Author: Gloria

Just four days ago I competed at the 2016 Arnold Australia Classic in the Figure division. It was a fantastic event, and to make it even better for me I managed to place 5th in my category. So I was very happy about that. As far as Figure contests go however, this one was pretty tough logistically. My prep and everything went fine, but it just seemed as though one obstacle after another was thrown at us as we made our way from Sydney to get to the show down in Melbourne. In the end, we managed to make the…

Sometimes even the best-laid and best-intentioned plans can quickly unravel. And we all know that a very familiar example of this is the struggle to stick to your workout program. Be honest . . . how many times have you found yourself coming up with some excuse to skip a workout? Maybe you’d had a bad day. Perhaps you were particularly busy. Or maybe it was just too cold to get out of bed so early in the morning. One of the major keys to success for any fitness program is consistency. Without that, you have nothing. Simply put, your…

It can be so difficult sometimes to make even relatively minor changes in our lives or reach seemingly simple goals, that when we look around at the high-achievers in life it’s easy to be in awe and ask ourselves how they can have the discipline, dedication and drive to keep doing what they’re doing. People can often make the mistake of believing that these individuals are special or gifted in some way, but the fact is, they’re not necessarily. Just as all of us can make our physical body stronger through exercise, so too can we toughen ourselves mentally. And…

Dietary supplements are one of those things that divide people’s opinions. Some believe that if you’re serious about losing weight and/or being fit and healthy you have to be taking supplements. Others believe the exact opposite – that supplements are totally unnecessary and nothing but a scam perpetrated by supplement companies to fill their pockets with profits. So, who’s right and who’s wrong? Well, as is pretty much always the case in the fitness world, the truth lies somewhere in the middle of these extreme views. In the interests of full disclosure, I want to make it clear that as…

I wanted to make a blog post today about an incredibly inspiring woman that I learned about recently who really represents the no excuses mindset. This woman has had every reason to believe that her life would go nowhere considering the start she got, but instead her positive attitude lifted her above her circumstances to achieve amazing things. She’s living proof that if someone truly has a desire to succeed they can, despite what kind of odds they have to overcome to do it. The woman’s name is Liz Murray. She came from a loving family, but unfortunately one that…

I was watching an episode of The Twilight Zone the other day which was very interesting. In this episode a genie granted a hard-working shop owner four wishes, where he could ask for absolutely anything he wanted. Being very skeptical of the genie, the man’s first wish was to repair a broken panel of glass in one of his store’s display cases, as a test to see whether the genie really did have the power to grant him anything he asked for. Sure enough, the genie granted the man his wish and the glass panel was new again. For his…

As you can imagine, dragging yourself into the gym five to six times a week on a mission to push yourself to new limits time and time again can be extremely challenging – physically, emotionally and mentally. You certainly learn a lot about yourself – what your strengths are, as well as what your weaknesses and fears are. And you learn how to come to terms with all these and somehow work with them and around them to progress towards your goals. Any athlete or person who’s committed to working out for a purpose goes through this journey of inner…

Within fitness there seems to be an ongoing difference of opinions when it comes to treats, cheats, cheat meals and cheat days. The most conservative groups out there believe in eating “clean” all the time, with no exceptions. Then on the other side of the coin there are those who believe everything is OK in moderation. Within that camp there are those who believe in having the occasional treat here or there, those who believe one or two cheat meals a week is good, and others who advocate a whole cheat day every week. So, who’s right and who’s wrong?…

One of the most counterproductive and even damaging traits relating to health, fitness and weight loss that so many uninformed people succumb to is the culture of extremism. Of course, extremism is quite a strong word and no one ever really sees themselves as being an extremist. After all, everyone is just trying to do the best they can to lose weight and get healthy, with the knowledge and the tools they have. The fact is however, that a significant percentage of health and fitness enthusiasts unknowingly follow extremist thinking, and doing so actually holds them back from progressing as…

I was watching some online videos of CT Fletcher the other day, which are always very entertaining and in a way, a breath of fresh air. While everyone else seems to be focusing on making working out more and more complicated, CT’s keeps his principles very simple – train hard, as often as you can, and for as many reps as you can. You can’t get any simpler than that! As an IFBB Figure competitor I’ll be the first to admit that we put a lot of thought and research into my training program. We also experiment with different exercise…

