It's time for my morning walk... 

Breathing

Heading the right direction is so relaxing. It really doesn't take any extra work. Doing the wrong things causes me a lot of stress. My boss has lightened up on me for some reason. I don't know why I was getting whipped like a bad dog in the first place. It certainly provided grist for the stress eating mill. I haven't screwed up in two days. Not one piece of candy, no carmel macciattos, nothing. I'm at 207 today. I'm off to a cardio workout in a few. It's finally not raining and a little pointy earred devil would like to go for his morning walk. We're heading into another holiday weekend and I'd like this one to work out better than the last one. NYE we'll be at Teatro Zinzanni, I'm pretty fired up about this. I looked at their online wine list. I was going to bring wine, but they're serving a Shafer Merlot. I'm done like dinner. They're also serving Grand Dame, so there's no where for me to go. Saturday will be an excellent free day!

This weeks routine
1 egg 1/3 cup whites
2 slices lean Canadian Bacon
Shredded Wheat with nonfat milk

Protein Bar

Apple and String Cheese

Turkey on ww sourdough

Chicken breast sauteed with spices, little bit of wine and spinach over ww pasta

ricotta cheese and blueberries

U-Turn and some political ramblings

OK, nothing like a good old fashioned U-Turn. I'm down 3 pounds this morning, feeling much better, fired up to get to the gym this morning. It's pouring out so a little black and tan man won't be getting his morning walk. It's all good, he doesn't want to get his little Doberman footies wet anyway. They'll melt if they get wet doncha know. I got my registration for Napa in the mail yesterday so I'm good to go on that one. Feeling very strong it should be good.

How many police officers does it take to bring down a crazy dude with a 3 inch blade? Apparently in New Orleans you just shoot the guy 9 times. Apparently NO police officers are only trained to shoot to kill. Note to self, do what the NOPD says, it's all or nothing with those guys. I'm not crazy so I would do what a police officer asked me too. However, Mr. Crazyhoppeduponcrack or whatever his issue was didn't get the memo. That's fair, Crackheads don't read memos from the NOPD. STILL, nine shots, all potential kill shots? Boys, take a Xanax, that's overkill. Ask the guys on CSI. Did you lose your stun guns in the Hurricane? OK, good argument, but just shoot the guy once and see if he goes down, cuz if your shoot him nine times, he's going down cuz he's dead. How many cops were surrounding that guy anyway, and how did you not shoot each other if you were in a circle? Or did you just form a firing line? Take a page from NYPD. Y'all need some therapy, you've been through hell, get some help. Or maybe this is how NOPD has always done things, there's just never been so many cameras around before...

Wrong Way Do Not Enter

I'm so on the fast track to complete demise, the road to hell. I don't even know what's going wrong. Actually I think I'm retaining water. I hit 211 this morning after eating pretty well yesterday. I guess it is what it is, (Rumi or Rumsfeld, take your pick) but I must turn the train around. I just filled out my application for Napa. 19 days to right the ship. Perhaps taking yesterday off except for going to the gym was problematic. I had a great workout yesterday. When I first got up I had a food hangover from Christmas. Then I took a nap around 11 and when I got up the 2nd time I was good to go. Had one of the best workouts in a while, but not showing any results this morning eh?

Feeling kinda Buddha

Holy Cannoli Batman, check out that photo! My friend looking fantastic and me OMG. Who is that bloated blotchy mess desperately needing to shed 35 pounds? This is embarrassing. I'm putting this picture on my blog to remind me to step away from the food trough. I've been pretty good over the holidays, only up 3 pounds from our starting weight. It'll probably be off in a day or two, but all we need is a picture with 3 or 4 chins like this one, next to a friend looking amazing to send us to the gym. I'm there brother! I will give myself accountability by posting pictures as we go. I'm setting my New Year's Goals, I don't do resolutions, I set goals for the coming year. I'll post them when it's together.

