OVER AND OUT

The time has come to change over to my new blog  here.

Adios amigos its good bye from Life As I see It and time for a slightly new direction. I hope to see you there.

Cheers

M

WHAT HAVE I BEEN UP TO?

Oh my poor neglected little blog. I've hardly paid any attention to you in well over a week. I guess I've just been out there living and enjoying life. Yes I have indeed and its been great :-)

On the first weekend in October we had a bit of a family celebration for my niece's 3rd birthday. This involved a day down south riding the Cockel Train from Goolwa, eating hot cinnamon donuts in Victor Harbor, having fish and chips by the beach in Port Elliot, oh and then ice creams too :-) On the public holiday Monday we had a one of the longest lunches I've ever hosted. My mum and dad arrived around 11.30 am and my ILs went home after 8.30pm. Needless to say, Tuesday's run was done at 11.30 am once some recovery had been undertaken.

I then had the following week off work as it was school holidays here. Oh bliss!! I enjoyed a hot stone massage and a facial, hosted an all-day play date for Mitchell and a friend, went out for pizza, garlic bread, wine and ice cream with Peter, pottered around home, taxied Mitchell to a friend's place for another play-date and then had one fun day with my boy. We had lunch out, played 20 Questions and Hang Man, saw Grown Ups 2 and laughed til we cried (well I did!!) and just had a great time together.

I even unleashed my inner Nigella and outdid myself with not one, not two but THREE culinary delights over the weekend. On Friday we had a Peking Duck Salad (courtesy of Taste.com). On Saturday it was Michelle Koen's chicken with asparagus and prosciutto which got a big TEN from Peter and last night I made a Korean dinner: Korean BBQed beef and fish, potato pancakes with dipping sauce, fried rice and stir fried veges. And the best bit is there are plenty of leftovers for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow.

I have trained regularly maintaining my running program every 2nd day and I went back to doing some more hardcore upper body work and managed to give myself some fierce DOMS including shoulders. Who'd have thought that??!! I've NEVER had shoulder DOMS. I've also had some pretty awesome runs (and some not so awesome).

But the icing on the cake has to be that after all this fun and food and wine, my weight has settled back to exactly where it was about 2 weeks ago. No crash dieting. No crazy exercise. Nothing sinister. Just a bit of balance with a few green smoothies last week and watching portion sizes and BAM, I'll have my 64 1/2 kilos or so. Thank you very much :-)

M  

IT ISNT ALWAYS PERFECT

Yesterday saw us send our boy off to Queensland as an 'unaccompanied minor' to spend the week with his grandparents. So for this week we are kid-free. We both left work early to get to respective appointments; me to the chiro and Peter back to his knee doctor. By the end of last week my neck was extremely sore and my shoulders were aching badly as well. Whilst that settled down over the weekend, my lower back decided to flare up in pain instead. I'm sure it all boils down to work and being chained to a desk and computer all day. Its a shame that this is what pays the bills and affords us a lovely lifestyle. However, everything comes at a price.

Peter's knee op doesn't appear to have fixed his problem so he was back for round two of whatever it might take to get him better. Recent bone scans showed serious wear in both knees and knee caps tracking out of alignment. Yet one knee hurts far more than the other despite the scans showing two identical knees. He is grumpy about having limited options for exercise. I'm struggling to find exercises that wont aggravate my lower back and neck/shoulders. I've been told to lay off the squats with the bar across my shoulders :-( 

So having got those whinges off my chest, I'll re-frame things into a positive mindset.

For several months I've been successfully managing my lower back pain and have needed very few chiro treatments. I may be in the midst of a minor relapse right now but it is temporary and I know that it will pass. My general lifestyle habits help me to manage this condition and they will continue to do so in future. One of the things I can improve on is to minimise my sitting time out of work so that might be a mini goal for October :-)

Even with a sore back and/or neck and shoulders there is so much I can do to stay active. On my daytime runs through my neighbourhood, I often pass a man in a wheelchair sitting idly out the front of his house just watching the day unfold. He always helps me put things into perspective. I may be tired, hot, sore or feeling a bit down but that quickly changes to feeling mighty fine and lucky that I can do the things I love.

Yep, I'm lovin life even if it isnt always perfect :-)

M 

SEPTEMBER WRAP UP. OCTOBER AHEAD.

Well who'd have thought that the last day of September would come around so quickly? Where has the month gone, I ask? Well its gone with Father's Day being celebrated and then 2 weeks later, Peter's birthday. I started my Running For Fat Loss program and have completed 12/28 runs so far. Saturday's run was Fartlek training which I enjoyed because I could choose my high intensity intervals. I threw in quite a few - some shorter , some longer and made the session count. Its a shame that yesterday's 350 workout followed by a 35 minute walk just didn't cut the mustard as far as intensity goes. I struggled to get my heart rate up and keep it in my training zone. Me thinks that tomorrow being a new month and all, it may be time to mix things up a bit and replace the 350 with something else. I shall scour my fitness mags for something inspirational.

Apart from  a silly upward spike over the weekend, my weight has gone down a bit and September saw the skinny jeans come out of hibernation. Now THAT felt good, I can tell you. I've also been comfortably wearing some of my smaller pants and skirts but haven't tested the summer black dress for work and the boyfriend jeans yet. Plenty of time to conquer those. After all, you've got to enjoy the journey as much as the destination :-)

Without being all strict, obsessive or neurotic, I've been eating pretty well lately and have been commensurately feeling good for it. Interesting that if I have a bit of an indulgence of say cake AND ice cream (yesterday was just the weather for it) then my body subtly  lets me know that wasn't such a good idea by sending along an annoying little mouth ulcer this morning. Just a gentle reminder that one or the other is ok but I'm better off not having both LOL.

