Transition Time: PART I

F word #1 FAMILY
A few weeks ago I asked my sister, brother-in-law (FBIL), mother and soul mate (Goat) what they would say are 3 words that best described me.

This is what they said:
Mother: Witty, beautiful and sarcastic
Sis: Creative, driven and funny
FBIL: Funny, opinionated and warm-hearted
Goat: Funny, funnier, funniest

I cannot helped but think three things; one my sister should have rearranged her answers in order to be more accurate, two FBIL, mom and Goat are SMRT people and lastly I feel a lot of pressure to suddenly fill a comedic role through my blog. Regardless I just wanted to share a little bit about myself, or at least how my FAMILY views me!

F word #2 FOOD
Over the past few months I have been in experimental mode and the kitchen has been my laboratory (insert evil laugh here). Poor FAMILY you might say, but generally I think most of my experiments usually turn out alright. If the family doesn’t like the FOOD then the racoons certainly enjoy it! November was cookie month and I had 6 recipes to try out in hopes of having 3 winners for Christmas time. Luckily our household has a high cookie tolerance and I am not too fond of them myself. After the dough was rolled, cut out, baked and tasted the clear cut winners were the gingerbread rounds with butter cream icing in the middle. These tasty treats (WHAT I had to try a few) were re-named cheeseburgers due to the soft butter cream centres being rolled in Christmas sprinkles which were sandwiched together by soft brown gingerbread wafers which resembled hamburger buns. After 4 batches I am pretty certain I found the perfect recipe.

On to the more productive FOOD experiment details. I have been testing out and educating myself on the intricacies of the PALEO diet and how to combine PALEO approved foods to make menu worthy creations. I am fairly knowledgeable on the high fat, no gluten, grain and high protein diet as throughout my 2011 contest season I was primary on a fat loading / ketosis program. What is new to me is that the Paleo diet does not eliminate natural sugars from fruit. This is a new concept for my body and is perhaps a great balance for a long term nutrition plan for many people. This is why I have a few lab rats (ok they are people) I know on the diet and I am monitoring them in regards to performance, energy levels, fat loss, muscle gains and overall opinions on how easy the program is to follow. I will keep you up to date on my findings. As a health and fitness consultant I find that it is integral for me to not only test new nutrition approaches on myself but others as well. Constant learning and brain building!

Here are my two new favourite Paleo approved foods and my findings.
1. The almighty Bacon Wrapped Date
Let’s just say that there is nothing like that salty rich exterior and the warm sweetness of the date. The first time I made them it was obvious that the type of date you use is VERY important. Medjool dates are the only ones I would use; keep those sticky dates in the cupboard for this one. That means you Lee! Soak those small skewers in water for a good 20 minutes before stabbing that plump date (take the bloody pit out lazy) wrapped in bacon. Of course I am always trying to make food better so after the first attempt I thought that it needed a little crunch. Round two proved that the almond stuffed date (just replace the pit with an almond) made a big difference. I still think it can be improved upon so next time I will be putting some forbidden goat cheese in the date just to see what it will be like. I personally think it will be epic!

2. Almond Cashew Jamberry Bars
I have only made these once and if I hurry home there may still be one in the freezer for me to eat, and if Skippy (Goats youngest daughter) likes them then they have to be good. They are a mixture of lemon juice, blackberries, raspberry and honey spread on top of a thick layer of crushed almonds, cashews and pure maple syrup. I still have doubts on how this can possibly be good for you and I will be altering the recipe to make them more solid and replace the maple syrup and honey with a few other ingredients. The maple syrup and honey are apparently allowed in small doses on the Paleo diet. Heck if these are allowed then this program is looking more and more feasible as the clock ticks.

You might be able to tell that FOOD is a real passion of mine and I could probably talk about it for an eternity, so I should really quite while I am ahead.

F word #3 FITNESS
Yes, I did kind of leave you hanging on the last blog. Sorry but I had to create some kind of anticipation and bribing you with food wasn’t going to be possible via the net. As I stated in my last entry I decided not to get up on stage and compete in 2012.

