Lurgies won't leave!!

Another weekend bites the dust! So we are now at the 10 week mark...gosh it's gonna FLY! I think I have finally nailed the headspace thing...and worked out my biggest issue. I have put on a lot of size in the off season (purposely I might add - needed more fullness in my muscle bellies...I love that word, bellies...) and every time I look at myself and where I'm at, and contemplate what I have to get to - I continually picture how I have looked in past comp seasons. And freak out that I can't do it. Therein lies my problem. I HAVE PUT ON SIGNIFICANT SIZE. I am currently sitting about 12.5kg above the weight I last competed at. I am NOT going to be the same as before - that was the purpose of growing in the off season! Now that I have that through my thick skull, I am in a much better place. I am bigger and harder than I have been before so I am where I wanted to be - and didn't realise that up til now. SO YAY!!



Anyway enough about that.



I am still a tad on the unwell side. I have managed to get my training in and made up for the training I missed while at my worst flu-wise but haven't been able to lift as heavy as I haven't had the physical strength, so have just tried my best to sweat it out in the cardio dept. Yesterday I went to work (first time since Wednesday) but by the time the workday finished my glands started to come up. Eeewww. Was supposed to go to 2 birthdays last night but went to neither, instead staying home to make more soup (I am gonna turn liquid at this rate) and spend some quality time on my couch, watching one of my all time fave movies that was on the tele last night (the Jackal) and stalking the net trying to get updates on all the fabbo babes that were competing at the All Females (and might I add, WELL DONE to you all!!! You all looked sensational and did yourselves proud!) Feeling really really run down and am fatiguing really easily, doesn't take much more than me being out of the house a couple of hours so hoping this leaves soon.



Today I started teaching a Posing class to some newbie figure girls at World Gym (my FAVE FAVE GYM!!), I was asked recently to take it over as a friend who was running it has moved to the US, and I jumped at the chance. Trained legs while I was there (I specially love training legs there, their equipment is awesome) and did both of my cardio sessions too (one before, one after the class). The girls were lovely which helps and had done a few prior classes so had a good starting point to go from. Can't wait to see them up on stage later this year!



Not much else to report. Food going really well, hopefully will be able to train at full throttle in the next few days...there is only 10 more weeks after all!

Hope you are all well. Til next time, train hard and be good.

Vic x

Chicken Soup for Me!!!

Yep that's what I'm on now. Chicken soup. Someone is getting a tad sick, which I guess was inevitable since a few of the girls at work have had the flu, and one of the other bridesmaids on the hens weekend was also quite sick...and I swapped beds with her halfway through night 2 (and didn't think to change pillows etc...smart, I know).

I taught Spin yesterday morning, trying really hard not to sniffle into the mic, and trying even harder not to breathe like a porn star into it given I couldn't breathe through my stuffy nose. I'm sure it sounded interesting but I did warn the participants that I had woken up with a drippy, clogged up nose so if they weren't fond of my porn-star sound effects, well...their problem! Got through it (sweated a bucket though...not a bad thing), had brekkie and as I was feeling progressively worse figured I should get training in while I had some strength. Did a legs session, shaking most of the way through but only managed 20min on the stepper afterwards...the hot and cold sweats started to kick in :( Went home for a bit of a sleep before starting work and got there feeling about 70%...which went downhill pretty quickly under the aircon. Bloody freezing gym airconditioning lol. I survived less than 3 hours and ended up going home where I parked my butt on the couch for the remainder of the night, snuggled up under a doona watching the Michael Jackson Memorial re-run (HOW GOOD WAS IT!! OK so I was a sook most of the way through, I loved MJ!!) and eating the chicken soup my lovely mum brought over. Did I ever mention how lucky I am to have such a bloody awesome mum!!

I woke up feeling pretty good this morning so thought I would go for a pre-brekkie walk. Not my smartest moment. 10min in and my nose was dripping, my eyes were watery and felt like exploding and it started feeling like there was a flame in my oesophagus (is that even how you spell it??). I hate being sick during prep but I hate the thought of missing training more...but I don't think I would be able to lift very much up today...not feeling very strong at the moment. So looks like it's back to bed and more chicken soup for me. Out of mum's though so will have to make a pot myself :( God I'm a whingey sod when I'm sick lol.

Just throwing it out there - Is it just me or does everyone feel like you have to train no matter what during comp prep?? I actually feel guilty for missing training...!

