Happy 2012 everyone! I have waited some time to start posting again, once I knew where I was going. You know it's a bit of a kick in the teeth when you realize one day that you were in your "prime" and it past. I think I have settled with that fact and it's time to move away from the sport I loved. My prime was 2008-2009.
After having my precious daughter after a very complicated pregnancy my health continued to decline. A long history of issues and it kicked in hard ... days where I can't walk, or have use of an arm, hand, poor memory some days and a long list of ailments that change from day to day. They ruled out MS and Lupus finally settling on Fibromyalgia (which I know is a true condition, I just feel it's a cop out diagnosis of "we don't know what you have").
So after almost two years of trying to get back on track and beat this thing, I have come to a realization on several things as far as health and goals. The more whole foods I eat the better I feel (kinda of a "duh" thing huh?), I do not do well on high carbs, such as breads, pastas, (in fact wheat as a whole seems to make me worse) and potatoes and respond well with a higher protein intake. Cardio makes me hurt ... and I mean badly the next day. The heavier I lift the better I feel. Dieting down, makes me very sick and can cause a huge episode. That all equals, figure and bikini comps being totally out of the question. The last part was really hard to swallow.
The good thing is that I have learned a ton about nutrition and continue to learn how it all works and how I respond.
Trust me ....I'm over it. I'm competitive by nature and also a tenacious b*tch and am not giving up. So if hard lifting and feeding my body are what works, we shall make it work into the "plan", whatever that may be.
That being said, I have a lot to learn about hard core lifting in the strongman/woman sense. I'm working with a 5x5 beginner program to get my wits about be and build some strength.
My calories are at 1500, up from my normal 1200, I am seriously suspecting that my calories will have to increase.
Yesterday:
Squats 5x5
Bench Press 5x5
Barbell Rows 5x5
On a positive note coming through injuries and illness is the true mark of the beast 
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He thinks he has a choice. 
We took the family out to dinner (6 kid's in total, haha). But I started to feel pretty terrible at the end. I hadn't mentioned before my lower back is infected again, and since I refuse to let the quacks touch me this round I have been attempting to handle it myself (genetic disorder apparently, last round was almost 4 years ago). A bit of a fever has begun, but is lower this morning. So, I'll keep working on healing that up. 