These days we hear a lot about healthy eating, and more often than not what’s being referred to is healthy eating in the physical sense. In other words, what’s best for our body – things like high fat vs low fat foods, high GI vs low GI foods, natural foods vs processed foods, and so on. But what about healthy eating in the psychological sense? We don’t hear so much about that. Psychologically healthy eating is by far a more important issue however because it forms the whole basis for your eating decisions. What that means is that if your…

I recently saw a photo of a fitness model with a fantastic physique that had been posted on a Facebook page. Among the several comments attached to the photo was one by a woman who said something along the lines of, “awesome shoulders, I wish I knew what her program was!” She was right, the model did have great shoulders, but I must admit that the second part of her comment frustrated me a bit. My frustration wasn’t with the woman however, but rather the fitness media and marketing people who are responsible for constantly corrupting people’s thinking. We’ve been…

Success leaves clues, as they say, so when we’re lucky enough to come across someone who has been unusually successful in any area, it makes good sense to study how they approached their life and what exactly they did to achieve their success. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a huge role model of mine that I look up to greatly because he achieved extraordinary success in not just one area of his life, but four – bodybuilding, acting, politics, and most recently, as an author. That means he couldn’t have just been lucky. It must be that he has some mindset, or…

I was reading a book some time ago called Geisha, by Lesley Downer. As the name suggests, the book is about the Geisha of Japan, and in the beginning of the book the author talks about her experience traveling to Kyoto (the traditional Geisha area of Japan) to learn all she could about them. As a foreigner trying to look into a very secretive world, she found it very difficult to get any information from people. Everywhere she went, people would tell her that they didn’t know any Geisha personally and didn’t really know much about them either. She constantly…

We are all quite familiar with the common addictions that keep so many people overweight and unhealthy – chocolate, sweets, junk food, alcohol, overeating, and so on. There is no big secret about any of these and how harmful they can be. But there is another sinister addiction that is often just as destructive, largely because it generally goes unnoticed by victims and therefore unchecked. This is especially so for those who have yet to make any progress with their weight loss. Many may not see it as an addiction exactly, maybe more so as just a bad habit. At…

Self-doubt and loss of confidence is something that affects everyone at one time or another, and for a good number of people it affects them for their entire life. This is especially true for people who have a history of struggling and continuous failures. It’s so easy to live in the past by looking at our past failures and believing that they are an indication of what is destined to continue to happen in the future. This leads us to constantly second guess and lose confidence in ourselves. In the video below, UFC fighter Chael Sonnen talks candidly to Uriah…

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was. The…

Below is one of the most motivating and uplifting videos I have ever seen. It’s a collage of interview snippets with actor Will Smith, who talks about the power of our words and thoughts to determine our success in life. I watch this video at least a few times a week to constantly remind myself of of how powerful we are to determine our own destiny, and to not waste that power. I think it’s well worth watching again and again. The main rules of success that Will Smith talks about are: Greatness exists in all of us. Where you…

I read a great quote the other day that really struck a chord with me because it was just so accurate and applicable, especially in relation to fitness. The quote was: A tiger doesn’t lose sleep over the opinion of sheep. This quote is just so obvious that it’s almost profound. Think about it. The tiger is one of the most powerful and feared creatures in the animal kingdom. It’s nature’s perfect hunter and killer. Whatever it wants or needs, it goes out and gets. It stands strong and needs no one’s help, and nothing or no one can stand…

Growing up in Japan, New Year was always a very important time for us. The end of the old year would be spent doing a big clean-up of the home, and on New Year’s Day we would get up very early and go to the temple to pray for success in everything that we wanted to achieve that year. So it was very much a time of new beginnings, new goals, and looking forward to the future. I guess things are not too different here in the West. We all look forward to the New Year and set resolutions for…

Arthur Boorman is an amazing example of overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds. As a 47 year old disabled Gulf War veteran who had virtually given up on life and who saw a very bleak future, he refused to listen to the “experts” who had counted him out and slowly clawed back control of his life. Arthur was told by his doctors that he would never again be able to walk on his own following the injuries he had sustained during his military service. But even though he was very overweight and almost completely immobile, he refused to give up hope. Arthur came across…

Right now I’m a few weeks into my contest prep for the February/March 2015 competition season. I’ll probably be competing in three Figure shows again this season, as I did in 2013. Things are going fine so far, but as I’ve found is quite normal, there are also the inevitable unexpected challenges to deal with as well. Before I became deeply involved in fitness and I was just trying to lose weight, like many people I would look at fitness competitors and models and believe that everything went perfectly smoothly for them. I thought that they were women who had…