and she's back in the game!

Hey ya'll, I thought i'd better check in just to let you know that I am still in the land of the living... just.

All I can say is that the past couple weeks have been a borderline NIGHTMARE.  I had promised myself at the start of the year to NOT leave assignments to the last fuckin minute .... yeah forgot about that promise lol ... So there I was again in a world of pain stress, racing the clock to get my 2000 word assignment on 'what motivates sleep and sleep deprivation' done. (Ummmm DEADLINES?!) There were a lot of tears and during my mini meltdown I was so so close to calling up the uni and pulling out of my degree. FYI, they still own my $1270 for this semester ... and I am happy about that decision :). Due to my poor as time study management skills, I ended up missing a few workouts and numbed some of my stress with chocolate (after I had easily gone chocolate free for 19 days!) but I got the assignment submitted right on 12am friday night, phew. Bit of a rush job, but I have a learnt a big lesson and moved on.

So yesterday I decided that I needed some time away from the world. Instead of going to boxing class, I trained outside. The only time I spoke a word was mentioning my name at the polling booth.  Having that me time was worth its weight in gold. You can only figure out what you want in life when your mind is clear because stress distorts EVERYTHING.

Success in life is all about choices and priorities and the only thing stopping you achieving goals is YOU. I realise that my plate is nearly overflowing this year with work, travelling for work, training, psychology degree and comp prep BUT i know that if i really want to succeed in everything it all boils down to managing my time more effectively.

SO basically, i have to time box my entire day - yeah its a bit fanatical - but hey you gotta do what ya gotta do to get the job done!

So after solving all the problems of my crazy little world I psyched myself up and kicked some serious arse at the KP Stairs this morning. I took 1.33mins off last weeks time, so my new PB is 17.18mins!! Still feeling pumped, i did an extra 5 bonus sets for a total of 15 sets.

Anyway I must fly (literally), gotta finish packing before I jetset off to Townsville and Mackay for work this week.

Ashley Horner - smokin hot

Think positive and kick arse!

Fitness Model Shoot, iPad 2, Abstract Art Painting, KP Stairs PB ... Life is Fuckin Awesome

Did you miss me? I do apologise for being a bad......*ass* blogger! The past couple weeks have been insanely busy, so here's the low down in a nutshell:

Wednesday to Friday of the week before I flew down to Sydney for a sales course for work. It was a little on the BORING side but I did have a fabulous time catching up with our sales team. We dined out at Jamie Olivers' restaurant, Jamie's Italian on the first night. OMG, the food was AMAZING. If you are looking for an orgasm in your mouth, it is definitely worth the 45min wait for a table!

Dessert: Ultimate Chocolate Brownie..yummmmmmm!

I had to be a little creative with my training seeing that the hotel gym opened too late. Seriously, what gym opens at 6.30am!? So up I was at 4.15am Brisbane time (damn you daylight saving) to squeeze in a 500 rep Zuzana hotel room sweatfest workout before I met the team for breakfast. That afternoon it was pissing down with rain but we were desperate for some fresh air so off we went for a walk around Sydney Harbour and Hyde Park. By the time we got back to our hotel we looked like drowned rats. Hot not!



Sydney Harbour: Stunning

When dining out with 14 naturopaths at least you know you'll be eating somewhere hippy healthy. It's the ordering that can become quite amusing. It went a little something like this, "Gluten free; dairy free; vegetarian; decaf soy latte; green tea; alkalizing smoothie; What? Its not organic! What type of cafe doesn't serve free-ranged eggs? LOL. I think the waiters HATED us.

The day after I got back (Saturday), I had my friend Shazia's 40th birthday party at Jade Buddha. Awesome night, carved up the dancefloor as per usual ... Then came Sunday. OMG dead tired. KP Stairs? Nope. Sleep in? Yes.

On Tuesday I weighed in at 62.9kg (138.8lbs). 200g loss from the week before. Nothing massive (I'll be honest, I was a little shitty at first) but it was a good reminder that it was still a loss considering I had dined out 3 days in a row and missed a few training sessions. #no need to kill yourself at the gym or eat BORING food!

On Wednesday I had my first ever fitness model shoot! I team up with Sting Sports to film some exercise clips for their website and facebook page. It was soooo much fun, I had a blast. I'll let you know once the clips are up!

On Thursday I received a surprise from work ... an iPad 2!



Slimline baby!

