Lemons

This past week has been pretty darn crazy and life decided to throw me a few curve balls. It was just one of those weeks where many things didn't go as planned (anyone who knows me will know how much I despise my schedule being screwed with!!) and I had something scheduled every day after work this week. That made getting my workouts in a little more challenging than usual.

Monday was, well it was Monday and that means usually something crazy happens. It seems so long ago that I can't even remember what happened during the day - clearly I was so traumatized I just blocked it out of my memory :) I had my regular rehab/chiro appointment on Monday which means getting to the gym later than I like to but that's not THAT bad. Andy got home super duper late from work and the house was a mess. Ok not that horrible of a day.

On Tuesday I started feeling crappy. Thank you evil flu that has targeted the entire population of every single person I know in the area. I had a planned dinner that night with some work visitors from out of town so I did get to sleep in a little so that I wasn't at work beyond 12 hours (my breaking point!) I also knew this meant straying from my usual dinner and 2nd workout but I knew about it in advance so could mentally prepare myself for my routine being thrown off. There was a little work drama during the day too which added to my stress level. Our dinner ended up being later than planned but I ate a VERY clean salad so I felt pretty good about that. I didn't get home until 10 so clearly I didn't get my leg workout in but life goes on.

Wednesday is when the flu bug decided to hit me like a ton of bricks in the afternoon. I had an appointment after work that I made it through and then got myself home and into bed. I had this master plan to have a really beasty leg workout but with a fever and all that didn't seem like the best idea. My body wanted some serious rest! I managed to suck down a protein shake for dinner because NOTHING sounded good but I knew I needed to get something in me.

Thursday brought some more work drama. At this point, I was REALLY looking forward to working from home on Friday! I participated in the Cystic Fibrosis Stair Climb after work but I was determined not to miss a weight training session so before the stair climb I took a trip to the gym at work and got in a beasty little back workout. The gym was almost completely empty  however the gym at work lacks a lot of equipment. I improvised and got it done!

Friday rolled around and I woke up feeling like death. I still attempted to log in to work and the universe decided to tell me to go back to bed. Wait, maybe that was my boss . . .Anyways, I couldn't get logged in and popped back in bed and slept most of the day. It was clearly what I needed even if it wasn't what I had planned for the day.

I finally woke up Saturday feeling WAY better, maybe a little slower than normal but knew I needed to get my ass out of bed and to the gym. I ended up getting a lot done yesterday and some extra sleep!

So the moral of the story of my week is that I turned some silly little curveballs, schedule disruptions, craziness, etc. into an opportunity for some extra rest and practice at not freaking out when things don't go as planed. I'm a creature of habit who doesn't like my schedule disrupted. When life gives you lemons, make some damn good lemonade . . . .or a protein shake :)



As I read what I just wrote about my week I'm actually laughing because compared to some other shit I know people are going through right now, my weeks seems pretty darn tame! It always helps to put things into perspective when you feel like the universe is against you. Ok, maybe my week wasn't really THAT bad after all!

The Willpower Beast . . .

is back!!!

I've been waiting for that magical moment when someone could dangle a bag of tortilla chips under my nose and I wouldn't say to myself "just a handful won't hurt". Well it finally happened! There aren't many foods out there that test my willpower but the salty, crunchy goodness of tortilla chips definitely does. Unfortunately Andy eats them . .like A LOT!!! I'm just not that evil to keep them out of the house when he loves them more than me. I'm the only one who can control what I choose to put in my mouth and what I don't.

I've been offered a fair amount of naughty foods over the last week and I'm happy to say that I have turned them all down (we won't count Thanksgiving which was a planned "re feed" event). I'm back in the zone I got into when competing for Emerald Cup last year . . .no excuses and give it 110% every single freakin' day! Ain't nothing gonna stop me from reaching my goals!!!

