Happy Feet

Not much feels as good as having my feet massaged. OK, maybe having my entire body massaged. That would be the first thing I would ask for if someone wanted to give me a gift. 

In fact, one year my dad gave me $1,000.00 for a gift and I saved it for a "massage a month" for as long as it lasted....It was wonderful.

My club, Courtside has a "spa membership", and I just don't have enough disposable income to justify the cost. There is a full service spa there, and if you join the "spa club" you get all spa services at half price! That's a great deal except the monthly fee for this membership is $150.00.

So I come here instead, U Lucky Foot Spa. It's just down the road and for $20.00 they will massage my entire body, not just my feet, for an hour!

No, it's not like having a massage at a spa, you leave all your clothes on (drats!), you are in a big barca lounger type chair and there are strangers right next to you, but you can easily become friends.

Last time I was there a fellow got off his motorcycle and came in with me. We both sat down waiting and started to chat. He told me his back was tweaked and was it really only $20.00?

Yes, I said it was but it is a foot massage, I am not sure if they will do a back massage. I went on to explain exactly what they do. I always fall asleep, he said he wouldn't fall asleep. It is different than what we are used to, but I am sure this type of service is generally accepted all over the world and it's affordable too. 

What I like about this beside the great price, is that they actually massage my glutes, I have not found many massage therapists who do and the glutes need to be massaged! The massage is more reflexology I suppose, and then some stretching and kneading....it's great!

He then asked me where I work out. I guess it's obvious huh? We then had a nice chat about weight training.

After we waited a while a woman came and started to lead us away together, she thought we were a couple, he got a chuckle out of that.

I fell asleep three times at least, I wake myself up with a jerk of my body, someday I will probably kick the poor woman in the face.

When we were done, I stretched, tried to get my bearings and looked around. Who was asleep in the big chair right next to me?

My motorcycle guy. ha ha 

Back Day and Diet

Back day, I am now training back twice a week with a little variation at each session.  Looking good huh?! It amazes me how quickly things can get dialed in with just dedication and effort. I throw some abs in on back day as it’s one of my shorter workouts. I also found that hitting the abs first ensures I actually do it!  Today's training and diet is as follows:

4:15 a.m. Meal # 1: lean one meal replacement drink (220 calories, 18 grams carbs, 20 grams protein); supplements

5:00 a.m. warm up 5 minutes walking on the treadmill.

Hanging leg raises 5x10, bodyweight.

Crunches, legs elevated on a bench, 5 x20

Pull ups, bodyweight 4 sets 6, 6, 5, 5, 5

Lat pull down, 85 pounds 3 sets wide grip, 2 sets triangle grip

Seated low row, 100 pounds 5 sets 3 sets wide rip, 2 sets triangle

T-bar row 80 pounds (in addition to the 45 pound bar), 4 sets of 10

Bent over row, 110 pounds 4 sets of 10

6:15 a.m. R-4 Recovery drink (one scoop 135 calories, 26 grams carbs, 7 grams protein, 20 grams sugars) and supplements

Coffee

7:30 a.m. Arrive at work (darn, someone has to do it!)


7:45 a.m.  Breakfast Meal #2: Protein waffles (1 serving oats- ½ cup raw; 1 cup egg whites, flavorings). I make these ahead and package and place in the fridge. 

I have written about them so many times. I love them and eat them often, at least 4 days a week. I make coffee, chocolate, banana, vanilla flavors, but you can use your imagination. And no, they do not taste just like the real thing! But they are a damn good substitute!


Shoot me an email or a comment if you need the recipe, but I think it's here in the archives somewhere!

11:00 a.m. stairs and jump rope, run up 100 and down 100 stairs, jump rope 100 times; x 3 sets. That's 300 up, 300 down and 300 jumping...whew!

11:30 a.m. Lunch meal #3:  3 ounces brown rice, 4 ounces cubed chicken breast, 2 cups vegetables (broccoli rabe, mixed peppers, mushrooms).

12:00 noon my first Twitter party as a new member of the Clever Girls Collective! I have entered into a 2 year contract with them, and you will soon see some reviews or promotions. I will of course let you know when I am being compensated for something I write about!

