Purple Gurl Ltd.

2012-01-05T10:54:00.000-07:00

We are 5 days in to the New Year. How are things going with your goals if you have set them? If you haven't set them yet - it's a good time to at least THINK about something you might want to change or add to your life this year. I have started a small goal - 1 mile a day for 30 days - it's not a huge task, but its a way to get myself into a daily habit/routine. If you are interested in joining up on this - here is a link to the official event page - 1 Mile A Day for 30 Days on Facebook.

One last thing - don't forget to drop by the My Success Works Fitness Expo this weekend - it's FREE (with pass), so no excuses!

Here are some thoughts for your goals and the new year

2011-12-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

Happy ALMOST January - I hope that you are all ready for the upcoming new year! It's time to think about goals and how to take your fitness to the next level. I have news on a great way to kick it off - A health and fitness EXPO - for FREE! That's right loyal PG clients and fans - if you print out the below pass, you can attend either the January 7th Expo or the January 14th Expo brought to you by Success Works!

I will be at BOTH dates from 11am until 2pm - so please come out and see me. I will be offering a free consult and body fat testing as well as circumference measurements. A big thanks to Justin at Colorado Sports Organization and Success Works for making this happen. :)

Please just right click this image and "save as" a document to your desktop - then print it out. Feel free to share with a friend or two!

If you have any questions at all, please contact me via email -training at purplegurl.com. Hope to see you there!

2011-12-14T11:15:00.000-07:00

Hello December - where did YOU come from?
Well, its already almost halfway through this month...the final month of the year 2011, wow. This means new ideas, goal setting and thoughts of the upcoming new year! A good place to start is to reflect on this year's goals and see what you have accomplished. Even if you still have items on your personal "checklist" don't let them hold you back. Be proud of the things that you DID check off. Moving forward with positive feelings and statements will only bring you closer to completing those things that may have gotten away from you.
New stuff on the horizon here for me - stay tuned for lots of news in the first month of 2012. May all of you have a healthy and happy holiday season - stay focused and keep moving forward!

2011-11-03T09:08:00.000-06:00

Can you believe it is November already....where did the year go? Well, let's do what we can this month to really step up our fitness.

Just because it's colder outside (in some areas), and you've had to move most of your activities indoors, doesn't mean that it's time to hibernate. If you are not sure how to get a great workout in the comfort of the indoors, stay tuned for a few workouts I will be posting here in the coming days. My 2 challenges for this month are 1. Climbing a rope (sounds silly, right? I know, but I want to accomplish this!) and 2. Stepping up my Body Combat skills that have been dormant for way too long.

What are some of your goals this month? I want to know! Coming soon, a photo of this "rope" and a log of how the progress of climbing it is coming.

2011-10-17T07:52:00.001-06:00

Happy October! I thought I would start this month (yes, I know its already mid-month!) with some answers to a question that I receive quite often; "How much weight is safe to lose a week and how many calories do I need to burn(expend) to lose that weight?" Well, I hope that I can clear this up with some answers from ACSM, (American College of Sports Medicine), which are meant to be used as a guideline. Every person is different and you must take into consideration your genetics, physical activity level and any medication or supplements you may be taking that might factor in to this equation.

In a nutshell, here is what ACSM has to say about losing weight.; "For safe and effective weight loss, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that individuals lose no more than 2 pounds (0.9 kg) per week. One pound (0.45 kg) of excess body fat equals about 3500 calories of energy. To lose this fat, the stored energy must be burned to create an energy deficit. To lose 2 pounds per week, a person must expend 1000 more calories per day than he or she takes in. To lose 1 pound (0.45 kg) per week, a 500-calorie deficit must be created each day (500 calories per day x 7 days per week = 3500 calories). Losing weight at a faster rate can be harmful to some individuals and has been show to be unsuccessful in long-term weight loss. ACSM also recommends that for realistic weight loss a person should strive to (1) burn 300—400 calories per workout session, (2) exercise a minimum of three days per week (preferably daily), and (3) create a daily calorie deficit of approximately 500–1000 calories through regular physical activity and calorie monitoring."

If you would like more information about any of this, or would like help with your weight loss goals, please contact me (via the contact page or email me at training @ purplegurl.com) or leave a comment below.

2011-09-08T09:04:00.009-06:00

September is upon us - are you gearing up to stay fit this fall and winter? If you need help with ways to stay on track, please feel free to contact me. Check out my Springboard to Strength Program to kick off your fall fitness routine. Thanks so much for visiting my site - I look forward to meeting you in person in the not too distant future.
New things are on the horizon for PG Ltd. so stay tuned!!!!

2011-08-06T16:15:00.001-06:00

Welcome to the new and updated version of PG's blog and website! Thank you for taking a peek. Over the next few days/weeks - it may morph and change a bit more to my liking (and of course any comments I get over the new layout), so don't get TOO attached to the way it is just yet.

This new month is upon us and it is bringing many great things into my life - new adventures in Personal Training adding more new clients to my daily roster and taping soon for my CX30 (CXWORX) final certification. I am also currently stepping up my workouts to prepare for the DIRTY GIRL MUD RUN in Sept. If you aren't able to make it to the Warrior Dash this year and you are a FEMALE - what are you waiting for - SIGN UP! It's a great event for a great cause (Portions of the $$ earned is going to Breast Cancer Research), it will be tough but really fun! Last but not least, I have started my 30 Lunges in 30 Days challenge once again - but this time with so many awesome people along for the ride. For more about that you can go to the official Facebook event page HERE.

