Merry Christine

So……………..I have been pretty bad about sharing my jelly brain with everyone these past couple of months.  Completely selfish, sorry.  End of the competition season, and this time it has been just me and my horses.  Oh, my darling friend Millie came here for a week from Bermuda.  But, she was completely into riding every day with me.   So, Millie is from BERMUDA.  She put on her fuzzy Northwest clothing and rode with me in temperatures in the 20′s all week.  AND….she stayed on, in an English saddle.  I admire Millie most because she stays focused at all times whenever challenged.  She is the only one I know that does.  Talking about horses, I am completely, hoplessly in love with my Percheron.  He is my cuddly wuddly fuzzy wuzzy, one ton beautiful beast!  He officially rules my life……………sigh………

Millie on Peaches, My mum on Magnum

So…………..being in the middle of my “time out”, and the holidays in full swing, I will just say I hope everyone has a happy holiday, and I promise I will get back to my normal “blawging” in a few weeks. 

I am still alive and well.  This year really kicked me in the butt, so I am still refreshing……………

STAY HEALTHY DURING THE HOLIDAYS AND “ALWAYS KEEP TRAINING”"”……………………..

Millie and Mwa at Stevens Pass

I am not sure I will be able to make this contest I have been training for.  I am spending way too much time with my horses instead of the extra cardio.  I love my Thourobred, but the connection I have with the Percheron is something I have never experienced.  No question this guy has me wrapped around his………hoof!  I enjoy being in the barn with the horses, grooming them and riding them.  They are both crazy and I wouldn’t want them any other way.  At the gym, all of my training is based on how I ride and the physical way I control them on and off the saddle.  All it takes is one split second and if you have any weak points, believe me, you will find it.  These two are both HUGE animals.

It is now officially fall, and in my neck of the woods, where we are fortunate enough to have extreme seasonal change, it is soooooooo hard not to think about apple pie and other nostalgia foods that always come with the cold weather.  A nice warm fire, a couch, a blanket, apple pie, and a good movie.  Ahhhhh yesssss…………   Of course with that, along comes contemplation, depression, and weight gain.  Does NOT seem fair, but it is just the way it is.  So we just get over it, get off our ass and move on.  You can always throw some cinnamon and nutmeg into your egg whites.  Soak some walnuts in water overnight and throw them in as well.  And all of the cruciferous sulferous greens are everywhere now, so have at them!

I do have a great source of wonderful tasty teas, full of nostalgic flavors  http://www.zhitea.com/   I am NOT getting any perks for pimping thier site, I am simply sharing something that I love.  I have literally DOZENS of different types of thier teas (One of my favorites, Vanilla Rose).  And I buy the big bags.  This is a great way to satisfy cravings of any type.  Add a little honey and you have a wonderful, satisfying desert replacement, believe me.  If that is not enough, put some rice milk in it!

So the weather here has started to get wet and somewhat gloomy………IF………you don’t make the attemp to go outside.  Put on the rain gear, mud shoes and take off for a run.  Every single smell in the air is from some plant or the ground.  The variety of scent you cannot put in a jar, only the moment is to be enjoyed.  Sometimes I will stop and just stand to take a moment and breath the undescribed beautiful smell of nature.  For all of the wet and mud, there are beautiful leaves and branches.  There are squirrels, quails, deer, even an occasional shrew running across the path.  I take non of this for granted.  It is a gift from nature.

I might have written this last year, but it is one of my old poems I wrote living in NYC.  Living two blocks from Central Park I was fortunate enough to enjoy “almost” as much as I wrote about above………

It’s raining outside, there is no sun today

I’ll have to stay inside, can’t go out and play

I think about the ocean, or riding my bike in the park

Putting on my roller skates, but its too cold outside and dark

Maybe I should move south, where it is sunny throughout the year

Where the oceans warm, the skies are blue, and there is that sun I love so dear

But something keeps me here, this feeling I love for some strange reason

Something magical not found in the south, that magic known as change of the seasons…

Contemplate on that one…………for a while.

I have been working on the most intense nutritional experiment of my life these past seven weeks.  Now that it is over, and all has been analyzed, we are getting closer to the right formula.  With that being said, and I am NO expert on this topic, but I will say that I can conclude that MOST of these quack so call nutritionist/trainers that give bodybuilders diets by looking at pictures of progress, and I am talking about the male pro bodybuilders; these guys are complete morons.  They only know one way to do things and if it doesn’t work they blame the athlete.  I have seen it several times with my dear Mr. T.  Our goal this time was to get him in bigger than he has ever been on stage, and we accomplished that, but off by a tad on conditioning. 

