THOUGHTS OF A FITNESS FREAK

Okay, these are all the products I take. I believe in them, so why not share that? It’s the same as anything else people use. I could come here and say, “damn, you need to try that mascara, no clumping” or “that crap fried my hair, don’t use it”, so what’s the difference. I don’t work for commission you know. No one is keeping track to see if sales go up by mentioning Fern sent you.

I have used other products of course and I will tell you if they worked for me as well. I am not allowed to ‘bad-mouth” other companies of course because that’s bad business. I enjoy working with Gaspari.  They are all people who workout and use the products and Rich has his name on them, so do you really think he would promote stuff that doesn’t ‘perform’ as intended? That would be a bad move on anyones behalf.

I started out on Walmart products because as a mom, finances were not allowing me to buy the better stuff. They still work, although it’s like cheap gas and expensive gas……you know the deal. I will keep you updated on sales and stuff though! If you seriously cannot afford lots of things, it’s understandable.

Oh, also don’t be scared of the sizeon ladies. the name can’t be changed, but you will not turn into a female bodybuilder with it.  It is a creatine product, designed to pull water into the muscles and help them expand for better growth and also increases strength and endurance.

I just want everyone to utilize what is available on todays market for helping you achieve the body you want. You don’t have to have muscles like mine.  I was using products from the beginning like whey protein, creatine and glutamine. I never saw myself as “only a woman” when it came to products, except for those with testosterone boosters of course! When I started to educate myself a year and 1/2 ago, I learned so many things. I read “men’s magazines” as well. Womens mags seem to gloss stuff over. Muscles are muscles whether you have a twigs and berries or a man in the boat……haha. I just hate the bullshit claims on some products and infomercials.  People cannot afford to get ripped off and lose hope because they bought a product that initially gave them hope.  Sure, lifting is hard work, but hopefully with the right education, your workouts will not be fruitless and you will not lose hope.

I love you guys…let’s keep it real!

Okay, these are all the products I take. I believe in them, so why not share that? It’s the same as anything else people use. I could come here and say, “damn, you need to try that mascara, no clumping” or “that crap fried my hair, don’t use it”, so what’s the difference. I don’t work for commission you know. No one is keeping track to see if sales go up by mentioning Fern sent you.

I have used other products of course and I will tell you if they worked for me as well. I am not allowed to ‘bad-mouth” other companies of course because that’s bad business. I enjoy working with Gaspari.  They are all people who workout and use the products and Rich has his name on them, so do you really think he would promote stuff that doesn’t ‘perform’ as intended? That would be a bad move on anyones behalf.

I started out on Walmart products because as a mom, finances were not allowing me to buy the better stuff. They still work, although it’s like cheap gas and expensive gas……you know the deal. I will keep you updated on sales and stuff though! If you seriously cannot afford lots of things, it’s understandable.

Oh, also don’t be scared of the sizeon ladies. the name can’t be changed, but you will not turn into a female bodybuilder with it.  It is a creatine product, designed to pull water into the muscles and help them expand for better growth and also increases strength and endurance.

I just want everyone to utilize what is available on todays market for helping you achieve the body you want. You don’t have to have muscles like mine.  I was using products from the beginning like whey protein, creatine and glutamine. I never saw myself as “only a woman” when it came to products, except for those with testosterone boosters of course! When I started to educate myself a year and 1/2 ago, I learned so many things. I read “men’s magazines” as well. Womens mags seem to gloss stuff over. Muscles are muscles whether you have a twigs and berries or a man in the boat……haha. I just hate the bullshit claims on some products and infomercials.  People cannot afford to get ripped off and lose hope because they bought a product that initially gave them hope.  Sure, lifting is hard work, but hopefully with the right education, your workouts will not be fruitless and you will not lose hope.

I love you guys…let’s keep it real!

I took my son to see the fights.  I was wishing it was UFC because it was kind of lame to start with, but picked up in the last 2 fights.  We had a pretty good time though and we saw them last year when he was visiting, so I think it will be kind of a tradition to go when he comes home. Oh and Randy Couture was about 20 feet from us……….sweet! Ken Shamrock too, but he’s kind of a bitch.

This morning I trained back and bi’s. I am very happy with my fullness.  It’s amazing when you get ripped and then bulk up again. I have a total weight gain of 12 lbs in less than 6 weeks. I’m eating far more carbs than I am used to ,but you have to eat to grow. 3 more months to see what I can get and then drop some fat, but not as much as usual.  Then next november, bodybuilding.  Hoping to come in at a solid 125 lightweight.

