vicsangelkim’s BodyBlog

NOT!

Even before I got into a healthy lifestyle, I’ve never liked trick or treating and all that dang candy in the house.  I love dressing up and having fun on Halloween though.  So I finally decided this year to speak up since we’ve adopted this healthy lifestyle.  I proposed to the family (husband and 4 children ages 18, 12, 8 and 7), that we opt out of the trick or treating tradition and have our own little party here at the house with healthy snacks, movies and games.  Our son (the 8 year old) was a little upset at first and he cried because he was sad.  But I assured him that we’d still get to dress up and that it would be fun.  He was fine within a few minutes. 

Our menu consisted of:  Deviled eggs, Edible Eyeballs, Cheese Finger Foods, Apple Bites, Pizza Mummies and Bug Juice.  The deviled eggs were made with very little low fat mayonaise, the edible eyeballs were carrot slices with a dollop of cream cheese and half a black olive on top.  The cheese finger foods were low-fat string cheese sticks cut to finger size, with "knuckles" cut into them, and a small piece of green bell pepper on the tip for the finger nail.  The apple bites are apples that are quartered and core removed, cut in a way to make it look like a mouth with 2 lips, then you place sliced almonds along the edge as teeth (the more broken up and mismatched the better).  The pizza mummies were whole grain english muffins topped with a little pizza sauce, 2 black olive slices for eyes and then strips of the low-fat string cheese placed over it to look like strips of cloth.  The Bug juice was frozen strawberries placed in a blender with frozen lemonade, then put in a punch bowl and add gingerale, then place some gummy worms around the rim.  I did give the children each a goody bag with 2 pieces of chocolate and a few lolipops in them.  I’m not an ogre about the candy afterall and they are children so it’s ok for them to have a little treat now and then.  I just didn’t want it to be a free for all candy store around here.  The punch was probably the least healthy thing I served, I may omit it next year.  I have a whole year to figure out a better alternative that’s just as fun.

It turned out to be a huge success, we all had so much fun and the children even told me that they didn’t miss trick or treating.  yayyyy!  The worst reactions I got were from other adults that I know when we’d discuss Halloween plans.  I started to feel guilty like a horrible Mother for denying my children this very basic childhood "right".  But my children were fine with it and I’m very happy that we did this.  I look forward to more Halloween celebrations like it!

When Vic bought our tickets for the Olympia, I have to admit I was only a little excited about going.  I didn’t think there would be anything there that I could relate to.  But as the months went by and the more I trained and the more progress I made, I got more and more excited, that the couple of days before the event I was pretty much beside myself. 

We started off at the Meet the Olympians on Thursday night.  Even just waiting in line, ticket in hand, was exciting as we got to see some of the Olympians walking down the hallway going to the room.  The energy was palpable, not only could you feel it, you could almost see it radiating off of the crowd.  People were walking up and down the line with video cameras for some of the Olympians fan pages, or magazine websites.  Others were just talking and having a good time.  It was all very positive energy.  We walked into the room where the Olympians tables were set up and it was overwhelming at first.  Since this was our first time attending we really didn’t know what we were supposed to do so I’m sure at first we looked like lost little puppies.  We first went to Dennis Wolf’s booth, he was very nice, with a great smile.  That seemed to put us at ease and we were more comfortable walking around meeting other Olympians.  Branch Warren and his wife Trish were next.  Branch is definitely the strong, silent type, but still his calm, genuine, kind demeanor shines through.  Trish is more outwardly friendly, beautiful with another great smile.  We were really rooting for both of them in their competitions.  I’m sure the majority of our reasoning is because they are a married couple in this lifestyle and walking the journey together.  Toney Freeman had quite a line for people to take pictures with him, his biceps were massive!  Vic is not a small man by any means, but even I had to admit that he looked tiny compared to these men.  It was weird and surreal, but in a good way.  We stood in Jay Cutlers line to meet him.  While in line we walked past and chatted with Tina Durkin, Trickey Johnson and Amy Frye.  (Tina and Amy are two new role models for me, I like them both alot).  Trickey Johnson was super friendly and very down to earth too.  We got up to Jay and he was obviously very deep in thought (I’m sure about the competition), he asked Vic who to make the photo out to that he was signing and Vic said "Vic and Kim" and motioned to me, Jay looked up, I smiled at him and he gave me a nice smile back lol.  Then I felt bad for maybe knocking his concentration or something lol.  All of the athletes were very nice, friendly and down to earth.  Attending this event made the athletes real for me.  Before I would look at pictures of these people, and see them as untouchables or as people who work out alot.  But when I was there with them, meeting them, or even just watching from a distance, I didn’t just see freakishly large people anymore, or "gym rats".  I saw dedication, nutrition, discipline, commitment.  I saw the lifestyle they choose to live to be the best of the best.  It was an incredibly deep experience, one that I’m not sure I can adequately express in words.  Oh I can’t forget to mention that we also met Stan McQuay of the 202 class.  He was also super nice, friendly and grateful that we stopped by.  I can’t wait to go again next year!!  Now that I’ve been and know the "protocol" I’ll be less intimidated and more likely to go up and meet the Olympians.  I almost forgot, for the majority of the time we spent at the Meet the Olympians, I kept walking around in awe of all these athletes, and I kept saying things like "oh my" or "oh wow".  At one point I just looked over at Vic and said "there’s a whole lot of ‘WOW’ in here." 

