Wiiiiiiiipe OUT and Arnold Classic

Happy Friday everyone!!!! I hope all is well with all my fellow fitness lovers and competitors! I am having a great week thanks to my awesome ski trip! :) We had a great time - spent four days on the slopes - about 5-6 hours a day of skiing and I burned between 2000 and 2200 calories a day skiing which was awesome! Talk about a great interval workout! :) We went with our friends Doon and Amber (yes, Amber the girl from my kick butt workouts!!). She is a snow boarder and my DH and Doon are skiers so I skied with them. Well, let me just say they really pushed me beyond what I would normally attempt!! This is what I looked like on the slopes! :) The reality is I picked up my game and became a better skier but on the second day I had a gnarly wipeout involving a super steep hill, a patch of ice and my tired legs. I caught an edge on my skis and did three somersaults down the hill and lost both skis, both poles and my goggles. I have a HUGE bruise (size of grapefruit) on my leg and have kind of messed up my hip but it was worth it! I love to ski and this trip did not disappoint. We got back on Wednesday night and since then I have committed to getting back to the gym on a consistent basis. I realized that no matter what I have to get my workouts in - that means scheduling them every day and not skipping them no matter what. I am trying to decide if I will workout in the mornings, afternoons or after work. There are benefits and drawbacks to all so I need to see what is going to work best!

I know I mentioned my bulking plan last weekend and still trying to workout the details. Thought I would have a chance over the vacation but was too darn tired! I will work on it this weekend and post for you all!

The Arnold Classic is this weekend - TODAY in fact!

You can check out the LIVE webcam by clicking here: Arnold Classic Webcast LIVE!

Schedule of events is here: Arnold Classic Schedule of Events

I will be watching Figure and Fitness tonight at 6pm CST. Won't you join me???? My votes are for Gina Aliotti for figure and Jen Hendershott for fitness!

Who has your votes?

Figure competitors are:

Sonia Adcock	Deborah Leung
Gina Aliotti	Juliana Malacarne
Paola Almerico	Kristal Richardson
Catherine Andersen	Chastity Slone
Natalie Benson	Brenda Marie Smith
Amy Fry	Briana Tindall
Bernadette Galvan	Latisha Wilder
Jennifer Gates	Nicole Wilkins

Fitness competitors are:

Regiane Da Silva	Kimberly Klein
Tina Durkin	Julie Lohre
Bethany Gainey	Tanya Merryman
Tracey Greenwood	Mindi Obrien
Oksana Grishina	Julie Palmer
Jen Hendershott	Stacy Simons

Good luck ladies and post your vote in the comments! :)))

Have a great weekend all!
Jess

Average Day in the Life of My Stomach & Moguls

A couple of you have asked for a sample of my daily menu so here goes...I am going to also frame it up around my workouts since I try to eat around my workouts:

• 5:00am - Wake up and drink 16 oz of water and have a cup of coffee while walking the dog for 20 minutes
  
• 5:30 - Cardio on empty stomach (usually 30 minutes to 45 minutes)
• 6:30 - Protein shake
• 8:00 - 5 egg whites, 1 whole egg, 1 tsp olive oil, 1/3 cup oats, another cup of coffee
  
• 11:00 - 1/2 cup Fiber One w/8oz soy milk and scoop of protein powder (pre-workout)
• Workout from 1145 to 1pm
• 1:00 - Protein shake
• 2:00 - Tuna boats - 1 can tuna, 1 TBS low fat ranch, 1 bell pepper in fourths stuffed with tuna
• 4:30 - Protein waffles - 4 egg whites, 1 whole egg, 1 TBS milled flax seed, 1 TBS cinnamon
• 7:30 - 5-6 oz Tilapia and either a salad or mixed veggies
• Bedtime - protein shake if I am still hungry

If I am trying to add mass, I will add a sweet potato to my 2pm meal and always have the protein shake before bed.

I also have 5 grams glutamine upon waking, during my workout and before bedtime and I drink a gallon to a gallon and half of water every day.

