Friday, June 28, 2013

More Bang!


Happy Friday!  

The photo above is totally my feeling these days.  School is out (for the kids) and it's time for summer fun!  Off contest prep I am so not looking to spend more than an hour in the gym and why should you have to?  

It is not necessary to stay in the gym all day to maintain a good physique.  Yes, you need to watch what you eat but you can successfully bang out cardio and weight training in 45 minutes to an hour by lowering the weight, doing more reps and less rest periods in between sets.

Yesterday I put in an incredible leg workout in just under hour by supersetting and making a circuit out of it.  I totally thought I was going to puke!  LOL  I'll post that one in a few days.  Wanna see if I can videotape it.  It will be a lot easier to show you then to explain.  Alright guys, that's all for now!  I hope that you have an awesome day!

K.-

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Quinoa Shrimp Cakes with a Kick!


1 lb of cooked shrimp (deveined with tails removed)
1 cup cooked quinoa 
1 egg white
1 sliced jalapeno pepper
3 diced scallions
3 chopped cloves of garlic
1 piece of ginger (about 1/2"knob) sliced
1-2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1-2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
1-2 tablespoons agave nectar

For Sauce

Chili Garlic Sauce
Lime Juice
Brown Sugar (or Agave Nectar)
Fat Free Greek Yogurt  (I used Fage Brand)


Place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until completely mixed.  I used my Blendtec blender.    Use a wooden spoon to check to make sure all is blended evenly.  Heat a nonstick skillet coated with Pam on medium heat.  Scoop out 2 tablespoons and form patties.  Place patties in skillet and cook for approximately 5 minutes.  Be sure to press patties to remove any excess liquids.  This will make them firmer and prevent breakage.  


Top with sauce made of chili garlic sauce, lime juice and a little brown sugar.  Mix to taste.  I used 2 tablespoons chili garlic, 1 tablespoon of lime juice and about a teaspoon of brown sugar.  I also added a little Greek yogurt to make the sauce creamy but if you are like my husband and not into cream, just eliminate the yogurt.

I just came up with this one last night so I haven't worked out the approximate nutritional information yet but this should yield you about 4 servings.  I hope you like them!




Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Iron Love (Originally Shared on Muscle & Fitness Hers Online April 25, 2013)


                                        

     Rudy and I didn’t meet in the gym.  In fact, we had been married for seven years before I bought my first official gym membership.  With Ru, “gym” came as a packaged deal.  He tried to introduce “us” pretty early on but at that time, I had absolutely no use for it.  I was a size 6 without effort and had absolutely no interest in sweating out my weave just because. 
     Ru has always been into sports and fitness.  But after the birth of our eldest son, I became very jealous of his relationship with “gym”.  “Why was he spending so much time there?  Does he have a girlfriend?  Is all that working out really necessary??  Because of my insecurities he began to cut back on his training.  And though he was a trooper and rolled with it, it began to change him.  He wasn’t as calm and relaxed as he had been when he was able to train more consistently.  It wasn’t  good.
    As the universe would have it, after the birth of our youngest son, I went from wearing that cute size 6 to double digits and no, I’m not talking a 10 or a 12 either.  When I went shopping for some new digs for work, I actually fit comfortably in a size 20!  That’s when it hit me that it was time to do something.
     In an effort to become more physical, I decided to start walking.  I can remember this day as if it were yesterday… it was too cold to go out so Rudy and I ventured to the mall to get our walk on indoors.  We walked the entirety of every floor, pushing the kids along in their double stroller as we walked passed the window displays.  We ended up strolling right into a New York Sports Club, which was located smack in the middle of the food court (go figure).  Who knew that that would be the beginning of our fit life? 
     I started out as a cardio queen but still ate dirty and enough for two people.  Rudy laughs recounting when I used to think that making eggplant Parmesan draped in ricotta cheese was a healthy meal.  
     Rudy had always thought about competing in a bodybuilding competition.  At that point I had never even gone to a show.  We went to one together and I was completely inspired by the conditioning of the female competitors.  I was especially impressed learning that a lot of them were older than me.  If they could do it, I could do it!  I immediately started prepping for my first show.  Rudy decided this maybe the only opportunity he’d have to compete so after my first two weeks of prep, he decided he would begin prepping to do the show with me.  I began weight training with him regularly.  He knew so much about the gym and the different equipment.  I was completely clueless, but with his guidance, I learned a lot and slowly began to drift into my own flow.   I fell in love with iron.  I loved how powerful it made me feel.  I loved how strong I became and how my body began to transform.  I quickly began to see what it was Rudy found in “gym” as I began to spend just as much time training as he had and you could tell when I hadn’t been able to get my heavy metal therapy in, but falling in love with competing was one I would have never guessed.
     Our first competition was a pleasurable experience and the fact that we did it together and both survived was an even greater testament to our love for one another.   We learned a lot.  I learned a lot.  After the last remnants of the competition spray tan had washed away, we were left with a completely different way of life than the one we started when we first said, “I do”. 
     It’s not easy though.  In Rudy’s words:
          “The most challenging aspect of being married to a competitor is definitely the moodiness that comes along with the diet.  The diet is a very difficult thing for anyone to master and it leads to a variety of emotions that all in the house have to deal with. 
          When both of us are prepping for a competition the biggest issue is time.  Both of us have to go to the gym (multiple times a day), both have to prep food, both have to work and I haven’t even gotten to the kids.  Trying to juggle all of those things with one person competing is hard enough but when you multiply it by two, it becomes twice the challenge.
     We work because we are supportive of each other’s goals.  The biggest piece of advice I would have is to have patience and work together on a schedule so that conflicts are avoided.  This will prevent a lot of headaches which you don’t need during a stressful time like a contest prep.”
     To that I add, always be mindful of your partner’s prep.  It’s not all about you.  Treat it as you would your own.  Be sure to celebrate his/ her progress.  Your partner definitely wants to know that you notice.  Before lashing out, always keep in mind that you both are prepping and therefore completely out of your minds, so no discussions on an empty stomach.  Celebrate your iron love and no matter what you do, DO NOT EAT THE LAST PIECE OF GRILLED CHICKEN!



Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Blurred Lines

I went for an eye exam yesterday. You hit 40 and all of a sudden you can't see! The funny part is I didn't realize how skewed my vision was until I looked through the lenses of my new specs...it's a whole new world!

With regard to my self image, I think it is going to take more than a pair of rose colored glasses to get me to see clearly.  

I have been competing for almost four years doing approximately 3 to 4 figure competitions a year.  With prep times being a minimum of 12 weeks, you can say I've pretty much lived in prep mode for the past 60+ months. Yes, that's a whole lot of tilapia but its also not a lot of seeing myself out of competition shape. 

Anyone who has ever competed can relate to the blurred vision that comes post prep. Yes, I know you can't live in that depleted state forever and yes I know it can take a few weeks for your body to adjust, but it still doesn't stop you from feeling as though you look fat and completely out of shape. 

I've come up with a few tried and true ways to minimize the self hating... I wear loose clothes; stay as far away from a scale as possible and try to avoid looking at myself in the mirror naked for at least the first month.  But like the pink elephant in the room, you still know its there. 

Monday of this week was the worst. On top of already not loving my body, It was my first day back from a wonderful weekend in Saratoga Springs, NY with the boys.  Of course I got my workouts in. I even got a great cardio/ body weight circuit going in Congress Park at the crack of dawn. But there was food and wine... and peanut butter. (OMG!  I discovered Saratoga Peanut Butter Company! Their Adirondack Jack is the stuff that peanut butter dreams are made of!)  Umm there were also a few cupcakes involved. You get the picture. Yes, I was a bad girl and I felt it completely showed.  

I saw a few of my favorite faces at the gym that morning but because of my less than stellar self image, I decided to keep my eyes on my weights, get my workout in and run out before anyone else recognized me and wondered what the hell happened. 

I didn't go unnoticed.  I ended up with several text messages about my "new look". "Amazing" was one of the words used???  I didn't see it or feel it, but I needed that that day. More importantly than the boost it gave me, it showed how competitors need time for their eyes to adjust before attempting to look at themselves post competition...  It takes a minute to really be able to see. 

K.-

A New Journey

It's been seven days since I disconnected from my favorite social media outlet. The timing, with school breaking for summer and the first of our family getaways happening simultaneously, made it easy to get through the week without any signs of withdrawal. 

I've actually been able to find time to journal, which had been alluding me for months.  Between prepping for figure competitions; the kids and work, there just wasn't enough time in a day.  And now, with minimal distractions...
It's amazing how much clarity there is in disconnecting. 

With clarity comes the ability to focus, refocus, redirect energies...
Here I am with energies redirected. Still looking to motivate and be motivated & share pieces of my fit life, family, food and fun.

I Hope you will choose to follow along.  It should be an interesting journey. 

K.-