Fitness Log #2: Just Do It

Days since beginning Gym Workouts: 31 days, 2 hours, 31 mins
Number of Gym Workouts planned: 12
Number of Gym Workouts accomplished: 9
Goal weight loss: 15kg
Weight lost to date: 1kg
Still to lose: 14kg

Journal Entry: Progress has been made in spite of some setbacks - not a huge amount, but still. Progress.

The thing I am most pleased about is that in spite of a back injury (which in the past would have derailed me) I have been sticking to my fitness plan.

Even during the week when I was most severely injured, I still exercised twice. Not at gym, I grant you, but I limped up the hill to school and back for my walking bus duties (even when Ces said I didn't have to)... and I went water jogging with Mr G as well. I was more active injured than I used to be uninjured, so I am really patting myself on the back.

The good thing is I'm not riding on some surge of inspiration or fulfilling any brave new years resolutions about getting fit/losing weight... I woke up one morning and just did it... joined the gym without overthinking it, or hyping myself up (knowing that once I was paying those gym fees my hubby would be on at me to make sure I got my money's worth?!)

Each day I exercise makes it easier the next time. The weights seem lighter, the time flies by faster. In my mind I have my week mapped out:

• Monday=Gym (after school drop-offs, finish by 10am)
• Tuesday=Walking bus & housework
• Wednesday=day off
• Thursday=Gym
•  Friday=Gym

• Weekend=Days off

On Tuesdays my house gets a really good going over and I work up a sweat. It keeps my husband from getting anxious when he sees dust balls; he knows Tuesday is housework day. I work best in a burst of energy, rather than a drudge of repetition, so one hard-out day works best for me.

Since my injury I've had to change my gym programme to accommodate my dodgy disk and have been averaging twice a week at the gym rather than three times. But I'll build it back up, I promise.

I may have only lost 1kg in a month (which seems miniscule when you see it written down) but I feel so much better. I have way more energy. My clothes fit me better. Even Dash says my tummy has shrunk (high praise indeed).

In fact, last Saturday at the church Family Fun Day I even entered the mums sack race (at Dash's urging) and came second. OK OK, so I didn't jump all the way (it was more of a shuffle/run)... my pelvic floor sucks and I didn't want black eyes... but whatever the official results of the Race, in my son's eyes I did great and that's what counts. Remember when he hurt my feelings calling me fat? Well, now he thinks I rock. Because I'm making an effort, I go to the gym, I walk more places, I try new stuff. He's proud of me (I'm proud of myself)!

On the food front I'm not on any major diet or anything, but I have made a few changes to my eating habits, which over time will (I hope) pay off...

I'm not an over-eater, as such. My weakness is treats. A bowl of icecream at the end of a stressful day. Munching chocolate while watching a movie. That kind of thing.

A friend suggested substituting my unhealthy treats with better choices. So now on shopping day I stash away some treats just for me: a block of dark chocolate (72% cocoa - I'm trying to retrain my tastebuds!) and a box of FruJu mini-fruit whips (only 33 calories - woohoo).

When I feel the urge for a treat I get a few bits of my dark choc, or a Fruju. No more mocha lattes either... it's a trim flat white (no sugar) from now on. I'm getting used to it. And my pants are looser. Just keep those darn chip and dips away from me because I haven't found a way to stop my hand reaching in the bowl yet!

PS: Our 16km Walk for Haiti is next Saturday 20th March. Click here to sponsor me :)






Salads for Dinner

Mr G is on a bit of a health kick too, so about once a week I dish up one of these yummy salads for dinner(for him and I; the kids get a modified version involving way less green stuff). Very easy, very yummy.

Base Ingreds (makes two)
4-6 handfuls of Salad greens (Mesclun leaves or rocket)
Handful of Cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1/4 Spanish red onion, sliced thinly
1/2 ripe avocado, chopped
A splash of balsamic vinaigrette

Arrange the salad greens on two dinner plates then drizzle a little of the balsamic dressing over. Add the tomatoes, onion and avocado on top.

Basil Chicken Topping:
400g chicken breast, cubed
1 Tablespoon Basil pesto
1/2 teaspoon crushed garlic
Cracked black pepper

Brown the chicken cubes in a little olive oil, add the garlic, pesto & pepper. Top the salad with the chicken when cooked. Drizzle a little yoghurt dressing over to finish and serve.
(Try browning the chicken with some tomato relish or fruit chutney as an alternative flavour)

Yoghurt Dressing:
1/4 cup low fat unsweetened plain yoghurt
1 teaspoon basil pesto
Fresh mint leaves, chopped

Seafood Salad:
As an alternative to a chicken salad try this seafood one (personally I hate seafood but hubby thinks this is fab)...

200g can of tuna (any flavour); some or all of the following... marinated mussels (shelled), surimi (crabmeat), shrimp etc

Drain the tuna and sprinkle over salad leaves. Arrange other seafood on top and then add a splash of lemon juice (or some mayo) and cracked black pepper. Your hubby will love you for it!

Family fun day photos by Amy

Wordless Wednesday: This Little Scrag

(to the tune of This Little Piggy)

This little Scrag went to beddy-byes

This little Scrag wanted out

This little Scrag threw his stuff down

This little Scrag had fun

And this little Scrag shouted "mum mum mum mum"...

...all night long!

Dear "Gym Guy"...