Anyway, back to the workout.  For back I did

bent over barbell rows 70

rows on the smith (I can do about 100 lbs on the smith)

seated rows 90-100

lat pull downs 90

upright machine rows 70 each arm

single arm db rows 35 lbs

upright smith machine rows for upper back and shoulders

I  did some straight arm press downs and lat pullover machine sets. Also single arm lat pull down on cables

I do bi’s with

barbell 50 lbs (if i go over 50, it bothers my wrists)

db curls 20-25 lbs

single arm curls on the low pulley 45 lbs  

I took a ‘break’ and worked on the roman chair for lower back.

I think thats it. I like to hit alot of stuff, otherwise I feel like I am half assing it, know what I mean jelly bean? Weird thing is, now that I am heavier, I can’t do as many pullups as before.

Oh, I ran into this guy and his girlfriend yesterday. He’s a bodybuilder and he is training her.  Damn, I though I was shy, but she doesn’t say much at all. I don’t know how she will get on stage if she can’t open up just a little. Maybe she didn’t like her boyfriend talking to me? We were talking about shows, not preferred sexual positions for God’s sake. I like talking ’shop’, what can I say? 

I’m sorry if I haven’t answered your mail if you wrote to me. I have one decent pc and I have had 6 kids here since last week, so getting online is tough lately. I will try to catch up when things settle down and put some stuff back on my page that I deleted.

I hope everyone had a safe week. Tomorrow is legs day and I am taking my kid to see if he can show up his old lady mom. He’s one of those guys who doesnt train legs. I’m going to hurt him…..hehe

I’m trying to see if I have some size changes. I think the lat is a little bigger, it’s hard to see while I am writing this because the window is not fully opened.

Anyway, I weighed in at 127 the other night.  I am sure some of it is from pigging out, but this is the most I have ever weiaghed and it is not freaking me out because my clothes still fit.  I don’t want to give up my old comfy jeans, ya know?

The cable crossovers seem to have awoken something in my pecs.. Upper pecs at that, a hard area to work for women. Grab the low pulley balls without a handles, stand feet apart and pull up and across in front of you.  Like I said, not much leverage, so you have to use your muscles as best you can. I’m pretty sore.  Tonight will be calves, forearms and abs I think.

I also wanted to talk about routines/splits. My split is normally 5 days a week.

back/bis/shoulders

legs

calves/forearms

abs/lats

chest/tris/shoulders

Lats are difficult to decides what day to do and so are shoulders.  I use a push/pull method of training,so these areas fall into both sometimes, depending on the exercise. You hit lats on back day, which is pull, but also on push day whan you are pushing thins in front of you..same with the shoulders. I also throw in extra legs mid week and tri to do a couple calf sets a few times a week.  Just think of push /pull……..if you are pulling all your moves, certain area get hit, so I try to keep the groups together.  Some people do bi’s and tris together,etc, but I don’t see the point in this because if I decide to do chest, my tris will be tired if I just did them the day before.  The same with my back, you need bi’s to be fresh because you use them to pull towards you. You may get less of a workout because some muscles are pre exhausted and we don’t want that.

I missed work yesterday due to the “not having a car!!” thing.  This sucks big time. I am going to rent one today.  Yesterday, they had NO cars to rent.  What kind of car rental has NO cars?  Thats just stupid. They better have one this morning because I reserved one.  I got my loan check, so I just have to do some faxing and I may have my new car by this weekend.  I am so excited.  I never bought my own car, but had them chosen for me. I have had 3 minivans in a row……its like driving a sofa.

Hope everyone enjoyed the holiday!  I know we all ate too much and feel guilty, but the new year is coming………have hope! 

I am up to 127 tonight.  Yes, I ate alot today, so I would guess I am maybe a couple lbs less.  I know alot of people are sad because they blew their diets today, but seriously, there is hope.  If you were “dieting” now and had a backslide, when you go back to your diet, its probably going to work better.  I think when you do something for a long time and fall into a pattern, you get tooooo used to it. Does that make sense? Even with lifting.  I would rather do what I did tonight and went with a lower weight than the heavy weight I have been doing for a few weeks. Then go back to heavy next week. What I already have is not going anywhere anytime in the next few weeks, correct? It seems to have worked for me in the past.

