Last sleep

Finally the last sleep has arrived!!
This morning I thought I'd best weigh in just to see what I am before holiday mode!! I am sure it will shift a bit - hopefully not too much, I will remain in control, have packed protein bars & taking my yoghurt maker.... sad but true! But at least I'll get my acidophilus to fight the old Bali belly!
It appears that somehow I've lost 2 kilos - must be due to the fact that I've had to change my morning beach workouts to something less cardiovascular! Just goes to show - too much cardio is a negative thing!
Slathered on the old St Tropez fake tan last night - will be so much better when the real thing takes over in the next few days!
See you all in blogland in a couple of weeks.

Final days!

How exciting, in just a couple of days I'll not only have another new hair colour to get used to, but ...will be sunning myself on the beach at Legian.
Fab.

And ...relaxed in the knowledge that all of my exams are now complete...with just the practical to take care of.


My last physio session before holidays went well, he's pleased with my calf..not pleased with my toe which is still twice the size of the other one.... so he's put a new strapping on it. He feels, as I do that two weeks of no kickboxing will probably do it the world of good (there was no sympathy there from him!). The funny thing will be me trying to only run on every third day of my holiday... I had planned on a run each morning. Hmmmm.... will have to get creative - may pack my focus mitts & gloves for my friend & I to punch each other on the other days.

Exams...Bali....

My final exam is tonight! It will be a great relief to have that part of the course all over ..done and dusted!

Then I can just focus on the practical - poor long suffering husband has been my guinea pig for 'body fat' testing - hmmm he's as lean as can be, so this has been interesting!
..Then there's the blood pressure - which, according to moi, was normal! Fun.

Just really have to find somewhere I want to go and do my 20 hours practical - that will be my post holiday challenge!

3 more sleeps to Bali.


Oh, the rebounder is getting the biggest workout - from doing pop squats on it, to sprint intervals.... it's amazing what you can do on a mini tramp LOL.

Success or failure?

I was thinking a lot the other day about the things that make people succeed in long term weight loss, and the high amount of failure rates and the reasons behind those.

I know that when I first did Body for Life, it was all about the 12 weeks. Well, of course, once the 12 weeks finished, old habits started to creep back in, and before you knew it the scales were creeping up and the clothes were getting tighter again.

You see it all the time with others as well, after all, it takes a great deal of planning & dedication to ensure that you have enough good food choices on hand for each day, and sometimes it all gets quite hard - and that's okay..occasionally. People tend to forget that by resuming those old eating habits after a 12 week regime is going to eventually spell disaster.

It's been quite some time now since I've just accepted that this way of eating is the only way I can live in the body I want, to make sure it's as healthy as possible.

Of course, the other factor in the equation is exercise, and like with the food, it does require a little forethought and planning - and of course, the most important success factor with both is that they must be enjoyable.

Enough of my rant today!

travel warnings...

Okay,
there have been car bombs diffused, and car bombs going off in the UK, yet smartraveller.gov.au still lists the UK as only a minor grade - be aware type of warning...
yet Bali has been upgraded to 'avoid travel' if possible type warning...
sorry... I'm still going on my holiday - I figure, I have more chance of being killed/injured in a car each day, then I do of a terrorist attack.

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Workouts at the moment are consisting ONLY of trying to strengthen, rehab the calf muscles, with lots of intervals now on the rebounder, followed by modified calf raises on a step, which then lower down to bent heel stretches which stretch through into the gastroc.
Added in a few barbell deadlifts and VMO squats too....
tonight is kickboxing..! yay.

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Apparently dengue fever is rife in Bali at the moment... (terrorist mosquitoes?)..so off to buy all the necessary "bushmans" stuff today...

bouncey bouncey...

Well, I purchased the rebounder... it really is a great way to rehab the old torn gastroc, the bouncer combined with a good calf raise down to a stretch off a step...
add that in with my swiss ball half squats with medicine ball between my knees to activate my VMO... sound like a right crock!
then a nice additional circuit of swiss ball upper body russian twists, dumbbell walking lunges, dumbbell deadlift with a shoulder press, T pushups then back around!

Back to kickboxing tonight.... and ugh... all day meetings in the city tomorrow...
10 sleeps to Bali

Super Ras el Hanout

Don't you just love getting freebies in the mail? The shop where I get my spices (www.herbies.com.au) sent me out their latest and greatest invention, it's called Super Ras el Hanout, it has just a whole heap more spices added in then their standard Ras el Hanout.
Now...to make it into one divine meal, all you need is:

1 Lamb loin fillet.
Rub some good virgin olive oil into the lamb fillet, then rub in a good rub of the spice mix.
Sear on a super hot sizzley hot plate, so fillet is brown all over, and then transfer to oven for 10 minutes.
Serve on a bed of wilted spinach leaves & some green beans with some couscous on the side.

not a soul in sight...

well, actually managed to drag myself back out of bed to recommence a (somewhat) normal routine... this morning I went down to the bike path which runs adjacent to the beach - in Wollongong we have around 30km of bike path that runs parallel to the beaches - to do my 2min walk, 2 min jog x 5 as prescribed by physio. HOWEVER. This was prescribed when my calf was in use and starting to respond to rehab... doh.
Didn't really think about that part... first jog...all felt fine.... second jog...ouch... bit painful...push through it (doh again).... feels pretty rough ...
Think I might go out and buy myself a rebounder to do that rebound / calf stretch circuit that he made me do...
that'll help!
Toe's starting to look and feel almost normal again though...
anyhow, back to the bike path - it was dark, but there was some light starting to emanate on the horizon - but there was not a soul in sight.... quite bizarre. Up until a couple of weeks ago (the last time I got down there for a normal morning workout) there was always people starting to get out for their runs/walks/bike rides.... not this morning... very unusual.
Perhaps everyone's got the flu!
I started my first Afterburn workout yesterday morning - amazing how just a few exercises can actually exhaust you, when prescribed in a certain way!
12 sleeps to Bali.