I hope everyone out there had a GREAT Christmas!!! I know we did!! We managed to have a white Christmas and then some, LOL!! We managed to break the December snowfall record with 24.1″ of snow this month alone and ended up snowed in on Christmas. It was good and bad. We did miss seeing all the family, but it was nice to be snowed in with not being able to go anywhere. We all played games, mainly Taboo, watched movies and baked sugar cookies. We shared lots of laughs and no one killed anyone!

Click on pics to see them larger……

MIRACLES!!!!!!!

Now after all the merriment and some thawing of the roads, my oldest daughter wanted to take my youngest daughter out to shop with some gift cards they recieved. This was yesterday December 28th. I get a call  from Sarah right as i’m preparing to leave for work that they are stuck in a snow drift and will need to be towed but they are fine…GREAT!!! I’m thrilled they are fine, and extremly relieved, but we had NO money at all , we were tapped out until pay day…meaning we have NO money for a tow. We(Jim and I) head to their location quite a ways out, and find the scene of the accident and find there is a van with a very nice older couple waiting with the girls who saw the accident and made sure everyone was OK…Well the news of an accident became a more developed story as we spoke with the older couple and our two daughters….Turns out they were in this HUGE/DEEP snow drift facing the opposite way of which they had been traveling. The old man told us, they spun several times and ended up in the oncoming traffic just missing getting hit/slidding into an SUV by maybe an inch at the MOST, and that he has NO idea how they missed hitting(I KNOW!!!!) also looking at their posiition atop this large/deep snow drift, they also and the old man agreed missed rolling the car by about 1/2-1″ as well..NO JOKE!!!, They had actually slid into this drift backwards, and happened to have the tired land precisely the the deepest part and stopped at the perfect spot….Some reading this may think it a coincedence, But i KNOW in my heart God had His angels around my girls..I know with every ounce of my being. In talking with my youngest daughter, Amanda, it turns out the SUV was headed right at her on her part of the car and she knows if they’d hit she’d have been hurt badly, if not worse. She’s shook up as is Sarah…even today.

Now for getting her out, well God sent an in person angel, so to speak…a man about Jim’s age, with a small 4 wheel drive truck, stopped and said he could get her out, to which Jim said, “Really?” This kind man proceeds to assist Jim is digging the back of this car out, which was no small task, and it’s bitter cold too, then happened to have a towing strap in his truck, hooks it up and after 2 attempt and more digging, manages to pull it out!!! His truck was moving while doing this and he managed to get it, with Jim working the gears and whatever else a guy does during such a situation as this! We were unbelievably thankful and sooooo wishing we had somthing to give him, but we had nothing. My prayer is and I hope those reading this will join me in praying for God to bless this man, some how some way, to really bless him and i know God will!!!!

So yes, God does work miracles still and is Oh so good!!

COMP PREP!!

It’s on!!! I’m 17 weeks out from The Southern States Classic in Liberty, Mo!!!

This is me currently. My eating had been pretty relaxed and my body fat is hovering around 16-17% approx. A bit higher than i would have liked, but it could be worse for sure.

My comp diet began yesterday and i’m already seeing scale movement. I went from 110lbs to now about 106-107lbs..so a good start for my first couple days, no doubt water as my eating has been worse since Thanksgiving through Christmas.

I am feeling really great about my prep and have a renewed vigor due to reasons I won’t get into, but God truly is my strength!!! I have NO doubt!!! I’m pursuing this prep with keeping my priorties in order as i spoke of last prep and as God honored and putting forth changes and trusting God for ones I can’t do myself to make this comp prep more balanced than ever. Competing is somthing I love doing, but it is NOT WHO I am,it is not my be all end all, but it is somthing I believe i have purpose in and if i’m to do this as God has allowed it’s going to be HIS way or not at all. May God continue to strengthen and speak to me through this prep and may i fully rely on Him! Does this mean i can take it easy…NO WAY!!!!! This woman is gonna give it my ALL, but doing so with balance!

Please follow along with me in this continuing journey! I believe this year will be a big one!!

So far diet and workouts are ON and I’m seriously stoked to the max for this prep and to compete again!!! What a fun privelage!!!

My current macros are 156 Protein
then cycling carbs          229 High carb day
                                               114 Med. carb day
                                                83 Low carb day
                                                25 fat

And with that, i want to say…Eye of the Tiger Baby!!!

AND>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Happy New Year to ALLL!!!!! Xoxoxoxo!

Feel free to leave me a note hear, i’d love to hear from you and let me know how your Christmas was!

After much soul searching I have put the forums back online at http://aliveandfit.com

As usually you can expect the Body for LIFE and Eating for LIFE help as in the past in addition to other fun things.

Good Morning!

It is Monday and so much has been going on lately!

First I’d like to share some things from my heart, as God is really stirring me up and has been for a while now.

The following was a status update a Facebook friend had posted, and then my response after it………..

STATUS UPDATE- “You can do great and mighty things if you believe God can use you and if you will be daring enough to have an uncommon goal and vision.”

