Week of Kansas City Land of Oz Show

Kristie: Its the week of the Kansas City Land of Oz Show in Topeka.  Our girls have been training for over 12 weeks now.  I think that they are all ready!!  Posing looks good and everyone body’s are looking great!  Each and every one of them should be proud of themselves and what they have accomplished!

Our last posing class was this Tuesday.  Everyone is walking great in their shoes and they all have their turns down.  This is the first group that I didnt have to yell at too much about practicing!!  GOOD JOB GIRLS!!  Michelle and will start tanning the girls on Thursday and Friday of this week.  It looks like it is in the forecast to rain!!  Which can always cause all kinds of problems with the tan.

The show is on Saturday Oct.3 in Topeka!! You should come out and cheer for the TwinFitness Elite Figure Girls!!

Michelle: We have 9 girls competing in the show in Topeka and 1 girl competing in St. Louis.  GOOD LUCK to all of you!!  I know each and every one of them will represent well.

Skylar started her new daycare/school today!  Doug and I are soo excited!  She gets to learn spanish, take soccer lessons and best of all YOGA!!  They showed us the Tree and Gorilla position!  I think Skylar is going to be very worn out after her first day of school.

Her aunt Kristie took her shopping yesterday for a back pack.  So now her new works is back pack.  Of course its PINK!!  Aunt Kristie was all excited!!

Weekend in Vegas

Michelle: Here are a few pics from out vacation.

Doug and I  had plans to go to vegas for a short vacation before I begin training for my next national show.  Vacation all booked and babysitter (Kristie) all lined up for Skylar.  Then my sister hears that we are going to a country concert on the beach at Mandalay Bay.  Well…her and Brady decide they want to go too.  Luckey for Kristie she was able to find a sitter to take Skylar and Jigz. 

Kristie: We stayed at a different hotel than Michelle so we really only saw them at the concert.  But had a great time on the beach at Mandalay Bay!!  The weather was great!

Michelle: The trip started off good.  As soon as we got to the terminal at KCI I looked around for my purple bag.  Hmm not purple bag!  Doug says ” Last time i saw it, it was in the back seat”  So i look at the driver of the parking bus and she said hop on ill take you back.  I get to the parking lot and run to the car to get my bag.  Good think i did because I forgot my purse too!  Close call!  Ran the bus down and make it back to the  terminal.

Getting ready to head through security and they grab my bag.  Now im thinking oh no!!  Im not going to make it in time.  My phone rings and its Doug…” Where are you?”  Now im getting worried!  They dig through my bag and pull out my Peanut butter.  No gel substance…not just liquid is allowed.  Several very long minutes later they finally toss it and let me be on my way.

Yardwork

Kristie: Brady and I have been working in the yard for the last couple of weekends.  Getting our new yard into shape.  As some of you may know, I don’t have much of a “green thumb” but I’m willing to help.  Just give me some direction and we are Good to Go!  Brady gave me the task of pulling weeds in the front landscape bed.  So I pull my yard working gloves on and start pulling weeds.  As im pulling weeds I come upon a larger left over root from a shrub we had pulled out last week.    I bend down and start pulling..and tugging.  The stupid thing just wouldnt let go.  So I take my full strength and PULL… SNAP… I go flying backwards in the air, step back on the shovel behind me which zings up as I do an old school backwards roll.  I was laughing so hard I was crying.  Brady was standing near me and saw the whole thing.  Both of us laughing our butts off together looked at my hand and there is about a 5″ piece of shrub root.  Hopefully none of the neighbors saw me!!

This weekend we are heading to Vegas, which I am very excited about.  Brady and I always have a great time together.  He makes me laugh …anyways…last night we are chatting about our trip and I mentioned (due to the time restrictions) that it may be a good idea to “carry on” our luggage instead of checking it.  With a puzzled look he says, “I didn’t “buy” (we are flying out of Wichita on Allegiant, you have to pay extra for bags) any bags.  He had already assumed that we were ”carrying on” our bags.  So girls, you have to be thinking what I’m thinking.  I’m a chick, going to Vegas, and you want me to Carry on ALL my “stuff”.  Have you thought about hair product alone.  So we had a good laugh as I’m explaining to him how the “chick” travel thing works and what all we NEED to travel with. SO I headed to BBB today to get “travel size” bottles.  They even came with labels.  SAVED!!