Over the past year my sister has gotten involved in crossfit. She is the most hardcore women you will ever know and has done some of the most insane sports, events and workouts known to woman/man. After hearing about her crossfit journey over the past year I started to become more and more intrigued. In September my sister came to visit me and I did my first crossfit WOD (workout of the day). For those of you that are wondering what crossfit is I suggest you take a look at a few YouTube videos and try to keep your jaw closed when watching them. Each WOD has a name and this particular one was nasty. His name was Tabata and I will never forget him. The WOD was 8 sets of 20 second reps with 10 seconds of rest in between each set. We started with air squats (the air seemed heavier than usual that day) and by the sixth set I am sure I looked at my sister with evil eyes and asked her WTF she was trying to do to me.
You see I have never been one for cardio of any kind. In fact I would bargain with my coach and do anything I had to (within reason) do in order to always avoid cardio. When ever anyone asked me how much cardio I did when I prepared for a figure competition I would mumble the answer under my breath so they could never hear me. The average person does over 1.5 hours of cardio minimum a day for about 8 weeks leading up to a show. Personally I have never done more than an hour a day for more than 2 weeks. I never saw the point because it always tore down the muscle I worked so hard to get.
So fast forward to me attempting to complete this “so called WOD” with my “so called sister” who was supposed to love me, not try to kill me (there is my sarcasm as my mother would say). Once the squats were done we moved on to pull-ups and then sauntered over to the box jumps (evil things) and then ended with some sit-ups. Now this workout was tough but I had done tough workouts before. The next morning I walked with a limp and stiffened up like a board and can still remember that day like it was yesterday. As I limped around the house I knew that this was a sport I wanted to dig a little deeper into.
In November I gathered up enough courage to sign up for the set of fundamentals classes at Altitude Crossfit in Burlington. I knew that if I was going to get involved in a new sport that I would need a mentor, a community to support and push me and a facility in which to train in (and perhaps an ambulance nearby). Those classes almost killed me and I know that I will have to train 10 times harder than most in order to progress because I have never trained my cardiovascular system. I also have a wrist and thumb injury that requires me to alter a few exercises in order to get the WODs done. I do what I have to do in order to getter done!

So this is my new journey, a journey on a brand new path, unexplored by my body. My priorities are no longer getting as lean or as symmetrical as I can. My priorities and goals are doing a 180 and are geared towards building my strength, developing my techniques, and getting these lungs and this heart a moving!

I use to say that if I was ever being chased by someone that there was a 99% chance that I would just turn around and try to talk my way out of the situation instead of attempting to run. I have never run a mile without stopping in my life. This new journey I am embarking upon is frightening and there will be good days and there will be bad. This journey is not unlike any other goal that each one of us has. I believe that dreams are goals without a plan, a roadmap, a true belief and desire to achieve them. If you believe, have a little faith and have the proper tools to achieve your goals then anything is possible. So my dream begins……………….

There no way to put this other than to say that 2011 was an incredible year! I sit back and reflect how many epic moments I had. To say I am grateful is an understatement.

Most of you know that I started competing back in 2001 but after my 5th show in 2003 I knew that I had to take time off to build some solid muscle and sculpt my body to become more symmetrical and balanced in order to compete against the National level girls (full on beautiful beasts). I took 8 years off to build a business (health and fitness consulting), travel the world (Australia and all over Canada) and gain the strength (arm wrestled all the drunkards), knowledge (SMRT) and team (Team Jenny B Fit) I needed to make a comeback in the figure world. In August of 2010 I decided that I was going all out, balls to the walls, train each day like I was only one week out from getting on stage to compete. My Coach Chris Marzarella was behind me 100% and together we created solid plans in order to prepare me for what was ahead. I don’t envy the poor SOB because I am one of the WORST clients anyone could have, I want to know the “whys” behind everything and always believe that there may be a better way of doing things. No chicken, brown rice, broccoli diets and 2 hours of cardio a day for this girl! I knew there was a much better approach to the old school diet and training that would spare the muscle I worked my weapon off to build. Coach and I found what worked best and rode that donkey to the stage!

I also met my soul mate at the end of 2010 and willingly moved to Ontario to start a new chapter filled with adventure, love and laughter. Who could ask for anything more right? Well he also has 3 beautiful girls that have made this adventure even better and I thank them for being so wicked in the process. Each one of them supported me every day through my contest preparations and they sat in the audience donning their personalized Jenny B Fit t-shirts and foam fingers. Again, I am very grateful.

My first show was in Quebec to compete at the WBFF figure in the masters division. It was a great feeling to be back up on the stage again and even though there were only two of us in the class I felt like I brought my best package to date and accomplished everything I set out to achieve. At the end of August I switched back to the IFBB, where I first started competing back in 2001. I felt amazing and loved being on the stage in Ontario with an improved physique, presentation and package than a few months before.

This journal and my writing style is not always going to be about all the wonderful things in life, it’s not edited and sometimes I have no filter (actually most times). There will be times when I speak my mind and some people may not like it, but that is the joy of a blog. My opinion is mine and if you don’t like it then that’s awesome because we are all different and entitled to our opinions. With that being said this is most likely going to be the tamest of my blog entries, so prepare yourselves lol. If you are following you may be in for some long winded rambling!

Now that I have prefaced my final paragraph properly I can tell you that I was disappointed with my placing at my last competition. This doesn’t mean that I don’t feel as though I was entitled to win nor does it mean that I think I was better than anyone else on stage. I don’t train to come in 2nd or 4th I train to win. With that being said after valuable information and feedback from the judges at the show they have told me that I carry too much muscle and came in too lean for the figure division. I respect that and that is why I have decided that I will not be competing in the figure division in 2012. Stay tuned for the new adventure..............woot woot!