What, more food??

OMG. I can't believe Christmas day was 3 days ago and I still feel like I haven't stopped eating!!
Christmas day started early for me. I got up and went to church early, then to my parents' place for the pressie thing. I had already had brekkie so I toddled off home while they had friends over for breakfast, and got myself ready for lunch.
We are very close with all our extended family, and so spend Chrissie day seeing EVERYONE. Lunch was at an Italian club with mum's side - my grandmother, uncles and aunts, cousins, and now children of some of my cousins. There are a LOT of us!! Anyway there was an overabundance of food - all delish - but I decided this year not to go overboard. So I had a little bit of the stuff I really wanted to try, and that's it. It had to be the first Christmas lunch that I remember where I haven't eaten so much that I feel 'uncomfortable' full, to the point that I feel sick just thinking about dinner!
Speaking of dinner, Christmas night was spent at my dad's sister's place with my aunt, uncle, 4 cousins + spouses, and the combined 10 children they have. More food. My aunty home makes EVERYTHING and is a killer cook so it's very hard to resist pretty much anything she makes! Again though I tried to have a little of everything I wanted, including dessert. I was even fairly restrained in the trifle eating dept....Trifle is one of my fave Christmas things...this year I had a fairly small serving...compared to my whopping 3 (yes, THREE) massive bowls of it last year, I think I did ok ;)
Boxing day we were invited to a family friends' house. These are my parents' friends, however their kids are mine and my brother's ages, and we all grew up together (we even called them Aunty and Uncle). Again there was an overabundance of food...so I tried to eat in moderation. I was really looking forward to the Toblerone ice cream my Aunty had made in lieu of her normal, fabulous Cassata...however I had gone there with my brother and sister-in-law, who chose the moment dessert was being brought out, to leave. So (probably not a bad thing) I didn't get to try it after all!
Yesterday was MORE festivities. We had a bbq at my parents' place with the extended family for my grandmother's 90th birthday. She is in a nursing home as she suffers extreme dimentia, so we brought her out for the day. She actually, for the first time in about 3 years, had a couple of lucid moments! She seemed to enjoy the day (even though she had no idea who any of us were) and even ate 4 helpings of her cake! Some of the oldies (read: my dad, aunty etc) kept telling us not to give her any more cake. My theory is - the woman is bloody 90 years old. If she want to eat cake, bloody let her! I tell you, if I am lucky enough to make it to 90, there is no way anyone is telling me I can't eat as much as I like of ANYTHING!! Hell, I recall my grandfather's 90th...his birthday was New Years day and we had a surprise party for him on the NYE that year. At 1am when even some of us youngies were getting tired, he was asking us grandkids to go get him another beer!!
Anyway so yesterday involved MORE food. I had leftovers for dinner and honestly, it's the first time during this festive period that I felt a bit sick from eating. I ended up going for a walk after dinner to try and settle the tummy a bit, which was good, til I got a stitch about 20min into the walk!

I have managed to keep up the training throughout, which has made me feel more sane I think. With the exception of Christmas day, which I just used as my rest day for the week, I have trained right through. Saturday I went to one of the local gyms I used to work at as I knew they were open and did chest/shoulders + 45 mins cardio, then yesterday I did legs + 30min cardio in the morning then a half hour hilly walk last night. This morning it is off to the gym for back + cardio....and have a birthday to go to this afternoon, just in case I haven't had enough on lately!

Anyway...enough about me for the day...off to do a few groceries before the gym opens.

I hope you are all having a fabulous festive season and being safe. Eat, drink and be merry...'tis the season after all ;)

Vic x

WOW....how long??