Olympia 09

By the Arnold he will be spot on and surely in the upper 290′s.  People are always counting him out but bottom line is he DID stay in the top ten.  He beat some guys that were suppose to be in top ten and never made it, AND, I am SURE he is the healthiest  athlete of that caliber.  So piss on all that counted him out.  It just amazes me how negative the idiots are in this bodybuilding world.  I was also shocked to find out about the racism inside this industry.  THAT completely threw me off……………………..WHAT………ever.!

Hanging out as the VIP’s at the TAO club in Vegas, I had my first experience with the new way people can avoid conversing at a table.  Text messages.  It was comical how every single person was continuously texting instead of acknowledging each other.  So, I joined in.  As I was texting my friend Dina telling her how silly this was just sending texts for the hell of it, I was pondering if the others were texting to someone saying the same thing.  WHAT…………ever!

So, I have eight weeks to do cardio and eat fish and compete in December in LA.  I am pretty sure I can do it now.  And since Toney has taught me the importance of sodium, this will be the first time I use it dieting and even loading before the show.  But for now, the main focus is CARDIO!!  EeeWe!!!!  He is leaving me the oxygen machine so I will use it every time I do the cardio.  This will be interesting to see how far I can take it. 

Well, hopefully, in a week or so I will have something worthy of reading to write here.  But for now, I am still on the original project.  A few more days.

I am back……………….WHAT EVER!!!…………………

It has been about a month since I have posted a blog.  This is because I have been affected emotionally by a betrayal that actually left me dumbfounded.  The past few years someone befriended me to the point where I entrusted everything I do and have and let her into my life to the point where she knew everything and knew where everything was in my perimeter.  It was not until I counted up the damage she allowed her friends to incur on my house when I was out of town, that I started paying attention to her actions.  It turns out that she is what I would call a “career liar”.  She plays out to be always a victim, but in fact the perpetrator, and thrives on other peoples demise, to the point where I truly now believe she goes out of her way to sometimes create it.  And when she looked into my eyes and flat out told me lies, I sadly knew that this so called friendship had to close. 

So,,,,,,,,,,,,,I have flicked her off my finger like a really nasty bugar….just let the dead dog lie………

ON THE FLIP SIDE……………..let me gloat.  I have not had a horse abuse me physically in my entire life like my darling Tank.  All of which has to do with the fact that he is HUGE, young, full of spirit, and still a bit clumsy, somewhat lazy.  All of this being said, he still has not injured me, and this includes him stepping on my toes TWICE!  This guys hoof is four times the size of a regular horses hoof.  How I have not gotten so much as a bruise is beyond me.   Reading the history of the Percheron breed has made me love this guy even more.  http://www.percheron.ca/history.htm

If I am to write anything on health and fitness this time, I guess I would have to express how awesome it is to just cut my green food in the morning and not even have to wash it before I eat it.  Talk about eating live food.  My mother has this garden she has been cultivating for 40 years on her property next door.  Never once has there ever been a pesticide, or even a purchased fertilizer.  All she does is lay in some manure dirt, a few years old.  It is always a sad day, the first time I have to go back to the store bought greens, which is usally around mid October, which I have to spend 2 hours washing, and putting away in the fridge for 5 or six days worth.  There is NOTHING like eating LIVE, fresh picked greens with active enzymes.

And with THAT being said, my BFF Big Daddee Toney is on his way here to start prepping for the Olympia.  This is a big one.  So far, no one has him in top 5 due to the line up…………………..

So———-As Picasso once said, “There is no abstract art.  You must always start with something.  Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.”

And so……………..we SHALL see……………………………….

I think of a billion things every morning on my run.   By the time I sit down to write a blog (which I have honestly been too busy the past few weeks to do so) I always come to the conclusion that sometimes what I “want” to say, best be left unsaid. 

I know blogs are mainly for talking about what you do each day, (am I correct?), and therefore they are brief writings, but my life is beautifully redundant. 