Sunday Funday

Oh how I love Sundays . . .well except for that looming feeling of knowing I have to head back to work the next day! I usually still wake up pretty darn early on Sundays. My body has decided it is just unacceptable to sleep past 5 a.m. anymore. Since I can't sleep in, I do let myself hang out in bed for awhile and snuggle with the dogs, drink coffee, and read. I'm usually still at the gym for morning cardio by about 6:15 or so.

Sunday mornings are usually my big weekly food prep day when I make my egg muffins, crock pot chicken, sweet potatoes and all my tilapia for the week. I prep some of my veggies too so that all I have to do during the week is prep some extra veggies and pack up my lunches!

Sunday is also my big cleaning and laundry day. I'm one of those weirdos that actually likes cleaning so it is relaxing for me. And the best part of Sunday??? I let myself nap!! I almost never have time to nap during the week and rarely on Saturdays so it's a nice treat to slip in some extra zzz's!

Today is a little wacky since I was stuck at home waiting for the Sears repair guy yesterday so I was able to slip in some of my cleaning and food prep. What does this mean? Extra nap time! Since Andy is working all day I might also rent a girly movie that I know he will never watch. . . .Magic Mike anyone???

There is one other little thing I decided to do on Sundays which of course came to me during morning cardio - that is where I do all my best plotting and planning :) I tend to stay on track better with my eating, workouts and my crazy life in general if I plan out my week in advance. Sunday is going to include some quality goal setting time for the week! Here are a few things I've come up with so far:

• Complete all workouts as planned (usually one that is easy to reach for me anyways but it helps to see it on paper!)
• Up my RPM while doing my cardio on the elliptical - stay at 165 or higher (I made a few changes this morning and was struggling to stay above 160!)
• Stretch after PM workouts (my back will thank me for this!)
• Stick to nutrition plan 100% except for Thanksgiving where I will not go totally crazy but will eat more than normal at ONE meal (not all day long!)
• Take at least 10 minutes everyday for some relaxing "me" time

Totally doable, right???

Time for one quick errand and then it's nap time for this girl!

Mindful Cardio

I know quite a few people who absolutely hate cardio. Luckily I am not one of them . . . .I actually enjoy cardio, especially morning cardio. It keeps me out of bed in the morning and gives me some quality time to reflect on the day ahead.

The other morning when I was at Golds on the elliptical and not feeling so hot, I felt like I was just barely moving and doing it just to say I did my cardio. I was sweaty at the end of the hour but not like I know I should be. This got me thinking . . .what can I do to really step it up? I want to be good and drenched at the end.

When I'm at home doing my cardio during the week, I pay more attention to my speed, etc because I'm on the treadmill and changing the incline and speed every 1 -2 minutes. After 35 minutes, I'm panting and drenched. When I'm on the stepmill at Golds I HAVE to pay attention to how fast I'm moving unless I want to trip on a step and go flying off (yea that's totally almost happened to me!) I love the elliptical but sometimes I just zone out and people watch.

So how did I solve this problem? A little mindful cardio this morning . . .instead of just watching the calorie count go up or my distance, I changed the display to watch my RPM and set myself a minimum number that I had to keep it at. I decided to stay between 145-150 RPM. If I dropped below 145, I peddled my little heart out and got it back up. At the end of the hour, I was good and sweaty, had burned a whopping 695 calories and gone over 6 miles! I also barely made it through Turbo Fit a few hours later so I knew I had kicked my cardio up to where it needed to be!

From now on it's only mindful cardio for this sweaty beast!

Perfection

Wow it's been a long time since I have blogged!!

Today started out a little rough - okay A LOT rough! I took the evil Series 24 test last month (worse than the evil Series 7 test last year!) and bombed it so I had to retake it. I walked into that testing room completely confident that I had it. I had studied my ass off and knew my shit. Or so I thought. Unfortunately I didn't pass and now have to retake it again. Ugh. I was completely devastated! I realized I was also extremely mad at myself. Pretty typical feeling when things don't go as planned.

I've been told my many that I'm a complete Type A Personality. Totally true! One website I found describes a Type A personality as a burnt-out prone stressed out overachiever. Okay, maybe that's a little harsh but that pretty much describes me in a nutshell :) It also means I'm pretty competitive and self-critical. This is where my blog title comes in . . . .

