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.

**************************************************************************************
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.

*************************************************************************************

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.

It's amazing how quickly a week passes...

when you've been in bed for three days of it!! Some dreaded lurgy managed to 'stop' me in my tracks this week...aches..fever..swollen glands..
I could hear my body saying, well, you broke your toe...you didn't stop
you tore your calf muscle..you didn't stop
you WILL stop now!
so I did.

The trouble is, being such a creature of routine, I love my routine... get up at 5.45, workout, shower at 7..
I just hate having it broken. Still, I had plenty of time to read my new books, and I am itching to start my new workouts! I should also be able to have my final theory exam in the next fortnight, so looking forward to that. Then Bali.
I am also very over the rain.... and bleak weather.. at least today there is some blue sky and sunshine!

Books!

I love reading as much stuff as I can...but felt guilty at 'extra' reading during the theory portion of my studies.. so it's nice to have a break from the theory stuff and now read stuff that has just appeared in my mailbox..
The New Rules of Lifting http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1583332383/wwwalwyncosgr-20?creative=327641&camp=14573&link_code=as1
and
Afterburn http://www.afterburntraining.com/

whilst at the physio...

well, I can at least start back kicking in the kickboxing again! Yay. Now have to do 20 minutes of a walk x2min / jog x 2min session to see how the calf goes...

Anyhow, whilst I was having my tens session (following my 40 minute calf massage!), I was reading the local rag. There was a snippet of really disturbing news. Apparently a car that turned into a parking lot hit a child, injuring it. A crowd had turned on the driver, then the passenger got out to defend the driver...the passenger was then beaten to death. How sick is that? It was in Austin, Texas.
Bizarre world.

Something interesting in my inbox

I had my usual email newsletter from Dr John Berardi this morning, and it's just worth posting as a constant reminder around the myths that surround exercise and nutrition...

so, courtesy of the aforementioned Dr Berardi, here it is:

Fitness Myths and "The Truth"
I was recently asked to contribute a few fitness and nutrition myths to a popular magazine. After some consideration, I included 4 biggies - the cholesterol myth, the protein myth, the exercise volume myth, and the aerobic exercise myth.
1) The Cholesterol Myth
Eating eggs leads to high cholesterol levelsAdults are continually told that eating foods rich in cholesterol can elevate an individual's risks of atherosclerosis and heart attacks. As egg yolks are a major dietary source of cholesterol, this has made them public enemy #1. However, research studies consistently show that dietary cholesterol intake does not correlate well with blood cholesterol - in other words, eating foods rich in cholesterol does not necessarily increase blood cholesterol or cardiac risk. Because the body makes its own cholesterol, eating more means the body produces less. And eating less means the body produces more. It's only a small % of the population that doesn't regulate blood cholesterol well - and in these individuals, blood cholesterol can be high regardless of dietary intake. If blood cholesterol is a concern, the best way to deal with it is to increase exercise activity and improve the overall quality of your diet - not to eschew foods because they contain cholesterol.

2) The Exercise Volume Myth
Exercising for 30 minutes 3x per week improves health outcomes.For years we've been told that 30 minutex 3x per week was all we needed to do to improve overall health and body composition. However, according to most research, this minimal amount of activity does very little to improve either health or body composition. New government guidelines suggest that to improve health, one should shoot for 30 minutes of exercise every day. And to improve body composition 60-90 minutes a day is required. Now, before you go whining about time - North Americans plop down in front of the TV for an average of 19.8 hours per week. Surely we can make the time for 3.5-7 hours of exercise per week.

3) The Aerobic Exercise Myth
Aerobic exercise is the best kind for fat loss.Although aerobic exercise burns a higher % of fat per minute spent exercising, aerobic exercise alone does not necessarily lead to leaner bodies. Recent research papers with titles like "Aerobic exercise does not lead to weight loss" are demonstrating that steady-state aerobic exercise is an activity of diminishing returns - the body adapts so quickly that to really get the benefits, you'd have to keep increasing your duration - leading to sessions that would be impossibly long in duration. So the real "best" exercise for weight loss is a combination of high intensity interval exercise, strength training, and a small amount of aerobic exercise. Of course, nutrition is important too.