I have no big earth shattering goals for October other than to keep going as I have been. Sure I need to keep my training interesting and effective but half of it is done for me so its just the other half that I need to work on. Keeping a balanced and positive headspace, choosing to be happy and grateful  and not sweating the small stuff should see another great month ahead.

Do you have any big, hairy arsed goals for October or are you on Content Street with me?

:-) M  

 

TEN OF THE WEIRDEST THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT ME

1. I make my family's lunches (not weird) and every time I put spinach leaves on Peter's sandwich I think of Michelle Obama (VERY weird).

2. I was a smart kid (often top or 2nd in my class) but I couldn't do mental arithmetic - not even the basic, easy stuff. If I couldn't see the question written down, my brain couldn't compute the answer.

3. I love medical shows and used to watch RPA (in all its gory glory) whilst eating my dinner in front of the TV whilst Peter made sure he was never in the room when it was on (wuss!).

4. Crowds and large gatherings bring out my emotions and I'll often get teary for no real reason.

5. As a kid I used to be terrified of crossing bridges. I wonder if in another life I had died in a drowning accident after falling off a bridge.

6. I have Egyptian feet in that my second toes are longer than my big toes (not THAT weird but interesting).

7. I love liver and if I never ate chocolate again I wouldn't be upset (MEGA weird!).

8. I have a precise step by step method for drinking a cappuccino which includes licking off any chocolate that has stuck to the rim of the coffee cup (but I swear if I never ate chocolate again, it wouldn't bother me).

9. I've been a homeowner since my early 20s and I still hate gardening. For all the people who told me that will change when I have my own place I say "Wrong!!".

10. I got a kick out of sharing this weird (and wonderful) side of me.

Any takers to do the same??

M   

TEMPO RUNS AND MEAGRE RATIONS

This morning I nailed my 20 minute tempo run after feeling quite nervous about it. All it took was a bit of logical thinking to identify what sort of a not-easy-pace I could maintain for 20 minutes. It was never going to be really fast (like my 3 minutes fast pace) but it had to be at a run pace + a little extra and I think I nailed it. In fact, during my last 5 minutes when it was feeling REALLY hard, I swear I could feel the fat just melting off my thighs LOL. I then added 20 minutes of walking to clock up a total of 45 minutes and finished with 'Celebration' by Kool and the Gang playing to me. Yep in myself I was having a little celebration :-)

I'm loving the structure of my running program and the fact that its keeping me accountable and takes me out of my comfort zone. Previously I would never have got up and thought "I'll run as fast as I can for 20 minutes and see how that feels." No, I just repeated my easy steady state runs day in, day out, varying the total time but little else. I think the program is also delivering on its name "Running for Fat Loss" as evidenced by my skinny jeans now fitting. I must test my Boyfriends and see if they're ready for their first outing.

I think Peter's diet is slowly dying off. Smaller quantities off food and the subsequent reduction in fibre intake have left him feeling heavy, sluggish and unhappy. I was gobsmacked when straight after dinner last night (we'd had BBQed calamari rings with Greek salad) he asked if there was anything else to eat and then went on to request a toasted ham and cheese sandwich so that he wouldn't feel weak and light-headed. I hadn't realised that my meagre rations were having such a bad effect on him. I shall be feeding him better from now on that's for sure. And I wont be too sad when things go back to normal for him.

:-) M

     

HISTORY - SUCCESS - OLD FRIENDSHIPS

This weekend my beautiful friend Kerry Ware won overall at the Adelaide NABBA/WFF body building show. I'm sure this has been a goal since she first started competing in 2007. And I know just how hard she has worked for this honour.

I met Kerry through body building. In 2007 we were both training for our first shows and Josh Dickinson was our coach. On his website forum I could see that Kerry was also from Adelaide and it was Josh who suggested we meet each other. So we did and we hit it off immediately. Finally, somebody to talk to about diet, training, suffering (LOL) and all stuff comps that no mere mortal would understand. It was no surprise that we never bothered to talk about much else. 

It was only when I put a picture on my blog of my family at the Royal Adelaide Show that Kerry saw my boy Mitchell and lo and behold we found out that we BOTH had adopted children from South Korea. Go figure!! We also determined that we had already 'met' during the adoption process when she and her husband spoke at a group information session that Peter and I attended.

I'm going to take some delight in saying this as I know its something I'll never be able to say again but I beat Kerry that year:-) She placed second to me. LOL she could wipe the floor with me now during her off season let alone when she is in top condition. But all jokes aside she has worked really, really hard to get where she is right now and I'm honestly delighted for her and proud of her.

As for me, well most of you know my history and post comp was a really tough time. I went through some bad times battling with my Binge Monster, the Metal Monster and various other issues. A lot of my angst and struggles were played out right here as I had nowhere else to take them. Too many times I felt like I was fighting a losing battle, feeling like I'd never break free of the rut I was stuck in. But I never gave up believing that one day I would.

Life plays out in interesting ways. It appears that six years later we've both achieved something we've been working really hard for, albeit they are quite different things. I just know that we are both in a good, happy place. Would I choose her path over mine? Well I never say never because you don't know what you might want to try in future, especially when you're in a new league - the 50s club. But for now I'm happy being me with the life I have :-)

M