Missing training :(

Still sick today. Woke up to my buzzing alarm clock, which was set at 5.30am for the 6.15am spin class I normally instruct on a Wednesday morning...but knew instantly I would not be taking said class. Razor blades in the throat and coughing up lurgies confirmed that one. Back to sleep til 8.30am for me and then transferred my butt to the couch.

Mum called me after brekkie to see how I was feeling and suggested I go there for the day as she has Wednesdays off work. I eventually hauled my sorry butt over there in my pyjamas (why is it that the one day I leave my house in my flannies, every neighbour possible, at both ends of the journey, are out in their front yards. Had a few odd looks thrown my way as I walked from my house to the car and from my car to mum's house in my hot pink flannies with polka dots (do you all have a nice image), hair a mess and looking very disoriented.

Hung out on mum's couch all day watching lots of the Ellen show (on Fox, then on normal tele) and sleeping.

I obviously didn't train today and I hate that, I know when you are sick your body needs the rest (and there is NO way I can train like this, I have zero strength) but I can't afford not to if I am gonna compete in 6.5 weeks... and to be honest I don't know if I am gonna compete. I am seriously tossing up the options at the moment. The INBA NSW is on in 6.5 weeks and I am thinking that I might just see how I am looking and decide closer to the time if I am going to do it. After giving it a lot of consideration, even if I do the show and qualify for the Olympia, I won't be doing it. Realistically I can't do it financially - as the NSW is only one week before the Nationals (and for NSW competitors a pre-requisite of doing Olympia is competing at the Nationals), I would have one week to organise and fund the trip to Melbourne, entry fee, tanning products etc, and then another 2 weeks to fund the trip to the Gold Coast, pay accommodation, more tanning gear, and the massive $100 USD entry fee they are charging on top of all that. Realistically I am not in a position at the moment to do all that. SO my options are see how I look closer to the NSW comp date, and/or just do the IFBB NSW/Aussies 5 weeks later - which gives me 11.5 weeks prep time from now. Which right now is more realistic. OR not compete this season - which appears to be what my body is telling me to do. It is fighting me every step of the way at the moment. Effectively I have been comp dieting for like 10 weeks already and haven't seen that much progress, and I have been sick a few times. SO big decisions to make at the moment.

Now would also probably be a good time to mention that the diet has been very 'how ya going' today...have eaten a bit off plan in terms of food weight/meal times, plus I also managed to down 2 rows of chocolate today :( BUT it's happened, it shouldn't have happened but it did (and could have gotten much worse, I was pretty tempted to hoe into the cafe style fruit loaf in my freezer tonight and/or the jar of nutella in the pantry) and the best thing I can do is acknowledge that I ate stuff I shouldn't have and move on. So that's what I am doing.

I am hoping I wake up feeling better tomorrow, really want to get back into training BUT I will restrain myself if I am not well enough. It is meant to be legs day so need the proper energy to do that one. Wait and see how I feel in the morning.

Anyway better get this body off to bed for some MORE rest.

Vic x

Back on the Chicken Soup

I *should* be writing my 100 day challenge update but to be honest with you (and me) I have been pretty slack in this department. I have not been doing anything to earn extra skinny bones, nor do I have any idea how many bones I actually have? Or what day I am even up to? Bad form, I know. My challenges are going *OK*. I say OK because I have been spot on with water consumption and with the training rest/new split program but sleep has been a bit of a write off. I had 4 hours Friday night, 7 hours Saturday night, can't even remember Sunday night, and under 5 hours last night. Not great, I know. But it's the truth.

