One word...OUCH!!! Well, I always look forward to biceps day, as they are one of my favorite muscle groups. Today, I hit them heavier and harder than ever with three sets each of ezbar curls, preacher curls, and dumbell curls. I worked my back next with lat pull downs, bent over rows, reverse grip lat pulldowns, and back flys. I usually don't feel the soreness kick in until the next day, but dang I can definitely feel the burn already! In a sort of sick way, I kind of like the pain of muscle soreness. I feel like I actually accomplished something, and I know that my muscles are working on rebuilding themselves. I strongly recommend to anyone doing serious weight training that you take extra glutamine. From personal experience, on days I didn't use glutamine, I felt like I had been hit by a freakin semi truck afterward. Bodybuilding is alll about recovery. If you can't recover, you can't grow...period!

I thought it would be a good topic to share with you all my take on diet and exercise. I can not even begin to tell you how sick and tired I am of everyone I hear at work talking about the new diet they are on. I mean, seriously, I don't understand the complexity that people make out of this issue. If you consume less calories you will lose weight, that's it! A gal I know is counting points and adding up her total. She's essentially eating junk even while on this "diet". Personally, I'm a firm believer in consuming only wholesome clean foods. I try to stay away from anything processed and keep things as natual as possible. Be good to your body, and your body will be good to you! You'll be amazed how much better you'll feel. That's not to say I don't engage in a "cheat meal" every now and then (Mmmm...pizza!). Life is too short to miss out on the occasional treat, but that's all it should be, a treat. If you had something special every day, it wouldn't be as special now would it? On a daily basis, I have people ask me diet advice, and I think they are actually surprised at the simplicity I put into it. People expect a really complicated and confussing answer. Basically, eat lots of protein, limit your carbs to when you are most active during the day (Yes carbs are your friend!), and eat healty fats like fish, natural peatnut butter, and almonds. I try to structure my diet around 40% protein, 30% carbs, and 30% fats. So please people, no more low fat/low carb diets! Just get rid of the word "diet" altogether. Call it a lifestyle change or something. Anyway, I won't bore you anymore with my annoyance on the latest diet fads. I could seriously go on forever!

Tomorrow is a cardio day for me. I like to do high intensity cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. This is a GREAT way to start out your day. For me, I enjoy running, but there are serveral other options as well. After I warm up with a slow jog, I'll run as fast as I can for one minue, slow down for a minute, and continue this for about thirty minutes. High intensity cardio has been studied to be better than slow pace, long duration cardio because your body will continue to burn calories even after you're done exercising. Plus, you will feel energized throughout the day. Endorphins rock!

Well, I hope that helps anyone in need of a little nutritional and exercise advice. I'm kinda nerdy in that I study this stuff A LOT. I think it's facinating what the human body can accomplish, and I'll grab any knowledge I can sink my teeth into. Oh yeah, one more thing before I sign off today. Can you feel it? Baseball season is almost here!!! Ha, you knew I had to go there right?! Even better, the All Star Game is in my St. Louis Cardinal's stomping grounds this year! You can bet this is one gal who will be in St. Louis for that one! The cost of a ticket-$who knows!$, the hotel and trip charges-$300, the personal satisfacting getting to watch baseball's greats in baseball's greatest town--priceless.... I'll talk to you guys later!

Nyssa Curtis