We're in Colorado right now having an awesome time skiing! :) We try to make a once a year mecca to some ski location. It is hands down my favorite outdoor activity. Love it. Burned 1800 calories on the slopes today in 5 hours of skiing. Pretty good considering the fact that you sit on the lifts for much of the day!

I actually made some HUGE improvements today and actually successfully negotiated moguls. Felt awesome. Let me tell you - I am ready to get back in the gym after being sick for so long. Getting out there and smoking my legs makes me want to go straight from this trip to the gym! Which is just what I needed to feel like a human again.

Hope everyone is well! Please post your questions and comments on my diet - would love to get your thoughts.

Jess

Getting Big & A Champ Hangs up the Heels

Big news this week on the figure front, IFBB Pro Valerie Waugaman has decided to retire to explore her career as an American Gladiator. This was a massive news announcement considering how successful Valerie had been during her short 3.5 year career - winning three major pro shows. Due to the intensity of training and filming, she has decided to hang up her posing suit.

Check out Val as she does one of her unique and unprecedented figure posing routines. No body does it quite like Val. :)

A full article on Val retiring can be found here: http://www.flexonline.com/news/335

We will miss you Val and congrats!

In other news, I am less than 200 days out from the big day! Whoa. And I have one goal: ADD MASS and GET BIG. Trouble if you are a female - well at least trouble mentally. Get bigger - weigh more - eat more - lift heavier. Worked on my bulking plan over the weekend but not quite ready to post it.

Stay tuned for more. I am still not 100% healthy so I am taking a bit more time to feel better. Nutrition info/tidbits coming tomorrow.
Jess
P.S. Can you tell I figured out how to post videos?? :)

It's All About Perspective

If you aren't sure if you feel up to training today or tomorrow...or if you ever are feeling down or blue....watch this video....I guarantee it will inspire you to make it to the gym no matter what AND make you gracious for everything you have in life.



Amazing. I am off to the gym!! :)
Jess

Goal Setting 101 and Fitness News

Let's face it, goal setting isn't fun. Often times when people set goals they don't map out what it takes to get to that goal. For example, today I had to sit down (again because of being sick on and off over the last few months) and map out my goal of acheiving my pro card. This is somewhat difficult because I know I need to add muscle mass and know when I need to start dieting down but there are a lot of other factors involved like how many shows I need to do to show the judges I am serious as well as how much weight I can reasonably add during that period of time.

I know I have about 30 weeks until show time. 12 of those weeks need to be for dieting down. So essentially I have 18 weeks for mass building. So I broke down my routines and my goals during that 18 weeks and then goals for that last 12 weeks. I have to then translate those weekly goals when I plan out my day. I started my goal setting today and will finish up tomorrow with a detailed plan that I will share here on the blog. A couple things I can tell you that WILL have to change - can't miss workouts. :)

Some fitness news....the season started today with the Ironman Pro in LA. You can check out the figure replay for this mornings replay here:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/2008im_wcr.htm and go to the figure replay. You can watch the finals tonight LIVE! :)

I worked out today and did a full body core workout.

• Squats w/65 pound squat rack super setted with T push ups (push up and then raise arm to ceiling and twist in between push ups) - 20 reps, 3 sets though
• Step ups w/body weight on 23" step super setted with Olympic bar rows - 20 reps each leg, 20 total rows, 3 sets
• Hamstring curls on ball super setted with sit ups on ball

Pretty basic but I torched 450 calories. Also did 30 minute run. Slow and easy.

I am tired of having negative thoughts about how I look or feel - this is a process for me in reaching my goals - that may mean I have to gain some weight in the interim. Weight gaining is good.

