Your age is just a number!

Florida was great! Low 80s during the day, palm trees & flowers, blue ocean waters… what more could you want? It was so nice to go there for a winter break but it always a bummer to come back to the cold weather. I figure we will do the snowbird thing one of these days and spend our winters in Florida.

Got back in the gym this week. I’m quickly catching up to where I was before surgery. It’s fun to watch muscles grow!

I am going to participate in the Online Bodybuilding Federation’s spring contest. They have 2 categories: bulk & transformation. I picked the transformation. Photos of before and after will be used for judging. If anyone else wants to join in the contest, please visit their website:

http://obfbodybuilding.com/

Just wanted to write a note that I will be offline until Feb 22. My family is taking a winter vacation in Bonita Springs, Florida and man, we are looking forward to wearing something besides bulky (but warm) clothing! We are lucky enough to know someone with an oceanfront high-rise condo with all the extras, including a pool just a few steps from the white sands of the beach that overlooks the Gulf of Mexico. I’m not sure if the condo bldg has a fitness center of any kind so I will be taking my exercise bands just in case. I’ll try to be a good girl and get in some workouts!
So think of me this next week, lying on the beach getting a tan, playing some golf, doing a little fishing, and generally forgetting I live in the cold and snowy Midwestern state of Iowa. Florida… here I come!

So if you peek at my photos, I don’t look much improved from the last one. I just wanted to post where I am right now so I can see improvements again. Darn depressing to see how I look after being forced by surgery to sit in a recliner for several weeks. I was just getting to where everything was coming together and boom… here I am, working my way back. Nothing to do but jump back in and not dwell on how much I used to be able to lift. It will come back soon! I’m still way ahead of where I was a year ago!!

It has been 8 weeks since my surgery and time to get back in the gym. I have gone to my fitness classes twice a week for the last 2 weeks to try my foot out and just generally get back in the groove of exercising. Today was my first day back at my "real" gym that is a 20 mile drive one-way for me to get to. It is so worth the drive time and gas money!

It was crowded as it was late in the afternoon so the gym was full of college and high school aged guys. That lead to having to wait for the bench or barbells for my turn. I got spoiled by going during the day when the place is almost empty. Still not a lot of women lifting weights that I’ve seen but I don’t mind hanging with the guys!

It was a drag to see myself in the full length mirrors though. I’ve been literally sitting for several weeks, waiting for my foot to heal, so a few pounds creeped back on. It’s not horrible, just 5 pounds but I worked so hard all last year to lose those darn 30 pounds and I don’t want my fat to hang around very long. I feel better knowing I’m back on track to losing fat and gaining muscle!