Yelling it Out!

There is something good about when you declare things. For instance, like yelling "I'm going to climb this mountain" rather than just thinking that you are going to climb the mountain.
Well for the last couple of months I have been on the fence about competing in the upcoming April show. To be honest my heart just is not "sold" on this show. I've never really done good at the early spring shows. I'm usually not ready and it's always too hard to clean up my diet.
.....As of today.....

Yelling: "I AM COMPETITING IN THE APRIL SHOW!!!!" (Whoo, I feel better now)

Now, I'm not saying that I might be competing in Bikini (not figure) in the April show, but I am saying that for the next 5 weeks, I am going to give it my all and we will see what happens.
This year I should have considerable more lean mass then in the years before. But like always, I put on a lot of fat during the off season.
Here's to 100%, 100% of the time for 5 weeks!!! ;)

It Paid off!!

Okay, I told you a couple of posts ago that I was getting organized....(With my food). Well here are my latest results. Oh- I should probably mention that after the show in June, I well uh, gained some weight.... Anyway, I'm working hard at getting it back off so that I could possibly be ready for a show in April. - We'll see.

Here are Coach's words:
OUTSTANDING!!!!
Lost 3.07% body fat - Now at 21.06%
Tape measure dropped 2.24% = Now at 24.95% (since the tape measure percentage is larger than the caliper pinch percentage, it means that you look more "plump" than you actually are).
6 Critical Pinches dropped 15 millimeters - Now at 79 mm.
You lost over 4 1/2 pounds of body fat and gained just over 2 1/2 pounds of lean mass. What ever you did these past two weeks - bottle it and use it again through out the holidays.
WELL DONE
RAB

How do you say?

Happy Birthday! I Love you! and I'm sorry! All at the same time in the best way to your mother-in-law?????

Any pointers please let me know.....

I am very fortunate, I have one of those mother-in-laws that is awesome!! We live behind her and I can't tell you how many times she has bailed me out of situations. She has taken me to work, loaned me moo-lah, bought things for me, rock and the boys and the list goes on an on. A lot of nights we bum dinner off of her too. (She makes really good down home southern food) BTW - she can make "made from scratch" biscuits. An endeavor I will never learn. Heck, I can't even not burn the frozen kind. :)

She really is great! So guess how I feel now that I know that we missed her Birthday yesterday!!!! TERRIBLE!!!!!

I know that she won't read this because she does not read my blog, but I want to put it out there anyway......

Judy,

You are an awesome person! I wish you the happiest birthday wish ever. I love you and I want to say THANK YOU for all you do for us! You are amazing! And I could not ask for a more wonderful mother-in-law. I know my boys feel the same way and could not ask for a better Nana!!!

We love you!!!

Busy, Busy little Bees

I LOVE the holiday seasons! LOVE them!!! I love the uh food, I love family and friends and I love shopping!!!

However, all this fun can reak havoc on my diet plans. Words from my coach "in the past, the holidays have not been good to you". Me like to partake in too much holiday cheer??

So hear is the game plan for this year, I am about to start my official un-official diet and I am going to have to be smarter than my schedule.

Starting today I am going to try something a little different. I am going to get organized and prepared. What??? Yes, I am going to try it out. After all some people live this way all the time, and if it makes me on time and healthy then I'll give it a go. At least until I get lazy again.

Goal for today:

Cook all food for the week ahead of time, put portions into zip locks or plastic containers. Grab and go all week.

Each night:

Have workout clothes and all food (meals) together for the next day.

Sooo, I will let you know how it goes. It's worth a try right? Ok. I must go now to boil some chicken...Yum, Yum.

What is your favorite way to get organized?

Blessings!

Um...Let's be friends? Again?

Ok. So I am a procrastinator...Everyone knows that. I wait until company is on their way over before I start to clean my house. I wait until the snooze button has gone off 50 times and it is the final second before "I'm LATE"! to get out of bed. The list goes on and on.... (Please feel free to add your jabs) :) So, it's no surprise that I have waited a loooonnnggg time to: dum dum dum dum.....Post anything to my blog.

So here I am, with all kinds of new ideas and thoughts that I would like to share and hopefully start a new(old) habit of sharing my world with you.

1st things 1st. I did a competition back in May. I came in 5th. :( Yes, 5th is good, but I had my head pretty fluffed up and thought I deserved better. My jaw just about dropped when they called my name. (Side note: I had two judges tell me that I was meant for a higher placing - but I won't go into that now. I'm over it, really I am, no really I am.) I then had a show the next week. Since my pride took such a beating I have to confess that I kinda sorta lost heart. I ate way too much and then preceded to eat cheesecake right before I walked on stage. I just didn't care. That's when I had to reevaluate my priorities...

