Advice for Lifting, Living and Loving

I was home on Friday, I leave work at 11:30 just to go train with Roy. I know I am very fortunate that I am allowed to do this, and I look forward to it every week. For some reason, this one particular day makes me feel alive, free, and lucky to just be me. 

It's a bit trickier when you work and compete. I mean, you need to fit two lives into one right? So not only do I need to be "the Assistant Director" and clean and shop and commute, I have to be the "Physique Competitor" and train and shop and prepare and train and train and train.

Fridays, I can do it all! I am off early so I can train without being rushed or feeling drained, then I do my grocery shopping and take my time. I also meet my posing coach, Kristy Enos  every other week. Having this one half day is a miracle every single week.

Today I was reflecting. I received a couple emails, both of which made me feel great. One was from a friend from my old gym I had not seen in a about a year - she had heard I was looking big and great - and checked out my blog and had to send me an email saying that "I looked awesome ". The other was from a reader, one I had never met or corresponded with before. She said that whenever she is feeling in a rut, my pictures and blog re-inspire her. 

These two small gestures made a big impact on me.

I often come across as a hard nosed, no nonsense person. But I am not. I am a very positive and focused individual. Sometimes a bit too focused and that may make me seem......cold.

As my husband David says about me: "Stay out of her way, or you will get run over!"

Today I was thinking about my life, and how wonderful things have been in my 51 years. I thought I would share some of the thoughts that popped into my head as I put away groceries and started dinner, things that I think have made me the successful person that I am.

Life Advice from Kristy

(please share this if you feel it is appropriate!)

If you get cold at the gym, wear a hat. (yup, I wear this and it keeps me warm!)

One slice of cheesecake will not make you fat.

If you have a nose piercing, and you cry, tears will fill the hole.

Chocolate tastes better immediately after a heavy lifting session.

Dancing makes everything better.

Laugh.

Change the music on your play list every week.

Friends can be near or far.

Don't be afraid to be yourself and love yourself for who you are.

Life is short, do fun things. Clean the house later, or better yet, let someone clean it later for you.

Squats make your butt look big (it's a good thing).

Give gifts, small ones, especially for no reason.

If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

It's a good thing to be naked.

A smile makes everyone around you feel good.

Exercise every day.

Laugh at yourself, and be OK with it.

Eat real food, but enjoy the fake stuff once in a while.

Do things that make your heart race and scare you a little.

Learn to cook what you like and how you like it.

A woman belongs in the weight room.

Massage helps everything feel better.

Wear bright colors.

There really are no rules in life, but it's all a better world if you go out of your way to help people and don't hurt others.

Routine is essential for success. If your routine is "no routine" and that works for you, keep it up.

Cardio sucks.

Flannel in the winter, cotton in the summer (on the bed).

A hot shower works wonders.

Lift weights.

Wash your face every night, without fail.

Strut. It makes people wonder what the hell you have been up to.

Don't cover up your body, there is nothing more beautiful in all the world.

Life only gets better and better every year.

Pay people compliments, with a smile, it will make their day.

Lift heavier weights.

Say "thank you" even to people for things they were supposed to do.

Find your passion; and feed it daily.

Believe in yourself; if you don't, no one else will.

Nothing should be dead serious, even in death we should celebrate life.

Then lift heavier weights yet again.

Thanks for reading; You are one hot number!; You look wonderful today!

Self Portait

I was looking through my documents at work the other day and came across something that was dated February, 1999. I don't recall why I did this, and that seems odd to me.

I find it very interesting that it is so much like me still, even my saying "life is not a dress rehearsal"

Self Portrait

Kristy

Light side:

My light side shows a zest for life, making sure that I do what I like. Life is not a dress rehearsal, we don’t get another chance to come back and try over. When I grow old and am at rest, I will not look back and have regrets that I was never able to do something I longed for; I will have lots of great stories and memories. I live life to it’s fullest, spending time with my friends, cooking and enjoying good wine, sailing or just floating in the water. The house will be cleaned someday…..

Dark side:

My dark side shows some of the same zest for my work, but I tend to become so focused that I can forget about others as I strive to accomplish many things. In my search for packing “everything in”, I forget that some are not as focused or driven as I am, and this can lead to misunderstandings and hurt. My husband has been the biggest help to me in this area, pointing out when I am being a “roadrunner”. I have taken great strides and improved immensely in this area.

Hanging Leg Raise

The hanging leg raise is a great ab workout, but many people don't perform it correctly. I see many people using momentum to swing their legs up, when you should be slowly contracting the abs to bring the straight legs up, hold for a few seconds then slowly lower again, everything in a controlled fashion.

