CHAMPAGNE FOR BREAKFAST AND COOKING FROM SCRATCH

On Sunday afternoon, armed with my trusty copy of  'WordPress for Dummies' I set up my new blog. Its not ready to go live yet but its taking shape. Getting my head around so many new things on WordPress was a slow and laborious process but I will persevere as my goal is to be ready to launch next weekend.

I sacrificed Sunday's hour of power for a breakfast catch up with a dear friend. She has a one year old and the days of us meeting for breakfast before work are a nigh on impossibility for her. So we've shifted our catch ups to a Sunday when everybody is far more relaxed and we have time for a leisurely chat. She missed my 50th birthday but we made up for that with a glass of champagne with our eggs and bacon. How spoilt was I??  Oh and BTW, green eggs and ham (scrambled eggs with a drizzle of pesto served with Kanmantoo bacon) is to die for. If you're ever in the Adelaide Hills give Tranquilo Restaurant a go.

Other than that the weekend was pretty stock standard routine: ice skating, grocery shopping, spending a couple of birthday vouchers, cleaning and making nice dinners. Lately I've become more interested in cooking from scratch so when Peter asked for cordon bleu for dinner he thought he'd get the usual bought chicken cordon bleus that we've had before. But no!! I bought veal cutlets and made them from scratch. I even made a small one for myself thinking that if it was too much I'd only have half. Well, pffft, it was so delicious I ate the whole friggin thing. 

Ok time for me to sign out for today. Talk again soon.

xx m  

 

 

 

THE PAIN BEFORE THE PLEASURE

Wow things got busy after I last blogged. Urgent meetings scheduled for lunch time, back to back meetings, little time to stop and smell the roses as is the often usual grind of office life. I have however been a bit spoilt this week with Peter home recovering from his knee surgery. I haven't cooked a dinner from scratch thanks to being well organised on the weekend and Peter trying his hand at making a slow cooker chicken curry.

This has been the last week of 5.30am starts and next week I'm back to 5am. Aaaargh!!! Its been SO hard getting up early on these cold mornings after that nice long holiday break. Every morning I seriously consider giving it all up until I finish my workout, feel great and then remember there is always pain before the pleasure. I haven't achieved anything earth shattering in my workouts however yesterday I changed my 300 session and pulled up sore again this morning :-) Feeling pretty good about things in general, today I managed a decent 39 minute walk/jog with only 2 x 5 minute walk intervals. I would have made it 40 minutes but the rain had come in quite heavily and I was close to home so it was a good time to end it. 

Exercise this week has been: 

Monday - 300 workout + spin bike hill climbs

Tuesday - 35 minute walk/jog

Wednesday - mixed cardio on rower and spin bike

Thursday - 300 workout (different to Monday) + spin bike sprints

Friday - 39 minute walk/jog (with longer jog intervals).

My goal for this weekend is to get onto Wordpress and have a play trying to set up my new blog. Wish me luck as I am a somewhat challenged IT user and I found Wordpress rather daunting last time I played with it. However I will arm myself with the '... for Dummies' manual so all should be good.

What will you be doing this weekend?

M

 

 

COMFORTABLE IN MY SKIN

Sneakers in a bag behind my desk ready for a lunch time walk.

Work friend asks if I'd like to go out to lunch.

Ten minutes later I'm sitting in the pub drinking a red wine and waiting for my lamb salad to be served.

Coz that's pretty much how I roll. LOL.

No guilt. No regrets. Feeling really comfortable in my skin and not sweating the small stuff. 

:-) M

ONE STEP CLOSER

Blowing my own trumpet here but I'm pleased to say I have taken the first step towards setting up my new blog. Admittedly it was a "Mac Use for Dummies" lesson with Peter but its a start. Things got away from me a bit on Sunday and I didn't make it down to our local bookshop but in the meantime I can practice my 'Mac skills' and play around a bit on Wordpress. The blog ideas are all there, I just need the vehicle to share them.

I've also had another small win today and that was getting out for a walk at lunch time. I packed my sneakers and set out at noon under glorious blue skies and a mild temperature. Who'd have thought after this morning's rain? It was just 25 minutes but nevertheless it was great to move and breath the (fresh?) city air. Add this to my 300 workout and spin bike sprint intervals this morning and I'm satisfied with this level of exercise/activity considering I have no specific goals right now.

Well actually I tell a small lie because my one goal is to not gain any weight after my holiday. I've eased back on the treats and eating breakfast out every day last week. This year I've even decided to forego my annual birthday dinner at Mum and Dad's. Whilst I absolutely love Mum's roast chicken and her home made vanilla slice, the birthday dinner always results in 2or 3 pieces of cake being eaten and then more pieces being taken home for the next day or two. After my eating tour of Europe, I can honestly say I'm caked out and would rather NOT disappoint Mum by not being interested in it after she has slaved for hours to make it. She was ok with that. There is always next year :-)

Cheers all

M

  

 

 

WORK EFFECTS AND WELCOMING THE WEEKEND

I have been at work for 3 days now. On the up side, the mental stimulation has helped me get over my jetlag and I'm enjoying sleeping through the night now. For two days in a row I have gotten up at 5.30 to do some form of exercise. Whilst I'd like to call it 'training' so I sound more hardcore than I really am, right now that would be a bit misleading. A 300 workout with some spin bike hill sprints and an easy walk/jog this morning hardly qualify as 'training' so I'm settling for 'exercising'. Its better than what I have managed since I've been home which is close to nothing.