I got the video of my show.  Needless to say, video is a slap in the chops.  You can see all the mistakes you made loud and clear. I needed to pull out my back, shoulders more forward to disguise some muscles, lighten up on pulling my outer quad sweep, etc. I’m still on the fence about continuing with figure. Its such a confusing sport. My weight confuses me because I think I look full, but NO ONE comes at 5′3″ weighing 127 lbs. Im like a friggin brick……..I will be far too ripped if I cut down to their 110 lb range they seem to present. Oh well, we’ll see.

I got the bb posing video.  I fell asleep watching it to be honest.  I’ll let you know how it is when I can stay awake.

I did chest and tris tonight.  I forgot my superpump, so I was a little off my game by my standards.  I guess I am addicted to it.  3 more months and I start leaning out yet again

 I tried some cable cross overs on the low pulleys, pulling up and across.  Leverage wise  it totally sucks, but I want more upper chest and I think it will help. I did the usual flat bench, tri kickbacks, tri press downs with cables, dips, db pull overs, several machines, including pec dec, chest press.  Just to get different angles, crossovers on the high pulley, etc. I threw in some leg extensions and some seated curls for fun. I guess it was a little boring, huh? I think I am distracted by some outside issues.  Hopefully, things will improve soon…….3 more months til spring!

<strong />

Get ready for the 2nd annual MD CYBER CLASSIC; the only online bodybuilding competition that promises over $10,000 in cash prizes (for the top 3 placements) and a guaranteed MD Cover Shot for the winner. This is the opportunity of a lifetime; a dream comes true for the lucky winners.

QUALIFICATIONS:

– Amateur Male Bodybuilders only (from anywhere on the planet)

– Must submit photos of 4 quarter turns and the 8 mandatory poses (front double biceps, front lat spread, side chest, side triceps, back double biceps, back lat spread, abdominal thigh, and most muscular).

– Must be a current subscriber to Muscular Development magazine or to Musculardevelopment.com (either monthly or yearly VIP subscriber)

OFFICIAL RULES:

All entries are due by 12:00 AM on January 20th, 2008 (the “Due Date”). An “Entry” consists of twelve photographs (four quarter turns and the eight mandatory poses described above). Each Entry shall include the “Entrant’s” full name, address, telephone number, and email address.

Entries may be submitted to the following email address: MDCYBERCLASSIC@arp-ink.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Full name, home address, telephone number, cell phone number and e-mail should be included with each entry. (Please attach photos as JPEG files). No mail-in entries will be accepted.

Following the Due Date, the MD STAFF and ATHLETES will select 25 “Semi-finalists.” All Semi-finalists will be contacted and supplied with a special MD ONLINE logo.

From the 25 Semi-finalists:

? The MD STAFF and ATHLETES will select 4 finalists.

? The 21 remaining Semi-finalists will be posted on the MD website where you, the fans, will select the 5th finalist to compete for the grand prize. Fans will be able to vote for the 5th Finalist at a time to be determined by MD.

? On the first day of the Arnold Classic (Friday), the 5 Finalists will be judged by the MD STAFF and ATHLETES live, to determine the Grand Prize Winner of the CASH and coveted MD COVER SHOT.

? The Grand Prize Winner will also appear on MD NO-BULL RADIO with the “Muscle Mob”– John Romano, and Dave Palumbo.

GRAND PRIZE WINNER: 3 months supply of Gaspari Nutrition products
Over $1295 retail value worth of products to the overall winner 3 PlasmaJet kits, $79.99 retail value for each 3 Novedex XT, $58.28 retail value for each (6 week cycle) 2 Halodrol Liquigels, $82.99 retail value for each (6 week cycle) 3 SuperPump250, $64.99 retail value for each 3 SizeOn, $79.99 retail value for each 2 Cytolean, $49.99 retail value for each 3 IntraPro whey protein, $60.99 retail value for each

2nd Place through 5th Place: 1 month supply of Gaspari Nutrition products
Over $475 retail value worth of products to each of the 4 runner ups 1 PlasmaJet kits, $79.99 retail value for each 1 Novedex XT, $58.28 retail value for each (6 week cycle) 1 Halodrol Liquigels, $82.99 retail value for each (6 week cycle) 1 SuperPump250, $64.99 retail value for each 1 SizeOn, $79.99 retail value for each 1 Cytolean, $49.99 retail value for each 1 IntraPro whey protein, $60.99 retail value for each

OFFICIAL RULES

I wanted my family together for Christmas and I got it.  I don’t need to open presents. Some people have nothing and no one to share holidays with……be grateful.

