August 19, 2003
I’m in day two of seventy-five. I’m feeling great this morning as I finally managed to get over seven hours of sleep last night. I’ve been meaning to see a doctor for months now about my borderline insomnia symptoms, which I have been experiencing all my life. Every time I get ready to make that call though, I’m starting to sleep well. My yo-yo sleeping habits are simply driving me nuts! Last week was especially brutal as my body kept refusing to fall asleep and with two or three hours of sleep a night it’s next to impossible to eliminate body fat and build the physique I want to for The Man Show.

I had a great workout last night! I took a caffeine pill an hour before my training session and it gave me a really good pump! I trained legs and abs. My obliques are killing me this morning as I tried a new abdominal exercise yesterday. I’m not sure what it’s called, but it’s the one where you lay sideways on the same piece of equipment you would normally use to perform back extensions and you do side crunches first on one side, then on the other… I’ve had enough of that exercise after my first set of 20 reps, but I saw some other girl pumping out at least three sets of that same exercise and not wanting to appear like a wimp I stubbornly proceeded to doing three sets myself. It was very difficult, but as long as I could keep up proper form I was determined to pump out three sets! So I did! Now all the lactic acid I’m feeling in my obliques is letting me know I did a good job J.

This morning I did 40 minutes of cardio before coming to work. My legs felt like lead after being hit hard last night… After work I’m going to train chest and arms. Following dinner I will try to get more quality sleep for another 5:30 a.m. cardio performance tomorrow! In the meantime, I’m off to the kitchen for some oatmeal, egg whites, and perhaps some strong black coffee before I jump in the grind of my professional life in the airline industry.

August 20, 2003
I only managed to squeeze in thirty minutes of cardio before coming to work this morning.  I was going to hit the gym at lunch, but my plan for a mid-afternoon quickie backfired when I realized I had to cover for two of my colleagues who could not make it to work today.  I can’t stand doing cardio in the evening, but I will have to make up the difference following my abdominal workout.  Tomorrow I will remember to get my butt out of bed at 5:30 a.m. instead of 6:00 a.m. in order to get my forty-five minutes in. 

I’m going to my friend’s house for dinner tonight.  I’ve already been informed that we are having chicken and veggies so I don’t need to worry about bringing my own dinner… Speaking of food, it’s time for today’s meal number four consisting of fat free pressed cottage cheese and a teaspoon of Splenda! Yum! 

August 21, 2003
I went to bed way too late last night so I decided to sleep in this morning and give my muscles an extra hour of rest. I did cardio over my lunch hour instead. I am incredibly lucky to be working across the street from one of my gyms (I belong to three different ones) so if I organize myself properly I can actually get a pretty decent mid-afternoon workout. Tonight I’m going to my “home” gym (where I train the most) for some shoulder action. I found an interesting shoulder routine in one of the recent issues of Musclemag. I believe the athlete’s name was Lenda Murray and some of the things she said sounded very interesting, so I’m going to give them a shot. After all, shoulders are on my focus list for my upcoming contest, so I’m glad I found this article. 

Tomorrow I’m going to a “girls night out at the trailer” event! We are all bringing our own food and drinks so I don’t have to worry about being the only one not having pizza… It’s not so much that I can’t live without pizza, I just hate having to justify my reasons for eating plain chicken when people ask me what the hell is wrong with me and who the hell am I trying to impress. I never ask anyone why they eat fettuccini alfredo for dinner! Why do they need to pick on me having my darn bok bok!!! I wish I could at least tell them off by saying how incredibly delicious the chicken is, but instead I just have to swallow my pride along with the dry bites of meat… It’s really difficult to have a normal social life when you stick out like a sore thumb…. But as I stop and think of all the other sore thumbs out there getting ready for the same competition as me, the chicken starts tasting more like the victory I am aiming for. I guess in the end everything “Tastes Like Chicken” after all! 

August 22, 2003
It’s FRIDAY and I’m in awesome mood!!!!  I did thirty minutes of cardio this morning.  I went and got a fake tan last night to get ready for a photo shoot tomorrow.  I would have preferred to tan today, but I am heading out to the trailer party immediately after work, so I had to do it last night.  As a result, my fake tan started running a bit this morning and I could not finish my normal forty-five minute session!  I’m also considering doing a bikini contest tomorrow at one of the local venues, but I’m not sure if I will have time.  No weight training for me tonight…  My abs are still hurting from Thursday night! 

August 24, 2003
My training suffered a lot this weekend due to the fact that I missed my Saturday workout.  I knew I would have an extremely busy day on Saturday, so I planned all my activities ahead of time.  A solid back workout was to be a big part of the plan, except I was forced to miss it as my car got a flat tire! Lucky for me, I ran into an old associate of mine who rescued me from what would undoubtedly be a very unpleasant afternoon!  I managed to complete all my other important tasks, but by the time I finally got home at 1:00 a.m., the only back exercise I was able to perform was laying down on it and falling asleep!  I trained my back today and already I feel much better. I'm doing a lot of wide grip exercises lately to give my back some good width and thickness.

I was doing great on Friday night as far as dinner is concerned, but after drinking four entire bottles of Orange Woody's, you could say that I completely blew it!  By now I have replenished all my body fluids with some quality H2O, but following my disgraceful behaviour on Friday, I have decided to give up alcohol until November....  I don't even know why I drank all these coolers considering I don't really care for alcohol all that much anyway!  If I was going to let my guard down, at least I should have cheated with something I enjoy!  I felt even more disappointed with myself following a photo shoot with Tracey Elliot yesterday morning. Tracey placed sixth at the Molson Indy's (I placed seventh) and she still looks incredible and amazing while I feel I would have absolutely no chance if I was to compete against her today...  She would still be in the top six and I would probably be in the twenties!  So that's it!  No more cheating for me!  Thank you for the reality check Tracey!