More on specific goals tomorrow. Will keep you updated on other figure news.
Jessica

Wuv, True Wuv - HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Happy Valentines Day to all of you fitness lovers out there! I love, love, love, love, love Valentine's Day because it is such a celebration of love and gratitude! So today, I ask that you tell those you love that you love them and be grateful for the gifts you have in your life.
One of my favorite quotes:

This quote became VERY special to me with my husband because I let go of my fears and embraced life as opposed to being scared of being hurt again. I smile each and every time I read this quote because I think of how liberating and free I feel when I do each of these things. I'm so fortunate to have my wonderful husband in my life - he is my soul mate and my heart. He is my best friend and my biggest fan. And we both feel like every day is Valentine's Day! Here we are having a smooch on our boat this summer. Luf.


Ok, enough of the mushy stuff!

I have had a couple of great workouts this week - did my kettle bell cardio on Monday and had a great chest workout that day at lunch. Tuesday I had another great cardio session in the morning - more running and some burpees. Wasn't able to lift over lunch but was still happy I got in my cardio. I had to take yesterday off because of work (worked 16 hours straight) but am hitting they gym over lunch today.

I wanted to talk a little bit more about carbohydrate timing in today's blog about nutrition. Carbohydrates are not bad for you - especially if you are eating slow digesting carbs and whole grains. This would include sweet potatoes, brown rice, oatmeal and whole grain bread - Ezekiel bread is hands down the best you can purchase. The absolute most effective way to eat carbs is to bracket your weight workouts with carbohydrates.
Vision your weight workout like this:

slow digesting carbs - approx 45 minutes prior to [weight training session] fast digesting carbs w/in 20 minutes after

This will allow your body to utilize the slow digesting for energy during your workout and the fast digesting for restoring glycogen and building muscle after.

Make sense?

Examples of fast digesting are simple sugars including maltodextrin as well as dairy sugars found in milk or yogurt, rice cakes, and fructose in moderation. If your goal is to maintain or build muscle you should be eating some kind of fast digesting carb after working out. Chocolate milk is great after a workout because it has protein and fast digesting carbs. Just make sure to add a bit more protein as you want 20 - 30 grams total.

Have a wonderful V-Day everyone!
Jessica

Voting Results, Kettle Balls ROCK and Today's Workout!

Happy Monday!

Below are the poll results:

• 53% would like more pics
• 53% would like more nutrition and diet info
• 33% of you would like to see figure news
• 20% would like to see more workouts
• 20% would like to see competition discussion
• 13% would like to see more personal stuff
• 6% would like more weigh in and stats
  

So, look for more pics, nutrition and diet, figure news as well as workouts and competition discussion. :)

For my workout this morning, I did a HIIT session which was AWESOME! I started out warming up on the treadmill at 10% incline and 4.4mph. After that, I started my intervals in which I did 60 seconds of kettle ball squats alternating arm raises with the 20lbs kettle ball below. The first four intervals I did I alternated arms the whole time and then I changed to both arms while doing squats. Let me tell you that will get your heart rate up!! Woo hoo. I did the intervals - 1 min kettle ball squats, 2 minutes incline walking for 30 additional minutes. Burned a total of 400 calories! Not bad for 40 mins.

At lunch I went back to the gym for the first time in a long, long, time (well long time over lunch). Everyone was super shocked by my hair (I DO look like I am twelve in my gym clothes - I am going to have to wear hats to keep my bad ass image - ha ha ha) but I got a good workout in. I did chest - 5 sets of flat bench at 80lbs (yeah, not good - way less than normal), 4 sets of incline dumbbells with 30lbs each and cable flyes with 60 lbs.

While I was weak, it felt great to be back in there! If you don't know what a kettle ball is or use one currently, here is a pic of the 20lb one I have (purchased at Target):


More later...check back often - I told Power Authority I would post more often if he promised to comment more often!
Jess

You Asked For It! Nutrition and Diet (And I Changed My Blog Template - You Like??)

As we near the end of voting, I see a common thread of requests in the form of learning more about nutrition and diet. I am assuming this is MY nutrition and diet plans with perhaps a little sprinkling of general knowledge.

