Well, that was an ordeal this past week. The site went down last Friday, and I called my webmaster, who was shocked because he had just been on it a few hours before. Then, when the site didn't pop back up like it has in the past, he and I discussed the options and made the decision to move to a different hosting company. That did the trick! But we moved the entire site, not just the members' section, so that took a bit of time. Luckily, everything is up and running smoothly just in time for Thanksgiving.

And I've been a busy bee this Thanksgiving holiday. I convinced my boss to let me have today off, which provided me with a four-day weekend, and I got caught up on e-mails. Would you like to know how many I wrote today? Guess. I bet you can't! Lol! Over 50! My fingers are about to fall off from all the typing, but I plowed through my inbox like our next door neighbor's chows would burrow through the dirt and into our backyard when I was growing up. I'm quite pleased, though. This allows me to start fresh and stay up to date with the e-mails. I like to be able to respond to everyone within 24 hours of receiving the mail, but sometimes it isn't possible. I can get about one or two written in the mornings while drinking my 25 ounces of water before cardio, but if I do anymore, then I'll be late for work. And I'll do a few at night either when I come home to change into my gym clothes and drink more water or while I eat my last meal of the night before going to bed. So, many of the e-mails are answered on the weekends. Thus, having this Friday off was very necessary, and I feel really good!

Anyway, yesterday was Thanksgiving and I spent the afternoon and evening at my parents. My mom made both duck and turkey along with homemade stuffing and green bean casserole (hers is truly the best, and the key is to use French style green beans rather than whole ones and to add in a ton of those crispy French onions and put the last layers of those on top for only the last few minutes of baking so that they get extra crispy and golden brown). She also made carmelized sweet potatoes. She has this delicious sauce that tastes like caramel and even has the consistency of it...nice, gooey, and yummy! I love to dip my turkey in that (I hate gravy, so I always skip over that and stick to the sweet stuff). There was homemade pumpkin pie with whipped cream and my mom's brownies. So basically, I'm busting out of the camouflage pants I'm wearing today. Literally! You think I'm kidding, but the snap keeps coming undone every time I sneeze, laugh, or move in the wrong way. Not funny, guys!

But the good thing (well, my tastebuds don't think it's good, but they don't have a say in the matter) is that I'm back on track today. No leftovers for me (I did shed a few tears over this), and I have about a week and a half before I get a yummy meal again. It's back to egg whites, chicken, asparagus, fish, and oats. But at least I'm not at school teaching and having to watch the kids eat or have their parents bake homemade Christmas cookies and bring them to me for gifts or skip over PTA Teacher Appreciation luncheons full of cheesecakes, brownies, pasta salads, lasagna, and other fun-filled foods.

Actually, the diet isn't that bad. Once I get the memory of my mom's cooking out of my mind, I'll be okay. She really is an awesome cook, and she loves to give me leftovers, so I'm glad I could at least use the turkey she made for a couple of my meals today and mix it with the broccoli and the asparagus I had to munch on as well. I try to go over to their house when I do have cheat meals and I'll tell her what I want to eat, and she'll make it. Ahhh, the joys of being an only child! Spoiled, you say? Never!!!

Now, onto the important matters. The Brian Moss photos will be up this weekend, and this is only phase one of the galleries. There are three more phases throughout December, and then there will be a whole other gallery for you to peruse. And I spoke with him while at the Olympia, and I might have another shoot with him in 2004. We shall wait and see! I'm quite anxious to know what you think of these photos.

And my physique is changing. At least, I think it is. I won't take photos now, but in about two months, I will begin those progress photos, and you'll get to see for yourself whether I have managed to make the necessary changes for the stage. I did have an incredible back workout this week! If you haven't tried to put together close grip pulldowns and cable lat extensions (try these with a rope...my god, they hurt!), then do so this week. The muscle fibers in my back were burning...on fire...stinging. It was unbelievable! If you need to know what lat extensions are, just post a message on the board, and I'd be happy to describe these, but they work a small muscle called the teres major, which is located right above the lats; thus, this exercise helps to widen your back (the point bodybuilders like to term as "wings") and with enough weight also thicken it. I love these, but they must be done properly or you'll feel it more in your triceps than in your back.