I am and always have been extremely self-critical from an early age. I'm pretty sure it started with a prior step-father who frequently had some fairly critical things to say to me starting when I was in fourth grade - not a good age to criticize a self-conscious girl about her weight, athletic abilities, grades, etc! I have some pretty darn high expectations for myself and am very hard on myself when I don't live up to these expectations. These expectations are present in pretty much every aspect of my life - work, my relationships, at the gym, at home . . . the list goes on!

After my reaction to the little testing incident this morning (that just sounds so much better than saying I failed a test!) and spending some time at the gym working through my anger while being a goofball trying to mask my feelings of being a total failure, I got home and spent some quality time reflecting on my morning.

I'm very aware of how harsh I am on myself and have been trying to work through that recently. I tend to have very high stress levels due to work and other things and over the past few months got to the point where I was physically ill (won't go into the details!) from stress. I know that putting extreme pressure on myself definitely does NOT help. Basically it all comes down to consistently reminding myself that I don't need to be perfect 100% of the time. I am really good at beating myself up if I stray from my diet - don't even get me started on Halloween's mishap! Or if I don't get everything done on my mile long to-do list on the day I planned on doing something. There are a ton of other examples I can think of but you get the point.

As cheesy as this might be, here are a few reminders to myself that will hopefully help me not use myself as a punching bag when things don't go as planned:

• It's okay to not be perfect
• Shit happens
• Treat yourself like you want others to treat you - heck if I treated others like I treat myself, I would be the mean girl!
• Breathe
• Relax and . . .jazz hands!! Seriously how could I get through a blog without mentioning jazz hands today?? 

Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.  ~Confucius, Analects

Almost There!

Since I've been wide awake in the wee hours of the morning the last few nights, I thought this would be the perfect time to do what might be my last "pre-show" post! I can't promise that this will be coherent . . .

The last few days have flown right on by! This weekend I was dragging A LOT and felt like I could collapse at any given moment. I think I could pretty much fall asleep anywhere! I actually started to fall asleep in the middle of the kitchen waiting for the oven timer to go off on Sunday night! I also reached a new all time low when I saw an empty Skittles wrapper on the ground outside of Target and for a split second considered picking it up and licking it out just to get a tiny taste of candy - don't worry, I resisted this enormous temptation :)

Despite being exhausted, I have not been able to sleep more than 2 hours straight since Saturday night. Basically, I fall asleep at 9ish, wake up again between 10:30-11, get up, back to sleep until midnight - 1ish and then up again! Monday morning I just got up at 1:30 and never went back to sleep. Here it is 1:39am and I'm wide awake! I will probably read a few chapters of my book and then fall back asleep until cardio time (3:15am!) I go back and forth between being exhausted and feeling completely wired like I've had tons of coffee. The really funny thing is that I only had one small cup of coffee yesterday and one thermogenic for the caffeine which is nothing compared to my normal caffeine intake! I will probably just do without today in hopes that I can get a normal amount of sleep.

Thursday will be pretty crazy - I have a few little errands to run in the morning, will probably get in one last shorter cardio session, packing and then heading over to Bellevue to check into the hotel near the event. I am planning on doing early registration on Thursday night - one last thing to worry about Friday morning and then we also have a walk thru to get a chance to experience being on stage in our snazzy Barbie heels! I will get the first coat of my tan sprayed on Thursday night also!

Friday morning will be crazy again - up early for another coat of tan and then off to hair/make-up at 7am. Luckily I will have a little down time before the competitor meeting and then stage time!

I will be sure to post lots of pictures along with a full update! The picture above is from me during my mini posing practice on Tuesday night at Golds. Gotta love the little ankle socks :)

Zombie Mode

Wow, I can't believe that in a week I will be resting at home, taking a break from working out, and snacking away! Only 4 more days until go time!

