A Real Man – A real man is a woman’s best friend. He will never stand her up and never let her down. He will reassure her when she feels insecure and comfort her after a bad day. He will inspire her to do things she never thought she could do; to live without fear and forget regret. He will enable her to express her deepest emotions and give in to her most intimate desires. He will make sure she always feels as though she’s the most beautiful woman in the room and will enable her to be the most confident, sexy, seductive, and invincible. No wait… sorry… I’m thinking of wine. It’s wine that does all that……. Never mind, I’m off to pour me a glass

Once again I had a fantastic weekend. It was off bright and early on Friday afternoon to head out to my sister’s place. I spent the night there and we headed off in the morning to Mum’s to clean up a bit and get some gardening, lawn mowing and go through the last of the cupboards. I couldn’t help but feel close to Mum out there while weeding her much loved shadehouse and garden at the front, given how much she used to enjoy her gardening and the pride she took in it when she was well enough to get outside. When I shared this with my sister, she agreed wholeheartedly. We both feel ready to let go now, and found ourselves giving away things to the Salvation Army that we would have hoarded if it was any sooner. There are some items that brought so many strong memories flooding back, but were items that were of no use to us. If it were any sooner we would have kept them because of the memories, whereas we realise now we don’t need them to remember. It is all in our hearts.

I headed home after mum’s to my house on Saturday night so I could be up bright and early the next day for Perry Venakis’s seminar. If he ever comes to your area to do one of these seminars you must do yourself a favour and go. He doesn’t get up in front of you and tell you what you should be doing, he tells you what he has learned and challenges you to think about it and come to your own conclusions. There were quite a few competitors there, but also other athletes like runners. It was fantastic to hear so many different stories about who everyone was and what they hoped to achieve out of the seminar. It had me interested from beginning to end and the day just flew by. Michelle and I were on opposite sides of the gym for the first half of the seminar and this was probably just as well. Toward the end when we were standing together up the back we were sure Perry was going to makes us go to different corners of the gym again because we were misbehaving… LOL!! It’s always that way when we’re together!

My coach is moving gyms that he trains out of, to another one just down the road. I was going to move with him, but given that I learned at Perry’s seminar that morning training on a near empty stomach can stress your body too much, raise your cortisol levels and the first muscle your body eats into is on your arms and calves (my two challenge areas to build), I have toyed with the idea of joining a gym near where I work so that I can go in my lunchbreak instead, with a couple of meals in my system. I have discussed this with coach and he has encouraged me to try it. He agreed that this kind of arrangement would be better for me in the leadup to my next comp (still not sure when that will be), as I will then be able to do cardio first thing in the morning, head to work and eat a couple of meals and then do my resistance training. Because of work, where I live and where I trained, the past couple of comps I have had to do my training and cardio together and this is not an ideal situation for retaining muscle. So plans and situations are changing and it will be interesting to see how it pans out. I will definitely still be wanting to see my coach regularly, and definitely once a week for measurements when I start to prepare for comp again in the future.

Now if you have been visiting my website for any length of time, then you will know how much I have pushed the “Healthy” part of the Occupational Health and Safety that my company espouses. You may not recall where it all started. It was one morning in a meeting where we were sitting around an unhealthy morning tea. The company policy dictates that the first item on the agenda at any meeting held is to ask the participants if there is any health and safety issues they want to raise. I raised my hand and said I had an issue with the company pushing Health and Safety and yet nobody provides any health options for any company gatherings where refreshments are provided. To my surprise this went right to the top and now healthy options are always provided. I was especially pleased to see that there is now a trial campaign for the next two weeks where my IT department has arranged for the The Fruit Box to deliver a variety of seasonal fruit as of today to the IT floors. This will be a welcome change from all the fundraising chocolate… oh but there are “healthy” nut and “health bars” sometimes along with the chocolate… you know, the ones that actually contain more sugar and fat than the chocolate bars themselves!! But I digress once again. Depending on how it goes down (pun intended) and the feedback received, they will then decide on whether to keep it going.

This weekend I will be heading out to my sister’s again on Friday instead of Saturday again due to my high school reunion being held on the Saturday night. Through Facebook a couple of the old crew started a high school reunion page, and from there and all the people they have been able to find, a reunion was planned. It is going to be so fantastic to catch up with everyone. I can’t wait to see what everyone has been up to and what they are doing now. I’m always so worried I won’t recognise anyone, but at least most have their pictures up on Facebook so I should be right with that!

Will sign off for now, I hope everyone is having a great week… train hard and eat well!!

Love Rae xxx

We are all adult learners. Most of us have learned a good deal more out of school than in it. We have learned from our families, our work, our friends. We have learned from problems resolved and tasks achieved but also from mistakes confronted and illusions unmasked. . . . Some of what we have learned is trivial: some has changed our lives forever. -Laurent A. Daloz

There was a recent article called “Bodies of Work” written by John van Tiggelen of the Sydney Morning Herald. This has caused quite the stir in the sport of bodybuilding, especially on Lindy’s forum. Since it was posted in the forum a week or so ago I have been meaning to respond to it on my blog, but have had issues with finding the time to do so with the current level of “busyness” in my life. I have finally found that time.

