Not really anti-social ... but I did skip out on the work (one of several) Christmas party today. Why???? When I was soooo looking forward to it. Ha ha. Well, first of all I was KNACKERED after having to work by myself for six hours covering the work of two people because the girl who was supposed to be working with me had some car trouble ... well, the clutch went anyway. That pretty much kills the car, so she was practically two hours late. An ill-timed morning coffee meant I held my breakfast off for about an hour longer than usual, and then I had an apple at 11am which meant that by my usual "lunchtime" at 12 (I wake up at 5am), I wasn't hungry. Soooo I just kept on working, intending to leave with everyone at 1.45pm to go the Christmas party.
Duhhh is all I have to say. Starting to feel well dodgy due to dropping energy levels, plus cup of tea really didn't help situation. Not sure what was going on, drank a heap of water to help alleviate the situation but did nothing. I'm sure it also had something to do with sitting down for, like, six hours straight due to being flat out. At one stage I was even contemplating making a quick dash to the loo, I was feeling so ill. I struggled through though, I cannot face the prospect of puking at work. Gah.
Anyhoo, I think I did the right thing for me. I left early, half an hour early, and got in a quick spot of Christmas shopping. Got the presents sorted for two family members, just need to sort it for two more. Came home and had piece of toast, Burgen Soy & Lin of course, then flaked out on the couch with a cup of tea in front of Ghostbusters. Heh, such a silly movie but packed with classic one-liners. Feeling much better now, so plan to head off to early morning Bikram tomorrow morn before hitting the shops to knock over my last bit of Chrissy shopping by midday.
It's funny though. Caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror earlier and thought "oh god, puffy blahhh" etc, but really nothing has changed from yesterday when was feeling sprightly and fit. Difference? Well, didn't do Bikram or gym or anything. Frankly I think shopping should count as cardio, especially the way I shop (ie: 5 presents bought in 30 minutes from 5 different shops scattered across shopping centre) - marching around as quickly as crowds permit. I hate shopping, it's so booooring. Plus people just get in the blimmin' way. Think the crudite weather also has something to do with it, today only got to 18C and it was grey, rainy and windy. Um, helloooooo - it's summer? Where is the damn SUN and heat. Oddly enough, it seems to be turning up tomorrow when temps will jump by 16C or so to 34!! Well, I prefer THAT to this any day.
Hmm, this is a pointless entry. Think where I was going was that was being anti-social wench and not attending Christmas party with good amount of free booze, good people to talk to and stuff ... but really, I just couldn't face it. Plus it was on the other side of the city and in an area where parking is crap ... ooooh, excuses, excuses. I'm old and tired! Oh, and there are TWO more parties next week - both on my side of the city - which I am definitely attending. That's right - we have four Christmas parties! I think a fifty per cent attendance rate is good enough.
I cannot believe it's only 12 days to Christmas!!! Bugger.
Friday, 12 December 2008
Tuesday, 9 December 2008
Ouch, OMG and a variety of other whinges
Ha ha ha. Yep, I've done myself in.
Spurred on by previous disaster weekend, and potentially disastrous week I've successfully hammered myself in two days.
Yesterday I was a shimmering and shining success. The champagne breakfast did not involve champagne, nor OJ for me ... just H2O and two poached eggs on multi grain toast with no butter. Toast was naturally an inch thick, so I only ate one piece. Still not SUPER good, but better than the corn-fritters, pancakes and French toast my colleagues and fellow morning diners tucked in to. Of course, yes, I had MAJOR food envy and had to stop myself several times from launching myself over the table to snatch the fork off my friend, J, and shove the maple-syrup dripping blueberry pancake into MY mouth. Ha ha. But didn't. Did have two skim lattes which left me buzzing for the rest of the day.
Lunch, for my colleague who's leaving work, was also not so bad. I had only ONE beer ... well, we were at a bier cafe - it was the done thing, and had a chicken Caesar with the dressing on the side naturally. Again I suffered from major food envy as everyone else ordered the traditionally Vienna schnitzels, or chicken schnitzel etc. The salad was v. good, but good lord I was so glad I remembered to ask for the dressing on the side (a while ago I forgot, and there was SO much in the bowl there was a good inch at the bottom ... and then, boy, did I feel sick), because it was very very rich and very heavy on the anchovies. I only ate a few pieces of the chicken, but all the tomato (in Caesar salad? Oh well), lettuce, cucumber (again, in Caesar salad? Oh well) and only one of the Parmasean crusted huge croutons. Mmm, tasty.
After that I wandered home for a while (my day off) and enjoyed some couch-action (a nap), did some washing etc and then decided to go to Bikram before my dinner. They recommend you don't drink alcohol 24-hours ahead of doing one (to prevent dehydration), but I had probably drunk about two litres of water and drunk about another litre before the class. Oh boy, it was tough. I have been really pushing myself hard in Bikram lately, to really push my body into the correct postures ... not just hang out in the beginners postures. The beginners postures are the ones the instructor lets you get away with because you simply cannot do the move, but they always add "eventually you are aiming to get your elbows BEHIND your knees, your head ON your knee etc etc". It's been damn hard, and for the first time my first two or three weeks, I've been sore afterwards, so I guess I'm really working.
So, after the sweat-fest that is Bikram, I went off to my dinner appointment with my fabulous mate ... after having a cool shower, drying hair, and attempting to put clothes on despite the fact I was still a touch sticky. Make-up was done on the train ... once my face had cooled enough not to simply melt off. We actually skipped dinner. I was just completely over food, so my friend got some chips and alright, I may have pinched one or two because they were SO damn good. And then we had a good five G&Ts - all before 7pm - and of course a super-fun catch up and bitch session.
My mate starts work at 4am, so we finished up by 7pm so she could get home and get sorted for her 3am wake-up, and I headed home in nice state of tipsy-ness with slight headache. Heh, I actually think you're also supposed to avoid alcohol for 24-hours AFTER Bikram too. Drank a v. good amount of water once home and had some super low-fat (ie, none) and low carb vegetable and lentil soup I made a while ago and froze for these occasions.
