Quick update

I've been AWOL for a while, but all is well. I've just been uber-busy at work. When you work in a small office and someone is on extended sick leave... well, life gets hard. But I love the work, so I'm not complaining TOO much. A little less volume would be nice, but on the whole life is good.

In the non-working world, all has been going pretty well too. My running is coming along, although I am struggling a bit. Every run seems tough at the moment, so I think I've lost my rhythm a bit. I just need to keep plugging away at it and find my happy place again. Stats since I last checked in:

Saturday - 50 mins, 7.6km, avg pace 9.1km/hour. A fairly hilly course and I was smashed by the end of it. Long run day increases to an hour this Saturday, so I'm hoping it feels better.

Monday - speed work. 30 seconds @ 15km/hour, 1 minute standing recovery, 10 repeats. Speed work gets me every time, 30 seconds sounds like nothing but by the time I'm half way through the repeats I'm wondering if I might need to spew. Not good in any situation, but especially not in the gym. I survived with no such incidents though, thankfully.

Thursday - 30 mins, 4.6km, avg pace 9.4km/hour. My legs were a bit tight and fatigued from some strength work earlier in the week, and the last km of this run was torturous. Having said that, the first km was the slowest - it is all uphill, but only gradual inclines. I probably needed more of a warm up this morning, given the sore legs and cool atmosphere.

Outside of the running, I've bitten the bullet and joined the good gym. I've messed around with some cheaper ones in the last year or so, but it just doesn't work for me. The class timetables suck and the equipment isn't well maintained - there's a reason they're cheap. So I've joined at Goodlife, goodbye $910, but I did get away with no joining fee, no admin fee and a bonus month free. Still not cheap, but on the whole I don't think I did too badly. The gym has just been renovated, all the equipment is new and the group fitness timetable is pretty extensive. I've been for my initial trainer session and got a strength program written for me. They update these for you free of charge every 3 months. I'll give it a go, but I can't see myself sticking to it - there's stuff in there that I just know I won't do. For example, I HATE wall sits. Like, really hate them. I told her that, but she put them in anyway. They might be good for you, but I'm certain there are other exercises she could have substituted, given my views on this. I'll just change it around myself.

Casie - yes I do have some pics of the kittens, but I haven't uploaded them yet. I'll try to get to it on the weekend, I normally update my blog at work :)

Yay, and grr

First of all, yay. I won the give away on Jess' blog last week. And yesterday I rocked into work in the middle of the day after a couple of painful meetings with idiots, and what should await me but this:

How freakin' exciting is that! This little stash is going to hold me in good stead over the next 13 weeks of HM training. Jess also addressed the envelope to Megan (aka Whatalegend), which gave me and the new receptionist quite a little giggle too.

Secondly, another yay. Thank you Kylie for pointing me in the direction of Google Chrome for blogger. I have been cracking it at blogger using IE for a good while now, and Chrome seems to be working great.

And now, grr. I went out for my run this morning, which was 1km intervals with 30 second walks between km (well according to the program it's supposed to be 5 x 5 minutes running with 30 second recovery walk, but given it's pitch black and I can't see my Garmin, it's easier to just do 4 x 1km). I started out brilliantly and ran the fastest km I've done in some time... 5:47. It helps that it trends downhill and it was freezing so I was trying to warm up, but nevertheless, 5:47 it was. Anyway, I digress. I then did my 30 second walk, then hit what I thought was the lap button on the Garmin to start my next run interval... but it was the pause button. Damn it. I thought the km seemed to be going for a while, peered at the watch in the dark to see where I was up to, and found out I wasn't going anywhere at all. I had a 30 second walk, then pressed the right button for the next km (6:14 on a gentle incline, not too bad). Then for the last km, coming up the bigger hills... I pressed the damn pause button instead of lap AGAIN. I have no idea what time I did on km 2 and 4, which is bloody annoying. Km 2 felt good, km 4 felt hard - but then it was uphill, and I had gone out pretty hard.

Despite my technological deficiencies, I'm happy to have another run under the belt. Kylie, we might need to keep up this text messaging at 6am for my whole training calendar, I was really not keen on getting out of bed this morning, and you made all the difference!

