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Food Dreams – A New Kind of Torture

February 13, 2012 by 11 Comments

The sound of fire doors smashing shut and the fire alarm screaming jolted us awake at 1 am this morning.

Once I knew we weren’t about to be incinerated, I started the process of gathering my most valuable things, finding my purse, and putting on some more clothes. My husband is the only one I will torture with my ‘pajamas‘ which consists of short shorts, woodcutter-esque wool socks, and the latest and greatest free t-shirt.

The man deserves an award for putting up with me.

After 37 minutes of standing outside with my neighbours who were also clutching laptops, cameras, photo albums, pets, and purses; we were allowed back inside.

fire

It was the best I could do at 1 am after being woken up from an epic sleep. More fire trucks and firemen supervising the 'situation' than smoke.

With one eye closed, I took off my down filled coat, set the coffee pot to start perking at 4:25, and dropped back into bed.

What followed was torture in the extreme.

For the next 3 hours, I suffered through the craziest food dreams on the planet.

Martinis, nachos, cake, donuts, cheesecake, wine, chocolate, popcorn, and pizza were devoured by your’s truly all while I kept saying,  ’Umm…why am I eating this? I don’t eat this stuff. Huh! Strange. Complete and utter strangeness! Tasty though! Ooh, CAKE!‘

I knew it wasn’t really happening because no peanut butter was consumed. If this had been real life, I would have eaten more peanut butter than one woman should eat in a month.

Mexican food

I started with something like this, ate it in about 12 seconds, and then went on the desserts.

While I gorged, all my friends chanted, ‘EAT, EAT, EAT!‘

Seriously!

I was very thankful to wake up this morning to the usual black coffee, egg whites, and kasha.

Apparently the combination of a rest day, high carb day, and midnight fire results in enough stress to push me over the edge to have a mental food binge.

I feel like I have entered a whole new realm of prep.

Literally dreaming of food.

Have you ever dreamt of food while dieting?

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Overnight Success Comes From A Lifetime Of Perseverance

February 12, 2012 by 3 Comments

No one quite knows what to do with Jeremy Lin, the newest team member of the New York Knicks. He has come out of nowhere and is making a hug splash in the NBA; actually the world.

Seriously, where did he come from?

Jeremy Lin

Out of nowhere to everywhere!

The end of the bench.

For years he worked hard, went undrafted, and didn’t receive much play time. He was never thought of as a superstar in the making; yet his determination never wavered.

When you keep going, keep working, and keep driving forward despite circumstance, you get to come out of nowhere and show the world what a champion truly is.

You can’t lead a team to victory until you lead yourself there first.

Just ask Jeremy.

The courage, strength, and mental discipline that Jeremy displays on the court is remarkable

Victory doesn’t start on a stage as grand as Madison Square Gardens; it starts when no one is watching, when you are all alone standing in what could be perceived as failure. One day the whole world my be watching you, what are you going to do with today’s perceived failure?

This is my dream being lived out. Right here. I am so thankful.

Never, ever quit; even if you are at the end of the bench.

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The Visual Guide to a Figure Competitor

February 10, 2012 by 12 Comments

I never really got the point of the dishes are clean / dirty magnets that people have on their dishwashers. I mean, can’t you just tell by looking at the dishes whether they are clean or not?

Apparently not, hence the magnets.

clean or dirty dishes

I guess it DOES make sense...

And apparently if you are married to a Figure Competitor you can’t tell if she is bone dead tired, grouchy, hangry, or happy as a clam.

I decided I needed a ‘Figure Competitor Magnet’ so my husband didn’t have to wonder any more.

Today I created the very first iteration of, ‘The Visual Guide to a Figure Competitor‘.

I think this is going to be a game changer.

Pure brillance.

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Information Doesn’t Create Transformation

February 8, 2012 by 6 Comments

If you need to know something, all you need to do is ask Google.

Google

Oh the information and misinformation!

Yup, I have asked the Google many, many odd things.

A word of caution. If you are sick, don’t ask Google about it. Before you know what happened your itchy elbow and running nose combination is a sure sign of the bubonic plague or perhaps you have a rare blood disorder.

Either is possible according to the Google.

We live in the information age and, let’s be honest, we are kinda fat.

No judgement here.

I used to avoid hugs so people didn’t have to feel my fat rolls and flying was a test of mental fortitude because one seat barely contained me. I knew what I should do, there was no question about it. My health was in jeopardy and I wasn’t able to run the length of a football field without having a quasi asthma attack.

