I went to the gym this morning and did my arms.  My butt still hurts a little from the hike, but I'll do legs tomorrow.  I haven't started my new weight routine because, well darn it, I'm procrastinating.  It's very silly, I know!  I'll get over it.  It's the learning new things all over again, when I just got the other routine 'down pat'!  Oh well, everything else is going well.  I'm seeing more and more people in the gym every time I go in, including some new second wave people that I haven't met yet, Welcome!      

April 29

Another great day!  No cheating!!!!  If my next assessment shows no change, I'll be very disappointed because I'm really trying.  If I got nothing else out of last Saturday night, I was at least motivated to just do it!  If I don't ace the test, so to speak, it won't be because I didn't have the answers in front of me, it will have been because, I had the answers, but didn't look at them!  

April 28

Today was a good day, in fact it was better than good, because I ate perfectly!  I ate exactly what I was supposed to (without cheating!), and when I was supposed to eat it.  I am proud of myself! Yeah me!  I know it sounds silly, but this is a very big deal for me.  Neaghn said 'baby' steps are good, but to take baby steps, you have to be a toddler.  I'm still in the womb!  Don't worry, I'm coming out, it's just long labor!  One day at a time, one meal at a time, I'm getting there. 

April 27

Today was an awesome day!!!!!  The hike was very, very challenging, and I heard later that it's rated the 4th hardest in B.C.  And I did it!!!  Boy did I want to quit when we were doing the last half of the mountain, practically straight up.  My thighs were burning, my butt was screaming bloody murder at me to stop, and I was sure everyone within 5 km could hear my desperate panting (I even checked with Phyllis about that), but I didn't quit, I didn't even stop.  Eventually those annoying parts of my body went numb.  We got completely soaked from the rain, which I loved because it kept me cool.  The scenery was beautiful, and in a particular part where there's a marsh, it looked like something out of Lord of the Rings.  We ate lunch in the car when we were finished, James shared his tea with me, I met some new people from the challenge, it was just an overall GREAT DAY!  I even kept the momentum up and when I got back to the gym, I did my arms!  Thanks to everyone who organized this day, and I can't wait to go rock climbing!

April 24

I don't really have much to say, to everyone's surprise & relief, I'm sure!  Still just plugging away.   

April 23 

I bought some chicken from Garcha Bros tonight.  Why do they chuckle when you show them the card?  By the way, they will ground the chicken breast for the same price as the whole breast.  Now where's that recipe for chicken balls?!  Ha Ha!  Can't wait to see everybody Saturday and Sunday!  Food is getting better, I'm staying far, far away from chocolate!  Total abstinence, it's the only way to go!  Ha Ha!  

April 22

 I'm slowly getting better at the eating schedule, especially now that I have a car!!!!!!!!  I'm not spending half my life walking or taking the bus everywhere.  Do you realize that was adding up to 3 to 4 hours every day!  Now that time goes to much more important and needed areas, like actual grocery shopping and attacking the mountain of laundry that never seems to get smaller, you know, serious stuff!  Ha Ha.  Way to go Canucks!!!!!!!!!!!! 

April 21

Well, how was everybody's weekend?  How many of you cheated?!  I have to admit, that I cheated on Friday, in that I had some mashed potatoes with gravy and I had some stuffing.  I was allowed turkey breast and vegetables so that at least was right!  Let me tell you though, that after six weeks of cleansing out you system and then eating that food, I was let's say, dealing with an upset stomach all day the next day!  It was so not worth it, so when I went to my mom's on Sunday for dinner, I brought my own meat and rice (she was having ham and potatoes), but I ate the salad and vegetables that she served.  My mom and all my sisters noticed that I'M LOSING MY BOOBS!!!!!!!!  Why can't it disappear from somewhere like my butt or my thighs?!  I never had much in the way of boobs to begin with, soon I won't have any!  They'll be craters!  Between my shoulders and chest area, I've lost 5 & 1/2 inches combined.  Oh well, maybe once those are gone, it will have to start disappearing from other places!      

April 17

Happy Easter everybody!  May you all be surrounded by loved ones as we reflect and rejoice during this Holyday, and I pray that blessing fall on each and every one of you.  God Bless.  Tamilee

April 16

I'm going to keep on sending these journal entries, even though they haven't been posted for more than a week. 
I told everybody at the pot-luck that they could buy a 4 Kg box of chicken breast at the Superstore for $26.00, but now I'm sorry I did.  THEY"RE GROSS!!!!!  They are very salty, and spongy, don't buy them. 
Also, I have an un-opened container of strawberry protein powder from Gator's, does anyone want to trade?  I still have 1/4 left in the other container, but I'm getting sick of strawberry.  Vanilla would be nice.  Tamilee

Tami . . we really try to use our sponsors for the chicken and all other needed materials. . . I think this is only fair to do, since they provide so much to you so that you do not have to pay for this 16 week educational journey you are undertaking!  Please everyone . . use our sponsors . . thank you!