The emotion it seems to stir up the most in people who read it, know the people involved and understand the sport is one of resounding disappointment that our sport has been portrayed in such a sensationalistic and negative manner. But this wouldn’t be the first time this has happened, in fact only recently Isaac Hinds, who is the author of the “Hardbody Fit Female News & Events”, took exception to how the Europa show was reported.

It’s bad enough that people who are not involved in bodybuilding and don’t know the first thing about the sport are going to take this reporting at face value along with the misconceptions it gives birth to, but what is going to be worse is that I can guarantee that those who have an issue with the bodybuilding world in general are going to take this article and wave it around as a prime example of what is wrong with it.

Another heightened emotion stirred up by the article is disbelief and concern over the diet and training of the competitor in question. I won’t be commenting on Julie’s leadup to comp, her prep and what was said and done as I wasn’t there. I certainly won’t be assuming or guessing I knew what went on and how truthfully it was reported. I will only comment on what I know and what I experienced firsthand backstage.

It sure is hot backstage at the international natural Bodybuilding Association’s All Female Classic. Not hot-women hot it’s cool to mild on that front – but basking hot, like in a lizard terrarium. The women are so wasted, their body-fat counts so low, their energy stores so depleted, their skin so dehydrated, that they require a nursery environment to animate them. In the rising heat they hustle for a spot to display their bodies and pump their muscles, preferably in front of a mirror, or under a lamp, or both.

This was actually my fault everyone… my bad!! As the Glen Eira auditorium’s backstage area is uncomfortably cold without heating in the middle of winter, I had personally requested that Tony Lanciano, the promoter of the show, please ensure there were heaters backstage, which he kindly organised. The reason I asked in the first place is because the first year we competed at the Glen Eira auditorium it was that freezing cold the competitors could not get warm and we were all so uncomfortable, in fact I was quite distressed over not being able to get warm and it really took the shine off the comp for me. It wasn’t just the competitors either, my coach was fully clothed at the time and he too was uncomfortably cold. July in Melbourne is not the right climate to go prancing around in a bikini and heels in a drafty backstage area without any kind of heating and be comfortable. Without that heat backstage anyone, including those with bodyfat and who weren’t competing, would have been frozen. It has nothing to do with needing heat or a nursery environment to “animate” us, and everything to do with the promoter ensuring that his competitors were as comfortable as they can be in a cold climate when wearing next to nothing. In fact part way through the competitors actually asked if there was any way we could turn the heat down. We’re a hard to please bunch… LOL!! But given a choice, a girl in the middle of winter will always choose to be too warm over being too cold, especially when you need heat to warm up your muscles.

The air is dense with hairspray, which is liberally applied to give the tan a salamander sheen. The slightest contact with a glistening hip or elbow merits a withering glare. No one’s talking. Everyone’s too testy, too starved, too parched and just too dog-tired to do anything but blink and stare as their trainers fuss around them, handfeeding them jelly beans, polishing their tans, prodding their muscles and affixing their gaudy bikinis with a roll-on glue called Bikini Bite.

A picture is worth a thousand words here, so let’s take a look at a few that were taken by Matt Nicholson and Melita Jagic backstage and see how many we can spot looking “too testy, too starved, too parched and just too dog-tired to do anything but blink and stare”.

Further to the above quote, if anyone rubs off my tan backstage, be it another competitor or their coach, their apology is immediately accepted as it’s just part and parcel of a large number of competitors trying to get ready in a small area, as you can see from the pics there was not a lot of room. However, it is a different story if it is someone bumbling around backstage that shouldn’t really be there. Backstage is reserved for competitors and their coaches and the Glen Eira auditorium has a tiny backstage, so you can bet that people that are supposed to be there are probably going to shoot withering glares at someone who is taking up much needed room and not watching where they are going. You find that people who are experienced with backstage are pretty much aware of what is going on around them and actually check there is a space behind them before they step back and rub off someone’s tan. It’s called consideration.

I personally know Nick, the trainer that this article refers to. The article almost makes Nick appear arrogant amd full of himself. He is confident at his abillity as a coach, as well he should be given the standard of girls he puts on the stage, but the Nick in the article appears to be far from the genuine, caring and down-to-earth guy I know him as. When I travelled to the Nationals last year without my coach, Nick and his team took me under their wing and treated me as one of their own even though they had never met me before, purely because I was a friend of one of their competitors. They couldn’t do enough for me and welcomed me with open arms.

I also know the “No. 51″ in this article personally.

Eyeing her off, in a shiny purple bikini, is No. 51. She’s shorter than Julie, slightly younger, possibly prettier and just as toned.

and then:

The judges request that Julie and No. 50 step forward for a pose off. No. 51 steps back darkly. Sweat trickles down Julie’s abdomen.

