BAck from Cruise, starting a new Challenge

Hayyyyy!!!

I'm back from the cruise with some wonderful new workout moves and motivation that just can't be contained! I met so many wonderful people on the cruise and I was impressed by every single person. The energy everyone had was wonderful and I met a lot of new people that I can now call true friends. It was great to meet so many people that I've chatted with online. My roomie, Kate (Kajole) was the best. I haven't laughed so much in years. I got a great ab workout just laughing!!! It started from the moment Kate got to the hotel in Orlando, when the Hispanic front desk lady called me and told me that "Cake was downstairs." MMMMMmmmmm, I thought....cake! Now why would she tell me there was cake downstairs???? "Excuse me??" She continues,"your friend, Cake, is here. Shall I give her a roomkey?" In the background I hear this voice "ITS KATE!!!" LOL So, Kate is now lovingly known as Cake!

It only got better as the days went on. I have to say besides meeting everyone and getting to know everyone, the best part of the cruise was Thursday afternoon working out with the Champs. Donna Szabo and Fred Clement helped me out greatly and I really appreciate it. They, along with Mikko Manner, gave me some great new exercises to add to my arsenal in order to get some cut results for this upcoming challenge. I started today and added in a lot of the upper exercises Donna showed. I had to decrease my weights because man, it was tough!! I hope I don't let them down!

We all had a great time and I didn't want it to end. It's been difficult coming back home to an empty house (Sam is here, of course) after being with so many amazing people. I miss everyone already and have decided to attend the Tennessee meeting in October.

I hung out a lot with Kevin Machate, Dana D, Pip from Australia, Mikko and, of course, Kate. We ate breakfast and hung out with Porter several times and he truly is an inspirational person. I found out that Porter and I both are from Augusta, Georgia and graduated from the same high school!!! He lived in a house that was only 1/2 mile (if that) from where I grew up. Of course, he moved away in 1971 and we moved in 1970 I thought that was very interesting. He gave me a lot of good tips and was just very motivational. I appreciate every word he told me and it really made me feel like I was a winner....he made ALL of us feel like winners and I thank him.

I have a few pictures, but not many. My batteries kept dying and so I really didn't get any pictures of very many people. I'm relying on everyone else to send me photos.

OK, so here are my stats as of this morning for the beginning of this challenge:

wt: 138
bf: 18.7%
waist: 27
hips: 36.5
thigh: 22.15
calf: 13.75

My goals are:

1) Maintain weight
2) Get to 15% bf
3) Build upper body so it looks more balanced and toned
4) Lean out legs and build some muscle so they dont look so fat.
5) Dont miss any workouts
6) Eat clean

I'm hoping everyone will help me in staying motivated and know we ALL are winners..we are all Champions in my book!!!