WOW...I can't believe it's been 2 whole weeks since I posted. Lazy shit!! hehe

So...two weeks wrap up (promise it won't be too long!!) The first of those weeks was spent (recovering from a massive weekend)...preparing for having the week off training last week while in Melbourne. I can honestly, hand on heart, say I made the right choice in having last week off. While I gave everything I could in my training sessions, by the last half of that week I was lacking strength and my muscles were screaming for the break. I struggled with weights I normally have no trouble with. What I lacked in weight training sessions I tried to make up for in cardio. I was craving sugar no end and had a bit of a mid week pig out on ice cream (damned sugar fairy...slap that biatch right out lol).
SO...on to better stuff.
Last Saturday I spent the better part of the day working at a supplement store who were having an open day. I had a table set up for taste testing the new Max's choc-banana shake (if you haven't tried it...I recommend it, tastes like banana paddle pops! It rocks!) and their bars and cookies. Was lots of fun, Ray the owner had DJs there and had a free sausage sizzle going etc...was like a little party out the front of his shop. Anyway I pretty much went from there, straight home to be picked up and taken to the airport by my dad. Boarded the plane to Melbourne, only to find I was sitting in a window seat, trapped in by miss 3-going-on-30 year old, and on the other side of her was her mum with a 1 year old on her lap. Wonderful....kids generally aren't renowned for being the calmest flyers in the world, and lets just say my headphones got a workout!! lol
That night me and my brother went to a bar in the city called the Carlton, where one of his soccer mates was having a farewell party as he was moving back to NZ. It is an awesome venue (apart fom walking up 4000 stairs to get in) and there are a few rooftop areas, each with their own bar. We were situated at one of these - it was an awesome place! Met some pretty cool people there and had a good night out. The rest of the week in Melbourne was a blur of catching up with friends and family. There were a few lunches, brunches, dinners, coffees and even a gelato session in St Kilda thrown in. Was great to catch up with everyone.
Training was a non event the entire week (weight training that is). I did not pick up one dumbell, nor did I desire to. It's probably the first time ever that I have not struggled without training. I did do some cardio every day though and finished the week of with a smashing HIIT and plyo's session on Friday when I was back in Sydney.

Nutrition while I was away wasn't strict. I ate as well as I could most of the time but did make a few exceptions. I wasn't anal about dieting, and didn't want to spend the week living out of Tupperware containers while on holidays, nor did I want to have to weigh food and not eat with my brother and sister-in-law while we were home together, so I ate whatever was on the menu. I was a little worried about weigh in yesterday but I didn't put on any weight at all, turns out.

I am off to see Mike this morning to work out my plan for comp season 2010!! I am so excited!! I should also be getting back into the weights today too, will go by what Mike recommends on that one (whether I get back into it today or have a full 2 weeks off). BUT as you would have seen on Tara's blog...IFBB Australasians have been set for the 18 April 2010, which is my next comp...which is 17 weeks today...and 4 weeks after I initially thought they would be, which is fantastic. I am sitting at a good place weight wise, so as long as I don't blow it over Christmas/New year I should be fine to go into full on prep in the new year at say 14 weeks out.

Anyway on that note, I think I have ranted enough. Will update soon (not in 2 weeks), promise!!

Vic x

Dog of a night

I can't believe I wrote an epic blogpost about my weekend...and forgot to tell you the funniest bit!

So on Saturday night, we were heading in the car to go to my cousin Laura's engagement party. Now, as I mentioned in the last post, I was staying at my cousin Leah's place that night (in order to down some champers to toast the bride to be - felt it was my duty as a good cousin). Now as some of you know, I have two pet pomeranians. Felix, my 'little man', who is a toy pom and very quiet, shy, and well behaved; and Trixie...an entity unto herself! Trixie is 6kg (rather decent size for a pom) while Felix is a mere 2kg on a fat day...so you can guess who wears the pants. Not to mention Trixie has epilepsy, and canine ADHD (no I am not joking - this has actually been diagnosed). Now for those who don't know much about dogs, canine epilepsy is rather like human epilepsy. Sufferers have seizures. Some are lucky enough to have them very infrequently, requiring no regular medication. Others, like Trixie, require to be treated by regular medication. Trixie has to have tablets morning and night time, and if she misses a dose, she generally has a fit. The medication for epilepsy is basically a barbiturate - you know, same family of drugs as things such as morphine etc...which under normal circumstances make one drowsy...unless you have ADHD, of course. When you have ADHD, the opposite tends to happen. And ADHD meds interfere with the epileptic treatment...so basically I have one fricken crazy dog! But she is very funny...big personality!

Anyway back to the story.

So I am going to be away overnight, which means the puppies have to go to Grandma's house (my parents' place) for a sleep over with their cousins (yes I know that technically doesn't work but I'm telling the story here!) This is so that Trix gets her meds at night and again in the morning.
Anyway back to the car trip.

There we are in the car having a roadie* when I get a call from my mum. Conversation:

Mum: "How stupid do you think your mother could possibly be?"
Me: "Um...." (never know what to say in times like this...is it a rhetorical question? Is she trying to trick me?) "what have you done??"
Mum: "Well, I was standing at the sink getting Trixie's tablet out. I had just poured myself a glass of water. So I walk outside and go to give her the tablet...and realise I'm no longer holding it..."
Me: imagining where this is going, trying really hard not to laugh...
Mum: "and then I realise that I have swallowed her tablet..."
Me: REALLY trying hard not to laugh
silence
Me: - bursts out laughing - "THAT IS FUCKING GOLD!!!"

