I’ve been busy researching online again for my next lot of purchases. My skins are close to retiring so I’m in the market for a brand new set. This time around I’m getting both a top and bottoms. They’ve been an invaluable tool and when it comes to recovery, it really does make a difference. These compression garmets are more than meets the eye, if you want to know more check out their website here.
I’m also due for a new pair of Asics Gel-Kayano 14 (W) . I’ve been wearing these runners for some time now and I’m still extremely happy with them. Now all I need to do is shop around for a good price as they’re some what expensive to buy at full retail. I seem to be on a fitness shopping spree at the moment doesn’t it. LOL!! And it doesn’t stop there either, there’s more.
Wonder Woman (AKA Lisa) our resident power lifter has been kindly helping me out with my squatting technique. Once again, it was back to the drawing board for me again. I started off well but found myself reverting back to old habits and in turn losing my confidence. I’d obviously tried my best to remedy the situation but wasn’t successful so this time round I knew I needed to tackle the beast from a different angle. So I emailed an expert and let me tell you her advice has been worth it’s weight in gold. I have never in my life squatted like I’m squatting now and everything about it is totally different. My warmups are done just using the bar and my working sets are still only using baby weights. I have to walk before I can run so it’s one step at a time at the moment. There’s one saying that comes to mind and that is “if at first you don’t succeed try try again”. It’s been a frustrating journey at times but I’m glad I persevered and got to where I am now. So anyway, when I was squatting this week someone had left their Manta Ray on the squat bar. I’d not seen one or even knew what one was but my hubby did. He’s wanted one for some time now but just hadn’t got around to getting one. I tried it out to see what it was like and I loved it. It’s much more comfortable and with less strain. So I’ve added it to our next shopping list at Bodybuilding.com with supplements and dream tan.
Silly me, I’ve just realised after visiting INBA today that they’ve changed the venue for the INBA All Female Classic. It’s now being held at Glen Eira Auditorium, Cnr. Glen Eira & Hawthorn Rds, Caulfield. So that’ll be exciting, I’ve not competed at this venue so it’ll be interesting to see what it is like. Especially the lighting conditions, that can have a huge impact on a competitors tan. It’ll all work out in the end though.
Well it appears I’ll be doing some travelling in the not so distant future to the Gold Coast. JD wants to see me in the lead up to my competition. In between my trips he’ll also be travelling down here to Melbourne. Everything about this experience so far is so very different to what I’m used to andd let me tell you I’m excited. When I’m up there I’ll hopefully be staying with the very lovely Lindy Olsen as well as seeing Jo Rogers. We’ll fine tune my costume fitting as well as polish up my posing. So as you can see it’ll be a very busy trip each time I travel up there but oh so worth it.
So as you can see life isn’t turning out to be so quiet as I had planned. Oh well, what can you do. LOL!! I mean, who was I kidding. Me having a quiet year not very likely. LOL!! Time for me to sign off and finish my lunch. Enjoy yourselves and live each day as if it were your last. xx
“How do I change?
If I feel depressed I will sing.
If I feel sad I will laugh.
If I feel ill I will double my labour.
If I feel fear I will plunge ahead.
If I feel inferior I will wear new garments.
If I feel uncertain I will raise my voice.
If I feel poverty I will think of wealth to come.
If I feel incompetent I will think of past success.
If I feel insignificant I will remember my goals.
Today I will be the master of my emotions.”
– Og Mandino
I got into work early this morning for an early start only to realise that the program has recently changed and I start later than expected, oh well lesson learned. LOL!!
I’m finally getting myself into a nice work routine again, it’s taken a while with all the changes going on but I’m got there.
So here I am, blogging again two days in a row now. My Polar F6 arrived safe and sound last week and has already been put to good use. I have to use it for my five times a week cardio sessions to ensure I’m maintaining a consistent heart rate. It’s a great tool to have and the many functions that it’s capable of are incredible. At the end of the session I know how long I’ve trained, how many calories I’ve used and what my average and maximum heart rate were. One thing I have noticed is that my cardiovascular fitness has improved as you would expect and my recovery is even quicker. I’m feeling fitter and fitter by the day.
I trained legs today and even tried out some of our new weight equipment. You see we’ve been a little understocked in our gym and we finally got a leg extension machine, lying leg curl machine, incline press and a lat pulldown. So now I have a little more choice which should keep me well entertained. LOL!! This afternoon my cardio is running in preparation for my annual pft at work and my legs are going to feel less than enthusiastic so I’ll just have to suck it up and get on with the job. I’m not a runner, not by any means but I do it because it’s a job requirement and I want to lead by example. And of course I’ll have my trusty new heart rate monitor on.
Comp prep is coming along nicely but I have had a change with my posing music. What I originally wanted to do turned out to be to difficult so it was back to the drawing board for me. Jo Rogers gave me some really great advice of which I’m following, she is after all a wealth of knowledge and I value all her help. So I came up with a new piece of music which I hope compliments the package I’m trying to portray. Only time will tell I guess. And in case you’re wondering I won’t be revealing what it is until the night of the competition, a girl has to keep something to herself you know. LOL!!
On a totally different note I’ve managed to find myself a great beauty salon in Sale. The owner and manager does all my waxing and she doesn’t mind that I’m very particular about it, her customer service skills are second to none. Now that’s something you don’t see everyday in this day and age. They’re only recently installed a new detox box and I’m going to be trying it out on a weekly basis. We’re hoping that it will help with my skin condition. We spend a lot of time and energy concentrating on all things internal that we often forget about our external. So taking care of your skin is equally as important when it comes to stage presentation. It’s also a time to rest and relax. I love getting pampered so it’s a win win situation for me.