On the non-running front, what else is going on? I went to the gym and did a step class for the first time in months on Tuesday. I love step. My calves are certainly feeling it now though (although interestingly they didn't bother me while I was running). I'm planning on doing pump tonight, although I might bail and go shopping for the kittens instead, they're coming home in 2 days :) Work is still rolling along. I have lots to do and very little motivation, which is not a good combination. But I'm working on it. And last but not least, tomorrow night I'm going to see Harry Potter 8. Can't freaking wait, I'm such a Harry Potter geek.

Until next time...

Another busy weekend

Here we are again at Monday morning, and I'm pretty sure I'm as tired now as I was at the beginning of last week. I have seriously got to start getting me some good sleep or I'm gonna lose it. Weekends no longer hold that power of rest and rejuvenation that they once did, they're just as busy as the rest of the week, so I need to just get organised and have good sleep every night. Project for the week - get to bed 8 hours before I need to get up again!

So, the weekend. Yeah, busy. Friday at work was mental again (more demands from damn lawyers), but I managed to get out of here at 6.30, and headed to mum's place for dinner. She had a couple of little projects lined up for me for when I arrived - fix the computer, how does the scanner work, yada yada. Not too bad, I was home by about 10.30 (and would have been fine if I had actually gone to bed then, duh).

Saturday morning I procrastinated for a while, and eventually dragged by butt out of bed and onto the road for a run. I decided to try my 7.5km circuit in reverse, which was an extremely bad idea. Whilst it trends downwards in the early part and eases you into the run, it has a massive hill at about the 4.5km mark. I must map it out and see what the incline is. OK, just looked it up - an ascent of 46.4m in the space of 1.1km. Nasty. Anyway, I almost made it to the top, but at the point when I felt like I was going to chuck, I slowed to a walk for a couple of hundred metres, then resumed the run after that. I made it back to base in exactly 50 minutes, which made it dead on 9km/hour. Not massively fast, but I'm pretty happy with that considering the hill and the walking portion.

After a cool off (which included an ice pack on my feet and head, I was REALLY overheated), I headed for mum's place and took dad out for a swim. Not much swimming really gets done with him because I have to keep an eye on him all the time, but I managed to get about 400m in, nice and slow, my legs were protesting most of the way. Dad seemed to really enjoy himself though, so I'll have to take him again soon.

On Saturday afternoon I did a quick grocery shop, and spent the rest of the day cleaning the house and generally getting stuff organised. Saturday night I was out with some friends for dinner and a movie. Dinner was good, the movie was crap (Little Fockers... in case you're thinking of seeing it, the reviews are right, it sucks). I got home about midnight and had a major raid of the pantry (damn it), then toddled off to bed.

Sunday started at 6 for the markets, lots of lovely fresh fruit and veg to top up the supplies. I bought the best pineapple, it is to die for. Where is the Fraser Coast? I wonder if it's in the flood zone? Might not be any more pineapples from there for a while. After the markets Mum and I had our usual scrambled eggs for breakfast, then mum went home while I prepared dinner for the evening (pork and apple in the slow cooker - quite nice). Useless-brother came around to pick up some tin I had left over from my new verandah, and then I got stuck into the gardening, putting in some new plants and altering the watering system. I have also finally decided what I want to do with my remaining garden bed, and it involves digging a narrow trench in rock hard dirt to sink some edging bricks into. I got started on that, but it's bloody hard work. I reckon I got through about 1/8th of the digging, so that could be a long project.

Sunday afternoon was spent at the basketball, and we actually saw a rare win which was nice. I hate Sunday afternoon games though, it cuts into the weekend rather annoyingly. Anyway, after that Mum and Dad came over for dinner, and I kicked them out about 9 so I could go to bed!

I woke up at 5.30 this morning and did my usual do-I-don't-I with going for a run, and eventually decided on a nice short recovery run, just under 4km. My legs are still pretty tight, but I'm sure they'll be all the better for it. Tonight I've got my bootcamp session, so I'm hoping we don't do anything too hard on the legs. Famous last words I expect, the session will probably be full of squats and lunges knowing my luck.

I guess I better get into this work all over my desk... large sigh!

HM plan & weekend round up

Greetings and salutations. A quick one today as I actually have quite a bit to do this afternoon!

Kylie has kindly rectified my current technology deficiency and explained how I can upload my HM training plan (thanks Kylie!) And so here it is.