We hired a new trainer….Angela.  I’m so excited for her to get settled.  Our clients are really liking her and the more I get to know here the more I like her …She has competed before and place first and second at different shows.  She started posing class this week and is competing in a November show in Colorado.

Our next show coming up is Saturday Oct 3.  I am so excited for all the Bikini and Figure girls!  We have 10 girls heading to Topeka.  Keep working hard girls.  You will make it just take “one day at a time”.

We are traveling to Colorado Nov 14.  We have a team of 8 girls both bikini and figure competing.  It’s a bigger show but we know that our girls will represent TwinFitness very well. This is the first long distance show we have taken this many girls to.

Fitness Tip for the week: “Don’t walk away from negative people RUN!  Negative people will bring you down and distract you from your goals.”  Surround your self with people with similar interest.

Michelle: Im really excited about our upcoming shows.  Stay tuned for stories, photos AND video.  Yes Videos!! We have this really cool little video camera called Flip!  We will be taking Flip with us everywhere so we will be able to post videos now!

I also have some exciting news.  I will be traveling to Florida in November to compete in a National Show.  So you will get to follow me through training for a national level show.

An Update on Skylar

Michelle: Well not a whole lot new has been going on over the last week or so.  So I guess ill just update you on Skylar since she has been growing like crazy and talking more and more every day.

Her new words are ” Night Night” and loves to give hugs!  Aunt Kristie always puts her hair up in Piggys when ever she around.

Doug and I took her to the park the other day and put her in the swing.  She giggled and giggled.  It was pretty funny.  I think it was tickeling her tummy going up and down.

Over the weekend Dough and I took Skylar to the Deanna Rose Farmstead.  I got her to hold her hand out and let the goats eat out of her hand.  She wasnt to thrilled about it at first.

I had to add this last photo.  Skylars new thing is to take a hardboiled egg and squish it in her hands.  She thinks its the best thing letting it squish between her fingers.

Photo Shoot

Kristie: Its been a few weeks since Michelle’s show so we have set up a photo shoot for the two of us.  Yeah, we waited a few weeks because Michelle was a little lean and I didnt want to tower over her too much since I am taller:)

We went to Will Patterson Photography for the shoot.   Michelle and I have not had updated photos taken for quite some time and since we are revamping our web site we figured it would be a good time to do that!  Oh!  the web site…will get to that in a minute.

As usual Michelle pondered on what we should wear for a few days but in the end we threw together some pretty good outfits.  Had alot of fun and wanted to make sure we portrayed who we are in the photos.  Here are a few you will see more soon!!  Web Site – TwinFitness is getting an all new web site including a web site for Elite Figure Coaching.  We will launch the new site the first part of November.  It will have an all new concept using Videos and we will be able to update and change it frequently.

Check out the TwinFitness Group on Facebook for more fun and silly pics from our photo shoot.

Susan G Komen Race for the Cure

Michelle:  We had 29 people attend the TwinFitness annual run for the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure.  We all gathered at the studio at 6:30am to board our very own Limo Bus!!  Yes we were riding in style!  Coolers full of water in the arm rests, flat screen tvs showing clips of sports and nice cold air conditioning.

Again this year Extreme Limo donated the use of the bus so that we all could arrive downtown together for the race.  All clad in our bright orange shirts ready for 3.2 miles of fun!

The race was put on very well once again this year but the race course had a little bit of a change.  Even me as a runner was a little surprised at the HILLS!  Seemed like everytime we turned there was another hill larger than the last one.  But at least most of it was in the shade.

Everyone had a great time!  After the race we all met up at First Watch for breakfast.  Hope you will join us next year!

USA’s Nationals

The Trip to Nationals

Michelle: So before I left I have to pack all my food for the plan ride….I got up (my mom stayed with me and went with me) at 4am to catch a plan at 7am.  I did make sure that the hotel we stayed at had a refrigerator so I could order food with NO sodium.  Sodium the last couple of days are VERY important so that your body doesn’t retain water.  I tend to hold ALL my weight in my mid section which doesn’t help with the curvy figure you need for bikini.