MY RESPONSE- This is true! This uncommon goal and vision is often a matter of taking God OUT of the Box and doing what you know He has said even though it makes no sense to many and even though people may not understand and come against you…There is a point in a person’s life when you KNOW as you KNOW God has called you and even when others don’t believe it’s  a calling from God because they don’t understand, that you know you MUST listen to the voice of your Father despite popular opinion..GOD’S WILL, after all, is ALL that truly matters.

Eventually others will see the fruit and maybe they won’t but you will KNOW, and be at perfect peace….Honestly if more Christians accepted this, really grasped what you just wrote here, we’d see God truly is the same God of the Old testament and that miracles and wondrous works would be done more…Many(and i WAS one of them) believe God has some how changed and not the God He was in the Old and even the New testament, when really it is us who have changed, NOT Him!

Expanding here now, for the purpose of the blog….

How do we really come to KNOW the voice of our Father? By spending time with HIM; In His word, in prayer, once you know the character of God and know His Spirit, you know His voice above all. We spend this time in prayer and in his Word, as well as general daily internal interaction with Him while at work or whatever else.  We also must not allow the worry of what others will think and say or do affect our decision to follow God’s instructions, direction and will for our lives. It requires sacrifice on our part and maybe ridicule and hurtful things, but if you KNOW God is telling you something, then we are to LOVE and desire to serve Him  above all else..It is our purpose here, to do His will, to serve and glorify Him and really it’s the place of utmost peace and contentment.

I’m speaking to myself as much here!

Yesterday was Sunday and we went to church and the Pastor gave a great message. It was one of those that you need to hear but it makes you shift uncomfortably in your seat multiple times! It was a GREAT message and although it was tough to hear, i’m so thankful God loves us enough to tell us not what we want to hear, but what we need to hear.

I had just restarted my Beth Moore bible study about “Believing God” and also am in pre-prep mode to compete again. I’ve been having some health issues as fatigue that’s been a distraction as well as a little something called Facebook….UGH!!! I started off well and then displaced God in my priorities. I started putting laziness and Facebook and other such things ahead of God and all while God has been good enough to allow my bosses to not schedule me until noon, so i have plenty of time to put God first and then the rest…

Pastor Syd talked about how if we’re feeling life is a little disjointed, it’s because we’ve got too many little “g’s”(god’s) ahead of the big “G”(GOD!) Boy was i heading that direction again! The Bible clearly states; “You shall have No other god’s before Me!” Yet we do this ALLL the time. The outcome is disjointedness and missing out on time with One who loves us more than ALL. What silly people we are, feeding the flesh which is dieing, instead of the Spirit within us that’s eternal and we wonder why life is SO hard to deal with at times.

So this brings me to today and I started off with Bible Study. I’m going through this Beth Moore Believing God study and will probably share here and there what i’m getting out of it.

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Other Going’s On….

My oldest daughter Sarah is a senior this year and we’ve done senior pics, she got her driver’s license recently and is driving! I’m so proud of her! She saved money up, bought the car herself, paid for her plates and insurance all herself. She has paidfor repairs herself and buys gas herself! It’s just so weird being a parent and seeing your child drive off on their own! Her senior pics came out beautiful. She had a friend take them for her, and her friend is very talented and did a GREAT job! Now we are prepping to put in her baby ad for the yearbook and get that as well and cap and gown and all ordered! WOW, time is flying by!

Here are my faves of her pics….

My youngest daughter Amanda just got finished with junior high volleyball and has moved on to basketball. She is so funny because she is doing everything and wants to, there’s no talking her out of any of it! She’s pulling A’s and B’s, playing sports, participating in the musical and also the after school recycling program.

Well, I think i’m going to get back on the bandwagon with blogging here once again.

I can’t remember where i last left off. I had been having some health issues/concerns that caused me to stop prep for the fall shows and to go get a complete physical. That journey sent me to an endocrinologist as my doc was sure my thyroid was showing a problem. The endocrinologist ran an enormous battery of tests and on;y found one thing off and that was my adreniline level, which caused me to need a further test…that one checked out good as well, so no over production of adreniline…but because my heart has been having a lot of palpatations and some tachachardia, i now have to do a 48 hour Holter Monitor this coming Wednesday morning, to make sure nothing weird is going on with my heart, which i don’t think there is…but better to be safe….

I seem to still get tired too easily and all, but the energy level thing is improving or i’m just getting better at working around it..not sure which.

I have had a LOT going on recently, thus why so long with no blog entries…Our family is having rough times, that i’m not exactly sure how they are going to work out, but i do have 2 things that cannot be seperated or taken from me and those are Faith and Hope…

Looking at today, it has been a good day. I got up and decided to see if i could still log into my online bible study that i have been enrolled in and was VERY into a few years ago but as some know the story, I never did finish. The study is the “Believing God” study by Beth Moore who is my all time fave author right now!!! Her studies are deep into the word of God and are life changing. God has used this study greatly and has been stirring all that up inside me once again…so now I WILL finish, lord willing! makes it exciting to get up in the morning!