This morning I took myself off to the gym for a nice tough Pump class ... well, tough because I upped my weights on a few tracks just to really feel the burn (and yep, I did), and then did a good 40 minute walk which ended with a trip to the supermarket and me lugging home a good 7kg bag of groceries after deciding to get two litres of milk instead of one (it was two for $4), and a litre of Greek yoghurt (that's 3kg right there), plus I couldn't resist the delish looking yellow nectarines, or the menindee grapes (green ones) ... and, for shame, I bought a mango for nearly $4. But I will enjoy it! Will shivering with middle-class guilt. Anyway, it was bloody heavy and I had to walk the 15 or so mins home with it, alternating shoulders (was in an over-the-shoulder green bag).
I have to admit, after that I was kinda knackered. My final day off before back on for 30 hours (in 3 days), so have been doing the usual washing, cleaning, ironing (god, how boring) so I can not worry about work clothes at 5am.
Heh, this blog is supposed to be about me running ... yes, there has been a dreadful lack of super-running of late, well, in the last two weeks, for two main reasons. Sore back from ... uh, undetermined, possibly tripping down steps while on hols, or hitting back on wall at wedding (dancing with some guy who spun me out and ... out I went, into a wall). Second reason, sore knee from falling down stairs at same wedding. Right knee took the brunt of my fall down two stairs onto the ground ... really should've paid more attention. It's still bruised some damn uglee colours nine days later. I went for a short 30 min run on Saturday, back wasn't too bad ... but knee ached like a biatch. Took myself for a good 40 minute walk on Sunday and knee was still aching away, so resting it until Saturday (resting from running that is) and then will do Bay Run and see how it goes.
On the running front. I am so, so, SO desperately sad about Kerryn McCann's death. In case you (whoever "you" may be) weren't sure, Kerryn McCann was Australia's superstar marathon runner. She discovered a lump in her breast half-way through her second pregnancy, which turned out to be breast cancer, but opted not to have any treatment until after the birth of her baby. Kerryn started treatment directly after giving birth (ie: within the hour!) and beat it. Unfortunately she developed a secondary cancer in her liver and, as is often the case, that finished her off. Anyway, I just found it so, so sad because she is leaving behind two young kids, a fabulous loving husband ... and her career was far from over. Plus, on a more personal level, if someone as fit and healthy as Kerryn can die from cancer it's a stark reminder that cancer doesn't care if you've eaten well, exercised, kept healthy etc. Obviously that doesn't mean I'm gonna start smoking again, eating crap etc etc because "if it's gonna happen, I can't do nuffink about it", but it just made me say a secret prayer that my friends and family are spared. Especially my parents. Without wanting to finish on a gloomy note, sometimes when caller ID says it's them calling - especially at unusual times of the day or night - my heart sinks and I almost brace myself for bad news. Eeep.
Back to running on the weekend! I promise. In fact I must because I bloody miss it!
Spurred on by previous disaster weekend, and potentially disastrous week I've successfully hammered myself in two days.
Yesterday I was a shimmering and shining success. The champagne breakfast did not involve champagne, nor OJ for me ... just H2O and two poached eggs on multi grain toast with no butter. Toast was naturally an inch thick, so I only ate one piece. Still not SUPER good, but better than the corn-fritters, pancakes and French toast my colleagues and fellow morning diners tucked in to. Of course, yes, I had MAJOR food envy and had to stop myself several times from launching myself over the table to snatch the fork off my friend, J, and shove the maple-syrup dripping blueberry pancake into MY mouth. Ha ha. But didn't. Did have two skim lattes which left me buzzing for the rest of the day.
Lunch, for my colleague who's leaving work, was also not so bad. I had only ONE beer ... well, we were at a bier cafe - it was the done thing, and had a chicken Caesar with the dressing on the side naturally. Again I suffered from major food envy as everyone else ordered the traditionally Vienna schnitzels, or chicken schnitzel etc. The salad was v. good, but good lord I was so glad I remembered to ask for the dressing on the side (a while ago I forgot, and there was SO much in the bowl there was a good inch at the bottom ... and then, boy, did I feel sick), because it was very very rich and very heavy on the anchovies. I only ate a few pieces of the chicken, but all the tomato (in Caesar salad? Oh well), lettuce, cucumber (again, in Caesar salad? Oh well) and only one of the Parmasean crusted huge croutons. Mmm, tasty.
After that I wandered home for a while (my day off) and enjoyed some couch-action (a nap), did some washing etc and then decided to go to Bikram before my dinner. They recommend you don't drink alcohol 24-hours ahead of doing one (to prevent dehydration), but I had probably drunk about two litres of water and drunk about another litre before the class. Oh boy, it was tough. I have been really pushing myself hard in Bikram lately, to really push my body into the correct postures ... not just hang out in the beginners postures. The beginners postures are the ones the instructor lets you get away with because you simply cannot do the move, but they always add "eventually you are aiming to get your elbows BEHIND your knees, your head ON your knee etc etc". It's been damn hard, and for the first time my first two or three weeks, I've been sore afterwards, so I guess I'm really working.
So, after the sweat-fest that is Bikram, I went off to my dinner appointment with my fabulous mate ... after having a cool shower, drying hair, and attempting to put clothes on despite the fact I was still a touch sticky. Make-up was done on the train ... once my face had cooled enough not to simply melt off. We actually skipped dinner. I was just completely over food, so my friend got some chips and alright, I may have pinched one or two because they were SO damn good. And then we had a good five G&Ts - all before 7pm - and of course a super-fun catch up and bitch session.
My mate starts work at 4am, so we finished up by 7pm so she could get home and get sorted for her 3am wake-up, and I headed home in nice state of tipsy-ness with slight headache. Heh, I actually think you're also supposed to avoid alcohol for 24-hours AFTER Bikram too. Drank a v. good amount of water once home and had some super low-fat (ie, none) and low carb vegetable and lentil soup I made a while ago and froze for these occasions.
