The madness of Easter and my sons first birthday are over, yay!! As fun as it has been I am looking forward to some quieter weeks at home. I feel like I am always saying this and things just dont seem to slow down!

We had our little man's 1st birthday party on Saturday last week. It was a very windy cold party but I suppose that's the risk you take with having the party outdoors on the water front close to winter lol

He got very spoilt and was a very good boy considering he hadn't had his nap in the morning. He has so many ride-on-cars, toy trucks lego etc that we have no idea where to put everything!!!

Here is a couple of photos from the day. It took us just over 2.5 hours to complete the cake and alost a day of baking the cakes! We were so happy when we finished and so glad that we have another year until we have to do it again hahaha






Training

I have really been lifting heavy and doing heaps of cardio the past 3 weeks. I have noticed great changes in my body but I know that if my diet was cleaner I would be noticing massive changes.

I have ordered myself some versa gripps to help with lifting as I have noticed that my wrists (especially) my right one gets a little sore when I do biceps so with the 8gripps I will still be able to increase weight without hurting myself.

I did this KILLER back/shoulder workout on Thursday (thanks to Ms Mo)

* rope straight arm press down
* 1 arm db row
* rear fly with tubing
* 2 arm cable lat pull down
* 1/2 pull overs on floor
* front plate raise
* push back side lat raise
* gorillas
* sit up/bb press

Diet

Unfortunately with all the easter eggs and Tyler's party I have been picking at sweets for the past week. Sugar is my enemy, I know that and for the past week I have not been able to resist. Most of it is out of the house now so I will have no more temptations.

Luckily with the amount of training I have been doing and that besides the slip ups in sugar I have still managed to keep my weight the same. I am still wanting to lose weight so staying the same is not great but at least there was no weight gain!

Back to it now 100%. I just bought some new protein powder as I ran out. I'm sure I have said it before but Proto Whey is the best protein powder I have ever tasted and their Power crunch bars are to die for. I have stocked up on a few for those times when I crave something sugary!

Happy Training x

Happy Easter

I love and hate this time of year....I love the time off with family and friends but I hate that it revolves around chocolate! I have never been a very big choc eater but I also dont have the best willpower when it is around me 24/7!!!!

Every year I ask that no-one buy me chocolate except my mummy :) Every year since I was very little mum has always bought us kids a Red Tulip bunny and I can't have an easter without it. I try and make it last a couple of weeks by getting hubby to hide it somewhere lol

Its hard to believe it is already the end of April, in 2 weeks my little man will be 1!!! We sent out invites last week for his party and I will have to start getting my butt into gear and organise all the bits and pieces. We are having a picnic in the park which I thought was going to be a good idea but now I am thinking it will be more work and organisation, boo!

I think it might be bad weather though so we will have to have it at our house if that is the case which could be a blessing in disguise. The only problem is that our house is not very big and with the amount of people invited it will be quite squishy.

I am glad that I now have some quiet time coming up, we have been so busy the past couple of months. I need to concentrate on my little mans party and then I start organising my sister in laws baby shower at the end of May.

Training has been good and diet ok. The past couple of days we were down south with some friends with the boys on their fishing trip. So I spent a lot of time 4WD on the beach and just had to take tuna, protein shakes and bars with me as anything else was just too hard.

I also got in some beach workouts which KILLED my calves. It is great to be at the beautiful beach and enjoy the nice weather. We couldn't swim but at least it wasn't raining or too hot with the little one.

I am looking forward to seeing my girls at bootcamp on Tuesday, it has been a couple of weeks since we have trained together and they will be in for a shock!!!! No doubt a few of them have not been training at all and eating badly.

On that note, I am about to head out for a run :)

Happy Training xx

So much for updating my blog on Sunday lol

I was so exhausted after a full-on weekend that Sunday night all I wanted to do was have a quick play with my little man, get him to bed and spend a little time with my hubby :) Before I knew it, it was the end of the week!

Meeting Monica and all the other girls was fantastic, I had such an amazing time and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Monica is such an amazing person, so beautiful inside and out. AND she looks fantastic all the time.