The Blonde and the Buddha 

Twas the night before Christmas

And somehow, my weight has remained stable. Don't know how, but it has. I have been working out fairly hard and haven't missed the gym in a while. It'll be shut down tomorrow, but no worries. Of course there is a couple of quickies I have to run out for right now. It's 7:20 in California so it's cool, I'll be the only one at the mall for about an hour and then it'll be on. Then it's off to either yoga or the gym. I haven't decided yet. Still PMSing, now six days in the hole, I just love getting old. Did I ever mention that I'm 47? I don't intend on growing old gracefully, I will fight every step of the way.

Why do people become a-holes at Christmas?

It's been a very rough week. My boss dressed me down in front of my branch and I'm still stewing two days later. What's really sad is it was so unnecessary. Luckily it didn't sent me into a tailspin. It sent me to the gym, mad as hell. It's wrong. So I sit at my desk appearing to be hard at work, but I'm blogging.

Breakfast
1/2 english muffin
2 slices Canadian Bacon
1 slice low fat Jarlsburg
Orange

Snack
Fat free cottage cheese
Blueberries

Lunch
BBQ Turkey breast sandwich

Snack
Apple
String cheese

Dinner will be
Steak
brown rice
salad

dessert will be
Chocolate Mousse fortified with protein powder.

OUT.

Rock and Roll

The holidays are tough on BFL. I haven't done a great job, but I haven't done a terrible job either. Moderation is the answer to getting through this 6 week gamut and I've been keeping it on an even keel. I'm off to the gym in a minute. I had a very good cardio workout yesterday. I did an extra 15 minutes after I finished the BFL workout and then put in 100 machine crunches after that. My cycle is due any moment and that's not helping matters at all. I'm also trying to get to the gym closer to 5am than 6am as starting 1/2 all of the New Years resolutions will be at the gym, not knowing what they're doing and generally screwing up my life. While I need surgery, which I usually schedule in January to avoid the 6 weeks of New Year's resolution people, I didn't lose enough weight this year to do the surgery. My knees are shot. Riddled with arthritis and in desperate need of the buff and shine and some adjustments to stop the damage. But the Doc said that I needed to get some more weight off before she'd operate. Fair enough. I'm down 25 but I want to get another 35 off and then have the surgery. For now, off to the gym. No scheduled parties this week. If I can stay out of the office goodies I'm home free.

Breakfast
1 egg 3 whites
Shredded wheat and nonfat milk

Snack
Apple
String Cheese

Lunch
Chicken and grape salad

Snack
Roast chicken sandwich

Dinner
Pork Chop
Roast potato
Salad

Dessert
Ricotta
Blueberries

Yoga mojo

I got to yoga class yesterday morning. That's been a long time coming. There's a class 6 miles from my house, but no, I have to drive to Berkeley to go to Funky Door I used to know Lynn back in the day in SF. She was our spinning instructor. We'd do an hour and a half spin class with her and then go do an hour and a half Bikram yoga class at 20th and Eureka, whatever the name of that studio was. I think they're still there. The instructor there would tell us about a car wreck she was in where the Doctor's told her she'd never walk again and how yoga had allowed her to live her life. Yoga may save mine now. My knees are crap, my SI joint is crap and my shoulder is crap. I've committed myself to once a week, I would be nice if I could go more, but the commitment is only one class per week. I used to hit yoga twice a week and that really helps but right now once is fine. Anyway, I do miss those three hour workouts. God we were tough back then.

Thursday Christmas Party obstacle course

I have two Christmas parties today. It will be an obstacle course. I got much of my shopping done last night in the City. Spent way too much, but who doesn't? Some lovely gifts for some friends and my brother. I don't know what to do about the Ministry of Disinformation (my Mother) but I still have 9 days. She's old and has everything she'll ever need, although she continues to find things to spend money on. Yet she can't Christmas shop for the family any more. which is why my brother and I will be attending Christmas at the Royal Tennenbaums.