This can be performed gripping the bar of a squat rack as I am doing here, or it can be performed with the padded straps that are made just for this purpose.

I prefer to grip the bar as I feel I can control my body better, and concentrate on a very tight core. It is difficult to do many of these at once, I superset them with reverse crunches. I will do 20 reverse crunches, then go straight to the rack, do 10 leg raises, and complete 4 sets of this without resting.

You need to go directly to my blog to see the video, it cannot be seen via the email distribution.

2010 NPC San Jose Bodybuilding & Figure Championships

 

The day is almost over, it's 11:00 pm and I am sitting here with my HUGE glass of water and a nice glass of champagne.

I have eaten a cookie that the expediter Keith gave me backstage, my Doritos's, some milk duds and half a banana ("M" needed the other half, she was cramping up).

I came in 2nd place in Master's 45 and over and 5th place in open "B" division. I had a super fun time, I met lots of new friends and connected with friends from previous competitions. I even met a woman from my gym who was in her first show.

The setting made it easy to spend time together as a group, we were in a small ballroom, the pump up room was the make up room, was the tanning room, was the lunchroom.

As usual, there were an incredible number of beautiful bodies, all tanned and oiled and full of muscles, it's fun to eat rice cakes and watch oiled men pump up.

The demographics are changing, I have noticed it in the last few shows, but this one was more evident. The "Bikini" division is new, I believe it started in 2009, in fact, when I was in my first NPC (National Physique Committee) show, I witnessed the debut of the very first woman to win her bikini "Pro" card- yes there are "Pro" bikini competitors!

Because Bikini is still a fledgling, the industry has not yet decided the "look" they desire as the "perfect bikini competitor" and this means that women are not quite sure exactly what the judges want.

What I have noticed though, is that the division is growing in leaps and bounds, overtaking Figure at times!

Figure is fast becoming an older woman's sport, it takes a great deal of muscle maturity to have the look they want. It takes a lot of time in the weight room. Your shoulders must be at minimum 15 inches wider than your waist, and your hips must be at least 5 inches wider than your waist or you cannot place in Figure, you do not have the symmetry they are looking for. If you are not at that point, you can step down to Bikini, there are no set guidelines such as this yet for that division. A Bikini gal cannot step up as easily to Figure though as she will typically lack the width in the shoulders and carries more body fat.

I am sensing that because of this, we will be seeing more younger women who are fit and want to compete in Bikini, while the older women who have lifted for years and wish to maintain that will continue in Figure.

Tonight my Masters over 45 division had 9 women in it. The Masters 35 to 44 had even more. The open divisions were smaller, maybe half the size. Bikini was the largest group there.

At first the energy was incredible, the Figure gals and Bikini gals all chatting together, the male bodybuilders spend time pumping up alone and the few female bodybuilders are completely alone. Then as it got to be later in the evening, the competitors started getting tired, and thirsty, and wanted to get it over with. It is such a long day.

Now, I am getting ready for a long, hot shower and will watch the brown dye swirl down the drain, it will take some time to get it all off. Then some pizza and pinot noir with David and Cooper.

Then, sleep, blissful sleep.

Wilce Family Winery

This is my husband David and the winemaker for Wilce Family Winery. He has been making wine for over 15 years. I help, but not much, it's pretty much his deal. I will help harvest our grapes, haul and weigh, measure and scoop, and sometimes help bottle. I do of course taste and give feedback too!

David entered 4 wines in the Orange County Fair this year and won 4 silver medals! Results are in (page 15) from the Orange County Wine Society. I am very proud of him.

It is rather funny that our hobbies are so completely different, but it also allows us to engage in something that we both have a passion for. I honestly believe that we all need a "passion" in life, something that gets us excited to wake up and look forward to.

I want to say thank you to David with all of my heart. I could never do what I do without his unwavering support. It's not easy living with someone who competes, the constantly changing diet, buckets of cooked food overtaking both refrigerators, eating schedule that must be adhered to no matter what is going on, bathroom breaks because all the water (makes a simple one hour road trip considerably longer), and having to sit through hours and hours of bodybuilding shows, just to see me for a fleeting few moments.

He lives the competitor's life whether he wants to or not!

My son says that David's hobby is much easier than mine. He said "Dad gets to sit around eating snacks and drinking wine and Mom has to diet and lift weights all the time"

Out of the mouths of babes!

Living to Die?

 

You read that correctly. I am asking you to consider something very carefully.

Are you living to die or dying to live?

They are completely and utterly different.

Your daily activities, hobbies, interests and work all contribute to this, but so does your eating habits, exercise, and leisure activities.

Yes, it is difficult to eat a clean, healthy diet most of the time. It takes planning, shopping, preparing, packaging, toting, the list can be endless.

