I am still HERE
Laying Low
It has been a while I know. I am still here! I have been flat out with work, or sick it seems since February. How time flies.
I have changed my competition date to September. There has been a lot of sickness going around and though I usually only get sick once a year I have been sick several times this year already
Training is going good. Some days are stellar and some days I don’t have much energy. I really had an awesome leg workout yesterday, I have been having hip flexor issues which make squatting painful and difficult, but I am learning ways to deal with this, and yesterdays leg session is proof I am succeeding! My favorite cardio session at the moment is running on the beach, it is so beautiful and refreshing and everything just seems so clear afterwards.
Food and all that
To be honest my eating has not been great. I am on plan most of the time, but I have had a few slip ups. I really need to stick to my plan 100% to see results, I am not one of those gifted people who can have a little of this and that and still get great results.
All I can do is re- focus, dust myself off and get back to work! I may fall but I will get back up!
Whatever Your Doing, Its Working!
Whatever Your Doing, Its Working! 17 Weeks Out!!
This is what people keep telling me in relation to my legs! I have had like 9 separate people come up to me and tell me that my legs have totally changed and whatever I am doing keep doing it because it’s working! I have been answering REALLY?! THANK YOU! To them all. Now I can see it too!
I tell them my coach knows her stuff, then I grab them by the arm and say with wide eyes…OMG… the leg workouts… BRUTAL… I have no words LOL. True Story.
I am 17 weeks out and need to start posing practice! I have been crazy busy training people or myself or prepping food, and just trying to keep up with everything. Plus lots of drive time.
I also need to permanently decide on my music pretty soon for my routine. I choose something and then second guess that choice and choose something else, its hard I want it to be awesome.
My upper body is getting leaner, I am definitely losing fat but that scale is not moving which is good! J
I am having mini panic attacks every other day, wondering if I will be ready. Its like sitting there… “Oh! I need to start posing!” Start freaking out, get distracted…… forget. Later: “OH! I really need to choose my music!!” start pacing, and thinking about that, get distracted……. forget. haha.
Outside Hobbies
So I did Warrior Dash last weekend. That was a blast. We got into the starting area, right under the START sign where they blow the fire out. We were the next wave to run but they kept telling us, just 15 more minutes, just 20 minutes etc because they were checking to make sure the river wasn’t too deep, and that the course was safe.
Then it started to rain, great big wet drops, and we were like ahh yeah at least were already wet when we go to get in the water, then it started HAILING!! Like ½ golfball size chunks of ice hitting us in the head, neck, back and on our knuckles. Someone grabbed the netting on the fence and pulled it over our heads like a shelter we had to try and hold it up high enough that it was off our heads because the hail was hitting us through the netting because our heads were too close, it really hurt! We all had welts.
That finally stopped and there we all were like cattle in the starting gate and we had to wait ANOTHER hour and 15 minutes, soaking wet and shivering. They told us to go have a snack but we would have lost our place at the font of the line, and the line was ridiculously long. Our wave was at 2:30 and the people at the back didn’t look like they were going to get to run till near dark if at all.
So we waited. Meanwhile were standing in ice water and our feet are numb and our legs are cramping. Everyone was in good spirits though. FINALLY they let us go and we could hardly run our feet and legs were numb and felt like lead, but we had adrenaline on our side so we took off as fast as we could.
The rain made the course super muddy and watery, and we kept falling in holes we could not see, DEEP holes that went up to our knee and sometimes thigh, and then we would faceplant. It was hilarious.
The hardest part was trying to run through water and mud, the obstacles were not as hard as I thought they would be. We finished and got our medals. I changed my shirt but left my wet pants on because I couldn’t be bothered changing them and we headed home. I REALLY wanted pizza, like so bad I was nearly in tears I was super hungry. I had a banana and a turkey leg, and then had my meals but made a pizza at home with 2 Mountain Bread wraps and veggies and chicken, no cheese( of course) So I had a little too many carbs but I didn’t crack and have pizza, so it’s a win in my book ;P
I would totally do it again. All my attention and focus is on the competition now!
Until next week!
Yvette
Yvette Rowe 18 Weeks to go..
I am a bit late on this weeks blog. It has been a busy week. It has been a week of head games and struggles with the scale until Jo reminded me we are trying to build some muscle. ;)
This is hard for me to wrap my head around since I have always dieted for fat loss. I keep getting comments though that I am looking really good and like I have a lot of weight and though it is hard for me to see it I will take it!
It is so important I know to remain focused and positive so that is what I am striving to do. My upper body is becoming more and more defined. And my legs seem to be taking shape, I don’t notice it as much but I have gotten a fair amount of comments about my legs in particular.
This time next week I will be preparing for the Warrior Dash, I am excited and a bit nervous! I will have pics to share for that.
I need to start practicing my posing but I was trying to show a friend the poses and I realized I can’t remember anything! I’ll dig the stripper heels out of my closet today, but then I need to look the poses up again.
So my life at this point is training myself, training my clients, staying on my eating plan, sleeping as much as I can, which is usually not enough and trying not to freak out! LOL
Until next week!
“Whatever the mind of man (or woman!) can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
Yvette Rowe - Countdown to June 10th ANB - 19 weeks to go
19 Weeks Out! 25.1.12
It is amazing how fast the time goes. I had a successful week last week. I ate completely on plan except for one day when I missed a meal. This plan is really agreeing with me! I lost a nice amount of fat AND gained a smidge of muscle! It is amazing what having a coach to keep you accountable will do. I am so totally focused where just last month I was trying so hard to get motivated and eating everything in sight meanwhile!