The workouts were awesome, she showed us some new moves to shake things up a little. She also bought along some of her versa grips. These are AMAZING for weight training. I will be ordering some in the next month. They are fantastic if you have weak wrists and help you lift heavier. They are easier to put on and look much better than your typical weight gloves.

It was great to do some posing too as it has been a long time for me, BUT....I did considerably well. There were a few girls who had just competed, some that were going to compete in May and some that are seasoned competitors and I was pretty happy with my posing ability compared to them. One thing I didnt like was after all the weight I have lost (and yes there is still a bit to go) I was actually one of the biggest girls there :( I tried to make sure everyone knew I had a baby which was why I was not as fit as I usually am, sad I know.

Each break we had the organises had protein shakes and bars ready for us and OMG Proto whey is the best shake I have ever tried in my life. I tried double choc, vanilla, stawberry and cafe mocha and they are ALL great. I bought a tub of it and then ended up getting a bag of goodies at the supplement talk the next day so I have plenty to keep me going the next couple of months. The bars are called Power crunch and taste just like a chocolate wafer biscuit. I am keeping them at home for when I need a choc fix. They are about 200 cals for the full bar.

The photoshoot on the Sunday was good fun. I got some really nice shots and all the girls looked amazing (with no photoshop either lol).

I knew I said this was a once in a lifetime opportunity but if she ever comes back to Perth I will have to go again, it was one of the best weekends in my life and I met some really great woman who I will be friends with for a long time through the sport :)

Here are some photos from the weekend.

Happy Training xxxx

MONICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She is in Australia and I am meeting her tomorrow!

I just arrived back from Bali at 2am this morning, had a few hours nap, picked up my son from my parents place and have been non-stop all day putting things away and doing endless clothes washing, bleh!

I made sure the house was nice and clean and all washing done before we left last week so I didn't have too much to do when we got home.

The camp starts tomorrow morning at 9am and then wont finish until Sunday arvo sometime. We get the full schedule tomorrow when we attend the registration. I am just glad that they are running it at my old gym which is only 15 minutes away and will be against all the crazy traffic :)

I am super excited to meet Monica and all the other fitness ethusiasts. My camera is charged, my food is prepared and ready to go :)

Although I do wish I had another day to get my body back to normal and get another workout in before I start the camp. I got bali belly on the second last night and it has only settled this afternoon. It was so bad I didnt eat dinner on the plane and skipped brekky and had some toast for lunch and steak and salad for dinner. Its not nice at all but I did come home 1.2kg lighter lol.

I was very good on holiday and ate really well and didnt drink toooooo much :) I made sure I drank vodka and water or lemonade and avoided as many cocktails as I could. Its so hard when they are so cheap and most places have 2 for 1 offers!!!!!!!

I bought a nice and bright Lorna Jane crop top and flash dance pants and also some new Levi jeans and a white top and wicked wedge Airwalk runner looking shoes (these are hard to describe so I will post a photo) for the photo shoot on the last day.

I wasn't able to book myself in for a spray tan so I am having to do it myself, boo! It will still look good but not as dark and perfect coverage as a spray.

Well, that's all for me. I want to make sure I have everything sorted for tomorrow so I am not in a rush getting my little man ready to go to grandads and myself off to a fantastic start to my weekend.

I will update on Sunday night :)

Happy training

My place is booked and next week I will be meeting my idol MONICA BRANT!!!!!!!

I am so glad that hubby agreed that I could go. I damaged the car a month ago which is going to cost us $350 to fix, I am also not going back to my PA job and we have to pay back the maternity money ($12,000) and we also have LOTS of bills due in the next month.

I think he realises what a big thing it is for me and over the years he has been on boys week long holiday about 4 or 5 times and I have only been away with my girlfriends for a weekend once. We all have families now and just find it too hard.

I just wish I was in tip top shape before going along with all these buff fitness gurus  We get to have a photo shoot on the last day which would have been great if I was comp ready as I could really use those photos for promo work....oh well!!!

What an exciting time ahead. I feel a little bad but I am almost looking forward to the FEM camp more than bali in a few days lol

So, needless to say the diet and training has been 110% ON ON ON!!!