First, let me set the record straight...unlike my friend Cynthia (www.visionquester2.blogspot.com), I do not have a personal training certification. It IS on my list of things to accomplish this year along with an additional certification in 2009 for nutrition however my knowledge comes from three areas:

1. I read A LOT. Anything I can get my hands on related to diet and nutrition - blogs, websites, magazines, books, forums etc.
2. Personal experience. I have competed twice at this point and feel like both of those experiences gave me excellent insight.
3. Friends/family experience. Anyone that I know who trains or workouts or who is passionate about what their fitness goals, I quiz. Lots of questions.

Here is the one thing I have learned overall:
EVERYONE is different. EVERY BODY responds differently HOWEVER there are some universal truths. I have found these from reading the diets of hundreds of competitors over the years. In fact, I have a notebook that has them all! :)

• You must eat as much whole, natural food as possible.
• You must give your body ample protein - especially when training and building.
• Diet is AT LEAST 75% of your success (it took me a very long time to believe this but now I do - without a doubt).
• Fat is not bad if it is healthy fat.
  
• You MUST, MUST, MUST be consistent.

For me, the later has been the most difficult over the last two months. With work being as crazy as it is and my workouts being LESS than consistent, I have allowed that to affect my diet. Most significantly, not eating enough and not eating the good, clean foods I know and love.

Today, I would ask each of you to think about your food and how you view food.

• Do you think of it as FUEL for your body or do you think of it as a pleasure point?
• Do you understand how it digests in your system and how it fuels your workouts or do you just think of it as something you put in your mouth?
• Do you expect that 95% of your meals will be for fuel and only 5% will be for pleasure?

As you think about those things, relate it back to your goals. You MUST make paradigm shifts in your thinking to achieve your fitness goals if you do not view food as fuel and understand its purpose and breakdown in your body.

More on my diet tomorrow.
Jessica

Big News! And Please VOTE!!!!!

Please, please, please vote! Look to the right and vote if you haven't already! Even for those of you just stopping by for the first time, vote away! :)

For years and years, you have seen me like this:
For those of you wondering, above is my high school pom pom pic and also a pic from when I dressed up like a football player (if it isn't obvious). I thought I would include it for a little laughter. Some of you have seen me like this:

And lots of the time you see me with straight hair, like this:

But today, I got crazy - like drinking whiskey all night and making a wacky decision crazy - and did something WILD....and here it is:
I donated my hair to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program! While I only wanted 8 inches take off they hair stylist did not have a ruler (I should have brought one) and they "eye balled" it so I actually lost 11 inches of my hair. I would be happier if it were a little longer but overall I like it. It is the shortest my hair has been since I was 20 (a LONG time - over 10 years) but I am ok with a change. After all, hair grows back and I helped someone who lost their hair to cancer have a beautiful wig! :)

Here is my and my friend Maya with our hair (check out the ELEVEN inches!!!) right after our hair cuts!

What does everyone think????

I will have more of an update tomorrow on the rest of my week!
Jessica

YOUR HELP NEEDED PLEASE

Happy Monday all!

I need everyone's help on answering some questions for me. To the right of this post is a poll asking you what you would like to see more of on my blog. If you are a new comer to my blog, PLEASE answer this if you aren't thinking of coming back. If you are a long time visitor, let me know what you would like to see more of! ;) I really value each of your opinions and promise to listen and respond to your requests. Thank you!

Anyhoozle, I didn't workout on Sunday...still feeling pretty yucky and I figured one more day of rest would be smart. But I did do something REALLY important and something I recommend everyone do whenever you come to a place where you are struggling with motivation or accomplishing something. As most of you know, I have been struggling with consistent workouts. I knew that was primarily a result of how many hours I have been working. And I also knew that work was getting more and more challenging and that was a result of a new team structure we are testing. Regardless, my days were looking like this:

• Wake up at 5am and work for 2 hours, get food ready (at least I was still doing that) go to work
• Work at office from 8am to 6 (skipping lunch lately when I would normally lift)
• Go home, eat dinner and then work for another 2-3 hours
• Repeat