I did a quick set of legs yesterday.  I snuck off to the gym and banged out a quick hour of mass weight lifting. I had not gone since the friday before and was feeling quite shitty about it.  I NEEDED to go there and work stuff out in my head and outside my head as well. Its theraputic, especially around the holidays when our emotions are like rubber bands ready to snap. My ass is on fire, but it’s "delish". I am known for telling my co workers to smack it when they comment on it (they are women). I am trying to make them believers. Its funny……..

Please don’t think I am a perv for some of the things I write. If you knew me, you’d know most of what I write is in fun.  I do bitch sometimes, but this thing is like a diary to me.  I write it and what I am feeling at the time is kind of "unleashed" or "out of my system".  You don’t have to agree with everything I say, if we all had the same opinions, life would be far too boring.

I also want to thank each and every one of you for helping me believe in myself for the past year.  Everyone needs support and everyone needs to know they are heading in the right direction.  We all get lost sometimes and if we were always so self confident, we probably would be trying to improve ourselves, right?

I know some people think it is "just fitness", but it isn’t just that.  It’s the ability to know that you have the power to change something about yourself and it spirals into more confidence in everything around you.  I WAS the 98 lb anorexic who never defended myself when people said crap to me.  I would rather have stuck my head in the sand like an ostrich than to voice my opinion. I guess I was afraid people would not like me. I suppose I never felt "good enough" for anything. I think alot of people are like that. I even told my boss to "f off" and quit because he was taking advantage of my quietness and never complaining ………hehe I can laugh about that now.  He called me and apologized after I called him an *******. He was nicer after I blew my stack.

Things have changed and although my life is far from perfect (as you can tell from my blogs), things are better than they have been in a long time. I watched to housewives of OC and one woman says," I think we are the Jones’s.  People want to be like us" and I was thinking, "what a crock of shit".  Who wants to be like you, shallow and self centered and only caring about money? Not me dammit……..I really would like to give that woman a wake up smack in the chops.

Anyway, The gym is closed today, so I have nothing to do.  I’d pick my butt, but its too sore…….

Ill be around, hit me up!

Its crunch time.  One more day and its all over for those of you who have had enough and it isnt even Christmas yet!!

I know there are alot of bummed out people who have cheated on the diets over the holiday.  It’s normal. All holidays revolve around food, so try not to feel guilty. Except for my shakes and protein intake, I am kind of on a dieting hiatus. Besides that, I am bulking and want to gain another 5-7 lbs, bringing up my “off season” to 130 lbs or so.

I get asked alot about my leaning out diet.   Basically it looked like this.

1/2 cup oatmeal 2 boiled eggs

double shake and almonds

chicken breast and broccoli

double shake and cottage cheese

chicken and broccoli and salad

double shake with cottage cheese or a snack

I did not always do the chicken and beoccoli, sometimes its a different veggie, like asparagus, spinach,etc.  The chicken got boring, so I ate 2 turkey burgers instead or another form of meat or tuna ( I try to keep tuna low, 3 cans or less a week due to mercury buildup in the brain). This is a low carb system. 1 day a week, I would ingest little or no carbs all day and another day high carbs with brown rice or whole wheat pasta.  Other days I would just eat every 2 hours and give myself a constant stream of protein by eating a boiled egg here and there throughout the day.

This diet is pretty forgiving and a cheat meal is often encouraged because it shocks your system, so when you do eat clean, it works better.  the key seems to be not to stagnate and let yourself get too used to anything.   Not enough fats in your diet gives you crappy skin and hair, so I keep some of the yolks in the boiled eggs and use dressing on my salads, regular cesaer dressing isnt going to kill you..nor is that one piece of chocolate or a cookie once a week.  Carbs are always low for me unless I am having that one high carb day.  I think people have too many carbs as a whole.  I have asked some people in nutrition how many carbs are required to function properly and no one seems to know the answer.  Play with your carbs.  I go no carb for a whole day, but two days and I am falling asleep while driving because it really affects energy and brain function. You also want to use whole grains, like brown rice, whole wheat pastas, oatmeal,etc.  I won’t go into the whole Greek thing about glycemic index and glycogen levels.  You can read that 6 times and still be like “what”?  Just know whole grains burn slower and don’t turn to unused fuel in the body, which is turned into stored fats.  Its like cheap gas and high octane…….more efficient. (I use the cheap gas, but thats just me, have you seen the price of gas??!!)

So eat, drink and be merry! New years is coming andI’m sure everything will be back on track for everyone.