Thanks again for your support - I couldn't do any of this without all of you behind me for all of these years. (You know who you are!)

Body Pump AIM 1 and the Les Mills Mini Q

2011-06-14T09:07:00.000-06:00

Hello followers - (all 3 of you!)
I am sorry there was a delay in getting this posted, but I have been recovering most of the weekend AND yesterday from my last 2 crazy weekends. The past 2 weeks of my life have been insane, brutal, inspiring, life changing and SO MUCH MORE! I am very glad to have been through all that I have in the past 2 weeks, but happy that things are going to be more "normal" for a spell now.

This past Friday, I enhanced my current Body Pump skills by attending the Body Pump Advanced Instructor Module 1. It was lead by two amazing and inspirational trainers; Shaunna May and Justin Sanchez. We were assigned a track from the current BP release and required to present it 2 times. I was happy to get the Squat track and felt really good about my first and of course my second presentations. What I wasn't aware of and had my eyes opened to, was the fact that my form on deadrows was far from perfect AND I need to work on my posture a bit... To help with all of these things, we did drills, flexibility tests and heavy weight challenges. It was a long 8.5 hours - but so educational. I cannot wait to teach pump this week to throw out some of my new skills!

After AIM 1 with the trainers and a few peeps from Team Bladium!

Directly after our 8.5 hour adventure in learning - most of us stayed on and jumped into the Sh'bam and CX30 master classes!

Sh'bam Master Class - lead by trainer Nicole Sanchez

Phew - what a long day. Next up - Saturday's LM Mini Quarterly Workshop...stay tuned for photos and a description of the day!

CX30 Training -DONE!! (Updated!)

2011-06-05T16:03:00.000-06:00

Hello to all of you in internet land. I am happy to report that I SURVIVED CX30 training! Not only did I survive it but I got a full PASS at the outcome :)

I will have to say this was one of the hardest trainings I have taken so far, but in a totally different way than Body Combat was hard.

Day 2 was full of ups and downs. We started off with second presentations of our tracks, (a bit of backround; my track was # 2 is known as Core Training #1 and the song is called "Hey Hey". It is about 5.5 minutes long and full of hovers and plank pushups! ) I did pretty well as we were all fairly fresh and ready to go since it was early in the a.m. As the day progressed we did drills with the resistance tubes for quite some time (ouch!) and then we had the advanced skills drills. The advanced skills were having teams of 2 people get together and then one person was A and the other was B. The A's had to hold a hover for 5 minutes and the B's had to coach them through. I am proud to say my "A" mad it all the way to 5 minutes! I figured at that point that the B's were going to have to do the same thing, however we had a different challenge.

The B's had to put on their headphones, get into the hover position, (facing down) and teach their track verbally to our other teammate. This was so challenging on so many levels. I think I made it through to about 3 minutes or so on my toes and then had to drop to my knees for a few seconds. I got back up and did my best to keep up until the end of my track... it was so BRUTAL!

Directly after this challenge, we had to again present our tracks. Because my body was completely fatigued I didn't do as well as I would have liked, however I covered the 3 key elements we were getting "graded" on and I ended up getting a "PASS" for the module.

This weekend was so amazing - I feel stronger just having gone through it and met some amazing people along the way. Our trainer Nicole was one of the best LM trainers I have worked with, and I do hope I get to work with her again in the future.

Here are a couple of photos from the last day:

Team Bladium @ Completion of CX30 Training

Our CX30 Training Team w/Trainer Nicole

For more info on the latest release of CX30 look HERE. If you can - find a CX30 class in your area... its BRAND new, so it may take a bit to get to you.

NEXT UP: Body Pump Advanced Instructor Module 1 - THIS FRIDAY!! (ahhh!)

CX30 Training Day 1 -COMPLETED!!!

2011-06-04T21:01:00.000-06:00

It is an understatement right now to say that I am feeling sore and tired. Wow, what a long day.. I think we were done around 5:40pm tonight. I learned so much today about CX30 and how awesome this new program is. I also learned how much it can kick your ass! My work however is not done - I did fairly well with my first presentation of track 2 today, but I have some technique related corrections I need to make for the next presentation tomorrow a.m. My body is not happy about having to keep going at this point. I am going to suck it up and do my best to work for a little bit and then go directly to BED.

Things of note from today's training:

We had to do a hover test for 3 minutes - I wasn't sure I would make it - but I DID.
We also had to do a back strength test for 3 minutes - and I only made it for 1.5 minutes - obviously my back muscles need LOTS of work
I was VERY impressed with the 3 newbies in the class - they did AWESOME - it just goes to show how much working with an amazing group of people can push you to places you didn't think you would ever get to!
I am feeling really good about this training - all of my hard work is paying off - I am NOT saying it is not BRUTAL and hard, I just am able to do a lot of things that normally in the past would have crushed me and I am very happy about that :)

A photo from the training class -

From Training today @ Bladium

Now it's time for practice and rest - I have to be back to the gym bright and early at 7am and ready to workout!!!