The last week has been pretty interesting. Everyday I think to myself "is it possible to be any more tired??" and then the next day I realize that it IS definitely possible! The human body truly is an amazing thing! I have been amazed each and every day that I have made it through two workouts a day without taking any shortcuts. I'm pretty much delirious by the time I get to round 2 of cardio. The good thing is that I get to start cutting back on cardio starting tomorrow night (hopefully!) It is now a day by day process depending on how I'm looking each day. And yes, I'm seeing changes EVERY single day now!

So what have I learned this week?

It is possible to drink 2.5 gallons of water/day more than two days in a row without drowning or wetting my pants
Peanut butter might be the most amazing food in the world
It's hard to workout without chewing gum (yes that's right, I had to cut out gum)
Old men at the gym make amazing cheerleaders (luckily they don't wear cheer outfits!)
It is possible to drink a buttload of coffee and immediately take a nap
I hate tilapia - unfortunately I have to eat it at least once a day
Cardio without an iPod is an enlightening experience - I had to do without one day this week and it wasn't soooo horrible, kind of a nice change for a day
Dairy Queen commercials are evil

One more load of laundry to do, packing my food for tomorrow and then I'm going to plop myself down on the couch for awhile!

Beast Mode

Only 12 days left to go which officially puts me in beast mode! Or maybe Grumposaur mode :) I found this t-shirt last weekend when I was running errands and just couldn't resist since I feel like that quite a bit these days! The best part is that I can wear it under a sweatshirt and no one knows that I have my funny grumposuar shirt on and it makes me happy! 

Last night I realized that I only have 24 more hours of cardio to go before I step on stage. That's an entire day of cardio - holy cow!!! My diet was modified yesterday but its not too horrible  . . .. yet. It will change on Friday though and I have a feeling that I will be suffering a little more! I came up with a great idea for one of my meals which is basically 4 oz of lean ground turkey and veggies. I decided to get creative and stuff green peppers with seasoned lean ground turkey (chili powder, etc.) along with some onions and chunks of zucchini.  Yummy!! I haven't come up with anything super creative for my meal involving tilapia but I'm going to experiment with different seasonings to make it more bearable. 

Time for me to do some major food prep and then head over to my parent's house where my dear mother has  a dark chocolate bunny waiting for me. I'm really looking forward to staring at it for 12 days and then biting into those big yummy ears!

Happy Easter!

Less Than Two Weeks!

Holy smokes time has been flying by! Although there have definitely been some days that haven't gone by so quickly . . .

The last three weeks have been filled with ups and downs . .good days and bad days. Mostly I'm just tired, cranky and hungry! It's amazing how quickly it hit me! My diet hasn't drastically changed (you don't even know how grateful I am for this!) but I'm now up to two hours of cardio a day. Saturday was my first two hour cardio day and it was amazing how much that extra 15 minutes kicked my butt! I pushed myself extra hard during round two on Sunday since it was my one day out of the weight room - that paid off on Monday because I felt WAY better during round two of cardio.

Today was the first day that I have not felt just down right awful over the last few weeks - I powered my way through a leg workout after work and then hopped on the eliptical. I'm not sure what made me feel so darn good today compared to the last few days but I'm hoping for another good day tomorrow . . .and the next . .a nd the next . . .and well, you get the point!

The rest of this week will be pretty much the same as last week with measurements on Saturday morning. I'm hoping to not have to make many drastic changes going into the last two weeks but I know that the final week will be pretty interesting! I'm going to try to get as much rest as possible and enjoy what little carbs I have left :)

Four Weeks Ain't Nothing!

It is officially four weeks until show time! At this time in exactly four weeks I will probably be dragging myself out of bed to hopefully nibble something and then head to my hair and make-up appointment.