I am feeling a little crappy today as woke up with a bit of a sore throat. It wasn't too bad at all this morning, just a little 'how ya going' so went and did my back workout. I only squeezed 20min on the stepper in after my weights session as I had to get home to meet a PT client for outdoor training, and figured I would just make up for it tonight by doing extra cardio. Didn't happen. I turned up to start work at 12pm and the aircon did me no favours. I left work at 4pm with the pain having spread to my ears, stingy/itchy eyes and body aches and pains. I have since been on the couch and have had a home delivery of mum's famous chicken soup, which I have eaten about a litre worth of. Feels like I now have razorblades in my throat and I am dreading the thought of teaching my 6.15am spin class tomorrow morning. But at the same time I hate missing cardio. I am less than 7 weeks out and am not in a position where I can afford to have time off training so it's really bugging me. I just hope I miraculously wake up feeling awesome in the morning...but to be honest it's not looking good...

In other news...hmmm there isn't much!! lol... On that note I think I might chuck a dvd on and crash out on the couch. What is it about falling asleep on the couch when you feel sick?? Or is that just me?

Weekend wrap up

So if I learned one thing over the weekend...it's that I soooooo need to stop leaving shit to the last minute. I am such a crammer. Always have been and unfortunately most likely always will be. Following last blog post, exhausted as I was, I decided I would wrap Meegan's wedding gift, because as it was I had to be at her place at 7am and still had a gazillion things to get done. So waking up even earlier than I already had to was not going to be fun in my books. LUCKY I had this thought. The gift (I should say gifts, there were 3 separate boxes) took more wrapping paper than required. Probably because gift number one was a massive, mutant sized clock on steroids. I swear this thing is sooo huge it literally took 4 entire sheets of wrapping paper. Which was a bit of a shit, seeing as I had only picked up four sheets of wrapping paper. And not only did I run out of wrapping paper - I also ran out of sticky tape before finishing with the intricate clock-wrapping procedure. As you do. So I couldn't finish the wrapping off even if I had more paper. Anyway by the time this took place and I got myself showered and food all prepped for the wedding day, I didn't toddle off to bed til 1.30am. And my wake up time had gone from 6.30am to 5.30am as I now needed to get my ass to Coles at opening time to get some more paper and finish the wrapping procedure before presenting for hair and make up duty.
As it turned out, mission failed. Coles had no more of the paper I had picked up only the night before (yes I had even left the purchase of said paper to the last minute, and the Newsagency had closed by the time I turned up to buy wrapping paper on Friday night). Clearly I was so tired during the purchase that I didn't notice I had taken the last few sheets. So now not only was I in a mega rush, but I was going to have oddly matching paper. Meh, whatever. It was only gonna get ripped off the present anyway (lol as it turns out, when I told Meegan the reason for the oddly matching paper she laughed and told me I should have just wrapped it in newspaper. Gotta love her!! hehe) Anyway I managed to wrap the pressies with no further kafuffles (spelling?) and despite it looking like the biggest rush job in the world (it was), Meegan literally tore the paper off in 12 nano seconds that morning!
The day went so smoothly, not one drama at all. Meegan made an absolutely stunning bride (and I am not being biased, that's the honest truth!) and was the happiest bride I have ever seen...to the point where in the church service, after the 'pronounce you man and wife, kiss the bride' bit, she started jumping up and down on the spot, like a kid who just got their shiny new bike for Christmas! It was gorgeous...I have never seen her so happy. And the look in Ben's eyes as he looked at her was just priceless.
I did pretty good with the food thing. During the getting ready bit (hair, makeup etc) the girls ate brekkie (toast etc) and Meegan had organised a platter of chocolate-dipped strawberries, which looked divine and sooo juicy...but I resisted temptation (just!!) I had taken along some protein apple and cinnamon muffins that I had made for brekkie and then for lunch I ate my tuna with steamed greens while the girls nibbled on Subway sandwiches that Meegan's mum went and picked up. I planned to have my cheat in the evening and I did. I had about a glass and a half of champers during the afternoon, ate the dinner (which they had given me without sauces) and had a piece of their wedding cake and a couple of little chocolates that came out with coffee. That was pretty much it, nothing too extravagant.
Sunday was spent training, then having lunch at Mum's with the Melbournites and my grandmother and an uncle. My sister-in-law flew back to Melbourne in the late afternoon as she had to go back to work today but my brother is staying til tomorrow night, so had a scheduled hang out with him. We were both too exhausted to go anywhere so we just ordered a movie on Foxtel and had dinner and watched that.
OK I have just realised how much I have written so I better jet before putting anyone to sleep lol. I will post some of the wedding pics later tonight or tomorrow some time.
Til next time...train hard and be good.
Vic x