I had an interesting leg workout on Wednesday as well. I did squats with 115 pounds for sets of 20 to 25, concentrating solely on squeezing my glutes and trying to keep the tensing out of my quads. I'm not sure I did an excellent job of this, but I then hopped directly onto the leg press machine and did close stance leg presses for sets of 30. I was hobbling around the gym after that. I also did leg extensions and supersetted them with reverse lunges on the Smith machine and then moved on to lying leg curls matched with seated leg curls and jump lunges. I sat on the floor for quite a bit of time after that workout. My hamstrings are still tight and sore from that workout.

Speaking of sore, my calves were all bunched up and knotted up this entire week. I couldn't run at all and had to move leg day to the middle of the week rather than the beginning because I completely demolished those things. I've been doing standing calf raises with 315 pounds (I'm shocked!) and doing three sets of those. I do them slowly, really concentrating and squeezing with all my might, and then stretching all the way down before punching up again with each rep. After three sets of that, I moved on to seated calf raises with a 45-pound plate and a 25-pound plate on the machine. I hate that exercise, but I forced myself through three sets of 15 before moving on to the leg press machine and doing calf raises on that. The arches of my feet hurt when doing it, but it does work when I concentrate solely on my calves. Try the workout and let me know what you think. My calves are growing a bit from it, and I'm hoping that when I lean out in 2004, the veins in my calves will pop out a bit. They began to do it periodically this year at Figure Nationals, but not as much as I would like.

By the way, there are new height class changes to NPC Figure at the national level. I'm not exactly pleased, but I guess I should be glad that my class hasn't changed at all, so there aren't any surprises for me. I'll bring it up on the boards and see what y'all think, but there must be a better system for making decisions that affect thousands.

Okay, I'm off to eat my yummy six egg whites. I like to put a couple packets of Splenda on them and sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg, then close my eyes and imagine. If I get creative enough, I can actually trick myself into thinking I'm eating French toast. See the mind tricks I can use to get myself through the tough moments of the diet?! I actually got this idea from Julie Palmer and Tracey Greenwood, both pro fitness competitors.

Take care and I hope you had as good of a Thanksgiving as I did! I'd love to hear Turkey day stories from everyone in the U.S. For everyone else, have a wonderful weekend, and I'm sure I'll pop back in before the weekend is out to tell you about my shoulder and calf workout tomorrow.

G'night!

Jodi :)

I just realized that I said last night's entry would be really, really short, and well, you know how I write...lol!

I'm about to get ready for work (I might actually be on time today since I chose to sleep in and do cardio tonight), and I just had to share my protein shake concoction. I use SciTec Nutrition's Protein DeLite in a variety of flavors. I tend to hate protein powders by themselves, and this is about the only one I can stomach when I'm not able to add the yummy things I included in the one I just finished drinking. For this morning's culinary treat, I blended two scoops of banana-flavored protein, 3/4 cup of frozen blueberries, 1/2 tablespoon of peanut butter, and four ice cubes. I added water, made lots of noise with the blender, and lo and behold, I had a delicious breakfast that gave me a brain freeze! I'll be repeating this again right before my workout tonight at 7:30 p.m., but the only difference is that I added a 1/4 cup of oats. I'm trying a higher fat, very low carb day today. I wouldn't do it every day, but I'm going to test and see how my energy level is. It seemed to have worked during my first week of working this new job, but it could have been a bit of adrenaline added into the mix, so now that I'm used to the job and am working on six hours of sleep (with about five snoozes added in this morning), I'll get a better idea of how it works. I'm adding olive oil to my two chicken and green bean meals today as well, and the other two meals are just egg whites (seven, to be exact). Hmmm...we'll see how shoulders, triceps, and a 35-minute cardio session go with just 1/4 cup of oats today.

Thank goodness tomorrow's Friday and I'm just doing cardio! I'm ready for sleep! Zzzzzzzz. (What!? Me?...snore? You've got to be kidding!)

Jodi :)

This is going to be really, really short, and then I'll elaborate either Friday or Saturday.

I attended the WWE Survivor Series held in Dallas this past Sunday. It was on pay-per-view, and I believe Chad (Stickman) mentioned he had watched it. So, I'll be discussing that in full detail in the next journal entry. Lots and lots to tell. Of course, I'm still deaf from the booming and explosive fireworks that announced various athletes. I will say this presently, though. I can see why some people will never catch on to the fitness and bodybuilding industry. I feel so plain Jane and vanilla-ish just standing on a stage and asking to be watched as I quarter turn my way into oblivion while the WWE guys thrash their opponents and throw them around as if they were ragdolls, and to top it all off, they have soap-opera like storylines. I did wonder consistently throughout the event (a bloody one, in fact; though, whether it was real blood, paint, or ketchup, I have no idea) about what could be done to liven up the fitness/figure/bodybuilding shows. That's the $64 million dollar question, now isn't it?