I was once again convicted as i start into a pre- prep for comps, that if i can get up early enough for cardio, then i sure as heck can include quiet time with God in there as well…and so i am! =0)

As for the rest of my day, I chilled a bit, and then hit the gym with my hubby before we had to get my youngest daughter from school, rocked out a killer leg session and was jello by the end…depleted jello that is!

Also after wrestling with my own math anxiety and not yet finishing my Math portion of my GED which is the ONLY test now standing in the way of me getting that very important piece of paper..Ihave gone back to my math class..i NEED to do this thing!! I MUST!!! No regrets!!

So that was my evening.

I have a lot i want to fill you all in on here and much to say, but short on tie for the moment, but I’ll try and do this daily in a bit of journal format for you all who are faithful to read and check in here still….I want to say thank-you to those who are still here with me, please feel free to leave me a message here, i LOVE hearing from you, whether i actually know you or not.

Good night all!! God bless!~xoxoxoxo

Tonia

This is a long article but I read all four pages and was angered by how irresponsable and one sided it was!

It only covered the exercise/physical activity side of things and didn’t include what we we are putting into our mouth on a regular basis…It went as far to say we didn’t need such vigorous activity and in fact, in so participting in such activity we were at higher risk of gaining weight due to our inability to control what we put into out mouths immediately post exercise.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1914857-1,00.html

I am angry because this is only true in a very flawed way and in no way is this article going to help the obesity and obesity related problems we have in our country. IF one is indeed exercising regularly and NOT eating clean/healthy foods and proper portion sizes all along(as well as smaller portions more frequently;ie;5-6 smaller meals, balanced with lean protein/complex carb/healthy fat)  then when you combine the body’s insulin response and addictive nature of not so healthy, processed and simple carbohydrate foods well of course you will be extra hungry following a workout!

It is  because of the vicious cycle of  eating simple carbs/sugar that boosts our insulin waaaay up high, then fairly quickly brings it far lower than it was even to begin with. Throw in exercise which will further affect those insulin levels and you have a vicious cycle of eating simple carbs, spiking the insuin levels, bottoming them out and then the  body’s false reaction of extreme hunger follows the exercise…well yeah…exactly!

What this story failed to include was when a person makes up their mind that they are sick and tired of being a slave to this vicious cycle, that they then decide to take contol of what they eat and their own health for that matter. This is the person who has realized that this cycle is getting them no where except more and more time on the treadmill, an inability to say no to foods that seem like they might be healthy but are not, or that they know are just dowright unhealthy, but they just cannot seem to resist because that is what their body is crying out for….It’s crying out for it because it is addicted! It’s caught in the vicious cycle and that is all it knows. It is the fastest way to the body getting what it thinks it needs.

You have to re-train you self to get out of this vicious cycle and it’s not as hard as it seems, although it will require a few days to a week of discomfort and battling it out with your body’s insatiable craving for those simple carbs/processed foods! It will rebel, but you can get through it, provided to make up your mind NOT to give in and you work to distract your self until this withdrawel time passes… You might be saying to yourself, “Well gee that doesn’t sound like it’s for me, why would I want to do that to myself, it sounds quite unpleasant?”  Well because the payoff after those few days to a week of crazy cravings and such will be rewarded with you being released from that vicious cycle that is getting you no where except having to keep increasing that time on that treadmill, only to never see the kind of results you are seeking . I’ve heard the girls in my gyms who do TONS of cardio wondering why their butts wont shrink, or etc, just insert body part here_______________. You start believeing the lie of not being able to overcome genetics and that you just simply are stuck this way, so you better just embrace it…Bologna!!! I am proof this is NOT the case! Aside from the results issue , the body image issues and dissatisfaction issue, How are you really feeling, anyway? Seems like you are more tired, hungry and irritable? Exactly! I have been there too!

I was not into fitness after having my children.I was very into being a mom, but i was a very tired and cranky mom, you often yelled at my children. Somthing i’m not proud of but is a natural outcome of faulty eating. Prior to having my kids and just prior to and in the early stages of meeting my husband, I loved dance and did a lot of it!  I was SKINNY too, but I was also malnourished!, for real, Dr. Diagnosed! Even once i got past that, I wasn’t exactly healthy, even though i remained skinny for some time. i was simply skinny fat.  Once i had my children and pounds kept hanging around more and more each time. I hated how I looked and felt, but when i’d try to workout i was too tired to get through it, eveftively, or at the times i had energy I would be just like that article states, just crazy hungry and unable to say no to that intense hunger! I spent many years in that vicious cycle and all i had to show for it was getting heavier and more tired, oh yes and hypoglycemia as a bonus. Not to mention not being everything i COULD be to those i had realtionships with. This includes my husband, children, friends and my Lord. I was simply too tired and too moddy to be of the full usefulness and productiveness I could be, and I was only making the hypoglycemia worse by my eating habits which when my blood sugar dropped it would be so bad i’d just grab candy or a soda to quickly get it back up, only to have it keep happening and for me to keep feeling worse! I later learned  that, had i not switched to healthy eating/exrcising, i had a great risk of the hypoglycemia becoming diabetes!