We all made it to Vegas on Thursday with no problems!  I took my mom out on the town and taught her how to play black jack!  WOW!!  Thank god is was during the day and the tables were $5 with a VERY nice dealer.  It took her a while to get the hang of the hand motions….LOL you should have been there!  We played for an hour on $50, not bad for her first time.  The we went to the Baleigio and ate lunch of course I order a DRY chicken breast and potato.  I order extra and took it to my room.

When we got back to the hotel I got a call from my trainer.  He has been keeping track of my physique and what I look like over the last couple of days.  He wanted to see me in person and go over what changes I needed to make.  Everything checked out good…..keep everything the same and off I went.

The rest of the crew got there late afternoon, Kristie, Tisha, Kendra and Pat.

We went to check in Thursday evening.  That is when you start sizing people up and the competitiveness comes out.  I always say be sweet and intimidating….so I stuck with that modo.  Ended up meeting some really neat people.  There were 500 competitors!  It was very organized and ran very smoothly.  At the meeting we found out that each of us were all in a different class!  Yeah!  Good News!

Kristie: On our way to the hotel our cabbie kept chatting with us.  About every other sentence out of his mouth was, “Soo…whats your dark side?”  Both Tisha and I at first were thinking he was just joking around with us.  But then it got a little bit annoying!  It’s Vegas I guess anything can happen.  We all went out for dinner on Thursday after the meeting.  The girls can only eat chicken and veggies but I DONT so I had myself a yummy sandwich with cheese, bbq sauce and the bun!  hehe

Friday

Friday morning started nice and early.  My job was to check in all competitors for tanning.  We ran 4 girls at a time and were booked from 9am till 9pm in fifteen minute increments.  Talk about a lot of organization.  I was highlighting, crossing off names, adding names and yelling at girls that were an HOUR LATE!  HELLO ladies that is just uncalled for!  It never fails we always have someone that messes it up.  So they had to completely re-tan her.  I guess others don’t get the instruction that we give our girls on how to make everything go smoothly.  At 3pm I went to the show to work the booth.  Mandy was my co worker and she made things fun!  We did a lot of people watching.  Oh the people, outfits, personalities you see at an event like this!  haha  I was able to sneak away from the booth to watch the girls on stage.  Its nationals so the competition is TOUGH!!  Everyone is beautiful, exotic and have it ALL going on.  Our goal was to have the judges look at the girls more than once on stage which was a task in itself let alone place in the top 5!

Michelle: I was up early because I couldn’t sleep way to much stuff going through my head.   When I get up to look at my phone there is text from Tisha.  “Are you up I can’t sleep!”  Since she was up might as well get things rolling.   So I started tanning everyone by hand.  Kristie was there for work for Jan Tana (the tanning company that tans all the competitors) So she was able to compare us to the other girls and said we were NOT dark enough.  We had to run, yes run in the HOT Vegas heat across traffic 4 blocks away!! Rule number 1 when tanning, Do Not Sweat!

Friday Night

Michelle: The night of the show was finally here and I was in the BIGGEST class 20.  They lined us up and we started to walk out onto the stage and present ourselves.  We went off and on stage 3 times because of the size of my class.   They call out the top 4 girls to look at.   Then they called me out!  I couldn’t tell if I was 5th or 6th???  So I had to wait until the next night to find out.  So Excited!

Saturday

Kristie: I set up the booth by 9am.  Starting work at 9am is late for me.  Mandy was competing that day so I told her not to worry about the booth.  It was a little boring not having someone there to talk to.  While working at the booth I was asked by John Lindsay, (NPC National and Pro show promoter) to present awards to the female body builders.  I said you want ”ME??” on a national stage, standing next to bodybulders??  I will look like a 7 year old, haha. I was honored that he asked.   I walked out on stage and stood next to the girls which their arms are about as big as my waist.

