My Web Journal April 2004 First and foremost, I want to congratulate Holly Wilbur: winner of South Beach Fitness America. Holly is the sweetest woman and totally deserving of this honor!! She is the queen of preparation – and it showed on stage in Miami! Way to go, girl!! I also want to mention my fellow New England Dream Team mates: Tricia Hoyt, who has come to be one of favorite friends in the whole wide world! I love you girl and you were stunning in Miami! Dawn Butterfield, one word: beautiful!!!! You are a true inspiration and roll model to me. Allison Corriea, I can’t believe this was your first show!!! You were so poised and beautiful! I hope you are feeling better too J Miami was a great way to kick off the season. I placed 3rd in fitness and I won Bikini America!! Whatta feeling!!!! I am COMPLETELY PUMPED for the Fitness Atlantic in Connecticut on April 24th. In the meantime, Cathy and I are working out the kinks to my "Faith in life" routine. Tricia’s hubby taped the performances – so it is nice to be able to critique ourselves and improve where we need to. If we can perform on a sanded down plywood floor, the smooth shiny Fitness Atlantic stage should be cake! Right ladies? Too funny!!!! My nutrition has been pretty stable….that is after sushi, nachos, calamari, and fajitas the day after the South Beach show…..oooops, I didn’t mean to do that! It’s fun to be bad!! I had soooo much energy after that Miami trip from all the extra fuel and had the best workouts ever!! I will try to update this site more often – specifically this journal. It helps to keep me in line and motivated. February 24, 2004 I have decided to begin this journal for Michael Palmer’s great new website! I think it will help keep me in line with my training for the South Beach Fitness America Pageant! The five-week countdown has begun…final preparations for my new routine, training, and dieting are underway. March 28th, will be here before we know it! I am excited for the show … what a great vibe it will have out on sunny South Beach. My new routine is coming along great. As usual, Cathy Savage is at the top of her game with the choreography and the theme well…you will just have to wait and see…..too funny!! As far as nutrition and dieting go….I have to buckle down! I have 5 pounds that just do not want to let go! I swear my body is saying "didn’t we just do this" It was hard to get structured again after spending most of last year dieting. I am so new to this fitness game and I know this is just par for the course, so I am just gonna have to suck it up. Positive thoughts bring positive results! I do my dieting a little differently than a lot of competitors. I believe in whole foods, natural nutrition, and food combining. I don’t really count calorie’s either. I just go with how my body feels. Everything from the earth: fruit, veggies, olive and flax oil, small amounts of chicken, turkey, and shrimp. I try not to eat anything artificial like bars or protein shakes. I was eating whey protein in my breakfast smoothie for a while. Last week I took the whey out and found that my body has responded better. I just feel at the top of my game when I eat like this and my body looks its best too. If anyone wants to know more about natural nutrition please feel free to contact me through my site: http://www.jentedford-zuba.com/. The training portion of my contest prep is rocking! Thanks to my good friends Regina and Tricia Hoyt. It’s so nice to have close friends that live the same lifestyle as myself. We hook up weekly and run through drills, our routines, and even walking in our shoes for the swimsuit round. It’s so helpful! I recommend this to all competitors! With my cardio I am doing 45 min. of intense cardio in the morning 6 days a week. This includes sprinting, spinning, or interval stairs. I find my body responds best to this sort cardio. Hard and fast!!! Plus it gets my butt in gear for that demanding routine. I have added a double cardio session 4 – 5 times a week for 30 minutes. On top of this I add in my lifting, plyometric training, dance training, and flexibility training weekly. There are so many variables when training for fitness. So there you have it! Check in next week to my journal and see how my preparations are coming.