Friday afternoon we took the back stage tour.  What fun!  Paulina was our "tour guide".  She is a sweet young lady, very perky (which I love since I’m a perky person too), and just fun to be around.  The tour was really cool.  We were amazed at how small the dressing rooms were considering the size of these men!  The back stage workout area was really cool.  The best part though was walking up the stairs onto the Olympia stage.  What a feeling.  Now, I’ve been on stages before and they’re all fun, don’t get me wrong, but there was something about this stage.  I imagine it would be like walking onto the Grand Ole Opry stage, or the Radio City Music Hall Stage, or the Met.  you get the idea.  We were walking where the Olympians were going to walk, looking out at the seats that would be filled when the Olympians would next be on that stage.  It was a very cool experience.

Saturday we went to the Expo.  We got in the bodybuilding.com booth line and began the wait for our free products etc.  As we got closer to the booth and we could see who was behind the table, I spotted Jamie Eason.  My heart skipped a beat and I got tears in my eyes.  I didn’t know she was going to be there, I had hoped I’d see her but I didn’t know for sure if I would.  Jamie is the first woman I found online when I started my search for information about fitness, and she’s been one of my top inspiring people ever since.  She’s the one who first inspired me to train.  We got up to her, I asked her for a picture and I’m surprised I was able to even speak.  But I did manage to tell her thank you and explain what she meant to me.  She was incredibly gracious, very complementary (she told me I looked awesome, and that she’s sure I’m an inspiration to others too - blew my mind!).  She’s very friendly and sweet.  We walked around the expo alot, watched some of the Worlds Strongest Man competition (the 180-lb dumbbell lift).  Saw Lou Ferigno, Gina Osterly met Ava Cowan, also very sweet and gracious.  I also met Alicia Maria - super sweet, soooo tall and incredibly gorgeous!  She was also very grateful when I told her I liked her column in Oxygen magazine.  I really was touched by how real these people are and how grateful they are to the fans.  In my own mind, it’s how it should be, but it’s not always this way, and it was nice to see that it is that way in the bodybuilding world.  At least that was our experience and it may be different for others.  Vic got to meet Hidetada Yamagishi (very cool guy) and Mark Alvisi also very nice (and huge).  Vic did the punching bag challenge, didn’t get the high score for the day but did well.  I did the chest press challenge at the MHP booth.  Men had to bench their bodyweight for 25 reps, women had to bench half their bodyweight for 15 reps.  I did it, plus one rep lol apparently I’d lost count, so I got myself a t-shirt -woohoo lol.  It was weird though lifting like that in front of strangers, it’s very different than at the gym.  Overall the day was awesome.