I got to the point that i’d be getting ready for my husband to come home from work and knowing i needed to make dinner for him and the kids..but i’d be lying on the couch crying and praying for the strength to get up and do what i needed to do! I’d get down onto the floor and go to get up at times finding i felt weak. I remember at one point thinking that maybe i was dieing and nobody knew it. I had gone through tests, and eventually all they did was decide after finding nothing physically wrong that i must just be depressed. The doc gave me meds and i became a super moody monster who my husband couldnt deal with. I stopped the meds after a short time and went back to normal moods. I knew i wasnt depressed, i knew my outlook on life and i wasn’t depressed!

Some time passed and my husand found a  Fitness forum and  there, he heard about a book called “Body for Life”. We  bought it,read it, it made sense and we started living that lifestyle immediately. It is the lifestyle of eating clean and proper portions as well as eating every 3 hours with one cheat day per week to eat whatever non clean foods you may have craved through the week, weight training and a cardio regime that only requires 3 20 minue High Intensity Interval sessions per week, not hours and hours on a piece of cardio equipment, not hours lifting weights, but 45 mins of lifting and heavy the other 3 days per week. Heavy enough it’s difficult to complete the reps at the end of each set.

It’s simple and it works, this in when you see the fat melt off and the building of new muscle that gives your body great shape and it’s this increase in muscle that DOES increase you metabolism, because muscle is metabolicly active ,meaning it keeps burning calories even when at rest!!!!…..BUT ……the eating is crucial!!!!

It is small portions of healthy foods, not refined and chemically built foods. The type of foods we were CREATED to consume! Our bodies are not built to be able to use and process chemicals, which, face it,more foods than not are, especially in fast food and junk foods! Also refined carbs and sugars react with our insulin MUCH more rapidly, causing the spiking of the insulin which brings it WAY up, then quickly drops it much further down then it was before it spiked, which causes our brain to be tricked into thinking it’s hungry, see it creates a starvation response when our blood sugars/insulin in dropped down like that…even though we shouldn’t be hungry even though food is still in our stomach, our brain reads that insulin respose one way and that is as hunger and extreme hunger and of course since it was that refined carbohydrate source or even simple carb source that brought that spike, well it stands to reason why our brain tells us we need that type of food and thus why we grab more of the same that got us there in the first place….we really do become slaves to this process. It’s this process that keeps us from losing bodyfat, unhealthy, sick, tired and feeling like we are spinning our wheels, getting nowhere fats and feeling hopeless.

Why???? Why as people with a human nature that likes to have control, why do we so quickly allow ourselves to lose control and become slaves to our very own stomachs? Why do we believe the lies that this is just how we are made and this is my life and I better just suck it up and live with it, why do we allow for any of the mediocrity to enter in that accompanies this defeated mentality. Is it because we are lazy? Maybe for some, especially hard to hear if you don’t want to admit it. Is it because we have just bought into the lies of so many of these so called experts that we have let go of our goals because after all, as you can see from that article it’s hopeless anyway. How about when you hear the truth and still don’t at least try? Is it fear of failing, of having hope and the fear that  we think, “well that can’t happen for me, and that i don’t want my hopes dashed in the end”, as if we have NO control over our own decisions and body, as if basic common sense of how the human body actually works just for some reason will not work for you, as if we are willingly choosing to have NO self control..WHAT????…

Or, how about the belief that it can’t possibly be that simple and work..oh yeah? I thought most of all those things when i read about this change in lifestyle and my thought then became, “What do i have to lose in at least trying? It’s only 12 weeks out of my entire life and do i want regrets on my deathbed someday of always being afraid to try and never knowing what I had missed because i wouldnt?”

I gave it a try, even though i wasn’t completely convinced and still dealed with many of those reasons, fears and doubts…i pushed through, mentally, and it was work to mentally push through it all. I also relied on God’s strength when my own threatened to fail me. In th beginning i wanted so bad to just lean over and fall off that treadmill, but i used it as a time to worhip God, and i had renewed strength.

I wanted to do it all exactly as laid out and so that way if i failed in the end at least I’D know i gave it all i had. I didn’t fail and for the first time felt empowered and so much stronger than  ever thought possible, not just physically, but mentally, spiritually and emotionally!

I felt hungry those first 2 weeks. I mean i felt like i wanted to chew my fingers of my very hands. You see we have been way to used to eating  HUGE, MONSTROUS sized portions, so our stomach has to shrink and we have to get trained again to eat what proper portions are.

They are small comparatively. We are talking lean protein the size of our palm. each persons palm size is different so our individual portions will vary. Carbohydrate portions the size of   our fists, again that varies from person to person depending on the size of their fist, and very small amounts of healthy fats. It was tough at first, but I adapted, but after one  week i felt energy like i hadnt felt in a long time!!  I could clean my house, cook dinner and not feel like i was just going t fall over and die! I was giddy and dancing around.

I like gaining physical strength from lifting weights and working with a trainer who showed me i was stronger than i realized, who challenged me to push myself had and show me what i was really made up. I worked with her for a short time but the lessons she taught have continued to serve me and even when i have no one at all standing over me in that gym, i can push MYSELF, and i can push hard! It pretty much rocks to know what my body is capable of doing, to feel my muscles at work whether I’m lifting or doing and intense cardio session, it in those times of discomfort you grow and not just physically…. mentally, spiritually, all of it!

