I'm having issues. I don't feel like DOING anything. I don't feel like doing laundry. (Though I have to, if I want to get packed to go to Ireland.) I don't feel like packing. (Though I have to, unless I intend to walk around Ireland nekkid. And I hear it's cold there.) I don't feel like going to work, and once I'm there I don't feel like DOING any work. It's a struggle to keep myself on task and not let my mind wander. It was easier last week, but only because I was both busy and miserable dealing with someone else's work while she was on vacation. :P

I don't feel like working on my posing suit. Which is sad, because the dress form is done, and I don't think it would take me too long to get the suit done if I'd just BEGIN.

I don't feel like cleaning, or going for a motorcycle ride. I don't feel like going to church. I don't feel like cooking or adhering to the diet.

And I don't feel like working out. I haven't done a single workout all week. I won't be able to on Friday at all, either, since it's Lynn's birthday. Which means I'll be doing one workout on Thursday night, and I might as well plan on spending all damned DAY Saturday at the gym. Posing practice at nine, and I'll just hang out until the place closes at 2pm, I guess. *sigh* But I don't feel like it. :P

Part of the problem is my legs are still sore. Another is that I'm having girl trouble (unusual for me) and lastly, my head is killing me, and I'm sick of all the stupid RAIN.

So, now that you all know my ridiculous reasons for basically being a lazy-ass, I think I'm going to go put the TV volume on low and watch an old Harry Potter movie. *snerk* Don't know if I'll get to see the new one until it comes out on DVD at this rate, but I might as well be prepared. Lol!

I hurt. I don't hurt EVERYWHERE, but the pain in my hamstrings is enough to make it SEEM like I hurt everywhere.

Saturday I did a double workout - legs first, then arms, then 2X abs and finally cardio. I was a bit sore when I got up this morning. Then I put on my neoprene shorts and ran 3.1 miles. Now I can't walk. Well, no that isn't quite true. I can't walk with any kind of speed at all, and I have to tread carefully and not fully extend either leg or I let out a little whimper that's kind of pathetic and embarrassing.

Which means I'm not moving much. Tomorrow should be REALLY fun. They say the soreness sets in worst the day AFTER the workout......

I wish I had put the crystals on my suit this weekend, so I could remind myself what I'm doing all this for, but I haven't had a very productive weekend at all. 2 loads of laundry and a lot of re-watched episodes of Firefly. Lol!

I've had enough of this sore throat, please. I'd like to get better now? :P

I added some carbs back into today's diet in the hopes that it would help me to recover faster. Also, I have to leave for a doctor's appointment in about an hour. With any luck, they'll be able to tell me what's wrong, whether it's related to the ear infection I already had, or if I need additional drugs to overcome it.

Honestly, being sick suxxors! I slept most of yesterday, and sat silently at my desk most of today. I'm more than ready to go home and nap.

But....I haven't had a proper workout in a week! I hate to ditch AGAIN. At this rate, there's no way I'll be ready for the June 5 show......

I skipped my workout tonight, and I had two bites of buffalo chicken dip (which includes cream cheese).

Consequently, I weigh a pound more than I ought to. This strikes me as painfully unfair, as I didn't have any corn chips with the dip, and I only had two little bites. And yet there is no denying that I weigh more today than yesterday.

*sigh*

My show is June 5th. Six weeks away. This weekend, I'll be at Leesburg Bike Fest. The plan? Take a LOT of tuna, made with Vegenaise instead of mayo. And protein shakes for breakfasts. I'll be home in time to go back to work on Monday, where I will be covering for the order entry chick, who is on vacation to attend her daughter's wedding until Wednesday.

Then, Thursday I fly to Reno for a conference concerning the software we purchased last September. Intense training for two solid days and maybe a half, then I fly home.....which leaves me with only five weeks to prepare for a show after two weeks when I will not have completed the whole workout.