Hopefully you can read that. If you can, any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I've been having fun on Buckeye Outdoor, starting to map out some runs for the appropriate distances, but I have just freaked myself out by discovering that the 12 week plan involves running over 300km. That's a lot of km. But I guess that's the idea.

As for the weekend roundup, I'm sort of feeling like I've come back to work this week to have a rest, the weekend was all go. Friday night I took home a pile of work and sat under my beautifully cool air conditioner and got into it. The air conditioning at work died on Thursday last week (and is still dead now, not happy Jan), so nice cool air was a blessing.

Saturday morning, I was up early for a big bike ride day with Kylie. I left home at 7.15 and met Kylie in town at 8am. We rode about 15km together around the city and parklands, nattering the whole way. We had some sustenance at the kiosk beside the Torrens, and surprisingly talked a bit more! We then went our separate ways to cycle home. All up I covered 45.6km for the morning, and had an awesome time.

Saturday afternoon involved all manner of dull house cleaning, cooking and garden type duties, followed by an evening at the basketball. It was a shocking game, sorry I bothered really.

On Sunday, I had my usual early start for the farmer's market. I did some more work around the house, and then had a visit from some people who bought some furniture I had sold on eBay - I'm so happy to have it out of the way (and the $100 wasn't bad either). I then went shopping with mum for a new washing machine for her at Harvey Norman, and some plants for me from Bunnings. The afternoon was spent cleaning out and reorganising the shed (which is now looking fabulous I might add), and planting some of my new stuff. Oh, and launching an attack on the shrubs out the front which have decided to take over my garden. Sunday night I went to mum's for roast pork... plus everything else under the sun that I raided from her cupboards and fridge. There is something about that house that just makes me want to gorge myself, I have got to break that habit dammit.

I've bought another online fitness voucher thing, and I have my first session booked in for tonight. As the day goes on I'm getting more and more nervous about it, I have to meet the trainer at 6.10 to go through some details, before the session starts at 6.30. It's an outdoors group training type thing, with a maximum of 15 people in attendance. What if everyone is a size 8 fit-freak? Bah. I'll be fine once I'm there, but I always hate these first sessions. Suck it up princess.

Grumpy

I haven't posted much of late, because honestly there hasn't been a lot to say. Eating and exercise is still going pretty well. I've been eating on or under my calories every day this week which is good. The downside is that I've gotten back into that head space of thinking about food all day long, and when the next meal or snack is coming along. Sigh, counting calories has this effect on me, but it's also the only way I lose weight. So I think I'm going to have to suck it up for a while.

On the exercise front, I've done a couple of runs on Monday and Thursday, a circuit and body bar on Tuesday, and boxing on Monday. Today was scheduled to be a run, but Harvey Norman are having a VIP sale, and it's raining, so I'm going shopping instead. I've been through the guilt phase with missing my planned exercise, and I'm now at the acceptance stage. When I started getting healthy again, I knew that I didn't want to get so obsessed that any small deviation in plans put me into a spin. I'm getting close to that stage already, and it's time to step back. My life is not as free and easy as it was last time I was on a health bender, and I need to accept that "stuff" will come up and interrupt my plans. I might be able to sneak a run in on Sunday to make up for missing today. If not, too bad, this is a journey not a race to the finish.

On to the title of the blog - I'm grumpy. For no single reason, just grumpy in general. Lots of little things are niggling at me and giving me the cranks. One I have just dealt with, I just changed my home and contents insurance from RAA to Allianz. I got my policy renewal in the post this week, and it went up like $10 a month. I called them about it and they said my internet policy honeymoon rate had run out and there's nothing they can do about it. So I very politely told them there's something I can do about it, and cancelled the policy. The woman was quite shocked, but seriously, why would I pay $850 with RAA when I can pay $650 with Allianz for the same cover? Sheesh.

What's on for the weekend? Tonight I'm shopping at Harvey Norman (for stuff I don't need), then watching the NBL season opener on One HD. Huzzah for the basketball season, I love it. Saturday is reserved for the gym and housey stuff (cooking, cleaning, gardening - assuming it doesn't pour all day). Sunday is for the markets, a bit of me time, hopefully a run, then the first 36ers home game at 4.30. I haven't quite thought what we're going to do about dinner after the game - maybe I'll put something into the slow cooker to have when we come home. Hmm, ponderances.

