On Friday, October 28th, The Firehouse Restaurant hosted a wine dinner that spanned five decades of Silver Oak Cabernet and can only be described as illustrious. I will try to recount the evening to the best of my ability, though there really are no words for the magnificent epicurean journey to which guests of the event were treated.

Upon arrival, patrons were led to a private dining area with a giant fireplace and long, majestic dining table facing the courtyard. We were given a glass of 2017 Twomey Sauvignon Blanc to kick off the evening, as well as a passed crab cake appetizer.

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The wine smelled of citrus and honeysuckle. Andy and I sat in front of the fireplace to enjoy our wine and ruminate about the magnitude and importance of this dinner’s occurrence, as other guests appeared.

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The menu was led by Executive Chef Stephen Ashley and the wine was directed by Sommelier Daniel Hatch. It would be remiss to leave out Mr. Mario Ortiz, the former sommelier for The Firehouse, as it was under his command the bulk of the wine for the evening was purchased from Silver Oak Vineyards.

The wines and courses expressed in the order they were served are as follows (Please excuse the brevity in my notes, I was taking them very stream-of-consciousness and on my iPhone, while still trying to be present in the moment.)

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AMUSE-BOUCHE:
STERLING IMPERIAL CAVIAR, BLINI, CRÈME FRAÎCHE, CHIVES

It’s always a treat to indulge in caviar, especially perched on a perfect blini with the perfect essence of griddle, as well as crispy on the outside and soft/springy in the middle.

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2002 Silver Oak Napa Valley
Wow. Green bell pepper, very soft tannins. Incredible mouthfeel, like velvet. Almost better as a drink alone.

1986 Silver Oak Napa Valley
More acidic less tannin. More fruit and a little more earth on the nose.

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FIRST COURSE:
VENISON CARPACCIO
SMOKED AND ESPRESSO-CRUSTED CERVENA VENISON LOIN, FRISÉE, BABY ARUGULA, DRIED CHERRIES, ASIAGO CHEESE, PICKLED RED ONIONS, EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL
This was my favorite course of the evening. I happen to love carpaccio, and this version was one of the best I have ever enjoyed. The meat was perfectly seasoned and sliced and the flavor of the cherries, cheese and pickled onions were a symphony in the mouth. Sweet, salty, acidic, and juxtaposed texture. All the components I strive for in a balanced dish.

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1986 Silver Oak Napa Valley
Super earthy on the nose. Incredible blend of fruit and relaxed tannins on the palate. Color was perfect, no defects. Just incredible to taste an exceptional wine that was made before I was born. It’s even better after some air!! Wow.

1995 Silver Oak Alexander Valley
It was so exciting to taste wine from the year I graduated high school. Balanced, acidic, dark, lots of oak. Perfect with the steak (fourth course). Good that they paired this year with the steak as it is still structured enough to do so. Later, upon pairing with the blue cheese on my potato (which I also dipped my bites of steak into), it was phenomenal!

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SECOND COURSE:
MUSCOVY DUCK
CELERIAC PURÉE, SHAVED NANTES CARROTS, RE-HYDRATED CHERRIES, CHICKEN OF THE WOODS MUSHROOMS, PUFFED RICE, FIVE SPICE JUS
This dish was my least favorite, however, I will say that it was because the duck on my plate did not get rendered to my liking. Nonetheless, the flavors of this plate were still in incredible harmony and the celeriac purée was decadent.

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THIRD COURSE:
FILET OF WHITE STURGEON
LOCAL SUNCHOKE PURÉE, WHITE DELTA ASPARAGUS, FORAGED MUSHROOMS, HERB POWDER
I do love a good sunchoke preparation, because I don’t see it on menus that often. The puree,  the asparagus and the mushrooms painted an earthy backdrop for the generous portion of sturgeon mounted on top. The fish was seared and cooked perfectly and again, the textures and flavors of the third course were impeccable.

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2018 Silver Oak Alexander Valley
Floral, soft and medium acidity. Grippy tannins, but expected in a younger wine. Terrific fruit and aging potential.

FOURTH COURSE:
MISHIMA RESERVE AMERICAN WAGYU RIBEYE
ROGUE RIVER BLUE CHEESE TWICE-BAKED POTATO, OVEN-BRAISED FENNEL,
MARCHAND DE VIN
I was not expecting such a mammoth portion of steak for the final savory course, but leave it to the Firehouse kitchen staff to “tout donner” or in English, “give it all”! The steak was fatty and rich and the potato was wickedly capped in blue cheese. The fennel (my favorite element on the dish) had soaked up the red wine reduction so much it was like eating a fabulously candied licorice onion!