Well it’s almost time for my afternoon snack, then I have to head out and teach another class before heading home for a run. So life for me as you can see is busy and I wouldn’t have it any other way. So on that note I’m out of here. xx
“If you want your life to be more rewarding,
you have to change the way you think.”
– Oprah Winfrey
Well not really but it certainly feels like it so I decided to sit down while I had a spare moment and fill you all in with what’s new with me.
The long weekend has been and gone and it was a looooong weekend in every aspect of the word for me. Saturday turned out to be a longer than expected day totalling 15 1/2 hours. I started at 0700h and finished at 2230h, I was dead on my feet by the time I got home. I was in bed by midnight then up again at 0500h the following morning for work at 0700h. Life in the military can be really tough some times and some of the things I do for my job aren’t typical of a woman either. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy the challenge so needless to say I just got on with the job as that’s what is expected. But my sleep bank was running on not very much so I remedied that last night. I went to bed at 2100h and got up at 0900h. 12 hours I know, not normal but necessary. Speaking of sleep I better hurry up and finish this blog, I have to be in bed in an hours time so I get a good night’s sleep before another 0500h start to the day. No rest for the wicked here. LOL!!
As I posted earlier Jenny Lynn’s coming here to Australia. I’m a big fan of hers, I have a personally autographed photo, as well as her posing manual and dvd of course. So it’s no surprise I’ve paid to go to her Fit Camp. I’ve learnt over the years that you can take away so much from so many individuals in this sport and come up with something that is uniquely yours. I want to be the best that I can be and with that means I have to continually change if I want to be competitive. Meeting her in person is going to be just incredible and you know there’s going to be photos. I wouldn’t miss that opportunity in the world.
As for comp prep, things are progressing along very nicely. I’m seeing weekly changes in the areas that I should and my body is responding well. I’ve also got on top of my nutrition. Like anything new you just have to persevere with it and sooner or later everything falls into place. Thankfully it was sooner.
And speaking of food I finally got my blood tests back from pathology with the results of my 93 Food Sensitivity Panel. First of all here’s the scale they use:
4+ = Very Strong Positive
3+ = Strong Positive
2+ = Positive
1+ = Borderline
0 = Negative
And here’s my results:
Cows Milk 4+ (Very Strong Positive)
Cocoa Bean 4+ (Very Strong Positive)
Cashew 3+ (Strong Positive)
Egg White 3+ (Strong Positive)
Almond 2+ (Positive)
Barley 2+ (Positive)
Corn 2+ (Positive)
Kidney Bean 2+ (Positive)
Rice 2+ (Positive)
Soya Bean 2+ (Positive)
Crab 1+ (Mild Reaction)
Coffee 1+ (Mild Reaction)
Goat’s Milk 1+ (Mild Reaction)
So it’s kind of back to the drawing board but different this time. First up I’m going to take out the cows milk and the cocoa bean for a couple of weeks as they had the highest reading and see if that makes a difference to my skin. It’ll be yet another form of trial and error but at least it won’t be anywhere near as drastic as the elimination diet. The only milk that I had was in my porridge and my skinny latte’s and the cocoa bean was an ingredient in my protein powder. It’s back to vanilla for me, not my favourite but it may well have to be. I’ll let you know how things go as they happen.
Time’s getting on so I really must go. I still have much more to blog about so that’ll have to wait for another day I guess. I hope you all had a great long weekend and I wish you a fabulous start to the week.
My domain name is now up and running right here on blogspot. But don’t worry because http://liahalsall.blogspot.com/ will automatically take you to here (my blog) but under the new domain name of www.liahalsall.com
This is the first step towards bigger and better things to come this year. But shhh, it’s all top secret. ;o)
I had a little spare time so I thought I’d squeeze in another blog in case I don’t get another chance over the next couple of weeks.
Well I’ve just got back from the gym from my morning cardio and some specific words come to mind like…..sweaty…..burning…..pumped…..adrenalin. LOL!! Today’s session was some what tougher than yesterday’s but oh so worth it in the end. It’s good to get that over and done with for the day. Now I’m not the biggest fan of cardio, I’m more of a weights girl. But JD has given me things to do that I’m really enjoying as are my dogs. They come out with me three times a week for a walk around Lake Gutheridge. It’s a gorgeous wetlands that makes the walk so much more enjoyable and not like work at all. I’ll take a pic this week for you so you can see how beautiful it is.
I’ve also been shopping again this morning online. I know I know, I can’t help myself. But honestly, it was an essential purchase and I can justify it. LOL!! I bought a Polar F6 from ebay. They retail for $249.00 and I got it for $174.99 registered p+h included so not a bad saving if I do say so myself. It’s always been something I’ve wanted to buy and only now have I finally got around to it. Better late than never I say.
Whilst I’m on the topic of training I came across something interesting yesterday when I was visiting Jenny Lynn’s website and that was her new training downloads over at My Body Beats. They’re professional downloads by IFBB Professionals. It’s not something I’ve personally tried but would be interested in checking out one day. I’m a big believer of you should never knock anything unless you’ve personally tried it first. You just never know do you.
I’ve just finished my post-training meal and found it to be delicious today. Slowly but surely my taste buds are adjusting to a cleaner way of eating and it sure feels good to be fueling up with premium fuel instead of the old leaded stuff. You are what you eat so I’m a lean mean figure machine. LOL!!
Better make a move, my domestic duties await. Enjoy what’s left of your Sunday. And remember, live each day as if it were your last. 
)
“When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low, and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
when he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow,
You may succeed with another blow.
Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit,
It’s when things seem worst, that
You Must Not Quit.”
– C. W. Longenecker