4) The Protein Myth
Protein builds big muscles.Although athletes and exercisers have believed for generations that eating more protein builds big muscles, this statement isn't always true. Sure, if an individual is undereating protein (getting less than the recommended 1.5g/kg) then they might see some muscle growth with an increased intake. However, additional protein above this intake won't build more muscle. However that doesn't mean that this additional protein is a waste. In fact, additional protein intake helps improve body composition by helping maintain a higher muscle to fat ratio. Same muscle mass - less fat - sign me up!

You can find more pearls of wisdom at http://www.precisionnutrition.com/

It's done.

I have now submitted my final assessments (all 22 pages worth) for the last module.
Sometimes there is a good side to bad weather!

Now I can just get the last bit of final study done in readiness for my exam... then onto the practical mode.

The practical stuff can happen when we return from Bali, where we're headed mid July for two weeks of sunshine.

_______________________________

So much for category 2 cyclonic winds... they didn't really eventuate, thank goodness. Would have put our new roof to the test!

Rain, Rain & more Rain..is good for studying!

Well, we have had such a wet old time here in Wollongong. Saturday saw so much rain I thought we were going to have another flood like we did in 98. Luckily..we didnt. But still, with so much rain, all I could do was study. So I have 99.9% finished my last module's assessments. Just have to research and write an article on some innovation within the fitness industry and I will be done...
Went back to physio this morning and I can go for one run between now and Friday morning ( my next appointment) but only on grass and only for 15 minutes...

Apparently we are supposed to be hit with even more violent weather tonight. Hopefully it will be after I have been to visit my pony to make sure he's okay, not too bored...warm enough, dry enough.

physio

Well, I bit the bullet and figured I should really make some time for myself and go and see a physio. So...off I toddled. It turns out that I do have a tear in the belly of my Gastrocnemius, but the bleeding has gone into the Soleus deep underneath - hence my thinking that it was more soleus than gastroc.
Still, a bit of good old ice, compression, some cross training on the bike...boxing, no kicking..stretching...and apparently I should be good to go again in a week...although only jogging, not sprinting...damnations.

***********************************************************************

This weekend looks like it will be yet another in the wild wet cold & windy stakes..just perfect for staying indoors, studying...and finishing off module 5.

Not so good for horseriding though....pony will be bored.

Might see if we can go hunting for floorboards too...

Will go to kickboxing tomorrow morning...warm up on bike and then just box.

Falling apart...

On Monday since it was a public holiday, there was no kickboxing class..so since I now have a bag in my garage under the house (which I can only hit VERY lightly otherwise it shakes the whole house as it's attached to a floor beam....and the dog gets very upset) I thought I'd do some technique practice. Somehow my calf muscle in my left leg seized up a little... no problem I thought. Husband kindly massaged it.. and I thought for sure it would be okay in the morning.

Wake up, head down the beach...notice my calf is still a little stiff, but figure I'll walk & warm up then try a light jog. Ha! well, I started to jog and then 'ping' felt as though something snapped and excrutiating pain..there must be a slight rupture in the soleus tendon as it is really deep and really hard to locate. Well, all I could do was just laugh (despite the pain), purely at the sight of myself attempting to look and be fit and healthy, and there I was in the pitch black hobbling pitifully to get back to my car. I didn't know which leg to hobble on...the one with the broken pinky or the other one..
Still...a day later and it's starting to ease up thanks to nurofen gel, ice gel, ice...you name it.. and I made up my 'knit dem bones tm' concoction to heal my toe and already it appears to have shrunk a little...

Oh... I got 87% in my exam! So far that makes it 86%, 85%, 92% and now 87%... all good!! Hoping to have the last module finished pretty soon - all pretty basic marketing stuff, so should go well enough -

Exam...

