Monthly Archive for July, 2009

Has it been that long!

Published on July 29, 2009 in photos. 4 Comments

kristin-and-i-july-2009-2.jpg

Time flies when you’re having fun!  Well, I’ve had my head down and bum up writing my submission for the Telstra Business Women’s Awards.  It’s been quite time consuming, but has definitely been an interesting exercise.  I’m almost finished, just have to tidy up some documents tomorrow and give it the once over before sending.

Today’s pic is of my girl Kristin and I on the Gold Coast very recently.  She’s my girl because I don’t know what I would do without her!

Club 100 has been packing the clients in, what a great competition it is.  I wish I could enter :)   The good news too is that it has been extended from August 7 to August 18 – so you have a little more time to get organised to enter!

I just had the most divine dinner – and oh so simple!  Call me a cheapskate, but I never buy fish at $40 kilo.  That’s just way over the top in my book.  But today they had some Orange Roughey reduced to clear at half price so I snapped it up because I have not had fresh fish for ages (apart from salmon).  Another reason I don’t buy fish here is because it’s usually pretty crap – we don’t get Orange Roughey very often.  I just lightly dusted it in flour, and pan fried it in a little olive oil.  It was just awesome.  I wish I had bought the rest of what they had!  Oh well next time.

My training has been going great – I’m so sore – new program will do it every time.  I hadn’t trained legs for 2 weeks and OMG, yesterday it hurt to move.  Quads were sore to touch!  Hammies always get sore but quads take a bit. 

My workout was:

BB Squat 15, 12, 10, 8, 10, 15

Stiff Leg Deadlift 4 x 10

Lumberjack squat 4 x 8, supersetted with

Knee extension 4 x 12

Hamstring Curls 4 x 8

Doesn’t seem anything out of the ordinary I know, just goes to show how soft I’ve become :)   I hadn’t back squated in a while.

Day after (yesterday) I trained back and started with bodyweight chin ups.

11, 8, 7, 6 reps – on the 2nd last set I felt something not quite right in my shoulder, and sure enough, now it hurts to turn my head.  My neck and upper back are really sore and I have a bit of a headache going on.  Trying to hold off going to the chiro, since I just went the other day!  It should have settled down by tomorrow I think.  Will put some Ice Gel on in a minute, before I hit the sack.

After those I supersetted Lat Pulls and seated rows, 4 x 10 each.

Then BB Bent Rows 4 x 10.  Followed with abs.  No training tomorrow, just cardio.  I might even do a step class perhaps.

I’ve approved the design of my new site – it looks great!  I can’t wait to get that up and running, the guys are doing a super job with it, very impressed.

Something else I’m looking forward to receiving tomorrow is a draft of some advertising by the Almond Board of Australia, featuring Liz Bickerton and Ideal Bodies Online!  I’m so excited by this partnership and can’t wait to see what they come up with.  I will talk more about our involvement with them at a later date, but now, it’s time for bed!

Sunny but rather chilly!

Published on July 18, 2009 in photos. 5 Comments

Ideal Bodies Online girls

Well here I am on the sunny Gold Coast.  And it IS sunny, but it’s bloody cold!  I took my coat off in this photo just to make it look like I wasn’t at the snow!!  I have had the heaters cranked up the whole time!  The Meriton at Broadbeach is great, nice spot here, I’m almost becoming a local.  Right at this moment it’s 7.24am on Saturday and I’m sitting here having an awesome coffee at the 3 Bean Cafe on Surf Parade.  Alas, their heater is not working! 

I need to go back and wash my hair and get ready as Kristin and I are off to meet Hils for another coffee at 10am.  I think we will be doing a bit of shopping too.  I haven’t done much yet – well just one pair of Rusty pants thus far. 

I had the BEST massage ever last night.  Anyone on the Goldy, Calmer Therapies at the Savannah Resort (right next to the Meriton).  A guy called Raymond – hehe, no not really, Eleni you are probably the only one who might get that joke.  His name is Chris, and he was excellent.

Speaking of Eleni, Kristin and I caught up with her and Kerry on Thursday and had a good old chat.  Picture above.  I plan to come back often so we can keep doing this!   Eleni has invited me to her place which is lovely, and I am definitely going to take her up on the offer!  A special hi to Ashleigh G who we met while at the Coffee Club.  I was chuffed to be recognized as “Sue from Ideal Bodies Online” on the street of Broadbeach!  Ashleigh, if the photo is any good, send it through to me.

I have only trained once since I’ve been here as I had the worst sleep the 2nd night, I was still awake at 5am!!!  But, I have done quite a bit of walking, on the beach and so forth, and yesterday I did have a great back and arm session – already feeling some DOMS.  Later today I plan to do another beach walk, and tomorrow Kristin and I are training together after a morning coffee.  We do love our coffee.

Now, Lisa, here is the curry recipe you asked for.