Have a good weekend one and all xxx

Bit slack on the updates

Okey dokey, I've been a bit slack on the updates for a few days. I'll cram it all into the one blog - life hasn't been so exciting that it can't be summarised in a few decent paragraphs methinks.

So where were we up to last blog? Friday somewhere I assume. I didn't run on Friday morning, but I did do a 5.75km circuit from the office on Friday night, even though I really really didn't feel like it. It's the same route as I used a couple of weeks ago, and I knocked 90 seconds off the time, so that was a good sign. I struggled pretty much the whole run though, my heart rate was high, my shins hurt, and I just wanted to finish it. I think I burnt 620 odd calories in under 40 minutes, so the body was definitely protesting on some level.

After the Friday run, I came back to work and finished off some stuff that had been bugging me, and ended up getting home about 9.30. There were some bananas left over in the fruit box at work last week, so I took them home and baked with them. 3 dozen banana biscuits and a loaf of banana bread was baked on Friday night. I love baking with bananas - I hate them, so I'm never tempted to eat the goodies lol.

Saturday morning was an early start for "carpark caper", a gardening type expo thing at the ABC building. Seriously, could my life get any sadder, getting up at 7 on a Saturday to wander around plant stalls. It was good though. I didn't buy anything, but I did aide and abet my mother in choosing several plants and other accessories. It was damn heavy to carry it all back to the car mind you.

The plan after carpark capers was for mum to head for home, and me to head for the gym. I just wasn't in the mood, so I followed her straight back to her place. I had a cooking lesson from mum on how to make bread pudding, an old family recipe made by the women on my mum's side. Mum is the last remaining person who can make it properly, so I very considerately told her recently that I had to learn to make it before she died. She took this in good humour (bless her) and gave me a good lesson. It's a bit tricky because there isn't a recipe as such - it always uses roughly the same ingredients, but the quantities vary, and you just have to go by look and feel. I think I've got it though. The finished product was unfortunately too good, I couldn't stop eating it. More on this later.

After the cooking adventure, I took Dad out shopping. We looked at some paving places for some ideas for my backyard (far out they're expensive), then went to the shopping centre. Lunch, grocery shopping, a couple of other odds and ends, then home. Dad was exhausted, he's not looking that well at the moment.

I took the puppies for a nice walk, then got back to mum's and cooked dinner. I tried out the fake-KFC chicken recipe someone posted on CK last week, but using chicken breast rather than drumsticks. It was a resounding success, all 3 of us enjoyed it. We watched some of the Commonwealth Games, and I eventually called it a night. Sometimes I think I should still live in that house, I spend enough hours there.

Sunday morning - another early one, down to the markets at 6.15 for lovely fresh fruit and veg, and a leisurely wander of trash and treasure. I was lacking any real motivation to do anything after the markets, so I spent an hour or two lazing about, and eventually got moving. Lots of house cleaning, little bit of weeding and gardening, little bit of cooking - all the usual Sunday stuff.

Late in the afternoon the bloke who is going to build my verandah came around to go through all the finer details, so that he can draw up the sales contract. He's coming back on Wednesday evening for me to sign off and get it underway, which is very exciting in an I'm-spending-$9,000 kind of way.

I was really tired last night after a few late nights and early mornings, so I made sure I headed to bed nice and early. I read for a bit too long, but still managed a reasonable amount of sleep thankfully. Slightly off topic, but I'm reading Eat, Pray, Love - the movie has just come out. Well, it's boring. I'm giving it one more night's reading time to prove that something is actually going to happen, then I'm sacking it.

This morning I tried everything to talk myself out of going for a run (it's windy, I'm tired, my knee hurts, my ankle hurts, my shins might hurt), but eventually sucked it up and went out. I ran 5.5km, which again was not comfortable. Interestingly enough, I didn't feel like I had a rhythm until about 4km in when I was coming back up a hill. Not sure what's going on there, but anyway I'm definitely glad I didn't manage to talk myself out of going altogether.