CX30 Training Day 1 - a timeline of sorts...Updated!!!

2011-06-04T06:10:00.000-06:00

5:50 am - nope, I can't sleep! Too excited for the day ahead. Oh, did I mention that it also doesn't help when you have one of "those" dreams. Yep - I had a dream that something bad happened (a car accident) and I couldn't make it to the training until 11:30am - so they told me I could NOT train, but I would be forced to stay in the building while everyone else trained and wish that I could be participating as a punishment. Phew -that was miserable! Since I AM awake and WILL make it - I best start getting ready...but first things first - COFFEE!!! Next up - registration at 8am!

8:21 am - First Update...master class is done. I have been assigned track 2..which I believe is one of the hardest tracks! I am going to crush it! - Posted by Purple Gurl at 8:21 AM

9:54 am - 3 Minute hover test...DONE..time to learn my track

2:45pm -Ok...now it's time to get serious..1st track presentation is coming up! My body is already so sore...aaaahh!

Bring on Les Mills CX30 - it's Initial Training time!

2011-06-03T20:39:00.000-06:00

So....starting tomorrow, June 4th - I will be embarking on yet another Les Mills journey. This time I am training to be an instructor of the brand new core training program - CX30. I am so excited for this new program - it is going to change people's bodies dramatically! I am trying to stay very positive about this training, as I know it is going to be very VERY challenging. However, I have already conquered 4 other Les Mills program trainings so I am ready to add this to the list! For more about the program - go here: CX30 Info.
Stay tuned here for details on this new adventure of mine and how Day 1 goes! I am going to try my best to update throughout the day when I have time!

30/30 Lunges - the final word...

2011-04-25T08:55:00.000-06:00

Ok,

I finally have a few moments to give the final update on my 30 lunges in 30 days challenge.
Some things to note; the results I have gotten may or may not be attributed to the lunges as I also have been teaching more cycle classes - however I am fairly certain that it didn't HURT (except in my legs) to do the lunges on top of my other workouts.

What happened - well - I am happy to report that in the 30 days (and a few extra) I have lost 1 inch off my hips measurement and one inch off both of my thigh measurements. 3 inches lost in 30 days - not bad if you ask me. A few things I learned along the way:

Photo courtesy of Oprah.com

Lunges hurt, no matter HOW you do them, but they feel very powerful
Getting in 30 lunges a day is harder than I thought it would be with my fairly busy schedule
I don't hate them or love them any more than when I started
Doing 30 lunges in each leg after 2 or 3 group fitness classes is a really BAD idea
Lunges can be done in your PJ's :)

Thanks to all who participated or at least have been reading my posts. Thanks for the support!!
Coming in the 2nd week of May - YOGA Challenge!


Photo Courtesy of springdaletown.com

Lunge Challenge - semi-final update

2011-04-19T13:29:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the delay in posting this, life has been crazy (FUN) the past week and a half, but now it's time to get back to business!    This will be a brief update as I still need to get the hard facts together as far as numbers go, but I didn't want to leave all (one) of you hanging as to how the lunge challenge ended up.

I am very happy to report that in the 4 full weeks I only took 2 days off and that was due to pain in my left quad that I didn't want to ignore.   Other than that things went as well as I could have hoped; it was challenging to fit them in every day and on a few occasions I FORGOT about them and would end up completing them right before bedtime.   Overall I think that my legs have gotten stronger, but as far as loss goes, I will have those numbers soon.

My next challenge will be really tough - I am going to do a month of Yoga at Bikram Mile High as I purchased a Groupon for it a few weeks back.   I am not a fan of Yoga really at all and have never really done full-on yoga, so it is safe to say that I am very nervous about this new fitness challenge. Stay tuned!

Week 4 - It's been tough!

2011-04-08T14:23:00.000-06:00

Ok, so this is the 4th week of 30 lunges in 30 days. I have to report that I did not do my lunges 2 days in the past week due to a knot in my left quad that was very painful. After it subsided, I was back at it. I am now doing walking lunges instead of static- just to see what happens.
It has been very tough to just get them in every day, things have been very busy. I am not sure if I have lost any inches, but I am happy to report that the scale was kind to me today and I have lost 2lbs!
Next week I will be reporting any gains/losses in my measurements and any additional weight loss. I hope that those of you who were in on this in the beginning are still with me. If you are not - please comment and let me know why and how you felt before you decided to stop, THANKS! :)

Week 3 - LUNGES!!

2011-04-01T08:40:00.000-06:00

If you have been following along, you already know that I am doing 30 lunges a day on each leg for 30 days. This is the 3rd week of this and things are going fairly well. First week I completed the lunges with only body weight, the 2nd week I added 10lb dumbbells in each hand. For this week I am adding elevation - a step or a box or anything to keep my working leg up.

A few things to note about 2 and then week 3 so far:

I keep forgetting (because I am busy) to do my lunges, so I have had to complete them in my pj's a few times!!
Doing the lunges AFTER 1 or 2 group fitness classes hurts way more then doing them before (duh - this is a no-brainer)
I have only gotten to the weak, vomitty, sore point a couple of times and its normally after about 18 reps.

How are you all doing? Have you been sticking with it - if so, I want to hear from you!!!