I went for a big walk/run with Tyler last week and found a big lake with lots of benches and sit up planks. So I did a big run, steps ups, lunges, situps etc then on the way back I noticed a set of stairs down to a gazebo JACKPOT! Around our house there are no hills, no stairs etc just boring flat land so I was very excited with this discovery. Tyler thought it was hilarious watching me sprint up the flight of stairs over and over again.

So last week I did that workout twice and I will do it another 3 times before I head to Bali and then do some hiking in Bali :)

Training

Monday – walk, legs
Tuesday – walk morning, Bootcamp
Wednesday – run, stairs
Thursday – chest/bi
Friday – run, stairs
Saturday – off (house cleaning)
Sunday – bootcamp – run/stairs

Progress pics

I am feeling uneasy about posting these. I know I have come a long way but I am not happy with what I see. But at least once I post these, it will push me harder and then I will be happier to show you the next update pics :)

I have also included my last comp photos xx

Well.....here they are.











Happy Training xx

Listening to my body.........

Slowing down, resting.......sometimes it is very hard to do but it is something we need to do. It has only happened once or twice before where I have been running on caffeine and not much sleep and my body just says “no more”. My body starts to feel like I am getting the flu and that my body is just so sore and heavy that all I want to do is lie down and sleep.

This has been me this week. As you can tell from my last posts I was so excited to get my D-Fine 8 in the post and was having 1 a day to give me a little boost as my workouts were suffering because I was a little tired.

By the 4th day of trying it, it didn’t seem to be working. So I had another drink and then coffee etc but couldn’t believe that I was still feeling so exhausted. Then by Sunday afternoon my body had had enough and I couldn’t move. Hubby told me I have been doing too much and that I needed to rest. He went out for the night and I ended up going to bed at 7pm as soon as I put Tyler down.

I woke around 6am and STILL felt tired. I napped for the next 2 days every time Tyler did and I can finally say that only yesterday did I feel normal again. It took 3 days of sleeping and NOT working out to give my body a break and I feel like myself again. During this time I also did not have any caffeine at all. Surprisingly I did not feel the side effects (most probably because I was sleeping so much lol).
So I am glad to be back on board and will do some cardio tomorrow and then weight train on Sunday.

Diet has still been good and hopping on the scales this morning I was unfortunately still the same hopefully by the weekend I will be down at least 1kg!!!

I thought it was time for some photos. I have not taken any since the first ones I took straight after having Tyler. I knew there would be a huge difference and I was not wrong. It was actually hard to look at my first photos again, the photos do not lie!!! I have never been that big (or anywhere near that big). Next time I am pregnant these photos will go up on my wall.

I still have a LONG way to go but I am getting there.

I will load my progress photos tomorrow so stay tuned.

Happy Training xx

I am in love...............

D-Fine8 is my new best friend lol

I am glad I have waited until now to use it. I was starting to get really tired and finding it hard to keep up with my training, working and with the little one so it has come as a nice little helper :)

I went to order it through the ASN website ($99.95) which is where I get a lot of my supplements from but ended up doing a google search and someone was selling them on Ebay! They come from America but even with postage it was still $30 cheaper. AND they say you can request a flavour (which I did), if you dont they send you the standard Fruit punch flavour. I asked for Green apple, got fruit punch, wrote an email to complain and they are now sending me out the green apple for $40 ($30 cheaper again yay). So I got 2 for the price of 1, gotta love it!!!!

So if anyone is looking for some google Ebay, the lady selling them is "Lamuscle", she sends them straight away and besides this mix up with mine has all good reviews on Ebay.

I have been frustrated the past couple of weeks as it has been hard to book bubs in at the creche at the gym. All the mums are now back in the gym as kids are back in school and all the spots are being booked up for a week at a time, NOT HAPPY!!!!!!!! So last week I got up at 5.30am and headed to the gym and was home before bubs woke up - something I used to do every morning but since having bub have not had to do an early morning session. I really could not have done it without my new friend lol

Ok, so that's enough about D-fine8!!