I have finally got my mother up on my Thoroughbred, Magnum, and she rides absolutely great.  Not too bad for a 67 year old woman who was in total agony two months ago from hip pain.  We ride at least three days a week.  Oh yea, and she has ridden my Percheron, Tank, who is HUUUUGE.  I just got him from one of my dearest friends ever.  His girlfriend is an excellent trainer and I know that is why his personality is craaazy.  I have never fallen this deeply for a horse.  This dude has me COMPLETELY wrapped around his finger.  I have not been on his back without laughing.  He has a personality like my Pit bulls, but 1000 times larger in size.

That being said above, my mother has been training 3 days a week, circuit style.  She goes through every single machine, with the weight set only heavy enough to do 20 reps, feeling a fatique by the 17th rep.  She goes through every machine twice.  Now every week or two, I add a new free weight exercise.  Last week I started her doing seated squats on the Smith machine. 

So, today, at the gym she says she most likely won’t be able to do the squats because she was really hurting in her legs.  I just told her to do as many as she can, and guess what?  She did 20 reps!  Her muscles were just sore from the previous workout. 

I am pretty sure that that “pain” that my mother was referring to is why a lot of first time people get discouraged from the gym, especially if some dumb ass “personal trainer” stacks some serious poundage on without checking the tolerance level of thier client.   I see it happen all the time in gyms.  But even if you are using a light weight, with proper and safe form, you should feel a little muscular pain a day or two later, especially first timers.  So don’t let that distract you.  Trust me, go back to the gym and a few sets later, you will feel great.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE this writing from Kahlil Gibran.  Yes, “him again”.  I can’t get enough of his words, and fortunately, there are a lot of them. 

THE SHADOW

Upon a June day the grass said to the shadow of an elm tree, “You move to the right and left over-often, and you disturb my peace.”

And the shadow answered and said, “Not I, not I.  Look skyward.  There is a tree that moves in the wind to the east and to the west, between the sun and the earth.”

And the grass looked up, and for the first time beheld the tree.  And it said in its heart, “Why, behold, there is a larger grass than myself.”

And the grass was silent………….

The first person that can figure out where that quote comes from gets a free Ready to Wear suit.

I now have a Percheron in my mothers barn named “Tank” (Thanks to Chris and Porsche).  And that he is.  Yesterday I threw a saddle on him and had my mother ride him. We went up back in the woods (I, on my Thoroughbred, Magnum).  With the exception of her knee hurting a bit, she did fantastic.  She is almost 67.

I am discussing this topic because a little over a month ago, she was in absolute agony.  She had a horrible pain in her pelvic area and was completely convinced it was her Sciatic nerve.  I had my massage therapist, Cami, work on her and she was convinced it was muscular, which, I will say I already knew that, and she confirmed.  But my darling mother would not hear that.  So she goes to the doctor, he takes some tests, and everything comes back negative.  Guess what he does?  Suggests physical therapy……………..ah, yessssss…………..now you must understand that my mother cleans 5 horse stalls every day.  She has a HUGE piece of property that she keeps impecably perfect with flower and vegetable gardens.  If she breaks down she is ……f—-ed.

She has been going to the gym with me three days a week for the past 5 weeks, and she not only is feeling better but got up on that Percheron and rode him with no HIP pain, just a little knee pain, which will be fixed in no time with continued resistance training. 

I hear all the time from people that ride horses that this is the only workout they need.  Listen, I am the first person to admit I am NOT a horse snob.  I just get on and ride.  But I will tell you this, I have never been injured on a horse.  I have had some pretty freaky accidents but have never been injured. 

The one thing I notice on almost all serious horse riders is their quadriceps are always  unevenly developed.  The vastus medialis is always overdeveloped (teardrop shaped if you are looking at your thigh).  And also, the flexor hallucis longus muscle just above and in from the outside of your ankle gets cranked from the pressure in the stirrup.  Without writing a book…………….I am only touching on this because ONCE AGAIN….I must be righteous about resistance training. 

YES, it is reduntant.  But so is brushing your teeth, taking a shower, pissing and shitting.  But you do it because it is the hygienic part of life.  If you can just get past the whole vanity, ego, gawd I have to get into these jeans thought for why you should work out.  And for the morons that use the excuse that they don’t want to look muscular (excuse my while I gag), so they don’t want to pump iron.  You just keep thinking that way……Lets see how you are doing in a decade.  It is just as hygenic as anything else you do to keep yourself clean and functioning.