It’s also in denying bad cravings and eating foods that are good for you and actually nourish you body that you also gain strength. This is especially amazing if you are a christian and know the bible as it paints such a great and vivid picture of the whole “denying of the flesh”…It’s so super cool!!

But not only do you grow in all these ways, you feel better, you spend LESS time at the gym and you look better too! Our bodies are made for work just like they are made for healthy/proper eating…they are made for work, they like it, it is good for them!

I’m sharing this because that article I feel is dangerous and its not a whole truth, it’s a very partial truth and one that leaves us all bound up believing the lies and being slaves to a body that isn’t functioning properly and will only keep making us ill and miserable. I’m someone who has lived on both sides and one who doesn’t want to go back. I know what the alternative is and i dont want it!

It does come with a price though, and that is a time of withdrawel/discomfort/insatiable cravings that will be mistaken for hunger( face it, we don’t like discomfort)…you will feel like having a feeding frenzy, but IF YOU persist, IF you have your mind made up NOT to fail, NOT to give in, IF you do this and ride it out, you will lose most of the desire for those bad foods and your hunger levels will get balanced out and regulated healthfully. You will feel better and i promise you won’t regret it.I dont know anyone who has made it through and is now living this lifestyle who regrets it and wants to go back! All it takes is a really bad cheat day and one of you chosen junk foods to make you feel sick for you to be reminded. That doesnt always happen but it does happen. I still enjoy many of my fave cheats with no problem but also am able to say no to them all week until that cheat day comes because I know there is that one day i can have what i want and know that eating those things more often puts me back into that vicious cycle far too easily. Hmmm, “how do i know?”  Ive fallen into it again by easing up only to have to battle through that icky phase all over again..it’s SO not worth it. If I can do it, anyone can do it, but in order to do it, you have to want to and you have to have the mentality to stick with it no matter what…you basicly have to make up your mind not to fail and to live this as your lifestyle.

I will also say there are also many types of foods i never want to eat again and cannot stomach even the thought of ever eating them! I will also add, that an addistional benefit of these more frequent smaller meals is that it also keeps that metabolism ramped up and working. it keeps your insilin levels stable and that is in part by the frequency of as well as the high quality of those meals. It also will, because of the stabilty of the insulin levels will keep your energy levels up and on a nice even keel!

I thought i’d  share a few pics, from my “Tonia” page on here….

Click to see it larger… I also included my hubby’s pic too as we did this together…..

Happy Tuesday to all reading!!! I have been busy, busy and everytime I think i’m going to have time to update I get busy again! LOL!!

Let’s back track a bit to July 4th…We had a really nice July 4th this year, even if the weather was a bit cool to say the least! LOL!! Our July 4th happenings started with a church celebration Friday night which was super fun!! They had a big cookout and live worship music as well as all kinds of  inafltable playthings for the kids, like bounce houses on roids! LOL!! Volleyball and then we were supposed to have firworks BUUUUUUUUT……we gone a major downpour that wouldn’t stop, we’re talking torrential rains…soooooooo no fireworks that night! Jim and i had left to get my jacket and jeans and that is when it hit, we got back to the church only to find everyone inside and all the stuff being torn down and loaded up. It was still fun, none the less!!

Click on pic to see it larger……

On The actual July 4th we were invited to Sarah’s BF, mom’s home for a party. I know Deb(Austin, the BF’s mom) from when i worked at Russ’s so it was a FUN time! Chilly but they had a fire pit and we did get to light of TONS of firworks! Jim had a couple close calls that left his ears ringing as we was laying on the ground near a fountain to take pics and it inadvertantly lit another firwork near by causing a major exploasian that was at ground level and going all directions..scared the snot out of all of us..fortunately he managed to not get hurt, just a couple teeny burns and the ear ringing. I was in comp prep mode at the time so ate my healthy food while staring at all the super yummy things there…it was tough but i made it!

Click to see larger……….

Enjoying the fire pit at Deb'sMy youngest Amanda, having fun lighting the fireworks!!!

Sarah(my oldest daughter) and her BF Austin

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 ONE YEAR BEING RE-MARRIED to each other ANNIVERSSARY!!!!!!!!

Anniversary date

The roses

Footloose!

Jim and I have been pretty busy and this past weekend was no exception. Our friends Rene and Jenifer Martinez put on the new NANBF show, The Max Classic in Norfolk, NE.  Our friend Jenni Brenner also was competing at this show. Jim was judging this show and I agreed to help out by doing the U/A tests for the women. Jim and I love this sport, so always have a great deal of fun being involved any way we can! Jenni hadn’t competed for a few years and at her prior comps was not nearly lean enough and didn’t do well, so this was her comeback and what a comeback it was!!! She dieted for this show for 16 long, hard weeks and her body just responded like crazy to the plan Jim put her on for diet, she made amazing and steady progress and came in just like we had planned for!  Jenni also drove 2 hours down here on occasional weekends and I worked with her on posing. She would go back home to Kansas and practice exactly what I taught her and she executed everything perfectly come show time….I’m soooo proud of all she has accomplished!!! She went from being in last or next to last in her previous shows to now taking 2nd place in both her figure classes at this show and winning best presentation…3 pieces of hardware this time!!! And not only was she second but it was actually very close between her and the winner…VERY close!!! Now we move on in prep to help her get ready to make her bodybuilding debut in Kansas City, or Bluffs, i’ve forgotten which one now! LOL!!! The point is she had a couple days of fun eating, and now she’s back on plan to prep for bodybuilding!