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FIFTH COURSE:
SWEET POTATO CRÈME BRÛLÉE
HOUSE-MADE TOASTED MARSHMALLOW,
SALTED CARAMEL SAUCE, SPICED PECANS
What a beautiful rendition of a timeless dessert, with a wonderful autumn motif. The house-made marshmallows completely made the presentation both impressive and lavish.

I want to express my gratitude to everyone involved in the production and execution of this wine dinner, including the entire staff of The Firehouse Restaurant. It was an occasion I will never forget.

A l’amour, à la vie, à la bonne chère et au bon vin !

Well, it’s been nearly three months since the bikini show, and I am still hovering around my stage weight, except I am stronger now than on competition day, and I have a lot more energy.

It’s very hard to get into this sort of shape (this lean), but oddly, if you are just consistent with these two things, you can stay in shape:
1. Keep an honest food journal (I use My Fitness Pal) and a caloric deficit*.
2. Be active, stay active (for me that means lift 5 times a week and get a daily step count of 12,000).

*I try and meet specific macro goals, a higher protein, lower carb approach. One day a week, I splurge and don’t really track my calories, and a few nights a week I will drink (vodka or wine), but I carefully track six days out of seven. I no longer drink alcohol every night. I will have a Zero Sugar A&W instead. 😉

I try and do things socially where I am permitted to bring my own food. If you are on a weight loss/weight maintenance journey, it is much easier to be in a social situation when you don’t have to be pressured to “eat the birthday cake” or “partake in the office donuts”.

The third thing with which I have been supplementing my diet and exercise is Rockstar Skinny Gal Thermogenic Fat Burner. It was designed to assist with weight loss and boost energy. I have been taking Rockstar Skinny Gal for about three weeks, and it’s really helped me go the extra mile in my workouts and given me stamina throughout the day.

My biggest fear was putting on a ton of weight post-bikini competition, but with the help of consistent food journaling, a great workout routine, and Rockstar Skinny Gal in my tool box, I know I can maintain my “runway” look as long as I want! You can order some to try for yourself by clicking on this LINK!

Disclaimer: I was paid to try Rockstar Skinny Gal, results will vary from person to person. My opinions on the product are my own, and I really do LOVE it!

This is one of my colorful and tasty dinners from pretty early on (Thursday, April 14th) in my bikini competition training, and right after I started working with my coach Jodie Yuncker @jodiejfit_ifbbpro with FitBody Fusion.

At the time, I had 1,456 calories per day at my disposal, and my macro breakdown looked like this: 145g Protein, 120g Carbs, 44g Fat.

This meal is “Chicken Muffins with Rutabaga Fries” (331 Calories = 29g Protein, 40g Carbs, 8g Fat. The recipe for the Chicken Muffins (no flour or grains actually in the recipe–the name comes from the muffin pan you bake them in) is from The Protein Chef and is available on his website. It’s pretty much just canned chicken, eggs, and cheese with a few herbs and spices for flavor. A very attractive recipe for a low carb or keto diet person.

The “fries” are just chopped up rutabaga (to make them look like French fries) that I prepared in my air fryer–and if you are doing any type of weight loss program or competition prep, I HIGHLY recommend you invest in an air fryer!! It makes veggies crispy with hardly ANY added oil/calories, just a “shhhh shhhh” with your favorite aerosol oil spray so you aren’t spending all of your fat grams on cooking oil.

One more thing… I just LOVE the MyFitnessPal app. It’s so genius, and if you do it right, fail safe for weight loss, but you MUST also invest in a FOOD SCALE and you must BE HONEST with yourself and log every bite you eat. I say that in all caps because I AM YELLING AT YOU if you are on a diet and trying to keep a food journal WITHOUT a food scale. Another tip: Set the scale to “grams” versus “ounces” for ultimate accuracy.

That’s all for today… In summary, if you are looking to lose weight for any reason: Create a food journal (preferably one with an app so you can log on the go), get an air fryer, and get a food scale. You can get ALL of these combined for under $100 total, so I don’t want to hear about the expense. If cost really IS an issue, you can also pick up used items, and the basic My Fitness Pal app is FREE. Make nothing stand in your way. xo

Though I did a lot of things wrong in the early days of training for the bikini competition, I DID do something right.

On April 9th, I attended Spectrum Fitness Productions IFBB Pro League/NPC Northern California Golden State Championships to check out the show and to see if I REALLY wanted to compete. I mean, I thought I did, but I wanted to be sure.

In tandem with the show there was a posing seminar the night before, and I attended that, too. I really wanted to see the “behind the scenes”.