Anyway she called Poisons Information who told her not to drink alcohol and make sure someone checked on her through the night to make sure she was still breathing...my take on it was that Trixie is like 6kg...if she can handle a barbiturate and be bouncing off the walls, mum was going to be fine.

Needless to say she was the butt of a lot of dog related jokes that night at dinner...

*this bit might have been slightly embellished for the sake of the story...

BIG weekend

WOW! What an insane weekend. This weekend was the first weekend in who knows how long that I actually had the entire weekend off work - and believe me, I couldn't have crammed any more into it if I tried!
It started on Friday with our member's Christmas party. It was at the local pub and started about 6pm. Took a while for the momentum to pick up but when it did (or when I'd had so many drinks I didn't notice any different?) it got fun. The vodka masked the back pain, which was fabulous. A few old friends happened to be at the pub (might have been coincidentally, or maybe me dropping the old "we'll be up the pub, you should come up!" line) and I even bumped into my old boyfriend from high school (THAT was def a coincidence, I haven't seen this guy in about 10 years), who was having his Christmas party there too. Anyway waaaaay too many drinks later, and the pub closed around us!! lol Was a fun night, ended well (apart from one of the members being very persistant in trying to kiss me???) and was a good night.
Saturday I woke up feeling pretty nasty (might have had something to do with the 3 hours sleep that followed eleventy-eight-thousand vodkas) but had to get to work. I had offered on Friday to cover reception for an hour starting at 8.30am (stupid me) while the receptionist taught Pump, as the instructor couldn't come in. The normally 10 min walk to work (my car had a sleepover at the pub) took me about half an hour...such was the daze I was in. PLUS I was getting my normal post-alcohol leg cramps...OUCH!! So did the hour fuelled on a massive coffee, then managed 20min on the bike (that was all I could do!!) and was going to go home for recovery...BUT...instead had my arm twisted into going to the races with my old workmates!! I'm a shocker, I know. I drove to the races though so it was pepsi max for me, and despite the nachos looking very tempting I figured all the pizza, party pies and ice cream (when I got home, of course that's what I ate - isnt' that what EVERYONE eats at 3am??) I stuck to a roast beef baguette. From there it was to my cousin Leah's place as we were going to another cousin's engagement party, and I was staying at Leah's after it. So Mark (Leah's hubby) did the honours of being DD for the night...and me, Leah and her lil sister Renee got stuck into the champers. It was a great night but I had wayyyy too much of the good stuff (once again!)
After a little sleep in yesterday morning, we woke up to the smell of freshly baking bread. Mmmm.... Mark runs his own catering business "as a hobby" and loves to cook (where the hell do I find me one of these?). So brekkie was freshly baked herbed bread, hot out of the oven, spread with ricotta and topped with tomato... and fresh fruit. YUM!! After that I took myself out to Penrith as I had some friends competing in some Crossfit games that were out there. It was awesome to watch!! Those guys and girls are bloody machines. Anyway spent the day there, and my friend Sheree (she is a machine...just keeps going...eg her hands were torn to shreds after the first round and she just soldiered on) took out 3rd overall in the females! It was her first games too :)
While I was in the area figured I would pop into World Gym and squeeze in a legs session. Unorthodox legs day saw me do 12 sets, 20 reps. Sounds easy. It's not. By set 6 my legs were shaking uncontrollably...but didn't stop me...last 3 sets I did a PB in weight for reps! I was stoked. Finished up with half hour on the bike. Also went for a half hour hilly power walk in the evening...obviously had the guilts from the weekends overindulgences! hehe oh well only live once and the diet starts again in 2 weeks so may as well live it up!
OK I think that's it for now. I have a back session to get to at the gym.
So, til next time...train hard and be good.
Vic
PS - I think I know the cure to arthritic pain....big weekend - it's feeling great today!!

No title cos I can't think of one??

Morning all.