We all had such a great time of fun at this show and thouroughly enjoyed visiting with everyone, laughing and being silly! Jenifer treated us all GREAT!!! She and Rene own a gym called The Max Fitness Center and gave us a tour of the place…which i quikly fell in love with!!! omg!!! I told Jim i’d move to Norfolk, just so i could workout there all the time! They have the coolest old equipment and everything!! There was a shrug machine all loaded up with 6 plates(45’s) and Rene pointed it out and i jokingly said, “Oh yeah i can do that!” Then was like, “JK!!” Buuuuuuuuut, since i was feeling like having fun, i decided to walk over there and see if I could, fully expecting to have it NOT budge, but somthing funny happened as Rene was saying, “be careful, Tonia, don’t hurt yourself!” I was suddenly DETERMINED to give it an honest try……sooooooooooo I did it!!!!!! I completely lifted those weights, I kind of went into a partial squat, grabbed the handle and straightened myself up to standing, lifting that weight with me, and………. i did it twice!!!! I was STOKED!!!…Rene was shocked! 6 plates!!! …..On a shrug, by a 4′11″ 38 year old 102 pound woman! ) Now if my musculature would just match my actual strength! LMTO!!!

They also fed us REALLY well, and put us up in a GREAT room at the host hotel…well all the rooms were GREAT, it was this lodge type place and was soooooo comfortable and really nice! Of course Jim and i thouroughly enjoyed having some time alone together, so much so we turned down going to the after party gathering at the fair..any other time we would have gone, but we had a few rough weeks, so having some quality alone with my husband was a MUST!! God knew we needed that too! I’m glad we stuck to our guns!!! Oh but some of the funniest stuff that was said at the after party…oh my goodness at one point somthing happened that was so funny I nearly peed my pants…no joke i nearly did…can’t share but Jenni, Mark, Jim and Becky  and John plus an inncent bystander who observed all of us, shure know!! LMTO about it STILL!!!! Love ya Mark!!;o)

While touring the gym we also got the sneak peek of the trophey’s! They were super cool! Then we visited some more and I finally had to head back to the hotel to check up on Jenni! Jim couldn’t do much with prepping her once in Norfolk since he was a judge, so it was my first time going solo on making the judgment calls as to what to eat and everything worked perfectly so i’m thanking God in a big way!!! I did not want to mess her up!

Another cool thing Rene and Jenifer did was have their massage therapist who works in their gym come and give FREE 30 min massages to the judges….so Jim got his first full body massage there and then being the GREAT husband he is, chose to pay $30 for me to get a 30 min full body massage as well!!! That was just pure bliss…I loved ever minute of it and was sad when it ended! It was funny because when i got up, i was lightheaded and appaerntly that’s normal! I felt like a really relaxed ball of oooze for a while! LOL!!

They also had Bodybuilding Pro and MusleTech model Eddie Latoza there, signing autographs and talking with everyone at a table, sooooooo Dana Maney and i decided we would get our pic taken with him together, and we did!! It was great!!! He was super nice too!

Anyway lots of GREAT times of crazy fun was had all weekend, seeing many competition friends and such and just enjoying each others company, it was sad when it was over!

Now for the ANNOUNCEMENT………………………………..

The weekend started off a bit rough and very emotional and I knew I had a HUGE decision to make….a tough one and one which i was seriously wrestling with! As you all know i’d started my comp prep for the fall and was a few weeks into it and was seeing some progress but not nearly what i should be seeing. Last comp prep was pretty rough and my body had been quite stubborn and because of that i had suffered a great deal, still wasn’t where i wanted to be and my husband suffered a LOT as well….Well this time we had to take it a bit more extreme as far as my carbs, had seriously increased my cardio, and my body was acting funny…i should have been dropping bf, but was not and for the first time had this weird look to my tummy, in the form of a pooch bulging past my jeans…my moods were SUPER bad, i mean i was being downright mean to Jim at times…Ok…all this to say i felt like something was off  last comp prep, still felt like it throughout my off time and once i started this diet/prep, it became SUPER obvious that somthing isn’t right with my health and my gut is saying, hormonally…as i also had my gut confirmed with some research…I have a very strong God given spirit of discernment and I KNOW somthing is wrong…..I had a metabolism, a couple years ago that was screaming! Now……I’m really having a hard time dropping bf and not only that have recently and prior to this prep, have been plagued with MAJOR hot flashes. Somedays i’m cold, which has been my new norm for a few years  now, but other days or parts of the day..I feel like my body has turned into a sweltering oven…I’ll use clinical strength anti persperant, plus 3 other kinds and i’ll be soaking through my shirts…I have been abnormally fatigued..I’ll wake in the a.m all excited to accomplish various things and my energy levels just won’t cooperate,  plus mood swings and monthly wierdness, and a plethora of other issues, that are unsettling. I had a hysterectomy several years ago, and kept my ovaries, but my doc said even with keeping them, they could shut down prematurely and that just keeps echoing in my head…soooooooo I’m going to make a yearly appointmet, which i have not done since that surgery, and hopefully get some answers as to what the heck is going on with me! I cannot live like this…i just can’t, as healthy as i am, i should not even be as tired as i am. Sooooooooooooo…………

