Quite exciting times, LBTEPA fans. Quite exciting. I ran all the way around the lake near the fancypants gym I go to on Wednesdays!!!! Without stopping!! It was like that Rocky movie! I was a bloody superstar! I ran non-stop for 25 minutes again on Sunday too. I was beyond chuffed. I've been keeping up the gym too - I'm feeling good, doing all the good-life stuff like filing and crochet and playing the piano. My sleep is quite poor/broken, which is a pest but I'm getting enough overall. It's all good.
Yesterday after work I started out around the lake again. It was cold, and I shuffled off feeling a bit stiff. About half way around, my stupid #*&^$% bastard calf GRABBED like a tiger was biting it. #$%& me it hurt. I kept going, although I had to stop and swear stretch a few times. I was having that twenty minutes of sweating, by golly. Then I went to the fancypants gym and crossly pushed heavy bits of metal around, becuase that is the LBTEPA way. Today I'm walking like the tin man. #$%& me my leg hurts. Stupid thing. Deep heat, ibuprofen and rest.
Today's g00gling: calf strengthening and glute activation. Not quite back to the drawing board, but a slight-ish change in focus.
how EXCITED I AM about what I did at the gym yesterday
It's all tragically Captain Obvious, but isn't everything in hindsight? Maybe my tale will help others.... #sofullofmyselfLOL
Anyway, the other day, my gym companion (the lovely Noddie) pranced over and proudly announced that she'd run 10 minutes non stop on the treadmill at 8km/hr. She's been working on improving her cardio so she was stoked about it. I was actually thrilled and proud of her, really I was, and I tolde her so, but I must confess also to shame, disappointment, and to spending time in the what a loser I am I'm kidding myself I'll never do (top secret unmentionable goals) I might as well give up headspace. I've tried running at 8km/hr and generally manage about 3 minutes before running out of oxygenthe will to live steam.
Luckily just then the LBTEPA brains trust galloped into town, six-shooters blazing, and smacked me over the head with their white hats. How about you set the treadmill a bit slower? they said, in slow, patient voices. Oooohhhh.... I said, I hadn't thought of that. I was too busy wallowing in being a failure .... We know, they said, before riding off into the sunset, shaking their heads.
So yesterday at the gym I ran for 10 minutes at 7.2km/hour, stretched a bit and then did it again.
Twenty minutes. Minute after minute after minute. Not stopping.
See this woman? Not me, obvs. She is doing an exercise which I am assured is called a mountain climber. Last week I was doing a variation of this exercise where I started in the position shown, and then swapped legs by jumping. I mightn't have explained this properly but try your best to imagine it as it Will Not be on y0utu8e. This may seem unremarkable to my five faithful readers, but when I first started back at the gym in January, I couldn't do it. I worked on my core and my glutes all last term, and now I can do it! I am stoked!! Yay! At the 'mo I am doing 3 sets of 5, but by the end of May I will be doing 3x10, I promise! I'm certain that a remarkable improvement in my running cannot be far behind.
In other (ahem) 'exciting' news, I accidentally did a 18.5km walk instead of the 14 I planned, and finished at the same pace as my last half marathon in October! I have 3 months until my next half mara, during which time I will a) incorporate running into my long workouts and b) drop a few kg, so I am now officially gunning for a new post-reco PB. Yay!
I didn't have enough nutrition with me so I was ever so happy to get back to the car.
More anon, sweater girls!
1. Good on you, you're doing really well with the regular exercise! Loving the extra energy and better mood!
2. Ditto cutting back the wine! Yay!
3. Next thing: we have to bite the bullet and morning workouts - evenings get trashed too easily, especially now you're seeing such a stupid number of clients and getting very tired. It's hard when we sleep badly though.... but it can be done!
4. Magnesium before bedtime is meant to help(?)
5. Anyway, good job
6. Go harder in the gym. Don't be afraid of being tired.
7.. I reckon if you drop the speed slightly on the run part of the treadmill workout you'll be able to run for longer
8. seriously, good job with 2.
...or rather, not. I'm just not swimming at the moment, even though it's on The List. Must Do Something about that. I do have a Plan, of course, and I'm getting on with it. Thursday nights are no longer 'excuses excuses' night - I spend the whole day giving myself a stern talking-to about what's going to happen (a workout) and what's not going to happen (excuses/the couch/a glass of wine with my Mum straight after work). Once I get into the firm habit of Thursday night workouts it'll be easier to make it a Thursday night swim. Isn't it stupid how dislikes form? I love to swim, but part of me Just. Doesn't. Want. To. Don't worry darls, I will conquer that!
