Monthly Archive for December, 2005

Another year almost down. Where does the time go?

We had another awesome leg session this morning. Today is about 44 degrees, so we chose to train at 9am as soon as the gym opened. Good move I think Increased on every exercise (except standing calves) in some way or another. Even added a little weight to the hackies – I won’t admit to how much (or how little I should say)! I didn’t get too sore last week so I don’t expect to be a cripple this week either, which is good news.

Jode, I think I have lost some hearing in my right ear – remember the one that was right near the weight stack when the loose plate dropped doing cable curls?????? I’m serious, it did actually hurt, and now I feel half deaf!

Got my hair coloured again yesterday, gone a little darker this time, but not too dark – I’m still a blonde – I think.

So, 2005, what a year! No roll calls here either, couldn’t possibly list all the people I’m thankful to have in my life. Yep, they know who they are. I do however, want to collectively thank all my wonderful clients – if only I had enough hours in the day to scan blogs and write personal notes and emails to you all, I would Thank you for making 2005 a very memorable year for me – I count my lucky stars every day, to be fortunate enough to have the opportunity to help hundreds of women (and a few men!) learn to believe in themselves, and that with effort, consistency and patience, that can achieve things they only dreamed of.

I have had many ups and downs in my life, as we ALL have, however, I don’t like to dwell on the down things. I had my father pass away of cancer when he was 50 – to see him go through the pain of that and to see him so frail and weak, on his death-bed, is a vision I will never forget. To see what mum went through, living at the hospital for weeks, and watching him die. I don’t like to talk about it, I don’t want pity or sympathy from others – I deal with it in my own quiet and personal way. I’m a do-er not a talker! There’s not a lot of drama, ‘razzamataz’ and fanfare here.
I’m not perfect and I don’t pretend to be. If I’m happy you’ll know about it, if I’m p*ssed off you’ll know about it, and if I’m sad or disappointed you’ll know that too. Yep, I’m real – and I’m happy to say, so are my friends.

I got married (again) this year, to a wonderful man/bloke Yes, there’s definitely a lot of bloke in him. We are building a house, and it will be soooooo good to get out of my tiny, but lovely, little unit and have some room to move! I have been here for about 10 years, so it will be like the end of an era when we sell this house.

I battled ill health for many months, and came to the unfortunate conclusion I may not be able to compete again if I did not find a way to get better. I did a lot of research, spent a lot of money, and time, on finding a way to get through. I did, because I am determined. I’m thankful that it now seems I am on the fast track to recovery.

I worked hard with my website and business, and had an unbelievably successful year, and I have huge plans for the future of IBO. At this point I MUST thank my wonderful new staff Sharleen, and Lisa (whos personal blogs will ‘grace’ my home page very soon!) and Personal Success Mentors (Jodie, Rae, Michelle, Karen and Hilary) for the fantastic job they have done with my clients throughout the year.

There were lots of big and little achievements over the course of the year – too many to mention. A year where I met many new and wonderful people along with a number of my clients in person.

It’s been a great year, and one I won’t forget. So, on that note – to all my family, friends, aquaintences and clients (these also fit into the friends category!) have an AMAZING new year – I hope it’s a little cooler where you are!

Shovelling in the beef and beans as I sit here and type. I really am NOT hungry. So hard to eat veggies when you aren’t hungry! But, gotta make those muscles grow! I still have a rice cake with peanut butter to eat before bed.

Had an awesome chest session with Jodie today. We pushed some good weights. Did a set of 10 flys with 30lb db’s and 2 sets of 6 Incline presses with a pair of 45lbs. All spotted by Jodie of course. Would not have been able to do them alone. I think I may need to start using straps on back day – yesterday I had trouble holding onto the 50lb db for rows. I have a pair of straps but I haven’t used them in so long I don’t know where they are!

Got quite a bit of work done today. Now going to sit down and relax, and learn a bit about my groovy new digital audio player.

Will be having skin folds and measurements done again on Friday.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!! I did! Spent 2 days home with Damien’s and my parents, in Murrayville. He has such a lovely family. We left Christmas Eve, around 4pm, had a bit of a snooze when we arrived, and then got ready to go to the pub – for the Christmas reunion of all the locals. Couldn’t find any food so we had to go back home to get some chicken – was either that or a tough steak in the park Had a couple of wines, and I called it a night. Damien stayed on for awhile chatting with his mates.

Christmas day lunch was spent with my mum and Wes, and Damien’s mum and dad and the both of us. We had a beautiful hot lunch, pork with crackling, ham, turkey and roast veggies. A couple of champagnes too (was careful what I did with the cork this time!). Had a big sleep in the arvo, then had Damien’s brother and sister and their families around, as well as his grandma, who is 92 and doing extremely well! We opened prezzies (I got an MP3 player, excellent! and a huge George Foreman roaster, along with a voucher from House, some towels, chocolates – don’t need those, a big plate and vase for our new house, and other odds and ends), ate some more, and watched a few Seinfeld episodes. We showed our wedding album around, as we have just received it back. Really pleased with it! I ate pretty well, the only ‘bad’ things were a couple of florentine biscuits from my big hamper, and 3 chocolates after dinner – and a few handfuls of nuts and dried fruit. Certainly didn’t stuff myself full like usual! Did not do any exercise over the 2 days, but that’s not a problem. Got back today and went for a long walk with Jodie tonight. Watched a bit of the Boxing Day Test this afternoon as well as had another huge sleep!
Not hungry today, ate very cleanly and probably not enough. Training tomorrow and looking forward to it.