On the downside it didn't take long for my neck and shoulders to be sore from hunching over a keyboard for most of the day. That and sitting on my arse all day and I realise just how much happier our bodies are when they are moving. Well mine is anyway. Next week I shall aim for a lunch time walk, weather and workload permitting, at least on some days. I cant beat walking 24 kms around London in one day and then a lazy 10kms around Budapest on another but I can just aim to move more. 

Last night marked the end of my birthday cake leftovers and whilst I love, love, love cake, I can honestly say I am well and truly over it now. I admire Peter who is off work recovering from a knee op and managing to eat cake for morning/afternoon tea and dessert. That's two serves a day. Medal-worthy if you ask me. Yes I know it can be frozen (the cake that is) but my problem is once its put away it never gets taken out again. So I shared the love giving it away to my in-laws, parents and work colleagues. I consider that a win-win as do my arse and thighs :-)

My goal for this weekend is to get my new blog underway. It may take a while to get it up and running because a lot has to happen behind the scenes but I'm vowing to take the first step(s). I shall report back on this next week and feel free to send a cyber-slap if I fail to meet my goal. And thank you to Liz for prompting me to do this. Yep sometimes I work better when given a push or a prod. 

Well that's enough from me for today. I'm finishing up at work soon, picking my boy up from school, taking him out for coffee (me) and a biscuit (him) and then home to chill out with my incapacitated husband. Maybe the dinner fairy will magically produce something nice for us later.

:-) M

 

 

I'M BAAAACK AND PLANNING A NEW BLOG

Well hello to anybody who might still be out there in Blogland and remotely interested in my blog. Its been seriously neglected of late with June being a very busy work month leading up to my holidays in July followed by my 50th birthday celebrations on the 21st. Phew. I feel tired just thinking back over all of that.

FB friends will know all that I've been up to including my gastronomic tour of Europe where 'indulgence' became my middle name. I have eaten more cake over the last month than I would normally eat in a year and I admit that I enjoyed every minute and every mouthful :-) Balance that with tons of walking and the cake being a meal as opposed to an added extra and I managed to pull up looking somewhat ok for my 50th birthday celebrations, instead of the oompah loompah I thought I might turn into. Sorry I have no pics here that I can share but will see what I can do for future posts.

For some time I've been thinking of updating my blog and taking it in a slightly different direction. I have lots of ideas in my head but with my home PC about to die and blogging from work (as I'm doing now) not being a long term option, I'm struggling to bring it all together. First I must face the daunting task of learning to use a Mac and then see if I can manage Wordpress. Oh, so much change! But I guess that's not a bad thing.

Anyways, today is all about short and sweet. I'm saving the deep and meaningful words of wisdom for my next few posts because of course now that I'm 50 I qualify to write such stuff. Well I like to think so.

Cheers guys

M

 

I DONT LIKE MONDAYS

I'm not going to beat about the bush .... I REALLY don't like Mondays. Plus some are worse than others and today has started with a bit of a struggle. You see, I had a GREAT weekend with lots of going out, eating out, having wine ... you get my drift. Even though I didn't 'pig out' I still ate more than usual and am feeling just a little 'blobby' today. This will right itself in a couple of days and I'm not stressing about it coz I know all that good fun comes at a price :-)

However today has been a bit of a struggle as I woke up with a niggly lower back, an aching right hip and a sore left knee. What a combination, hey??!! I was already in 2 minds as to whether to 300 it today or just do a more traditional leg workout and was leaning towards just going hard on legs. However this combo of ailments was not a good place to start and I could see me slipping into a bit of a 'woe-is-me' state of mind if training legs was going to be problematic. So I switched things around completely and worked back, chest and core instead. I went as high as I could on my weights and certainly gave it my best because I could and I wanted to start the week on a good note and not one of defeat and feeling miserable.

My gut instinct is that my body is not liking the long runs. I've never had knee problems but in the last year or so they are just starting to niggle. Yesterday's hour of power no doubt upset my left knee and God only knows why my right hip has decided to give me grief. I don't suppose being almost 50 has anything to do with it??!! (Goddam body, its too early to start letting me down, you hear!!) Peter has suggested that I run shorter times but at higher intensity and whilst I know he's probably right, my heart just loves the long slow jogs that I'm currently doing. I truly get into Runner's Zen and find its my most enjoyable training session of the week. 

So I'm not sure what this week will bring but I know it will not be defeat morphing into slothdom. My goal is 6 consecutive days of training (at least 40 minutes each time) and then a rest day on Saturday. Then my next week starts with Sunday's hour of power :-) which may be modified to a shorter run followed by some rowing. 

Finally on Saturday night we had dinner out with some friends that we don't see very often and my GF commented that I had definitely lost weight. The Metal Monster isn't telling me its very much at all but maybe a few kilos down coupled with a ton of feeling good about myself translates to generally looking awesome. Well that's my theory and I'm stickin to it LOL.     

M