In other THRILLING news hahahaha I'm now walk:running 3min:2min on the treadmill for 35 minutes twice a week. Woot! My plantar fascia is grumbling, but I'm taping it and stretching, so so far so good. When I think that I used to be able to run 10 walk 2 for 5+ hours I get all sad, so I don't think about it. My goals for this year are to give 3 hours a nudge in the 2 half marathons I want to do. I have weight loss goals too, but I haven't thought out a plan to which I'm really prepared to commit, so I'm not writing them down right at present. No point writing down a lot of BS, eh?
That's enough, I said to my disorganised self. This has gone on long enough (not very long, a far shorter time than usual actually). In my own defence, the sinuses of doom had yet to respond to the best practice treatment regime sent to me by the mighty Cilla (currently on hols in Israel and Jordan, the lucky duck), as a result of which I am now sleeping well and feeling BRILLIANT, and for which I shall be eternally grateful
but I digress
Self, I said, self, drain that mug of HTFU and Make. It. Happen.
Do. The. Stuff.
Oh! Ok! So I did! I just did it!
Workouts: check. Reasonably helpful-to-goals eating: check. Life maintenance tasks: check. Not all of it, but lots of it. That'll do, indeed it will.
In other thrilling news: I started doing single leg presses at the gym and it's now clear why my left foot is playing up. My left glutes are weaklings! But not for long......
More anon, reinforcers!
If you looked at my Chart of Awesome this week there wouldn't be many gold stars. But there are hardly any zeroes, either! I went to the Big Smoke for some absolutely brilliant training and made the rookie mistake of assuming my schmicko hotel would have a gym. Hmmm. No. I had to miss Wednesday's session becuase the Melbourne train left when I would normally be working up a sweat in the fancypants gym in Sale.
Being as the word of the year is 'ASSERTIVE' and the mantra is CHANGE HAPPENS NOW', I did what I could. I stood in the breakfast queue at the coffee cart at the training venue and inched past the fabulously-desirable-stop-your-salivating-missy almond croissants to the register, WHERE I ORDERED YOGHURT AND MUESLI. Such a legend I am. I walked up and down the long thin training venue at breaks and I walked around the city after dinner. Such a trial, what with all the Japanese restaurants, and shops with cardigans in them, but plucky is the LBTEPA way.
Speaking of which, have you read the Rivers of London series? We're inhaling it over here - so clever, thrilling, witty and well written. But I digress.
I ate carefully but with huge enjoyment - I was in the Big Smoke for heaven's sake, far far away from the epicurean wasteland whence I reside - and felt very happy with myself. Saturday was meant to be the parkrun but I got off the train at 11pm so I slept in and then painted the living room, which was a monster most-of-the-day workout especially given that as usual I chose to paint the most humid day of summer.
Sunday was the day I Adulted like billy-oh. Holiday eisteddfod hell season is fast approaching, so Noddie had extra rehearsals in Sale; I planned to usefully occupy the time by doing the shopping and going to the fancypants gym. UNTIL.... I forgot my ****ing shoes, didn't I? Being rather hungry, quite tired, and very disappointed, I immediately indulged in an extended rendition of the oh woe oh woe it's not fair I never get to do what I want I'm so stupid chorus.
But then I stopped. I had something to eat. I thought about what I could do. I tried to buy some new shoes but was thwarted by the selfish wish of all local purveyors of athletic footwear to spend Sundays at home with their loved ones. I did the shopping. Then I remembered that I had my togs in my gym bag, and a cap and some goggles, and my (little, smelly: whatevs) gym towel. And the angels sang! There would be a workout this day!
Further: it is with tears in my eyes that I recall that everyone in the lap lanes was keeping left.
More anon, faith-restorers!
May I just begin by extolling the miraculous properties of turmeric? I read a mention somewhere that it had anti inflammatory properties, and somewhere else that it has been helpful for some people with chronic sinusitis (but is ok for the medications I take), and then I miraculously remembered these things while I was actually at the chemist....and now my nose is still dripping and blah blah etc etc BUT it's not hurting me like my face is filled with acid, I have close to normal energy, and I can sleep!!!! I don't care if I start looking like a curry puff (so far so good): that stuff is gold in my book hahahaha see what I did there? and I'll be scoffing it on a regular basis from now on. Thank you, turmeric!
