I just bought a new calendar for keeping myself informed on deadlines and thus it came natural to reflect on the year 2008 and what it entailed for me. Professionally I did great as a fitness model with loads of published stuff in most of the magazines in the fitness genre. I got to show many different versions of me Pauline Nordin which broaden up to new ideas and adventures. I was fortunate to have great clients who are beams of sunshine in the mornings and who let me be a part of their daily life. I reconnected with my best and dearest friends, I made new connections, both very strong ones and got rid of old negative ones. I learned more about my body by having to work through overuse potential injuries and to work more on my weaknesses which all ended up to be feeling as great as I do now as well as being a fun part of training.

In 2008 I started to trust my body more and not panic when I got those bloaty days out of no reason. I learned better how to destress and stop worrying as much as before. I worked more on being there for my friends when they needed me.

I learned about myself that I really enjoy talking to people! yes, you see, I was always a loner and I still enjoy my own company a lot, but I started to show more interest in other people and other people’s life.

I got better at appreciating small things that I take for granted like my strong health, my perseverance and my go for it spirit. I recharged myself and started to realize each morning how darn lucky I am to be where I am at. I am living the life I always dreamed of.

I rose to the occasion when new work commitments and new challenges came to me and I took the ones I needed to take on. I learned I am a lot stronger than I thought!

I am very happy and so lucky to be here in America doing what I love and I am so amazed that I seem to inspire so many people, both women and men. I am proud to push what I believe in and I am always working on being open minded which is hard some times!

I met so many interesting, energizing, motivating people that I will always remember and have in my mind. And I try to delete the ones that were less beneficial. I want to thank all those who support me and I will keep on trying to live up to all expectations from me and from the ones I am loyal to!

To top it off, I am excited about the new year and I hope it will be one badass 2009!!!

Listen up! I really believe in nutrient timing. It means taking food and supplements around the times when you need it the most. Like first thing am and around and during workouts. One great way to really make a difference in your physique progress is to add some sugary carbs pre, during and postworkout for instance. It helps with recuperation, whith going from catabolic to anabolic etc. All great on paper.

However, WHY do I not follow this to the letter you may want to know. Or I know you wonder because I get many emails about this too often not to explain, lol. The reasons are: I have a huge appetite and those fast carb calories around my workouts I prefer to take in as vegetables that fill me up. Reason number 2 is my buddy is the thick built and chubby by nature, or let me put it this way,  my little body would love to be fatter, I just happen to like it another way, hence me and the body Pauline need to compromise. The third reason is I am not looking to add more muscle, I am more into fine tuning.

What you should know too is that I use my own little nutrient timing. First off I do add a minimum minimum amount of sugars during my workouts. I am also a superdoser on BCAAs and glutamine as well as whey protein, ALL supplements from AST SPORTS SCIENCE. I take in about 60% of my daily calories in the three hours post workout. I have almost all my carbs at night after my weight training. It comes up to a lot!

If you don’t have a huge appetite you got to control, well, I would really recommend using carbs around your workout. Those do not make you fatter as long as you control your daily total.

Another topic people ask me about is how much weight training one should do. It all depends you see on how fast you recuperate, your age, your physical status, your health, your nutrition, your mental outlook, your sleep etc. I happen to recuperate fast and I tend to overtrain and I still see progress from month to month. However, I would not recommend my routine to someone else. Do not compare yourself to what other people do and don’t believe in more is better. Better is better.

Visit my new web shop! Finally up!!! CLick the link: SHOP or click the pic!

I am into interpreting my dreams to learn more about myself and what I am up to under the surface. Last night was one of those “now I am going to worry about all bad things than can happen and see the different scenarios”. You know, you lose all your health, your friends die, you have no money and nowhere to go and what do you do then” type of thinking. To top that off I had one of my typical dreams. The one “me and junior”. For you who don´t know Junior, it´s my car. Anyway, here it goes: I am on my way to Golds and it´s all dark. I cannot see anything and I don´t know how to turn on Junior´s lights. I try to do it, but I just don´t know what to do. I start driving in the dark, I see nothing and I drive very slowly remembering the way to the parking lot at Golds all in total blindness. Finally I reach my destination.

So obvious, huh! Car usually means you and your life journey. My mind tells me I KNOW how to get myself somewhere, I don´t need a light to light up the road. I dream about cars pretty often. Usually it is about me not being able to stop it because my legs are paralyzed and I cannot find the brakes!

Today I went to Wholefood market and bought mustard. They have some special kinds there that I like.

My new years resolution is to keep working on my outlook. There really is no time to be down or feel OK about things. I mean, I am so fortunate I cannot believe it! I just love when the sun lies low and it´s quiet outside and I have a home to return to. And you know what my trick is to calm myself down and stop stressing about me, the world, the global warming, cancer, diseases, you name it: I tell myself  “Pauline, listen, there could be an earth quake TOMORROW and a following TSUNAMI and then it does not matter what you do.” That calmes me down… LOL…

I am not much of a thinker. I consider myself a doer. That does not mean no action taking place in my brain, but I have learned that it does not matter what you think if you don´t act on it. I constantly get feedback from the thinkers who wonder “why don’t you do that, Pauline!”, “Have you thought about doing”, “You would be great for…” It’s always about how to do something, what to do, when to do it and these thinkers happen to have the perfect game plan for ME. Did I ask for it? No. Does it seem like I have no real plan on my own? Makes me wonder.