So if you got some weird tweets from me, it was my first time doing this. It was a promotion for Crocs shoes and they were awarding shoes and cash prizes, it was quite fast paced and fun. See my handle on the left there of my computer screen chatting away?

3:00 p.m. Lunch #2 Meal #4:   Salad. 4 ounces cubed chicken breast,  2 cups raw vegetables (peppers, cucumbers, snap peas, asparagus, enoki mushrooms, radish sprouts, one hard cooked egg) it will be topped with fat free balsamic vinaigrette.

As you may notice, there is no starch here and there won't be any the rest of the day. I will add starch to this meal every third day just to vary the calories and carbs. With lots of crunchy vegetables, and the starchy snap peas, I don't really miss it.

I add a whole egg if I am eliminating starches sometimes. You need to balance out the calories. Your brain needs some fuel and if you cut it too low, you won't look or feel good. Now if I had beef in here instead of chicken, I wouldn't do that.

Right now I try to keep my starches low and I will test my urine with ketone strips. Yup, I pee on a stick! A very little stick.

I will keep them in the small to moderate range, that way I know I am not eating too many starchy carbs. 

I will have a very good starchy meal every now and again, could be in two weeks could be more, could be less. Depends on how I am looking.

6:15 p.m. Leave work. 


6:45 p.m. Dinner Meal # 5: 5 ounces tilapia (raw weight), 3 cups vegetables (peppers, mushrooms, broccoli rabe), supplements. Oh another egg.....

I would normally eat about an hour earlier but work has been very busy, I left late.

Blog, blog, blog, blog....check email. Yadda yadda

8:30 Meal #6: 1 cup egg whites, 1 cup mushrooms, supplements.

9:00 off to bed. With a nice cuppa tea and a book Stacy loaned me. Sleep is really important to me!

Dave's Tuna and Santa Cruz

This was a blog I wrote a few weeks ago and for some reason found it sitting in my drafts! So, I would not be doing this on a diet....ha ha no way! Although its a little late, its still a great story.


David and I went over to Santa Cruz not long ago, we wanted to go have the deep fried calamari at Aldo's. Years ago we would come here quite often, we owned a sailboat and so were here just about every weekend. 

We had a great time sitting in the sun, eating and laughing. As you can see by the picture above, it's not a fancy place, in fact, if you go to the "fanciest" restaurant at the harbor you will be right across from this place, behind glass windows paying a fortune, and probably eating frozen fish...Aldo's also has huge wonderful breakfast served late...

I started in on my calamari, they catch it on their own boat and clean it right there, it's the freshest you can get.  I looked at David and told him I felt sick, I don't recall the last time I ate this. He laughed and said the same, we decided we just cannot eat the deep fried stuff like this any longer.

We had a glass of wine and I looked at the small menu on the table. I couldn't figure out what they were trying to convey.

I asked him if the letters and numbers were the "coordinates" of where the wines were from, you know, since it is a nautical theme. He almost spit his wine in my face laughing so hard. Talk about being blond! It was the price! G=glass B-bottle.

I laughed at myself too.

Afterward we stopped at Dave's Gourmet Albacore. Here is a picture of the canned products they sell. I have been eating Dave's tuna for years. Dave's employs the most ecologically responsible methods available to harvest his seafood. 

The process of harvesting both Dave's Gourmet Salmon and Albacore are among the most primitive and discretionary methods when it comes to selecting the best! Dave's standards are strictly hook & line, also referred to as 'Trolling'. This technique allows fishermen to hand select and properly store each fish to insure freshness and purity. 

In overseeing quality and care from the ocean's catch to the delight of the eater, Dave's high standards demand only the best hook & line seafood from his fleet. Dave's fishing fleet covers an area of stretch from Big Sur to Alaska.  

Dave's wife, Krista sells at the Campbell's farmers market, so I can pick up some great tuna every week. Some of our favorites though are the albacore loins they sell. Beautiful, thick loins of sweet albacore. I picked up a couple in the freezer section, I will take them home and make my own tuna, tuna confit. I will post my recipe later, complete with pictures.