Lunge Challenge - Week 2

2011-03-22T13:16:00.000-06:00

So, some of you have been following my Lunge challenge (as I posted on facebook here: 30 Lunges, 30 Days), and with any luck, this post will end up there too. To catch you up, in case you are not following on facebook I decided to take on a challenge of completing 30 lunges on each leg each day for 30 days. Why, you may ask?! Well, I have read many articles that state lunges are one of the best leg/butt exercises to shape and tone and I want to test that theory! I took measurements last week on March 15th - and I will re-check in one month to see if I have any results. This week I have decided that starting TODAY, day 1 of week 2 that I will add in some hand weights to the lunges (probably 10 or 15lbs in each hand). If you are also participating in the challenge, you can feel free to add weights as well, or of course simply do static lunges with no weights at all.
My thoughts after 1 week of doing this challenge:

-I am finding it harder to fit in 30 lunges in a day then I thought, I may start doing them right after I wake up or right before bed to make sure I complete them.

-I am not feeling any additional strength in my legs yet, but its only been 7 days - lets see in 2 full weeks!

-Completing the lunges directly after Step, RPM or Combat is DAMN hard!

To all of you who have joined in - keep up the great work and keep me posted on YOUR progress too!

The holidays are coming...

2010-11-29T10:44:00.000-07:00

Does that mean you should just forget about your fitness goals and healthy lifestyles and pick back up in January with the rest of the masses? Absolutely NOT! The time is NOW to get ahead of the game and step UP your fitness. Not only will you feel better and keep that stress level down during this crazy time of year, but it will allow you to enjoy some of the "treats" that will be offered up to you without all of the guilt! Its as easy as adding one additional day to your current gym routine - or boosting up your current workout by adding a bit more time and intensity to it. I will be posting some of my upcoming workouts so that you can try them out yourself... It's never to early to start working on NEXT years goals!

Since I have been slacking on here - I plan on an update of sorts in the next week or so - lots and lots going on in my new career - all amazing stuff!

Thanks for reading! Stay Healthy!

Vive - Day 2

2010-09-25T09:27:00.000-06:00

Today I get to present the Dance/Cardio track for Vive. In only a few mere hours! AHHHH!! I am trying to psych myself up for it, its gonna be fun - I just want to nail the chorey and do the BEST that I absolutely can. Yesterday we learned about the 5 key elements in LesMills programs and lots about the health benefits of BodyVive and exercise in general. It was very educational and was a good refresher to have to help me prep for my ACE test as well. OK... Time to PRACTICE!!!!

What will $63 a night get you?

2010-09-24T23:02:00.000-06:00

So if you are following on my SLC trip you are aware that I had to switch hotels as the one I originally booked was disgusting... I stayed up until 2:30am attempting to find another and found one in the downtown area after at least half an hour of research for reviews - seems like it is working out pretty well! :)

Below you will see a comparison of what your money will get you these days......

Room at Ramada in a sketchy part of town for $79 a night:

Decor from the 70's

Stained Carpets

BELOW see what $63 a night in downtown SLC is providing for us:

Plush Beds with lots of pillows and modern decor

A GIANT flat screen TV and more modern decor and ameneties

What a difference!!! So now onto the important stuff about Vive training... Day 1 was very informative and not as grueling as I had imagined as far as workouts go. I have been assigned track 3 and track 8 and we have to present BOTH tomorrow - HUH??? So, needless to say, some homework is being done tonight even though we didn't get out of training until 9pm. Luckily, we don't have to be back again until 11am. I cannot wait to get to SLEEP tonight - 4 hrs is just not enough. Stay tuned for more Day 1 details when I am not so damn tired!!!

Salt Lake City??

2010-09-24T07:57:00.000-06:00

So I never thought that I would find myself in Utah, however - here I am.   Waking up preparing for Day 1 of BodyVive training through LesMills.     I only had about 5 hours sleep - due to conditions at the hotel I booked online and per suggestion of the studio we are going to be taking the training at.   What conditions you say? Well... I arrived at the hotel around 11:30pm, it is in a semi-shady area and a bit old and run-down, but everyone was nice and I figured I would give it a shot.

When I got to my room the carpet had stains on it everywhere and one of the beds was made haphazardly.. I was exhausted however so I decided to just go with it.   I started setting up and getting things ready for bedtime and as I was walking back from the sleep area to the bathroom - I saw it..... A HUGE Black BUG.   Now, I am not saying I know exactly what TYPE of bug it was, however, I have a few speculations on that answer.    So... after freaking out for a little bit (most of you know my aversion to insects of that type..), I stomped on it hard and it made a loud crunching sound... EEWWWWWW!!!
Now I am faced with the question.. do I stay here tonight, and for the next 3 days?   Or do I try to find a better alternative and maybe just suck it up for tonight.   So the search was on for a new hotel, the people at Travelocity were actually AWESOME and were able to get me a refund for the days I am not staying here AND I found a much nicer (as far as I can tell right now from the 100's of reviews I went through) place for CHEAPER than this dump.

Stay tuned for details on the hotel that is a bit further away from our training gym, but in downtown and close to some of the sights of Salt Lake City...

Oh I am going to need Lots and LOTS of coffee today to make it through this on <5 hours sleep.