Got some great feedback from Richie re my squat technique. As I have had some problems with my squat form in the past, I was really quite happy with this! This is what he said: Looking at your squat form in both videos (my compliments to the cinematographer (thanks Jode!), by the way) you look excellent! You are going nice and deep and the weight is heavy: keep up this great work because the squats are the foundation of your quad size and overall leg conditioning.

He also said “It is a shame that I cannot train you in person because you are so dilligent and I am already proud of you. I am eagerly anticipating your reaction to how well you will look for your next show.”

That was nice to hear. Gives me great motivation to continue my hard work.

I’m considering taking on a client to prepare for a comp – this will be a first for me so am looking forward to this as it’s something I have always wanted to do.

I have the internet and MS Office up and running on my laptop now. I had 1500 emails come through Lots to sort out. Better go and have some more food and sit down for a relax.

Give of yourself

The best gift you can give is to give of yourself. Your time, your attention, your love and caring are far more valuable than anything that could be wrapped up in a brightly colored box.

When you give of yourself you discover how very effective you can be. When you give of yourself someone else receives great benefit, and so do you.

Give a little kindness, or patience, or understanding or love. Give encouragement, and attention, and assistance, and time.

You always have what it takes to give of yourself. For in every situation, there is something valuable and positive that you can offer.

Sure, you could spend your moments feeling sorry for yourself or wishing you were somewhere else. Or, you could choose to give of yourself and create a beautiful experience out of wherever you may find yourself.

When you make the world a better place for others, you have the good fortune of living in that world too. Give of yourself, for it is the most sincere, meaningful and valuable gift you can give.

– Ralph Marston

Our slab is down, woohoo!! We went and had a peek as they were working on it yesterday morning. Was like a huge construction site! Attached photo. Damien had to go water it today as it had already started to dry out – no wonder, it’s forecast for 42 degrees today and it felt like that at 10am! Sitting here with sweat running down my back. Noice..

Also received my new notebook computer yesterday, that was very quick. Got a Dell brand, recommended by the IT dept at council. Looks pretty sleek, but will have to wait until we get our new printer/fax/scanner before we get them all hooked up together.

Jodie and I trained early today – excellent idea as it will be way too hot this arvo. Leg day! I told Damien it was leg day today and his response was “so, more complaining then – that’s what leg day means to me!” I’m always telling him how sore I am and asking for massages Took some video footage of my squat technique to send through to Richie. We managed to increase our smith lunges and free squats markedly this week, as well as increases on leg press, and both curls, and calves.

After having my beloved Myo lite I went to visit my chiro. He really gave me an overhaul! He worked on my hammies as they are really tight – I have had an ongoing problem with my right hammie/adductor – chiro thinks more hamstring. So he ‘broke them up’ in his words, said they were very ropey. It hurt! But they feel much more loose now. I told him how I don’t feel I have a lot of strength in my hammies, and he explained in detail how and why I need to stretch them and why my strength may be compromised – if a muscle is consistently in a contracted state (in a state of ‘tone’) then I would not be able to work in the full range of motion – hence a decrease in strength. I have to have Damien PNF stretch them for me every night before bed. I am definitely going to do this as I do really believe this has been a reason for my lack of hamstring strength and development.

Anyway, today I am spending doing odds and ends here on the computer, and will go and wrap the remaining prezzies soon. Jodie gave me a lovely handbag this morning, in one of my favourite colours, green.

Just finished training legs. Managed some good increases on free squats, and smith lunges. I just finished icing my left quad as I did something on my first set of lunges that caused me a bit of pain. I stretched it and managed to finished all lunges. It didn’t affect me on anything else. We used the new leg press machine as our 45 degree sled is now out in the other part of the gym and not allowed to be used at present. This leg press is a horizontal one, and is Nautilus. I managed to get some decent sets but it was different. Also used the new seated ham curl – need a licence to be able to drive some of these new machines – I am used to the old style equipment We finished off the hard stuff with our 3 sets of hack squats and it was a killer. No way I could add any weight. Jodie then went off to her Christmas party, and I stayed to do cable abductors and calves. I can tell my legs are not going to be very happy for the next few days They are aching with fatigue right now. Actually, I REALLY need to go see my chiro, I must be out of alignment as I have had an aching right leg, from my butt, hip, quad, ham, all the way down to calf, and achilles, and even my foot and toes, for days. I did some sprints with my walk the other day and I have had really sore arches in my feet ever since and then this ache came on. I had a massage 2 days ago and it killed me – she had her elbows dug into my butt cheek and it felt like someone sticking needles into me. My IT Band was very tight, and she did some stretches with her forearm – my god, the pain! But it’s good pain, I wouldn’t have a massage any other way!

What a saga with my eye! Just on the off chance that something may be wrong, I decided to tell the optomitrist what had happened (cork in eye). They told me I really need it looked at immediately, so, I spent the entire afternoon in and out of eye doctor’s. From 2 until 6pm. I had my pupil dilated twice, and looked at by 3 different people. They found some bleeding, nothing major, but I have to go back and have it dilated again on Monday morning!! Thank goodness I took some work with me, but I was told I would be there for an hour, not 4 hours!

I have now ordered my new notebook computer! Can’t wait. Hopefully the changeover will go smoothly. It won’t be for another 2-3 weeks though.

I have not even done my Christmas cards yet. Job for this arvo perhaps. Haven’t done shopping either. Have decided to close the office 2 days earlier, on the 21st to allow me some time to get all my stuff done. Don’t think that will cause any hassles.

Our house starts next week!

Well I better get back to it, programs to write…