Norse; see per- 2 in Indo-European roots) + lek , play (from leka , to play , from Old Norse leika ).]

Here is what I am tackling for a while:

Get Big Workout

Monday Quads/Abs
Front Squats 5x5
Back Squats 5x10
Alt Leg Extension 3x15
Bulgarian Split Squat 5x5 ea
Crunches on an incline/ 3x20
Hanging leg raises/ 3x20
Jump Squats 2x10

Tuesday Back & Shoulder #1
Wide grip lat pull down, arched back, lower lat 4 X 15
Cable row , seated 7 x 12
Military Press Smith Machine 3x10
Dumbbell rows, bend over stack 4x 12
Cable pull over 4 x 12
Cable Lat. Raise 3x20
Cable Bent Raise 3x20
Cable Front Raise 3x20

Wednesday Arms/calves/Abs
Concentration curls 3x10 ea
Prone Cable Curls 3x10 ea
Incline DB Curls 3x10
BH Cable Tricep Ext 3x10
Incline skull crushers 3x10
Hammer Curls 3x10
DIPS 4x5
V-ups 3x20
Ab roll outs 3x15
Calve Raise on leg press/ 3xburn
Seated calve raise/ 3xburn

Thursday Quads & Hams
Front Squat 5x5
Back Squat 3x10
RDLs 4x10
Alt Leg Extension 3x15ea.
Step Ups 3x15 ea
Leg Press 3x20
Leg Curl 1/2 3x10 ea

Friday Back & Shoulder #2/abs

BB Bent Over Row 3x8
Pull Up 3x3
DB Row 3x20ea.
Arnold Press 4x8
DB Lateral Raise 4x8
DB Front Raise 4x8
DB Bent Raise 4x8
Knee ups 3x20
Bent knee crunch 3x20
Shoulder Combo 3x10x3

Saturday Glutes
Thrusters 3xburn
BB Glute Bridge 3x15
Bench Rev Hyoer 3x15 sec
SL Rev Leg Press 5x8
Cable 45 degree abduction 3x8
X band walks 3x20 ea

Sunday Calves/ Abs and Fartlekking
3 Pos. Calve on leg press 3x15x3
3 Pos. Seated Calve Raise 3x15x3
Crunch on inlcine bench/ 3x20
Hanging leg raises/ 3x20
Stability Ball Crunch 3x20
Leg Lifts on Ball 3x20
Fartlekking TBD



Feel free to email me if you have any questions about this.

Contra Costa Bodybuilding Championships

Here is a link to the photos from the Contra Costa Bodybuilding, Fitness, Figure and Bikini Championships.

You can click on the first photo to enlarge it then click on next to view through them. There does not appear to be any comparisons online yet.

Then there are the score sheets Masters Figure 45+

You can scroll through to Open Figure C for the results of the unlimited group. I enter both divisions, the Masters and then the Unlimited (also called open) as this gives me more opportunities. The Open division is separated by height classes, but not age group, its open to all women 18 years and older.

These score sheets detail where each judge felt you should be placed, you are aiming for a low score, preferably 1.

They add all of the scores up, then throw out the highest and lowest (when you look at my scores for "C", one judge gave me a 10, the rest gave me 6, 7 and 8 so they threw out the 10 and a 6 to arrive at my score of 35. Then they rank, lowest score to highest and that's how they arrive at the end result.

Its all very subjective and its hard to determine exactly what the judges will find to be the "best" physique on any given day. It is all dependent on who shows up at that particular event, and what everyone looks like.

Although there is a set of criteria that is required, I still cannot always see what they see. Here is what the National Physique Committee (NPC) states is the desired Figure competitor:

When judging a figure competition the judges shall assess the athleticism of the physique. This is not a bodybuilding contest. A SMALL DEGREE OF MUSCULARITY WITH SEPARATION IS DESIRED, WITH NO VISIBLE STRIATIONS. The muscle tone should appear firm and round with a small amount of body fat over the muscle, and no excessive leanness. The figure competitions provide alternatives for athletic women who (a) Train. (b) Do not wish to gain muscle size and vascularity and (c) do not have a strong gymnastic / dance background. All Figure and Fitness competitors must have reached their eighteenth (18) birthday by the day of the contest.

So who determines what "a small amount of body fat" is??? Who determines what "no excessive leanness" is?? I think that a couple ounces of body fat is excessive, my friend thinks I am a nut and a couple pounds is excessive.

So as you can see, you have to take all of the women lumped together to first arrive at what is the desired look, so it changes at every event.

Me? I plan to get add more muscle, get harder and come in the way I like to look now. It may not win any trophies, but it's the look I like best. Heck, maybe I will try bodybuilding if I can get my quads big enough!

We all make mistakes

Yes, this was one of mine. I lived, no one suffered terribly, I learned never to do this again, and it was a very long time ago too.

That's all you should expect from yourself, "learn from your mistakes".

We all make mistakes, that's part of being human, of having choices. If everything was set for us, and we had no choices, we wouldn't have an opportunity to make a mistake would we?

You might make a mistake at work or at home, if so, admit it and learn from it, move on and let go.

We all make mistakes on our diet or training. Some mistakes are more easily remedied than others, some could have been prevented by being a bit more thoughtful.

I made a mistake, I dieted too long and lost too much weight, the head judge told me that my muscles weren't full enough and I didn't have my usual "pop"...he said my conditioning was off.

So I won't beat myself up, I am taking a new approach. I am going back to my 7 days a week lifting, eating a bit more calories and additional fats and getting bigger. I won't lose the weight until a couple weeks before the next competition, but I have 7 weeks, so I have time.

The other day I took my car into the dealership for service and the shuttle driver came up to tease me and say hello. I told him what the head judge said and his response was "Who was the head judge? Ray Charles?" that got a great big laugh and made me feel a lot better.

We all need to remember the goal should not be to be better than others, but to be the best we can be, as individuals.

And always learn from your mistakes.

Triangle of Terror

This is the exercise that SC has me do called the Triangle of Terror, along with the other glute and ham exercises, and my glutes are very sore about 24 hours later. I do really like this one.

Be sure to maintain a low squat position and a straight back throughout.

You will step forward 15 steps, then backward 15 steps, then sideways to the right 15 steps and sideways to the left 15 steps. This takes time, you are not supposed to speed through it, you must maintain a very low squat position, keep your back straight and maintain the widest possible spread between your feet at all times.

The above steps is one set, rest and then do it all over again, for a total of three sets. Take a look at the video below.