The things that niggle in the back of your head...

Gosh, with all this financial doom and gloom going on around us - what does this all really mean to us? Am I going to be stupid by even thinking I can start a personal training business in such times of financial disaster?? Or is that just my procrastination head stuck firmly in place, looking for any excuse?

Oh well.. just suck it and see hey?!

I read a worrying thing in the latest NZ Fitness Life magazine about 'farmed' fish AND 'irradiation' of certain foods - in particular things like tropical fruits such as mangoes. And .. believe it or not... our foods over here are irradiated - I had no idea that our Food Authority had this passed in parliament - albeit quietly.

and there I was, off to buy some nice fish for dinner and mangoes.. ha! organic anywhere in Wollongong??? I shall search.


But... my run this morning went well - it felt a little struggly at times, probably more in my head than anything. Maybe I should stick the iPod on my arm on Friday.

I had to cut through the bush again this morning as I couldn't face the other two hills (the bush cuts it down to one bigger hill - but it saves my calves which are screaming at the moment for some reason) - and yes, I got swooped by the same magpie. I ended up walking backwards around a corner up a hill...no mean feat in the bush - and that stopped it! Then took baby for her walk, god she's lovely, and then did some abs and shoulders after. Phew.

Legs day

Netball... we lost... we played well in the first half, but they played better in the second half. Their defence was awesome. 22-17 Still, it was a fun run around - and always a good workout!

So, this morning, was take the puppy for a walk, then do legs. My workout this morning was really just supersets.
I did weighted step ups supersetted with leg extensions
Back hyper extensions supersetted with hamstring curls
Walking lunges supersetted with deadlifts.
Tired leggies. My jog tomorrow should be ..interesting..!

Week 2: couch to 5km

Dejavu I know I've been here before... I think I got sick just after that...
But... anyhow.. I'm here..again..now..and I will not get sick!
I will venture to week three and beyond!!

So. 90sec jog, 2 min walk.
All good.
The hills at the end are KILLERS though. They are supposed to be in my cooldown zone.. still, I get to cooldown on the 20 min walk with the dog!


Aaah. Jemima made me proud on the weekend. She got her 'graduation' ribbon and has progressed to first class from beginners.
This week she showed me how mature she is becoming. She sat, alongside 8 others, all sitting there in a row. Leashes dropped. Waited while we told them to stay, then came bounding when we called.
Aaaaaah. So cute.

We have netball tonight! I think we are languishing somewhere at the bottom of this league! LOL. They should have just put us up one grade.. not two! Still, at least there is big competition in this grade!

Get Phat with Jen

Hmm... after reading Kek's blog - particularly about Jen coming out of retirement for another hit at the Olympia made me think about Phat Camp... so I hopped on over to Get Phat with Jen and lo and behold they are taking preregistration for April 3-5 for Sydney next year! so of course, I had to pre-register..!

Music...

The one song I am absolutely loving at the moment is
.

Walking on a dream by Empire of the Sun

If you haven't heard it, it's just cruisiest little summer pop song. Fabulous work by the Luke Steel from Sleepy Jackson and Nick Littlemore from Pnau (both great bands that I love!)

Another gorgeous morning

I really love this time of year. It's just the right light at the right time of day..the right temperature - gorgeous during the day and cooling off at night so you still like to get under the covers to sleep.
No mossies..just yet.

AND.. the best of all...the gorgeous fruit coming in to the shops. I bought so many punnets of strawberries - (they were only 79c each) yesterday, blueberries, mangoes... and made a nice big fruit salad which we are munching away on.

A slight bit of DOMS this morning meant my run session wasn't quite as good and free as Wednesday's, but it was still good...and again, no ITB issues or shin issues... gotta be grateful for that!

There's a lot booked in for this weekend, starting with Jemima's obedience training class (9-10), then straight up to the horse as the saddle fitter is meeting me again to see how the new saddle fits with me in the saddle... Kado's so delicate when it comes to new saddles, it's a slow process... a week's worth of long rein work under saddle and hopefully he should be ready to take me on top in it as well!!

The saddle fitter joked that perhaps we needed to line the arena with mattresses just in case Kado did his usual bucking bronco impersonation...

