It was hard break up, but it had to happen. About 2 months before my last fitness competition I was reduced to 4 yellow packets,  REALLY ARE YOU KIDDING!!! Prior to that those yellow packets and I were BFFs make the VBFFs. Like the Frank’s hot sauce commercial, I put those packets on EVERYTHING. Breaking up was hard to do, but it had to be done, I need to drop some weight and those yellow packets weren’t doing anything to help me.

Now that I am done with my competition and my diet is more open as they say, I thought I’d go back to  my old ways, but surprisingly I have not.

Sorry to say BFF we’re through, if you haven’t broken up with your yellow packet BFF read more about why you should.  This posting appeared in the Huffington Report. http://huff.to/9lgm1m

This blog was inspired by a NY Times article, Bidding Farewell to Ghosts of Pain

Yes, I am or at least when it comes to taking medicine. When I grew up we didn’t go to the doctor unless you were bleeding from the eye. Do you remember from My Big Fat Greek Wedding when the father thought Windex cured everything. In my house a band-aid and a kiss did that. I’m serious.. I have to have a MAJOR issue to go to the doctor. I’m still that person, there has to be something really wrong for me to go. (more…)

I just returned from my 2nd Women’s Tri Fitness and it was just as exhilarating as it was last year. I didn’t win any hardware, but I did beat my times from last year, which is all that matters to me.  Well — that and after all the events my husband who is the most supportive person to me throughout my training turned to me and said he was so proud of me. That made it well worth all missed activities and times spent at the gym vs spending quality time with him.

This time instead of rushing off to the next thing, I did take time to celebrate my accomplishments while I was in Las Vegas, we lounged by the pool at the Monte Carlo hotel which was a balmy 102 (there was humidity and the natives were freaking out) UMMM you don’t know what humidity is and hung out at our very favorite restaurant Mon Ami Gabi in the Paris Hotel. Now I’m back to reality and its time to set some new goals.

This year I’m planning to:

1. work on my legs — would love to have a nice quad sweep
2. increase my speed and agility
3. increase my bench press — I’m getting 50 reps in next year’s Tri Fitness

I just landed in Vegas, the temperature is a balmy 101. I know that say its a dry heat, but it still hotter than Hades out there, I’m not complaining because I do love the heat. Actually as I sit here and type I’m wearing a long sleeve shirt and a jacket as the hotel likes to keep it like Antarctica. But I digress… So the actual competition doesn’t start until tomorrow, but today was weigh in for the bench press.. Which in my mind is the scariest part of this whole competition, you need to bench press 60% of your body weight for 50 reps, my goal weight to lift is 75 pds.  I got on the scale in my house and my unofficial weight had me 4 pounds below the top end of my weight class SWEET!!!. This morning at 8am — after flying 5 hours I get on the scale I’m 5 POUNDS heavier than I was at home, are you SHITTING ME!!! I retained that much water from flying or someone had their foot on the scale! (more…)

Not only is it summer on the calendar, but the temperature here in New England reflects it.  I say BRING ON THE HEAT!!! But with the heat comes the wardrobe malfunctions. Don’t get me wrong I agree, showing a little skin is fantastic, but there is a time and place for it.

When I first started my career, I worked for a very traditional company where ladies HAD to wear  nylons, hose, stockings, what you refer to them as regardless of the temperature. SERIOUSLY!! There were days I got so hot, I could have killed someone and probably gotten off for temporary insanity. I quickly learned to bring them in my bag and change into in the lobby bathroom. Did that make me appear Ghetto-fabulous probably, but I was a least cool.

I am no longer in corporate America, yet I still have a good idea what to wear when I do have to go in and meet with corporate clients. Frankly I’m surprised at what I see when I arrive, I feel over dressed and not even skin showing.  What do you think’ Am I being a prude’  The Boston Globe wrote and interesting story about this today. Let me know what you think’ http://ow.ly/21nXR

Guess what, I don’t. This past weekend I competed in the NE Classic it was my first show since July 2009. I worked hard to get to this show after a few false starts this season. My goal was to debut my new fitness routine at this show, but it just wasn’t coming together so I decided to just do the bikini round and get my stage legs back. No sooner than 5 minutes after the show I was already critiquing how I did and what changes could I make before the next show in July.

SERIOUSLY!!! Kim you placed in the top 5 and you couldn’t take 5 minutes to give yourself a pat on the back before you were moving onto the next thing.  OK, here is my moment to savor and relish my accomplishments.  I placed top 5 and it feels great. I did work hard to get to this show and it was also nice share my hobby with 2 women we are new to the sport, Stacey S. and Jenn F. they both had great attitudes and hope they enjoy competing as much as I do. I also got to see 2 great people that I haven’t seen in years and they just made me smile so much and it was so nice to be around them for most of the day. Dottie you are awesome and are such a inspiration so glad that we got back in touch.  Melissa loved the crazy hair!!! You rocked the stage.