She is honestly one of the sweetest people I know and I could never imagine her giving people dirty looks, or sizing up the competition… not even as a joke. “No. 51″ has been quite hurt by the allegations in the article, but of course the writer wouldn’t care that he had hurt an innocent party because what matters the most is entertaining readers. As for the peception that she stomped around onstage having a tanty because she wasn’t in a callout… AS IF!! That is not her style and she is nothing but gracious and ladylike both onstage and off and was absolutely thrilled with her experience, at least she was until she read this article. There are no tanties from this beautiful person, in fact the reason she was most shocked about how she was portrayed was because she had actually been having a friendly chat with the competitor in this article, Julie, backstage before they went on. I noticed there was no mention of this in the article, but then again would a story talking about the comraderie backstage sell as many papers or be as exciting as one that portrays a competition between females as bitchy and backstabbing? The All Female Classic has a reputation of being a great show to do because everyone is so friendly. It has this reputation for a good reason… it’s earned it! I’ve never seen any nastiness backstage, nor have I experienced it firsthand.

Nearly all of the people that were backstage at the All Female this year have been absolutely shellshocked that we have been portrayed as half-dead zombies who can’t wait to drive a knife between the shoulder blades of our fellow competitors. People anticipate that anything where there is a female gathering of more than a few women is going to be catty and bitchy, and it appears as though this reporter either wanted to satisfy that for the readers, or he saw something that wasn’t there due to his own perceptions of what it would be like. We can always see things if we want to badly enough.

It’s a shame that this article appears to have been written more for entertainment purposes than the truth and I have to question the accuracy of the entire article, given that there are parts of it I definitely know have been “embellished” with a bit of fantasy.

As always, people will believe what they choose to believe, read into things what they want to, twist things around to suit their own agenda, and react accordingly. The fact that I know quite a few hurt people that this article has affected personally has spurred me to write a blog about it. The fact always remains that you shouldn’t believe everything you read, and further to that, if you have a point of view you will always find something written either in print on the internet that will support it.

“It is one of the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive.” ~C. W. Leadbeater

I’ve just read this really interesting and thought provoking article written by Andrew Read.

It was an early return home than normal from my sister’s place today as the kids had been invited to a party. I arrived at the farm a little after lunch yesterday to hang out with them all, after an hour or so catching up with my gorgeous friends, Cat and Anthony… and of course their little princess. It has been so long since I had spent time with them, so it was great to find out how they had been going and what has been happening in our lives since we last got together.

Last night was spent in front of the fire watching the New Moon movie after the kids had gone to bed. It’s actually quite good… I was pleasantly surprised! But I find that with moves… you quite often enjoy them if you watch them with no expectations. I have also not read the books and perhaps would have been disappointed if I had done so. I tend to find that if I have read a good book and they make it into a movie that doesn’t translate well onto the screen I am usually very disappointed. Stephen King’s “Pet Cemetery” is one that stands out. The book was so scary and intense and then when they put it onto film it was like a c-grade horror movie. Not at all like the book!

I had my performance appraisal at work on Friday and was quite excited with the good feedback I was given about my performance in my new role. The feedback has me quite elated about the prospects and future direction of my career. It also made me realise just how encouraging and supportive both my manager and manager once removed are. I was told that if I found any training that I would like to do in order to develop my skills, then all I have to do is ask as they have a pretty good budget for training.

My third dry-needling appointment took place on Thursday . On Thursday morning I took the opportunity to really hammer and test my left leg with an intense session of cardio after a bit of leg training, my reasoning being that if I really tightened it up, then Sheldon would be looking at it during the middle of the day. As it’s running I have the most issue with, I performed my cardio on the elliptical, treadmill and stepper. My leg held up well, although by lunch time my hammy had started tightening up and I was getting a few pings in my left glute. Sheldon soon fixed that quick smart with about 4 needles in each! I hobbled around for the rest of the day, but by Friday morning my leg was feeling fantastic. Again I tested it out with 45 minutes on the stepper and the elliptical after my weights. When Saturday morning brought no pangs or pains in my leg, I went to the gym and tried 45 minutes on the bike, stepper and elliptical. My next appointment is on Thursday again this week, so I will be trying out some running on Wednesday and Thursday.

This coming weekend will be a busy one. It’s off to my sister’s on Friday night this week and then onto Mum’s the next day to do some maintenance on it and clean out the last of the cupboards. Then it’s home for me in order to go to Perry Venakis’ seminar on Sunday. I only realised today that I have double booked myself for next Sunday, so will have to sort that out this coming week! Way too many social invitations… LOL!!

I hope everyone had as lovely a weekend as I did. I am quite looking forward to getting to work on Monday… this performance appraisal has really put a fire in my belly and given me more confidence to really run with this opportunity.

Have a great night… train hard and eat well!

Love Rae xxx

“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.” Norman Vincent Peale