Gosh these posts are getting few and far between, seems I always have other stuff to get done! Gee, imagine that - I actually have a life when off season!! hehe


I managed to crawl my way through Sunday, hungover as anything, but I survived. After work I even managed 20 sorry mins on the bike without puking...then off to the shops to pick up a little pressie for my friend Rachael's new baby Chelsea (who was born that morning). I went to see them at the hospital, and my hangover melted away!! She is so tiny, so gorgeous. She was born a lil early (due Christmas day so almost a month) and would have to have been born to the easiest labour I have ever heard of...so much so that Rachael was apparently in labour for 2 days and didn't know it!! Didn't feel the contractions or anything!! Now THAT'S how I want it to be if I ever have kids!! lol


Anyway she is just gorgeous and I can't wait to go visit again tonight after work :)


So onto my week.


On Sunday my back was playing up a little. For those who aren't aware, I have osteo-arthritis in 3 places in my spine. It flares up every now and again. I figured it had flared up due to the alcohol consumption on Saturday night (as alcohol can do shit like that). Monday morning it felt ok so I went and trained back & biceps. By Monday night it was quite sore again. Tuesday woke up feeling ok again, so did a MASSIVE delts session. By Tuesday afternoon I was in a world of pain. Yesterday (Wednesday) I could barely walk by the afternoon and today it's no better. So I have a Dr appt this morning to attend to and I will be off to get some x-rays done on it. I haven't had a follow up x-ray since the diagnosis ones in Feburary last year so I have no idea if it has progressed any....my guess, by the way it feels...is that it may have :(





For those who don't know much about osteo arthritis, it's where the cartlidge in between the bones (which tends to give them smooth edges) wears away, so that it's not a smooth surface any longer, instead they are covered in bony spurs. The cartlidge in the case of the spine also protects the discs in the back, so the bones tend to compress them. Let me just say - when it plays up, it's pretty fucking painful. Like now. I have been dosed up on meds for most of this week (I normally try to steer clear of too much meds but this week there's not much choice) but honestly they aren't doing much to curb it. Oh well - grin and bear it I guess for now til I know more.

Hmm enough whinging. So I have my work (member's) Christmas party tomorrow evening, at our local pub. I actually am really looking forward to it (although I think someone either needs to make sure there is no drink mixing...and no drunk texting!! lol) and Saturday night I have my cousin's engagement party. Sunday I am off to watch some friends in a regional Crossfit Games day, which should be good fun. I haven't actually watched a competition, just watched them training a lot, so can't wait to see them in action! So busy weekend ahead...and off to Melbourne the following weekend!! I can't wait!

Anyway think that's about it. I am sure you will get a post weekend update on my silly drunken antics...hmmm wonder which souls I will be enlightening with my intoxicated knowledge this weekend lol

Til next time, train hard (cos I can't) and be good.
Vic x

Me and my mate Jack...

OH. MY. GOD.
I completely forgot how bad it feels to be at work after a night on the grog. Seriously.
So I swapped my normal Saturday shift at work with my mate Rox, who does Sundays normally, and toddled off to a bbq yesterday. My friend Andrea, who was coming along to my posing classes, is moving to the Gold Coast next month, and decided to throw a farewell/Christmas bbq at her place. Now I should have predicted the messiness that came along with said bbq, when I told her I possibly wouldnt be there til 5 if I couldn't switch my work shifts (bbq was starting at 12). She replied that would be fine as several ppl were planning on staying the night so they could have a few drinks.
So I got there at about 2pm, and took a mere 4 voddie cruisers with me. Figured I would go the lightweight drinks, and only a few of them, as I had driven there. WRONG. I was promptly (think it took a whole 3 mins after arriving) talked into calling my mother and asking her to pop over to my place in the evening to feed my dogs and give Trixie her meds in case I didn't make it home.
Enter the following:

YEP. Black sambuca shots. Actually, that's slightly inaccurate. Double shots would be a better description.
Well we ran out of black sambuca pretty quickly, so we found a designated driver, and off to the local IGA to restock on the grog.
We got back to the bbq, and resumed the shots.

I was alternating drinking a bottle of cruiser with double sambuca shots...and when the cruisers ran out (didn't take long, those things literally disappear in 2 gulps!) I moved onto:

Now, let me just say for the record (I think I am telling myself this moreso than anyone else)...JACK IS NOT MY FRIEND. I thought he was, in fact just last night I was sure of it. But I can say now, hand on heart, that he most certainly is not my buddy today.