I'm so happy with Project "Change happens today". I'm being clear and assertive about what I want to eat, and the Spousal Unit appears ok with that. The big change is, I'm no longer bothered whether he is or not! We've planned and shopped and generally achieved a hitherto unheard-of level of adulting, to the point where we went 5 weeks without unplanned takeaway! Woot!
The other 'miracle cure' I've 'discovered' hahaha is the gym near my house. Even in the dark days before the arrival of the Blessed Turmeric, I was dragging my weary snotty self through my program at least three times a week, and slugging through half an hour on the stationary bike a couple of other times. Everyone knows that little and often is the way to make changes, but this is the longest I've actually stuck at it for quite a while. The feedback is so gratifying - yes, several people have commented on my appearance, which is nice, but more importantly, I'm feeling powerful again! Physically, a bit more so, but it's early days yet of course - more importantly, powerful in that I'm not drowning in the hurly burly of life. My life is still about my family and my work, but it's also about me again too.
Now I'd better go and do my piano practice - my teacher is a slave-driver, but I can feel my brain humming with it so it's all good!
More anon, ivory-ticklers!
Hi Blog! Long time no hear! Contrary to my previous habits, I have not been sitting about wringing my hands, making excuses and getting weaker and lardier, no no no no no.
You will be so proud of me, Blog! I made A Chart, and I am actually sticking to it. It's wonderful. I'm loving it. I can't actually say I feel great, because, well, A Bunch Of Stuff including chronic sinusitis (= sleeping very badly), and J needing (not serious) surgery in Melbourne two Fridays in a row, one of which was my 50th birthday so not only did I spend the actual day hanging around a hospital, but then my party the next day of course had to be cancelled, which upset me A Lot, but hey, Noddie and J made me a cake.
Anyway BLEAT BLEAT whatever - I feel WELL! I've dropped several kgs, which is nice, but mainly I feel stronger, more trim, and DETERMINED.
Here's a photo of my chart!
The obvious things are on it of course, but I also wanted to systematise things that make life work better (filing, stretching) and more satisfying (my photo albums) that would otherwise fall by the wayside when the Washing Machine of Life goes into spin cycle. If I clean out a drawer each week I don't get overwhelmed by the habits of my beloved hoarders, and keeping at my crochet might get my current rug finished before Noddie leaves home. I might add 'piano practice' on future versions (did I tell you I've started piano lessons? Wow, talk about brain stretching!) but at the moment I'm scared of my teacher (and she gives me such hard stuff to learn) that I make time for it.
I *heart* my chart.
The other thing I've done is 'engineer in' a gym day. Noddie has three and a half hours of dance classes on a Wednesday in a town 45 minutes from our place. Being amazingly clever, I have scheduled my piano lesson for then, and bought myself a pass to the FancyPants gym there too. Don't get me wrong, I like our gym here - it's adequate, cheap, and five minutes from my house - but the FP one has all shmicko machines, a view of a picturesque lake, and charming, ripped people who kindly help newbies work out how to use the shmicko machines.
Operation Assertiveness is going great guns. I now tell the
Spousal Unit what we are going to eat, and he makes it happen. This works So
Much Better than making vague suggestions when your beloved thinks
'fried with cheese' is a food group. Our Friday night fish and chip habit
has been abandoned, becuase a) they don't fit in with my health goals
and b) this is Bairnsdale so they usually weren't very good anyway. J
and I have 'date night' dinner while Noddie is at her Tuesday dance
classes and we now go for a walk around the picturesque lake (the one near the gym) after we
eat. I get eye rolls and bit of whingeing, but he comes along. It's all
good!
Maybe I should put 'blog' on my chart? That would help with my focus.....
More anon, funksters!
I'm excited. This is already a good year - we went to Italy! I saw in the New Year at St Mark's square in Venice! We're so lucky! - and I actually have a Real Proper Plan about how to Fix My Life. While we were away I did a bit of reading, and it was all a reminder that I do know how to Do Things Properly. You know those articles about 27 Things Productive People Do? I read one that actually struck a chord - effective people (I'm not so bothered about 'productive') HAVE ROUTINES. I used to have routines. Now I don't, and I don't get stuff done. Hmmmm.....
But I digress. I read Swimbikemom's blog. It's very open and also very encouraging. Towards the end of the year Swimbikemom set her readers (should they choose to accept it) the task of reflecting on the years behind and ahead by answering the following questions 3 things I did right in 2016?