April 15

Well, I had my assessment, and although it's in the positive, it's not as good as it would have been without those friggin' chocolate covered almonds!  When I got on the scale it read the SAME weight as my first assessment!  I mean exactly to the pound!  I lost nothing, I gained nothing!  BUT, Neaghn said that I had actually gained 2.5 pounds of lean and lost 1.5 pounds of fat.  I'm not sure how that works out, but whatever, it's still to the good.  Now I'm imagining the results if I hadn't eaten all those stupid almonds, and if I had done my weight training twice/week instead of once, if I had done my cardio every day, and if my eating schedule had been on time!  Well, it can only get better, because I refuse to let it get worse!  This 2nd month will be better!  Actually, one little thing did obviously change on my body although I would not have chosen that to be the first to go, I even showed Neaghn (she laughed), my bra is loose on  the top!  Like, very loose!  As if they didn't sag enough already!  Tamilee

April 14

Tomorrow's the BIG day!  This is probably a psychological feeling, but I feel HUGE & HEAVY!  I hope that there's at least a minute change in some aspect of my assessment because I need something to motivate me and remind me of why I'm doing this.  Hopefully I'll have happy news to share tomorrow night.  Tamilee

April 13

I just want to say that it was wonderful to meet all of you who made it to the potluck tonight!  And for those of you who didn't you missed a great time, in fact there were some of you who I was really looking forward to seeing (Carla, Johanne, James, Verna, Brian, Karen, Ron, Karen Ring...well okay, everybody!), but you never showed up!  Maybe we'll see you at the workshop.  What a time of eating, woooeee!  It was very nice, but whatever Deborah says about how much I ate, it's a LIE!!! ha ha.  At least I can say, that my nine-year-old daughter ate WAY more than I did, and she hogged most of the fruit salad with the yogurt and cool-whip!  I am happy to announce that I have not touched so much as one chocolate covered almond in about 5 or 6 days!  Less than two days till my 2nd assessment, and I have to put that eyesore of a bathing suit back on.  It's going to be the first thing to go when this is over!!  Tamilee

April 12

First, I have to congratulate Neaghn, Phyllis, Pauline and Heather, for their awesome performance today, you were great!  Second, I love the new website!  Looks great, and I can't wait for all the links to be up and running.  Today was a very crappy day for eating, right Deborah?!  Neither of us thought the competition would last as long as it did, so we didn't bring a lunch.  The only thing we ate, up until 3pm was a $4.00 protein bar and an apple!  When am I going to learn?!  I hope to see everybody tomorrow!  Tamilee

April 11

I can't wait until tomorrow!  Not only do I get to see Neaghn and Phyllis and the other girls flaunt their 'stuff', but I get to spend some time with Deborah Servais, because we're going together!  It is going to be a great day. 
It wasn't a very good day for eating again, so what else is new?!  I can't wait to finally get together with everyone at the potluck, are many of you actually bringing your family?  I'm not sure whether or not to bring any, some, or all of mine.  See you soon.  Oh, by the way, is broccoli, cauliflower, chicken breast, cream of chicken soup and cheese all baked together, considered healthy?  I use low-fat soup!  Tamilee

April 10

Dreading the assessment, and at the same time, can't wait!  Looking very positively towards the next three months, now that I'm a pro.  Ha Ha!  It almost feels like this was a practice month, to get used to everything, and trying to schedule everything in, ie. food, weight training, cardio, and for crying out loud the core exercises alone take me 45 minute a day now!  I know I'm going to have to plan better, in fact I'll have to start planning weeks in advance, especially when it comes to weight training, I don't want to miss any more days!  I'm very, very tired these days, does that mean I'm, not eating enough now (taking in), to match the amount of effort I'm putting into exercise (going out)?   I can't wait to ask Neaghn all of these questions!  Oh, by the way, Neaghn, is it going to be a least an hour, I'll need it! Ha Ha!  Tamilee

April 9

Technically it's the 10th now, but I haven't gone to bed yet, so it's still the 9th.  Anyway, I have found the absolute best, most fabulous website thanks to 'biggerthanfun' at the 'ezboard' web site.  It's www.fitday.com, and by filling in the categories with the foods you ate and how much, it tells you how much was fat, calories, protein, and carbohydrates, with that whole day's percentage of each one!!!!!!  I don't know about any of you, but I suck big time at trying to figure out what's in what, when you eat something like, 3 tbs., or 3/4 cup, but this program will figure it out for you!!!!!!  For free!!!!!!
Can you believe that approximately 1 cup of chocolate covered almonds affected my numbers like this:        Calories         Fat       Carbs          Protein
Without:           1279           39         144                   87
With!               2232!          115!!!     198                  117
Is that insane or what!  I will never eat them again!!!!!!!  Ever!!!!!     Tamilee