Saturday night was the competition.  For future Olympias we will attend the pre-judging, but since we were so new to this we didn’t realize that we may not see our favorites pose on stage if they don’t make it to the top 15 (as was the case with Dennis Wolf this year).  However, the competition was fun, more great energy.  Although there was also some negative energy in this crowd - just a few obnoxious people shouting out their favorite’s names at inappropriate times (like when they’re not even on stage and someone else is up there posing), and some audience members, ok alot of them, booing when their favorite didn’t place where they would have liked them to.  We just find that incredibly rude and unsportsmanlike, but that’s just us.  We were very happy to see Jay reclaim the title.  He really did deserve it.  But we were even happier to see Branch take 2nd!!  How awesome!  And how great that Jay made sure that Branch got his recognition after Jays name was announced the winner, by bringing Branch up to the front of the stage and raising Branch’s arm in a sign of victory.  That is what sportsmanship looks like!!!  I realize the men are all competing against eachother but they all also represent the bigger picture, the bodybuilding team and I think that needs to be reflected more.  Jay did a great job.  And how awesome it was too to see Joe Weider and his beautiful wife on stage. 

The entire weekend was such a great experience.  I also had the pleasure of meeting Ian with Second Focus, and his lovely wife, Rosie.  Ian did Vic’s photoshoot for IronMan magazine and I was so happy to meet Ian in person finally.  We also have to make sure to give a huge thanks to our oldest daughter, Rachael, who babysat her siblings while we were in and out all weekend.  She did a great job of taking care of the house and the children and Vic and I were able to really enjoy ourselves knowing that Rachael was doing such a great job at home.  Thanks sweetie, we love you big time!

I hope that for those who haven’t attended an Olympia event yet, you get to do so some day.  It truly is an awesome experience. 

Today’s training session was awesome.  I worked chest, back and abs today.  I’m so proud of how far I’ve come, how strong and athletic I’ve gotten.  Today I did a "first" for me.  My trainer had me do push ups with the bosu ball.  I started out with my right hand on the bosu ball, left hand on the floor, went down did one push up, when I came back up my left hand went on the bosu ball and my right hand went on the floor.  I alternated like that for 15 reps the first set, 12 reps the second set and 10 reps on the final set.  When I first started working out 17 months ago I couldn’t even do one regular push up, I never imagined I’d be able to do something like what I did today.  It’s exciting not only because I’ve come so far, but because it tells me there is so much more to come too!!!

I recently tried the 5 day training thing.  It went well for the first 3 weeks, then I started to show signs of overtraining, but I didn’t realize it at first.  It wasn’t until week 5 that it was very clear that the new schedule was having a serious negative affect on my mental state.  Physically I was fine, emotionally I was a wreck.  So rather than finishing the 8 week trial period I originally planned on, we did 5 weeks and I stopped.  It took me a full week to get back on track emotionally, and the last couple of days were the worst.  I was in a very bad place, similar to years ago when I suffered from depression.  It took me a few days to convince myself that I wasn’t a failure.  I couldn’t even look at pictures of female bodybuilders though, I got so mad that I wasn’t there yet.  I expect so much from myself.  I really need to listen to my own advice that I give to others… "be patient with yourself", "take baby steps" and "enjoy the process".  That last one really hit me one day when I realized that this was all part of the process, I was learning more about training and about myself.  And when you look at the big picture, that was a good thing.  I wasn’t a failure because I couldn’t do something, I succeeded because I tried and because I saw the signs of potentially damaging affects.  So, now I’m back to 3 strength training days a week with 5-6 days of cardio.  I do need to step up the cardio a bit though and I’m continuing with my super clean eating.  Now I just need to make sure I’m eating enough.  My head is back in the game and I’m ready to play.