While I'm still extremely tired 99.99% of the time, I have managed to push myself this week. I haven't missed a single workout or meal. And I don't think I've been too grumpy - or at least didn't show it :) Instead of focusing on how tired I am, here is a list of things that I accomplished this week:

• All workouts done - didn't even quit a single cardio session early when my legs felt like lead and I was shaking (kind of crazy how much I start shaking about 20 minutes into round 2 of cardio!)
• Ignored my extreme cravings for a GIANT bowl of oatmeal with a sliced banana, strawberries and slivered almonds. Who craves that??? Apparently I do!
• Didn't have a single breakdown involving crying, screaming, etc :)
• Discovered Strawberry Energy Crystal Light - I'm trying to limit my fake sugar intake but I desperately needed something yesterday and this did the trick!
• Survived the week without the use of thermogenics to boost my energy - while I am allowed to use these and have an emergency stash in my purse I'm trying not to because the crash can be pretty bad. 
• Managed to sneak in one little 15 minute nap this week - hoping for many more of these this weekend!

Time to head off to work and focus on surviving another week of contest prep!

Five Week Blues

Friday was officially the "five weeks until show time" day. I was warned long ago that the last few weeks are the toughest . . .some say it starts sucking at 12 weeks out, others might say only the last two weeks really suck. I think it all depends on how long and hard one has been dieting and working out. Considering I started my prep a long ways out and have stuck to my workout and diet plan 99.99999% of the time (the only exception was when I was sick and couldn't get out of bed!), I haven't suffered much.

Okay now I'm suffering. I was pretty tired on Friday morning and for the first morning just flat out wanted nothing to do with the treadmill when my alarm went off. I dragged myself down to the basement and got my hour done. It wasn't easy and I was still having a hard time moving to get myself ready for work. I ended up stopping at 7-11 on my way to work and getting a Redline to make it through the day - basically full of caffeine and other energizing garbage minus the calories. Normally I wouldn't have one but it was either that or be completely miserable and dysfunctional the entire day.

I realize that I am the one that decided to do this competition. No one else is forcing me to workout or diet. It's MY choice and MY choice alone so I don't think I should be making others suffer by listening to me whimper and whine about  how miserable I feel now. So I kept my whimpering to myself all day on Friday but since this is my blog I can whine away in here :)

Although there are times in my life that I was miserable and felt like I wanted to die when I had the flu or some other illness, this is a completely different kind of misery. I literally feel like I want to curl up and just sleep all the time. I feel like I'm moving in slow motion most of the time. I don't think I have ever actually been so tired I wanted to cry. I almost lost it during round 2 of cardio yesterday because I was just so tired. And I'm grumpy. Oh so grumpy!

I have to admit that I thought about just quitting at least 5 times this weekend because I have no idea how I can deal with feeling like this for another 5 weeks. I'm not a quitter so I'm just sucking it up and doing what I need to do. Five weeks will fly by (hopefully!) with some good days and some not so good days but I will feel  amazing at the end knowing that I did it.

Time for round two of cardio, finishing up some laundry and then a well deserved nap!

Abtastic

Wow, I've been slacking on my posts but I've been a busy bee! And yes I'm still sticking to my diet and workout plan religiously. Between posing practices and all the other things going on right now, I feel like the days are just flying by and I will be on stage before I know it!

Before I go into the explanation for the title of this post, I will just make it clear those are NOT my abs in case anyone was wondering :) Someday maybe . . . .I have always wanted a six pack (abs, not beer, had plenty of those in my college days . . and twenties . . ) Anyone else ever heard the saying "abs are made in the kitchen"? I must say I completely agree with this! After weeks of dieting and avoiding some of my favorites cheats (dark chocolate and pizza!) I am starting to construct a six pack. The first time Andy said "Woah, check out that six pack!" I asked him what he was talking about because I didn't see any beer around! I also happened to be standing in weird lighting in our basement which created the perfect shadow effect on my abs. Then when my coach pointed them out and called another girl in and said "Hey, check our her abs! I actually kind of hate her right now", I knew I was on my way to achieving my dream of a solid, washboard stomach. 

The funny thing is that I still don't see what everyone else is seeing. Probably because I see my abs all the time so I don't notice the change as much. And no, I don't check them out after doing a set of crunches like many guys in the gym who think they will magically appear after one set of crunches! I am excited to see what will happen over the next 9.5 weeks! 