But the best thing that I should savor is that after 5 years of doing shows and having to put up with all the pre-show, show and post-show madness, my husband turns to me and says that he is proud of me. Now that is something to savor!

Do me a favor whatever your accomplishments are stop and enjoy them because guess what for each goal you achieved someone else has given up. Keep reaching for the stars because the only person who can hold you back is YOU!!!!

Memorial Day weekend is upon us and we all have visions of summer vacations dancing in our head.  Already this weekend, I’ve heard so what are your summer vacation plans. Which is funny because this morning I was watching one of my favorite shows Sunday Morning on CBS and they were discussing the concept of vacation. We all know as Americans vacations is a dirty word, in fact in these tough economic times how many of you have forgone your vacations so that it wouldn’t look like you weren’t a hard worker. I’m SO guilty of that. Instead of taking a 1 full week, I’ll take a long weekend so that I won’t miss THAT much work, but guess what we are only fooling ourselves.  The question they posed on the program is vacation a perk or a necessity.

I think vacation is a necessity. Personally I love to plan a vacation a few months in advance so it gives me something to look forward. I like thinking about  how am I going to spend my downtime.  When I’m not on vacation, I am a very structured person and my calendar rules my life and vacation is one of the few times that I wake and decided what am I going to do today. It could range from just sitting on my butt and being catered to or something active if the moment feels right, but hey I just follow my intuition.

It’s also one of the few times that get to spend a lot of time with my husband. For two people who live together we don’t get spend enough quality time together. Yes, after 8 years of marriage I still enjoy spending time with him. LOL. Back to the topic.

Bottom-line, I think if you work hard you deserve some well earned downtime and should be respected for knowing when you need to unplug.  When I say unplug, I mean UNPLUG — no email, voice-mail, nothing but enjoying yourself.  If you are doing any of those things you run the risk of seeing or hearing something that may cause you to be sucked back into the world of work. Remember you deserve and EARNED the downtime. I know when I get back from vacation, I’m more relaxed and focused and can’t wait for the next one.

This year, I’m taking a quick trip to Florida, then heading to Vegas for a competition and Block Island.  What are you vacation plans this year’ You earned!!! Now plan it.

Related Posted

Staycation

I’m just 10 days away from a fitness competition and my food choices have SLIMMED. So, I need to get really creative, good thing, I’m not afraid to experiment with food and I love spices. I have tons of them. My husband often asks how often do I use those spices and how, like he thinks I’m not going to have a good comeback. He’s not new, he should know better! Any who.. My favorite spices are crushed red pepper, garlic, onion powder, old bay seasoning oh I could go on… On the morning news, I saw a great piece that reinforced how great spices are not only for making food taste better, but have a positive health impact.

Not it…. I am roughly 5 weeks out from a NE Classic. Here is where the dollar values double. Eat clean, lift heavy, do your cardio or GO HOME. Everything counts! My cardio has gone from 45 min to 60 minutes 6x/week. I have a confession. I HATE CARDIO. Yes, I hate it. I know that their are many pros and cons to cardio, but its the best way I know to lean out of a show. I can strength train all day long, but ask me to do cardio longer than 30 minutes the excuse monster comes up with some real doozies.  Being on a piece of a equipment for 60 minutes makes me kooky. But it has to be done.  Here’s my plan. I play a ton of mind games.

• The first game I play is splitting it up.
  • 30 minutes in the AM and 30 minutes at night.
• I machine hop, if I’m at the gym at all off peak time
  • 20 min of running intervals
  • 20 min step mill (love this machine)
  • 20 min elliptical
• I watch TV, give me a MTV marathon or VH1 decade count down and I’m hooked (see why I stink)
• I will do metabolic circuits where I swing a kettlebell for 1 minute and then jump rope for 1 min and rest for 1 minute (more…)

Not literally, but this was TV tune out week and said I was going to only watch 1 hour of TV, well. I STINK, I haven’t watched more TV but certainly haven’t watched less TV. I’m not someone who sits on the couch and vegges out watching TV, but instead its a source of noise. We have a TV in our kitchen and I turn it on while I’m cooking dinner or even writing in my blog. Some listen to music I listen to CNN. So this challenge I was a complete failure, but I’m okay with that at least I gave it a try.

I am currently doing Insanity and its awesome! I just did the FitTest and was SWEATING profusely in my living room. I previewed the next workout to see if I would find it as challenging and WOW, I can’t wait to do it again tomorrow.
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This week its suggested the you break up with your TV.  Studies show that world wide screen time has steadily increased over the years and their is a direct relationship to the rise in the obesity rates.
Turn off week, means turning off all the screens, computers, TVs and video games in your house.

Could you do it’ I don’t know.  I know I want to give it a try. This week, I will reduce the amount of time I spend on my computer and watching TV.  After work, I typically watch at least 2 hours of TV and/or working on the computer  a night, I am going to reduce that to 1 hour for this week. I went to the library this week and go some good books that I have been meaning to read. Wish me luck. If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them.