Michelle: Saturday morning to keep our minds off of everything we took our moms shopping.  I bought Doug a shirt and Skylar an outfit and a little dog that barks and does back flips.  Which she is terrified of and doesn’t like it! :~)

Then at noon back to the room to get our hair and make-up done!  And off to the show to do it all over again.  This time they wanted each of us to come out and present ourselves, exit stage right and then if you made top 5 you would get lead over to the side of stage so you could come out again and get your trophy.

The whole time I was thinking did I get 5th to 6th…..I thought it was 6th.  So as I was walking off stage the guy at the side of the stage took my hand and said “congrats you made top 5″  WHAT -  REALLY!! Is all i could say.   Then he lead me over to where I needed to stand to go back onto the stage to receive my trophy.   Let me just tell you I NEVER have been in shock that much or had a panic attack before.  When he told me I made top 5…..chilies went over me, I couldn’t breathe, I started to shake.  The helper back stage had to get me water before I went back on stage to get my trophy.

In the NPC after you make it to the top 5 (out of 75 AMAZING WOMEN) judges will remember you.  So I am thinking about competing in another national show…  I would like to work toward getting a pro card.  Which means I have to get first at the National level.

Kristie: After the show I met up with the TF girls at the Hard Rock.  They had some “bad food” .  But not too much and hey they deserved it!  We gambled a little and i bought the group a round of shots!  I was so proud of them all!  But boy i was ready to come back home.  I was missing my hubby.

Michelle: We ate dinner at the Hard Rock and ended up running into a few of the judges.  So we chatted with them for awhile.  We had fun watching Kristie play $25 black jack, she did pretty good.  At the end of the evening it was time to indulge a little:)  Tisha and I had a cinnamon roll!!  And boy was it good! 

Sunday

Kristie:We left Sunday on the 9am flight.  Not sure who’s idea that was?  Anyway I get home and my husband takes one look at me and says, ” Wow babe it looks like you got hit by a mac truck, you need to take a shower you look homeless.”  haha  And yeah he was right!

Michelle: I was happy to get home and see Doug and Skylar.  Just being gone for a few days i could tell she grew a ton.  In my absence Doug taught Skylar to say “Daddy”.  So everywhere we went all day long that is all she would say.  So i would day “Mommy” and she would look at me and say “Daddy”.

So my Vegas trip was a success….placing 5th in the land of the beautiful people is quite an accomplishment!  I was very proud of that and VERY surprised.

Last Week, Only Days Left…

Michelle:I feel like I am ready to get this show on the road!  Just like anything you prepare for you are ready to get things going.  Im ready to preform and I have been practicing.  Physically i feel fine.  I have had to cut back my cardio and add some carbs because my weight kept dropping.  So for the past 4 days I have been eating a stead or salmon and a sweet potato for dinner.  This is a TOTALLY different experience compared to my last national figure show.  When i did figure i had a hard time getting lean and had to do a ton of cardio!  This time my body has responded really well and it is right where I need to be.  I have a trainer that helps me in CA (he trains alot of the pros) with last minute adjustments.  Talked to him today and he said I was “spot on” with what they are looking for in Bikini.  However, as I know you cannot control what a panel of judges will do.  I am just going out there and presenting my BEST self in hopes that they like it! I get to stop my cardio on Wednesday…cant wait!  We head out on Thursday so imgoing to take mom around town.  she is not a gambler but she wants to gamble just to say she did it.  So i am going to try to teach her black jack. 

Being a mom through this whole thing keeps you grounded.  Skylar is really starting to like my protein shakes.  Everytime I hit the blender button she comes running into the kitchen with her arms up.  Saying “uuhhh, uuuhh”. So she has to have a few sips and everytime she gets a milk mustache!  It is the cutest thing you have ever seen!

We had a photo shoot last Friday and it was a blast!  Kendra, Tisha and I did a shoot for our new website that will be coming out soon.  We took shots in our swim suits and workout outfits.  From serious with a fan blowing our hair, to being silly jumping up and down.  We also took pictures in a warehouse standing on old tires with the natural sun.  Which made us all look amazing!  I had pretty green eyes for once in my life!  We got some great shots and we will share them with you soon!

