I recently arrived back to the States and let me tell you, ten hours on a flight is the not my idea of a good time. Eating a whole can of Pringles during the trip did help to soothe some of the jet lag, but it didn't soothe my mind. I walked off that flight looking like a beached whale, for I was holding more water than the Hoover Dam from all the sodium and Italian food and chocolate and ice cream and...oh, you get the picture.

So, it's embarrassing to state this, but I did gain about 15 pounds in about two and a half weeks, but I've dropped five of those this past week. See, most people don't realize that the competitors remain that lean only for the weeks leading up to the show. If you examine the photos in the Michael Cox gallery, then you can see the typical me that walks around on an average day during the winter months. The competition photos are me with about five coats of tan, five inches of make up, and five weeks of hell...ummm...I mean dieting and busting my butt on the cardio machines.

Anyway, I was just asked by Gene Carangal of www.steelfitness.com to do another photo shoot during the Ed and Betty Pariso show in Dallas, Texas, at the end of the September. So it's back to two-a-day cardio sessions and healthy eating, though I did get a yummy cheat meal tonight, which I spent with my parents.

I'm also back in the gym and hitting the weights really hard. It's nice to be back on schedule and though I don't have a show for over eight months, I do still have a goal to achieve and items to accomplish in terms of working on my physique and continuing to mold it so that it's good enough to earn a pro card next year.

Speaking of which, I have lots more to tell y'all about the show. Now that I'm back in town, I promise to write in the journal regularly, so expect lots of details about the show and about my trip to London as the weekend continues.

Be sure to sign the message board and let me know what you would like me to include in the journal. I'm looking forward to making this a daily habit, especially since I'm consistently in the middle of a novel and always have new thoughts, opinions, and ideas regarding the material. As of now, I have just over a hundred pages left in John Steinbeck's East of Eden. I highly recommend this, though it is a bit of a lengthy novel. But it is well worth it, for the discussion of man being inherently good or truly evil as he enters society is the focal point.

That's all for now. Have a great evening (and happy Labor Day weekend to all Americans)!

Jodi