Cairns, Fabulous Friends and INTENSITY!

I am finally HOME and god it feels good! FYI, i left brisvegas sunday to fly up to Cairns (North Queensland) for work and it was a crazy arse trip - 4 days, 20 clients, 1000km of driving and now i am WRECKED!... who ever said that travelling for work is glamorous???.... I got drenched in Port Douglas (it was supposed to be gorgeous blue skies for my day in paradise so i never even considered bringing an umbrella.... ocean? what ocean?...... it all blended in with the fuckin RAIN!) yesterday and ended up having to wear my havanas on the plane (with my work suit- hot look haha) cos my work shoes were completely wet - totally gross.

The above is from Rex's Lookout on the way to Port Douglas not long before the torrential rain event started lol

The plus side of travelling for work is:
- Visiting cool places.... though i wish i had more time to sight see!

This is the beautiful view from the Atherton Tablelands on my way to Mareeba.

- Eating amazing seafood ..and dessert ;-)
- Catching up with some AMAZING FRIENDS!

Yep i got to catch up for a good old gossip with my girlfriend Vanessa from primary school who is also a nutritionist. Miss Belinda Potter (my old PT and Miss IFBB Figure Australia) -her and her hubby James have just bought a Sumo Salad franchise in Cairns so if you are up there make sure you pay them a visit! And Miss Raechelle! We've been chatting for like forever here in the blogosphere so it was awesome to finally meet you girl!

This trip i decided that i had to be a little less extravagent with my meals (seeing that i don't have time or the facilities to prep anything) and chose to only 'fine-dine' for dinner and not lunch and breakfast. Gotta be mindful of the calories- seriously  i swear 'masterchef' style foods taste amazing cos everything is marinated in butter/olive oil lol. So I stuck with healthy fruit smoothies for breakfast - the local organic cafe would make me up one using rice milk, protein powder, super greens powder, banana, mango and ice. Yummo, just like i would make at home- i told them to leave out the ICECREAM!.. Lunch i stuck with chicken/prawn and salad wraps and also had sushi on one day.... After a few days eating wheat (from the wraps), i noticed a bit of bloating and fluid retention starting to occur which was a sign that i HAVE NO CHOICE but to go back to eating GLUTEN FREE. That i am cool with and i know my body will love me for it.

Unlike my last trip (townsville/mackay) where i was fine-dining for lunch as well as dinner, i definitely felt a lot better/lighter this time round from eating more simply throughout the day which allowed me to indulge a bit for dinner ;-)... Though for my next trip to Rocky/Gladstone in november i will just have dessert on one night..... Too much dairy (and wheat) in a short space of time has really affected my energy levels - i'm still feeling a little lethargic and phlegmy- totally gross lol...Sugar is the devil.

On the training side of things i did manage to do one 6.5km run and a 4.5km walk but unfortunately that was all i got time for. I hate using 'no time' as an excuse but i seriously did not have any (well i suppose i could have brought some dumbells to do bicep curls in the car lol) so i ended up doing a full body weight workout this morning to get my blood pumping again.... I've also got a sudden urge to attempt a 10k'er this arvo too!

Seriously guys, getting results (for me) is all to to do with INTENSITY now. I have been able to maintain LEAN within my comfort zone for quite a while now. I want MORE yesterday NOW... I have also come to realise that going from LEAN to SMOKIN HOT requires a choice:
1. Tighten up my nutrition
2. Intensify my training
3. 1 +2

My nutrition is pretty good but i will be tightening it up a little, more so in the 'treat' department which is why i have been making my own healthy ones. You know i have no interest in OBSESSING over food any more- calorie king, low carbs and carb cycling are currently NOT in my vocabulary!... So because i don't want to take the EXTREME (and boring) diet route the alternative choice is to challenge myself with the training side of things. (my dodgy left collar bone has been playing up a bit so their is only so much i can lift in the weights department)

So BRING ON the RUNNING, BRING ON FAST TIMES and BRING ON the RUNNERS HIGH!

I challenge you to challenge yourself. And FYI, if you want to get into SMOKIN SHAPE and you don't want to choose option 1, 2 or 3 i promise you that you will probably get NOWHERE .... serious. People look fuckin fantastic for a reason and its not by sitting on their arse all day long eating tim tams and drinking coke....but if that is your secret to success i would love to know ;-)