Training

Monday - chest/biceps - 50 push-ups, bench chest press, incline chest press, pec fly, hammer curls, seated curls, cable curls
Tuesday - cardio, boxing bootcamp
Wednesday - cardio
Thursday - hams/tri - lunges, jump squats, stiff legged deads, machine curl, standing ham kickback
Friday - cardio
Saturday - light cardio (kind of off day)
Sunday - bootcamp

Diet has been not 100% this week AGAIN!! I had 2 days of having a couple of treats and some wine. Not good but sometimes this happens when I am not watching when my lady friend is coming. Should have known why the sugar demon was calling my name lol

In saying that the scales still went down 1.1kg this week :) And I did my measurements this month and have lost 0.5 inches off boobs :( arms, hips and thighs.

I am still 4.2kg away from pre preggo weight and WILL be there by the end of the month before we head off to Bali!!!!!

March already, wholly moley :)

I have been very busy (as usual lol) with work and everyday life running around with a 10 month old. He is crawling and into EVERYTHING!! But I love it, he is so proud of himself getting around now and she just follows me all day, and burn off all his energy. He is already pulling himself up on things all day and just loves to stand, who knows how long it will be before he walks...I am quite sure it will be before his first birthday.

So training has been sporadic in the last week but thankfully because of my good diet I have still lost weight. With working two days a week and then the other 3 mornings I have Tyler's swimming, mothers group etc I have found it hard to get to the gym so have had to do home workouts and just running. I am going to miss mothers group next week and book him in at the creche otherwise I am just not getting done what I need and want to. I did a great shoulder workout on Monday and felt sore for a couple of days. Swimming with Tyler on Tuesday morning was a bit painful, lifting and carrying an 11kg baby for 40 mins lol

I have just received an email that Monica Brant is coming to Perth. She has always been to Melbourne, Sydney etc but never Perth. Neither has Jen Hendershott's Phat Camp. I am always emailing them to ask if they can move it to Perth one year and thankfully it has happened. I am glad Monica is as I was quite surprised with the cost. It is $730 and I am quite sure when I looked into doing Jen's Phat Camp it was $450 or there abouts. So I am glad one of them is coming as I wouldn't have been able to afford the camp plus flighs and accommodation!!!!! The camp is early April just a few days after I get back from Bali so it is going to be a very exciting couple of months :)

Training

Monday - shoulders, bis
Tuesday - walking/bootcamp
Wednesday - day off
Thursday - legs/abs
Friday - run
Saturday - walk
Sunday - bootcamp

Happy training

Wowee, I had my body fat done last week and OMG it read 28%!!! I was really hoping for it to be wrong but I know in my heart it is correct.

Even though I have been losing weight and building muscle I am still A LONG WAY from where I want to be.

That being said I have decided that I will not be ready by May and so will concentrate on losing weight steadily and building/keeping muscle so I don't burn myself out. Last time I competed I didnt have a baby to look after and I wasn't so far away from my goal.

Having a look at the competition calendars the next comp is 8 October with the NABBA and I was hoping there was one in Sep and Oct.....but INBA and NABBA are the same date, not happy!!

Oh well, hopefully someone changes dates or I can do another one before the year is out.

I am excited about tomorrow as good friends of ours get married. I know it is going to be beautiful and so much fun :)

I will try and blog again next week as I know I have been useless.

Happy Training xx

My diet

My diet for the past couple of months has been much the same. Here is a breakdown of what I have been eating.

M1: Egg white omelet, scrambled egg whites, wheatbix occasionally
M2: smoked salmon/chicken/lean meat and salad, tuna wrap, chicken stirfry
M3: tuna/salmon and salad
M4: Protein shake or nuts and a couple of tablespoons of yoghurt
M5: Lean meat and 1 cup vegetables
M6: Protein shake

As you can see it is very low in carbs. My body does not handle carbs very well, so every Wednesday and Saturday I had some more carbs to my diet like a sandwich or chicken and rice for M2 and sweet potato at dinner. I have a cheat meal on either Wednesday or Saturday. I try and make it during the day so I have time to burn it off and I make sure I do hard cardio that day.