Wednesday Fitness Tip.. Frozen Fruits & Veggies

2010-09-01T14:15:00.000-06:00

So most of us live really busy lives these days and are unable to get to the grocery store or farmers market on a daily basis. What this means is, any produce we purchase from a store needs to be used quickly or we end up throwing it out becuase it has gone bad.
The solution for this is to have more frozen fruits and veggies on hand. But how GOOD are frozen fruits & veggies nutritionally? Well - below is a link to a great article from ACE about this exact topic. It's good news!!

The Difference between FRESH & FROZEN

What are your thoughts on this topic? Please share :)

It's Been a While

2010-08-12T09:39:00.000-06:00

Yes it HAS been a while. Not sure if anyone really reads this - but in case you do - thanks!
You may have noticed the new title - well, its my new career change and new life! I am still going to be involved in promotions & publicity a bit, but at the present time I am working on obtaining my Personal Training certification - so that is my main focus. Once I get past that - the sky is the limit.

Stay tuned here for fitness & health articles I will be sharing and updates to how things are going with my progress to my ACE exam. As of today, I have 49 days until the BIG exam.

Now.. off to study!

Something special... Sabiyn's Story (my beloved furball)

2009-12-01T10:04:00.000-07:00

*Disclaimer* - I know that this is not typically the type of blog I put up here, however I wanted to share this experience with as many people as possible. This blog is for animal lovers so if you are not really an animal lover you shouldn't feel the need to read it.

I know there are many of you out there who have gone through something similar to this and I want you to know that you are not alone. If you have a lovable furbaby or feathered friend, please give them an extra bit of love today. <3

Sabiyn’s Story Part 1 & 2 (taken from my personal facebook account)

First, I wanted to thank all of you for the outpouring of thoughtfulness you have shown me this past couple of weeks. It has been a comfort to know that there are other people out there who have been through this, or been through something similar. I have cried so much and hurt so much and have felt so alone at times, it is nice to know that I have people out there thinking of me and that some foof you know exactly how I am feeling. As hard as it will be to talk about it, I feel that I owe many of you the story of what took my precious darling away from this life so soon. I know it may have come as a surprise to those of you who do not live close to us and who were touched by her at one time or another in her many travels during her life.

Back in August, we found a quarter-sized lump on Sabiyn’s hind foot. It was a bit smaller upon first sighting and we originally thought it may have just been a splinter or some foreign object got under her skin and got infected. When it started getting larger, it was time to take her to the doctors. We brought her to our normal animal doctor over at Capitol Hill Animal Care. They seemed to know right away that it was not some sort of splinter under her skin, but instead a type of tumor that had grown. We of course cringed at the talk of “tumors”, however at the time the doctor did not seem to be THAT concerned about it aside from the fact it needed to be removed and tested.

We made the appt. for surgery and hoped for the best outcome. When we brought Sabiyn back from the surgery she had a cone around her head and a bandage on her leg – I had posted a few photos of her back then because she was doing very well in her recovery, but was having a hard time with the cone on her head. We were basically given instructions to just keep an eye on her, give her antibiotics and to take her back in a couple of weeks to have her sutures removed. The other thing we were told is that the tumor would be sent off to a lab for a biopsy – but this was nothing to be overly concerned about as it was standard protocol. So, a couple of weeks went by, her sutures were removed and her leg healed up very nicely. The doctor told us to just keep an eye on the site of the tumor to make sure nothing grew back.

Around that time I received a call from the doctor with the results of the biopsy. We found out then the exact type of tumor that Sabiyn had was known as a mast-cell tumor and this type of disease is mostly common to only dogs. The doctor also told me at that time that the one that was removed from her leg was found to be malignant, however all of her blood tests for the rest of her body came back good. I of course was a bit concerned knowing now that my cat had encountered some type of cancer and asked if there was anything else we needed to do for follow up. At this time the doctor was confident that they had gotten almost 99% of the tumor out of her body and that we should just watch for any changes in the site it was removed from, also any sort of behavior changes too. I felt a little more comforted after this discussion, even knowing that the tumor had been found cancerous, however we just went back to our normal daily lives at that point.

A couple of weeks after all of this when petting Sabiyn on the head and neck area, I found a small lump. At first I thought that maybe it was a spider bite or something similar to that as there was only one and it was small. Thinking nothing of it, I just decided to keep my eyes on it for the next few days and see what happened. Well, the unexpected happened – in a few days that one lump turned into at least 3 or 4 in the same area, and upon further searching we found many others in different areas of her body. The very next day, I contacted the vet’s office to alert them of the situation and they promptly told me to get her in as soon as we could. By the time (about 3 or maybe 4 days later), we got her into Cap hill animal care, the new lumps had spread even more rapidly and grown in size. We were hoping it was maybe something completely different then the mast-cells, however, we knew deep down that this was most likely the cause of these new growths.

After an examination by the doctor and many gasps from her over how many had popped up in such a short amount of time, we knew it was the same thing. We then wanted to know what we could do to help our poor beloved kitty cat to be rid of these horrible lumps everywhere. This was not going to be an easy task, per the doctor as the best method for clearing an animal (usually a dog) of these lumps was surgery and complete removal of them. Due to the amount of tumors and how widespread they were she noted that this was not an option (obviously) in this case. So after some research was done, as there is not much information out there at ALL for felines with this disease, it was decided that we should try putting her on a steroid called Prednisone that is usually prescribed for dogs. We were happy to try whatever it would take to make her feel better and to stop the lumps from growing so rapidly, as we had been told that aside from this cancer, she was very, very healthy for her age (15).