It is sometimes a pain in the neck to get up early to go to the gym before work or to find the energy to get yourself there after work to exercise everyday.

It is a drag to bypass the alcohol when everyone else is enjoying it.

It is hard to avoid fattening and unhealthy foods like sweets, fried foods, baskets of bread with butter, fatty meats, need I continue?

I take the time, I make the effort because I want to be healthy and independent as long as possible. I am Dying to Live.

I imagine, since I have known people who have experienced these things that it is also very hard to watch your children reach their arms up to be held, yet you cannot because your weight has prevented you from bending over to do so.

Or to sit on a blanket, watching friends play Frisbee at the beach, and you are completely covered up because you are self conscious about your weight.

Or to struggle walking up stairs, and feel like you cannot breathe.

Or to have an oxygen mask because you have emphysema.

To worry about the complications of diabetes, which are too numerous to detail here.

I consider this Living to Die.

It is your choice, neither one is easy, they both have their difficulties.

I will continue what I have been doing because I am Dying to Live.

One Week Out Diet

 

This is pretty much it for the next week. Exactly what will I eat for the next week?

Chicken breast, asparagus, mushrooms, rice, fish and some egg whites for a few days then the eggs get eliminated too. When you get only a week away from a competition, you have been dieting for months, your body fat is low and everything is very delicate. One wrong move and you could blow the whole process (well that would need a be a very BIG bad move, like a binge).

What's different is that up until the last few weeks, I have been eating all sorts of vegetables, grains, lean meats, fish, quite a nice, healthy diet full of variety. Although I have been enjoying myriad foods, I have still been on a "diet" meaning, no alcohol, dairy, whole eggs, fried foods, candy, chips, pork, lamb, most beef, sausages, dessert, fruit, geez! Many things, and everything has been weighed! So, I have been hungry even immediately after eating on occasion and craving different foods too.

That is all changing very quickly, but not for too long.

Right now I cannot risk eating any raw vegetables, or any cruciferous vegetables, for fear of bloating and gastric distress. My body gets very sensitive to everything I put into it right now, unfortunately I learned this the hard way at my first competition.

Now I need to remain fueled, with no surprises. No spices, no interesting twists as I usually do. Some women need to start this much earlier than I do, we are all different.

I think that because I tend to eat a clean, healthy diet most of the time, I don't "feel" like I am dieting as long as many others do. I am definitely feeling it now though, feeling sick of it, tired, frustrated, week, ready to end it.

This close you really start obsessing with your body and how it looks. The fear is that you "peak" too early, that you look magnificent one day, but not the day of the show.

I am just about perfect right now. I am 4.8% body fat, and 122 pounds. This is slightly higher body fat than my competition on May 22, but a whopping 4 pounds heavier and just what I wanted! I need to hold onto this for a week.

Balance

 

Hopefully you take vacation every year, we ALL need a vacation!

Every February my family goes to the same little hotel in Mexico, called Hacienda Eden. We have been going here for 15 years! We get the same room every single time, there are only 14 anyway.

We fly into Zihuatanejo, pick up our rental car and drive PAST the big resort called Ixtapa (whew! Thank goodness!) and keep driving north for 45 minutes, turn down a long windy road to the beach town of only 300 people called Troncones, and then take a dirt road another 2 miles to Eden.

The first thing we do is kick off our shoes, get a big margarita and sit on the beach and watch the sun set.

We will see many of the same people every year, we know their names, where they live, what books they like, we have a great time catching up. Our son has grown up there with the owner's children too and Cooper (my son) feels right at home and comfortable.

Many of us, myself included who are "fitness junkies" have a hard time relaxing and letting go during vacation. I even feel guilty if I am indulging in cocktails, tacos, lobster, deep fried prawns, it's all there and it's all delicious.

It is important to relax though, your body can certainly use the rest and a week won't kill you if you deviate from your schedule.

I do exercise, but nothing like I do at home. My routine is usually up at dawn before anyone else, (except the chef, he is up and heading out to surf when I get up), I then slip on my swimsuit and run up and down the 1/2 mile long beach a few times, and I might even skip or hop some in the sand too.

I do crunches, push ups and pull ups on a tree. I used to lift rocks till I saw dogs peeing on them.... You can find lots of different body weight exercise to do if you put your mind to it, and as long as you do a little, you might be able to relax the rest of the time. I must admit that I am done when everyone else just starts to rise, then I lay on a chaise lounge the entire reminder of the day, reading.

I will have cocktails, and I allow myself 2 pina coladas (they are really, really fattening)...but I think I lose count of the margaritas to be honest.

