Gymbo week

Regular at the gym this week, makes me feel great!

What's 25 years?

I took my son (and one of his friends) down to the dojo this afternoon - well he actually asked to go. I gave them a 40 minute bag workout. Waiting with anticipation for a text tomorrow about sore shoulders. It was a great workout. I threw in some overhead lifts with steel bars and a lovely long plank session, when I got to yell at them to keep their knees up. They are younger, stronger and fitter than me, but I made them sweat. Next time I choose the music!

Brrrrrr...

Over the weather, over talking about the weather, over dressing for the weather. Bought a singlet made of bamboo today, cosyish now.

There is a ten week 'work place' fitness programme starting mid July and I registered and did the fitness test yesterday. Aced the fitness part of the test - I'm already at excellent (VO2max) for the age group younger than me! So, not too much work to do there. I have more muscle than expected for a girlie (yaah!), but as usual a higher than normal BMI (it's all that muscle!!). And sitting a couple of kgs above where I'm happy - even if it is all muscle, lol. Still have blood test to complete.

I've managed to entice three other team members to do it as well, so it should be good to have the challenge of everyone being 'healthy' at the same time. Basic concept is eat well, drink water, and exercise for 30 minutes a day for ten weeks and repeat the tests.

Two weeks, twelve weeks...

Gaah, it's not about the weeks. It's about the days. Two more to get this assignment away. I'd like to think that then its time to focus on me.

Friday - duh

Great Thursday, great food and a fabulous class followed by study time. And then, about 8 pm I got my second assignment results back and it was a stinking little arse of a B. I don't do Bs. I'm an A student. So what does one do? Chocolate of course...an immediate raging urge to swallow chocolate. I resisted all evening and the next morning. By Friday noon it was all over and off I trotted to the supermarket. Several 'treats' later and a dinner of potato chips and I think I'm over it. Tomorrow is an other day.

Sickness, holidays and mice

Ewgh, nothing worse than sleeping in the same bed as someone who is sick, and snotty, and snoring - lots of it at work too, hope I don't get it. Another ok day, not much exercise, just a meander up and down the main street at lunch time (bought tickets for holiday at Surfers!). I've had a headache all day and I want to eat to make it better, but I ask myself - am I hungry - and I never am. Probably not drinking enough water, without the coffee prompt, as I usually have a glass of water with each cup. Bikini, bikini, bikini, :D Breakfast, bacon and eggs; lunch, leftover veges and cold chicken; dinner, lamb chops and the most delicious cauliflower fried 'rice' (from Primal cookbook). Square of dark chocolate. Oh, and a stupid protein bar at about 3pm. I'm trying to stop any snacking, and no food after dinner. I read an article on MDA about mice. Both groups ate the same amount of food. The group that ate it over a 24hr period got fat, whereas the mice that ate it over 8 hrs didn't.

Coffee time?

Lol, how often do you get offered a free coffee the day after you give up coffee? Breakfast was bacon and eggs and veggies from the night before, lunch was chicken from the night before and the delicious soup from two days ago ( leftovers are the best!). Dinner was steak and the same veges as the night before, newly made but I just loved the taste I had to make it again: kumera, parsnip, carrots, celery, ginger, garlic, onion, brussel sprouts, nom nom. A cup of tea and a square of chocolate. I am truly not hungry, but the head is conflicted. Busy, busy day out in the buses again customer service is great, but very draining. Not getting any study done at nights. If anyone can advice on how to get paragraphs into this stupid blog, please do!

One hundred days

And so it goes... A pretty good day today - started off by receiving multiple texts from sick staff members, which meant a complete change of plans for my day. All for the best in the end, I was so busy I had no time to dawdle about. As well as concentrate on great food, I've decided to give up coffee for five weeks, not as a health benefit, just 'because I can'. It was becoming a habit rather than a treat and I want to get back to enjoying one or two coffees now and then, rather that the three or four I needed each day. So, cold turkey - no coffee today - lots of insipid, warm tea instead. Food was fine today - bacon and eggs for breakfast, delicious vegetable soup, with a beef stock base and cold chicken for lunch and an enormous tasty vegetable medley with chicken breast for tea. Oh, a protein shake at about 4.30, to gird my loins for black belt class and a square of dark chocolate after dinner. So unmotivated tonight, I had to force myself into the dojo, which is very unusual for me. As usual though, once it was all done and dusted I was happy as. I was pretty much left alone after the warm up, so played with the bo. Going to book the holiday this week, I'll go to one more travel agent for a quote and then just do it.

Nek 100 days...

Kind of lost focus last week. But there is always next week :) and it will be great! Booking a holiday in surfers - so there is now a hundred day countdown to a bikini body, lol.

Mum's the word

All good, scales looking fine. In control. The weekend wasn't perfectly paleo, but not too bad. Saturday was fun with a trip to the Port Chalmers Library to watch my youngest son play an hour-long set for Music Month. Really impressive, and we followed that up with a celebration lunch at Carey's Bay pub with the band(wedges were consumed). I had an early start to kata class on Sunday, and squeezed in my primal exercises before class started. Home to a great breakfast with all four kids arriving and organizing it - so nice to have them all together. Lots of bacon and eggs, so paleo all the way for me. Chicken salad, cauliflower soup, for lunch. A great coffee with a side of dark chocolate ginger, nom, nom, for afternoon tea. Dinner, the same as lunch. Official weigh in the morning, and then another week. Keeping it simple...