Two weeks or so on the steroid went by and there was sadly little to no change in the tumors – in fact after this time, we had noticed that there were new tumors appearing that we knew were not there prior to this treatment. We contacted the animal hospital and they recommended stopping the dosage as it was not helping her. The doctor then told me she would do some research and try to contact a few oncologists and get back to me. After waiting over a week and not hearing anything, I decided to do my own research. After a day or so, I didn’t find much at all online aside from the things we had already tried so it was time to try to reach out to a specialist.

I am not sure how exactly I found VRCC- I believe I just did a search for Veterinary oncologists in the Denver area and they kept popping up. I called as soon as I found the number and spoke with someone in the oncology dept. I knew right away that this was the right place to go to as they were very knowledgeable about the disease and how it affected not only dogs, but cats as well. I set up an appt. and we again had hope that we could help our baby get through this…

Sabiyn after her surgery with the "cone" on her head

An older photo of my baby when she was feeling quite a bit better

Part 2 of 2 (written with a lot of tears...)

Our first visit to the VRCC was a little bit scary as I was not sure what to expect. They were known as a hospital and an emergency care center, but I wasn’t sure how their “normal” daily operations were. As we approached the large building I just kept my chin up and tried to stay positive about what this new experience was going to be like.

I was pleasantly surprised with the whole situation. Even though the waiting area was huge, the staff in this area was very attentive to every single person and pet that was there. There was a sort of strange comfort as well in the entirety of these surroundings. I knew that we had made the right decision in coming to VRCC even before we met the oncologist. We filled out all of our paperwork and then it was time to meet with the doctor. We were brought to a comfortable treatment room and spoke with one of the assistants while waiting. She was very concerned about our comfort and Sabiyn’s as well which again was surprising and helped us feel more at ease while waiting for the dr.’s arrival. Then entered Dr. Elmslie, whom after a very brief time of speaking to us, we knew was going to do whatever she could to help us out in this situation. She was compassionate, caring and very, very understanding. And even though she was very to the point in explaining our options and what the situation was that we were dealing with, she took care in doing this in a way that felt comforting and hopeful. It also helped that she told us her personal story of having a cat that was diagnosed with cancer and how difficult of a time she had of it herself.

After several tests were done and a full examination by Dr. Elmslie was complete we now were able to find out what (if anything), could be done to help our little baby. It was determined that we had already attempted the two best and well known methods of dealing with this disease (those being the removal of tumors by surgery and following up with a steroid to help stop the spread of it), however she knew of one other option we had at this point and wanted to share the details with us so we could at least think about giving it a try. This option was a brand new and highly experimental chemo-therapy drug. Basically still in the “testing” mode, but having amazing results , Palladia is a new drug that oncologists are using to fight off the Mast Cell tumor disease, (in canines). The only other option we had at this point was to do absolutely nothing and watch the tumors spread more rapidly and in time, take Sabiyn’s life. Since it wasn’t going to be thousands of dollars in cost as we had initially feared it would be, we decided it wouldn’t hurt to at least give it a try to see how it might work. The only small downside to this option was that because it was in the experimental phase, we would have to bring her into the dr’s office once a week to have blood tests and follow up exams. This was not a horrible trade-off, we decided, if we could at least extend her life for a bit longer and keep it at a good quality by taking away some of the discomfort she was experiencing from the tumors, (They were causing itchiness and extensive amounts of histamine to build up in her body), let’s just go for it.

Week 1 & 2 of Chemo
So chemotherapy began with high hopes and the dr.’s positive attitude of this option, however, there were of course a few concerns over any side effects she may experience. Week one went without a hitch. She took her medicine as scheduled without any troubles and by the end of this time we had noticed that her tumors had actually shrunk in size and there weren’t any new ones that had popped up. This was great news! Not only that, but she hadn’t been sick or behaving any differently as we had feared might happen with the high dosage of chemicals she was now taking in. We went for the first follow up appt. to confirm our thoughts and discoveries.

The doctor was very pleased with the results of the blood work and was able to confirm our beliefs that the tumors she currently had were shrinking in size. We were sent home with the second week’s dose of chemo and instructions to of course contact the dr. should anything abnormal arise. Week two went along well again without any major issues. We however did not see the same drastic results we saw in the first week of any more of the tumors shrinking, but we did notice that again there were not any new growths anywhere on her body. Our second follow up appt. went well again, with the dr. noting that it seemed as though the disease had stabilized and that this was still a good sign even though we did not continue to see the shrinking of the lumps this time around. We stayed very positive and took our 3rd week’s chemotherapy dosage home with our beloved furball.

Week 3 of chemotherapy
In the third week, we had begun to see some unwanted changes in Sabiyn’s behavior. Not only was she keeping more to herself, but her eating had diminished a bit, even when offered her absolutely favorite food. She had also started to become sick to her stomach a few times every other day which was not a surprise since we knew that could be a side effect of the chemo, however it was something we were hoping would not happen. Also after the second or third day of the week we began to notice something we tried very hard to ignore...her smaller tumors had actually grown in size to be larger than they were initially and we were beginning to find new ones in areas that we knew for certain there were none on the previous week. (including on the top of her head and right in front of one of her eyes.)