Between that, my not finding a job yet, the pressure that this extreme of dieting is putting on my marriage and the lack of time to be ready to compete in 8 weeks and the fact that somthing has really just changed with me, that i’m in a different place of feeling like i just dont want to collect trophey’s any more..i have so many already and i always want meaning to them, not just simply collect them…i am at a place that i want an honest shot at earning my pro-card…to do this i need to……

 1) firgure out what’s up with my health and

 2) build some more muscle, which i cannot build an appreciable amount of if i keep dieting!

Which leads me to…….

I’m NOT retiring!!!…God hasn’t told me that! I’m taking some extra time, getting my health straightened out and doing this RIGHT!! I need more time..i need to straighten out my health, get my metabolism regulated get to 10% bf and maintain it…this was my norm 2 years ago, and build some more legs and shoulders. As It stands for now, my hope is to be ready to do Liberty this coming April, then whatever else…if not ready then definately next August or September.

Some things, no matter how much we don’t like it, and no matter how much we may want to ignore and barrel through anyway, are just way to obvious and undeniable to ignore and this is what happened to me Friday morning/afternoon and after discussing it with Jim i made the decision on my own with his FULL support no matter which way i decided, to NOT do these fall shows, but to wait according to the above layed out plan of action. I CRIED and I CRIED….i’m crying as i type these very words here. It was SUCH a HARD decision to make, because i SOOOOOOOOO want to compete, but i’m also no dummy, and know what i MUST do…Ugh!! Lump in my throat now…I will miss it for now but know i have even more time to be at my absolute VERY best before i hit that stage again…this time truly going after my pro-card!

The journey continues and the prep continues and this time more gradually…I’m still tracking my prep here and will do so in detail, much more than previously..still ON plan. It’s just adjusted to be not as extreme as to build, and am still hitting it hard! I want this…It’s been my goal for a while and i’m NOT giving up!!! There will be progress photos including my dreaded starting point(fat came on MUCH quicker after last comp!), measurements, how the doctor appointment goes,my workouts and everything! Stay tuned, hang in here with me and share in my journey!

For now Jim and i are going to enjoy my lack of meanness…LMTO!! and we will plan to attend the fall shows to watch and support all those we know and love in this sport..i will still be VERY involved and of course enjoy helping our clients and friends with their preps and posing….good stuff people!!!!!

Love you all and thanks for reading my blog! xoxoxoxoxo

Tonia

Here are pics from the weekend!!! Enjoy! As usual click on each pic to see it larger! )

We were also busy this weekend with ur newest client/friend , Karen who also competed on Saturday in St. Louis, where she took 3rd place in figure there…here are a few pics from her show……

She looked great and i soooo wish i could have been there to cheer her on! We will be continuing to work with Karen for her next comp as well, and look forward to sharing in both her and Jenni’s journey! I’m so proud of the both of them!!!

Congratulations my friends!!!

Good Tuesday afternoon!!

A week and a half ago, i got the privelage of attending my 20 Year Highschool Reunion! It spanned two nights and all the friends who i wanted to see with the exceptionof one was there!! It was so exciting as i”d lost contact with my bff from junior high and high school and all my closest hghschool friends. Prior to the reunion I’d been able to re-connest with many of  them via Facebook and we all were able to have fun planing for the reunion and getting ready! I cannot tell you how great it was to see everyone again and what an incredile fun time we all had together! I think our table was the laughingest/most fun table of them all!! Each night Jim and i came home with raw sore throats and hardly any voice left, and woke up still sore! I’ll remember those two nights for forever!!

Here are some pics…click to see each larger…………..

It’s Monday morning as I sit here and write this entry, and another grey/cool June day..what is with this weather!? I want summer! LOL!! I’m still holding out hope it’s gets sunny and hot so I can go to the pool with my youngest daughter!

I was just reading my competition story for my April comp and can’t help but think how different some thing are as I go into the fall prep. One thing I want to stay the same is my priorities and focus on God. While I work to keep hold of those I just feel better going into the fall season. I say that because i’m not just doing 1 comp this time but 3. On the plan are The Kansas City Gold’s Classic; September 12th, The Bluffs Classsic;September 26th and then the Chicago Show; October 24th. All are great shows and all are Pro-Q’s., with The Chicago Show being a Super Pro-Q.