Okay, enough about that. The new job is going well. I'm beginning to get into the groove of things, but there is still so much to learn. My boss says I'm doing a terrific job at it, though, so I'm pleased with that aspect.

As far as workouts go, the actual workouts have been stupendous. The muscle group I work in the gym is sore for the 24 to 48 hours after I put it through a beating with the weights, but I'm still struggling mentally with the motivational aspect. I'll be discussing this a bit more when I do another journal entry, and I'll relay a few bits of advice I've received that have helped tremendously as well as some of the thoughts, feelings, and fears I have that I think are contributing to this. I do believe that the foremost fear is the one of failure. I do desperately want to earn my pro card, and I sometimes worry that I'm not good enough. Well, that negative attitude turns me on myself and is counterproductive to my end goal. I have to change to that and think about me standing on stage with a successful result rather than always preparing myself for what might not occur and how I'll deal with it. This is a hard habit to break, though. I've done it all my life. I'm always prepared for the worse-case scenarios, even though most of them will never occur. It's a lot of energy spent and wasted when I could have been pouring my efforts into preparing for my successful attainment of my goals rather than my consolement of not reaching them.

See, competing is much more than just standing on stage in a bikini and getting a trophy that cost the NPC maybe seven or eight bucks (so, where does the rest of my $60 registration fee go?). It's more than photo shoots in lingerie or cute jeans; it's more than flexing biceps. It's learning about oneself and determining how willing you are to stretch your own boundaries, to push yourself away from your ego, to allow your mind and wishes to roam farther than the vast space of the galaxy. I have grown so much in the past few years, and I know I have a great distance yet to travel, so I won't be giving up. I won't be backing down. I won't quit.

I'm about to head to bed. After doing a half hour session of cardio at 6 a.m. and being at work from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and then doing a rigorous bicep workout (I can't feel my arms!), I'm ready to escape to la la land and not think about anything except how good a cool pillow will feel against my cheek. Do you ever do this: find the coolest spot on the pillow and keep your head there until it warms up and then turn it around and over and around again until you find another cool patch of cotton to rest against? I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and do this. Crazy, huh?!

I'll tell what's crazy. The way my arms feel. Basically, my wrists are against the desk and my fingers are flying on the keyboard and I'm trying desperately to not move any part of me too much. My biceps are still pumped and hard! I started off with regular, supinated dumbbell curls. I did 20 pound dumbbells for sets of 15 and just really concentrated on squeezing at the top of each rep. Ouch!

Then I moved on to the cable bar curls. I did 60 pounds for sets of 15 and really tensed my muscles with every rep. On the last set, I did a drop set and that killed them.

I wasn't done, though. I moved on to close grip barbell curls. It was a little irritating to my left wrist, but I hung in there and belted out about 10 to 12 with each set. I finished up with preacher curls, sets of 20. I couldn't feel my arms after that!

I've been hanging in there just fine with my new job. I just have so much to learn. I am responsible for so many things, and I haven't worked in real estate since I was in high school, and things have changed dramatically in terms of computer programs, contracts, and procedures. I have to keep up with all the deadlines of all the listings, check the figures and paperwork on the contracts and addendums, and pass along duties to my assistant (I've never had an assistant; I could have used one of those while teaching!). I'm also in charge of communications with sellers, buyers, title companies, mortgage lenders, and such as well as marketing the properties and entering them into the MLS system. It is fascinating, but I'm experiencing brain overload for now. It'll all come together in a few months though and will seem like clockwork.

Speaking of clocks, I see that it's midnight. I have to wake up in six hours, so I must crawl into bed and catch a few Z's. Just two more days until the weekend (I used to lecture my students about wishing their lives away by waking up and thinking, I wish it were Friday, and here I am doing the same thing...bad, bad, bad Ms. Miller!).

Take care!!

Jodi :)

Good morning! I'm drinking my water and will be heading down to do cardio on the stepper this morning. Gotta work that butt! Lol!

It's been a busy time since starting the job, so I just wanted to drop in and say hi and let y'all know that I'll get to the message board in the next couple of days.