We're just about up to date. Something I alluded to above, talking about the bread pudding, was eating a lot (too much). Saturday was not good, I ate way too much. It could have been worse, but still not good. I still have that mentality of "I've already blown it today, may as well keep on eating". This makes no freaking sense whatsoever, and I would think I was a nut case if I didn't see so many other people on weight loss and binge eating blogs dealing with the same thing. It looks like this will be a struggle for a time to come.

Another discovery with my eating on the weekend, is just how bad I get when I'm at mum's place. The cupboard is always full of tasty evils, and the minute I'm in the door I'm thinking about food. Something in my mind connects that house to eating with reckless abandon. I grew up in that house and truth be known I ate with reckless abandon through much of my youth and early adulthood, so on some levels it makes sense. The thing that doesn't make sense is that I also managed to lose 35kg and get fit and healthy in that house only a few years ago. Why did I have willpower then but not now? Is it just the effect of having none of that crap around me at my house, and then it's like a buffet going to mum's place? I'm sure other places I go have the same level of unhealthy temptations, the difference being I suppose that I can't go to the cupboard and help myself anywhere other than home. I think those cupboards need a padlock to protect me from myself.

Hmm, I shouldn't have blogged about food after lunch, I'm hungry again already!

10k, 10k, 10k!!!

Sit back, relax and prepare yourselves, this could be a long update :)

1st things 1st (which is completely out of order for the weekend round up, but it's foremost in my mind for now)... I mapped out a 10k route... 10.35km to be precise... and did it today! I walked one hill in the middle-end section, but in total that was only about 200m of walking in a 10.35km circuit. And it was hilly too - 107m ascent and descent according to buckeye outdoor. The pace was slow (1:14:30 to complete), but I'm freaking proud of myself for making it, and for taking on all but one of the big hills. I have come a seriously long way in the space of a few weeks, and I look forward to more improvements to come.

OK, now a retrospective of the long weekend gone by. Not really sure what I did on Friday night, not much I suspect. Oh, I made a chicken rose pasta sauce. It was pretty good, but not fabulous. More attempts required to perfect it. Philadelphia cooking cream is a marvelous invention though, it's making creamy sauces possible calorie-wise again.

As for Saturday - I slept in til 9 or so (well I was awake, but tooling around on the net in bed). Then I got up and had to hurry through a few things before heading to the gym at 10. Even in the space of a week I could see the improvement in fitness - last week I had intended to do step followed by pump, but died toward the end of step and just could not face staying for the second class. This week I certainly felt the work involved in step, but was quite comfortable staying for pump as well. The squats track is still killing me ATM, but I'll toughen up in time.

Actually, now I think of it, I wanted to record my current (embarrassingly puny) weights that I'm using for each track, so I can see the changes over time. Here they are:

• Warm up, bicep, tricep, shoulders, lunges - 10lb
• Chest, back - 15lb
• Squats - 20lb

On Saturday afternoon I went grocery shopping and spent some time cleaning, tidying and washing - exciting stuff. I also had a minor incident with a packet of sultanas, evil things. They're now packed in the bottom of a big tub in the pantry so I have to go hunting to find them next time I'm on the path to going crazy.

Sunday morning started at 6 for the markets, it was beautiful (i.e. not freezing) for the first time in recent memory. Then we came back to my place for scrambled eggs and good coffee for breakfast, then headed for mum's. I played with the puppies for half hour, then we ventured out on our shopping adventures. First stop Ikea, where I managed to spend $50 despite not planning on buying anything, duh. Next it was to Freedom for the awesome cannisters I wanted for my pantry - $150 later, but they rock, and the pantry is looking much more organised for them. Next a quick dash across town to the Plaza, for our massage appointments. I had a neck, shoulder and back massage, which bloody hurt, but was much needed. I didn't realise how impacted my lower back had gotten. Lunch (from a little Asian cafe that makes great sandwiches), more shopping, and another trip to another shopping centre, finally calling it a day as the shops were shutting. Man we can shop when we're on a mission.

Back at mum's place, I took the dogs out for a longish walk. Bazil the pug has been officially put on a diet by the vet - he weighed in at 15.7kg last week! He has a small growth on his tail which may need removing at some future time if it continues to grow, but he's currently too overweight to have an anaesthetic. So, his food has been reduced by a third, and exercise is on the agenda. He walked about 2km before giving up the ghost (which is actually a really good effort for him), so I bundled him into the dog pram, and Kali and I kept going for another 2km or so. They were both exhausted after that, definitely good for all of us. Last up was roast pork for dinner (delicious), then off home.