If you eat tuna, you deserve to eat the best and treat your body right. The smoked albacore is a treat, I open a can and gently flake apart the huge chunks, then top it on a salad.

Stop by Dave's and give them a try!

Chips: The Deadly Sin

Chips, chips, chips! I know some people (a lot actually) who eat a bag a day. Blows me away. I will eat chips a couple times a year. One small bag of Doritos the night of a competition, and maybe one bag the next day. David also gives me two for Christmas. I will on occasion steal a couple from Cooper.

That's the extent of my chip eating. It's odd that people just don't seem to get how bad they are for you. Or is it that they just don't care? It's almost like sitting down to a huge plate of pasta and "wishing" that you lose weight.

It just ain't gonna happen that way.

And then people fall for the advertising like the package above. There is NOTHING healthy about these, it doesn't matter how much "whole grain" is in them!

This bag of chips- is deadly. In only one ounce you have the following "nutrition":

140 calories

6 grams fat (1 gram saturated)

19 grams carbohydrates

2 grams fiber

2 grams protein

Oh by the way, 1 ounce is 16 chips. I bet they eat more than 16 at a time.


The carbs are close to an entire meal of mine, when I am not dieting. The calories are half of what my entire meal would be. And people add this to their burger, or sandwich and soda.

If there is one thing you should cut out of your diet for good, it is chips of all kinds.  Read the following article, it may make you change your chip eating habits, or take them away from your kids.

Published : Wednesday, 22 Jun 2011, 3:25 PM MST

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Blame the potato chip. It's the biggest demon behind that pound-a-year weight creep that plagues many of us, a major diet study found. Bigger than soda, candy and ice cream.

And the reason is partly that old advertising cliche: You can't eat just one.

"They're very tasty and they have a very good texture. People generally don't take one or two chips. They have a whole bag," said obesity expert Dr. F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer of the St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York.

What we eat and how much of it we consume has far more impact than exercise and most other habits do on long-term weight gain, according to the study by Harvard University scientists. It's the most comprehensive look yet at the effect of individual foods and lifestyle choices like sleep time and quitting smoking.

The results are in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Weight problems are epidemic. Two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese. Childhood obesity has tripled in the past three decades. Pounds often are packed on gradually over decades, and many people struggle to limit weight gain without realizing what's causing it.

The new study finds food choices are key. The message: Eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and nuts. Cut back on potatoes, red meat, sweets and soda.

"There is no magic bullet for weight control," said one study leader, Dr. Frank Hu. "Diet and exercise are important for preventing weight gain, but diet clearly plays a bigger role."

Doctors analyzed changes in diet and lifestyle habits of 120,877 people from three long-running medical studies. All were health professionals and not obese at the start. Their weight was measured every four years for up to two decades, and they detailed their diet on questionnaires.

On average, participants gained nearly 17 pounds over the 20-year period.

For each four-year period, food choices contributed nearly 4 pounds. Exercise, for those who did it, cut less than 2 pounds.

Potato chips were the biggest dietary offender. Each daily serving containing 1 ounce (about 15 chips and 160 calories) led to a 1.69-pound uptick over four years. That's compared to sweets and desserts, which added 0.41 pound.

For starchy potatoes other than chips, the gain was 1.28 pounds. Within the spud group, french fries were worse for the waist than boiled, baked or mashed potatoes. That's because a serving of large fries contains between 500 to 600 calories compared with a serving of a large baked potato at 280 calories.

Soda added a pound over four years. Eating more fruits and vegetables and other unprocessed foods led to less weight gain, probably because they are fiber-rich and make people feel fuller.

For each four-year period, these factors had these effects on weight:

— An alcoholic drink a day, 0.41-pound increase.

— Watching an hour of TV a day, 0.31-pound increase.

— Recently quitting smoking, 5-pound increase.

People who slept more or less than six to eight hours a night gained more weight.

Create your Dreams Internally

I was out of town the other day, visiting my father-in-law, and decided instead of hauling so much stuff there for one overnight stay, I would not go to the gym in the morning (at his place), but instead sleep in and train when I returned home the following afternoon.