I try to eat healthy most of the time but I do eat some sinfully bad dishes, Camarones Empanizados dipped in mayo are my absolute favorite, and Dona Nica down the dirt road knows it and makes them quickly just for me!

I usually schedule a couple massages while I am there, Annie lives in the U.S. part of the year, and in Mexico the other part, she and her husband run a surfing school there. I email Annie ahead of time and schedule one the day after my arrival, and the other the day prior to my departure. There is really nothing as wonderful as a 90 minute massage on your patio, with a breeze blowing in an 87 degree heat.

This past year Annie loaned me her kettlebell, here I am walking down her driveway after picking it up to take back to my room.

Don't beat yourself up and do enjoy yourself, vacation is not fun if you are on a strict diet! Remember you can splurge a little, you don't have to blow the whole thing, reward yourself for all of the good work you do most of the time, be kind to yourself.

Balance, it is necessary and possible, just use our imagination.

Chicken in Fig leaves

 

Many people fail to adhere to their diets because they simply do not use their imagination. Even friends of mine who have been doing this for quite some time still stick to the same bland diet that never changes.

Brown rice or yams, chicken breast or fish, broccoli, all plain. Yuck! Sounds like hell to me.

I eat a "clean" diet almost year round and I will start posting more about that after my competition, so you can get an idea of great healthy dishes that the whole family can (will) eat.

For now though, my diet needs to be fairly simple, but that does not mean bland and tasteless.

I am making boneless, skinless chicken breasts and it's hot outside so I want to grill them and get a nice smokey flavor. The problem is that they will stick to the grill unless you oil it, or baste the chicken in something and I cannot have any condiments, no sauces, no oil, no butter, nada.

I am fortunate to have a wonderful old fig tree, my husband and I planted it in our backyard about 17 years ago. Figs are wonderful, but the leaves are magical! I learned this trick from my favorite restaurant in Berkeley, Chez Panisse. In fact, I already have lunch reservations there for Bastille Day, just a few days after my competition. Since this restaurant is "everything" Provencal, it is one of the few special events they celebrate. We will drink wine and eat lots of garlic, and probably sing a little too!

I pick some nice big leaves off my tree, then pepper the chicken and wrap the fig leaves around each breast. When you grill fig leaves they exude a very strong coconut scent and flavor the food they are wrapped around and keep it very moist.

The leaves start to char, protecting the chicken, and it forms a nice tight wrapping. You peel off the charred leaves, the chicken is moist, and tender and tastes of heaven, even my 16 year old son said it was really, really good.

If you are not pre-competition, you can top the chicken with all sorts of wonderful sauces, fresh herbs, olive oil, aioli, the list is endless.

If you live anywhere in the San Francisco Bay Area, or Central Valley, there are fig trees everywhere, you may not have noticed. Hit up your friends for some leaves, wash them and wrap them in plastic, and throw them in the freezer if you cannot use them right away. I guarantee you are in for a treat.

Sucker Punch

I like to read T-Nation, while there are many articles that really seem to appeal more to the the males in the weight room, I do usually find interesting articles that have a lot of information on nutrition and diets, and these things are not so gender specific.

Recently I read an article by Dr. John Berardi, called Sucker Punch: By Dr, John Berardi. Dr. Berardi is the author of my favorite cookbook Gourmet Nutrition.

You can go to the link above if you wish to read the entire article, or you can read the excerpt here that I was most interested in. He describes what it is like to be training and preparing for a Bodybuilding competition. In my eyes, and in the eyes of anyone else who does this, preparing for a Figure competition is the same.

Dr. Berardi:

The first is discipline and mental fortitude. Preparing for a bodybuilding show is really misunderstood; it's a mental battle more than anything. You basically over-train and over-diet for 16 weeks, and as each week passes you get leaner, but more worn down mentally and physically.

By show time you can't think right, can't move properly, and you're literally counting down the hours for it to be over.

Every single ounce of your being wants to quit, and that's why so many people that intend to compete never do. It's that mentally draining. But for those who endure, you come out the other side with a renewed sense of confidence in your ability to tackle any challenge – no matter how long it takes and how much you have to put into it – and I think that's a valuable life lesson.

I published an article on TMUSCLE called the Get Shredded Diet, and in it I talk about how every two years or so I go on a really intense fat loss program. Part of the reason I do this is to exercise those mental muscles of discipline and perseverance. I do think it's possible for these muscles to get "flabby."

So for me, the value of working those muscles has translated into everything that I do, whether it's growing a business or working with clients; I tend to be a lot more patient, more willing to put in the time doing behaviors that I know will lead to success, even when that success hasn't arrived yet and I might just be feeling crappy. I think that's really critical.

