Rozzy

Felling I am in a good place right now.  Have dropped about 4kg in last 12 weeks and want to maintain current level of BF at approx 15% and weight at 58.9kg for next month or so.  January 14 will be start of cop prep with Kim Oddo and if I can maintain where I am at - hopefulyl adding a bit of muscle…then the road to cutting up should be a lot smoother and less aggressive attack on all that hard earned muscle!  Hopeing to be sitting around 55.5kg at Jan 1 and a little leaner.  Have brought all fats back in to help satisfy my hunger.  PB back in the morning oats which is YUM!  Christmas will be back in Aus.  No major dramas with that though.  The change of quality in fresh produce will be treat enough.  Currently off all sugar free products and super clean eating is the go.  Sugar Free was bloating me and retaining fluid.  Nice!  Clean eating lifestyle is only way to go and the body tells you…..

Well my candida is back alive and kicking.  I have been pursuing the muscle gain diet which of course incorporates lovely carbs - fruit, oats, rice, yams etc and the candida have had a field day!  Back on prescription meds now after trying to fight my own battle with herbs and now back to a restricted no-sugars diet.  Wonder how this will fare on my ecto frame.  Hope I can still make some gains before dieting down for Sacramento from August.  Urgh…so frustrating….

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Here’s the pic with Merry Christine - my suit maker - fabulous lady and so talented and Toney Freeman - Mr Olympia …check out those biceps!! They were about 2/3 the width of my entire waist.  WOW! This was immediately after I stepped off-stage so looking VERY orange! The second photo is with Alicia Marie - BSN Athlete and Figure Pro.   She was sooo much bigger in real life - what an inspiration!!

Happy days here at the moment.  I have started my muscle gaining workout program and feel sore - but a good sore and am eating more which is fantastic!  I love my fruit and have enjoyed bananas pineapples and strawberries in my snacks.  I also love Oats and having an extra (small) snack of these at night (have to consume a few carbs at bed to help the muscle grow!) with my egg whites is great.  I also have such a happier demeanor now!  It’s amazing what carbohydrate restriction can do to ones personality.  I am enjoying the time with my kids and reconnecting with my family again.  Cardio is moderate now - 45 minutes on 5 days and resistance training over a 4 day split…..with one extra day of abs and calves thrown in if I am recovered enough.  I will upload some pics - one of Merry Christine (my suit maker) and Toney Freeman (Placed for Mr Olympia!) and the other photo is of me and one of Kims other ‘Angels’ Courtney - gorgeous girl and won overall!! Kim is an amazing coach.  He is really incredible…he sees everything and always gets it right!  Every one of his girls placed in top 5, except for me!  So, I know I am with the right guy…it’s up to me to make it work now.  Bring on Sacramento!

So the deal is…yes, I did myself out of a top5 finish but I placed 9th and my physique was 100% on last year.  The posing was a big issue but I have a plan for this year….I am going to attend Monica Brandts Fem Camp in September (loads of posing and preparation tips!!) and then compete at the Sacramento Pro Am on November 7th…then back to Emeralds next year.  I HAVE TO PLACE!!  I am determined to build my physique a bit more over the next 3 months and get the posing polish I require.  Back to dieting from 1st August so I will enjoy my carbs for now…and will continue to eat super clean, just more of it!  I am having a few red wines this saturday though…and a juicy steak!!  I will try to attach pics of what I looked like on comp day and will keep you posted on my muscle building activities over the next few months.

Hmmm…not happy with myself right now.  Apparently my back poses were not up to scratch - not flared enough!  Oh man!  What is it with this back of mine?? I am trying to get over it, but it looks like I have really cost myself a place due to the poor posing form on my back presentation during the quarter turns.  Kim and Pete said that my physique was certainly up to par with the girls on stage this year and I felt (as did they) that I was much much more polished with walking and front and side poses.  The back has let me down - as Kim said, it will stick in my mind forever and I will NEVER do that again (it’s a kind of pinching effect that I seem to fall into, rather than spreading the scapula and accentuating the Lat width)  So, so frustrating a I had it all under control just last night.  Anyway……upside is; presentation overall was 150% on last year and general posing was also much much better - I actually looked like I should have been there!  Width from front was great against my class.  Results will be announced tonight but I have run it past Kim and asked him if I did myself out of a place with that stupid move and he seemed to think so.  Very aggravating.  All this preparation and time, effort and money to screw it up.  Pete reminded me it is only my 2nd crack and yes there were major improvements.  Ever the positive one, this has only spurred me on more and now I want to start some serious training on posing and look at a second comp later this year - we really think I need the exposure.  Most of these girls are knocking over 3-4 comps per year and even if this is only their second Emeralds they have already done 4 more comps since I last saw them.  So perhaps the wonderful ‘honeymoon’ break (10 year wedding anniversary this year) will actually be  a trip back to the US…..Pete’s suggestion…but it’s all a bit knee jerk right now.  I need to get back to the evening show in about an hour and will speak to Kim next week to review all of this.  From there I can make a solid plan…..but for now I must focus on the positives and where to go from here as I it makes me too cranky to think of the disservice I have just done to my months of damn hard work!!!  Pete is a champion and is with me all the way which makes a huge difference. Some of the girls that are here on their own - so I guess I am a lucky girl in many ways.  Just gotta get through the show tonight, enjoy the limelight and crack a superb back pose in front of the judges so they can see what they missed out on earlier today!  It wont change my ranking but like Pete said it will stick in their minds and perhaps help me out…next year!? Off to post comp party at Azteca for mexican and a maragarita tonight.  Looking forward to some carbs…think this might help lift my mood……