Information doesn’t create transformation.

When I wore the clothing sizes that had a ‘w‘ after them, which I promptly decided stood for ‘wide‘ not ‘women‘, I knew I shouldn’t eat two family sized bags of mini eggs for an afternoon snack while studying for my university exams.

mini eggs

ACK! These things are my kryptonite.

Two grapefruits for supper doesn’t make it all better.

What happens is your wide pants get skinnier.

So where does transformation begin?

  • Disgust
  • Offense
  • Frustration

More aptly put, pain.

I got sick and tired of people wondering if I was pregnant, feeling lethargic and sick, being unable to play outside with my friends, and loathing how I looked.

If you are ready to start on the journey of transformation, whether it be in your body, mind, spirit, or emotions, get ready to be uncomfortable and start putting all that information to use.

  • Pick one thing and just start. Make it a mindless good habit.
  • Dream and create a vision about where you want to go, focus on going and not staying.
  • Constrain your options. Its hard to eat junk food late at night if it just isn’t in your house.
  • Commit to what you want. Only go forward even if it is only an inch.
  • See who and what you’re starting to become, not just where you’ve come from.
  • Be proud and say it out loud. You are great and doing great; untie the ropes of guilt that drag you down.

I am not going to lie.

It is going to be hard and sometimes painful, but when you earn your health it is one of the most value things you’ll ever have.

Its worth it.

You’re worth it.

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I Prefer My Food Naked. There I Said It.

February 7, 2012 by 6 Comments

Oh the joys of eating out for business while on a contest diet!

The banter between myself and the waitress is way more high maintenance than necessary and I have an audience.

DL – (pretending to read the menu) I will take a house salad, dressing on the side, and plain grilled chicken breast. Oh by the way, what veggies come on the house salad?

Waitress – A beautiful heirloom tomato, julienned carrots, and other in season vegetables. So nothing on the chicken?

DL – (calculating macros in my head) Just grilled and on the side. Perfect!

Waitress – Are you allergic to something? We have a lovely marinade that tastes absolutely divine on the chicken.

DL – No, I am not allergic, just plain grilled chicken. Salt, pepper, and maybe garlic?

Waitress – I could ask the chef what other seasonings are available.

DL – No, don’t worry about it. Just no oil or butter please. Plain chicken….make it as boring as you can please.

Waitress – So just plain. On the grill. Nothing on it. Ok then. 

DL – Yup. Exactly. I like my food naked.

Perhaps I should just lead with that.

So, I like my food naked…

I am sure no one will get the wrong impression.

Who else out there likes their food naked?

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I am a Shameless Sniffer

February 5, 2012 by 12 Comments

Honey, umm…you totally want cereal for supper, right? I’m going to have cold chicken, 14 baby carrots, and 7 almonds, and then tuck myself into bed. I promise that tomorrow will be better…more carbs!

I don’t care what we tell you, here’s the truth.

Competition dieting sucks.

Dieting for a competition is way more focussed, intense, and hardcore than a ‘healthy eating plan‘. It is a healthy eating plan shoved through the finest mesh filter that exists on the planet.

Living with a dieting competitor is not fun; also true.

This time around I am really doing much better managing my mood and being honest with myself about how the low carb days affect me.

There are days I find myself unable to complete all the tasks I planned for the day. Somehow my superwoman cape comes loose, no matter how firmly I tied it on at 4:30 am that morning.

  • The kitchen remains an overgrown jungle of tupperware, pots, and pans. ‘Wash and Go‘ is the new method for food prep in the morning.
  • Laundry. What’s that? !
  • I take my glasses off so its impossible to notice the floor needs sweeping.

Yet, there is one thing I still do no matter what each and every, single week.

Bake muffins.

Four batches of delicious muffins are made with extreme love every single week for my husband. Not one calorie is consumed, unless you can inhale calories.

Donloree's Muffins

CARBS! Tasty, delicious, fantabulous carbs! Not a spoon, bowl, or finger was licked in the making of these muffins.

I am a shameless sniffer.

As soon as those babies come out of the oven I am smelling them like there is no tomorrow. Then they are packaged up and frozen for the week so he can have a tasty second breakfast around 9 am every day.

If your competitor can’t talk to you when you come home from work because she gave everything at the gym and work and has no carbs left, but cooked or baked for you; she loves you.