Sue’s Secret Curry

It’s a little bit difficult because we used a jar of stuff we purchased at the Noosa Farmers Market, but here goes:

900g lean lamb, cubed

3 tablespoons from above jar of secret spices!

1 onion, chopped

mushrooms, sliced – as many as you want

can of tomatoes with Indian Spices (not sure of brand) 

baby spinach leaves - 1/2 bag

1tsp of coconut oil (optional)

Natural yoghurt

Cook onion and mushrooms in coconut oil (couple of minutes).  Set aside.  Add lamb and secret spices, cook to brown.  Turn down heat, add cooked onion and mushrooms to pan, along with the can of tomatoes.  Top with spinach leaves.  Stir to mix through.  Simmer with lid on, for about 10 mins until lamb is cooked.  After removing from heat, stir through a couple of tablespoons of natural yoghurt (for each serving) for a creamier curry.  Serve with rice if desired.

Kristin’s lovely partner Eric managed to upload Nadia’s and my tv interview to You Tube.  If you want to have a look, check it out here.  There is some competition footage as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c_Bk7pm5v4

Speaking of competitions, check out our home page – www.idealbodiesonline.com – we have a super competition going on at the moment where you can win up to $5000 cash just for losing weight and getting fit!  What better incentive than that!   Check it out – the competition closes August 7th so you still have some time to get organized.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Sunday round up

Published on July 12, 2009 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

Today I tried to train legs with a groin strain. I tried a lunge yesterday and it was no good, so I was pretty much limited to knee extensions and hamstring curls! I think I did ok considering. I started with heavy knee extensions supersetted with rope pull throughs – these were ok on the groin. Then seated curls supersetted with DB Swings – also ok on the groin. Slotted in some calf raises on the smith machine – poor calves are normally rather neglected. Followed that with some more (heavier) knee extensions and then tried some walking lunges with no weight. Almost managed a set before a twinge made me stop. Tried some close stance squats with a 10kg DB but also felt the twinge here. So, gave up on legs and did some ab wheel rollouts and cable chops. Followed with 15 mins of high intensity cardio alternating bike with high incline walking. I feel sufficiently worked out so that’s good, hopefully the groin will be a bit stronger by next week’s leg session.

I met for coffee with Kerry M on Friday and must say she is looking absolutely fabulous! 30 something kilos lighter – who wouldn’t be!

I must admit I am intrigued by the whole MJ saga. We watched a concert of his on tv the other night – it was just awesome, so high energy. Now I just can’t get his songs out of my head. I go to bed singing them, and wake up singing them! It’s all very, very sad, and he sure is one strange character but what a performer!

In this Aug. 25, 1993 photo, American pop star Michael Jackson performs during his

Tomorrow is just cardio, hopefully it will be a lovely day just like today. Reminds me, must check weather for the Gold Coast! Hmm, I get two different forecasts. I’m hoping for at least 20 degree days and sun!

I’m looking forward to catching up with Kristin. It’s her birthday the day I arrive and she has invited me out to dinner with her and Eric – 3 might be a crowd Kristin!! She is going to pick me up at the airport too which is very handy! During the week we have a catch up planned with Eleni and Kerry, and on Saturday we are driving down to Harbourtown (outlet shops I believe!) to see Hils.

Congratulations to all those who competed in the All Female Classic on Saturday. I hope you all feel nice and contented now after a big feed J Special congrats to Selina and thanks for keeping me informed! Funnily enough I saw Shar’s name on the placegetters list and thought ‘wow, that’s a super effort when you’re pregnant!”. On checking her blog she’s been as sick as a dog and of course it was a typo on the INBA site! It has been since rectified!

Made a lamb curry for dinner tonight, was very good and very healthy at the same time.

We have a dvd to watch tonight, haven’t watched a movie in ages. “Milk” with Sean Penn.

How many calories?

Published on July 8, 2009 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

I received an email from a client recently and thought that it would be something that many of you can relate to and may be interested in:

I’ve been using Calorie King to add up my calories and have noticed that because I eat the same thing most days, my calories are usually between 1200-1300 per day, before exercise and not including supplements. Firstly, do I include supplements in my calorie count? (i.e. Glutamine, Durathon, Calcium. I already DO include my protein powder of course).  Also, I read in Tom Venuto’s Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle that a woman should never drop below 1200 calories per day. Does this mean I’m bordering on the line of having too little calories? Using his calculations, I should be having approx 1500-1600. Is this what Ishould be aiming for and if so, how can I increase this?

The supplements you are talking about don’t contain calories.  Glutamine may have a few but it’s negligible.