I am happy to finally be back in Seattle.  I was feeling a bit anxious this morning on the plane up here, but now (after being sprayed 3 coats of tan in one session) I sit here as a much more orange version of Roz…….and I feel better.  Kim has arrived and spent about 20 minutes in our room while he waited to be checked in.  I ran through the mandatory poses and we came up with a plan on nutrition.  Seems all those veges are too much!!  We are going to try for a flat tummy by eating 15 almonds and 4oz chicken for PM snack followed by dinner at 6.30pm of 6oz salmon and 1 tablespoon almond butter.  Evening snack will be 2 rice cakes with 1 tspn almond butter and 4oz chicken.  I have been off sodium all day and had 2 rounds of Expel so hopefully I will look flat, thin skinned (but not too ‘cut’) for tomorrow morning.  I have another tan session at 5.15pm and then eat dinner, then a run through at the convention centre at 7pm to 8pm.  At 8.30pm my suit maker will drop by to fix the strap length and then I will see Kim for a final look before bed.  I will see him again around 6.30am, after breakfast.   Hair and make-up is at 9am and check in at 10.30am so its likely I wont get back here until tomorrow afternoon - post judging.  Results will be announced in the evening show which will start at 7pm.  It feels good to be here this year and more relaxing knowing what happens and seeing I am a bit more muscular than where I was last year.  Pete has just gone off to Whole Foods for some gluten free goodies for tomorrow night - they have awesome choc chip cookies!! - and to pick up some extra supplies for me tomorrow.  Gotta love having such a supportive hubby!  Will write again soon. Ciao!

I had a very restful day today.  The wind is out of control and very very cold so after a little shop this morning for Pete, we enjoyed lunch at The Lobster - halibut grilled and asparagus.  Very yummy.  This afternoon i have been taking it easy and slapping on coat after coat of moisturiser.  Our skin is flaking it’s so dry!!! The key now is to rest rest rest and look healthy on stage.  Pete took off to the gym again and came home to me with a "you’ll never guess what just happened to me…"  I thought, oh no…Golds Gym Mark II!  But no…he was pulling about 130kg on a seated row machine and the cable snapped!!  He was thrown backwards into a DOUBLE back flip and landed on the back of his head.  What a bump he is sporting.  He came home a little stunned, to say the least, but seems to be on the mend now.  The gym owner offered him a t-shirt in compensation!!! What, so he could remember which gym not to go to next time…?  Poor pete.  He finished his workout though…crazy man!  So, we are off to bed early and up at 4.30am to get to LAX on time for the early flight to Seattle.  It also allows me enough time to have a sodium free breakfast here (chicken baked and .25 cup oatmeal).  its all veg and chicken tomorrow and ‘no sodium’ water.  Expel tonight and then again tomorrow 3 times should help thin the skin out a bit.  I had a few more practices with the posing today and actually feel sore so will take a break tomorrow….perhaps just a mental run through.  First tan is at 1.15pm, second at 5.15pm and then a ‘walk-through’ at the Meydenbauer Centre at 7pm.  Kim will be in the same hotel as us tomorrow.  I am looking forward to seeing him and getting more instruction on food etc leading up to Friday.  Hair and make-up is booked for 9am Friday, check in at 10.30am and judging starts at 12pm.  Wow.  Almost there!

We arrived yesterday at 1pm and finally got checked in to our apartment at 4pm.  I had a fabulous time in Whole Foods first!  Went crazy over the very affordable and very very fresh organic produce.  The baked Halibut last night was amazing!!  I managed 3 x 2 hour sleeps last night and we were up walking Santa Monica and Muscle Beach at 6am this morning.  It was fresh (read cold!!) but sunny and really a very nice way to start the day.  We drove down to Kim today.  He handed over my new posing suit - and it is devine!!!  Even better han the pink one form last year.  It is blue tis year and heavily beaded in small crystals…so gorgeous. Kim seemed really happy with where I am at - although the back is now a bit more defined than the rest of my body!!  So…tactic is that I am not to flex it too much on stage so I look ‘even’ in tone and stature.  All about the balance…but how ironic…. it was my back that let me down last time as it was too UNDER developed.  Oh well…better too much than not enough, I guess.  Posing will need some more practice - that’s tomorrow’s mission.  Got back this afternoon and had a wander up 3rd Street Promenade and a rather nice shop…love that…very relaxing!!  Pete went to the gym - this time it was a great pick by me - Burn Fitness - lovely bouitique gym and he was pleased to tell me he was not hassled by one person.  Finally we seem to be getting the hang of this! ha ha  Fluid today was up due to the travel so tonight was a long soak in Epsom salts and lots of asparagus and very suprisingly, Kim told me to eat 250 grams of salmon!!  We went out for dinner and I had the most delicious fillet of salmon at a seafood restarant 2 doors up from us.  It looks over Snata Monica Pier. Lovely restaurant and nice to get out.  Pete is off the booze since recent events and the way he felt at the end of the flight…so I have a clean eating buddy for now.  Tomorrow is a relaxing day - just need to get on to Jan Tana to confirm tan/make-up/hair times and Shannon (who will help attach the clips for my suit).  We fly at 7.40am to Seattle, on Thursday.  I start the diuretic tomorrow and start cutting sodium from Thursday.  No more eggs at that time too, so it will be oats and chicken for breakfast.  There are 15 girls in my class on Friday and one other Oddo Angel (trained by Kim, like me).  I hope to give it a better crack this year…