Ok I survived day 1 of the new workout routine.  We got a late start, but I worked shoulders and triceps today doing supersets and burnout sets.  There were a couple of times I wanted to cry and then a couple of times I just wanted to punch somebody!  The crying I get, I’m a girl, an emotional one at that so the reaction to cry is normal for me (I just want to point out I didn’t actually cry - I just wanted to), but the wanting to punch someone that is kind of new to me.  I have gotten that way before during high hormonal times (aka PMS), but never during a workout.  I’m assuming it’s similar to the hormonal thing.  My muscles were so tight and so pumped up with blood that this intense desire to just hit someone was really strong.  Any thoughts on this?

So, tomorrow is day 2 (back and biceps), and I’m going to continue to stay focused.  I really should mention that my trainer was awesome today.  He was super supportive and encouraging during my sets and that was incredibly helpful.  I need to make sure I tell him that.

Nutrition has been pumped up too - I used to be at about 1300 calories a day and now I’m up to 1800 a day.  That’s doable, it’s still quite a jump but it’s definitely doable. 

I’ve been very happy with the transformation I’ve achieved in the past year.  Now I want more lean mass, I want to be more cut and defined.  So I’ll be working with my trainer for 5 days a week instead of 3, starting on Monday.  I had a little taste today of what to expect next week.  I must admit I’m a bit nervous and wondering if I’m really ready for this.  But I’ve come this far, I need to give it a chance and see how I do and if I’m going to get the results I’m looking for.  Wish me luck!

Measured again at the gym, my bodyfat is down to 18%.  And I’m getting abs!!  Awesome abs!  I’ve never had abs before, not even when I was a skinny teenager.  This is so damn exciting.  It makes me want to work out more and more and more.  But I know, don’t overtrain, it’s hard not to, I can see now why that happens to some.  So proud of myself and the progress I’ve made in less than one year!!!

I took some progress pictures of myself this morning.  That’s hard to do by the way lol.  I was completely shocked and thoroughly elated with the results.  I keep looking at these pictures, having a hard time believing it’s ME!  I’ve really transformed my body in the last 11 months.  I still have more work to do to really get where I want to be, however, I can’t help but be pleased with what I’ve done so far.  I feel so great, physically and emotionally.  Confident, strong, happy, fun loving, like I can conquer anything that comes my way.  I wish more people would realize the true benefits of strength training and good nutrition.  I’m so grateful that I took that step almost 1 year ago in joining the gym and getting with a trainer who has put me on the path to this lifestyle.  And thank you for the wonderful support of my hubby and my children, this journey would be much harder without their support.

Did my first circuit training today.  What a kick butt workout!  I was sick last week, but have felt stronger than ever at the gym this week, so that’s good.  Today’s workout was intense and it wore me out but it felt so good.  I still want to lose about 5-10 lbs of fat so I’m going to work hard on that in the next few weeks. 

Ok, an update for my fan.  Thank you Vic!

 I measured at the gym again on Jan. 9.  I am very happy to report that I have lost 43.6% of my bodyfat, and have a current bodyfat of 19%.  It often seems surreal.  Especially when I am walking from my closet to my bedroom and catch a glimpse in the bathroom mirror out of the corner of my eye.  I think "who is that?", and then I turn to look and realize, that’s me!  I can’t believe how different I look from 9 months ago.  While my body isn’t exactly where I envision it to be yet, I can honestly say that I have transformed my body.  Now, I’m working on sculpting, tweaking and fine tuning it to get it to where I want it to be and begin maintaining that status. 

I can’t believe I actually did this.  Me, the one with no willpower, the one who used to hate exercising.  It’s a bit mind boggling at times.  But I’m so damn proud of myself!  I feel so strong, not just physically but emotionally.  It’s amazing how this transformation has affected me on the inside just as much if not moreso than it has on the outside. 

I couldn’t have done it without the support of 2 of my biggest fans - my hubby and my oldest daughter.  And of course my trainer as well.  Their love and support has certainly fed my motivation and progress.

A nice thing I’ve noticed too is that my children have seen me going to the gym and they’ve seen the difference in me physically, that I’ve now inspired my 2 oldest daughters to start working out!  The do exercise videos and are strenghtening their bodies together!