Loves you more than you know.

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I Need A Mountain To Climb

February 3, 2012 by 11 Comments

Bodybuilding is a rather ridiculous sport, all in all. 

You train like a mad woman, weigh every ounce of food you consume, live your life in an ‘obsessed‘ manner, and then you stand on a stage in a bedazzled bikini to be judged on your appearance.

  • Dieting is not fun.
  • Becoming a muscular skeleton is not easy.
  • Pushing your body to failure every day hurts.
  • Cake DOES taste good.
  • Explaining how you can’t have ‘just one bite‘ gets real old, real fast.
  • Winning results in ‘pro‘ status which means nothing in the real world, other than MORE dieting and ridiculousness that no one understands.

Yet I love it; but probably not for any of the reasons you think.

Bodybuilding is all about who I am becoming, not what.

I am hardwired to compete, and not just a little bit. If the stakes aren’t high enough, the challenge not difficult enough, and the opportunity to fail not present; I’m out.

Mountain to climb

Photo Credit

If winning is guaranteed, I will opt to sit on the sidelines and watch others compete.

Bodybuilding is a crazy sport that has brought out the best in me and helped me to dream past the impossible and jump into the incredible in all areas of my life.

The amount of work, focus, self discipline, inner peace, and loving every single part of who I am is required to do well in this sport. I spend more time training my brain than my body. How I think, what I believe, and what I say about myself, my relationships, the world, and my business creates outcomes.

I strive daily for amazing outcomes. 

Why don’t you just train hard and not compete?

There is more to learn for me in this season. Motion creates emotions. I want to feel successful, fulfilled, love myself, and have an inner calm that is a direct result of focus and discipline. There is work to be done, much more work to be done, in all these areas of my life. I will continue to compete against myself.

I am blessed to be in community with competitors that are a unique breed of people who live audacious, fulfilled, and purposeful lives. They are far ahead of me in so many areas of life. As I train next to them I learn and am pushed to grow past my self imposed limitations.

  • Every single thing matters and adds up over time to create what is today and what will be tomorrow.
  • Pushing past resistance can create more strength than you thought possible.
  • You must rest. Killing yourself doesn’t create success, rather balance does.
  • Intensity is the outcome of passion and when focussed it can shift worlds and overcome obstacles that once seemed impossible.
  • How you train shows up on the stage and in life.
  • Outcomes cannot be controlled, the only thing you can control is yourself.
  • People matter more than anything else in the world; creating an amazing team is paramount for success.

It turns out bodybuilding is an inside job.

Who are you training to become?

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Huck the old, stinky bananas out the window

January 31, 2012 by 21 Comments

If you are keeping the old, stinky bananas; its time to stop.

Watch my silly video to see why!

Read the whole post that inspired me to come up with the banana metaphor in the first place.

Change your mind, change your world.

Seriously.

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I am sick and tired of the excuses

January 30, 2012 by 10 Comments

Most of the world is waiting for you to fail.

This is not a ‘glass half empty’ statement; its a ‘look, there’s a glass’ statement.

We live in a world where 95% of people criticize and try to bring other people down.

After all, if you fail then I have an excuse to not try.

Look. She tried and it didn’t work. It cannot be done. I am going to sit on my arse and watch the world go by rather than be embarrassed by failing.

Excuses to give up rattle around in my brain all day long.

  • Wow. You keep trying and it still doesn’t work.
  • This is hard. It has to be easier, you’re doing something wrong. Just stop.
  • You are making a fool out of yourself.
  • Speak to this group of people? Who you? You’re nobody!
  • You aren’t losing weight, so you should just have chocolate cake smothered in ice cream.
  • You’re all alone out here. This is what you envisioned?
  • 7 people showed up DLoree. If this is the best you can do, then you should stop doing.
  • You are slaving away, doing all this ‘stuff’ and where exactly has it gotten you? Mmmhmmm…
  • You just failed right there. Yup, that is a total failure. If you can’t do the simplest things, why try for more? Just stop.

Somewhere along the way we started to believe that the dreams that live inside of us are impossible and that it is better to not try than to fail.

Not trying is failure.

Discipline is outwardly mocked and inwardly coveted. Giving up is understood. Negative self-talk is 100% acceptable. Success is viewed as something ‘lucky’ people have.

jump past the impossible, that is where your dreams live

Photo Credit

Luck has nothing to do with it.