Anyhow, after that I might try and fit in a Total Body/Pilates/Yoga session from my new Tracey Staehle DVD that just came in from Liz.
Then Sunday can be a day off - aside from (hopefully) riding, then off to my little niece's 2nd birthday party!

Legs Legs Legs

Aaah, after our little walk this morning (minus any bush sojourns), I then set about doing 'legs'.
A nice batch of squats, half squats, deadlifts, kneeling hamstring lifts and squat jumps... leggies tired after that.
Looking forward to my run tomorrow!
Dinner last night was really nice too - I went out at lunchtime and bought some blue eyed cod fillets, had those in a dry mango /native mint marinade, panfried in a little lime infused olive oil, zucchini and broccolini - all the inis !

Hubble Bubble toil and trouble

Well, one thing I got in to over the weekend was making more lotions and potions... I love making stuff - it can just get time consuming!!
Anyhow, my latest creations are lovely (even if I do say so myself).
I made:

Detox Spa Scrub - I made the body lotion first, then added in extra goodies like green clay, ground pumice, tea tree powder, lemon scented tea tree essential oil and lavender essential oil. It's gorgeous.

Body Lotions - one is with pink grapefruit essential oil and the other with Ylang Ylang & Patchouli essential oils.

And the icing on the cake was my new fully organic night cream. God it's divine. I will eventually add these into my store as well on my PT site... all part of the overall body package after all!!

Eeeek Magpies!!!

Ha, there I had been, reading about poor Michelle's run-in with magpies, and then..as I was heading back through the bush enroute home after my run.. swwoop...swooooop... bloody thing kept swooping me from behind. Luckily it had been a tad chilly this morning so I had a little fleecey jumper on over top which had been around my waist.. so that was my propellor/deflector..

I didn't walk the dear puppy through the bush after that - we kept to the safety of the streets! LOL

That means I have to re-route my runs for a while.. How long do they do the swoopy thing for?

Felt pretty good on my run this morning. No ITB issue - and over-ran the 60/90 split a few times as I was feeling pretty good and into it.

I am determined to stick to the couch to 5km program though - see it through to fruition and stick verbatim (although obviously this morning saw a slight deviation in terms of the overruns!).

I ordered my tshirts today! So exciting.

Shin pain no more!

We've started to have the most glorious weather... talk about extremes - it's gone from way too cold to summer almost overnight - so bizarre. We've had around 32degrees temps now for a few days...
Anyhow, this has put my lunchtime jogs on hold and so I've moved them to 5.30am instead. Decided, since it's so light I can safely leave at 5.30 to go for my run around the block ( a section goes through some bush..hence my reluctance to do it in the dark)Anyhow so at least I got through the first portion of the couch to 5km program with no shin pain!!! yeeeeehaaa.
Then I got home at 6am, took the dog out for her half hour sojourn around the block - where I live there are loads of hills.. I live on a hill - so we start out going down hill (nice for warming up), then kill ourselves on the way back home by having to go up some killer hills! Makes for a good workout.
So I will do this again on Wed & Fri - and will take the dog at 5.45 on the other mornings so it leaves me with a good 45 minutes to get stuck into my weights.

Well, so much for the lunchtime run...

The other day, as I went to go for my run (I decided I would restart the Couch to 5k program - I HATE jogging with a passion, am totally crap at any sort of 'jogging' and always end up doing great sprint intervals instead) - so start off doing my 5 minute fast walk warmup, then get great muscle spasms in shins...stretch, keep going, start jogging, walk, excruciating pain... I literally was 15 minutes in to my program and had to go down to the beach (oh the hardship), take my shoes & socks off and walk through the icy water to ice my shins!
I am hoping that it's a combination of things like:
a/ walking dog on longer walks now as she is getting close to full size (growth plates closing) and can handle longer walks - but we set a cracking pace
b / the 6 hours of padwork & boxing coming to claim my shins as hostage
c/ um... the shoes I chose to walk the dog in that morning were my Brooks which I bought at FILEX but hated... maybe the change in biomechanics that they presented, then changing back to my Reeboks through my shins into a spin??

Couldn't get out for my planned workout this morning as had to be at work at 7.30am, then had to shoot out at lunch to grab something suitable to wear to a media lunch tomorrow at Aria (where hopefully there will be plenty of healthful options)!