1. I went to the Grand Final. I was scared out of my mind, a gibbering idiot most of the leadup and hardly watched any of it (I achieved the standing foetal position for several hours, not an easy task, even with many beers) but I made myself book the hotel two weeks out and get on the train and go into the ground and stay there all day, and it was all good! I was willing to risk heartbreak (for it would have been, I'm telling you) for delight, and I'm so glad I did, for it has changed my life in such a good way!. It's nice to have a wonderfully life-changing event at 49!
2. As summed up in this post, I walked the Melbourne Half Marathon and then did the mini tri. "I broke out of the prison of my own fearful thoughts and I'm never going back there". NEVER. More on this later
3. I GOT REAL. That was my mantra last year. I didn't change much of the way I went about things last year, but I stopped bullshitting myself about it. What a relief. I stopped weighing myself too. 3 things I will change in 2017
1. Regular exercise. I have A Plan, and A Chart! About which more later. In a nutshell, for starters, if I do All The Stuff, I can buy a book; if I don't, I can't. I love books so this will do as an incentive until getting off my arse gets automatic again
2. Food. I tried delegating to the Spousal Unit, and the end result was that I wasn't eating how I wanted to. Getting Real means sucking up that if I want to eat better I have to put more energy into planning, shopping and cooking. I will be assertive with my junk food, fried-with-cheese, food-is-love sweetheart. We will eat less dodgy takeaway and more home-cooked veg.
3. Other people. I don't have many IRL friends nearby. I work quite long hours, by myself; I'm quite isolated. I need to work on this. I've put my name down for a book group and I'm going to start a group exercise thing (more on this shortly) My 'action word'
TODAY. There's been too much putting-off. This word will remind me that I need to do stuff all the time, and stop focusing on barriers or difficulties. This leads me to My Mantra Change happens in the here and now. A bit 'Oprah meets Captain Obvious' but I think it'll get the job done. Nothing valuable happens 'later'. Do it now. Go to the pool right now, even for just 1k. Ride your bike for 20 minutes. Clean out that one drawer. Drink that one glass of water. Take 5 minutes to buy those carrots on the way home.
That's enough for now. What do you do to reflect on your year and plan your next one?
More anon, stargazers!
Firstly: the Spousal Unit is fine. Kidney are easily fixed, it seems.
I've just woken from a post-Christmas lunch coma nap and am feeling as though I've been hit by a truck, but in a good way! I did it. I pulled it off. There was more and more stuff that kept piling up and piling up, and I kept lifting and lifting and finding stuff in the tank somewhere and getting it done. We could leave for holidays an hour from now if we had to (we don't). Go me.
I doubt I'll be posting while we're away. I have some good plans for when we get back that I'm quite looking forward to putting into place.
Take care darls
This week has been a bit of a strain. Lots of stupid stuff. I got home from the Spousal Unit's hospital in Melbourne (what a ridiculous saga it was to get him there, don't get me started) last night after five days, we hope the Spousal Unit will be home on Saturday, and we leave for Italy for 3 weeks on Monday. #firstworldproblems, no? Yet still quite trying.
If you are, as I am, a stress eater, might I recommend the purchase of a bag of unshelled pistachio nuts? Yummy and you can't shovel them in by the handful. LBTEPA For The Win!
Christmas blessings to you! Stay safe and hug your loved ones!
I read this the other day. The writer is the coach of my friend the Mighty Tea whose givng nature and indefatigable attitude to life is a gift to those lucky enough to know her, even if not yet in real life!
Anyway, this post resonated with me.
You can't have your fitness the way it was
You can't have it easily
You can't have it right now.
But keep working and you will have it
I must get myself one of these....
How are your Christmas plans going? We're in cheery, tinsel-laden full swing here - just waiting for some bloody summer to decide to arrive! I'm wearing shorts anyway. Cede Nullis!
More anon, tree-huggers!
Small wins, people, small wins. That's what it's about. It's when you realise that what with punching on with doctors and specialists and social workers and the department of human services and your brother and having painful conversations with your mum who is a bit shattered at having to put your (unpleasant uncooperative) dad into a home, which will mean selling hers (aka LIFE), you've been downing a few sherbies every night....and then you just stop. Four nights ago. Soda an lime, mmmmm.
It's when you realise that what with the above you've got on the get up-work-look after the family-look after mum-worry-sleep badly treadmill and you're sore and stiff and feeling soft and weak....and then one day you get up and muck around on the exercise ball and do your theraband drills and roll on the roller and lift a few weights. Creaky is a choice. Not mine. Not today
More anon, sparklers!