This morning I took myself off to the gym for a nice tough Pump class ... well, tough because I upped my weights on a few tracks just to really feel the burn (and yep, I did), and then did a good 40 minute walk which ended with a trip to the supermarket and me lugging home a good 7kg bag of groceries after deciding to get two litres of milk instead of one (it was two for $4), and a litre of Greek yoghurt (that's 3kg right there), plus I couldn't resist the delish looking yellow nectarines, or the menindee grapes (green ones) ... and, for shame, I bought a mango for nearly $4. But I will enjoy it! Will shivering with middle-class guilt. Anyway, it was bloody heavy and I had to walk the 15 or so mins home with it, alternating shoulders (was in an over-the-shoulder green bag).
I have to admit, after that I was kinda knackered. My final day off before back on for 30 hours (in 3 days), so have been doing the usual washing, cleaning, ironing (god, how boring) so I can not worry about work clothes at 5am.
Heh, this blog is supposed to be about me running ... yes, there has been a dreadful lack of super-running of late, well, in the last two weeks, for two main reasons. Sore back from ... uh, undetermined, possibly tripping down steps while on hols, or hitting back on wall at wedding (dancing with some guy who spun me out and ... out I went, into a wall). Second reason, sore knee from falling down stairs at same wedding. Right knee took the brunt of my fall down two stairs onto the ground ... really should've paid more attention. It's still bruised some damn uglee colours nine days later. I went for a short 30 min run on Saturday, back wasn't too bad ... but knee ached like a biatch. Took myself for a good 40 minute walk on Sunday and knee was still aching away, so resting it until Saturday (resting from running that is) and then will do Bay Run and see how it goes.
On the running front. I am so, so, SO desperately sad about Kerryn McCann's death. In case you (whoever "you" may be) weren't sure, Kerryn McCann was Australia's superstar marathon runner. She discovered a lump in her breast half-way through her second pregnancy, which turned out to be breast cancer, but opted not to have any treatment until after the birth of her baby. Kerryn started treatment directly after giving birth (ie: within the hour!) and beat it. Unfortunately she developed a secondary cancer in her liver and, as is often the case, that finished her off. Anyway, I just found it so, so sad because she is leaving behind two young kids, a fabulous loving husband ... and her career was far from over. Plus, on a more personal level, if someone as fit and healthy as Kerryn can die from cancer it's a stark reminder that cancer doesn't care if you've eaten well, exercised, kept healthy etc. Obviously that doesn't mean I'm gonna start smoking again, eating crap etc etc because "if it's gonna happen, I can't do nuffink about it", but it just made me say a secret prayer that my friends and family are spared. Especially my parents. Without wanting to finish on a gloomy note, sometimes when caller ID says it's them calling - especially at unusual times of the day or night - my heart sinks and I almost brace myself for bad news. Eeep.
Back to running on the weekend! I promise. In fact I must because I bloody miss it!
Saturday, 6 December 2008
Keeping on Track
At the risk of sounding like a whingey whiner ... god it's hard to be good during the silly season. In the next three days I have a boozy lunch, champagne breakfast and - on the same day - a colleague's leaving lunch. Friday is the work Christmas party, Saturday another party ... and on it goes.
I know all the classic tips for avoiding over-eating and over-drinking. You know, drink water first, alternate alcoholic drinks with water, avoid salty/fried/fatty etc nibbles, eat something healthy before you go so you're not as hungry or tempted to eat crap than you want to. It's just not that EASY when you're faced with silver platters of gorgeous food, champagne glasses that seem to refill themselves and it could be the desert for how difficult it can be to find water. Then, of course, there's the impact the consumption of all of the above on your ability to drag yourself out of bed early for a run or to go to the gym, and similarly AFTER work you often have to rush home to get ready, or rush home to flake out on the couch exhausted from late nights and bad food.
Having said that ... I am REALLY trying. Trying to be super saintly with gym and food and running. Had little chat with myself last night, pointing out how when I run and eat healthy I feel so much better ... so surely it's logical that I do these things rather than try to turn myself into a wine bag. After two drinks or so that logical thinking just seems to leave me and I say "oh what the hell" and hook in.
Anyway, went for a nice hilly run this morning at 6am to avoid the heat of the day ... was already quite warm, and by 8am temps were hitting 29C. Yay, summer. Unfortunately spending the day INSIDE at work, poo! Bright side is that I then have three days off. Noice.
Welp, better get back to it. Hmm, cup of tea first though I think!
I know all the classic tips for avoiding over-eating and over-drinking. You know, drink water first, alternate alcoholic drinks with water, avoid salty/fried/fatty etc nibbles, eat something healthy before you go so you're not as hungry or tempted to eat crap than you want to. It's just not that EASY when you're faced with silver platters of gorgeous food, champagne glasses that seem to refill themselves and it could be the desert for how difficult it can be to find water. Then, of course, there's the impact the consumption of all of the above on your ability to drag yourself out of bed early for a run or to go to the gym, and similarly AFTER work you often have to rush home to get ready, or rush home to flake out on the couch exhausted from late nights and bad food.
Having said that ... I am REALLY trying. Trying to be super saintly with gym and food and running. Had little chat with myself last night, pointing out how when I run and eat healthy I feel so much better ... so surely it's logical that I do these things rather than try to turn myself into a wine bag. After two drinks or so that logical thinking just seems to leave me and I say "oh what the hell" and hook in.
Anyway, went for a nice hilly run this morning at 6am to avoid the heat of the day ... was already quite warm, and by 8am temps were hitting 29C. Yay, summer. Unfortunately spending the day INSIDE at work, poo! Bright side is that I then have three days off. Noice.
Welp, better get back to it. Hmm, cup of tea first though I think!
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
Human Again
Hurrah. Has taken me two days to expel the "wedding disaster" toxins from my body. Yesterday was just a waste of space. But by the evening felt well enough to write down a whole heap of stuff for tonight's "serious chat" with D. In my mind tonight is really the last roll of the dice. It was very painful, but I decided to write down everything that I was thinking because I have so many different thoughts jostling for position that sometimes I find it hard to articulate any one of them. I've never really done this before ... will see if there's any benefit. But I think often D gets confused because my thoughts, hopes and fears spill out of me in random spasms ... this way I plan on at least saying everything I need to in a hopefully calm way.
