Chicken, baby potato, and brown rice soup!

This is the recipe for my first ever homemade soup! It is GLUTEN WHEAT AND MILK FREE!! If anyone has any suggestions on how to make this soup a bit more flavorful let me know! I thought maybe about adding some onions and diced garlic...

- 1.5 lbs of peeled baby yellow potatoes cut in half
- 2 cups cooked brown rice
- 1lb diced cooked chicken breast
- 1quart all natural chicken broth ( gluten, wheat, milk free)
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tbl spoon smart balance spray

I just combine all these in a big pot and heat it up till it reduces and becomes a thick soup/stew. It took about 15 mins!

That's it! Very simple and yummy! I had to search the grocery store for chicken broth that was gluten, wheat, and milk free!!! Enjoy and let me know if you have any suggestions on how to make it more flavorful!

Train like me! My training split!!

Do you want to train like me!? This is my current training split!
I train 5-6 days a week, sometimes twice a day ( I split cardio and weight training). I do 3 sets of 10-15, depending on what I need to improve/build or maintain. I train heavy, and go till failure. I also judge my workouts by how I feel, if I am wiped or feel a cold coming on I go lighter.

Right now I group my body parts like this: 
Back 
-wide pulldowns
-cable rows
-close pulldowns
-double, then single arm machine rows
-assisted pullups
Legs/calves
-leg extensions
-leg press
-Romanian deadlifts
-leg curls 
-inner/outer thigh 
Chest 
-flat bench
-lying pec fly machine
-incline dumbbell press
-pec fly machine
-seated machine press 
Arms (tris/bis)
-cable tricep extension w/rope
-overhead machine extensions
-dumbbell kickbacks 
-flat bar cable pushdowns 
-machine preacher curl
-alt dumbbell curls
-barbell drag curls 
-cable curls 
Shoulders
-dumbbell side raises
-dumbbell front raises
-dumbbell press
-barbell front raise 
-machine alt front and side raises 

I do abs every other day.
- v-ups on a bench (front and sides) 4x15 ea.
-reverse crunches and "twisters" (hits your obliques, just reverse crunch version for sides)
-weighted abs on Swiss ball 10lbs 4x15
-hanging abs 4x10-15 (front and sides)

cardio I try and do 5x a week. Right now it's just the bike or eleptical for 20-30 mins as I am coming off a minor injury.
Normally it's 20-30 mins on the treadmill at a pace of 4 at an incline of 10! Burn it!!!!!!

support

Today was one of the days I leaned on my husband more than others. I always look to him for my support, encouragement, strength, and motivation. He never lets me feel bad about myself, or regret the decisions I have made with my life. He keeps me standing tall, having faith in myself, and faith in my dreams.

Today was one of the days I realized how important having support is. How important it is to have someone watch your back, catch you when you fall, wipe away your tears, and refusing to let you give up, when no one else has faith in you. Reaching a goal or achieving a dream is so much easier with support. I find that with my clients, I see a higher percentage achieve their goals when they have support from their loved ones, or friends. There is someone there for them in their journey, rooting them on, believing in them. Sometimes the only support for them is me... The power of positive energy and thinking is amazing... so is the power of negativity.

Jealousy, bitterness, ignorance, anger, and insecurities can pull others (or yourself) down. The smallest look, words, or hint of negativity can crush, derail, and annihilate someone. I'm sure everyone has felt how painful this can be, the pain shoots right to your heart, right through your core. Then comes the doubt, embarrassment, and foolishness for having a goal/dream and sharing it. What was I thinking, who was I fooling!?

You are wrong for feeling this way. You can't let other's get you down, don't let anyone take your confidence and goals/dreams away, even yourself! They are yours, you deserve them. Surround yourself with positives, positive people, positive thoughts, positive energy. Ignore the negatives around you, forget the people who try to bring you down and don't support you in your journey. You have to go with your heart, better yourself, and do things for you.

You get this one beautiful life. Do you want any regrets? I don't! It's your choice to either make your life a positive impact on other's, including your own, or to be the negative energy that pulls you and other's down.

So I just want to thank my Husband for his strength, and support he has given me these past 4 1/2 years. You have helped me onto the path of changing my own life, and helping to change so many other's lives. I also want to thank you for changing my state of mind to a much more positive one, I still have more work to do, but thats one of my goals and I know you will be supporting me on my way to achieving it! ;)

-Tabitha

New to this... first blog!

This is my first ever blog! I am pretty excited! I had a friend ask me to start one a few times. She thought it would be a good way to talk about all the things I do in my life, competing, training, modeling, etc.. and give a little insight as to how I feel when I do them. I have twitter, facebook, and all of those pages, but I feel like this will open my world up some more for the people who would like to peek in it!

So I will start with where I am right now! I am currently about 2 weeks away from my 2nd Pro show competing in the IFBB Bikini division. I placed 8th in my Pro debut, and I was exstatic about breaking the top 10 my first show! I have been working my butt off in my home gym, Golds gym New Haven at night, and I have been training my wonderful clients on the Shoreline during the day. I am married to a wonderful man, who is my best friend, and supports me like no other! We share a passion for working out, training clients, and competing. He will also be competing in the same show I am doing as an amatur bodybuilder in the NPC. The show we are doing is the 2010 Europa in Hartford CT. This is a new show this year, and it will be huge! There is an Expo, car show, pro shows, strongman, ... it goes on and on! I am very excited to be a part of this show!

I will be updating this blog everyday talking about my diet, workouts, contest prep, and anything else I deem exciting enough to talk about! The blogs should get better over time... remember this is my first ever attempt at blogging! Lol!