On Friday I bought a hot piece of abstract art from my friend Julie for my office aka "The Inspiration Room'.

Bright and Feminine

And this morning I took another 7 seconds off my KP Stairs PB - new time is 18:54mins! I actually surprised myself as I hadn't run in 2 weeks. Plus i ran another 5 sets for extra bad*ass*ness. Orginally the goal was to get to 20 sets however I have decided that I am going to stick with 15 sets for now. The reason being is that the stairs are not only physically challenging but mentally draining too. As I am about to start my third week of uni tomorrow, I require total brain-cell function on weekends for STUDYING!

So on that note I have an assignment to write!







15 Weeks till Comp Time!

Well I'm sitting on my exercise ball in quite a comatosed (not sure if that is a word?) state. My legs are SHATTERED! BUT I did have a killer workout at KP Stairs this morning! The rain had bucketed down all day yesterday so thank god the sun was shining this morning. Having said that, the stairs were very wet, lots of puddles and very sandy - total OH&S risk. But hey, that didn't stop me. Neither did my Vibrams which were soaking wet. So gross. So not cool. FYI, they went straight into the washing machine as soon as I got home!

Anywho I have a new PB! 19:01mins - shaved 33 seconds off last weeks' time woohoo!! Plus I did an extra 6 sets, so I am now up to 16! BRING ON 20! ... I pushed myself pretty hard during those first 10. Sets 12 to 16 totally sucked - quads on fire!!

The training week in review:

Monday - 50min easy walk outside. (I decided to have a day off weights (and rest my muscles) as I was waiting on my new POWER PROGRAM to be written)

Tuesday - 8km run - 41:49mins on treadmill. Felt alright, calves were still a little sore from KP Stairs.

Wednesday - Bodyslam - Boxing, kickboxing and sprints. We had a fill-in trainer that night and her session was mental! Talk about intense! I trained so hard that I ended up pinching a nerve in my lower back. I know, silly me, that's the competitive side of me coming out. The sprints were at the end of the session and we had to race our partner. There was no way I would let John beat me, so I smashed him and myself. Not good. It was the worst pain ever. A lot of stretching, half a tube of Traumeel cream and a lot of Mag Phos later and my back was feeling so-so.

Thursday - Rest day and massage day. Thank god for that! Kim sorted out my lower back quick smart. She balanced all my energies and pressure points and I left feeling a million bucks :)

Friday - New Power Program. Killer: Front Squats supereset with Pull Up/Chin Up combos. Baby got back, baby got ass. Oh and of course I did BodyGroove class too!

Saturday - BodySlam: boxing combos non-stop. killer.

And last of all, I FINALLY have begun doing a weigh-in day. Actually two. Tuesday and Fridays. By doing them twice a week I can monitior any fluctuations a little better.

16 weeks out:

Tuesday 21/2: 63.4kg (139.5lbs)
Friday 24/2: 63.1kg (138.8lbs)

LOSS: 300g (0.7lbs)

So there you have it. I'm right on track. Back definition is coming up nicely and finally starting to see some separation in my quads. I'll post some progress pics soon.

Well time to prep some lunch, then its a date with my couch and Episode 9 of Spooks! Uni starts tomorrow so I am going relax and enjoy my last day of FREEDOM!!

Bikini Workshop, PT session and Kangaroo Point PBs!

Well I am still buzzing away on an endorphin high from running the Kangaroo Point Stairs this morning. I have officially been inducted into the Sub 20 min club woohoo!! I was feeling pretty pumped this morning and ended up smashing 49 seconds off last weeks time. New PB: 19:34 mins baby. Then of course I had to add an extra set onto last weeks' tally, so I did 15 sets all up. Total BAD@$$ today.

The past week has been a bit of a whirlwind, I barely can even remember what happened earlier this week (obviously nothing important!) so i'll skip to FULL-ON FRIDAY. I started the day off with a 40 min walk outside. It wasn't the smartest idea seeing that I had PT with coach Liz later that day. We did another hard-core power sesson. The workout looked something like this:

Front Squats (with Olympic Bar + weight) 5 reps
superset with Chin-Ups from Hell:
a Pull Up/ Chin Up combo: 4 Pull Ups + 4 Chin Ups + 2 Pull Ups + 2 Chin Ups

x 3 sets

... my arms were so fucked sore I wanted to cry.