I feel better because mentally i’m more “into it” this time. I think it took me stepping back on that stage again to help bring back that fire and drive. I have less bodyfat to lose this time, and I am also getting the privelage of helping several other girls with their preps, which inspires and motivates me as well as gives me another outlet to step outside of myself!  Also ater eating way too much “bad food” It feels refreshing to be back on comp diet foods…aka…clean eating!

I have noticed however as i’m edging closer to the big  4-0 things are a bit harder than they used to be! LOL!!

Weight wise i’m sitting at 103lbs which is where i was at 8 weeks out from my last comp, so i’m thrilled to be in this place as it will give me more of a chance to get leaner and tighter this time. I have gotten past getting back onto the stage after 2 years and so now feel more excited and confident going into this and my body is already responding as  that 103lbs is after already dropping 2 since just cleaning up my eating!

Another thing different this time is the sheer amount of competitors we are helping right now, this is such an enormous joy to me and instead of being a distraction is energizing me and helping spur on my own motivation!!

One exciting thing about the Kansas City show is my friend Natasha and i are prepping for it together!! She’ll be making her pro-debut at this show and i’ll be in the ametuers…hoping to be able to eventually go Pro! She will be staying with me the 2 weeks prior so we’ll get to have good girls time and cry to each other and hopefully give Jim a break! LOL!!

Currently I’m helping my friend Jenni prep for her show on July 11th in Norfolk! She has come SUCH a long way and will be presenting her best package ever on the figure stage! I’ll be at the show both helping her and helping our friend Jennifer and Rene with some show helps. Jim will be judging at this one, so that will be fun for him…all in all it should be a fun weekend!

Let the comp prep begin!!! I’ll post soon with starting pics and stats..stay tuned!!

This past weekend of may 29th and 30th, 2009 Jim and I got the privelage of  promoting the Max Muscle Heartland Classic Bodybuilding and Figure show in Omaha.

What a fun and exhausting weekend we had!!!! It was a TON of work with very little sleep or sitdown time but I loved every single minute of it!!! I told Jim that I enjoy being on the other side , whether promoting, expediting or helping friends/clients of ours with their preps…just as much as the “being a competitor” side of it…I truly cannot pick my fave of the 2. One of my hugest joys out of my entire life is getting to do for others and give back what we have been given, there is just nothing like that!! This weekend was another way for me to do just that!

We had such a great group of competitors at this show. They not only had terrific physiques and such but were just great people, there wasn’t any cattiness, just lots of camraderie and everyone helping each other out…The way it should ALWAYS be!!! I honestly feel if anyone is in this with a need to boost your ego, then you are in for a humbling experience for shure…it’s a subjective sport and anything can and does happen. We had an excellent panel of judges in this show that looked at the ENTIRE package not just who has the most muscle and they did a great job in judging, which is also the way I think it should be! If any of our judges are reading this…thank-you for your willingnes to come and volunteer to judge, it’s a thankless job, but you do this freely because you love the sport and you are so appreciated!!

To any competitors reading, I enjoyed meeting and talking with each and every one of you! It was a great couple of days and you all helped make this show the success it was…we appreciate you and are so impressed with all of you!

Some of the extra jobs I got to do in the show was help expidite back stage with Promotor Ryan Irwin who teamed up with Jim and i to promote this years show(Ryan, i had a blast working with you backstage!) and present trophey’s. I had SO much fun with both, especially giving out trophey’s and getting to congratulate eveyone as i did so!! That was a BLAST!!!

I had several friends in this show who did SO well and many of whom i also got to hand trophey’s too, it was hard to not get TOO excited…i just get so geeked out with this sport!

The next thing on mine and Jim’s list is heading out to Norfolk July 7th to help out there in The Max Classic promoted by Rene and jennifer Martinez, whom i adore!!…. and also helping my friend Jenni prep for that comp and helping her backstage as well. She has worked her butt off and is making remarkable progress and i’m soooooo proud of her!! It will be exciting to see how she comes into this show!!

Prior News…..

In recent news…Jim and i did the comp prep and posing instruction for our friend Natasha Murtha, who WAS planning on doing the Heartland Classic for her first show…buuuuut……Once we got a look at her the weekend prior to the Des Moines Show, we knew she was already ready and needed to be in a Pro-Q…so, we sprung it on her that she needed to go and she was cool with it and rolled with the sudden peak week preps like a champ!! Turned out she was absolutely meant to be there as she took the Over-All figure title, winning her IFPA Figure pro-card in her very first figure competition!! Jim and i were blessed to spend the weekend with her and her husband and new NFL Detriot Lion Lydon. It was so much fun hanging out and helping her prep for the comp!!…even if we were up until 2 am getting tanner on! LOL!!! I was so excited for her win that i hugged her and just bawle my eyes out!! I only met Natasha 2 1/2 monthsor so prior to her comp and we became close friends fast….soon after the comp she had to move away and i’ve been missing her ever since! We are still in contact via facebook and phone, and she is planning on staying with us for a couple weeks prior to the KC show where she will make her pro debut and i’ll compete in the ametuer division.

Here are some pics from Natasha’s BIG night!!!…..Click on each pic to see them larger!