In attending the seminar and show, I was also going to try and meet others there/find a coach/find out more information. I had spoken with a few coaches in the weeks leading up to that, but was still coaching myself and sort of flailing…trying to figure out what my lifting/workouts/cardio would be. I was actually doing WAY TOO MUCH cardio and still running everyday, which is NOT how you train for a bodybuilding competition of any kind. I’ll get to that in a future post.

This post is about my coach, who I chose and met on April 9th. Jodie Yuncker @jodiejfit_ifbbpro, IFBB Pro Bikini Athlete and Coach for Fit Body Fusion. This is the routine she did during the Golden State show and shortly after she left the stage and was done with her portion of the show, I got to meet her. I just want you to see what I saw that day on the stage. The beauty and the grace. What really attracted me about her though, was her personality during the posing seminar. She was energetic, funny and cute!

After the Pro Bikini portion of the show, I had a chance to meet her. I told her about my crazy idea of participating in the Spectrum show on June 11th (to be held at the same venue) and that I would be turning 45 years old two days prior to it (June 9th) which would make me the youngest in the 45+ age division. I don’t know, but she probably thought I was a little “cray cray” and my idea was a little nutty. However, within 3 days of meeting, I was reporting to her as my coach and had a brand new workout plan as well as a nutrition plan to pair with it. I became an athlete with Team Fit Body Fusion!

…I did it all the WRONG way. 🤷🏻‍♀️

By the end of March, I had decided I would begin to train for the Spectrum Fitness Productions IFBB Pro League/NPC Northern California Bikini Competition on June 11th.

I didn’t realize that I needed to FIRST build up muscle and my body mass in general and THEN take off the body fat. To anyone out there that is sort of already lean and not very muscular, do not do what I did. It is VERY HARD to build muscle and LOSE body fat at the same time because the body needs to have a caloric surplus to GAIN muscle and a caloric deficit to LOSE fat. 🤦🏻‍♀️

But, at around 120 pounds, I began coaching myself (both nutrition and workouts) and started my “bikini” diet of 12 weeks with a daily calorie intake of 1,518, with a macro breakdown like this:
175g Protein • 124g Carbs • 40g Fat

Looking back, the calories were about right, but I was already depriving myself of too many carbs, which results in a less than stellar performance in the gym/not enough energy to lift heavy weights. 😩

Despite my mistakes early on, I did do a few things correctly and I did research HEAVILY. The idea of being in a bikini competition became my new pet project. I started listening to podcasts, watching YouTube videos, following multiple people on social media that are coaches, athletes, etc.

I’d like to take this post to thank a few people from whom I gleaned a lot of information during my “self coaching” period of time. Thank you to @stephdorworth @paulrevelia @miss_ally.bobally @pnbapro_figure_mama3 @theremingtonjames @willtenny @teamelitephysique @lisettehoward_fitness @rahul__kamat — I learned useful information from every single one of you!

Pictured above is one of the dinner meals I made from time to time and I was still drinking wine every other night at the time: 2 ounces vodka (& diet soda of choice) and 10 ounces wine (roughly 2 glasses). This little number is BBQ chicken breast tenders with Ray’s No Sugar Added Original BBQ Sauce, Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Acorn Squash. The meal clocks in at around 400 calories total, 54g Protein, 31g Carbs, 10g Fat.

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So this is where I started. Sort of. Resting b*tchface notwithstanding. 🤷🏻
I am going to be “vulnerable” (I guess is the right word) over the next few posts if that is OK with all of you. I also hope the people that follow me for food and wine will indulge me a bit and enjoy
another type of content for a while.
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These are the “before” pictures I took after I had already decided to do a bikini competition and I had been dieting, exercising, lifting, and coaching myself for three weeks. The pics were taken on March
25th–I had “officially” set off on my journey on March 14th, but had cut back on food and wine when we got back from Las Vegas on March 8th.
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Why did I do it? Well, why not? I guess I wanted to do something challenging, something that not everyone does, and something that would put me in the best shape of my life at the oldest I have ever been. And to be honest, I actually love how regimented the whole thing is. I always say you grow the most when you are the MOST uncomfortable.
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So I’m going to play this in reverse, from March until yesterday’s competition. I hope you enjoy my posts on this little ride I took out of my comfort zone and I hope it inspires you to get off the couch and live your life like there’s no tomorrow. My husband just said, “that sounds cliché” and it does. But, there’s so much out there to do and so little time. I’m NOT talking about just exercise. I’m talking about travel, or anything you think you “can’t” do for whatever reason. Here’s the thing, you WON’T if you don’t ever TRY.