Tom Venuto is fantastic, but is generalizing.  Ideally it would be nice if we didn’t have to drop that low, but us small girls that don’t carry a ton of muscle often don’t have a choice when we want to lose that last bit of fat that is hanging around.  When I diet for a competition, in the final 4-6 weeks my calories definitely are that low, even lower when I can handle it.  The main thing is, you are on a fat loss diet, so your calories will often be low to get the result (depending how your body responds – everyone is different, some people don’t have to drop that low).   Yes your metabolism will probably slow (it will with any form of caloric restriction), but that can be rectified providing you don’t eat this way for long periods of time.  A day or two with a little more carbs/calories usually does the trice – hence the free choice meal in your program.  If things are going along nicely and you don’t feel you need the free meal then by all means don’t have it, as it can slow progress especially for us little girls.   Another way to do it if you prefer not to have a free meal, is to add some additional clean carbs/calories 1 or 2 times per week. 

If weight loss stalls, then it might be time to add a free meal or additionals calories to spark your body into action again.   If you are still losing weight/fat then your body is still responding so that is a good sign.

Once you get to where you want to be then ideally you would gradually increase your calories over the course of a few weeks (as opposed to pigging out for a week and then putting the fat straight back on) and allow your metabolism to catch up. 

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So, what else has been going on with me let’s see….we had Nadia and her lovely husband for dinner last Friday night, which was a lot of fun.  We cooked some nice eye and scotch fillets, but a little bit overdone!  The blue cheese sauce made up for it though.  Nadia was supposed to be on a diet for an upcoming comp hence us cooking steaks (instead of lasagne), but she decided the day prior not to do the comp.  So we immediately went out and scoured the town for some cakes for dessert :)   I had a tiramisu.

Training is going well, cardio has improved a little.  Actually, the day that Nadia came around I did some 3/4 sprints on my tready, and low and behold I must have strained my adductors a little as they were quite sore for days.  Then yesterday, while doing a shoulder session I have restrained the left one.  So I have a rather sore groin at present.  It really goes to show the importance of warming up all muscles that will be used in the workout!  I started with DB one arm shoulder presses and because I could lift 15kg for 7 reps with my right shoulder, but could only get 1 or 2 with my left (that sucks!), I decided I would try DB Snatches again to see if this would help me heave the weight up by using a lot more power.  It did of course, what a great exercise, I love it.  And sure gets that heart rate going because it is a FULL BODY exercise!  And me not having warmed up my lower body, by the time I got to my next exercise of BB Clean and Press, also a full body exercise, my groin decided enough!  Ouch.   Anyway, if you don’t know what a DB Snatch is (rather unfortunate name) take a look at the link below.  It’s really quite difficult to perform particularly when learning with a light weight.

DB Snatch - How To

DB Snatch Video

BB Clean and Press

I had an interview for the local paper last week, and yesterday they came here to take a photo of me at my desk!  Will post the article when it’s published, it’s a ‘sport profile’ but talks a lot about the benefits of weight training for women.  Hopefully the locals will take note and I will see a lot more intensity in the ladies gym than I see currently!

Good luck to everyone competing in the INBA All Female this weekend coming.  I almost forgot it was on!

Also, a quick reminder our $100 off special finishes on Friday.  No better time to be starting a program now, just in time for that lovely spring weather!  See our home page for details – www.idealbodiesonline.com

Overwhelmed!

Published on July 2, 2009 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

I’ve been overwhelmed by the lovely heartfelt messages and emails I’ve received in response to my last blog post.  I can’t possibly thank everyone individually, so collectively, a huge thank you for your well wishes and for sharing your own stories.  It’s obviously a very common occurrence – not that it makes it any easier to deal with!

Training has been going well, cardio is almost non-existant!  I, like many, find it difficult in the winter time to get out there and do my thing.  I’ve altered my diet in accordance.  Gee my appetite reduces markedly when I cut my training right back.  Truthfully I’m not doing as much as I would like to be, but at the same time I’m ok with it for the moment.  Because of my lack of cardio, I am using quite a lot of supersets to increase my heart rate and the intensity, to gain some cardio benefit as well.  I put things like bench overs and mountain climbers in between some exercises to get my heart rate pumping.  I am loving doing BB clean and presses when I do shoulders too, this is great high intensity stuff.

Today is back and triceps – have just eaten so will let that settle before I get stuck into that.  I got so sore from my last back workout, I used to find it very difficult to get sore in the back from training, so I love it when my lats hurt to touch!  I have found Single Arm Bulldog Rows to be a great ‘finishing’ exercise on back day, to really isolate and target the lats.  Use a low cable machine with a D ring grip, get on all fours facing the cable, one hand on the ground for balance, and row away with the other arm.  Really squeeze and focus on those lats!

Happy to report that I have found a great company to work with on my new and improved website.  I engaged their services last week and am expecting the first draft of the basic framework anytime soon.

I am taking another trip to the Gold Coast very soon.  I just feel a trip away is something that will do me the world of good at the present time (to help with the mid winter blahs).  So, will be visiting Kristin, and hopefully Hils, Eleni and Di – and anyone else who is interested in getting together let me know!