Friday on my mind

Yus! I came home and ate a great meal. No Friday treats, no slips, no 'I deserve it'. So pleased. One working week of great food and I feel fabulous, scales dipping a tad, in control, lots of energy, never hungry, repeat, repeat, repeat. I'll just carry on. Keeping it simple, aiming for 90% compliance, but achieving mostly 100%. I have a workmate who is interested in what I have been doing, and that it going to be helpful. I know so much, want to help her out, and that helps me. Just keeps all that good info at the front of my brain. A busy weekend ahead; youngest son has a gig to play at a local library tomorrow and somehow I have to transport four of them, with all their instruments, which includes a drum kit; karate Sunday morning; mothers day brunch (bacon time!) and that ever present study.

May 10

Yeah, I'll have to jazz up those post titles a little, but it's enough to just post at all - so out of the habit. This Whole1 is working like a sweet treat! I can do things if it's just a day - just a day is doable :) I'm now up to four days. I'm keeping it very simple. Breakfast and lunch is the same everyday (spinach salad and two poached eggs, with an olice oil and lemon dressing, same salad for lunch [easy to do double in the morning] with an oil and raspberry vingrette and tuna, then a sensible paleo dinner - I'm using the two Primal Blueprint recipe books for ideas very successfully so far. Carrots as snacks mid afternoon and a carrot and about 5 almonds or 2 Brazil nuts early evening, oh and a square of dark immediately after dinner. I like what the scales are doing already, but appreciate it's those lovely early days. I think writing it up will help and staying focused. I have notes and inspirational quotes and tips everywhere, and am making it compulsory to read up the fitness/health blogs each night. Big challenge is my treatie attitude to Friday night teas, and then the whole stressy business of studying through the weekend after a long week of work. Focus on outcomes and not the short term gratifications, yes indeed. Might get that bikini out, lol.

May 9

And that is how a week slides by. I was sick and had a shockingly sore throat and head for about two days, and then just a husky voice, and then a tickle and now I am back to normal. So, whole30, lol. I just set myself up for that one. I'll stick with Whole1, very doable that is - and I've done three! Pat on back. I'm using fitday app to chart the food, now and then. The philosophy(this time)is, just one day at a time, and do it well, no snacks, cut meal sizes a bit, only real food. We will see, trick is to eat well, sleep well, exercise well, think well, breathe well, and hydrate well. I'm doing ok with the first four and need to work on breathing and drinking. It's so cold, it's hard to be bothered to drink water at this time of the year. Second assignment away yesterday, so one to go and then to decide if I want to go through it all again in the second semester... One year (last Monday) since my shodan grading - must get onto that tattoo!

May 2

What a dummy! I know that weighing myself ALWAYS does my head in. Such a pity addict. No longer whole30, more like whole1, skip a day, carry on... Had the day at home with seriously sore throat and aching head. No study attempted, pretty much sat and read, except for a ridiculous side trip to the supermarket for chips and chocolate - women are the least rational people in the entire world. Enjoyed every crunch and bite. Great tea, recipes out of Anabel Langbein's book, a chicken dish with mushrooms and stir fry including my first ever book choy :) Off to Chicago, the show, tonight. Jack's school musical for the year.

May 1

Ugh, off to bed at 930pm! A long, cold, miserable day - just the weather, the food was fine. I weighed this morning for the first time in months - about 5 kg heavier than I'd like, 3 kg heavier than I can easily be and yet looking in the mirror it all looks pretty good. I'll do a BIA in a while with Dee (naturopath) and see how I'm doing. I detest the numbers on the scale, and much prefer the muscle/water/fat ratios her wee machine provides. I quite like having my age calculated as younger than I am too. B: 3 slices bacon, 3 eggs, mushrooms, carrot/celery/ginger/green apple/beet juice L: smoked chicken salad - dressing avo oil/ raspberry vinegrette (stevia) D: steak, roasted winter veges. Snacks: macchiato at 11, 2 boiled eggs at 4, 2 x squares dark choc at 8, 5 x almonds an apple and a carrot later I had to go to bed or eat THINGS. I even smelt a chocolate biscuit! Really sore throat since Sunday, feverey, assignment due in a week! Think tomorrow will be a sick day :(

Whole30

I'm going to try to go paleo for the month of May. I've been mucking about the edges of it, read the books, read the websites, and the blogs. Think it is all good...so tomorrow it begins. I will blog each day...let's do it Jo!

February 2012

Not a lot happening at the moment. But I am still about. Enjoying my karate, a lot! Love taking a class and watching people improve. Still a way to go with my shodan syllabus, but small improvements... Playing with Tabata and my gymboss - liking that. Determined to do pull ups this year - seemingly impossible at the moment, but I have a plan! Starting with Library studies again, dull and time consuming. Kids all well, I'm perfectly adequate, if not too excited :/

2012 and summer days

Xmas 2011 @ St Clair Beach

A favourite spot: Sun, chair, book, coffee...

Hmmm, a lake up near Middlemarch

Phoebe being delicious at Pounawea

The year rolls about...2011 ends

I've been playing about and developing a new website for my karate club, and decided it was a bit poor not to be updating here as well - for all my loyal followers, ha, ha, ha!

Winter came...

Fun times were had...

Rugby World Cup came to New Zealands, more fun times were had - loved the nude rugby! We won!!!!!

The kitchen is almost finished!