Fern

I missed training yesterday because everything was still sore and I had to do some shopping.  A you know today is supposed to be legs day.  I have missed 2 legs days in a year and 1/2, but my sone plane has been delayed, so I have to pick him up later than expect.  And to throw another wrench in my day, my car seems to have blown a hole in my exhaust system on the way to my sisters last night. It lost power, got loud, I could smell exhaust in the car, etc.  Friggin great huh?  A couple days before Christmas and I have no car. I knew it was coming, but damn, it couldnt have waited til i got my tax return?

I went out last night and got tipsy. All it took was a few shots of Jager and 3 Smirnoff ices.  I was  feeling mighty peachy and so there was some dancing involved.  The place is a total dive, but hey, it was really fun.  I needed the stress relief and then I got the drunkin munchies at 130am and had a whopper jr and some fries and chowed it like I hadn’t eaten in 3 years. Im not usually a big fan of fast food, but hey, drunkin munchies are the exception.  I think last time I had a chili dog dipped in clam chowder.  Ya gotta live a little, right?  I did wake up with fat fingers from sleeping on my sisters sofa, too much sodium and sleeping with heat.  my house has no heat upstairs where I sleep, never did, never will….at least while I am still in it.

I guess I will try to hit the gym tomorrow.  i think they are open til 4 and I have to work until 12, so I will try to get over there, just not sure how without a car.

I also got my show video. After viewing myself next to the other figure women, I am more sure that I don’t fit in now.  I ordered the bodybuilding posing video and watched the one female bodybuilder at the show, so I think I am going to go for it. Be one of the tiniest female bodybuilders on the planet, that is. I think I would like to change the way female bodybuilders are viewed as a whole.  I want to go out there and look feminine. for some reason, somedon’t wear much make-up and slap their hair up in a ponytail.  Is that to be taken more seriously? I think I am going to go out there wearing Pink, with Pink singing "stupid girls"  

Lets chat a bit about body image. We all have shitty body image for the most part, otherwise we wouldn’t be going to the gym at all and plastic surgeons would be going out of business. I know men have it too , but I think it’s a little harder on women. I think bikini chicks look great, but they do not represent the “norm”. I don’t care how much you pay to get plastic surgery, chances are you are not going to look like Heidi Klum in a bikini. I just saw Jennifer Love Hewitt in a trash magazine defending her body. Double edged sword because she claims to be a size 2…..you ain’t no size 2 sweetie, but I wouldnt call you fat either.  I know this because I am a size 2 and my hips are a 32 and in that photo of her in a swimsuit…..hers are about 38. That is pretty much average actually. Now what will happen is, she will  defend herself and maybe in a few months, she will be on yet another cover denying an eating disorder and we will be able to count her ribs. Society loves to see people “taken down a notch”.  Top magazine covers are “actresses with cellulite”, “botched plastic surgery”, and”who has anorexia because we made them feel like shit for calling them fat at a size 6″ .  One more……….”photos of actresses without make-up”. People eat this stuff up because these people seem to have it all and of course if the supposed “hot actress” really has a dimpled ass………well geez………I guess thats supposed to make us feel better about ourselves. Damn, women are twisted huh?  

Men don’t read the same stuff we do, but they too, have body image issues.  I have dated men who won’t take off their shirts in public.  The thing is, they didn’t look so bad. Frankly, I am not attracted to the Matthew McConnaughy body, so if you don’t have one……no biggie.  I like them a little beefier myself.

In a nutshell, take a good look around. Don’t try to be someone else, just be an enhanced version of you. Try to find someone with your body type that perhaps you CAN look more like.  Your legs will stay the same length, your waist may not get too tiny (straight up thick waisted woman speaking here) and guys, you may never get pecs or big traps, sometimes that genetic. Ectomorph, Mesomorph, Endomorph…..what are you?

I was talking to a kid in my gym tonight.  He is actually a co workers son.  I think he is 22.  Me and him in the gym on a Friday night. I havent spoken with him before, but it was kind of nice to be able to talk to another human face to face.  I did shoulders tonight and tossed in some lat press down on cables. I love the shoulder press (hammerstrength).  I can get 70 lbs on each arm now for maybe 5 reps. I alternated lateral raises with db and some db straight arm deadlifts for a little cardio burn.  I was bored. I did uprights on the smith, rowed on cables, db presses and behind the neck presses on the smith.  Tomorrow is chest and tris again.  I have to get to bed………….Im soooooooooo tired.  Long day that involved toys r us…need I say more?