Tim Tams won't get me back in the Jeans

My week has finished off ok. Following my shitty news on Wednesday arvo, I seem to have gotten on with it (not really any other choice...am still disappointed, but hey - what do you do!?!)

Did a good legs session yesterday, despite not feeling crash hot. Ended up being one of those vomit-worthy ones, heavy weights and lower reps. Didn't quite need the spew bucket but came close on several occasions. Wrapped that up with a 50min cardio session. Had a good afternoon at work and then toddled off to my parents' place after I finished as hadn't got my 2nd cardio session in so figured would just go use their elliptical. Did 30mins on it, which felt like 90mins...their elliptical is a really strong resistance machine - even on level 1 it's difficult! Finished it up just as dad was getting back from the airport, he'd gone to pick my brother and sister-in-law up as they have come up for my bestie's wedding this weekend. We stayed up chatting for a while and I have to confess something that rather strangely ran through my mind:

what if I don't compete this year? What if I just decide to pull the pin tonight and join in with the Tim Tam eating and just have a little piece of dark chocolate with almonds with Dad? Would it kill me to pull the plug? Am I going to make it in time anyway, am I going to be lean enough even if I don't pull the pin?

I got through the temptation and stayed on track somehow. It scares me though because I have never thought like this before. Yes I have been tempted but I have never really panicked about not being ready (aside from during comp week when I am so carb depleted and flat that to me I look like an elephant despite being at my leanest). But I pulled through the negative thoughts and stuck to my coffee, before coming home to get my 7 hours shut-eye in. Up bright and early this morning and decided to do the jeans test. I went to put on my fave jeans one night about 8 weeks ago and had a massive panic attack when I couldn't get them on. I tried to put them on again a few weeks ago, still no luck, not even past the thighs. This morning...they got on. Tight but on. AND they did up. So today was a good day after last night's little headfuck. Probably lucky they fit because it meant I had a good day - which was needed as it's been go-go-go ALL day today!! 6am pre-brekkie cardio, then home to have brekkie and prep meals for the day, showered and went to work, finished work and trained chest/tris/abs and some more cardio, off to my parents' for dad's birthday dinner, then to Meegan's for night-before-the-wedding-girly-catchup...now home to get myself organised for tomorrow. I have to be back at Meegan's at 7am for hair and makeup...ahhh the fun of Maid Of Honour duties ;)

SO in saying that...I have to seek permission to use a SKINNY BONE as my 7 hours bed time tonight isn't gonna happen (still have to wrap a rather large pressie and finish making my meals for the day...yep gotta love being on comp diet during your best mate's wedding!! saving my weekly cheat meal for tomorrow night)

Water was fantastic yesterday...in saying that I have 500ml to get thru before bed tonight to make my minimum 3L.

Will be back on the ball Sunday though. Will be going to World Gym to train legs and get cardio done and dusted before posing class. My sister-in-law flies back to Melbourne Sunday afternoon as she has to go to work Monday but my brother is staying til Tuesday night so we have scheduled some hang-out time, which will be lovely...I can't remember the last time we got to hang out, just the 2 of us. I am really looking forward to it.

Anyway enough from me tonight, I really should get my ass into gear and get some sleep - massive day tomorrow! Stay tuned for pics :)

Til next time, train hard and be good :)

Vic x

Day 98 report

I started a blogpost last night but was sooo tired I was (literally) falling asleep finishing it off. And I have decided to start it completely from scratch today cos I recall it was a bit 'blah', which is what my day was like yesterday.