Over and one with.... and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would/could have been! So for that I am eternally grateful.
Still.... better wait for the results before I say it wasn't that hard.... I could have been seriously mistaken!
Started on the last module last night - all about business & marketing... oh, and there's even a section on computer skills.... given that I have been doing marketing for 10 years, have worked in conveyancing, e business, and many other businesses...hopefully this one will be a breeze....

Managed to put my running shoes on today and run in them, rather than just hobble and quickly remove them. Luckily that I was able as this morning was pretty cold on the beach. Still no whales...

Missed my kickboxing class last night which I was upset about... my big boss decided to call me in for a chat to make sure all was still okay after all that has happened over the past week or two... that was the time I was supposed to leave to get to the KB class on time.. still. had to be done.

Builders are back today to finish the last of their work in our renovations.... should be all finito by the end of this week. Oh, what luxury... but then, we have more hard work in finishing it off properly to come. We will still be doing the rendering outside, which will include blueboarding over some of the old weather board along the sides of our house, and repainting the whole thing... then painting the new room inside...then we can move our loungeroom to that new room..and redecorate the existing lounge room to make it the new large family / dining room. Not that we have any family save for us and the pooch...but still.. it will be fab when finished.

Another day another busted toe...

or so it seems! well, if my little toe wasn't broken before, it sure as heck is now.

Saturday I went kickboxing, as planned, then took Suki - the very clingy hound up to see Kado, the very patient pony (well, pony trapped in a very large 16.3hh horse's body).

Suki just really seems to think that Kado's just a big dog. She happily bounds along beside, between, through...you get the drift, of his legs, as he's moving. It's quite scary.

Anyhow..on to my toe. After all this excitement, my poor foot really looked a bit swollen that night, so I just iced as usual. Got up off the lounge and promptly managed to catch my little toe on one side of the large caster wheel and the rest of my foot on the other whilst walking...and then falling to the floor in so much pain....it was truly excrutiating. Two Nurofen Plus allowed me to sleep (mixed with a few glasses of red).

Who would seriously have thought that something so small can create so much pain.....
I did some research on the net and basically best thing to do is strap it to your next toe and off you go! A bit of good ol' Ibuprofen and icing and all will heal .... I might make myself up a comfrey extract solution to add to the mix as well....knit dem bones

I did still run barefoot on the beach this morning though. And I will be going kickboxing tonight too....

Well, I have my penultimate exam tonight - a bit nervous about this one as it's a heck of a lot of information - the special populations one which includes - Rehab, Pregnancy, Older Populations and Kids. Seriously, each one is a massive subject on its own, but put all together.... HUGE! If I pass not only will I be surprised, but extremely happy.

Winter's here!

I couldn't believe just how cold it was this morning..... I had been woken at 2.56am and failed to return to my slumber...when I dared look at the clock next it was 4.59...and I knew it was only a small matter of a half hour before that rude bleeping would force me to get up.
I fleeced up, with hood...and put my running shoes on, despite my toe not being entirely happy ensconced within the shoes. I only managed to walk the beach - just did about 2.1km, then I braved (or stupided if that can be a word!) the cold icy sand and went barefoot to do some sprints - managed 4 x 80m sprints on the firm sand - before I decided to get out of the freezing wind (it was still only 8 degrees), get some shoes back on my frozen feet and get into my shower!
More of the same tomorrow.
Tonight I was going to ride the pony, but... that same cold southwesterly was blowing, and it's always a few degrees colder up there than down here on the coast - and I just didn't have the heart to take his warm rugs of, to make him prance around at my expense in the cool. If I had some competitions planned, it might be a different kettle of fish, but with nothing immediately looming on the horizon, Saturday's another day!
He didn't seem too perturbed.
Tomorrow's back with those dastardly agencies that love to put all sorts of junk on the tables in front of us. Still, it's easy to resist these days. I've got my lunch ready - pecan crusted chicken breast with baby spinach leaves.
Back to kickboxing on Saturday morning, then off to ride.
Our concrete slab is being poured in our back room on Saturday morning - consequently our laundry is non existent at present - which makes washing clothes interesting, or it will anyhow come Saturday.
We had an attic ladder installed today - so much room up there! No wonder Diamante our lovely python has enjoyed that space! No sign of her at present, so she must be keeping a low profile.

