What is it they say, 3 weeks to form a habit? What do you think my chances are of blogging every day for 3 weeks to ingrain it as a habit? Hmm, me neither LOL. But I'll give it a go.
I went to Step last night, but the usual instructor is away. The fill-in lady seemed really unsure of herself, and I guess it would be hard to figure out how to structure the class when you don't know what the regulars are used to. I'm not sure if the same lady will be there for the next 2 weeks as well, but if so, hopefully she's learned some lessons from last night's class! This is the advanced step class, so we're used to a long and fairly complicated routine, and no scheduled drinks or recovery breaks. I think she was expecting us to take a lot longer to pick up the routine than we did, so we had put it all together and run through it about 8 times consecutively (which was getting a little repetitive), and there was still 15 minutes to go. She just added in some strength work, squats and lunges, to fill out the time which was ok (although it made me nervous... I didn't want legs that were too sore to keep up my running regime during the week!)
We shall see what next week brings, but I'm looking forward to the usual instructor being back. Her routines exercise my brain as much as my body most of the time. That's what I love about it actually - I'm not massively coordinated, so I have to concentrate damn hard to get the steps right. In doing that, I sort of forget that I'm exercising and don't pay any attention to the huffing and puffing and sore muscles. Tis awesome.
This morning I was back on the streets (in a good way of course). 5.2km run this morning, 33:30 to complete. I felt pretty good today, and had plenty left in the tank. Running up the last hill I felt strong rather than weary. I love those moments. I tell you what I hate though - extended daylight saving. It's not only dark when I leave at 6, it's still bloody dark when I get home at 6.30, and we still have more than a month til the clocks go back? WTF?
I have to go to a software seminar/sales pitch this afternoon from 2-4, and I have made the executive decision that I'm not coming back to work after it. The session is in town, so I'm going to take a walk down to Joggers World and see if I can spend an obscene amount of money on some running accessories. I'm a little bit excited about the idea of a fuel belt (thanks for the ideas girls!)
I've also convinced myself that I really do want to get the Garmin. I just need to decide between a 305 and a 310XT. From what I can gather, the selling points of the 310 are that it has double the battery life, and is 50m water resistant. The 305 has a 10 hour battery life, which in reality is more than sufficient for me, I'm no ultramarathoner. I also don't have any love for swimming (mainly because I suck at it of course). But somewhere in the back of my mind I'm thinking that I might want to try triathlon some time in the future. Do I make the extra investment now for something I might want to do in the future? Dilemmas, dilemmas. Any suggestions?
Showing posts with label shopping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shopping. Show all posts
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, October 10, 2010
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!
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!
Monday, October 4, 2010
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:
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:
- Finish the big project at work (spectacularly failed at that last week, ahem)
- Eat at 1500
- 2 runs and 2 gym sessions
- Take my dad out on the weekend
- Clean out the junk drawer and the t-shirt drawer
Have a great week everyone!
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