Today is last day of action. Flat clean up continues full steam ahead, have done ALL the washing - including the annoying hand washing of delicates - and washed all sheets and towels which had been waiting for a sunny day. Today is the chuck day. Cleaning out the fridge, getting all eBay clothes out and photographed, chucking out things that are either too big, too old or whatever. Then doing the usual - dusting, mopping, vacuuming, scrubbing etc etc. THEN we shall see where we're at ... will either pop to the beach for a few hours, or will just do shopping for tonight's dinner. Hah, have to say how horrified I was to discover I own over 20 "green bags" (shopping bags made from recycled materials). No-one needs this many. So am putting 5 in the car, keeping 5 in the hour and giving the rest to parents and D ... who I'm pretty sure I've inadvertently pinched a few of them from. Going to chuck out the old phone books which the previous owner here kept for some reason, clean out the laundry and ... yeah. Sounds like a lot I realise, but this place is probably 20 square metres in total so it's not like I'm doing a whole house. It's two medium sized rooms. Vacuuming takes literally 10 mins. The bathroom and kitchen are both about 3m x 2m so mopping takes about 30 seconds, or maybe a minute. Ha ha.
That way can have tomorrow to really fully chill out, get to the gym/running nice and early (getting up at 5.30am to prepare for returning to work and 6am starts), do some grocery shopping and then get myself to the beach for some reading. Hmm, did mean to go swimsuit shopping and buy a tank top that isn't falling down (bits have shrunk substantially since last summer), but cannot face prospect of swimwear shopping right now. Far too happy to put myself through that!
So - to action! Yeah!
Today is last day of action. Flat clean up continues full steam ahead, have done ALL the washing - including the annoying hand washing of delicates - and washed all sheets and towels which had been waiting for a sunny day. Today is the chuck day. Cleaning out the fridge, getting all eBay clothes out and photographed, chucking out things that are either too big, too old or whatever. Then doing the usual - dusting, mopping, vacuuming, scrubbing etc etc. THEN we shall see where we're at ... will either pop to the beach for a few hours, or will just do shopping for tonight's dinner. Hah, have to say how horrified I was to discover I own over 20 "green bags" (shopping bags made from recycled materials). No-one needs this many. So am putting 5 in the car, keeping 5 in the hour and giving the rest to parents and D ... who I'm pretty sure I've inadvertently pinched a few of them from. Going to chuck out the old phone books which the previous owner here kept for some reason, clean out the laundry and ... yeah. Sounds like a lot I realise, but this place is probably 20 square metres in total so it's not like I'm doing a whole house. It's two medium sized rooms. Vacuuming takes literally 10 mins. The bathroom and kitchen are both about 3m x 2m so mopping takes about 30 seconds, or maybe a minute. Ha ha.
That way can have tomorrow to really fully chill out, get to the gym/running nice and early (getting up at 5.30am to prepare for returning to work and 6am starts), do some grocery shopping and then get myself to the beach for some reading. Hmm, did mean to go swimsuit shopping and buy a tank top that isn't falling down (bits have shrunk substantially since last summer), but cannot face prospect of swimwear shopping right now. Far too happy to put myself through that!
So - to action! Yeah!
Sunday, 30 November 2008
The End is Nigh
Quite sad ... only three days of my holiday to go. Back in Sydney town after the best part of three weeks in dear on JB, now have three days to get some home stuff done. Really want to overhaul the flat ... well, go through my junk and chuck a good amount out and reorganise. And we're talking super me-esque organisation, whoo hoo.
The time at home with the ol' folks was brilliant ... a touch draining because of their bickering (they really ARE like children sometimes), and I sort of felt like I had to be on my best behaviour at all times ... but that's parents for you. So, that aside it was brilliant. Did about 80km of running, which was good! Got to the local gym once for a Pump class and it was good ... but kinda weird, because there was some girl behind me who was, like, SUPER pumped and in pretty much every track she would get to a tough point and go "whoooooooo hooooooooo" or "yeeeeehaaaa" at the top of her voice. Plus she was very vocal in terms of grunting/straining. Was a touch off-putting ... not least because I had trouble not laughing.
Best day was my second-last morning there ... saw sun outside so basically ran down to the beach, having learnt to make the most of ANY sun. It was only 8.30am and there wasn't another soul on the beach, there were not one but TWO pods of dolphins swimming up and down the bay/beach though. It was soooo amazing. Just me and the morning sun, watching dolphins. Damn spesh :)
Saturday night had the wedding of a good friend of mine. The less said about it the better. Have NO idea what the hell got into me ... but I went a bit mad. Drank waaaay too much ... which probably means six glasses of wine, which is four more than I needed. Argh. Nevermind ... these things happen right. And someone has to be the drunk girl! Thankfully do not remember good parts of it. Had super-big fight with D though ... but have NO idea what the hell about. Pissed idiot. Anyhoo, must try to move on from that.
Onto more positive news. Went to my nutritionist this morning ... had only lost 1kg on the scales (hate bloody scales) BUT have lost 5cm off my waist!!! Frankly, I've never put too much stock in the scales ... surely it's better to lose cm, indicating that I'm toning up, than just kgs? I mean, I'm aiming to lose about 8kg more and surely it's better if it comes of super slowly ... will make it easier to keep it off and maintain good habits.
Food has really been quite good. All very, very healthy and low GI stuff with lots of fresh fruit, vegetables and lean meat/chicken/fish. Must stick to this sort of thing moving forward ... no excuses! It's just organisation. Mum goes shopping every two days to pick up extra bits, fresh veg and meat. Really, with huge supermarket/shopping centre just a five minute walk away I really have no excuse. Am going to work on some food plans later today once washing and cleaning is a bit more under control ... today lunch is salad with corned beef slices. Dinner will be turkey sausages with sweet potato mash and salad. Will pop over to the supermarket later to get some muesli and extra fruit and stuff. Oh, and maybe spend some of my birthday gift vouchers.