My weight is fluxuating around wildly right now. I'm not sure what's up but for the most part, I've been behaving. I'm taking today as my free day. There will be too much crap around all day so I took a break from the gym this morning (cardio) and I'll make it up on Sunday. Of course the following Sunday will be a free for all.

Critical to my success is getting to the Chiro. Once a month should do it, but I really need to get my butt over there once a month. Then once a month for a massage and if I alternate every two weeks with one or the other, I should stay on course. I got my elbow adjusted yesterday. I did not realize how compromised it was until she adjusted it and it started feeling better. This is a great thing. I backed my max goal off 10 pounds on the bench and that's been helping too. I don't think I'm as "back" from my shoulder problems as I'd like to think. Still, next up January 14 in Napa. Hoo Ya!

Crime Scene Clean up

OMG. I don't know what went wrong yesterday. The Marketing Department had a bunch of chocolate Santas and Reese's bells. I went insane. I might have eaten all of them. This morning they said it looked like a crime scene. No wonder yesterday didn't go like it should have. Ah, but tomorrow's another day.

And today was another day. Excellent workout. Ate exactly what I was supposed to and even got a ton of chores done around the house. Tomorrow, I'll get my back worked on and finish my Christmas shopping, because tomorrow is another day.

Stuff that bugs me

They're called Stored Product Pests. They bug me big time. I've been fighting these damned moths for about two months now, maybe a bit longer. An occasional white worm was showing up, I threw out some flour but didn't really get to the bottom of it. Today, I got to the bottom of it. It was the lauder cabinet and it was riddled with the damned things. I now have no flour, no sugar, no pasta, no rice, no corn starch, no nuts, no KOSHER SALT are you friggin' kidding me? They got into the SALT! The couscous you name it if it was a stored product it had a pest in it. Mealy bugs, white worms, moths, nests, eggs, freaking gross! Ick! OK, I'm starting fresh next week. I still want to wash down the cabinet and everything remaining, which is my spices and some sealed tapioca, who eats tapioca anyway?

There's something about Harry. We went Christmas shopping today. He's always so late and today was no exception. I called him 4 minutes before he was supposed to be here and he was brushing his teeth. I figured I had time and I bought food for the week and Doberman food and still was waiting for him when he finally arrived. OK next weeks alleged food. Tuesday morning doesn't count as it's the CCRIM breakfast and while I will endeavor to eat correctly, all bets are off. Thursday is a Manager's meeting at the Marriott and similarly all bets are off. That being said:

WW english muffin
Canadian bacon
Lite Jarlsberg

Apple
String Cheese

Chicken & Grape curried salad sans almonds, damned bugs.

Enriched chocolate pudding or protein bar

Chicken Parmesan
Salad
WW pasta

Low fat ricotta
Wild Blueberries.

Hopefully I'll keep my head screwed on properly this week through Hurricane Gail. . . or Gail force winds or something...

The proof is in the pudding

And maybe I should have had less pudding. Yikes. Over the last 12 week cycle I gained 3 pounds from 201 to 203 and a percentage of body fat from 34.7 to 35.7. That's what you get for screwing around. I think I'll spend today getting my head screwed on correctly.

Not the week I planned on

I missed a workout on Friday. The first workout I'd missed since November 7. I think I had the same issue, exhaustion. You're supposed to take the week after a meet off to rest, but I'm always so fired up from the meet that I want to keep lifting. I had to lay off two ladies at work on Wednesday. That just spins me out. Especially if they a single mothers with children, which they were in this case. Not only was my boss no help, she actually seemed to be doing everything she could to make my life difficult that day. Finally, I called her bluff on something around 4pm and she had to back off. This started the chocolate consumption. There is so much crap around the offices right now, that a little bit of stress, ok a buttload of stress and I'm doing the wrong thing almost instantaneously. Not to proud of last week's performance. I'll weigh in in a little bit and see where I ended up. Yesterday started off correctly, went to the gym and had a protein bar for breakfast. Next thing you know I'm drinking Kir Royale at the Left Bank, ordering French Onion Soup and all hell is breaking loose. I had to pick up KO's son at his hoop game in San Anselmo and drive him to the Fairmount for a family event. I had a couple of glasses of wine with them at the Fairmount and headed home. I ended up skipping dinner, having a BFL dessert and calling it a night. Today is the last day of a 12 week challenge and I think I actually finished heavy a couple of pounds. Hopefully the fat percentage will be down a bit.