This brings me to holiday Monday. I had planned to do my run first thing in the morning, but I couldn't face it this morning. In fact I tried to talk myself out of it all day, but I'm SO happy I eventually did it. Other than that, I did some cooking, cleaned out the pantry, did some gardening and weeding, painted the bird bath and painted the graffiti off my shed. Busy day!

I'd really rather not be going back to work tomorrow, there was some extra stuff I wanted to get done around the house this weekend, but such is life. Time for some goals:

1. Finish the big project at work (spectacularly failed at that last week, ahem)
2. Eat at 1500
3. 2 runs and 2 gym sessions
4. Take my dad out on the weekend
5. Clean out the junk drawer and the t-shirt drawer

Have a great week everyone!

Another weekend gone

How do these weekends keep slipping by so fast? I'm sorry this one is gone, but there are two things keeping me chipper this Sunday evening.

One, the boss is away this week, and will not be ringing - he's doing an 800km bike ride from Adelaide to Geelong. I wish him well for the big ride (especially as it is for a charitable cause, in memory of a friend who passed away from leukaemia a week or so ago), but I'm also REALLY happy he won't be on the phone this week. We get on well, but I'm ready for a week's trial separation. He can be quite demanding, and having some time to get stuck into a big project without side projects from him is something I am very much looking forward to.

Two, next weekend is a long weekend, the first one since June and I am hanging out for it. I am 150% sure that I'm not working this long weekend, not even a little log in from home for a couple of hours like I usually do. I need the break, and damn it I'm taking it.

So, anyway, I'm in quite high spirits this evening. The weekend has been a good one all round really. On Friday night I went for a run from the office (seeing as I failed to drag my butt out of bed in the morning). It was an awesome run - I had forgotten how rewarding it is to run on relatively flat terrain, compared to the killer hills around my house. I covered 5.75km or thereabouts, and didn't need to stop to walk at all. It wasn't a very fast pace, about 8.6km/h, but I felt great that I could cover that distance, so the speed will return in time.

After the run and a bit of recovery, I headed for home, had something quick for dinner (I think it was a vegemite sandwich of all things... perhaps I need to revisit "balanced diet 101" and "refueling the body with protein". But I was hungry and it was quick. Meh.) I then got stuck into my baking. I love to bake, and I haven't done any for a month or more, so I've missed it. It was a bit of a test for me, because I usually spend as much time eating the ingredients and various batters as I do cooking. I won't say that I didn't eat any of the raw materials, I probably downed 500 calories odd, but I certainly didn't binge out, and I didn't eat any of the final products. I'm proud as can be - something has finally snapped into place in my stupid head, and I'm over the binging. Weird (but awesome).

On Saturday I got up a little later than planned, but made it to the gym for the step class. I love step, I'm not massively coordinated (but not completely unco either), so I have to concentrate to follow and remember the moves. This is great for me, because then I focus on something other than the pain in my legs or how much I'm struggling to breathe. It was a good class, and I hope I can fit it in semi regularly. I didn't stay for body bar, because I was buggered, and I didn't want my legs to pull up so sore that it put me off schedule for the week ahead. Small steps.

After a quick call into the supermarket, I returned home and continued the baking feast while watching the drawn grand final. Very little taste testing today too (except for a damn cheesecake I made, it was devine. I had 3 spoonsful and then gave myself a stern talking to, put it in the fridge and didn't touch it again). All up, I made a dozen melting moments, 2 dozen triple chocolate cookies, 2 dozen neiman marcus cookies, 15 cinnamon and sultana muffins, and 14 miniature cheesecakes. I knew it had been too long since I baked, I wanted to make everything! The good news is the whole lot has now been delivered to willing recipients - a lot of it to mum and dad's, and the rest to my friend Lou and her family.

On Saturday night I went out to dinner and watched a movie with my best mate Lou. She's been really sick for several months with glandular fever and other nasty viral things, but she appears to be coming through the worst of it now. I haven't seen much of her while she's been sick as her main pastime has been sleeping, and she hasn't been up to visitors. It was brilliant to see her again, and I realised how much I've missed her. I like to be a hermit at times, but it's great to have friends who know you inside out too. We met at school when we were 9 years old, went right through high school together, then went to uni together too. I half lived at her place in uni holidays, we were pretty much inseparable. So yeah, good times. I had lasagne at the cafe where we had dinner - possibly not the best choice, but not a tragedy. I had the calories saved, so all is well.