So anyway, I recall having some kind of D&M with a few randoms, fuck knows what about exactly, but I am sure they are much better people having had me pass on all my wisdom last night. I also recall (and thanks to modern technology, aka sms 'sent items', have confirmed my worst fears) sending several random text messages to people I am sure could have done without said text messages (note to self: do not take mobile phone on drinking expeditions), and lastly I recall curling up on the couch for a little rest...I think it was only about 9.30pm...and waking up at 3am feeling slightly seedy and wondering where the fuck everyone was!! I managed to get back to sleep for a couple more hours before rising at 6am and having the worst imaginable 40min drive home...unfortunately there was no choice involved as previously mentioned - I had to get to work this morning. So I did my best to down my usually favourite meal, brekkie, then came to work early and trained legs. Now, it's been a while since I did this, but for the record...leg training with a mighty big hangover sucks arse. Big time. Squats were probably the worst of it so gladly got those over with first, and had to forego the deadlifts - wasn't sure tipping my head downwards was going to be a pleasant (or pretty) experience.

Anyway managed to hold onto my breakfast through the session and have downed about eleventy-eight thousand coffees (I know, water is what I should be guzzling but it's caffeine I need right now!). I would give my firstborn (not that I have one) for some sleep right now!

Speaking of which...before I leave you I gotta share some exciting news...my gorgeous friend Rachael had a baby girl about an hour ago...I can't wait to go visit tonight!!! :)

Anyway party people, better jet, talked your ears off enough already...so til next time...train hard and be good...

Vic x

Early Christmas :)

OMG. How fricken hot has it been! Not that I am complaining at all, I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE the heat. I would swap winter for endless summers ANY day. In fact I have purposely done many an overseas holiday to the Northern Hemisphere just to miss winter :)

Thursday was a bit of a scorcher, I think it reached about 38 degrees where I am, but I worked through most of it so didn't feel it too much. In fact in the gym because the air con is cranked right up, I spend most of my days in a jacket - much to the amusement of anyone entering the gym and escaping the outside temperatures. The gym was abso-bloody-lutely D.E.A.D on Thursday, and I am assuming the heat was to blame.

Yesterday was even hotter. It was in the low 40's...melting temperatures. I got up and trained early even though it was my day off work - figured I would get the training done before it got too hot. Smashed out a rip-snorter of a chest/shoulders/tris session...LOVE it. Then I went home to eat, have a nap in front of the air con, etc... The plan was to take my white butt to the beach and hopefully get some colour...however I quickly decided that I probably wouldn't be the smartest person in the world to by lying out in the sun in such hot weather. So I stayed home and spent lots of quality time with my loungeroom (where the aircon is lol). I even put up my Chrissy tree :) YES I know it's not December yet but, I justify it in the following ways:

• It was too hot to be anywhere other than my lounge room, therefore I was smart to do things that needed to be done in there;
• Christmas trees are so pretty and make you feel all cheery. Why limit that to a measly month?
• I spent the last 3 years living in Newtown, and anyone who knows Newtown knows how cramped the houses/terraces are. I had no room for a Christmas tree and therefore went for THREE Christmases without one. So dammit, I want to enjoy having one up for as long as possible this year!
• Christmas trees take sooooo bloody long to erect and dismantle that I want it to be up long enough to be worth the fricken effort!!

So once it had cooled down slightly, mainly thanks to the galeforce winds we had (WTF!!) in the afternoon, I took myself off to the supermarket as I needed to stock up on some grocery items. Anyway I got there and decided I needed a caffeine hit so took myself off to Gloria Jeans for my regular long black with a dash of soy (yep, even in this heat...) and bumped into one of my girlfriends. Now this friend of mine was one of my best mates, I was even Maid of Honour at her wedding 6 years ago, but we have fallen a bit out of touch in the last year or two. She moved out of the area a few years back, and I can't even tell you the last time I actually saw her, so bumping into her was great. We had coffee together and then I ended up going back to her mother's place (that's where she was coming from, she was visiting there for the afternoon and her 3-and-a-half year old twin girls were there). OMG they have gotten so so so big and cute, they speak so well and copy everything the other does. We also organised for me to go to a bbq at their place after work next Sunday - I can't wait to have a proper catch up with her and her hubby, who I also love to death.

I am at work at the moment (it's like 39 today and I am in here with jacket on again), finish at 4 today and then off to our staff Christmas party tonight. We are off to a Greek restaurant that specialises in parties...ie after the food is over, they clear the tables out of the way and it turns into a night club. So YAY for yummy Greek food while not dieting and YAY for cowboy shots (did I say that out loud??) and YAY for dancing the night away :-)

Stay tuned for the messy photos...

Til next time, train hard and be good

Vic x