I’ve never been into trying to find out the perfect training routine or the perfect diet. For what use, since there is no such thing! You know what, I’ve never even tried a set routine that I’ve found in magazines or books. I just don’t like to copy cat, I like to design my own stuff. Sometimes my stuff is not that good, sometimes it’s brilliant, but what I want is to learn by experience, not by someone else telling me how great a method or a program is.

I get asked all the time why I don’t cheat or why I train so much and what I do in my free time. Well, first off, of course I am tempted to cheat just like everyone else, but wanting to cheat does not mean I’m going to. What kind of morals does that say about a person? I mean, if you cannot stay away from a certain thing, in this case some trigger foods, how reliable are you as a person? I cannot help it, but for me it’s important to show loyalty and perseverance. The reason I stay away from the foods I believe is not made for me to have, is because I choose to. I see beyond the instant gain or pleasure I get from indulging.

When it comes to training, I know I train too much. Yes, I am an addict and it’s hard for me to stay away from the gym. But I don’t see it as a weakness. As long as I go there for a reason and that I feel it’s worth it and it makes me feel good, what the heck, everyone needs something right.

So many people believe I would not have to train as much as I do and get the same effect. Most truly yes. But why would I want to train less? It’s not like it’s something I don’t enjoy. I detest some sessions, yes, but if life was all about being into it just when it’s fun, you would not get very far! The most important workouts are those you do when you feel way down, all depressed, miserable and someone let you down or broke your heart. If you go do your thing, nothing can keep you down.

Another topic I reflect on is how come people want to put you down, trying to see your weaknesses, trying to get under the skin just to wear you down. Why don’t we want to help each other by positive encouragement instead of picking on flaws? I know I have many, but you don’t have to tell me about them!

When I meet someone who is overweight, smokes, never exercises and eats junk food every day I don’t start to ask about how it feels to be so unhealthy, if they are worried about their health, what if they get a heart attack or get poisoned by the trans fats in the fries. I don’t say anything unless they ask me. Just like me they choose to live a certain way. If it makes them happy, fine! I know I’m one easy object to pick on: I seem to have no other interests than going to the gym, I seem not to ever enjoy food, I must have some kind of misery on my mind, my body image must be totally off, I cannot be happy etc etc. Well, I just know that I am living life just like I always wanted to and I am proud that I walk my own path. It does not matter if it’s a bit longer than straight up to “stardom” but I do it my way. And that I can stand up for and say “I followed my heart”.

This morning I stayed in bed. Long time. Oh so long! I first woke up at 1 am, did some reading. Then at 4 am. Did some reading. And then at 7 and finally at 9. I love not having to get up from bed at all! If I’d wanted to today I could have stayed in bed all day!

I did cardio am. And shoulders at night. Nothing special but I felt good overall. My mood is great today and I am enjoying the holidays. I cannot believe how fast 2008 went! I am celebrating 10 years in the gym in February. I think I will celebrate it by going to the gym and have cake. Nah, just kidding.:-)

My new webshop will come up very very soon! Don’t forget to check it out!

If you want to link to my blog please put this banner on your website and you make me one happy Pauline!

Xmas morning. Woke up without knowing what to do with the day. I could really feel how my mind started to get grey and moody for no obvious reason. However, since I am working on being less of a roller coaster emotionally and be as good with my mood as I am with my lifestyle, I started repeating for myself all the things I am lucky to have. Friends, food, entertainment, health and I have a home. In the country of my dreams.

It’s strange. I am working on analyzing myself because there is no reason to be extremely upbeat and happy one day and then totally low and down the next. Not if no actual disaster took place…

Cardio this morning was: 30 min stepmill. 10 x 70 steps on level 20.

Workout this evening: deadlifts. hamstring. Good performance but I was not on top today. I hate to admit it and I guess I will never accept it fully that you cannot outperform yourself every single time. I will always strive for it since it’s my nature, but accepting that truth? Oh no, no reason to. It’s not like I’ll die if I do bad during a workout, but it will for sure make me pissed and snappy. And nobody including myself likes to hang around a snappy Pauline Nordin. I tell you that! Many times have I told myself outloud “come one you lazy M-F, just move that darn weight!!! How hard can it be huh? Just LIFT it, deal with it so we can go home and be happy tonight!!!”. And since I try to stay out of grumpy moments, well, there aint nothing else to do than to just push that iron and not think twice about if it’s appropriate or not.

One thing that I keep on improving each year is getting better at not wondering what is wrong with me if I perform less good one workout than the one the week before. It’s natural to assume strength keeps on going up and up and up and up but then BOOM, yes, the stagnation….  Beginners tend to believe they will be super strong after a year since the initial strength increase is really positive. Then, the longer you train, the more you need to push to even lift a little pound more or to do one extra rep. Heck, suddenly you should be grateful for doing a single one rep on one set of one exercise…. talk about changing standards! LOL

Enough babbling. I need to eat. sayonara.

Since it’s xmas why not give you some extra video clips….

And this tuesday morning I took the opportunity to pose with my favorite official voice of UFC Bruce Buffer