I am a creature of habit so my food doesn't seem to change too much and I am not too strict at the moment with measurements as I am still losing weight at a good rate. In another 2 to 3 weeks I will probably change it up a bit.

Happy Training

Happy first day of February :)

How quick is this year going to fly by??? I want to pack as much into the year as I possibly can. This year is a year for me and getting back to the stage. I don’t care if people think that is selfish but when one is used to having so much time to do what they like when they like, it can be quite hard when all of a sudden you have this little person that needs nearly all of your time!!!!

Last week was a great week. I finished off my course on Thursday and I was in the office learning the ins and outs on Friday.

Our acccounts lady is on leave at the end of today so it will be all up to me. Not
ideal only having 2 days to sit with her and learn everything – nothing like being thrown in the deep end to find your feet quickly lol

Tuesday night training with the girls was a fizzle!! Only 2 girls when I usually have up to 16. I suppose you have to get used to people piking every now and then. Hopefully tonights session will be good. Sunday was the usual 4 to 5 girls. People are always going out Saturday night so I always know to expect the numerous texts saying they can’t make it!!

I have been reading up on a weight management/energy supplement called Define8. ASN stock it and they rave about how good it is and the results not only they but all their client’s receive. I was contemplating going on Hydroxycut again as I have had it before and found it good. I just can’t take the recommended full amount as I can’t sleep at night.

Now that I am working out more and in the office a couple of days a week I need a bit more of a jump start for my training. I will probably buy shortly but not start taking it for another few weeks when my cardio is upped more.

Training

Monday – Boxing

Tuesday – walk am 45mins, Cardio boxing pm

Wednesday – run with 5 50m sprints

Thursday – chest/biceps
• Push-ups
• Chest press barbell
• Incline chest press dumbell
• Pec flye barbell
• Ez bar bi curl
• Hammer curls
• Machine bicep curl

Friday – walk 60mins

Saturday – off

Sunday – cardio and weights bootcamp

I was annoyed that I wasn't able to get to the gym for another weights session as I have not trained legs/hams now for 2 weeks :( I have to remember to take my workout gear to the office as my gym is right there and since I don't have bubs I dont have to worry about putting him into the creche!!!

Diet
Diet has been much the same the past couple of weeks. I don’t want to change at the moment as I am still losing weight. In the month of January I lost 3.2kg, yay. I am such a boring dieter sometimes, i just find it easier to eat the same things without having to come up with new meals each week!!!!

I am loving my tuna wraps (my husband not so much lol) I have tuna with a tbls of low fat mayo, chopped red onion, tomato, cucumber, lettuce and a wholemeal wrap. So so yummy.

Also, another great salad recipe I got from a friend this week:
• Diced:
- Cucumber
- Tomato
- yellow capsicum
- red onion
• 200g chicpeas
• mint leaves
• parsley
• corriander
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 2 tbs lemon juice
• 3 tbs italian dressing



Give it a try, sooooooo tasty :)



Happy Training :)

Wow this week has gone fast...

Again, another VERY busy week. I had an accounting course for two days and they were very full days and for someone who has no accounting background it was quite hard to get my head around at first. I still have another day next week but I have actually been enjoying it.

It has been really really nice actually using my brain instead of thinking about feeds, sleep times and dirty nappies lol and having adult time without babies has been very different but nice!

So unfortunately there was no "gym" as such but I did a hard boxing class on Monday nights. MY GOD!!! 45 minutes of intense boxings and cardio with some weights. Bootcamp on Tuesday, walking Wednesday, Thursday and having an off day today.

Sunday I will have bootcamp again so we will be doing a circut weights class and the girls cant wait. I have very full classes now and the girls are bringing along more friends each week. I may have to see about starting up another night and getting someone to look after the little one for a couple of hours.

I am still down another kg this week which is nice even though I havent been at the gym as such and not eating my usual as I hve not been very organised. I have done a big shop today and will make sure all my meals are sorted this weekend so I will not run into any problems during the week.

I have a big weekend this weekend with hens nights and baby showers. I have allocated Saturday night as my "cheat meal" so I can have a couple of drinks and not worry to much. So long as I do my cardio workout in the morning and LOTS of dancing that night I will work off all the calories lol

So just a short update this week and not too in depth with the diet and workouts!!!!