Next is the correlation between behavior and results. This is something many people miss when they're goal setting. You can set goals and write them down, but the most important thing to realize is that most goals are outcome oriented, and you need to engage in specific behaviors to achieve those outcomes.

My bodybuilding days taught me that when my behaviors matched my goals, I got the results I was looking for. I know this seems like a no brainer, but you'd be amazed at how many people miss this. It doesn't matter how strong your intentions are, if the behaviors aren't there, the results won't be there either.

The cool part is that once you really get this concept, you can work backwards. So, if your results are shit, it's not that there's something wrong with you, it's that your behaviors aren't correct. Fix 'em and the results will follow.

The third is mentorship. When I first started bodybuilding, a guy named Craig Bach took me under his wing. He taught me how to eat, how to train, and how to set goals. This all happened at a very influential time, when I was 18 years old, and it really set me on course. The bottom line is this: there are people more experienced than you, people with more knowledge than you, and if you aren't seeking them out and learning from them, you're an idiot, plain and simple.

This really sums up so much of what I say here, set goals, stick to them, seek out knowledge, work the brain.

I have 9 days left.....I don't start counting the hours yet.

Willpower

I think what I hear the most from people is "you have a lot of will power". It's true, I do. I am also stubborn and when I decide to do something, don't get in my way.

Like anyone else though, my will power sometimes falters or seems to get the better of me. Recently I wrote about a book I have been enjoying called Winning Ways: How to succeed in the gym and out.

Story 25 is called Willpower Workout and has a great deal of wonderful information, but I like these seven steps on how to bolster your willpower, with #7 being my absolute favorite!

1) Set a goal: You have to know where you're going if you want to increase your chances of getting there. If the idea of committing to a goal is too frightening, remember that you're not signing up for life. Try, for example, sticking with a specific program for a six-week cycle.

2) Put on blinders once you’ve chosen your goal; otherwise you might be led astray by all sorts of distractions you meet along the way. Let’s face it, if you ask 10 different people how to approach your training, you’ll probably get 10 different answers. Cut down on the distractions once you’ve charted your course of action.

3) Believe in yourself and your ability to reach your goals. No matter what cycle you train on, which mental rehearsal program you choose, or how tiny you make your progressions, you will never improve continuously for long periods of time. In the times of slow gains, or outright reversals, it’s easy to throw in the towel, but if you believe in yourself, you’ll stick with it until you start gaining again.

4) Deal with problems directly, and remember that a partial victory is always far better that a complete surrender. If, for example, you’re having an off day and can’t make your planned weights, cut the intensity and boost the volume. You can always salvage some of the victory from what might have been a dud workout, and that’s what you need to do. Don’t just head home.

5) Make haste slowly because, except for special conditions, the matters of gaining size and strength take hard work over a long period of time. When you get impatient, you only increase your opportunities to get frustrated, and frustration will chip away at your willpower until there’s nothing left.

6) Remind yourself of what is going right, because plenty will be. Guard against the tendency to chew yourself out when things go south. Did you ever see someone make four weeks of steady progress before missing a lift then rip himself to shreds? Seek opportunities to reinforce yourself for the things that are still staying on track.

7) Enjoy getting there or rethink what you’re doing because you’re probably going to spend a lot more time in the process of arriving than you will as the finished product. Get to like what you’re doing instead of thinking about some light at the end of the tunnel.

Cream of Rice

I eat some wonderful, warm starchy concoction most mornings, lately it has been cream of rice. Why? A couple reasons.

Cream of rice has less fat than oatmeal. Yes, oatmeal has 3 grams of fat per serving and when you are trying to lose every extra ounce of fat on your body, this matters. Come competition time, I switch from oatmeal to cream of rice.

Cream of rice is so fast and easy to make, it's as close to instant as you can get. I make a big pot, divide it into several glass bowls, top each with a teaspoon of ground flax seed and pop them in the fridge for the upcoming mornings.

Cream of rice has a great texture that is, well, creamy! I top it with splenda and some of these fantastic flavor drops, they are fat, sugar, carb and calorie free.

These drops are called Capella Flavor Drops. I bought a mini sampler pack of 6 and I received Cinnamon Danish Swirl, Caramel, Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Banana Split, French Toast and Vanilla Custard.

These make my cream of rice a whole different special treat everyday!

I do have to have protein too, so I usually have one cup of liquid egg whites, microwaved. I eat the egg whites first because the cream of rice is like dessert to me.

Spray Tan

When you compete in Figure, Fitness or Bodybuilding, you have to be spray tanned. It's not just a regular tan though, this is a very deep, dark tan and doesn't last for days like the one you would get at a tanning salon.

This is done to bring out the muscle definition.