Only slightly not so good thing about my check with the nutritionist is that she is worried about my IBS issues and thinks it may be something other than IBS causing some of my symptoms. So about to head off to the doctor to get a referral to a gastroenterologist to get things checked. Will doubtless mean having a procedure or two - eeeeeek - but probably better to at least get it checked to get some peace of mind. And at least find out if there IS a problem.
Oh, the joys.
Holy crap btw, it's the 1st of December ... 24 days to Christmas. Better do some shopping.
The time at home with the ol' folks was brilliant ... a touch draining because of their bickering (they really ARE like children sometimes), and I sort of felt like I had to be on my best behaviour at all times ... but that's parents for you. So, that aside it was brilliant. Did about 80km of running, which was good! Got to the local gym once for a Pump class and it was good ... but kinda weird, because there was some girl behind me who was, like, SUPER pumped and in pretty much every track she would get to a tough point and go "whoooooooo hooooooooo" or "yeeeeehaaaa" at the top of her voice. Plus she was very vocal in terms of grunting/straining. Was a touch off-putting ... not least because I had trouble not laughing.
Best day was my second-last morning there ... saw sun outside so basically ran down to the beach, having learnt to make the most of ANY sun. It was only 8.30am and there wasn't another soul on the beach, there were not one but TWO pods of dolphins swimming up and down the bay/beach though. It was soooo amazing. Just me and the morning sun, watching dolphins. Damn spesh :)
Saturday night had the wedding of a good friend of mine. The less said about it the better. Have NO idea what the hell got into me ... but I went a bit mad. Drank waaaay too much ... which probably means six glasses of wine, which is four more than I needed. Argh. Nevermind ... these things happen right. And someone has to be the drunk girl! Thankfully do not remember good parts of it. Had super-big fight with D though ... but have NO idea what the hell about. Pissed idiot. Anyhoo, must try to move on from that.
Onto more positive news. Went to my nutritionist this morning ... had only lost 1kg on the scales (hate bloody scales) BUT have lost 5cm off my waist!!! Frankly, I've never put too much stock in the scales ... surely it's better to lose cm, indicating that I'm toning up, than just kgs? I mean, I'm aiming to lose about 8kg more and surely it's better if it comes of super slowly ... will make it easier to keep it off and maintain good habits.
Food has really been quite good. All very, very healthy and low GI stuff with lots of fresh fruit, vegetables and lean meat/chicken/fish. Must stick to this sort of thing moving forward ... no excuses! It's just organisation. Mum goes shopping every two days to pick up extra bits, fresh veg and meat. Really, with huge supermarket/shopping centre just a five minute walk away I really have no excuse. Am going to work on some food plans later today once washing and cleaning is a bit more under control ... today lunch is salad with corned beef slices. Dinner will be turkey sausages with sweet potato mash and salad. Will pop over to the supermarket later to get some muesli and extra fruit and stuff. Oh, and maybe spend some of my birthday gift vouchers.
Only slightly not so good thing about my check with the nutritionist is that she is worried about my IBS issues and thinks it may be something other than IBS causing some of my symptoms. So about to head off to the doctor to get a referral to a gastroenterologist to get things checked. Will doubtless mean having a procedure or two - eeeeeek - but probably better to at least get it checked to get some peace of mind. And at least find out if there IS a problem.
Oh, the joys.
Holy crap btw, it's the 1st of December ... 24 days to Christmas. Better do some shopping.
Thursday, 20 November 2008
Holiday Madness ... and not-so madness
Hurrah! I'm four days into my first holiday in far, far, FAR too long. I am never letting it go for two years and 10 months EVER again. Nevah.
Weekend in the Hunter with the girls was faaaaabulous. But oh, my aching liver. A arrived via her lovely boyfriend's car at about 10.30am and we hung around until we heard the third member of my carpool was at the nearby train station. I had decided - somewhat on the spur of the moment - to get her an escort for the weekend. Kev! The budget Bunnings gnome. Ha ha ha. It was sooo silly, but helped to make the weekend even more fun. So I introduced A to her escort, we faffed around for a wee while until I got the call from G to say she'd arrived and was hiding in the shade. In a bizarre typical Sydney weather twist, it was friggin' 34C and so damn humid, after many days of only just above 20C temps. Bah!
Poor little ZJ was NOT impressed by the three fully grown adults AND their luggage (damn, we all had a suitcase for two nights away, ha ha), when he's used to just me and my handbag/gymbag. Boy, was he a sluggish little Corolla, especially up some of the big hills. But we made it in good time and checked into our GORGEOUS accommodation, with me snaffling the second best room - own air con, whoo hoo! I gave up another room - with a balcony - to a smoker friend, turned out to be a stroke of genius ... well, unintentioned genius as hers had no air con. None of which we discovered until we went off to bed in the sweltering pre-thunderstorm heat!
Anyhoo, we made a quick trip into town to pick up BBQ supplies ... and booze, naturally, and by 6pm we were sitting outside, glass of wine in hand, cheese, bread, oil and dukah on the table feeling well and truly at home. Slight hiccup when we discovered there was no water coming out of the taps. Uhhh, hello - shower required much? So we called up Jeff, our friendly landlord for the weekend, who turned up and realised the water tank (they're all on rainwater up there) was, in fact, empty! Slight panic until he reassured us he had dam supply - for emergencies only. Heh, was only then we realised how friendly he was. We were all standing around chatting, he's lit up two smokes in 10 minutes and I'm thinking "damn, I really want to drink some more wine", when he was asking us how we were enjoying the local produce - noticing we were drinking some from a vineyard just down the road. Heh, took us THAT to realise he actually was hanging out for an invite. So, I asked him if he wanted to join us for a while and yes, he did, in fact he'd brought along his own supply - two bottles in the truck. Ha ha.