Training is going well. I had a rest day yesterday, but I worked out all weekend and had plenty of energy on Monday, which is actually unusual, especially considering all the carbs I had all day were 1/3 cup of oats and 1/2 cup of raspberries. The rest of the food was egg whites, steak, protein powder, and veggies. Today's pretty much the same, except exchange the steak with chicken and include an extra meal of carbs in the form of three ounces of yam. But it's working! I'm not doing as much cardio as I was when preparing for the shoots, which is nice, and I'm still leaning out a bit. I want to drop a little more and maintain for the off season so that I can easily get lean for Junior USA's and Junior Nationals.

I've gotta go or I'll be late for work. Enjoy your day!

Jodi

And it's off to another work week! I felt so worn out by the time Friday came along, but I still got all my workouts in last week, so I'm quite pleased with that. And I didn't miss anymore meals either! My title for the job is Transaction Coordinator, which is a big name for a...well...big job. I have a ton of responsbilities and have several computer programs to learn. I worked my way through one of them on my first day. It was actually quite easy. And I went to a training session on another one, and I know I'll figure that one out in no time. I love working on the computer!

I've had some great workouts recently. I felt really inspired by seeing Monica Brant come in so lean and ripped and muscular to the Figure Olympia, and though she didn't take home a first place trophy, in my eyes, she won, for she earned the respect of her fans. That's most important to me. I'm no longer competing to earn a certain placing from a judge. I'm competing to earn respect from myself, and if I continue to go in softer, I won't be happy. I won't be striated and massive like a bodybuilder. That's just asking to lose the show, but I will make sure that I have my conditioning exactly where I want it. I'd much rather be too lean than too fat.

I step onto that soap box so easily, don't I?! Lol!

Hmmm...let me move on to Vegas stuff. Okay, those hotels are humongous. And I'm not saying that because I'm so small. They really are huge! I visited the MGM Grand, which is the largest hotel on the strip and even possibly in America. The Mandalay Bay, where the Olympia was held, was huge and so confusing. I could never find my way around that place. I swear, you turn this way and see slot machines. Turn that way and see more slot machines. Turn another way and see a cloud of smoke and, you guessed it, more slot machines. Speaking of which, the smoke was absolutely awful. I think I have a case of lung cancer after that trip! Every single hotel was filled with smoke.

I went into the Luxor, which I really liked. I saw an IMAX film called, "Haunted Castle." With the 3D goggles on, you felt like you were actually moving. Well, at the Caesar's Palace, there is an IMAX ride where your seat actually does move, and I would have liked for that to have last longer. If I were to visit Vegas again, I would stay at either the Luxor or the Caesar or the New York New York, which was also quite cool with a Coney Island fun park full of arcade machines and a roller coaster, which I did not venture onto but had friends who did and loved it. I seem to be rambling, but there really is no sense of order or organization when talking about Vegas.

And if you want to stick to a diet there, forget it! I can't even begin to discuss the number of all-you-can-eat buffets there are, and the prices are terrific! The Luxor had an excellent one for just $16.99, and had yummy food! And Ceasar's Palace definitely had the best shopping. But I had no money...alas! I did play the slot machines and ended up pretty much even. I just don't see the point of paying money to lose money. That just isn't fun to me.

Where else did I go? The Bellagio has a beautiful show of fountains in front that plays to the tune of a Frank Sinatra song. The Venetian looked incredible, but I didn't get a chance to go inside. It's designed after an Italian city. The Excalibur is pretty cool, but it was one of the smokiest that I visited. And I think that was about it for the hotels I went into.

Will I go back next year? Sure. But I'll stay at the Luxor, which is next door to the Mandalay Bay, and I'll only stay long enough for the actual show. I'd rather spend a vacation on a beach with the warm sun beating down on me and the waves sprinkling water onto my toes and ankles and where they bring drinks to me with umbrellas in them and I can go snorkeling and visit the wildlife and see the natural landscape rather than so much glitz and glam. Vegas is just so overpowering on the mind.

Speaking of the mind, I'm tired and am heading off to bed. I have sprints to do tomorrow evening and a bit of cardio after that, but luckily I have the morning off. My birthday is Saturday, so that'll be my next cheat day. My parents are coming over, and I'm making fajitas, and my mom is making her homemade salsa...yum!

New pictures will be up soon. I sent the captions for the behind the scenes photos for the Junior Nationals to my webmaster, so he should have those finished soon. There are some funny ones! And I do believe there is another photo gallery from Steve Hendrix that will be up along with those.

Thanks for keeping the board active, though I do know there are many more members than there are talkers on that board. Remember...the more, the merrier!

Enjoy your week, and I'll pop in to the journal in a few days!

Jodi :)