I have to say though Jo’s leg workouts are INSANE! What a difference though! I thought I was training hard before. I must be building the best legs and butt EVER. LOL
So on the competition prep front I have been trying to find a song for my routine. This is really difficult. I want it to be something I love, something that will entertain the audience as well and easy to pose to. I am still working on that. I think the problem is that I have never posed to a song before so I really have no idea what I can pose to. I want some awesome song with a fantastic beat and lots of bass LOL.
Speaking of posing, I need to start working on that. I have clear heels to wear for practice . I also have my suit but it needs stoning.
In other news I am doing the Warrior Dash on Feb 11th! So I have been running on the 15% incline on the treadmill, well slow jogging to begin with and then trying to sprint haha. I just hope to not totally suck! I have wanted to do one of these for ages. We’ll see how I go. There is a whole team of us trainers doing it.
We have an uphill climb in Nelson bay to a lookout where you can see whales and the whole bay. Its pretty steep and the first several times I walked up it I thought I was going to have a heart attack.
Well the other day I ran a good portion of the way, I got let off the hook a little though because people were in the way and I had to stop and wait for them but still, I could not run up ANY of it AT ALL before.
This week I have been home more than usual and I have been trying to get out and enjoy the area. I went to the beach this morning for cardio instead of the gym, but the tide was coming in, so I ran in the deep sand instead of where it is all compacted next to the water like I usually do. Oh man that is really hard. I remember a time though when walking in deep sand was like walking through molasses with bricks tied to my feet and a log on my shoulders haha. It is cool to look back and see how far you have come.
So that’s about it for this week! Train hard and if you think your training hard, train HARDER! ;)
Yvette Rowe - Countdown to June 10th ANB
Hello Everyone!
My name is Yvette Rowe. I am a personal trainer in New South Wales Australia. I am actually an American, from California, but married to an Aussie.
I am so excited to be sharing my journey to my first figure competition with you. I should give you a little bit of background on myself.
Wow where to start. Well the first time I remember being impressed with muscle was when I was about 10 years old. My mom had some books with pictures and some of those plastic weights with concrete in them. I loved reading the books and trying to do the exercises. I have always loved anything to do with health and fitness, although everyone told me I was going to get big and bulky. LOL
I was in ballet as a child and then gymnastics for about a year. My mom was a single parent and we could not afford to keep up with the classes.
As I got older fitness kind of just got put on the back burner, I started having children, and was just too tired or busy. I am also an emotional eater. I ate when I was happy; I ate when I was sad, I just loved to eat! Over the years I managed to get up to 119 kilos or 263 lbs. I had a mysterious sore on my hand that was always cracking and bleeding. It hurt to stand on my feet in the morning. I was exhausted and I looked terrible. I was seriously depressed. I bought an Oxygen magazine and saw a pic of my first figure competitor and thought “wow I want to look like that!”
Years before my brother had shown me the Body For Life book and I had done it for a while with great success. I dug that book out, re-read it and decided I was going to get healthy again. I had my daughter take my before pics and nearly died from shock. None of the mirrors in my house showed below the waist so I had no idea how bad I actually looked. How could I let myself get this bad? This was going to take AGES! I literally just went to bed and cried, that was it for the day .
However I knew I had to get started on this or I was probably going to die. I had all the symptoms of diabetes which runs in my family, but I didn’t go to the doctor because I didn’t want them to actually tell me I had it.
I hired an online coach, stuck to my plan and managed to get down to 193 lbs. Meanwhile my life was in complete upheaval on absolutely EVERY level. I had LOTS of emotional eating sessions.
I set a goal for competition and got to work, in about 8 months I got down to 56 kilos. I looked and felt great. I got to 9 weeks out and had to pull out due to finances. I was devastated and now dieting “for no reason” as I saw it.(read: pity party with cake) I had not wrapped my head around the fact that this is a lifestyle. I honestly thought I could eat “like a normal person” when I hit my goal. I was shocked to see how fast the weight came back.
I decided to learn as much as I could about training and eating, I got my personal training certification and continued on my weight loss quest always with the hope that I could compete in a competition someday. I decided this year that this is it!
I started looking for a new coach. Jo posted an article about helping the competitor get to the stage on Facebook. It is a great article. I was familiar with her site, I loved reading her blogs. I have always been so impressed with her, she has such symmetry and beauty, I told my husband man I hope I look HALF as good as her when I am 50, hell I wish I looked half as good as her NOW! 50 is not far off for me and I want to be in the best shape of my life when I get there!
To be working with someone I admire so much is just amazing! Thank you Jo!
So it took a few years to wrap my head around what this lifestyle entails and a funny thing happened along the way. I fell head over heels in love with training. Before, I did it because I HAD to. Now I do it because I WANT to. I never thought that would happen!
So I have a new plan! My competition is June 10 the ANBA on the Gold Coast. When I think about I feel slightly nauseous lol. I believe if you can dream and believe it, you can achieve it. I hope to inspire other women to take back control of their life and health and live their dreams. You only get one life!
I did the leg workout the other night and OH MY GOD. I thought I was going to puke and then pass out and die! I totally loved it…. afterwards. Haha
Well I really didn’t mean to write a book, but it is hard to give meaningful background in a paragraph or two!
You can request friendship with Yvette on http://www.facebook.com/#!/yvette.rowe