So us quite newly thirty girls sat down with ol' Jeff and had a great chat about EVERYTHING. Good lord, it was brilliant fun. Finally at about 7.30pm - four hours after she'd left Sydney - the final member of our party arrived to find us all very well into it and damn near pissed. Alright, I was already pissed. Total lightweight.
Anyhoo, once Jeff's wine ran out and he realised it was 8.30pm and he'd been sitting there for two hours - with his poor wife back home - he decided to high-tail it home and we decided to fire up the bbq. Mmm, all very tasty. Or I imagine it was, having now well and truly hit the pissed point of the night. So pissed that I thought "oh yes, it's a GREAT time for me to pick up a cigarette". Ahh dear.
Slight low point was when the two blokes staying nextdoor came over to join us. Eeek. Golf semi-pro and his caddy. Both with GLINTING wedding rings. Heh, they were both pretty lame and I'm pretty sure that within 15 minutes of talking to us drunken, over-tired floozies that they realised they really probably should've stayed in the safety of their bungalow. No funny business, just baaaad conversation as can only be had when three out of six of the party are drrrrruuuunk and happy, one is sober and tired/grumpy and two are boring-ass golfers. Heh, oh well.
Have no idea when they buggered off, but at some point they did and at some point I went off to bed.
Woke up at blimmin' 5am! Gaaaah. Damn internal body clock. Oh, and noisy birds.
Went on a faaaabulous wine-tasting tour, that started at 10am (ouch). Kev - the escort gnome - was a hit, moreso because one of the old blokes who was on the bus LOOKED JUST LIKE HIM. White beard and gnomey face and all. He had designs on Kev, wanted to take him home and made sure he got photographed with him everywhere. Ha ha. Hilarious. I actually felt pretty damn cruddy for most of the tour, just can't face a big bold Shiraz at 10.15am after a night of hard drinking. Blech. Bought some more speciality wines, some chilli-infused olive oil (lush), some chilli olives (delish) and some stunning mild blue-vein cheese. I usually hate the stuff, and declare it smells like feet that have been peed on by a diseased goat ... but this was damn good.
The tour finished at about 5.30pm and LORD I was knackered. We hung around for a while, had showers, located clothing and then got picked up by a taxi to head into this AWESOME brewery in town for our dinner. Food was a touch average, but the local beer more than made up for it. Could've stayed for a LOT longer but one of our party had turned green at the table, practically sprinted for the loo and not returned for 15 mins. I never like to ask if someone's okay in these situations, because for all I knew she could've suddenly come down with a case of the squirts, or I could've just over-reacted to her reaction and she was fine and just touching up her make-up or a range of other things. Once she was back at the table I could see she was in a world of hurt - on the waters! So I got her a lemon, lime and bitters as I find this often helps - something to do with the sugar content. Anyhoo, she didn't say anything but soldiered on because she is real trooper. I would've gone home, and always do, if I'd felt like her.
Sunday we had a super bacon/eggs/mushrooms breakfast before our superfun horseriding trip. And I am not being sarcy when I say superfun, it was SO AWESOME. Aside from the fact we were pretty much all put on dodgy horses who were really not very well looked after, nor was their gear, yards or anything. But anyway, I was warned that my horse was a real bit "think of PMS with a gun" one of the staff told me. Uhhh, fantastic. Really didn't turn out to be that bad though, she was just a mean biatch of a horse. And had the WORST canter it has been my misfortune to experience. My lord, it was terrible. Kept being catapulted forward out of the saddle despite my best thigh-squeezing and butt pushing into saddle efforts. I tried my best ... didn't fall off either. At the end of it a staff member asked me how I'd found her canter, and I was like "oh, I am sooo out of practice" etc etc, explaining how I couldn't keep my seat. Hah, she laughed and explained that it wasn't my fault - the horse had the worst canter she'd ever encountered and no-one could sit down. Grrrr. Would've been helpful to know beforehand ... even during! Gah!
Anyway, three days later and my inner-thighs are still singing out in pain every now and then.
Onto the next part of my holiday anyway ... the non-party part, the detox part. Well, I'm four days in now to the official holiday, the weekend away was just ... well, a weekend! Drove down on Monday and had nice salad for lunch, then a wee rest before taking the mother out for a walk. Tuesday I got up super early and dropped my car at the mechanic, about 8-9km away, and ran back. It was so good, gorgeous run, but my thighs - ooooh, my thighs.
Wednesday, yesterday, did a super-sweaty 6km run in the 85% humidity morning ... was damn hard going, it's so flat around here, I miss the hills (sick, I know) and then took ye ol' mother out for a good hour long walk in the evening. Thighs still haven't really improved, so today I took the day off from serious running work and went shopping instead. Bought the most gorgeous tie belt you've ever seen, bought some lovely handmade soap ... and fudge and marmalade for the father figure.
Tomorrow, if the bloody sun comes out, I am SO going for a swim. But at the very least will do a nice 10km run in the morning and will hit the weights - just at home - for a good 30 mins too. Plus the fitball. My poor stomach is weakening!
Food has been very, very good though. No bad stuff at all. Seriously, none. And I'm really enjoying it all too. Tonight am making low-carb, low-fat healthy pizza for the parental units ... a rare treat for us all really, but especially for them because they never eat the stuff.
Really looking forward to a picnic on Sunday at a nearby village that was set up in the 1940s as a real tourist resort, but never took off because of the ever-damn-changing weather. Qld has "beautiful one day, perfect the next", the south coast could have "beautiful one minute, sh*thouse the next, windy the next, raining the next, sunny the next" because it literally changes every hour. Not 20 minutes ago I was thinking I should really head out for a swim, not there's grey clouds pushing in and the temp has dropped by a good 5 degrees. Charming.
But still, I'M ON HOLIDAYS. Whoo hoo.
