Saturday 23 June 2012

To exercise.. or not?


Trying to make a decision as to whether or not to push through feeling sick and training, or resting and taking the time to recover. Well its been an interesting couple of weeks... training has definitely been hit and miss... and one of the major reasons has been due to fighting off illness... unfortunately this week, the illness won... 
Monday morning, despite a mild fever and the beginnings of a bad cough, I chose to train. I dragged myself up at 5am and went to Body Attack/CXWorks, managed to get through the whole hour and didnt feel too bad apart from sweating bucket loads.  However, the coughing got steadily worse as the day went on, making it much more difficult to talk and operate in my classroom.  I made the decision to stay home the next day and pay a visit to one of my not so favourite place, THE DOCTORS.... guess what... she told me I was sick.. :)  Put me off school for 2 days and told me to rest... a 'get out of jail free' pass right?  I was good that day, didnt train... what I did do is organise for the delivery of my own Cross Trainer, (a decision made after the disastrous lack of training caused by the storms the week before).  EXCITING!!!





The next day, another day off work, still coughing heaps, no sleep now for a number of nights, but the new Cross Trainer has arrived... can I resist the temptation?  The answer is no... I cant. Under the pretext of 'showing' my sons how to use it, on I hop and off I go... The fact is, despite being officially sick, I did manage to train, yes I sweated heaps, yes I was a little more wobbly at the end than I would have been usually, and yes I did have a coughing fit just after I stopped, but I survived it, AND in lots of ways, felt so much better than I had been. 

Since then I have picked up my training schedule as usual, and worked at undoing the lack of training in Week 2... And I have come away with the knowledge that my body is much stronger than I ever thought it was.  I am sure that there will be times when some illnesses WILL stop me from training, when the best thing to do for my body is to rest, but that does not mean that every time I get a sniffle,
headache or cough, I have an excuse to skive off... which is what I would have done in the past...

Friday 15 June 2012

New directions....

No, its not a Glee Club... but it is a whole new adventure for me and one that I could never have envisaged even 12 months ago...

This week I made some fairly major decisions...

The first was to make the decision to work towards moving back to the country, putting in my transfer and starting the process. With all the little rootlets I have up here, including my amazing support crew, family, friends and my routines, it hasn't been as easy a decision as I thought it would be, but its been made and the winds of change are now blowing. My gorgeous man is excited and already looking forwards to the next stage of our lives living where we always wanted to, with space, trees and fresh air around us. Finally building our dream home, and building a place that our current (and future, God willing) grandchildren will want to come and visit on a regular basis....


The second major decision was based also on future directions, on looking forward to just how I am going to sustain the changes I have been making in my habits and health. How am I going to stop myself becoming very much a statistic and putting all the weight back on PLUS as is so often the case?  Well the conclusion I came to after much thought and discussion with those who know me and care about me, was to make it as big a part of my life as I could, and what better way than to become a Personal Trainer myself. 


Yes.. as I said, NEVER something I could have imagined myself even contemplating doing not so long ago.. but I am cautiously excited about it now.. going from Couch Potato to someone who actively works with others to help them improve the quality of their lives through healthy living and fitness. WOW... How different my life is turning out to be... at 44 years of age I am embarking on a whole new direction, combating the fears and doubts that have held me back, I may fall flat on my face, but I KNOW I have the strength to get back up again, I KNOW I have amazing people around me that have faith in me, and I KNOW that I will NEVER go back to that sad, sad person I was before, hiding behind layers of fat and fear, holding the world and even those close to me at arms length... LIFE IS GOOD!

Thursday 7 June 2012

Changes...

While in the car yesterday evening, after a very full day... I started thinking about how some things have changed in my life in ways I really didnt expect them too.  The primary one being how my body has changed with regards to exercise.

Wednesday I was at home all day with my unwell son, I didnt get out, and didnt get any exercise done.  I picked at food all day and overate to a small degree, but generally felt like crap... even though I got extra sleep and 'rested' most of the day.

Me jogging for Michelle's TV Promo
Yesterday was a completely different story, I was up early at 5am and off to do my pump class, I upped all my weights and really worked hard right through the session, then home to get ready to go to work. After work it was home to get ready to head out to Boxing, then a good kick arse session of boxing before home again... was I tired... yep, but a different type of tired.. it was an earned tired, I felt good.  My body felt good, (under the tired and sore muscles etc) and it felt grateful too, that I had given it an opportunity to move and work.  Because I was exercising, my food was better, another thing my body was grateful for. 

I am not a natural exerciser, but as I have traveled along this path, I have learned to listen better to my body and note what it is saying to me.  As much as sometimes I battle with that lazy little demon that lives inside my head, the voice of, as Emazon put it so beautifully, my 'Inner Goddess' is becoming much louder and clearer each day.  She is appreciating the improved strength and fitness, enjoying the lack of liver pain, the clearer skin,  the extra energy.  I know what I am doing in my life right now is the best thing I can do for myself.  Its not just about outward appearances, its about inward stuff too... that quiet, satisfied and content feeling that I now have when I reach the end of my day and I know that everything I have done has been to the benefit of my health and well being.

Sunday 3 June 2012

Looking Forward...

Here we are at the start of round 2... measurements done, fitness test done, pre-season tasks completed. The goal line is now in site, with only about 16kg to go until I reach the goal weight I set for myself. But now is when I really need to get tough... now, when I am so close to something that has been such a long time coming, is when I really need to dig deep, and put some strong strategies in place to enable success.

 One of the things I did is to remember where I had come from, and put it out there on my favourite Facebook page, a photo of me close to my top weight, unhappy... unwell.. and looking goddamned awful... It doesnt even look remotely like the person I am now. What a sad individual that was. From then until now I have lost 52.8kg!  By the time I finish this first part of my life long journey, I will have lost close to 70kg.  A whole person. 

I need to keep this person I came from in mind, remember what it was like to be her in comparison to the person I am today.  Remember what it was like to look in the mirror each day, to carry around that weight which excluded my from so many things. Remember how I felt when I was told I was 'beautiful' by my amazing husband, and how hard it was to believe it. Its not so hard anymore... I am starting to believe it myself now...

But I am no only looking back to what I came from, I am also very much looking forward, looking forward to watching the changes that I am hoping and working towards making on my body and both how it looks AND how it works.  To pushing it as hard as I can and continuing to test its boundaries.  I am looking forward to working with my personal trainer Jody to target the areas I really want to work on.  I am looking forward to continuing to work with my amazing exercise buddy Sue and watching her continue to grow and change too.  I am looking forward to supporting and being supported by my amazing Naughty Forties Crew!  I am looking forward to making the changes I have started, permanent parts of my life, a life filled with good food, exercise, activity and a deep sense of self worth.

What an amazing journey this is!