Still I think it's probably a good opportunity to rest the old shins and see how they go on Friday for my lunchtime run...I may stick my old ratty reeboks on just to see...

Punchfit Certified!

Ha, so I had to endure 6 hours of boxing and padwork on the hottest day in
Sydney all year. But still, at least it was worth it and I emerged with an extra certificate.

Then of course it had to rain all day on Sunday - boring. Still I was able to recuperate.... my triceps are a tad tender after all that effort.

Off for a lunchtime run now! Ra.

It is so warm here today!

I can't believe it's going to be 22 lovely warm degrees today. It was already 19 degrees when I got to work, but with a warm breeze - more reminiscent of summer breezes, blowing.
Should be a nice workout at lunchtime down the beach!

Off to Punchfit tomorrow :-) 11-6 will be a biiiiig day!

Dinner...

Well, it was as good as I had hoped!
We did go the whole hog...literally - Entree of Prawns & Salad, Main of Chicken Breast, and I couldn't go past the Creme Brulee.... I'm a sucker for a good creme brulee. It is my absolute favourite dessert.

Glad I've got another beach run session tomorrow lunchtime though :-) - plus a lot of boxing on Saturday. Then at least I get to ride my poor neglected horsey on sunday...well, he thinks he's neglected. And he is, by comparison to years gone by when I spent most days with him...

What a day...

With all this business planning stuff... I can't focus on my real job... HELP!
Now I've just ordered more equipment - Kickshields, Kettlebells, Dumbbells - which should add nicely to my boxing gloves & focus mitts...Gosh, almost enough to get a class started!

Dinner tonight

Well, dinner tonight is a little off plan...no actually.. a lot off plan! However, what's one little digression when it's to celebrate a birthday with friends.
This is where we will be:
Bistro 345
Hmm, the chargrilled lamb or the chicken breast??

Dolphins!!!!!

I had to pop back in and just say..I knew there had to be some good reasons for exercising on the beach at lunchtimes... (other than the obvious, shift that flubber ;-) )
and of course, today I was rewarded with a pod of dolphins chasing some fish.
Cool.

Dog walking

Since I have had young Jemima, the majority of her walking experience has been during cold, dark mornings. You don't think anything of it, until it starts getting lighter, your puppy is getting bigger, then she notices 'people' and 'dogs' - eg potential playmates also out walking in 'her' streets.
Watch how quickly one compliant heeling puppy becomes a lunging, bouncey, woofy lunatic.
So. We opt for different control methods. First, the harmony harness, which worked for a time, then I tried the limited slip collar which we are supposed to use at dog training - no control at all, then I tried the sporn halter - yes, I have more control but she doesn't heel at all in it.
Then I bumped into a friend who had moved office buildings who had a puppy about the same age - we had gone to puppy preschool together. She was having the same trouble with her german shepherd pup, another 33kg bundle of love. Her dog trainer (our puppy preschool trainer) was coming out to see her that afternoon. Anyhow, he brought out a Gentle Leader head halter thing for her - it worked a charm. I had read so many bad things about them and had opted not to use one - when I had tried one on Jemima she reacted so violently the first time I thought she'd do herself more damage than good. So back in the cupboard it went... until this morning. I thought, bugger it. Popped it on - lots of GOOOOD treats. Took her for a walk and she was controllable. She even walked at heel position on a loose leash. The only time she tried to leap around was when two yappy things yapped away as usual - why do people let their dogs do that at that hour, or any hour??
So, I knew there was one more woofy dog to encounter, so I kept the leash a bit more controlled and closer to me - the dog woofed, Jemima wanted to react, but wasn't able to... it was bliss.
I will try again tomorrow, but so far so good. I would never have put this on her before this age though - at least now I know she doesn't hurt herself at the drop of a hat, and she's got a bit more muscle on her to cope.
Happy days.

Food's been great - water intake's been about 3L per day..exercise good - off for a lunch run session on the beach again today.

Roll on daylight saving!

With the days just starting to smidge along a little longer at the moment, the weather starting to warm up a little...makes me long for the (romantic) notion of summer. Of course, the reality is rarely as good as the wistful thoughts - warm sunny days, warm evenings outdoors barbequeing. Reality these days is generally, warm sunny days during the day whilst I am stuck indoors at work, then late afternoon storm when I'm about to saddle up my horse, or head home. Nights tossing and turning as you're buzzed by one of several mosquitoes..Then of course, rain and miserable weather all weekend...until Monday when it dawns fine again :-)
But still, we dream that maybe THIS summer it will be the way it should.