I am upping my cardio this week and we made some small tweaks in my diet so hopefully I will start to see the changes for myself. Luckily my weekly measurements have been going well - body fat % has gone down every week for the last three weeks. Maybe not quite as much as I hoped but I know I need to be patient and keep doing what I'm doing. 

I better finish my weekly food prep before I get ready for another round of posing in my fancy plastic hooker heels!

Hibernation Mode

Ugh - another not very good week when it came time to measurement time. My body has officially decided to cling to every ounce of fat it possibly can. I was down 2 pounds from last week but since I didn't drop any fat my body fat % went up slightly. So NOT what should be happening right now.

Yet again, I've followed my diet religiously and got all my workouts done - some of them were a little rushed and creative (damn snow!!!) And I've still been trying to kick this sinus infection. It's amazing how exhausted I am at the end of the day. I almost skipped dinner to go to bed at 5:00 one night. I forced myself to eat and then made it to 7:00 (wow, late night, I know!) My taste buds are completely off so everything tastes funny but I've managed to shovel down my food when I need to.

Apparently I'm part bear because my body has gone into hibernation mode with all this snow - it thinks I should lay in a big snuggly nest of blankets all day and sleep while clinging onto all my fat. Great. I'm determined to overcome my bearness (I think I just made up a new word!) and keep doing what I need to do.

Originally we weren't going to change my diet for now and see if a non-snow, not-so-snot filled week would lead to any progress but I got a text later in the day yesterday letting me know that a new meal plan would be waiting in my inbox. I got a special surprise when I got home - lowering carbs and upping the fat. I will gladly give up my blueberries and post-workout gatorade powder for some almonds and nut butter!

My morning cardio is done and I've had my new, improved breakfast (LOVE scrambled eggs/egg white mixture!) I'm determined that next Saturday's measurements will NOT make me frustrated - I would prefer to do a little happy dance!

How Bad Do You Want It?

I don't think I have ever been this congested in my entire life. My head is throbbing, my ears are plugged and I had to stock up on kleenex at Costco. But have I let this snotty disease stop my workouts? Heck no!

Sure, I could use being sick an a perfectly good excuse to NOT workout but it's really not going to make me feel better any faster - it would probably just make me grouchy on top of being sick. I am following the rule of "if it's above the head, it's okay to workout" or something like that. I'm not even sure who said that or where I read that but it sounds good to me! I'm just making sure to suck down extra water while I'm working out and then taking a well deserved nap aftewards :)

Speaking of excuses . . .this snow is not making me happy! I'm pretty sure I couldn't even get my car out of the driveway if I wanted to and did I mention that I live at the top of a giant hill? I would probably be safer ice skating down the hill than driving my little jetta down the hill. And I'm accident prone so the thought of me on ice skates is just scary! So I'm stuck without a way to get to the gym. I was downright mad at first but then I came up with a few backup plans . . .

First, I thought I remembered Andy saying there was a barbell somewhere in our messy garage so I waded through the mess this morning and managed to get it out without getting buried in the mess. After dusting off the cobwebs I went back in to find the weights. I also cleaned up a HUGE and I mean HUGE pile of Andy's clothes out of the office/workout room. I managed to match up about 46 random pairs of socks and fold all the clothes and put them away. It's amazing what cabin fever will force you to do. I now have room to get in a decent delts workout tonight followed by 20 more minutes of cardio on my trusty treadmill (with kleenex nearby of course!)

I have thought of every possible leg workout I can do at home and have decided nothing will compare to what I can do in the gym so I'm just going to force myself to take the dreaded "lunch" and venture down to the gym at work (preferably during non-peak hours) and get in a leg workout and a quick elliptical session. I even remembered to pack some flip flops so I don't have to go barefoot in the icky gym showers - I figured my co-workers would appreciate me NOT returning to my desk all sweaty!