Many people have Jan Tana do their spray tan. You book and pay online (and it's not cheap), they send you a preparation kit to exfoliate and moisturize a week prior, then you receive your tanning time via email. Don't ask at the front desk where they are, it's a secret. You must call the cell phone number they email to you. Why is it a secret? Let me tell you more.

They will set up the service in two rooms in the host hotel. They upturn all the furniture, move it against the walls then cover the entire room, the floor, the walls and parts of the ceiling with paper.

Once your time to tan rolls around, which is always the day prior to the competition, you scurry through the halls of the hotel in dark sweats or pajamas (I wear soft cotton flannel pajamas and they are only used for this one purpose), with your hair up and flip flops on. You look pretty bad. Hungry, skinny, no make up, ratty clothes and tired.

When you arrive off go the clothes, dropped on the floor, on goes the shower cap, and the show begins. The TV is on full blast so you can watch something at least while they tan your front side, but the sprayer is so loud it's pretty much impossible to hear anything.

There are pop up tents and large spray guns, and other tents with fans to dry you. They usually tan two people at a time, and two people dry, it's a tanning factory line.

This is all done completely naked. Yes, you stand in front of a stranger, next to other strangers naked, while you are spread eagle getting sprayed. The spraying is several coats, everywhere (but your face for women) and then they use a puff to get smears, drips, wrinkles (gasp!) and to smooth everything out.

When you are done, you move over to another tent where a fan blows on you to dry the solution. Once you are completely dry, you slip your clothes back on, try to get back to your room without being seen and then spend the rest of your time sequestered in your room so you don't smear or drop liquid on your skin, or white patches will appear. It makes for a long evening because you need to be so careful.

One time I was lounging naked in bed, watching T.V. eating hot chunks of steak, and rolled a piece all the way down my chest and abdomen and it came to rest on my thigh. I watched in horror as a huge trail of bright white spots appeared all down my body, at every point where the steak hit my skin.

Luckily, I had Kevin from Jan Tana there and he fixed it all without a problem the next morning. All I got was a "girl, you gotta eat with clothes on!"

Kevin is no longer a stranger to me, he has tanned me several times and does a great job! Here is a video of Kevin McClain tanning Ava Cowan. Now, a regular tanning session would not be performed like this, but it does make for a great show!

Who are you?

As I walk around and look at other people, and how they interact with one another, I think about what is going on in their heads.

I can tell some of them feel great about themselves, they walk with their shoulders back, head held high, smiling and actually looking at strangers, making eye contact.

Others are hunched over, shuffle their feet, move hesitatingly, almost like they are apologizing for being in everyone's way.

The way we feel about ourselves creates a self fulfilling prophecy, we are who we think we are.

Consider this, you wake up and tell yourself "I feel cruddy and just want to crawl back in bed", so how does your day go? You have just set the tone for how you will feel and treat those around you. You will be a foot shuffler.

Wake up and bounce out of bed and think how great you look and feel and guess what? You will probably annoy a few people with your enthusiasm, but you will be upbeat and will have a better day.

I read this the other day, it is only a piece of the quote, because it is the piece I like. I think it is something that we all need to keep in the front of our mind on a daily basis.

“ We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?



~Marianne Williamson

Hydrostatic Bodyfat Testing

My gym offered this service the other day (for a fee of course) and I decided to do it. SC checks my body fat regularly with calipers at nine sites, and actually seems to delight when it comes the the abdomen since he has to grab a handful of skin and fat...I think he tends to exaggerate the whole process actually.

He checked it Friday, and with the measurements and factors used, my body fat came out to 5.44%. Yes that is low, extremely low. I am a lean person, I never have a very high body fat level. I am much lower than usual though because I have a competition soon.

Tuesday I step into the mobile truck at 6:00 am, I have never done this before. Mike explains the process, I have my swim suit on and he checks weight, I am at 122. I was 124 on Friday...things are moving a little too quickly again, time to increase calories a bit (and that means beef!)

I swing my feet around into the tank, it is 90 degrees, not bad, but I could use it a bit warmer. He tells me we will do this three times, to take an average reading. The tank is a large, rectangular stainless steel tank that I will lay face down in, underwater...hmmm.

I am told to lay on my stomach, head above water, rest on my forearms. I will inhale, then exhale very slowly, then inhale again and exhale as fast and hard as possible till Mike shouts "down"! then I am to completely submerge in the water, still exhaling and pushing all of my breath out as he continues to shout at me until I feel I cannot continue, he seems to stop yelling when only a small, tiny bubble escapes my lips then he pounds on the side of the tank, I push my head up and gasp for air like a fish out of water.

Damn! Now I have to do this two more times!