Weekend in the Hunter with the girls was faaaaabulous. But oh, my aching liver. A arrived via her lovely boyfriend's car at about 10.30am and we hung around until we heard the third member of my carpool was at the nearby train station. I had decided - somewhat on the spur of the moment - to get her an escort for the weekend. Kev! The budget Bunnings gnome. Ha ha ha. It was sooo silly, but helped to make the weekend even more fun. So I introduced A to her escort, we faffed around for a wee while until I got the call from G to say she'd arrived and was hiding in the shade. In a bizarre typical Sydney weather twist, it was friggin' 34C and so damn humid, after many days of only just above 20C temps. Bah!
Poor little ZJ was NOT impressed by the three fully grown adults AND their luggage (damn, we all had a suitcase for two nights away, ha ha), when he's used to just me and my handbag/gymbag. Boy, was he a sluggish little Corolla, especially up some of the big hills. But we made it in good time and checked into our GORGEOUS accommodation, with me snaffling the second best room - own air con, whoo hoo! I gave up another room - with a balcony - to a smoker friend, turned out to be a stroke of genius ... well, unintentioned genius as hers had no air con. None of which we discovered until we went off to bed in the sweltering pre-thunderstorm heat!
Anyhoo, we made a quick trip into town to pick up BBQ supplies ... and booze, naturally, and by 6pm we were sitting outside, glass of wine in hand, cheese, bread, oil and dukah on the table feeling well and truly at home. Slight hiccup when we discovered there was no water coming out of the taps. Uhhh, hello - shower required much? So we called up Jeff, our friendly landlord for the weekend, who turned up and realised the water tank (they're all on rainwater up there) was, in fact, empty! Slight panic until he reassured us he had dam supply - for emergencies only. Heh, was only then we realised how friendly he was. We were all standing around chatting, he's lit up two smokes in 10 minutes and I'm thinking "damn, I really want to drink some more wine", when he was asking us how we were enjoying the local produce - noticing we were drinking some from a vineyard just down the road. Heh, took us THAT to realise he actually was hanging out for an invite. So, I asked him if he wanted to join us for a while and yes, he did, in fact he'd brought along his own supply - two bottles in the truck. Ha ha.
So us quite newly thirty girls sat down with ol' Jeff and had a great chat about EVERYTHING. Good lord, it was brilliant fun. Finally at about 7.30pm - four hours after she'd left Sydney - the final member of our party arrived to find us all very well into it and damn near pissed. Alright, I was already pissed. Total lightweight.
Anyhoo, once Jeff's wine ran out and he realised it was 8.30pm and he'd been sitting there for two hours - with his poor wife back home - he decided to high-tail it home and we decided to fire up the bbq. Mmm, all very tasty. Or I imagine it was, having now well and truly hit the pissed point of the night. So pissed that I thought "oh yes, it's a GREAT time for me to pick up a cigarette". Ahh dear.
Slight low point was when the two blokes staying nextdoor came over to join us. Eeek. Golf semi-pro and his caddy. Both with GLINTING wedding rings. Heh, they were both pretty lame and I'm pretty sure that within 15 minutes of talking to us drunken, over-tired floozies that they realised they really probably should've stayed in the safety of their bungalow. No funny business, just baaaad conversation as can only be had when three out of six of the party are drrrrruuuunk and happy, one is sober and tired/grumpy and two are boring-ass golfers. Heh, oh well.
Have no idea when they buggered off, but at some point they did and at some point I went off to bed.
Woke up at blimmin' 5am! Gaaaah. Damn internal body clock. Oh, and noisy birds.
Went on a faaaabulous wine-tasting tour, that started at 10am (ouch). Kev - the escort gnome - was a hit, moreso because one of the old blokes who was on the bus LOOKED JUST LIKE HIM. White beard and gnomey face and all. He had designs on Kev, wanted to take him home and made sure he got photographed with him everywhere. Ha ha. Hilarious. I actually felt pretty damn cruddy for most of the tour, just can't face a big bold Shiraz at 10.15am after a night of hard drinking. Blech. Bought some more speciality wines, some chilli-infused olive oil (lush), some chilli olives (delish) and some stunning mild blue-vein cheese. I usually hate the stuff, and declare it smells like feet that have been peed on by a diseased goat ... but this was damn good.
The tour finished at about 5.30pm and LORD I was knackered. We hung around for a while, had showers, located clothing and then got picked up by a taxi to head into this AWESOME brewery in town for our dinner. Food was a touch average, but the local beer more than made up for it. Could've stayed for a LOT longer but one of our party had turned green at the table, practically sprinted for the loo and not returned for 15 mins. I never like to ask if someone's okay in these situations, because for all I knew she could've suddenly come down with a case of the squirts, or I could've just over-reacted to her reaction and she was fine and just touching up her make-up or a range of other things. Once she was back at the table I could see she was in a world of hurt - on the waters! So I got her a lemon, lime and bitters as I find this often helps - something to do with the sugar content. Anyhoo, she didn't say anything but soldiered on because she is real trooper. I would've gone home, and always do, if I'd felt like her.
Sunday we had a super bacon/eggs/mushrooms breakfast before our superfun horseriding trip. And I am not being sarcy when I say superfun, it was SO AWESOME. Aside from the fact we were pretty much all put on dodgy horses who were really not very well looked after, nor was their gear, yards or anything. But anyway, I was warned that my horse was a real bit "think of PMS with a gun" one of the staff told me. Uhhh, fantastic. Really didn't turn out to be that bad though, she was just a mean biatch of a horse. And had the WORST canter it has been my misfortune to experience. My lord, it was terrible. Kept being catapulted forward out of the saddle despite my best thigh-squeezing and butt pushing into saddle efforts. I tried my best ... didn't fall off either. At the end of it a staff member asked me how I'd found her canter, and I was like "oh, I am sooo out of practice" etc etc, explaining how I couldn't keep my seat. Hah, she laughed and explained that it wasn't my fault - the horse had the worst canter she'd ever encountered and no-one could sit down. Grrrr. Would've been helpful to know beforehand ... even during! Gah!
Anyway, three days later and my inner-thighs are still singing out in pain every now and then.