As you can see, I was putting myself and my workouts in second place to work. Over the weekend I wrote down all of the obstacles me preventing me from working out on a consistent basis. And then, and this is the most important step in this process, I wrote down what I needed to do to overcome those specific obstacles. My reasons and how to overcome them were the following (I am giving you the Reader's Digest version - short and sweet) but you will get the idea:

• #1: Working too many hours - need to delegate and take them time to off load projects to other team members.
• #2: Sickness - make sure I am getting gallon + of water daily, eating whole foods and keeping a gratitude journal.
• #3: Lack of motivation - review my goals and what I am training for DAILY - keep note cards that outline my goals and read DAILY.

I believe that we can all accomplish our goals in life but we must understand the obstacles and make adjustments based on those obstacles. For me, I was allowing my work to interfere with my life and therefore put me out of balance with those things important to me. Which is probably the REASON I kept getting sick. My body/mind/soul was telling me to honor myself, my body and my soul. Everyone should know what method of goal setting works for them....Jody and I write down our goals every year and review them often. We achieve 90% of the goals we right down! How cool is that??? So, my little poor man's Photoshop job (below) will be a reality in September! :)
Jessica


P.S. I ran for a half hour this morning (350 calories - slow pace) and we started our Isagenix cleanse again today. Feels goooooooooood. Flushing the bod. Flush, flush, flush. :)

Monday's Workout and Weekly Recap

I had a great workout on Monday with Debbie....here is a quick review of what we did and what a butt kicker it was.

• Warm up for 10 minutes on the elliptical.
• Abs for about 10 minutes with standard sit ups followed by lower ab holds
• 8 step dumbbell squats w/15lb, 15 push ups and 15 shoulder presses w/squats, 15 burpees
• 2 lap run
• Full lap of walking lunges w/15 lb dumbbells - tight lunges
• 10 step dumbbell squats w/15 lb dumbbells, 15 push ups and 15 shoulder presses w/squats, 10 15 burpees
• 2 lap run
• Full lap of walking reverse lunges w/15 lb dumbbells
• 12 step dumbbell squats w/15lbs dumbbells, 15 push ups and 15 upright rows in sumo squat, 15 burpees
• 2 lap run
• Bench press w/65lbs - 15 reps, 2 lap run (repeat three times)

It was a great workout and unfortunately my only workout this week. While I thought I had avoided my DH's flu, not so. :( I am sure you can all imagine how frustrating it was for me to get sick again. I have never seen anything like this cold and flu season. I called one of my good friends who works in a doctor's office and she said they haven't seen anything like it in their 15 years in business. She said they have been inundated with people with repeat visits for illness. I have been pretty upset and that's why I have been absent from blogging. While I am not officially depressed I have had bouts of sadness and struggle this week...especially after I realized that I haven't felt 100% since about a month after we got the cats (the beginning of August so about 5 months). :( The killer is that I haven't had consistency in my workouts since then and even though I haven't gained a considerable amount of fat or lost a lot of muscle, I am still not where I would be had I not been sick so much. I am considering purchasing a large plastic bubble to live in until the weather gets better and the rest of the world starts to get better.

Oh, and to add to the general germ world we are living in, we have been having 40 degree swings in our weather. For example, on Thursday it was 20 degrees and we got four inches of snow and today it is going to be almost 60. Not cool. :)

I have realized that there seems to be a pretty direct pattern between three things and getting sick: 1) not getting enough sleep, 2) working tons of hours and 3) jumping into intense workouts after being sick.

I am feeling better today and will do some low key cardio and just a straight lifting workout. I will wait another week before I jump back into a Debbie workout.

Sorry I took the week off all - miss you guys!

Shout out to my girl Cynthia who passed her personal training test this week! The rocks it and is going to be an awesome personal trainer!

And check out this interview with Mike Davies on Living Beautiful Radio: http://www.livingbeautifulradio.com/LBR020308.mp3

Have a great weekend all!
Jessica