Anyway I noticed something during my walk this morning, DOMS from yesterday's training has taken hold, but only in my glutes ATM...I tell you this because I did exactly the same workout as I did last Wednesday, and even though I got DOMS in my glutes last week, it hit my Quads (in a bloody massive way) first then glutes almost a whole day later...quads are fine today though? Hmm strange...

OK I am ranting mindlessly now so I will be off...back to beddie byes for me...

Oh and in case I don't get another post in between now and the weekend - GOOD LUCK to all the girls doing the All Females - go kick some ass!! And enjoy the post comp meal ;)

God Bless the Carbs!!

After having been diagnosed last week with low blood sugar, I have re-introduced more carbs into my diet. I was a little worried at first to be honest, not sure why though as I have always eaten them while dieting except this year. Wanna know what happened? I started leaning out again and not feeling so water-logged. I am feeling leaner and less moody - and the frequency of dizzy spells is lessening.

Yep, it's confirmed. I am one of those people whose body loves carbs. I work better on them, I train better on them, and it appears I diet better on them. Probably something to do with the Italian background and having grown up eating carbs as a major staple (loads of pasta, bread, polenta my entire life), so it makes sense that my body digests them well! Who woulda thought. That'll learn me to stop listening to a million other people cos what is right for them isn't necessarily right for me.

In other news, training is going really well, I continually seem to be happy with the training front. I push myself every day. I do my weights and twice daily cardio sessions, 6 days a week. I don't under train and I have stopped over training. I push myself every session with the weights. I listen to my body with the cardio - if it feels like I need to do lower intensity stuff I do, but still with enough intensity to bother. The diet is also going awesome since I upped the carbs. I'm not hungry, and I have not had one sweet craving - not ONE!! (amazing for me, i have the world's biggest sweet tooth!!)

So all is well now with comp prep, it feels like it is all finally coming together. Now just gotta get my personal/work life sorted and will be happy as a pig in shit (thanks Tara - "borrowed" your line!!)

Question for the Brissie Chickies

Hey all,

I have a quick question for you Brissie chickees (or even those who aren't Brissy chickees but know lots of peeps up there), one of my old Sydney colleagues has a client who has decided to train towards competing in Figure however my old workmate has never had to train anyone for contest before and hasn't the slightest clue how to do so.

She has asked me if I know any PT's up there who specialise in competition training... Now I know that there are a few of you out there who PT but am not 100% sure exactly who does contest prep clients. Can any of you point me in the right direction (or put your hand up if it's you!!) of a good contest coach?

Thanking you in advance!

Vic xx

PS - my bloody legs are screaming expletives at me today...limited training time yesterday meant lots of heavy supersetting!! F#&%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I SURVIVED IT!!

I am sooo thrilled to say...I survived my bestie's Hen's weekend without any major slip ups!!!

I wasn't sure how I was going to manage, given the Hen's extravaganza started Friday night and finished this morning (Sunday) and we had a day at the races followed by lots of quality time in a bar afterwards planned...but the only non-diet thing I managed to indulge in is one vodka with diet coke. One. The only other beverage I consumed was water and coffee and despite eating probably larger quantities than I would normally of things like celery and carrot sticks and nuts, I didn't actually eat any of the other goodies (tempting as things like choccies, chips, cheese, profiteroles, hot dogs, crackers etc were). So I am pretty wrapt.

I even managed to get a 45min walk in both mornings while the other bridesmaids and bride-to-be slept in :)

So aside from the food we had a fabulous weekend. The races were lots of fun, my bestie was suitably drunk by, hmm, 12.30pm yesterday and then wondering why the bouncer wouldnt let her into the bar when we got back to the hotel. Might have been the "I shwear...I'm sooooo shober itsh not funny. D'ya want me to walkkkkkkkkk a shtrait liiiiiiiine? Cozzzzzzzzzz I soooooo can! You HAVE to lemmein! Itsh myyyy hensh pardy!! The gearlzzzzzzzzzzz are all meedin me HERE!!!" We then dragged the "shober" hen up to our room to shober up a little, where she proceeded to tell us all about how shober she really was and it was just the high heels making her walk funny. Eventually, after making shober hen eat a couple of bananas and drink a litre of water, we re-dressed her, put her hair in a ponytail, made sure she did NOT speak to security, and bingo! Got the shober hen through the door!! Lots of dancing later, and it was time for our fireman to arrive!! WOOT!! Now I actually happen to personally know the fireman-dressed sex God that we had along to our night (funny enough the Hen actually told me about 7 years ago when we booked a random stripper for a friend's Hen's night and this guy shows up, who I happen to know, my bestie ordered me there and then that if she ever got married HE was the stripper I HAD to get for her!! lol...how many bride-to-bes get to choose their own stripper!!)