We were there for about 3 hours and took lots of photos.  Angie, Kristie and Skylar were in the background making sure the poses were good.  Skylar did really well and sat patiently.  Only got tangled in the jump rope once.  When we did our silly jumping pose she got the biggest grin on her face and headed out in front of the camera to join us.

Kristie: On Sunday I had an appointment with Michelle to watch her pose.  Had to make sure she has different facial expressions other than our “cheesy” smiles.  We have the biggest smile I have ever seen.  So we were working on the “serious” look.  Have you ever tired to change your smile…not fun!

Saturday was My big day.  I was in a Volleyball tournament at Oceans Of Fun.  It was a absolute beautiful day! We lost one game but it was a pool play tournament so we still go a first place ranking.  We get into the championship game against my buddies team, John.  Its the best out of 3 matches. Its tied 1 to 1.  We were getting killed by their Ringer - Q (yeah that was his name).  So we decided to strategize, took our best setter Robin and had her set the balls up for Bret our best hitter. It worked and we won the 3rd game and the tournament!  Yippee!

Our first posing class for the October Figure and  Bikini show was this week.  The girls did really well for their first posing class.  We had 17 girls this  morning and 15 of them have never done a show.  Overall it looks like its going to be a great group of girls!  And it really is a great experience for anyone.  The posing sessions are held every Tuesday morning at 5m so these girls are dedicated!  We give out information every week and send them home with homework also.  From now till the show the take home homework is to practice 5-10 minutes a day in their heals.  Walking, turning, posing and much more.  Alot of work goes into on of these shows BUT its also a lot of self reward!!

Skylar posing at the photo shoot too

Tisha and I are on the same flight to Vegas on Thursday.  Im so excited to see all the girls on stage!  Tisha and Kendra may end up in the same class but Michelle will be in a shorter class.  Nationals will be interesting!  There will be alot of girls that will look good, be pretty and have it all put together.  You just have to stand out some how at the national level.  Good luck to everyone!  TwinFitness will be represented Well!  Ill be working at the JanTana booth so I will be Very busy.  Oh and mom is coming along to and she has Never been to Vegas so this will be an interesting experience for her!

I had to add this to the post.  While I was packing for Vegas Skylar wanted to go too.  With her cute little piggies she found her own little place in my suitcase.

9 Days Till Nationals

Michelle: Only 9 days left…yes I am really ready for this to all be over.  Everyday I think  “”turn, step, pivot, sassy, sexy, flip hair…and on and on!  We had dress rehearsal last Friday the 10th.  It went well but I was in heals posing for 2 hours.  On Saturday I couldn’t even get myself to workout because I was just so worn out.  But I want you all to now the walk is improving and it should I have been doing it EVERY day!  We did change my posing a little after i got some feedback.  We decided that I disappear when I turn to the side so im going to be a little more straight on.  It showes more curves.  My diet hasn’t really changed much.  The other night my husband wanted to go to Power and Light.  I kindly said “Could we wait until after my show?  I really cant eat or drink anything.”  So instead we had friends come over.  I got to watch them eat chocolate chip cookies from McDonald’s?? and have drinks. At this point not alot gets to me just staying up late since I get so tired.

BIG CHANGE!!  I got my hair darker!!  I really like it.  Of course I have the Best hair dresser in town, Tisha (shes doing the show with me) With the bright pink suit and my darker hair it will look good on stage.  We decided not to do the hair extensions because we were afraid my own hair would show through.  For the show I am going to wear my hair full on top withsoft curl around my face.  I want to to be more flowy and not too done up.

I have really enjoyed training for bikini more than figure because it is more girlie which is right down my alley.  I didn’t have to work as hard to get in bikini shape as I did when I did figure.  Don’t get me wrong!  I still have been working hard but in comparison not as much.  the last national show I did was figure and I was doing 3 hours of cardio per day!  right now I am doing 45 min 6 days a week and weights 3x per week.  They say as you get older your hormones change and you can get leaner. 

Skylar and her new rocking horse

Its true ladies no more excuses if you are older than 35 you can look as good or better than you did in your 20’s.  And I am walking proof of that!