Onto the next part of my holiday anyway ... the non-party part, the detox part. Well, I'm four days in now to the official holiday, the weekend away was just ... well, a weekend! Drove down on Monday and had nice salad for lunch, then a wee rest before taking the mother out for a walk. Tuesday I got up super early and dropped my car at the mechanic, about 8-9km away, and ran back. It was so good, gorgeous run, but my thighs - ooooh, my thighs.
Wednesday, yesterday, did a super-sweaty 6km run in the 85% humidity morning ... was damn hard going, it's so flat around here, I miss the hills (sick, I know) and then took ye ol' mother out for a good hour long walk in the evening. Thighs still haven't really improved, so today I took the day off from serious running work and went shopping instead. Bought the most gorgeous tie belt you've ever seen, bought some lovely handmade soap ... and fudge and marmalade for the father figure.
Tomorrow, if the bloody sun comes out, I am SO going for a swim. But at the very least will do a nice 10km run in the morning and will hit the weights - just at home - for a good 30 mins too. Plus the fitball. My poor stomach is weakening!
Food has been very, very good though. No bad stuff at all. Seriously, none. And I'm really enjoying it all too. Tonight am making low-carb, low-fat healthy pizza for the parental units ... a rare treat for us all really, but especially for them because they never eat the stuff.
Really looking forward to a picnic on Sunday at a nearby village that was set up in the 1940s as a real tourist resort, but never took off because of the ever-damn-changing weather. Qld has "beautiful one day, perfect the next", the south coast could have "beautiful one minute, sh*thouse the next, windy the next, raining the next, sunny the next" because it literally changes every hour. Not 20 minutes ago I was thinking I should really head out for a swim, not there's grey clouds pushing in and the temp has dropped by a good 5 degrees. Charming.
But still, I'M ON HOLIDAYS. Whoo hoo.
Thursday, 13 November 2008
Serious Countdown
Whoooo hoooooo! Counting down on my last day of work before TWO WEEKS holiday. Yippeeeee. I never thought I'd get here. Seriously. Last week I thought I would go mad, quit work, leave Sydney and go live in a hippie commune. Thankfully sanity prevailed ... and I just took it one day at a time, and now here I am.
Last night I joined some of my wonderful Can Too people to watch two flicks at the Orpheum in Cremorne. One was about the Marathon de Sables (Marathon of the Sands) across the Sahara Desert, and the other called The Spirit of the Marathon, following six people (from beginner/social runner to Olympic level) on their journey to the Chicago Marathon. Seriously inspiring stuff. If you've ever wondered why people run 42.2km (in one go), watching this film or similar will explain why. It's different for every individual.
As for the Marathon de Sables. OMFG! Beautiful territory, beyond gruelling and exhausting race. I can only hope that one day I have the guts and determination to do something half as challenging. Don't think it will be running across the Sahara in 48C temps though!
Can I just say men are the most ridiculous creatures on the face of the earth. After months of careful relationship regeneration with Darren he's now gone completely ridiculous again. Suddenly can't decide if we want the same things, but when asked expressly what's he's talking about he cannot say ... just says he wants to be "happy" and right now he's not "happy" all the time. Seriously, the man needs to take some bloody responsibility for his OWN happiness! Right now he's all down on himself because he's carrying a little weight around his stomach. Now, the guy is a fit bugger and has toned legs, arms, butt and chest and a teeeeeeny paunch as you'd expect from a 38-year-old. Who I am, however, to criticise someone's body-image/acceptance though. So, I told him I wouldn't even notice it if he didn't keep lifting his shirt and pointing it out to me ... AND if it bothers him so much to stop eating chilli Kettle chips every day along with the three or four beers? Heh, didn't say last bit however as would give him free rein to point out that if I stopped eating chocolate, bread, pasta etc (none of which I eat in large amounts) I would lose that extra flubber.
Anyway, almost every time I talk to him about this he changes his mind about what he wants, whether or not he's happy etc. Blaaah. So holiday is well timed. Do not have to see him for two weeks and am going to cut off all contact, at the end of that two weeks we should both have an idea of "what we want". Hmm, more on this later.
In other news, just ate half of a ridiculously delicious blueberry muffin. Dang!
Last night I joined some of my wonderful Can Too people to watch two flicks at the Orpheum in Cremorne. One was about the Marathon de Sables (Marathon of the Sands) across the Sahara Desert, and the other called The Spirit of the Marathon, following six people (from beginner/social runner to Olympic level) on their journey to the Chicago Marathon. Seriously inspiring stuff. If you've ever wondered why people run 42.2km (in one go), watching this film or similar will explain why. It's different for every individual.
As for the Marathon de Sables. OMFG! Beautiful territory, beyond gruelling and exhausting race. I can only hope that one day I have the guts and determination to do something half as challenging. Don't think it will be running across the Sahara in 48C temps though!
Can I just say men are the most ridiculous creatures on the face of the earth. After months of careful relationship regeneration with Darren he's now gone completely ridiculous again. Suddenly can't decide if we want the same things, but when asked expressly what's he's talking about he cannot say ... just says he wants to be "happy" and right now he's not "happy" all the time. Seriously, the man needs to take some bloody responsibility for his OWN happiness! Right now he's all down on himself because he's carrying a little weight around his stomach. Now, the guy is a fit bugger and has toned legs, arms, butt and chest and a teeeeeeny paunch as you'd expect from a 38-year-old. Who I am, however, to criticise someone's body-image/acceptance though. So, I told him I wouldn't even notice it if he didn't keep lifting his shirt and pointing it out to me ... AND if it bothers him so much to stop eating chilli Kettle chips every day along with the three or four beers? Heh, didn't say last bit however as would give him free rein to point out that if I stopped eating chocolate, bread, pasta etc (none of which I eat in large amounts) I would lose that extra flubber.
Anyway, almost every time I talk to him about this he changes his mind about what he wants, whether or not he's happy etc. Blaaah. So holiday is well timed. Do not have to see him for two weeks and am going to cut off all contact, at the end of that two weeks we should both have an idea of "what we want". Hmm, more on this later.
In other news, just ate half of a ridiculously delicious blueberry muffin. Dang!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