Here I am after the 2 1/2 hour drive, dressed to go hit the weights. Sleeping in is not something I usually do, in fact, I very rarely do it. I slept until 7:00 a.m. and heard it was marked on the calendar as a special event. 

I have many readers now, and I love hearing from them. What is the most common email I receive? People telling me what an inspiration I am. I was messaging with a new friend on Facebook while I visited my father-in-law, I could see by the ever so tiny pictures on my phone that she is gorgeous, fit, cut, muscular and a competitor herself. She said I was inspirational.

How could I be an inspiration to her or anyone else? What am I doing that is so inspiring?

I thought about it a lot on the ride home.

I recounted in my head why I even started writing. 

There are thousands of blogs out there about this same topic; however I believe they fall into a few groups. There are the formerly obese people who changed their ways are are now fit. Not me, I have never had a weight problem.

There are those who have overcome a debilitating injury or disease to become ripped and cut. Nope not me, I have broken a rib a few months back, that's about it.

Then there are those who were famous, or at least well known in the particular circle they lived in and they decided to make some money with their advise.

None of it really fits me, surprise surprise!

The seed was planted by another competitor working with my trainer at the time, she struggled to lose body fat, and I would always seem to lose it so effortlessly. 

Believe me, it takes a great deal of effort, but I don't think I struggle as much as most others do, since I don't ever let myself get overweight. 

I started writing because I have a lot to share. People would always ask me for advise, so this seemed like the best way to do it.

It all started with how to lose body fat, but I soon realized that it was way more complicated than that. It was about me as a person. 

I told my new friend that I just "put it out there" and she said that's what makes it so special, so real. I guess that's right. You will see people show their one "fat" picture in the beginning, then they never show you another picture until they look stunning.

Or the "famous" or well know personalities, you only see them at their best, who could possibly hope to live up to that?

Me? You see me at 6:00 a.m. with no make up (a lot), when I am white and "pudgy" (at least for me) in the off season. I don't get dressed up except of course when I put on my competition suit. ..I think Sub Zero really should pay me for all those pictures in front of my fridge though! 

You see me when I am mourning a death, or celebrating a birth. When I am struggling, when I am celebrating. You see me everyday, and almost every picture is recent, I take them every couple days and have done so for years (yeah, I know it's a bit odd).

I share a lot, and I do it because I want others to feel good about themselves.

I think that the only "remarkable" thing about me truly is the fact that I am 50 and look a hell of a lot younger, without the aid of cosmetic surgeries or androgenic ergogenic drugs. I look great year round, and "greater" at competition time! Will I stop writing as soon as it all hits (or drops) and I look my age?

Nope. And, that is the other remarkable thing about me, you see, I believe.

In ME.

And I never act my age either!

People are motivated many different ways, but there are two categories you can divide them into. There are "externally" motivated people and "internally" motivated people. 


I think you will generally find that those who are very successful in one particular aspect of their life, I mean really, really driven to constantly improve, are internally motivated. 


I am internally motivated.


I don't need someone to push me, someone to help me, someone to train with me, someone to lean on. I am my own in all of those areas.


I am driven by the desire to improve, so seek near perfection in my quest, whatever it may be. I look around and if I am alone, I never stop, I run harder. I feel that we all learn best by falling down and getting up on our own. I learn best by doing. I am not afraid to fail. 


I don't follow the crowd and if everyone thinks it's a good idea, I probably don't agree. We don't need to be stiff, frail, slow and in pain. We should be fluid, strong, fast and high (on life).


I can "create dreams internally", or control the endorphins by just thinking about training.


Endorphins: 

From the Greek: word endo "ενδο" meaning "within" (endogenous, Greek: ενδογενής, "proceeding from within") and morphine, from Morpheus, Greek: Μορφέας, the god of dreams in the Greek mythology, thus 'endo(genous) (mo)rphine’.


I believe we write our own book, our future is what we decide it will be. While none of us can control what happens to us and around us, we can control how we react and deal with it all.