It takes years of discipline, heart, and tenacity to become an overnight success. When opportunity shows up, the time to prepare is long gone.

I am sick and tired of listening to excuses for failure. If I am going to have an excuse, it is going to be for anything but failure.

It may take a lifetime, but when the opportunity arrives I will have an uh-may-zing excuse to be an overnight success.

Keep going. Press forward. Do not stop.

What is your excuse going to be for?

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Random Stuff About Me And You

January 26, 2012 by 8 Comments

There are so many things that you guys know about me, some things I can’t believe I tell you….and the pictures that I post. If only my mom knew. Oy vey!

Oh wait, she reads my blog too.

Dang!

There are no real secrets. Honestly, once you post your first picture of you in a sweaty bra top and short-shorts, it just goes downhill from there. All barriers and worries about what people think are out the window; you just are and the world better be ok with that.

Just call me Open Book-Loree.

In a non-fitness theme, I have decided to jump on the bandwagon with Kari and answer some questions about me that have nothing to do with weight training, gluing a suit to your arse, or avoiding the peanut butter jar.

Random stuff about me you may or may not want to know.

  • What’s the most interesting or moving book you’ve ever read?

First off, I love books. I am the woman that can read a book over and over and OVER. That being said, I have many favourite books, but ‘The Kite Runner’ made me think and change in ways I was unprepared for when I started reading it. I haven’t read it in nearly 5 years, so I would have to read it again to give you my original, over the top, and gushing review.

The Kite Runner

Powerful book that I could not put down.

I remember closing the book and saying outloud, “Redemption doesn’t always come to us the way we imagine it should”.

  • Which do you prefer: the book or the movie?

Book. Always the book. Umm…I don’t even see why this question is on the list. Doesn’t EVERYONE prefer the book?

  • If you could move to anywhere tomorrow, where would it be?

Soho, NY. I would live in an amazing condo over a treelined street that has a bakery on the corner with the most amazing pastries which I smell, but never eat and espresso that makes your hair stand on end. And of course I am a famous author that gets to write, weight train, and travel on fabulous book tours.

Soho NYV

This about sums the feeling up.

If we are going to dream, we might as well do it up!

  • What’s the one thing in life you can’t leave the house without?

My bra. I do not go in public without wearing my bra. Some women seem to think this is an optional thing in life, but not me. I would leave my phone, debit card, purse, and most anything else before leaving my bra behind. Wearing makeup and having your hair done is great, but if they girls are flying all over the place nothing else really matters.

  • What’s the furthest place you’ve flown to?

Calcutta. In 1999 I went to Inda for a month and it changed my life. It is a beautiful, dynamic, and powerful place; I don’t think anyone can visit India and come back the same.

taj-mahal

A very amazing place with a lurid history.

Helping at Mother Teresa’s orphanage, visiting the Taj Mahal, and spending time in the hospitals was an amazing adventure that I will never, ever forget.

  • If you could be anyone for a day who would it be?

Nelson Mandela. It would be an absolute gift to look at the world from his perspective, hear his heart from the inside, and live with the wisdom that he gained over years of pain, heartache, and self leadership.

Nelson Mandela

A true leader, in every sense.

  • What is one word that best describes you? (ONLY ONE)

Panache.

  • What’s been your greatest accomplishment to date?

Changing my mind about what is possible in life. When you change your mind, you change your world.

Truly.

  • What’s your favorite type of food?

Dessert. I don’t think I have ever met a dessert that I wouldn’t like to taste. A close second would be hot, homemade bread fresh out of the oven slathered in butter.

choc pb cookies

*chomp*

Carbs + Fat = Donloree in a blissful food coma

This would be why I have a Pinterest board called, ‘Look, but don’t eat!‘

  • What’s one nickname you have?

D-Lo!

  • What’s the best thing you did in 2011?

I am proud of many, many things from 2011; but by far the best thing I did was getting my health back. I am so happy to be living and have the opportunity to be fat and sassy *ahem* lean and mean.

If you don’t have your health you can’t fully enjoy all that life has to offer.

More living, much less dying!

What about you? 

I answered the random, non-bodybuilding questions; now it is your turn! I love giving people nicknames and if you don’t tell me what your nickname is, I will give you one and you will just have to like it.

Just ask Kori, aka ‘KSnAP‘.

Your turn!

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