Dead Lifts (arse to grass style) 3 reps
superset with
Olympic Bar (plus weight) Push Press 7 reps (maybe 10? I was too smashed, can't remember)

x 3 sets

Then we did some Pilates floor work. I had to activate the very deep core muscles (very technical i know. I should have paid more attention in Human Anatomy class) ... a lot harder than I thought. I will be incorporating more core work into my new training program so bring on that sexy 6-pack baby!

After PT I crashed and burned for a few hours whilst I tried to coax my body out of a coma with 2 strong cups of coffee ... as I had to get my dance on at BodyGroove that night. Even though I was pretty tired the class seemed to flush a lot of the lactic acid out of my legs, plus its always a whole lot of FUN. Note to self: 3 lots of exercise in one day is overkill.

Saturday morning was a killer BodySlam class - boxing and running, my favourite combo. I kept up with the speedy gonzales boys for most of the running but towards the end my legs got their way. I told them to SPRINT. They told me to FUCK OFF. lol

Then it was a race to the coast for the Be Bootyful Bikini Model Workshop. It was fantastic. They went through judging criteria, format for each round (bikini, sports wear, club wear), attire (they had a huge range of bikinis on display ... and I think I am changing my colour), posing, portfolios, sponsorship etc and we also got to practice out T-Walk ... in our 5.5 inch STRIPPER HEELS.

Lets just say it's time to start wearing them whilst cooking and washing the dishes! 

Smashing the Stairs and Snake Skin Shoes!

Happy Sunday!

Sorry for the delay between posts but I have had a FULL-ON week with work, training and life in general ... no brain cells left over to type a blog post lol.

Since my mini melt down last Sunday, I have had a pretty awesome week on the training front:

Monday - Power training
Tuesday - 1 and a bit hour City walk
Wednesday - 7km outdoor run on the grass - 36:53mins AM and Bodyslam PM (I usually don't do two big sessions in one day but because I SLEPT IN on tuesday morning I wasn't going to attempt to run outside at 8am ... umm heat stroke anyone?
Thursday - Rest Day aka MASSAGE DAY!
Friday - Power training and BodyGroove. Instructor Jos has put together the most wicked set of tracks, the dancing is an 11/10 on the scale of sexy, kick-arse moves!
Saturday - BodySlam - weights circuit with a 4km run/walk.

and that brings us to SUNDAY ...

On a side note, I have been experimenting with the meal timing of my dinner the past few days and have made a little discovery. The further away from bedtime I eat my last meal I:

1. Have a deeper sleep;
2. Wake up energized and completely refreshed i.e i don't press SNOOZE ten zillion times;
3. Look even leaner in the mirror, less bloat; and
3. Train like a BOSS!

So back to my story. I had eaten dinner quite early yesterday, 5ish, and woke up this morning feeling lean and PUMPED! I got down to the cliffs just after 7am this morning. Perfect training temperature. NOT TOO HOT! I warmed up and then SMASHED 45 seconds off last weeks PB - 20:23mins baby!

I'm fit enough now to not rest between any of the first 10 sets. Every now and then I got held up a bit by WALKERS who don't know the fuckin stair rules - LET THE RUNNER PASS! After my 10th set I had a breather for about 3 or 4 minutes, then was a total bada$$ and did an extra 4 bonus sets. Set 11 and 12 were ok, but I was feeling the lactic in set 13 and 14. My quads were on fire! By the time I finished I was absolutely fucked seeing stars lol but feeling pretty on top of the world.

So after my mammoth effort this morning I caught up with my highschool friends for brunch at Mud Dessert Bar in Bulimba ... and before you ask, I didn't have dessert for breakfast. They do the most amazing food, a little pricier than most cafes but definitely worth the extra coin. I had soft poached eggs on gluten-free bread with pesto, sauteed field mushrooms and grilled tomato. So good!

Training aside, I invested in bought a hot pair of Snake Skin Wedges from Nine West:

I live in wedges for work, they give you the height to make your calves pop without killing your feet like a pair of heels.

Rocking them out.

Well enjoy the rest of your weekend, I'm gonna go crash for a bit. Shattered much!

PERSEVERANCE

In any fitness challenge there are bound to be days where you just feel like GIVING UP. This morning was one of them.

Roll back the clock...

I kicked off my Saturday with a killer BodySlam class - an intense circuit of weights and plyos. SHATTERED and SORE.