We are in charge of our own destiny. 


I feel that I am inspirational because of my outlook on life. I look for the positive, I make it fun, I seek adventure. It's not like I get to do this all over again....


And, although I don't "need" anyone, I certainly do love to train with others, share their triumphs and their failures and learn form people. I will never stop learning, and as long as I can, I will have a trainer that helps me to expand my horizons. And most of all, I will never stop trying to inspire those around me to be the best they can be.


I believe in you, do you believe in you? Reach for the stars, they are yours for the taking.

Friday's Training with Roy

I think I must have been born with an Olympic bar on my back! I do honestly think my favorite exercise is anything with that big, long, cold, 45 pound bar!

These pictures were taken Saturday morning, immediately after training, before food and coffee. You can compare them to the pictures I posted on Sunday to see what a dramatic difference the food makes.

In these I look tight and really lean, whereas the pictures after eating I look pretty soft. Keep that in mind when you are getting your body "beach ready" as they say.

I know when I really start losing the body fat because people at the club comment. Today I saw Tom, he said "You must be getting ready for something, you are looking really lean"...yup, he's right.  He looked me up and down and said "You are really vascular, this is new, not like you usually look. What's different this time?" I find it interesting that this man, and many others feel comfortable enough around me to do that. I mean they actually look up and down and comment. I encourage it, I want them to tell me, it's not personal nor is is sexual, it is constructive criticism on the progress of "The Body". It just happens to be my body. I need the feedback, I stare it it so much, I lose sight of reality. My vision gets skewed.

We talked a bit about training and diet, what I am doing differently, he is going to Hawaii soon and is trying to tighten up and he explained his current diet.

I told him to ditch the fruit. No fruit when dropping body fat, fructose is probably one of the worst things for it!

I have maintained at the 2 pound drop, and had three meals that are not "competition prep approved". One more at the wedding (or maybe the rehearsal dinner too) and then I am officially killin' it!

Friday Roy and I worked on Good Mornings first then back squats. He took some video I think, or pictures, I guess when he sends them to me you will see them too!

We then tried his modified Glute Ham Raise, I told David about it and he was horrified. I will try anything once though, and if it doesn't kill me and I like it, I will do it over and over again. Life is too damn short to worry about getting hurt. I have a better chance of getting hit by a bus than hurting myself training, and I already broke a rib doing it so I used up my quota.

I couldn't even do the exercise and he says with a bit of enthusiasm "We got our exercise for next week!"....I am looking forward to it.

Squats are great for the whole body and not enough women do them. Most women I see squatting don't go heavy enough or low enough. And I am learning that they aren't doing them with proper form either! Actually, most people don't use proper form as they are so intent on loading on the weight, they sacrifice form for weight, then the exercise is basically useless. Well, it is a good way to hurt yourself I guess.

And women are the ones so stressed about their big 'ol butts! Squatting will only make that flabby butt into a tight butt. Nothing worse than a flabby, flat butt...

And Good Mornings? For the hamstrings....when you stand sideways, you really want to see a nice big bulge in the back of the leg, above the knee, and then a bigger one when you get to the glutes...You gotta work the hammies!

I have really enjoyed training with Roy and feel fortunate to have found him. He listens to what I want and then makes sure I do it right! Couldn't be better huh? I also like the fact that he respects my opinion and experiences and doesn't have an air of "I am the Trainer, you are the Trainee"...we are in it together. I think I can always learn from others, and I know I have a lot to offer too. People learn from me everyday!

Check out the back! The "back fat" is dwindling away...very quickly too. I guess it's the curse of the 50 year old body or something. I always said I look best at 123 pounds and I am at 125 now.

Lets' compare pictures when I lose 2 more pounds shall we? I will wear the exact same clothes too!

Monday Morning Motivation

I often wonder if there is a day of the week that I just don't like, and I don't think  there is! I do enjoy some more than others though, and Saturday is one of the best for me, myself and I.

I love getting up early, it is quiet and everyone is asleep, the world sleeps in it seems. I was at the gym for 2 & 3/4 hours and it wasn't a shower and steam that ate up that expanse, I just got lost in time there, just doing my thing.