I have taken some time off. Literally. I am not training with coach, I have not been lifting as much as I would like and well the diet, what diet???

So, now here is the game plan. You always have to have goals right? I do plan on competing again, and I do want this to be a lifestyle. So my plan is to get under 20% body fat by January. I am still teaching Kickboxing two days a week and have also added teaching at the church to the staff. It is such a hoot! I LOVE those girls!!!

I will try to keep you posted on my progress, failures and complaints. Oh, and I want to leave you with some inspiration. ( I can find it in the funniest places, this one is on a bracelet at JC Penny's that I've been eyeballing)

"Dreams do come true; one choice at a time"

Wow! It speaks straight to me, like every time I want some of my kiddo's Halloween candy!!!

My "treat" for tonight: a spinach shake.
One hand full of baby spinach
One hand full of ice
4oz unsweetened almond milk
4oz water
Blend and enjoy!

What is your favorite healthy treat?

Blessings!!

New Results!!

I was measured this week, and not expecting much; I have to say I was pleasantly surprised! I have been following the diet and exercising but have not seen much difference in the way my clothes were fitting. However, I have noticed a little bit of my abs showing again.- SWEET!!!

Here are the words from Coach:

Excellent Work!
You dropped 2.04% body fat -now at 19.43%.
Tape measure is at 26% - a drop of 1.55%
6 critical pinches is at 71 mm - a drop of 11 mm.
(Best Part - Drum roll please)
All of your weight loss was fat 3.4 pounds and your lean mass stayed the same!

Let's see if I can do it again next measurement.

I am getting really excited about fitness. I am practicing my hip-hop, tumbling, flexibility and strength moves. I have already picked out my song too!! I just have to find a show that has fitness in it now. :)

Everything seems to be going good. Except I woke up yesterday with a tooth ache. Ouch! And then this morning my right cheek looks like it has a soft ball in it. I am not able to eat much b/c of the pain so my diet today consists of pain medicine,protein shakes and mushy bananas. I hope to get in the dentist tomorrow and get this wisdom tooth taken care of once and for all! He tried to tell me to get it taken out 2 years ago. I told him that I did not have time (LOL!) and he told me it was gonna sneak up and bite me one day when I really did not want it to. (Like now....?)

Hopefully, next time I post I will have a normal size head again.. ;0
Until Then....

Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Back...

Here are my latest results from Coach. This is my first weigh in since the holiday's. It's not pretty, but I did not expect it to be. I have gained a lot of weight in my belly (all that sugar). I have two weeks before my next weigh in. Let's see what kind of improvement I can make by then...I hope I can keep my muscle as I diet down. The diet is really awesome this time. Coach gave us a recipe book and on Sunday's, Tuesday's and Thursday's we get to eat out of the recipe book. YEA!!! Something different than chicken and greenbeans.! :)

Coach Bailey: (In not a too happy tone!)
Where do I start. Ok- Your body fat is now at 21.47% - a gain of 2.74%

Tape measure body fat is now at 27.55% (over 24.99% is "overly fat")

6 critical pinches is now at 82 - Yes 82 millimeters!

You gained over 4 1/2 pounds of fat and just under 1/2 pounds of lean.

Since 11.06.08 you have gained almost 17 pounds of pinchable fat and 3.9 pounds of lean mass (which includes internal fat).

You need to average 1.2% loss each measurement to get your body fat to 12% by April 1st and 6.25 millimeters per measurement.

Snowed In.....

It is Saturday and we are still snowed in....

And I am having a tough time keeping my hunger pangs in check with nothing to do or nowhere to go. I think that I am hungry, but I'm not. I read something recently in All You, ( a magazine that I have just found out about and in love with) that said when you feel the need to eat to distinguish if it is real hunger or just an emotional feeling. If you feel that you want to eat to change how you feel then that is emotional hunger. If you feel real hunger pains and a growling stomach then you need to eat. WOW! Even after dieting for a year (okay longer) I have never put it that simple. I obviously know about emotional eating but it has never been laid out like that before. Now I feel I have the power to conquer the hunger pains (that really aren't hunger pains at all).

Here is a picture of my boys enjoying the snow. The picture was taken on Friday. Almost all of the snow is gone now, but we have not been able to leave our road. At the end of the road there is a steep hill that is a solid sheet of ice. It is in the shade too so the sun cannot melt the ice away. :(

I desperately need to go grocery shopping! For dinner the menu is dried beans with a side of peanut butter. LOL! I'm not kidding!

Happy New Year!

It's me again! I am back on!