Happy Training

Good fun :)

Bootcamp has been getting very busy in the past week. I have not needed to advertise the classes as I have had enough interest through word of mouth and people driving by. I was walking my dog and bubba the morning after a group session when a guy stopped me asking if I was the trainer from the oval the night before....his wife was interested in joining, she hasn't turned up yet so we will see.

I am thinking of buying a banner to put up when I am training people so people walking or driving buy can get my contact details :)

I would love to do more classes but hubby is out Monday and Thursday nights so it makes it hard as we need someone at home for the baby. Maybe in another few months we might be able to work something out. I much prefer personal training to sitting behind a desk, I figured if I do 3-4 classes a week I will be earning about the same but only working 4 hours lol

Training

I have been working out every day,weights 3 days, bootcamp 2 days, running 1 day, walking 3 days. Along with tightening my diet this has seen me drop 4kgs in the past month.

Diet

My diet has consisted of

M1- egg white omelette
M2 - chicken and a cup of salad or veggies with pineapple
M3 - tuna or salmon and veggies
M4 - nuts with protein shake
M5 - fish or chicken with veggies or stir fry with lamb

If still hungry I might have a protein shake

Once a week I have a cheat meal and some red wine, yummo :)

I am nearly back to pre preggo weight, only 4 more kgs to go, yay. (why oh why did i put on so much lol). Then buckle down for comp prep for NABBA/WWFsouthern hemispheres in May!!!!

Happy Training x

It seems that everyone’s New Years resolutions are in full swing. The gym is packed the streets are busy with fitness enthusiasts!

Almost everyone is back at work and getting back into a routine. I’m sure there are many diets that have also started this week. Hopefully if you have started a diet you are getting enough calories and not restricting too much. Remember protein, carbs and fat at every meal.

I can’t stress enough the importance of protein. Protein is a part of every cell of your body. It is a major structural component of cells; skin, hair, nails and bone. It is the necessary raw material from which your body makes the enzymes critical for functioning. It is necessary for the production of neurotransmitters which affect your mind and mood. Protein (with fat) is the base material of the immune system. Without protein there is no life. You cannot make protein. It must be consumed every day in sufficient quantities to replace daily losses.

To calculate your daily protein you need to work out your desired body weight, ________kg, times 1 to 1.2 grams, = ___________grams of protein per day.

Example 60kg x 1.2 = 72g protein (this is the minimum)

Good sources of protein include:
* Eggs (6 grams per each)
* lean meat, fish, poultry (25-30 grams per 3.5 oz)
* tofu (20 grams per cup)
* milk (8-9 grams per cup)
* yoghurt (8-10 grams per cup)
* cottage cheese (25 grams per cup)
* nuts and seeds (2-3 grams per tablespoon)
* oatmeal (5 grams per cup)
* most fruits (1 gram per fruit)
* vegetables 1-3 grams per 1/2cup)
__________________________________________
If you are new to working out or want some extra moves and great motivation, grab a copy of the new Oxygen Women’s Workout Annual. Its AUD $11.95 from most newsagencies and is definitely worth a look.

Happy Training xxx

Happy New Year !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had a great 2010 but I am very excited about the adventures of 2011.

I do not believe in New Years resolutions as I truly think that if you really want to do something you do it now not tomorrow!!

So, I have a list of things I will accomplish this year.

These include:
< compete in May;
< completing my PT certification;
< have 3 full fitness classes each week;
< compete in September/October and make the top 5;
<>

This year will be a year for me and getting myself back to a place where I am truly happy with my physique. Since having my baby, I have lost almost all the weight but still have some work to do.

He is an amazing little boy and I have loved watching him grow and develop. He is changing all the time and is such a joy in my life.

I am very thankful that he is a healthy and happy baby which makes it easy for me to drop him off at the creche 3 to 4 times a week so I can work out at the gym.

So, I hope you all have a great ‘to do list’ also for 2011 and join me on my quest to the stage in 2011 :)

Happy Training xox