Sunday saw me up bright and sparky at 6am, ready for mum to pick me up at 6.15 and head to the markets. I was pretty bleary eyed after getting home after midnight, but it's a good way to start the day nonetheless. We were there for ages today, lots of trash and treasure stalls to look through, and we got some cute stuff for my niece Lara. We got our lovely fresh vegetables, then retired to my place for coffee and scrambled eggs. Mum left about 10.30, and I got on with some chores around the house, made my lunches for the week, made a stir fry for a couple of dinners (which came in at a beatifully low calorie count I might add), and stewed some apples for a sweet treat or two.

Late in the arvo I went round to mum's place, and took those stinky dogs for a bath, it was finally warm enough to wash them. Kali was very badly behaved and barked at other dogs, and also scared the crap out of someone when she lunged wildly at them walking past with their staffy. Kali is a massive black German Shepherd, so she looks pretty scary. She actually wants to lick the dogs she's barking at, but from the dog owner's view I'm sure it looks like she wants to eat them. Very embarrassing, I think we'll need to get Bark Busters back for a refresher course. Bazil the Pug was not at all amused by the bath, but there's only so much fuss a dog that size can kick up (thankfully). They smell much much better now, but the hair they are dropping everywhere is insane. Glad it's not in my house! I stayed on for dinner at mum's (roast pork, delicious), then made my way home.

So here we go with the goals for the week ahead:

1. Make some major progress on my big work project
2. Eat at 1500 calories, give or take
3. Stick to the exercise plan - 3 runs, 1 circuit, 1 boxing class, 1 body bar class, and anything that else that fits in with the weekly regime
4. Do a small housework job every night after work/gym so I don't have to waste the long weekend cleaning the house
5. 7 hours sleep a night

The weekend roundup

It's been another busy weekend, and I don't think I've achieved half the things I wanted to. Having said that, I have long ago accepted that things come up, things take longer than expected, and sometimes I just need to take some down time and not be productive at all.

So... the house hasn't been cleaned, the pantry hasn't been sorted, I didn't touch the work I brought home to do, and I didn't get to the gym. However, I did achieve the following:

• got a great day's shopping in with mum on Saturday
• I found the perfect little corner stand for my iPod docking station in the dining room (and have constructed it)
• I cooked an absolutely delicious spinach, mushroom and chicken frittata, with 2 serves left for evening meals this week
• I bought 8 new plants and have put them in the front garden
• I did all my weeding and fertilising in the front and back garden, and the front is starting to look really nice, I'm proud of it - for someone with no gardening expertise whatsoever
• I ate well all weekend, not going over calories at all, and did stay pretty active despite not doing any dedicated "exercise" as such

I had planned to colour my hair tonight, but I'm pretty comfy on the couch in front of X Factor and Junior Masterchef right now, so it looks like that's going to be put off for another day. I think it's time to go a bit lighter with the hair, now that the warmer weather is just around the corner.

Now for some week-ahead planning. It's time to try out the new gym and get into a couple of classes. Here's the exercise plan for the week ahead:

• Monday - run in the morning, freestyle gym in the evening
• Tuesday - circuit class in the morning, body bar in the evening
• Wednesday - day off (going out to dinner with family)
• Thursday - circuit class in the morning, might take the evening off? We'll see
• Friday - run in the morning, out with friends for the evening

I won't try and forecast the weekend at this stage, it tends to be pretty unpredictable these days. If I can drag my butt out of bed 4 days this week, I'll be a happy camper. I have signed up for boot-ee camp starting 25th October, so I need to be prepared for some early starts by the time that comes around (and I need to be a whole lot fitter and stronger too, so they don't kill me on the track!)

I'm going to sign off with some weekly goals, an idea I am unabashedly stealing from some other friendly bloggers :o)

1. Eat well - eat at a good calorie level, not too high, but not too low either. I've been undereating a bit recently.
2. Stick to my exercise plan
3. Be focussed and productive at work, stop wasting time and just get it done
4. Get at least 7 hours sleep every night
5. Spend less time on the internet, more time on other forms of entertainment. I need to read again, something other than facebook and forums.

