The year in quick review

It’s Christmas morning and I’ve finally got a chance to sit down and blog I really should go for a run and try to build up an appetite for the food I’m about to eat. I seem to have lost my appetite lately, which is not such a bad thing. We have the turkey in the oven (had to wake at 6am to get it going!) and will start setting up tables soon. We have pork and chicken too – no ham this year. I bought a Tiramisu cake from the Cheesecake Shop for dessert, and we will have mum’s steamed pudding too. She’s aslo made some gourmet rocky road. I think there is sufficient food there to warrant a week of damage control (lots of cardio, lots of training next week).

I have decided to begin another comp prep. Yes, that’s right folks. Call me mad, but I have itchy feet to get stuck into something challenging again. My body has had a good 9 months break from the last one, and I’m starting a couple of kilo’s (translates to about 6-8 weeks of training!) leaner. Nothing’s happened on the pregnancy front yet so I’m sick of waiting I have however started fertility treatment so maybe this will work for us. If not, I’m competing. My ob/gyn has no qualms about me training for a comp. So, my diet is sussed, my training schedule sorted and I’m starting tomorrow and I can’t wait.

As always at this time of year I look back and think about what has been accomplished. Often you think nothing much has, but when you really think about it, you are often amazed at everything you have achieved!

2009 hasn’t been one of the best for a number of reasons but when I look back I see that there certainly have been some great accomplishments.

Business:
Ideal Bodies Online continues to go from strength to strength. I was shortlisted for the Telstra Business Women’s Awards this year, and recently received my Cert 4 in Frontline Management. I didn’t pursue the qual and didn’t have to do anything except show them my website – it was a foregone conclusion. I will also submit RPL for the Diploma in Business Management early next year. There is a reason I’m doing this which I will share at a later date.

We have teamed up with the Australian Almond Board who have appointed Liz Bickerton and I as their “Weight Loss Ambassadors”. This involves some cross promo and you will see Liz and IBO appear in Almond Board advertorials (magazine and health stores) early next year.

I have been offered a spot as part of a new fitness magazine’s “Panel of Experts” which I am pleased about and looking forward to. It will be a fantastic new magazine. First edition out in February. I am still also writing for Oxygen – so it seems I’m branching out into writing a lot these days!

I had a total revamp of my site this year – this was a bit of a painstaking task but it had to be done and now it is, I’m really happy with it. It gives us a lot more scope to work with now our database is growing rapidly. I have some great marketing gurus, both in Australia and in Portugal, working with me.

We had 2 Body Blitz winners this year, Anna Madden and Fiona McConnell.

Personal:
I turned 40 this year. It was my plan to have photos taken on my 40th birthday, which I did indeed do and I also prepared myself for a competition in April. It was my plan to compete when I was 40 – I won my class which made it even better!

I helped Nadia and Kristin to compete in their first figure comps this year too.

We decided to try and conceive this year, and were over the moon when we discovered I was pregnant on our first month of trying (and immediately after my comp prep). However, it wasn’t to be. It certainly wasn’t a pleasant experience and I will not be so naieve in that regard any more!

Relationships:
All good on this front! Don’t like getting into these sorts of things on a public forum.

Next year:
Who knows what 2010 will bring but I have a few personal things I plan to – and will – achieve!

Summing up…
As always, this year I’ve made some lovely friends via my work and I just love this aspect of it. My job is not work for me – hence me sitting here on Christmas morning and finalizing some emails and work that I didn’t manage to get done yesterday. I love jumping (not literally) out of bed each morning to read my email and see what the day has in store for me. I am forever grateful of this, as to enjoy what you do makes such a different to the quality of ones life.

I wish you a wonderful Christmas, eat, drink and be merry, and if you have things you want to achieve for 2010 (and you should), be sure to think them through, write them down and have a plan of attack!

I’d better get busy with Christmas stuff…

Sue
xoxo