My day yesterday started with teaching Spin class. It was a bit of a struggle to get myself ready and go as it was bloody freezing at 5.45am yesterday morning. I took myself off to work and well, the members obviously had the same thought as me (although in their favour was that they didn't actually have to turn up for employment purposes) and the gym was DEAD. No shit. There was ONE person in my class. Not very motivating. But I figured we should make the most of it and used the class as a massive hardcore interval training session - the poor girl who made the effort of being there (she is one of my regulars) looked pretty nauseas by track 4!! lol poor thing.

Seeing it was my new 'No Weights Wednesday', after Spin and then brekkie, I toddled off to the shops to purchase a wedding gift for Meegan's wedding this weekend, and to have my nails done. I pulled my acrylic nails off last Christmas after having them on for a few years and I forgot how nice they look. I haven't really had anything nice done for myself in so long due to $$ and now twice in 2 weeks I have done what these days I see as treating myself (when I worked in the corporate world I didn't think twice about spending money, I never had to...these days I have to think and rethink every spending decision I make, which is hard to get used to) in having my hair done last week and now my nails. It feels nice to do things for yourself every now and again when you have grown accostomed to living without the extras...so I have decided that part of my 100 day challenge is to do something nice for myself during every phase (10 days). Doesn't have to be something over the top - just treating myself or having 'me' time.

I got some disappointing news while at work last night and it put a dampener on my whole night. For regular readers you will know that a couple of weeks back I was waiting on some news and being very mysterious about it. Basically I was all but promised a contract position down in Melbourne, I was just waiting on it to be signed off...when I was approached it was pretty much a certainty that if I wanted it, it would happen...I was pretty excited about it as I have been wanting to move down there for a while and this would have been a taster of Melbourne life for a short term to see if I really did like living there. Unfortunately in the meantime, some glitches arose...and yesterday I found out they are no longer in need of the contractor position. So am a bit upset about that...but I'll get over it I suppose.

My challenge is going pretty well, I only just made the 7 hour bedtime cutoff last night but feeling pretty tired. I don't start work til 1pm today though so there's a good chance there will be a nanna nap thrown into my day today. Cardio only yesterday and I struggled to get into my night cardio - I didn't get my second session in before work yesterday which meant doing it at 9.30pm last night...by which time I am so exhausted I just want to crash. But I managed. I also nearly gave into temptation at work (after the bad news phonecall) and had a Roses chocolate...had it sitting in my hand for about 10mins deciding whether to eat it...and then it occurred to me "would the other girls be eating Roses chocolates?" No, I daresay they would NOT! So back in the box it went.

Water intake was good yesterday too so that's a positive.

OK better get off here so I can go train legs. YAY. My favourite day...unfortunately I am not in a real enthusiastic mood and would rather stay on the couch. BUT I know I can't afford to do that at this stage of the game. So off to the gym for me.

Til next time, train hard and be good.

Vic x

Lovin day 98

Had a great day today. Day 98 and smashed it.

Woke up this morning to the banana and raspberry oat muffins I made yesterday, dying to try them out. OMG they were bloody delicious. Seriously, I will be making those again, in large quantities ;) Well maybe in large quantities after comp season to negate temptation!! That being the case, I think there may be some room for peanut butter and/or nutella swirls in them. Hmmm....sorry...got off track there. Diet brain.

Took myself off to the gym after brekkie for back and abs day. I managed an entire back workout (5 different exercises) using nothing but the cables. I love unconventional exercises, and try to steer away from the 'norm' every now and again - I find this alleviates any risk of boredom, and also stops my body getting used to doing the same stuff over and over. Lucky the gym wasn't busy cos I probably wouldn't have been very popular hogging the entire cable setup for the 45min duration of my back session! After training I breezed through 40min cardio - for once it wasn't such a mental battle to stick it out. Love days like that.