After the first test Mike asks if I am a triathlete, I tell him no, I am not. He explains that they don't like to see women with body fat this low, I go on to explain that I will not be this low for long, I have a competition in 18 days and will be a nice 9 pounds heavier within two weeks of that. He seems to feel better about it all then we chat a bit about Figure competitions.

No doubt I place well in my age group he says, most women my age have much higher body fat levels. I said yes, this is true, for once I am glad to have a "boyish figure".

We do the test the remaining 2 times and I get my 4 page analysis. The end result:

6.2% body fat
Weight of fat 7.6 pounds

Lean body mass 93.8%
Weight of lean body mass 114.4 pounds

Resting metabolic rate 1625. This was the interesting part for me, I didn't realize that I needed so many calories just to breathe. You see, the higher percentage of lean body mass you have, the more calories you need to survive. So I need 1625 calories just to rest! Add in weight training, cardio, my strength shoe exercises, and I need quite a bit more!

I have to take a look at my diet again, I realized I have increased lean body mass in the last year and a half and have not significantly adjusted my macro nutrients...If I want to be sure to add some more lean mass, I need to fuel my body with enough clean foods to grow.

This was interesting, and by comparing the method against the skinfold test that SC does, I was able to adjust the "factor" I use when he takes the readings with the calipers so I know I can continue that method, as it is free and easy and dry!

If you want to have yours tested, you can contact Mike or one of his colleagues at Body Fat Test

On my own

Recently I wrote about my last competition, where my make up artist canceled at the very last moment, it completely blew my self confidence and turned what should have been a fun event into a very stressful one.

So I set off determined never to allow anyone to put me into that position again. You see, you can take the "poor me, they are so mean to me" stance and feel sorry for yourself or you can do something about it.

As I explained last week, I went to MAC, had them show me how to apply stage make up and then tried it on my own, and styled my hair, the whole "what the heck does any of this have to do with a Figure competition" part of it that drives me nuts, but if you want to play the game, you need to follow the rules.

The trick will be matching my face color to my body once I have been spray tanned, but I have a few colors and can blend it all together, the great thing about stage make up is you can put so much on and be dramatic, it can certainly make a big difference.

FP told me over and over that my physique is perfect, nothing I can do or should do to change it, so I guess I am all set. I have no more weight to lose, I only need to maintain what I have and then it's all over but the crying!

Here is my first attempt, I think I did a good job, and I no longer need to depend on someone else. I am on my own, in more ways than one, no trainer(s) after several years and no make-up artist.

It kinda feels good!

Beans, they do a body good!

Not enough people enjoy beans. They are a great source of protein and a very good starch. I make a point of eating protein, vegetable and starch at almost every meal (my very first and very last are different), but this leaves me four more meals!

I believe that it is important to vary your foods, not only for the nutrients but to prevent boredom. Once you get bored, you start wandering...to the ice cream store, the cupboard outside in the garage (that's where I keep my candy), places you shouldn't go.

Dried beans are best, but not everyone has a pressure cooker or time to cook them, so canned are just fine. Stick to the low sodium, remember that almost anything in a can has way too much so always choose the lower sodium version.

1/2 cup of kidney beans has 120 calories, 20 grams of carbohydrates, 0 fat, 6 grams fiber, 4 grams sugar and 7 grams protein. Super food!

A favorite dish of mine is a steak and bean salad, which can change according to whatever you have on hand.

Combine 2 cups romaine, or a mixture of spinach and lettuces
chopped tomatoes
cilantro leaves
copped carrots
chopped celery
4 ounces rare sliced flank steak
1/2 cup kidney beans
Balsamic vinaigrette (Kim Porterfield's recipe)
If your diet allows a few extra calories, you can add some cubed avocado (just a little bit) and a tablespoon of fat free or low fat blue cheese dressing too.

Vinaigrette: Balsamic vinegar, grainy mustard, salt and pepper and splenda mixed. No oil. Approximate measure is 1/2 cup vinegar, 1 Tbsp mustard, 1 packet splenda, but make it how you like it.

This is a completely balanced meal, tastes great and can be eaten with warm, room temperature or cold steak.

I love this!

Ball Crunch

Everyone wants flat abs, or at least abs without all that icky jiggly stuff all over them right?

If you have followed my posts, you know that I am still on the fence about what really creates those abs, is it all those exercises or the fat loss?

I actually think it takes both, although I tend to avoid ab exercises unless I am prepping for a competition.

By the way, my skin looks a little funky here because it is immediately after a spray tan before my last competition. I do like the veins though!

"FP" taught me this. Do you ever have an exercise where you thing your trainer is having you do it cause they get a great laugh out of it? I used to think that about this one, but I actually like it now.