April 8

I'm sorry, John if I misunderstood the other challenger's words, but they did write that they made five session appointments with you.  I only felt that if I was going to get training, then I wanted the absolute best!  After working with Neaghn, I know how silly that was.  I completely understand that you are extremely busy, and I'm not trying to make your life difficult.  I just want to impress upon you more, the reality of my situation and of others too.  I concede that you are absolutely brilliant when it comes to the nutrition and the fitness plans you've taken hours to put together for each of us, and I know that following it WILL lead all of us to success, BUT handing me the book and then leaving me to my own devices so to speak, was disheartening.  I felt completely like a fish out of water, and I might add that most of us in this challenge are where we are in life with regards to nutrition and fitness, because we were left to our own devices to begin with!  I have pretty much gotten over the fact that I won't be able to talk with you or see you much throughout this challenge, and it's okay.  I had convinced myself that I couldn't succeed on my own, that I wasn't strong enough to stick to anything without someone kicking by butt all the time, but now I know I can, and I WILL!  When I went to the gym yesterday, I think I pushed myself harder than Neaghen would have, because today I could barely move!  It's possible that I'm mad at you because you're forcing me to do it on my own,  and that scares me to death, because I don't know if I'm strong enough.  This is without a doubt, the most selfish thing I've ever done!  I mean selfish, because it's all about me and nobody else.  I've never put so much thought and effort into myself before, it's hard, and I'm learning as I go.  I'm sorry for declaring the unfairness I felt.  Most of the time, I use the journal entries as a 'sounding board' more than actually being truly upset.  When it comes to patience, I have an unending supply, believe it or not, in my personal life (family), but it seems I have zilch when it comes to this challenge, because I want success so bad I

April 2

 The start of a new month and the start of getting down to business!  I have always been serious about this challenge, but when it comes to the food part I fail over and over.  Not in everything, because I drink the required water, and I faithfully eat breakfast and lunch, including the protein shakes with the udo's oil, but from the afternoon on, I go downhill.  Especially now that baseball has started, I get home from work between 3:30pm and 4pm depending on what time practice starts, pick the kids up and race to the park for 4 or 4:30pm.  That gives me barely 1/2 an hour to get them dressed, get all their gear together, and be on time!  I take snacks for all of us (protein bars for me), but we don't return home until around 7 or 8pm!  the only thing that I can think of for days like this, and there'll be at least four/week, is to have sandwiches made and take those to eat for dinner.  It sounds really sucky, but what else can I do?!  At least my kids don't care if they have sandwiches for dinner!

April 3  
  
Today started off as a good day, and gradually went down hill.  The person who was supposed to drop off one of the church vans to me at work showed up 20 minutes late.  I then was late picking up the kids from the baby-sitters, which meant we now had 5 minutes to go home and get all three of them in their uniforms, out the door, and to each of their practices.  Emily's was the farthest away, and it was supposed to start at 4pm, but she didn't get there until 4:30pm.  First I dropped off Sarah and Timothy at 4:20pm, at the park across the street where their practices were, (no sense everyone being late, and theirs were both at 4:30) then I took Emily.  Up until this point, I had eaten properly all day and I had every intentions of eating a proper dinner on time.  Yah right!  One of the reasons I had the van to begin with was to run errands for the church I work for, and the first errand was to go to the bank in Guilford to do a deposit.  I never made it, the van stalled on the way and I was stuck on the side of the road.  So much for quickly making the deposit and going back to watch everybody's baseball!  So, at 5:15 I ate my 'dinner' of half a protein bar and some water.  By the time I was rescued, I had recruited a family member to pick up my darling Emily and bring her home, while another family member was bringing me home, so that I could run to the park and fetch my other two children, where I got just in time to see my son (who was at bat), get wailed by the ball, and Sarah announced that her team never showed up for practice!  Wait, it's not over yet!  We finally get home for all of 10 minutes, when I have to go back to the van where it stalled to pick it up.  Somebody had supposedly been by it and 'fixed' it.  It's now, 7:30pm and we still haven't had dinner, and it's almost bedtime and in order to cook, I still had to go grocery shopping, and I'm finally getting to the point of my story:  I ended up grabbing McDonalds.  I'm so mad!  And you know what else?  Their salads SUCK!  I had a grilled chicken breast sandwich on a whole wheat bun.  Does anybody else ever have days like this?!  Where it seems that everything that happens is out of your control?!  I hate feeling like this!  Whew, now that that's out of my system, I feel better all ready, and 'tomorrow's a new day with no mistakes in it yet...'   