Next week is the week before the show.  I well begin tanning the girls and my mom is coming up to help with Skylar.  Mom is coming to Vegas with us and she had NEVER been there.  I cant wait to show her around.  She is very excited to go and to watch me.  Kristie is going as well to work at the Jan Tana booth.  It will be great to have everyone there. 

Doug my hubby is staying at home to watch Skylar.  No worries there she is in good hands.  Daddy lets her get away with alot,  daddy’s little girl!  Skylar is starting to say hi to the dog and always wants to put his collar on and take him for a walk. 

Kristie: Went to a concert this weekend in Wichita.  The hubby and I, his two sisters and Jordy the niece.  Keith Urban could be one of the best country artists ever.  He is amazing live.  Saturday morning we went to breakfast. (we like to try different places)  This trip it was Jimmy’s Diner.  All the waitresseshad on 50’s style poodle skirts, it was pretty cute.  Then we went shopping and found a great deal on lawn furniture.  It was soo hot in Wichita that by the time we got the truck loaded with the furnitureI looked like i had just got out of the shower with my clothes on! 

Im looking forward to this weekend!  We have a sand volleyball tournament on Saturday at Oceans Of Fun.  We are the defending champs so everyone is going to be out to get us. Bring it ON!!

This week alot of my clients came down in body fat!  One person lost 3% body fat in ONE week.  Umm..funny what happens when you follow an exercise and nutrtion plan.  Cardio is key!  Most individual dont do enough cardio or it is not intense enough.  That is why so many of our client have had great success doing our cardio coach classes.  Burn those Calories! 

Did you know that walking a 12 minute mile for 30 minutes will only burn about 150 calories.  That is just enough to burn off a dry chicken breast boys and girls.  So as i always say..”You can NOT out exercise a bad diet!!”  Okay well maybe Michael Phelps but he is a freak of nature. 

I think that Michelle and the crew are ready for the show to be over.  That is kind of what happens when it gets down to the final days.  You are just done!  They are all looking good.  Michelle made her hair really dark!  I think it will look good on stage,  It was a little strange at first but im getting used to it.  Kendra is working really hard!!

The Suit is FINISHED

Michelle: Okay, I picked up my suit today!  Its all done and finished!  Im soo excited it looks great!  I have attached a photo me in the dressing room at Swimwear Solutions.  I hope its a show stopper! 

One more item that I have not mentioned about is the hair.  I have been doing tons of research on what hair would be best!  I have considered getting clip in hair extensions and have  a new hair color that im going to try.  After all my research I think that a darker color will look best on stage.  It seems like the lighter blonds get washed out.  At Nationals you need the judges to give you every millisecond look you can get!  I have a hair appointment this weekend.  So stay tuned to see what it looks like! 

Nutrition: As I mentioned before. Im so ready for my chocolate!  The last few weeks till the show I am not eating out at all because of the stuff that they put in your food.  When you body gets so used to not having all the sodium, sugar, fat  and extra things they put in and on the food it really effects your results.  Each one of those things are not good for my body right now.  On a regular basis im not quite this extreme but when it comes down to doing a competition you have to be very disciplined. 

Kristie: Sis is getting there.  Shes been counting the days!  A little over two weeks left to go.  Today we found out that they may be breaking the Bikini Competition to two days due to the amount of competitors in Bodybuilding.  That would mean they girls would need to get ready two days in a row.  Wow what a mess that is going to be.  Of course you never know what it will actually end up being till the day of the show.  But we must go prepared. 

After our office meeting today Michelle and I have decided to get professional pictures taken to update our website and for our “NEW” website.  Since Michelle is competing she is looking thin, a bit more than me.  I however, know this because she has always been a little more petite then me.  She has  skinny jeans that I can only put on IF i stop breathing!!  So with all that being said she has to gain a little weight after her show AND I need to loose some so that we look similar.  Just for the record i am 1.5 inches taller than her AND i can beat her at sprints…just ask her what happened the last time we raced.  Love ya sis!  Hey I have to be better at something Right!  This will be good,  it will give me focus and a goal.  I did loose about 4% body fat for my wedding.  I probably need to loose about 2% before the photo shoot.  So I will keep you posted on my progress.  Food journal Next week!!