We decided to at least attempt to give her the second dose of three in the middle of the week and see if it made a difference. Sadly on this day, she only ingested about half of the dose as she was not eating her food as she had been the previous week. We also noticed that she was staying away from us more frequently and sitting in a chair far away from us with her head hung very low. Her sickness was also increasing to at least 2 times a day or more and because she wasn’t eating it appeared to be physically hurting her at this point. The next morning, I contacted the oncology dept. at VRCC as they had instructed us to if anything odd or different came up. I explained the entire situation and they recommended stopping the chemotherapy for that week. (She only had one dose left at this point). Since we had an appt. scheduled for the beginning of week 4, they told us to plan on keeping that appt. and to bring her in, providing us with a number for emergencies however if anything else came up in the few days that were remaining before this appt.

The Final Weekend
On the Friday before Sabiyn’s last day with us she was again very hesitant to eat her food even though we didn’t add her dosage of chemo to it. We stayed with her and cuddled her as much as we could that night, noticing even more tumors covering places in her body that we knew previously were ok to pet. Over the weekend she became increasingly distant and barely ate any of her food on Saturday. Starting very early on Sunday a.m. she was getting sick to her stomach about every 2 hours, sometimes getting so sick that there was blood. She was still able to drink water at this point; however she was not eating anything we tried to give her, even her absolute favorite treats. We spent that night cuddled up with her for the small periods of time she was not getting sick, knowing in our hearts that this not how we had envisioned things would be turning out.

Monday, November 16th 2009
After a sleepless night for all of us and many MANY tears shed, it was time to bring Sabiyn to see Dr. Elmslie to find out what, if anything could be done for her at this point. I have to admit, I was in complete denial at that point about the entire situation. I even had it in my head that the dr. was going to give us some miracle drug that was found over the weekend that was going to magically make everything better for Sabiyn.

As we entered the building I didn’t even let the thought pass in my mind that this was going to be last day that I would be with her in this life. We were brought back to the examination room and the assistant spoke with us a bit about what had been happening to Sabiyn and then let us know the dr. would be in soon. As the doctor came in and started looking at our poor baby, I knew that I did not want to hear what she had to tell us. She determined that we were correct about the size of the tumors and the fact that there were many, many more that were not present the week before. At this point she also did some tests that signified that Sabiyn was completely dehydrated at this point and in quite a bit of discomfort.

She let us know that there were not many options at this point and that no matter which one we chose, the outcome was going to be the same. It was just a matter of time now. She stated that we could have Sabiyn stay at the hospital for 24 to 48 hrs so that they could put a sort of IV in her to rehydrate her properly and they would keep her in a cage so that she could be monitored. The other option was that we could attach a special pocket of liquid to her by a surgical procedure and take her home and hope that the pocket of liquid got absorbed quickly enough by her body to keep her alert. Both of these options however, would be very temporary and there was no guarantee that they would even work. The best the dr. could tell us was that we might be able to extend her life for a few days, or maybe until the end of the week but her quality of life would not be anywhere near what it had been.

At this point she left Tim & I alone to discuss the situation and I even called my mother as I had never been faced with this sort of decision in my life and I really didn’t know which way to turn. My closest friend, my child, and my companion who had shown me what unconditional love for the past 15 years was NOT going to get better. Should I be selfish and keep her alive at an animal hospital with tubes attached to her not knowing if it would even help just so that I could see her adorable face for even one more day? Or should I do what the dr., the love of my life and my mother pleaded with me was the humane and loving thing to do for her?

After crying and crying until my eyes hurt and feeling so much confusion in my heart and mind for what seemed to be hours on end and looking at her adorable face trying not to completely fall apart I had to make what has been the hardest decision in my entire life.
I sent my baby to the rainbow bridge.

RIP Sabiyn 3/1994 - 11/2009 - Never Forgotten...

Dethklok & Mastodon Madness - October 10th @ The Fillmore, Denver CO

2009-10-17T17:37:00.000-06:00

I must first preface this post by stating that I am a HUGE fan of both of these bands, and have been a fan of Mastodon's for a very long time (since before Leviathan came out). With that being said, I must also say that this could quite easily have been one of the BEST shows I have EVER seen.

Because I have friends on this tour and it was my sweeties birthday, I was out with them having dinner and drinks while the opening bands were playing. Those bands would be Converge and High On Fire. I have heard from several others that both bands are great and I personally have seen Converge live a few times and they do have amazing energy on stage but I am not able to comment on their performance from this evening.