My gym sesh was followed by brunch at Perks at Garden City with my gorgeous fitness bunnies. I had the usual - Soft poached eggs on gluten-free bread (no butter) with sauteed spinach, mushrooms and grilled tomato. Yummo! .... The girls were having a 'naughty' breakfast, so I indulged in a few mouthfuls of toasted Banana Bread and Banana Pancakes. DELICIOUS.

After brunch was a mad rush to whip up my famous Mexican Dip:

Bottom layer: Fat free re-fried beans mixed with salsa (hot), taco seasoning, fresh tomato, capsican and spanish onion.
Middle layer: sliced avocado
Top layer: EXTRA lite sour cream (I've been told that lite greek yoghurt works well too... and saves extra calories) sprinkled with finely chopped tomato, capsican and spanish onion.

Served with wholegrain rice crackers (gluten-free) and/or corn chips.

The reason being I had my girlfriend Berties' 42nd Birthday BBQ to go to. And what a fabulous arvo, evening... and night we had! Great company, great conversations and a lot of laughter. I really didn't want to leave but by the time 11pm rolled on I was thinking to myself get your arse home, you have to run KP Stairs in the morning!

Food wise I had eaten:
Some good stuff - Greek salad, lamb and prawns
Some ok stuff - Mexican dip with rice crackers
Some not so good stuff - a snag and a half

By the time I had got home my stomach was feeling a little off. FYI, i don't digest dairy and gluten very well, I get bloated, get a runny nose, retain a shit load of fluid and have like ZERO energy. So for that reason I stay away from those foods 90% of the time.

I got to bed after 12am. Alarm went off at 5.45am and I felt like i'd been hit by a truck. Decided to snooze for another hour. I woke up feeling sooooo lethargic, looked in the mirror and all i saw was bloat and that dreaded fluid retention. I looked smooth, felt heavy and honestly, I felt like SHIT.
I even considered NOT doing the stairs because I didn't want anyone to see me looking like this (in hindsight, no one would probably noticed a difference lol) and thought about just going for a walk instead. It was like in one split second - a moment of self doubt, my whole world had came crashing down. There was a little voice inside my head whispering that I had fucked up all this hard work so why not just take a day off training and buy something 'naughty' to eat just to make me feel better.

So after moping in my own self pity for half an hour, I made myself a coffee and told myself to GET A GRIP. This was just a test of my own mental strength and determination. I reminded myself that the bloat will pass so just GET OVER IT AND GET ON WITH IT.

And with that i hopped in the car and drove over to Kangaroo Point ... Then I kicked some serious arse. I took 27 secs of my PB - 21.08min!! and then did 3 bonus sets! So i'm up to 13 sets now. FUCK YEAH!

I'm still feeling bloated and my legs are DEAD but mentally I am back in the land of POSITIVITY.
Now time to kick back, relax and watch another epidsode of Spooks. I seriously addicted to that show.

Have you persevered lately when the going got tough?

Stacked it!

Happy Hump Day peeps!

How's your week going so far? Mine has been crazy busy, it's flying by!

Well i've had a little hiccup on the training front. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

On Sunday morning, I went outside to feed my neighbour Steves' cat as he has been away on holidays. There's a few metres of uncovered courtyard between my front door and the carport and as it was raining I had to hustle ... fast ... in my thongs (FYI, i do not mean a g-string for all my US readers. Slippers? Jandles? Whatever you call them, they are worn on your FEET!)... next thing i knew i was arse up in the air with cat food in my hand ... slam ... FUCKKKKKKK! ... Stacked it BIG TIME. Grazed my left knee and jarred my left wrist. It bruised and bled up nicely. Not. Three rounds of ice and a lot of Traumeel cream later and the swelling began to subside. Traumeel is seriously amazing stuff. If you have any bruising, swelling, sore muscles. injuries, soft tissue damage etc I definitely recommend it. It halves your recovery time. I swear by it.

Anyway I decided it might be a smart idea to take a few days off normal training and use them as active recovery days. I've been training pretty hardcore for the past 10 weeks, so 3 days (sunday, monday, tuesday) of 5km walking would probably do my body a world of good. I was considering going for a jog yesterday morning, but my poor little knee was still a little bit stiff - still can't pull my left leg back into a full quad stretch yet - so decided against that. Running when injured can cause you to overcompensate on your good leg which can lead to a whole lot of other problems. The last thing I need is a pulled muscle!

So today the knee is feeling about 90%. I am feeling refreshed and ready to kick John's arse (my boxing partner) in BodySlam tonight.

Over and out!