It's been quite a few months since the LBTEPA Everlasting Chest Infection of Doom has wandered in, so I am focusing on having had a winter free of it, rather than the fact that it currently Just Won't Piss Off, (it pretends it's going to, and then sneaks back, bastard) which is inconvenient and disappointing. I try to have as few antibiotics as possible, but I've had to crack open the horse pills again, bugger it. They're working, which a)gets me off the guilty shoulda cured it with turmeric you pathetic big pharma addict hook (hahahahaha I just typed 'big parma addict, which is actually close to the truth!) and b) means I can work AND sleep AND exercise, yay!!!
Being An Athlete makes these times so much easier! I wish I'd thought of this years ago! I can monitor my posture, and my water and veggie intake, and walk however far the lurgi-raddled lungs will permit. I've had to miss the last 2 mini tris which is a bugger. Oh well.
I'm reading a brilliant book at the moment - F*ck Feelings! It's totally up my street - all about getting real about what shit is actually in your life, doing something about the stuff you can, and DOING YOUR VALUE-DRIVEN, NON-WHINGEING BEST WITH THE STUFF YOU CAN'T. I think it's my favourite book ever (but I'm fickle)
It's Noddie's dance concert this weekend, which will be a treat now she is at such a chilled school. No drama...bliss... I'm getting very excited about Christmas too.... How about you?
More anon, seasonal greeters!
It's from this effbee post, https://www.facebook.com/blockedbypete/photos/a.1508623146067119.1073741828.1508618869400880/1769017513361013/?type=3
with which I am also enamoured, containing as it does absolutely no effing judgmental oversimplifications.
I'm loving Being an Athlete. This weekend I have had a tap dancing lesson from Noddie, which will never be on y0utube, thank goodness, and also walked home along the river with her from the Sunday market. That's what fits in with LIFE at the 'mo. It's all good!
More anon, paradigm-shifters!
It's been a quiet week here at Lake LBTEPA...not. Noddie turned 13!!!!! I don't know, turn around for a second and your kid grows up!
(that's her on the left. The rather astoundingly tall one)
She is becoming a wonderful young person, chockers with heart and brains and guts. The shift to another dance school where they know the difference between 'tough love' and harshness has been great for her and is totally worth the considerable extra drive time.
I'm spending a lot of time shouting at "discussing things" with people whose mission in life appears to be making my poor Mum's goal of getting my Dad into care before his personality/cognitive issues bankrupt them as difficult as possible. Let's not even mention the local hospital's "if you're polite, helpful and competent you can piss off" hiring policy. Bastards.
But I digress.
My five faithful readers will be happy to know that the LBTEPA thyroid is now getting the right amount of medication and is on the mend. It's been bung for decades, poor thing, and I really should take better care of it. Another thing to add to 'project adulting'. Energy and good cheer are now available on tap, as opposed to summoned by force of will! It's good.
I realised the other day that I've been going about my health and fitness completely arse backwards. I've been perceiving it in terms of 'doing' things (races, tris, goals), which has led to a focus on what I can't do - the huge gap and the innumerable obstacles between Here and There. Daunting? Discouraging? Oh yes!
But then it occurred to me - I need to BE before I DO. I am an athlete. I need to BE an athlete. So the question is, how to be an athlete, no matter what's going on in LIFE?
An athlete:
- mightn't (because of LIFE) necessarily have a goal (although she mostly prefers to have one) and can be (sort of) ok with that
- thinks about what she eats. She minimises comfort eating and sees food as fuel+enjoyment
- doesn't equate weight with 'success'
- thinks about her posture
- focuses on the enjoyment of movement
- doesn't waste time guilt-tripping
- doesn't waste time comparing herself with others OR her former self
- sets things up so it's easier to exercise than not
- seeks to get stronger and stronger
- keeps tweaking things and Finding A Way
- does what she can, when she can.
- catches herself making excuses and calls bullshit on them
- just keeps moving Now to print this out for the fridge so I can memorise it.....
More anon, groovers!
The other day I was a bit off colour and since I had to organise my pap smear as well, because I'm such an adult, I popped in to visit the GP. We also organised all the blood tests that you have to have to stay in tip-top nick if you're a proper adult...including my thyroid, which has been exceptionally dodgy for over twenty years...and which I hadn't had checked for over two years #epicadultingfail.
Let's just say the normal range of thyroid simulating hormone (the stuff that kickstarts the thyroid) is usually 3-5 and mine was 75 and leave it at that, shall we? Given that the thyroid affects mood, energy and weight, I am in the running for Prize Nong of 2016. Oh well. I've always said that if you can't be a good example be a dire warning! Keep up with your blood tests, people!