So our Firie turns up to the hotel and I copped a few strange looks from the doormen when I gave him a kiss hello then led him to the lifts!! lol... Anyway Miss Hen was not exactly the blushing bride and spent more time posing for our cameras and telling Mr Fireman how he is the most 'Handsome' (??? is it normal to call a stripper 'handsome'??) man in the world than she did watching the show!! hehe

After that the night pretty well died down, everyone was pretty exhausted. We stayed up for a while and then our remaining guests slowly departed after a very long day.

I am now at home and probably the only chirpy guest from the weekends' festivities as I think I may have been the only sober person all day lol. Good fun though :) There were a few cringes this morning as I recalled some of yesterday's events for the girls who had a few blank memory patches!! lol

Now I just have the wedding to get through in 4 weeks!!

Anyway off to train legs now and get some cardio in :) So til next time, train hard and be good!

Vic x

We have a resolution :-)

Legs day today. I love legs, don't know if I have ever mentioned that. Funny that, though, cos I used to HATE training legs! But it's my fave day now. I almost threw up several times this morning during the session though - maybe cos I did them about an hour after teaching a Spin class? lol...was shaking like a leaf by the 3rd exercise!! Feel great now though.

I went off to the doc's today to get my blood test results from last week. The headspinning has been getting worse and starting earlier in the day....pretty much comes on a couple of hours after waking up (lucky I do my weights in the morning I tell you!) and stays all day. So it turns out that I have low blood sugar levels, and a Vitamin D deficiency. Dr told me I need to increase my carb intake which I can do as I am not really having that many carbs. I don't even know why I'm not having many...in the past I have always had carbs with the first 4 meals of the day but this season for some reason I have only been having oats for brekkie and some rice post-training - not enough for me. She has also told me I should carry jelly beans with me and eat them when I am feeling dizzy. I have stocked up on the chemist ones (you all know em, the REALLY juicy, yummy glucose ones!!) and have eaten quite a few of them tonight, to no avail. Unfortunately I still feel like I am going to collapse. Hopefully something will kick in soon. I have also been placed on a Vitamin D supplement so hopefully they too will help the situation. I have done some research and it turns out that Vit-D deficiency and low blood sugar have very similar symptoms... fatigue, dizziness, insomnia, confusion, difficulty with concentration etc... God no wonder I am really feeling it!! Maybe I just need a long vacation in the Bahamas lying on the beach, sipping cocktails - kill two birds with one stone!

So aside from the jelly bean consumption nutrition has been awesome, training has been awesome...life is good! The countdown is still continuing and i am onto my 3rd gold star...YAY!!

Day one down, 83 to go!

Well 83 to the first of the 5 comps that is!

Today turned out to be a ripper in terms of training and diet.

Woke up, went for a pre-brekkie 30min hilly walk; ate brekkie, went to the gym. Smashed through my delts / calves session and finished it off with 30min Spin (Monday morning is a cycle/THT class - half hour of each so just did the spin component). Worked all day and had all my food pre-prepared from last night so couldn't fail! WOOT. Finished work slightly later than scheduled, and spent 30min on the stepper before the gym shut.

Big gold star today. Just need to collect another 83 of those!!

Personal front was a bit of a let down today. I had kept it out of blogger land but I recently applied for a job down in Melbourne. I seriously thought I would make the shortlist as my application was pretty damn good (and thank you to a certain friend of mine who helped me finetune it - you know who you are x) but was disappointed to check my emails tonight to find one of those generic "thank you for your application but we already have a specific person in mind for the role and only advertised as a formality" replies in my inbox. I was already having a crummy day at the time so just made me, well, shitty quite frankly. I know this sounds stupid but I really, really had a good feeling about this job...and I really, REALLY want to move down to Melbourne too...I don't really write much about my personal, non-competing life on here but for a bit of a background I have a brother who lives down there. He moved there about 6 years ago, it was only ever gonna be a temporary move, but then he fell in love, got married, and has officially set up shop down there. It is only the two of us and I miss him terribly, as we are quite close. Anyway I absolutely adore Melbourne and the lifestyle down there, and have been contemplating a move down there for a few years...and more recently have wanted to make the move more and more. Anyway, the 'thanks but no thanks' email put me in a bit of a shitty mood tonight which sucked. Oh well onwards and upwards, gotta keep looking!

Well it's 12.20am and I gotta get up and train arms/abs tomorrow for Day 2 of 84... ;) so on that note I am off to beddy-byes!

Night all,

Vic x