Lock and Load

OK, Laughlin is done, now we're on to Napa, January 14. I need to help them compile the records, I will get after that soon. I started benching today and realized that my shoulders were a little more sore than I had originally thought. No worries, I did the first part of the bench work out, 5X50%, 4X2X60%, 3X2X70% and then instead of doing 3X6X80%, which was 185lbs, I did two sets of 3 and went to the dumbbells. I did my old shoulder capping routine that I hadn't done in a long time and followed that with my PT shoulder routine. Good enough for government work.

All the candy and crap that's all over the office today and I walked by all of it. That was harder than the workout. The chicken parmesan came out perfect tonight and damn! I can make me some red sauce. The ticket is very high quality ingredients. Garlic brought back to me from the Gilroy Garlic Festival, olive oil, organic diced tomatoes, dried wild mushrooms, Petite Sirah, home grown Thai peppers and a touch of brown sugar to cut the acid. MMMmmm. I'm going to try and hit yoga tomorrow, looking forward to getting back into thatk. Tonight is Obedience school with the Devil Dog himself. I don't know who keeps getting this dog so spun out before school. Today he spun around and took my knees out from under me hyperlocking the left. Hopefully I can walk tomorrow since I was seeing stars tonight.

Today's consumption

1/2 ww english muffin
3 slices lean black forest ham
1 slice low fat jarlsberg

1 apple
1 string cheese

1 roasted potato
sliced london broil

ProMax bar

EFL Baked Chicken parmesan
Salad

Riccotta and blueberries

Good dog!

Cowabunga 

The numbers

Well, if I keep it real, here's the daily numbers for next week:

Calories 1544
Fat 35g
Protein 133.5g
Carbs 164g

I need to add about 5 grams of protien somewhere, but it's gonna take some figuring. Maybe adding an scrambled egg and some whites with breakfast...

Accountability

OK, here goes, this week's meal plan:

Breakfast

1/2 ww english muffin
3 slices lean Canadian Bacon
1 slice low fat Jarlsburg
1 small orange

Snack:
Fat Free Cottage cheese
Fruit

Lunch:
London Broil on ww Sourdough w/lettuce

Snack:
Apple
String Cheese

Dinner:
Chicken Parmesan
WW pasta
Salad

Desert:
Low Fat Ricotta
Wild Blueberries

I'll figure out the calories protein and fat a little later.

Laughlin, NV

It's like being in Hell. You can't breathe through all of the smokers and you can't eat in that damned town. The River Palm is a huge hotel with the world's oldest HVAC system. You can barely breathe fresh air even on the the non-smoking floors. Luckily it was cold outside so fresh air could be found if you went somewhere alone.