Weekend update

Well it's been a few days, but I'm still here and still mostly behaving myself. Perhaps the middle of the morning at work is not the IDEAL time to be updating my blog, but something I'm working on has just really irritated me, and I'm not focussed anyway. Might as well use the time semi-productively.

What to update, what to update... well I was quite slack with the exercise as last week progressed. I ran on Monday and Tuesday, but didn't seem capable (or willing) of dragging the butt out of bed on the subsequent 3 days. I did go for a longer run on Saturday afternoon though. I covered 5.75km, of which about 900m would have been walking. I walked up the big hill at the start (because if I ran up there, I would have been completely buggered before I even began). I then ran/jogged up the less steep section of the hill, and continued the circuit I had mapped out around the neighbourhood. I had to walk for about 150m up a steepish section towards the end, because both my lungs and legs were giving out. I managed to do the last hill on the return to my house though, which was really hard and I was happy I managed to push myself through it.

Running is a bit different now I'm living alone and dog-free. When I was taking the German Shepherd running with me we used to investigate all sorts of back streets, but I tend to stick to the main roads these days, it makes me feel safer when I'm alone. It probably means I'm inhaling all manner of toxic CO2 fumes from all the traffic, but I'm making the best of what I've got.

I had plans to go for another run on Sunday, but it didn't quite pan out. I spent a couple of hours out in the garden, fixing up my pebble path, and I later took mum's dogs for a 5.5km walk, so there was plenty of activity, just not high intensity. The dog walk was harder than it sounds too, because Bazil the Pug is completely incapable of walking 5.5km. This means I have to take the dog pram, and lift him in and out of it for walk sections and rest periods. Walking up some of those hills is a lot more challenging with a German Shepherd pulling one arm and a 15kg pug in the pram you're pushing, let me tell you. It was a beautiful day though, and nice to get out in the fresh air.

As for the rest of the weekend, well Friday night was rather slothful, although I did squeeze in an hour or so of work, and I also called into the supermarket, so a couple of small things done. Saturday morning I did some cleaning and had some tradies around for quotes on roller shutters and a verandah for the house. I haven't heard the damage from the verandah guy yet, but the roller shutters are going to be about $4,500. A bit more than I had anticipated, but living in a 2 storey place means scaffolding for anything upstairs. Such is life.

On Saturday afternoon I went for my run, puddled about at home, then headed for mum and dad's place. I took them out to dinner at Assaggio as a week-late father's day gift for dad. I had been there once before, and mum and dad were both suitably impressed. I had the penne madonna, which is a chicken pasta in rose sauce. Perhaps not the best calorie wise, but I did limit it to an entree serve (which was plenty, but if I'd had the main I'm sure I would have eaten it all anyway). Mum had a tropicale pizza which she very much enjoyed, and dad had a prawn risotto, also judged as very good. Mum and dad also shared a garlic and herb pizza for entree, which I did not partake in, go me! We had skim cappuccino's for dessert, a much better option that the yummy looking alternatives in the sweets fridge.

Sunday morning saw me at the markets at 6.30am. A bit fresh, but it's getting lighter and warmer. There was lots in the trash and treasure section this week which was nice for a browse. I bought a really cute musical Eeyore for either Graeme or Alan's new baby, some vitamins, some toys for Bazil, and a spade for my place (so I can return mum's to her). We didn't get back to my place until after 9, by the time we'd wandered the general stuff and then bought all our fruit and veg. We had just finished our scrambled eggs when Graeme and Lara arrived for a visit. It was nearly 11 before everyone had gone, so my planned daily run got squashed out. I made a couple of batches of food for the week ahead (Quorn mince pasta sauce, and a soy sauce marinated beef with lemon juice stir fry), and then spent some time in the garden, before heading off to mum's for the late afternoon. Long dog walk followed by tasty roast pork for dinner. I couldn't help myself with the bread pudding and had some - it's a childhood favourite, and it only put me about 50 over in my calories for the day, so I'm happy with that. I was pretty active anyway, so there should be no damage done.

Well this is what happens when I don't blog regularly, I go on and on too much. I could go on more, but not today!