Back to the horses, my husband Dave and I were riding this weekend and came face to face with a black bear.  He looked at us for a bit as we walked closer, stood up on his hind legs, and did the ol “UH, I think I’ll go this way” and he plodded into the brush.  It is amazing how much harmony goes on in a natural environment where there is food and space for every creature great and small.  I am sure some day this too will all be gone.  I only hope it is not in my lifetime………..

NOW, it’s a bunny fest up back in the woods.  Bunny’s everywhere.  They are so cute, all spaced out in the morning hopping along the logging road, completely oblivious to the fact that I am almost right up to them, then Lola has to ruin it.  .. ….  Of course, up there, they are simply cougar and coyote food, plain and simple. 

A friend of mine is going to break my mom’s colt and in exchange she wants me to make her a pair of riding chap’s.  Uh,,,oh………..I might end up loving working with leather again. 

I am addicted to squats.  In my workouts now, I do equal parts upper body and lower body.  I am not competing anytime soon, and I have PLENTY of muscle for a girl, and I really like cardio resistance training.   I have been doing a total of 16 sets, 30 reps of various squats 4 days a week and I absolutely love this.  Supersetting with 16 sets 20 reps of upper body.  Total of 32 sets per workout.  LOVE IT!  And of course, NOT suggesting this to anyone else, I am just sharing my favorite workout du jour…….

My friend Cindy decided to grow some stevia plants and brought me some fresh leaves.  I would take a leave and break it up into my teapot and it makes the perfect barely sweet and take out the bitterness cup of tea.  It reminds me of back in the 80′s when you had to go to hard core health food stores to get the dried crushed stevia leaf.  Of course, now in the ever so more modern world they have managed to make it more acceptable by adding shit into it to make it more atractive to the norm.

Yesterday at my gym, I noticed this guy brought his son in (who is mentally challenged), so he could work out.  His dad sat and watched him carefully while this guy worked out mostly with the free weights, which I found interesting.   But the whole reason I bring this up is because I was so moved by the fact that someone who has every excuse NOT to work out most likely insists his dad brings him in to excersise. 

So, if you read my previous blog, my horse Kolie is now burried peacefully in the pasture, under the cherry tree.  My mothers dog however, was found by a family across the road and is back and being her alzheimer self..  Tough week.  And with that I wanted to share a piece out of this awesome book called The Shack, www.theshackbook.com , because it is about emotions:

“”They are neither bad nor good; they just exist.  Here is something that will help you sort this out in your mind.  Paradigms power perception and perceptions power emotions.  Most emotions are respones to perception – what you think is true about a given situation.  If your perception is false, then your emotional response to it will be falso too.  So check your perceptions, and beyond that check the truthfulness of your paradigms – what you believe.  Just because you believe something firmly doesn’t make it true.  Be willing to reexamine what you belive.  The more you live in the truth, the more your emotions will help you see clearly. 

Trust me,,,,,,,,,,you have to read that a few times for it to sink in….xo

GAWD I LOVE KAHLIL GIBRAN!       

This has been a tough few weeks.  Contrary to what I know people believe, I really do try to accomodate as many gals as possible when it comes to making suits.  But the truth is, I have two hands only.  I have no help, for you cannot ask someone to paint a picture that only you see in your head.  

My mothers Doberman, who bless her heart is old, walked into the woods somewhere yesterday and we are sure layed down to expire.  We live so far out in the hills that there is no way she went even to the road.  We have been searching all through the woods and brush and no sign of her.  No marks of her being taken away by a predator, and frankly, it was hot, and she really was too old to walk any long distance.   Then to top that off, my Arabian mare who has had Cushings disease for a few years now is scheduled to be put down on Tuesday.   That is the hard part of taking on pets, big or small.  We have domesticated them to serve us, thus, we are the ones to determine their expiration.  She has been my sister for almost 20 years. 

I know my writings are fickle, but I find it so reduntant to always write in reference to fitness.  Especially since fitness advise is truly a dime a dozen.   However, I promise I will take the time in the next couple of weeks to write my experience and opinion on breast implants since I STILL have gals emailing me about an article I wrote back in ’03 or ’04 for bodybuilding.com.  Since training and diet is an everyday part of my life like showering and brushing my teeth, I spend my days as I work contemplating philosophy, watching old movies, or political news, therefore THAT is most on my mind.  THEN, I have to keep a still tongue, for I do not want to offend anyone with my measley opinions. 