And that's IF I manage to behave myself in Reno. If I eat, it's all over. I'll have to aim for a show in July instead.....and I just don't think I can handle another season like 2008, when I missed every show I aimed for. I just cannot be that person again. Made me feel like crap.

Finally some progress on getting ready for Christmas and company! My home office is all cleaned up, ready to put an air mattress in so Jerm will have a place to sleep. My Christmas tree is finally, finally decorated, and I have relocated the plug for the outdoor lights to an outlet that has juice. :D They look pretty good, considering I did them myself in 80 degree heat and was in quite a hurry to get off that hot roof! Lol!

In the office, things are looking fairly calm. Most of the work that will need done while I'm on vacation will be accomplished by someone else. I will just need to log into the system once or twice a day and generate any necessary releases to keep stuff moving out of the warehouse. I probably won't even have to come into the office, as I originally expected I'd need to do. :D

Lynn is working on renting a van, and putting my motorcycle back together. We finally got the right clutch cable shipped from CA, and installed on the bike. It's nice having the handlebars so much closer to me, so I can reach them better. I think it will make long rides much more comfortable. Maybe once the speedometer is hooked up again, I'll finally take a few pix. Lol!

The gym situation is rather trixier....My trainer quit Gold's Gym on Friday. They've been making things hard for him since the competition season ended, and it finally occurred to him that they WANTED him to go away, so that's what he did. I think he did the right thing. They were really getting obnoxious. Saying he couldn't take pictures of the competition girls. (Which is dumb because nothing untoward ever happened during that process - and he needed those pictures to help him formulate diet plans specific to each girl. He couldn't very well write down the whole diet during one of the two hours I get to spend with him every week! We need that time to learn exercises!)

( More on Gym Drama, if you happen to be interested. )

In other figure news, the One-Piece portion of the competition is no more. *sigh* I dropped $75 for a new one-piece just last month. Oh well. I guess it'll go in the shadowbox with the old one I was planning to retire. Lol!

And that's about it for news from me. Mostly, I'm just trying to get everything done before Friday. I'll probably be scrubbing my floors on Christmas day, but that's alright. At least it looks like I'm going to manage to get everything finished. :)

Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope you all have a lovely holiday! ♥

I have been working out and dieting since January.
I have been lifting hard and dieting hard since about April.
And yet I have not done a figure competition. I was just too heavy at the beginning, and it took FOREVER to get the weight back off. Even now, I am not truly show-ready. Small amounts of cellulite still remain on my hips. My back is not as muscular as I would like - my arms not as defined.

HOWEVER.

I am bone-weary of the competition season. So I'm doing this weekend's Hurricane Bay Classic in the "Over 30 Short" classification. All the girls I work out with every day are competing in this one, and it'll be the last show of the season for the whole team. I was GOING to wait and do a show at the end of October, but that really isn't fair to my trainer - to make him work a whole extra month just because I got chubby in the off-season. Lol!

So, I've taken today off of work and made an appointment to be spray tanned. Thankfully my neighbor does that, and has a little shop right in town. I called her up just last night and she gave up her lunch hour to work me in.

I'm about to call to see if we can board the dog (I'm sure THAT will make her happy. We JUST got back from vacation!), and pick up a few last minute things while I'm in town (cash for the entry fee, etc.) And I've got to eat my morning fish. *rolls eyes*

I've been eating fish four times a day all week long. Fish. The WHOLE Fish. And nothing BUT the fish. Well, that's not exactly true: fish and broccoli or fish and asparagus....But I'm still pretty f*ing SICK of fish. The good news is, the meal I'm consuming right now is the last fish I am likely to eat until about NEXT April. :D Talk about thinking happy thoughts! Lol!

So, that's what I've been up to. Oh, and I finished Midnight Never Come, but I can't give you an overview of it because the folks I'm reading it with haven't got to it yet. Instead, I think I'll read Labrynth. It isn't new, of course, so there's little point in me reviewing it - most of you have probably read it already and I'm just slow. (Or I was so Twilight-obsessed that I ignored it. That's been known to happen. Lol!)