On weekends I definitely train longer than usual, and I also do some cardio after I train. Today I stayed and stretched a lot too. It felt good just to relax and listen to the music.

Find yourself so you can let yourself get lost once in a while.

"Energy is eternal delight." ~ William Blake 

"Action will sometimes be required, but if you're really doing it in line with what the universe is trying to deliver, it's going to feel joyous, you're going to feel so alive, time will just stop, you could do it all day.” ~ Bob Doyle 

“Image creates desire. You will what you imagine." ~ J. G. Gallimore 

“Nothing happens by itself... it all will come your way, once you understand that you have to make it come your way, by your own exertions." ~ Ben Stein 

“Whatever you create in your life you must first create in your imagination.” ~ Tycho Photiou 

“A man may live the way he wants to live when he learns to think what he wants to think.” ~ Christian Larson 

“We can change our lives. We can do, have, and be exactly what we wish.” ~ Anthony Robbins 

"The secret that everyone already knows intuitively within themselves is that we are all whole, complete and perfect as we are, in that we can manifest whatever we choose by simply focusing on what we would like and letting go of everything else." ~ Hale Dwoskin 

10 Weeks Out

It's 10 weeks away, and that sounds like a lot. It is a long time, but then time is all relative. If, for instance, the 10 weeks was how long you had to live, it would not be much time at all. If it were a vacation on a yacht in the Caribbean it would be a very long time (I have done that for 10 glorious days, I shall tell you about it sometime). If you are on a diet it can seem like an extremely long time. If you are worried that you won't lose enough bodyfat it is not enough time.

It's all in how you look at it right?

Right now my head says I have plenty of time. It's funny as my body changes so much through out the day. I can look lean and ripped one moment and an hour later, soft and flabby. Food and water impact it all. Not just eating and drinking but WHAT is eaten...

I can see right now that the fat on the upper back has started to leave, thank goodness! It's the rear end that looks a bit soft, but that is the last to go and I am not worried. My butt goes from glorious to very, very firm and small. It is rather disappointing to work to get it so big just to see it melt away!

The abs are definitely not as soft as they were, I was looking  very, very lean earlier  but I was at the gym so long I had to eat then shower then take the pictures. So, these pictures were taken after I ate 1 cup of egg whites, 1 serving of steel cut oats and too many cups of coffee to count! Not what I would do on competition day!

This all looks the same, but again the stomach is looking flatter. I can really tell when I roll on the foam roller. Those of you who have a cat will know exactly what I am talking about. I lay face down on the roller, rolling one quad and the excess skin on my stomach just sorta hangs there, you can cup it in your hand, like a cats soft belly....but, it's all getting smaller and smaller, so if you were to reach under to cup that soft spot, there wouldn't be much there to hold!


TMI? I am standing here half naked ya know! I also tend to exaggerate just a little bit....

So I am looking quite similar to last week, but I knew I would, "The Diet" hasn't been in full force yet, but I have been eating clean most of the time and not snacking , so I am already taking shape. 

I am already starting "The List" of the foods I shall eat, the restaurants I shall go to, the drinks I shall enjoy. This is actually one of the fun parts, daydreaming about the fun afterward. And what's even funnier is other people do it too, they live vicariously through my diet, then can't wait to celebrate with me afterward. It's not like they dieted too, they just want to be part of the fun when I am ready to cut loose.

I was at Mark and Virginia's for dinner last night and they (along with David) already planned my first outing, not that they asked me what I thought, but since they made it all sound so fun I will go along.

The plan is to go to The Happy Hound in Los Gatos. It has been there forever! I am 50 years old went to high school here, I used to go there after school!

Apparently they have killer french fries, cooked in peanut oil. I haven't been there in probably 15 years, but my family has so I have just learned.

David said there is a picnic table in the parking lot, back in the corner. We will go and spread a table cloth on the table, get a few orders of fries and wash them down with Champagne.

If you think this sounds good and end up trying it, can you let me know what you think? I don't want to waste one of my first "bad" meals on a pipe dream!