But, alas, it is almost summer, so I guess it is time to bare my naked mind and post another one of my poems from the 80′s in the Hampton’s.  Let me see,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Afternoon’s on the beach.  Perfectly toasted bodies.  Some are a little overdone.  But the sun seduces them.

“Come on down—Find your spot and watch the show!”  The Oceans entertainment.  The Ocean seduces them.

It loves to engulf and entangle bodies.  Tumbling, rolling, tossing the bodies.  Slamming them into the sand.  NO mercy.

Crawling out after the beating, swearing they won’t do it again.  But a little more sun, watching the waves…………………………..

They always go back for more.

I have to say that the ego and vanity of the ones I work for definitely defeat me.  Leave it at that.

I was going to touch on the whole “jogging” theory.  I have an aquaintance/client that sent me a link to her website.  One of the articles addressed joggers, in a nutshell saying that they are wasting their time if they “think” they are doing something healthy.  That is such a Pandora’s box, man.  I am a jogger so I can easily address this AND defend the average “Joe Jogger”. 

I believe that the majority of joggers are doing it for the endorphine high.  Plain and simple, the mental release.  You have your “I am going to wake up tomorrow and start taking care of myself” jogger, and usually they do not last that long, I feel, because they are out of thier normal element.  But once you hit that “high” it is addicting and a hell of a lot better than a fat burner and “gym cardio” first thing in the morning.   The only negative thing I think about when I see people running in area’s where there is traffic is the exhaust fumes they are taking into thier lungs.  That is a tough one. 

My first experience with jogging was in 1978.  I wanted to jog to control my weight.  After a couple of weeks I noticed how HUGE my calves were and I had a freak attack, so I started jumping rope instead.  Hehe….we know what happened there.  So, bottom line is, I have NEVER trained my calves to this day.  Big deal….  When I lived in NYC I lived two blocks from Central Park, north east side, so I loved getting up at 5am and running the horse trail.  Soft dirt and IN the woods.  Extremely nice.  I had dogs and at least back then it was a commisioner courtesy you could have your dogs off the leash until 8am.   Since 1991 I have lived back in the Great Northwest and I run every single morning with my dogs in the woods with absolutely no humans and the cleanest air you could possibly imagine.   Mentally, I could not move forward with my day without the run.

Now all of that being said, I have never considered that a workout.  I still go to the gym and pump iron, then I do my cardio.  Either on my step mill, eliptical, step and glide, jump rope, all of which I consider good intense training. 

I am fortunate, or should I say disciplined enough to be able to do all of the training.  But when you see the people running on the side streets, on the treadmills in the gym, or around the parks, at least give them the credit for doing something for their cardiovascular system.  And most likely they are a kinder people for doing so.  They may not necessarily be “lean and muscular”, but I can guarantee you they are doing it for themselves, and not to impress anyone. 

The cool part about it is, anyone that can stand on their own two feet can run.  Any of them can partake in a marathon and say they did something.  And a lot of people that overcome obesity enter marathons.  It’s a cool thing.  And it’s awesome being cool……………………..So keep jogging!!

I have a frog thing going on.  They LOVE my swimming pool.  Every night I have 2 or three frogs jump into my pool, which has a cover, and they sing all night long, which is so enchanting.  Then in the morning I take them off of the cover and put them in a pond over in my mom’s pasture, who lives on the property next to me.  So, I wonder;  Are these the same frogs every night hopping all the way back to the warm sancuary, or am I creating an entire village in the pond in the pasture?  Ponder……..

Okay, I don’t have much time and I haven’t written for a while so I will hit on a couple of things on my mind.

I hate women that lie to me…………grrrrrrrrr…………

I am a jogger……………..yup….

Why is there always ONE pipsqueak in EVERY gym that has to have a jones on me?

Yes Toney, I do humbly admit I need to either cut OUT my frozen fruit/protein powder/rice syrup sorbet, OR at least eat 1/4 of the volume I pig down every night before I hit the hay……………….

I am definitely going to compete this fall.

I will hit on the jogging thing when I have more than a couple of minutes, for I will defend joggers to a point.  I read an article that someone wrote sort of dissing joggers and I do think it was unfair. 

Okay gotta go…………my retarded wise words “If your shit aint green, your body aint clean!!”