This is a variation of a crunch on a stability ball.

Hook your feet up at the handles of a free motion machine and crunch on up as many as you can. Don't bounce, keep it controlled and always concentrate on the abs. You can do a set of 10 or 20 then flip around, still on your back with our hands on the handles (where your feet were) and then do the same number of straight legged leg lifts.

Cheating

You can cheat on so many things in life and may never get caught.

You can cheat on your taxes, you can cheat on a test, you can cheat on your partner. Maybe someone will find out, maybe not.

There is one thing you can cheat on and soon, we will all know:

Your diet.

How will we all know? You will not lose weight, or you will not lose body fat, simple as that. It's quite evident just by looking at someone if they have been adhering to their diet or not.

On the other hand, you may be sticking to it religiously for weeks on end yet there is no change. It all boils down to one of two things:

Either the diet is not right for you, or you are cheating, it's one or the other. I want to stick to the cheating part of it though because in most cases, if you follow the simple rule of "eat less, move more", the diet will work for you.

Who are you really cheating when you cheat? Yourself and no one else in the world. It really isn't that big of a deal to anyone else if you lose the weight or not, but I can imagine that it matters quite a bit to you.

You may be cheating without knowing it, like grabbing a little bite here or there or you may be fully aware of what you are doing and you figure one little bite won't matter, but it does, it really does.

Think about this when you are tempted to pop that little bit into your mouth, who are you cheating? Why cheat on the most important person in your life? I mean YOU! You are the most important person in the world to everyone around you and you may not even realize it.

To be able to give 100% to those you love, those who love you, or those you interact with you need to give 100% to yourself first.

You hear this on airlines every time you fly, if those oxygen masks drop and you are traveling with a small child, get yours first so you can save the child. If you are a diver and you need to buddy breathe, get your air first so you can help your buddy, the list goes on and on.

Don't cheat yourself, you are too important for that.

Tilapia

Tilapia are now the fifth-most consumed fish in the U.S. It’s an “unfishy” fish, and it tends to taste like whatever sauce it’s served with. This mild flavor, combined with its low price, probably explains why consumers love it, and chefs hate it.

Environmentalists encourage eating tilapia. Oceans Alive ranks U.S. farmed tilapia as an “eco-best” choice, meaning they don’t damage the environment (through pollution of waters, reduction of biodiversity, overharvesting, etc.). So does National Geographic’s Green Guide.

Tilapia are also lower in contaminants than other fish. As concerns about mercury contamination in fish increases, pond-raised tilapia are a safe toxin-free food because they do not build up environmental pollutants in their meat. That’s why Co-op America places tilapia on the “safe” list.

The key to tilapia appears to be finding a quality source. Given that they can thrive in low quality water, you’ll want to be careful about not getting tilapia from a water source that is too low quality. The Monterey Bay Aquarium says that farmed tilapia from U.S. should be a first choice; and farmed tilapia from China should be a last choice.

Many fish products from China, including tilapia, have been determined to be unsafe by the Food and Drug Administration.

Although farm-raised tilapia has less contaminants than fish caught in the wild, many Chinese tilapia farmers are adding things such as anti-fungal agents and antibiotics to their ponds. This helps protect the fish, but many of these additives are not allowed in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration.

Tilapia from the United States has been deemed one of the eco-best fish by the Environmental Defense Fund2. For the most benefits, choose tilapia that is farm raised.

U.S. farmed tilapia is the "Best Choice," with tilapia from Central and South America as a "Good Alternative" to other imported product. Avoid tilapia farmed in China/Taiwan.

This is a picture of one of my favorite tilapia dishes. I marinate the fish in "Radich's Spicy Garlic Plus" sauce. If you cannot find this you can make your own, it lists the following ingredients:

Soy Sauce, Honey, Wine, Garlic, Water, Cornstarch, Onion, Garlic, Fresh Sesame Seeds, Spices and Natural Flavorings (those last two are most likely MSG, so leave them out!) Notice there is no oil! 1 Tablespoon has only 3 grams of sugar and 20 calories, it does not have a strong soy sauce flavor either, I love it!

Marinate the fish overnight or just a short while if that's all you have, then place the fish in a bowl, add some of the marinade ( a couple tablespoons) and water (maybe a total of 1/3 cup liquid to 5 ounces of fish, cover and microwave for 5 minutes.

In another bowl place 4 ounces of cooked brown rice, 1 cup of cooked cut up asparagus or other vegetable, re-warm in the microwave and then place the tilapia on top, pour the cooking liquid over to moisten it all.

I could eat this almost everyday and it is low calorie, low fat, low sugar and has everything you need.