I had a couple months off and now I am ready for round two. Ding, Ding, Ding....

Last year was a success for my first year competing. I actually did six shows last year ( I would not recommend doing that many shows your first year), but I don't think I would of had it any other way!

I placed anywhere from 1st-6th depending on who showed up and how determined I was to stay on my diet and win. This year I plan to do fitness. Which is a whole new ball game. In fitness you have to do a two minute routine that includes 5 mandatory strength/stretch moves. Including: High Kicks, Middle Split, Cradle Hold, One arm push ups and on more thing that I can't remember, but will need to get my booty in gear and learn how to do it. :)

My first show for 2010 is scheduled for May 29th.

I hope this year I will be able to post more and keep everyone up to speed on all my fun stuff going on.

I hope all of you are staying well and healthy out there!

Love you guys!

Birmingham

I took home first place in Birmingham!!! I won my division in Open Figure Short Class. I crossed over into Fitness model and placed 2nd! I had a blast!!! It was all worth it once it was over and of course I was ready to do it again.

Mandy placed 2nd in Open Figure Short Class and Carmen placed 3rd!!

I had to do a pose down with the winner of the Open Figure Tall Class to get my pro-card. She won, so no I am not a pro yet. What do you expect, it was only my second show! :)

Discoveries....

I have figured out I am a little tougher than I give myself credit for. Thru all the trails I faced and are still facing I am staying postive and learning a lot. Thank you Jesus!! To HIM be the glory, because without Him I would not be where I am at.

Here is the last "results" email that I got from Coach. He had some pretty good things to say:

You are now at 11.04% body fat- loss of .11. Take away the one pinch side formula and you are at 10.21% (12.67% in April) Your tape measure dropped 1.01% - now at 19.52% (you were at 20.73 in April Your 6 caliper pinches re now at 34 You lost 1/3rd of a pound of fat and also lost 1.65 pounds of lean. You look phenomenal. I don't want to guess what the judges will see or what your competition will look like, but you should be very proud and confident going into Saturday. There will be no better abs on stage - male or female. That should really help in the scoring. Back, thighs and calfs are also to die for. Be confident on stage and show the judges you expect to be the winner. Good luck and we will see you Saturday morning.Robert

Some catching up to do!

Okay, I have a lot of catching up to do.. I will start from the beginning and hopefully catch everyone up on all the exciting news. I will do it all in seperate posts because it is just a lot of stuff!

Two weeks before my birmingham show missils started firing.

Things at work have been complicated.
Things at Rock's work have been complicated.
My dryer died.
My fridge died.
My parents were moving in.
My tire goes flat.
My Dad has a heart attack.
My car battery died.

I know there is more, but that's enough to post right now. As you can see things were not looking good for us. I felt like giving up!!! This is all just too hard to do.

However, I worked thru it. I blocked a lot out, and was trying to focus on my training and my family. I continued to stay on my diet. I ate cold green beans and chicken at the hospital.
Only once, did I fall into temptation. On the way home we stopped by Quick Trip and I had a coffee and some of Drew's doughnut. YUM!! It was great!!

Created by MyFitnessPal - Calorie Counter

Results

Hey Guys,

I think I told everyone that I have been hitting it hard the last two weeks. Well, it shows! :) Here are my new results......(From Coach)

VERY GOOD!
You lost 1.86% body fat - Now at 11.90% (12.67% in April). You can hit 10% by show time.
Tape measure bf dropped slightly - .12% - now at 21.84%
6 Criticals are now at 37.5 millimeters - a drop of 24 mm. (41.5 in april) HOORAH!
You lost 2.79 pounds of fat but also lost 1.46 pounds of lean (remember this could be fluid and internal fat as well as some muscle._)

I hope this will be enough motivation to keep me going. I have had a pretty tough day mentally with other things, and I think that if I can just stay strong today I can do it!!!

BTW - My next show is in Birmingham on July 11th. And then after that we head to Charleston on July 18th. It's coming so much quicker than I thought it would. I have to get started on a routine!!!

M.I.A?

Yes, I have been missing in action. Honestly, I have been too scared to post lately. After I hit "publish post" on mother's day I was feeling real fine with myself and proceeded to the kitchen where I kicked back 20 nilla wafers and about 8 cups of milk. Ouch! I think in my mind, I felt I somehow deserved it b/c I had done so well without the cheesecake. The next day I had a weigh in; and let's just say I did not do well. I will not post the results because I basically wasted two weeks of my training.
I kind of use my blog as a therapeutic tool and I really did need to get back to posting b/c I have been a big ball of nerves for a while now.
Tomorrow is weigh in again and I hope that I will have something REALLY good to tell you. Besides resisting cake and doughnuts I have been working in our garden and catching up on some office work. Other than that, I do not have any real excuses for not posting. One of these days I will post some updated pics of myself - but not today! :)

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope everyone had a wonderful mother's day. I hope that you were able to take a little time of pampering for yourself. Every mother deserves it!!
At 4:00 yesterday I had my nails done! YESSS (Finally)! Actually, I had the fake nails taken off. I did not realize how much better they would feel once they were off. I can type again. HeeHee.