Came home and made more 'muffins' (the savoury ones) for afternoon tea to take to work. My co workers are actually getting jealous of the diet food I am eating and today asked me for recipies for my new muffins, and also the omelettes I normally bring in. Who woulda thought that my "boring" (in inverted commas as I don't find it boring, strangely enough...I actually like this stuff!) comp food could actually seem tasty to others who are free to eat chocolate to their hearts content!!

Worked til 8pm and then finished with another 40mins on the stepper - interval training. Which has left me bloody ravished. Since coming home I have downed my usual 4 pre-bed eggwhites, plus about 300g veggies. And I am still STARVING!! Gonna hit the sack soon - firstly so that I get to keep all my SKINNY BONES by getting enough rest, but also so that I don't have to listen to my tummy any longer :)

Water was no problem at all today - I have downed at least 4.5L and I am gonna have myself another glass before bed (smart, I know given that is a guaranteed pee-stop during the night but hey what the hell - I also just had a coffee so will be getting up regardless!) Did I ever mention how cool (?? is that the right word??) I think it is that we can talk about toilet stuff on here and noone gets funny about it - in fact I think it's more likely that when we read about the toilet habits of others, we are sitting there nodding knowingly!?! Random.

Tomorrow morning is an early wake up to teach my Spin class, so I have 10min to get my butt to bed to make my 7 hours of rest time. Mmm post Spin oats... AND according to my new training schedule...it's also weights free day...so just Spin first thing then probably go for a walk before I start work at 1pm. I am actually looking forward to the rest.

OK on that note it's sign off time for me. Til next time...you know the drill...

Vic x

Day 99 with Betty Crocker

I can't believe I went an entire blog post without mentioning the 100 Day challenge I have embarked on! For those of you who aren't aware, KatieP has set up a 100 Day Challenge, where those who have entered set their own goals to achieve in 100 Days. I set myself the following goals:

• Drink min 3L water a day.
• Get some rest. Go to bed MINIMUM 7 hours before wake up time, even if I don't fall asleep straight away.
• One full day off training a week.

We are counting backwards, so yesterday (start day) was Day 100, today is day 99. I am proud to report the following:

• Water - TICK (both days)
• Rest - TICK for last night and as I will be hitting the sack right after this post, TICK for tonight
• Day off training - see my last post - I have re-jigged my training schedule to give myself Saturdays completely off any structured training (and Steph, no dramas - feel free to borrow the schedule hon!!)

SO Day 99 and on track. YAY!!

So - the Betty Crocker thing. Miss Vic got a lil creative today in the kitchen. I decided that I was over having the same eggwhite omelette every arvo for afternoon tea. So I made them into little muffins instead. I did the following:

4 egg whites, 1 egg

heaped teaspoon baking powder

spinach, mushrooms, tomato

teaspoon flax meal

I beat the eggs, baking powder and meal, then added the vegies. Poured them evenly into muffin tray (lightly sprayed).

At the same time, I made tomorrows brekkie - DYING to see how they taste:

6 egg whites

1 heaped teaspoon banana protein powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

30g rolled oats

30g chopped banana pieces

30g raspberries

Pour into lightly sprayed muffin molds.

I then put them all in oven, preheated to 180 degrees and cooked til firm (about 20min)

I was hoping for the best with these, not sure if they would work...BUT THEY DID!! The afternoon tea ones were sooo yum. OK so they are the same stuff I woulda been eating anyway but cooked differently...psychologically made a difference!! haha

As for tomorrows' ones...OMG they look and smell DIVINE. I can't wait to go to bed just so I can wake up for them!

OH...and before I go...training today (new split program) was AWESOME ;) Shoulders and biceps. GREAT workout, followed by 40min on the stepper, on the random setting. Tonight after work pumped out another 40min on the stepper, again on random, different intervals than this morning though. Tomorrow...BACK DAY!! Might throw in a stairs session for cardio...gotta love those stairs ;)

OK bedtime for this little black duck, gotta get my 7 hours of bed time...and wake up to some delish brekkie treats.

Til next time..train hard and be good.

Vic x