How do you mess up a baked potato? Ask the River Palm, they did it. How do you screw up hof brau style prime rib? Ask the River Palm they did it. Their food is designed for old people (like over 70 old) who can't taste the difference anyway. How I managed to lift on that garbage is a mystery to me, but I did. I walked over to the Golden Nugget in the morning for some Starbucks since there was no in room coffee. Had a blueberry muffin just because I figured Starbucks wasn't going to poison me. I lifted at 10:30 that day so I went back to the room, had my coffee drank a bit of water and waited. I had a ProMax bar about 20 minutes before I went down to warm up and away we went. After the bench I went over to Subway and got a sandwich on whole wheat bread with cheese steak, a slice a provolone and some Chipolte goo on it. Nothing else. No damage and that's a good thing. That's the last I ate in Laughlin. I waited until the next day in Vegas to eat again. I just couldn't bear to deal with crappy food any more. I will be back on BFL today. In Vegas I went to Mon Ami Gabi, my favorite lunch spot and had a couple of glasses of Laurent Perrier, an order of garlic toast with goat cheese baked in a ramikin with a tomato sauce, then it was Quiche Lorraine with a lovely baby green salad. Finished it off with an espresso and vanilla bread pudding with a caramel sauce and vanilla bean ice cream on top. That's all I ate yesterday and it was more than enough. I feel surprisingly good and ready to be back on track today. I'm off to my e-diets page to plan this weeks food.

AAU meet December 2, 2005

Not bad for an old woman, two firsts and a second. Martin was gracious enough to cross me over into two classes that I hadn't originally signed up for. He has a soft spot for me, I think it's because I've always been easy going and not a pain in the butt. Did I want to deadlift? Jeez, I hadn't been focused on deadlifting because I hadn't entered that discipline, but I guess I could. And I did. I equaled my existing world/american record, but could not break it. I benched 192.8 which isn't a world or american record and is about 10 pounds away from it. I'm happy with that lift though. I blew out my shoulder mid August at a meet. I had the flu and lost 11 pounds. So I weighed-in in a different class, but then a lift that should have been no big deal, 192.8, was a major struggle. The next lift 198 came crashing down on me and my shoulder was toast. I tore the bicepetral tendon, not completely, but bad enough. I couldn't lift for 6 weeks so I'm happy with the progress, to be back where I am and not hurt two days after the meet.

Now let's talk about grace. My goodness, there was a woman there that was so obnoxious I would think she was taking her cues from TO. Yeah you lifted a ton, bully for you, but I couldn't even be in the same room with you, yeah, you were that embarassing. Not to be a jerk, but I hope they test you, I think your voice is a little funny, your hair was a little thin and maybe you had a little help. For the most part women aren't as, well, testosterone fueled as you appeared. I would like to be wrong, but I don't think I am on you. That little Mexican girl outlifted you and I think she was clean. 26 years old and just about as gracious as they come. She lifted a ton and was sweet and kind and a joy to compete with. She kicked my butt, but I don't mind losing to someone like her.

Ron Santee the head ref was very kind to me. After my first bench he told me what a nice lift it was and thought I had room to add more weight. I knew my shoulder was crap so I only went up 2.5 keys. After the second lift he told me that my second lift was technically one of the best lifts he'd seen that day. That made me very proud, I smiled and thanked him. I missed my third lift, but I was happy about the day. I try to take a businesslike approach to lifting, focus on the job at hand and execute. That works best for me. I would like to be thought of as the technically sound, gracious powerlifter, and maybe a charactor of the game :-)

My deadlifts were sound in spite of the fact that I hadn't trained for competition. The first one was 236.5 and while it was heavy, it came up just fine. The 2nd was 242.5 and it was a bit of work, but came up fine too. The third was a mistake, it was 253.5 which was my existing record and if I had added 1/2 key it would have been a new record. I got the third but missed the fourth. Still not bad for not training to deadlift. A good day all and all.

Welcome

I've been asked repeatedly to journal my adventures. I will do that here. I have two other blogs, but I'm so out of control on the one that I cannot link to it with good conscience. It keeps me sane. The other chronicles the passing of my dog Toby. Toby had lung cancer, she only stayed with me for 19 months but she was a Gypsy Doberman and she stole my heart. She promised to trade it back later for my wallet, but she never did.

Here I will discuss my:

Powerlifting
Body for Life
Yoga
Golf
Dobermans, mine in particular
Wine
Mustangs
Home remodeling
Swimming pools
BMW's
Travels
Pickup trucks and country music
And if I can't resist...politics.