Some things you may not know about me

Okay, I've been tagged by the lovely Cherub.

Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things, as well as these rules. You need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog!

1. I was born in Bridport, Dorset in the UK.

2. When I was 7 we moved to Auckland, New Zealand where I lived for 13 years.

3. The very first job I had when I first left school was packing smoked eel in Whenuapai in the evenings...

4. I hate the smell of milky coffee.

5. I am allergic to coriander leaf. Just the smell is enough to make me want to hurl.

6. I have never wanted children - and luckily (for them for that reason!), I don't have any.

7. I always wanted to be a hairdresser when I left school, but was offered an apprenticeship on the proviso that I provide 'extras' for the luxury of having that job. Needless to say, I decided hairdressing wasn't for me (LOL, hence the smoked eel soujurn). That was Graeme, the owner of Saks Hairdressers in Auckland. Eeuuw.

I am tagging
1. Sue
2. Pip
3. Jadey
4. Barb
5. Linda
6. Leanne
7. Michelle

Fabulous weekend

Well, this weekend the wind luckily decided to disappear - we have had the strongest, coldest southwesterlies blowing last week. Now they have been replaced by ..just beautiful deep blue sky and warm weather - well, 22-23 degrees.
I saw in the paper that the whales have started their migration Northerly - with one humpback photographed off of Long Reef beach north of Sydney last Friday.
So...my scanning of the waters has commenced in earnest!!! I can guarantee it will almost be like the Kit Kat ads.... I'll be looking, looking, then head up to my car and then they'll all be their, breaching, leaping... frolicking...
I had to jog on the beach barefoot this morning. It's still too painful to put a shoe on my foot - poor little toe is still twice its normal size.
Figured that the frozen-ness of my feet on the run would help keep the swelling down.
Sort of therapy .
The saddle fitter came back to readjust my saddles for my horse - what a difference a few weeks back in full work makes to a horse's muscles - when he readjusted them before my horse still had a marked muscle wastage on one side, so he had to account for that when he restuffed them. Now all that has gone and my horse had shown crabbiness again under one saddle - well, it appears that one was built up a bit more on one side to allow for the muscles - which have reappeared, so it was sitting heavier on that side because of it.
What a difference when I rode him in the new fixed version - he felt like a dressage horse...

off to kickboxing again tonight.
We've now officially lost the use of our back room before the new slab is poured on Friday...so a whole week of my dog trying to go through to the back room to get out to the backyard and us having to walk her around through the back gate...
hope she can hold on during the night... otherwise I will have to shove my husband forcefully in the small of his back to go and help her ... hehe.

work, toes and silly things....

What a week.
Well, during the kickboxing warmup on Wednesday night which consisted of a 30 pushup/30situp interlude, during the switch from pushup to situp my little toe must have caught on the matting and wrenched backwards.."Ouch" I proclaimed, then watched it swell to about three times the size of the other one. Hmmm. No matter, keep going, just being careful not to miss-hit the bag when I was kicking.
Got home, iced. ..oh...and showered...
next morning, still swollen, tried foolishly to put running shoe on, decided that Thursday morning was not going to be a usual run, so I barefooted down to the garage and did a small dumbbell circuit.
Got into work, got humiliated yet again by my 'manager'..I shall use the term extremely loosely.
Somehow, my emailing a PDF document through for approval, and the subsequent manager approving, and then denying... was my fault. No matter.
Had a chat with the bigger boss today and told him what's been going on for a while and that I was really considering my employment options at the moment as I was finding that type of attitude really difficult to continue working with. I've now been humiliated in front of a company that we were sponsoring an initiative of, and a few too many times in the office. Scorpios and Geminis should never work alongside each other!
Looking forward to the weekend - hopefully I'll be able to get a riding boot on my foot so that I can safely hobble around my horse and also so that I can ride.