My mother's day indulgence:

6 almonds (which is on my diet)
2 calcium chews

I crushed them together and made a snack like candy. Don't you just envy me????

Funny Story - I almost had a melt down yesterday. I had to go into Publix to get some Spinach and I walked by the bakery. A HUGE piece of cheesecake was calling my name. I stared at it like a little kid wanting a puppy. I was just praying that the person behind the counter did not ask me if I wanted anything (they did not). So, I walked away. I went and got my spinach and on the way up to the register, I thought: You know what, I will just buy it and take a bite. God was looking out for me b/c when I walked back over to the bakery there were tons of people and it was close to my dinner time and figured that's why I was jonesing cheesecake so much, so I left. Basically, the only "treat" that I got from Publix was a few calories burned walking back and forth from the bakery.

Sorry!

I have not posted for soooo long. I have been terribly busy! Which is not an excuse. It is actually therapeutic for me to blog!! I was browsing the Beverly website today and I came across a quote that I wanted to share. I have no idea who it came from, but WOW is it good!!

Here it is....

"We must all suffer from one of two pains, the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is; discipline weighs ounces, while regret weighs tons."

I am going to post this everywhere! On my fridge, mirror, car - well you get the idea. I need to be reminded of this a lot!!

BTW - Here are my results from Tuesday's "weigh in".

Goodness!
You lost 2.26% body fat - Now at 14.44%
Tape measure dropped .94% - Now at 23.14%
6 Critical pinches dropped 10.5 millimeters - Now at 51 mm.
All of your weight loss was fat - 3.25 pounds. Your lean mass stayed the same. Good comeback!RAB

I hope all of you are staying dry and having a great week!

ROUND 2

Well, if you have read the next to last posting you saw that I went a wee little out of control with my eating. So now I am paying for it. Let just say that I gained around 5lbs in 4 days. And I didn't even eat McDonalds. LOL!!
Anyway, after the "weigh in" on Tuesday I went into a little bit of depression. I had a REALLY hard day besides the weigh in and everything seemed to just dump on me that day. Wednesday, I woke up feeling a lot better and with a new attitude. I just hope I can keep up the intensity for 11 more weeks. That is when my next show is. That right, I am doing another show. And this time I want to WIN!!!!!
Good news, I have already lost some of that weight. I am around 120 now.
(Cool to know)
Last time I kept a paper diet journal for my foods and it helped a lot to see what I was eating. However, I have stumbled upon a really cool website for tracking calories and exercise. It has helped a lot this week. It is FREE, and has just about every food I could think of. Even, Good Value (Wal-mart's brand). The website is myfitnesspal.com. I encourage you to sign up and start tracking your food, you won't believe how much this tool helps you.
It also has a function that you can set a goal weight and it gives you the calories you need daily to make that weight. I can't use this right now, b/c I am on a special diet, but if I was just starting out with weight loss this would be awesome!!

Special Thanks!

Before I start round 2 tomorrow I just wanted to tell some people Thank you!

First, my hubby, Rocky. He has had to deal with temper tantrums, spending sprees and long hours with the kids. You are awesome, and I love you sooo much.

Second, my coach Robert Bailey. You are the best! I LOVE working out with you and Carmen.

Third, Carmen. Thank you for letting me be competitive (whatever you can do, I can do better) LOL!! I am so glad that we have had this chance of getting to know each other.

Fourth, Charlotte. Thank you for staying up late and putting on my tan and then getting up at 5:00 am to put three more coats on! Also, thank you for all the advice.

Fifth, I had three rockin babysitters during this journey. Bekah Moody, Danielle, and Michelle. Thank you for watching my kids and letting me train, worry free.

Last but not least... All of my friends and family that supported me and prayed for me during this time. I totally felt all the prayers and good wishes!

I know that I am leaving someone out, but I just wanted to tell you guys that I love you all, and without your help and support I could not do this.

Brittney

New Pics

Here are a few pics that I wanted to share. I needed to be a lot more darker, but you live and learn!! Next time will be soooo different!! I'm not discouraged, actually more motivated!! Carmen is in the middle picture with me, she is my wonderful gym partner. I just LOVE her!!