April 4

This is going to be short tonight, I'm very tired.  I had a great 'eating' day!  Yeah!  I didn't touch one little chocolate covered almond, not a one!  I have no clue as to the new ezboard site, but I think I registered properly.  It's neat to see people's questions and comments in that sort of forum.  Goodnight

April 5

Sooooooooo tired, going to bed.  From opening ceremonies to team photos, to kids games, I was at baseball from 8:45am until 6pm (in the pouring rain!). 
I had a late dinner, but it was good.  I tried the spaghetti squash with tomato sauce, it was very filling, in fact I'm still full, and it's past midnight.  Couldn't get the kids to even try it, they had 'real' pasta, with parmesan cheese, I might add!  It's funny, I haven't had parmesan cheese for a while, obviously, and the smell of it tonight just turned my stomach, I don't know why.  I'm a huge fan of it!  Okay, goodnight!

April 6

Okay the days are starting to meld together, because I can't remember if I already sent off today's journal entry or not.  I don't think I did.  I feel pretty crappy, because I haven't made it to the gym at all to work out in a whole week!!!!!!  I think about it all the time does that count?!  Ha!  Ha!  Actually, I work all day during the week, while the kids are in school, and then in the evenings I have nobody to stay with them so I can go to the gym.  Usually I would at least make it to the gym on the weekends when the kids go to their dad's, but he hasn't taken them in THREE WEEKS!!!!!  Help.  I've thought about going late at night when their all asleep, but I don't think I could actually do it, and besides, I don't know how late the gym is open.  Something's got to change, I can't go another week like this one.  I might have to buy some weights to do my training at home, like I'm not isolated enough already!  It's a challenge just to be a part of this challenge!

April 7 

I made it to the gym today!  Yeah!  I asked the baby-sitter if she would mind still picking up the kids from school, even if I was going to the gym.
I met Mike there today.  Some of you may have met him already, but for those of you who haven't, he was one of the challengers last year, who was at the presentation at Seaquam High School.  We chatted for a little while, he's really a great guy, and he was full of encouragement.  Thanks Mike!  I managed to do three sets of twenty for everything except my core exercises (those I'm up to 3 sets of 40!).  I know I'm supposed to be at 4 sets, but I missed all of last week, and I didn't know what to do.  Whether to do lower sets with higher weights, or more sets with lower weights!  It's sooooo confusing!  Neaghn, have I said recently that I miss you. 
To totally change the subject, I was reading someone's journal today, and found out that they were able to hire John for the five sessions, when I was told that he would not take the time for me to do the five sessions, he would only take the time with me if I hired him full-time!  How is that fair?!  Do you really not like me that much, John?
Neaghn please don't be upset, because you were great!   

Tami . . . well how can I answer this question from you!  First off let me say that I am happy that you took up the training sessions with Neaghn and I know without a doubt, your understanding about training, focus, and intensity has been greatly enhanced.

With that being said, I think I need to help you clear your thoughts in regards to your comments above.  As you know, I am not only heading this challenge up, I am also responsible for four women who this Saturday are competing in their first ever bodybuilding show. (aside from Pauline)  They have been with me for some time now.  My promise to them was to take them to the show, uninterrupted.  That is why I signed on with them and that is why they signed on with me.  After this responsibility, I have a business, a career and my own personal goals I need to succeed at. (Doesn't leave me a lot of free time)

I know you were at the presentation at Seaquam and I am sure you remember me saying that I was not in a position to take on any more clients due to the fact that I was already very busy and that my time was getting even more so.  Well since that statement was made, I have increased my client base . . . its just so hard to say "NO" especially when people need me.  However everyone of them has been fulltime clients.  I have not taken on any one person for the five session program.  If you read that I have then the journal you read made some mistake in relaying information to you! A full time client I can handle because the time spent is time spent cultivating good habits, trust, and a positive outlook to life, health and fitness. For the five session program, it is merely a time to work on focus, form and technique . . it is instruction.  Though it is just as important it can be done by anyone who is qualified, and this I know, Neaghn is great at!  After the girls show, I might consider dealing with this program, however, if I was to do this, the price would be higher do to the fact that I have 17 years of experience and I think by now, I have earned it. 

So . . .Tami . . to think I really do not like you!!!!!!! Where does that really come from?  It could not be an issue of like or dislike . . . I am surprised that this was your initial thought rather than just simply "I am very busy at this time".  I want you to know, I do my best to conduct matters in a professional way, and I would never allow personal opinions or emotions get in the way of what is right and needed from a client.  If I allowed that, I would never have had any clients.

So I hope you, and anyone reading your entry has had a question answered here.  And I hope that in the future, you take a look at any and all issues and find a positive thought in there.  Nine times out of ten, it really isn't as bad as you imagined!

John

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