So there it is folks - the snow and snot will NOT stop me from doing what I need to do! I WANT to get on stage looking my best (no fat rolls please!)

Oh and I almost forgot to mention - my bodyfat % is finally going down and I'm pretty much right where I need to be 13.5 weeks out. That makes me pretty darn happy!

Crinkly Fat

Crinkly fat? I know, weird title and I'll explain later . . . I've had two frustrating weeks. And I mean downright wanting to scream, cry or maybe a weird combo of both. Temper tantrum anyone?? 

I've been following my diet/workout plan 100%. Prior to my Dad visiting I even figured out where we (mostly I!) could eat out to make sure I could eat something clean with the right about of protein and carbs. Outback and Applebees had some very good choices. Red Robin even has a nice, clean chicken salad if you can do without the nasty dressing. I didn't indulge in any holiday food binges and I didn't miss a single workout. So why oh why is by body being so darn stubborn??? 

Last Saturday when I had measurements done, I was up 1% bodyfat from my measurements 4 weeks prior. Ummm, in 4 weeks in should have dropped at least 2%. I figured that cutting out the weekly cheat meal might solve that problem. We also eliminated some of the "fluff" from my diet AKA greek yogurt and brought down the carbs and fat slightly while adding another 5 minutes to my morning cardio. 

I felt WAY better heading into this morning's measurement session. Not only had my diet been tweaked, but I actually slept normally all week and things were functioning normally (TMI moment: I was about ready to eat a bag of prunes by the end of last week!) Sadly, my bodyfat % only dropped by about half a percent and my weight was up 2 pounds (probably the 2 bottles of water and half a pot of coffee I sucked down in the 2 hours before my appointment!). At least it was down but not by as much as I was hoping. 

The good news was that my amazing coach Julie told me that my fat was getting crinkly. Huh???? This sounds funny but it really is a good thing! She explained that you can tell you are about to drop some more fat if it gets crinkly. I'm not sure exactly what that looks like but I'm expecting some better results next week in my area of crinkles - yes I have some junk in my trunk. Okay, I have a lot of junk in my trunk! 

Is it bad that I have been daydreaming about crinkly fries since this morning??

Don't worry, I won't actually eat any of these! At least not for another 15 weeks :)

So the plan for this week is to up my post strength training cardio by another 5 minutes and keep the diet the same as last week. Hopefully I'll see some good results so I don't lose anything else from my diet that I love!

Good Bye 2011, Helloooooo 2012!

Happy New Year!!!

I thought I would take a few minutes to reflect on my accomplishments in 2011 and think about what I want to accomplish in 2012. My brain is a little foggy from my last cheat meal last night and I feel like I'm in a sugar coma and have a giant food baby in my belly so I'll make this quick . . .

Some of the highlights from 2011:

• Winning the 3 month paleo challenge at CrossFit - this is when I realized I really could stick to a diet longer than a week or two. I finally flipped the willpower switch!!
• Deciding to do a figure competition and I mean REALLY deciding this time to just do it. I thought about it for years but never did a darn thing about it. Now I'm making it happen!
• Passing the Series 7 test. That test almost killed me. I cried, I was a mean grouchy person, I broke out in hives, and was just plain miserable the week before but I passed that darn thing on the first attempt! Must have been the lucky monkey socks my mom bought me to wear on test day :)
• Went through with the surgery that I had been considering for awhile and glad I did it! 

Okay, I really feel like I'm forgetting some major things but maybe they will come to me later when my brain is less foggy . . .

Now onto 2012:

• Stick to my training/food plan 100% on the road to Emerald Cup. Ain't nothing to it but to do it!
• Finally get Andy to clean out the garage and guest bedroom (AKA the room that looks like a hoarder took over!)
• Go on vacation and I mean a REAL vacation. Not a staycation, not a weekend in Idaho . . .Hawaii? Cruise? 
• Finish the bathroom remodel. 
• Take a walk/real lunch break at least once a week at work and motivate others to do the same.

Okay, I think I need a nap before I pack up all the Christmas decorations . . .