Here's hoping. Okay, so it can rain every second night - just enough to keep the fires away and the dams full. That's it. zip.

Metabolism on fire...

Well, it appears that run at lunchtime did my metabolism the world of good.
My day's food was supposed to be:
1. 1/3c oats / protein shake / tsp nat p butter
2. Blueberry pruffin (thanks to Sara
3. Chicken chilli wrapped in tortilla with Extra Lite (5%) philly cheese
4. Yoghurt, blueberries
5. Grilled lamb backstraps, salad & couscous

Now of course... I have just added in meal 4a - small tin of lime and blackpepper tuna

I was starving!!
..ahem.. I still am... I will be strong. I will wait until my lamb mmmm rubbed with Herbies Super Ras El Hanout... I better stop before I shortcircuit the keyboard with my drool.

Another busy weekend down...

Wow, after this weekend, I feel I need to rest now ;-)
Saturday was just the most miserable weather - which was perfect - ie no guilt attached because I had to go shopping with my dear husband for his birthday present(s). We hoofed it up to DFO in Homebush - and I got myself a new bikini - talk about giving myself a goal ;-) to look nothing short of fantabulous in it!!
But we did get him new jeans, new pants, new shirt, new knitted jacket - all very nice!
Then I spent the rest of the day preparing dinner (his favourite, Laksa) we used to go to Malaysia house in King Street, Sydney for our laksas and it took us a while to almost perfect the recipe to get it as authentic to that flavour as possible. The secret... two laksa mixes - I use the recipe from Herbies with their laksa spices, but then I add some tablespoons of the jar mixes Valcom or something like that - gives it the perfect balance.
Then, I baked a sweet ricotta cake for dessert - and made the blood orange/strawberry sauce to swirl over the top. Extra yum.
So... I've worked out this morning - as usual - 1/2 hour with a walk around the block with the darling Jemima which had some jogging in there too this morning - and then I did a few squat variations and leg extensions.
Then at lunchtime I was able to head to the beach to do some beach sprints - there's a heck of a headwind blowing today (well, Southerly) so I kind of cheated - my glute/ham tie in area is still a little out of whack from netball last week, so I ran with the wind (oooh the shame ;-) ) and walked back to recover.
So a few sprints, a few faster runs and some jogging - not bad for a quickie lunchtime break. I am feeling so unfit though - I need to desperately get that CV fitness back up to par.
I even managed to get some work time in late yesterday afternoon on the website - uploaded it and just checked it today and realised I need to do some serious work on the links - it's the only way you can check it properly! Still it's taking shape.

My Punchfit course is on Saturday too! yay!

27 days to go...

Well, my Certificates FINALLY turned up in the mail last night! How exciting.
So..I have set myself the date to start my training - 1 October is the day my business will launch officially.
Therefore, I have 27 days to get my flyers done, my website finished and uniform/tshirts organised as well as some more equipment to add.
My husband had designed my business cards a while ago - but now i am just updating them and adding some info onto the back of the cards.
The flyers will be a DL size double sided - nice and simple/colourful.
Have I said I am excited?
:-)

Yay...it's Spring!!!

See, I new I could smell Spring in the air ;-) and here it is..in all its glory (at least for now) they say it's due to turn cold again tomorrow :-(
But... for today, it's warm, deep cobalt blue skies, and just pure loveliness outside. Meanwhile, I slog away indoors... there's something wrong there. But at least there is a ray of sunshine on my horizon.
I am still eagerly awaiting receipt of my certificates... but I am sure they are on their way!
I have booked into my Punchfit Trainer course on Sat 13 Sep, and have also booked into an online Pre/Post natal course through Human Kinetics. We covered off Pre and Post Natal in our course, but I think to do it justice and to feel 100% comfortable in this area, I need to delve deeper. I have a preggie group waiting for me to start training!!!
My website is coming along great guns too - I think another 2 weeks and it should be ready to launch in its first 'iteration'.
Gotta love it when things start to take shape!!
Anyhow, I'm off for a lunchtime workout on the beach now :-)