When we got inside the venue and were perched up high in the side VIP area watching as Mastodon took the stage. In true Masto-form, they came out hard and loud. I did not have the best view of the entire stage however I could see Troy on vocals & Bass looking as crazed as ever. I then looked over to see Bill and his new do' with giant sideburns (chops) and thought it was quite cartoony looking (not in a bad way). The music sounded great and the energy from the stage was incredible. Something that added just that extra bit of intensity to their show ws the giant LED screen behind the band that would flash really disturbing, yet amazing images while they were playing. Anyone in the packed house who happened to be enjoying something stronger than a beer or alcoholic beverage was sure in for a treat! ;)

Later on in the set we had the great honor of standing side stage and for me it was a magical moment! (oh but it could have been the shots of Jager I enjoyed while there?!??) The band played for at least an hour and their set list consisted of the following ;

Oblivion
Divinations
Quintessence
The Czar
Ghost of Karellia
Crack The Skye
The Last Baron
Circle
Aqua Dementia
Behemoth
Mother Puncher

So as you can see, they played the ENTIRE Crack the Skye album - which I think lead a few people to make comments that it was too long of a set or maybe a bit more mellow than they were used to.
I did not find this to be, I felt that they had an amazingly strong set from start to finish. Of course my favorites were towards the end of the set as they reminded me of the days I watched Mastodon playing the Second Stage on Ozzfest.

Thanks to the Mastodon guys for putting together another truly wonderful musical experience for me.

Now... on to the Dethklok portion!

Brendon Small is a genius. It has been proven again and again not only with the tv show Metalocalypse but with his unbelievable guitar playing but his ability to put together the "dream team" of musicians for his live show. He has Gene Hoglan on drums, Mike Keneally on Guitar and Bryan Beller on bass. What an amazing combination of talents!

The set list for this show consisted of the following :

Deththeme
Bloodlines
Burn the Earth
Hatredcopter
Black Fire Upon us
Birthday Dethday
Duncan Hills Coffee Jingle
Dethsupport
Awaken
The Gears
Murmaider
Thunderhorse
Go Into The Water
Fansong

That may not be the EXACT list of how they were played, however I know that everything listed was performed. I was SOOO excited that they played a few tracks off of the new album - Dethalbum II.

I could probably go on for DAYS about how incredible this show was with the videos the music and the talent that was oozing off the stage, but I digress. Just do yourself a favor and get your ass out to see this tour when it hits your city. To assist in getting you there - here is a list of the rest of the dates for the tour:

Oct 25 2009 6:30P
Washington Avenue Armory Albany, New York
Oct 27 2009 6:30P
House of Blues Boston, Massachusetts
Oct 28 2009 6:30P
House of Blues Boston, Massachusetts
Oct 29 2009 6:30P
Hammerstein Ballroom New York, New York
Oct 30 2009 6:30P
Hammerstein Ballroom New York, New York
Oct 31 2009 6:30P
Patriot Center Fairfax, Virginia
Nov 1 2009 6:30P
Electric Factory Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Nov 3 2009 6:30P
The Norva Norfolk, Virginia
Nov 4 2009 6:30P
The Fillmore Charlotte, North Carolina
Nov 5 2009 6:30P
Tabernacle Atlanta, Georgia
Nov 6 2009 6:30P
House of Blues N. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Nov 7 2009 6:30P
Hard Rock Live Orlando, Florida
Nov 8 2009 6:30P
Pompano Beach Amph Pompano Beach, Florida
Nov 11 2009 6:30P
House of Blues Dallas, Texas
Nov 12 2009 6:30P
Verizon Wireless Theater Houston, Texas
Nov 13 2009 6:30P
Austin Music Hall Austin, Texas
Nov 14 2009 6:30P
Brady Theater Tulsa, Oklahoma
Nov 16 2009 6:30P
NMSU/Pan Am Center Las Cruces, New Mexico
Nov 17 2009 5:30P
Mesa Amphitheatre Mesa, Arizona
Nov 18 2009 5:30P
House of Blues Las Vegas, Nevada
Nov 19 2009 6:30P
Hollywood Palladium Los Angeles, California
Nov 20 2009 6:30P
Hollywood Palladium Los Angeles, California
Nov 21 2009 6:30P
San Jose Events Center San Jose, California

For more tour information - go here: Mastodon/Dethklok Tour 2009

What is this all about?

2009-10-04T14:33:00.000-06:00

Hello to all!

First thank you for being a "Fan!" it means a lot to me. As most of you know - promotions and networking have been a HUGE part of my life for quite some time, along with the previous incarnation of PG dot Com which was a webzine... Well with life being so hectic and having so MANY different things going on in my life at present it has sort of been taking a bit of a back seat in more recent days. Well, that doesn't mean that it was forgotten!

Over the past few years and since moving to Denver, I have been able to work with some AMAZING and talented people. This being said I wanted to share with you their information - if you haven't already checked them out on your own (as most of you have!)

My main PR squeeze right now are the lovely ladies of Oysters and Chocolate. :)
These talented women have just had their first book published (by PENGUIN - not too shabby!) and have quite a few more in the works! The main focus of my work with them has been promotion for 'Erotic Stories of Every Flavor'. This included a very successful and fun book release party and will continue with radio interviews and much more. These ladies are extremely busy even when not putting together anthologies as they have a very successful website with art galleries, erotic stories and much more.
Please check it out here: (18+ ONLY!)
http://oystersandchocolate.com/

Coming soon - more information about other projects I am working on with, including VAST, Naughty Pierre's burlesque show and Balanced Life Systems fitness studio!

You will also be seeing some general babble from me as often as I have time to post including fitness tips and anything else I feel like writing about! Feel free to leave comments or questions about anything you read here - or even about things you might be interested in finding out more about that I haven't yet talked about!

Thanks again for all of your support over the many years! :)