But that's all I've got for you. Hope to have some good news to report on Sunday, but it's exceedingly unlikely that I'll place. This is just for fun. ♥

I was recently reminded of why I have so few girlfriends. There are only about five girls who workout with my trainer at the same gym I do. (Everyone else who works out with him goes to the gym in the next town over, and he trades off days between the two clubs.)

One of them - and I haven't made up an appropriate, non-vulgar name for her yet - has been moonlighting with another trainer behind his back for months. The rest of us saw her, and discussed it. We came to the conclusion that it wasn't any of our business and we all kept our mouths shut about it.

One day, she got stupid and was working out with the other trainer on a day when OUR trainer was actually IN THE BUILDING. He saw her doing it, and his feelings were hurt. Naturally. It is the height of bad form in a club to change trainers without actually SPEAKING to your current trainer about it first. There really wasn't anything MORE offensive that she could have done.

Naturally, she got fired from the competition team and my trainer will not work with her anymore. She will have to work exclusively with her new trainer. She can still compete, of course, if he can get her ready in time. I assume he can. He IS very good, and trains both men and women for bodybuilding and figure.

The next day, I realized she had dropped me from her facebook friends, so when I saw her that night in the dressing room, I asked her why and she was very insulting as she explained: "Because y'all narced on me!"

I replied that we had not done any such thing, and that, in fact, my trainer had come to me demanded to know why I had NOT told him! Her response? "That's not what I was told!"

She had clearly been crying, and I don't think she's worth my time to have a friendship with at this point anyway, so I congratulated her shortly (she doesn't know it, but I was congratulating her on losing a friend) and left.

I then wrote the following to her in FB before I blocked her:
( Letter to the rude workout chick: )

*sigh* Because she has been at that gym much longer than I have, and because she spends a ridiculous amount of time there, even in comparison to ME, I feel ostracised. For the most part, she knows every soul in the place, and I don't. I keep to myself. I get my work done. Now I feel like people are talking about me behind my back, which is hardly fair, since I didn't DO anything wrong. :(

So, I'm just going to continue to keep my head down and do my work. And kick her ass in the next competition. ;)

It's been pointed out to me that I'm neglecting my journal. I suppose this is partially because life is such a boring thing to me just now, and partially because most of my online time is wasted spent buying people on FB. Lol!

Currently, I work nine hours, go to the gym for 2 or 2.5, go home, make dinner, play friends-for-sale, take a shower and go to bed. Every day. Like clockwork. No changes to the routine, and nothing much to break up the monotony.

However, this week has been slightly more entertaining. On Tuesday, I did the official weigh in and discovered that I've dropped down to 16.5% body fat. I started the year at 25%, so that's pretty substantial. I've only lost 8 lbs, but I'm not worried about that. I'm trying to build muscle, so it stands to reason I'm going to be a little heavier than I was during the last competition season.

My first show will be in St. Augustine on July 26th. I was given the specific diet to get me ready for it on Tuesday as well, and it's a lot nicer than last time - pizza once in a great while, or steak.... Most excellent. :D

Also, last night I did twice the cardio I should have. Why? Because our Gold's Gym has Cardio Theater. I don't usually work out in there, as I usually have a book. But they were playing INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE!! I couldn't resist. I watched almost the entire film. Lol!

Additionally, at lunch time on Tuesday I went book shopping. I picked up Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Pirsig, and Skinny Legs and All by Robbins. I haven't started reading them yet, but they sound very entertaining. Recommended to me by Tristan, whom I met on FB.

So, that's all I have to report. Quality over quantity. Oh, and if you're annoyed with me for not writing, and think that the world needs more stories, please just write one yourself and let me know when you post it. :D I'll be glad to be a reader for a while, myself. Writing is exhausting you know! Sometimes my muse needs a vacation.