First of all let me say that I think it's really great that you are on the "Pep Squad" especially at your age (70? 75?) Your helpful advice about my rowing machine technique and offer of assistance with back exercises was very kind... hey you are a cool old guy.

I couldn't help overhearing your conversation with the lady on the exercycle next to mine this morning - I mean, you were talking pretty loud.

And it made me sad - a bit mad - but mostly really sad.

When you ridiculed people who believe that God actually made the world, when you called into question their intelligence in not swallowing evolution as the Gospel Truth... OK, well that made me a little mad. I have to admit I was a bit insulted; after all I am one of those people. And I think I'm a pretty intelligent person.

When you said you get cross if you hear people refer to the world as "God's Creation" - well!

But the bit that really got to me was when you said how ridiculous it is to believe in the supernatural, but that you still go to church because you like the company... that made me really sad.

Sad because the supernatural is all around you, and yet here you are in the closing chapters of your life, and you've never experienced it. Not one miracle? Not one unexplainable event? Not one whisper of the peace that passes understanding?

That's so sad! How can it be that you have been going to church all your life and never once felt God's presence? Never known that tingle that rushes over you at the wonder of God's creation... the miracle of a new baby... the glory of a majestic sunset...?

I see God's fingerprints everywhere, but you have walked through your whole long life believing that what you see is what you get.
There's so much more!

I won't argue the science with you because I know I don't know much - though I will say that whichever process God used to create this universe, He must have carefully designed it (because it is so finely balanced and intricate it must have been planned that way).

And I do know that without the supernatural whisper of God in my life, I would have been lost. I've known "the peace the passes understanding" washing over me in the midst of a crisis. I've felt the indescribable joy that comes when I've had a brush with the unexplainable.

You can't explain it away. With all your science you couldn't convince me that my God is not real, alive, amazing and infinite. Through all the ups and downs of life, I have become more and more convinced that He really is Love. All that is Good, all that is Beauty, all that is Love - those are His echoes.

I'm so sad that you can't see it. I'm sad that you sit in church week after week, listening to words you don't believe through force of habit (and because maybe you are lonely?) but you have never felt His touch, His whisper, His peace.

So I will pray for you. I'll pray that the knowledge you arm yourself with will not be able to withstand the overpowering goodness of Your Creator. I'll pray that His Love will find a chink in your armour, that His peace will flood your heart and you'll know He is real, in spite of all your well-thought-out arguments.


Love from
The Girl on the Bike Next to Yours
xx


Photos from GoogleImages

She Gets it From Me...

My daughter came home from school today and rearranged her bedroom. Again. For the third time in three days.
Arrrgghhh! I just had it looking nice, I'd cleared out a load of old toys and made space for everything; we'd swapped dressers with Scrag and everything was looking pretty with butterflies on the walls and flowers on the pinboard...

But the creative streak in my girl can't rest. She must change things. And rearrange things. (But not tidy up. Oh no.)

And then there are the mishaps. She took it into her head to swap her lamp and her stereo... CRASH!!!!
Oh-oh. A very meek little madam sidled up to me and said, "Mumma, don't be cross but, when I was tidying my room there was a little accident..."

The lamp base was cracked. Grumble mumble grouch... PVA glue... mutter mutter...

Five minutes later... SMASH!!! This time a glass jar with shards scattered for acres (and a bleeding toe).
"Mumma, I was climbing up the top shelf of the wardrobe to find all my old treasures and there was a little accident..."

I don't know who to blame for the breaking-things-gene, but the furniture-rearranging-gene? She gets that from me.

As a kid I shared a bedroom with my two younger sisters... and got easily bored with the room's configuration. I'd rearrange the beds, stack up the dressers to look like a wall unit, move the posters... and shove all the mess out of sight under the bed skirts.

I never minded shifting house because it gave me a chance to arrange things in a new way (and I shifted house a lot, so that was lucky).

It used to drive Mr G batty to come home from work and find the house turned updside down; everything in a different place. Poor guy. It must have been a shock. He tried to get me to stop rearranging things, but I just can't help myself. If I think of a better place for things, I just have to move them.

This week alone I have...

• swapped around two bookshelves
• changed around a bunch of pictures
• re-arranged my china cabinet and my kitchen shelves
• (oh and re-arranged my daughter's bedroom. Which she re-re-arranged, as I said. Did I mention it was three times???) 

Who knows what next week could bring...

So, as annoying as it is, I really can't complain when my kid keeps on changing around her bedroom. After all I know where she gets it from.

All Interior Styling in these photographs has been done By Miss Fab  (A.K.A. Princess)

Words

They say, The pen is mightier than the sword.
Shared thoughts have rocked worlds
Ideas spread abroad created revolutions
Journeys told have inspired change.

Words tumble jumble mumble in my head
Sleepless I lay dreaming
of what could be
Can I find a way to put into writing
all that I have inside me?

Wakeful I toss and turn
Pages turn in my head
Pages of books yet unwritten
stories yet untold.

If you build it they will come, goes the line from the movie.
If I write it, will they read it? goes the line in my head.

In childish games, I wrote books
In make-believe I told stories.

Now half way through life
I have things to say, words to speak, stories to tell.
Would they be stories you would read?

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
That first step into the unknown, the hardest step.

I have to start somewhere.

...................

I lay awake last night thinking and imagining how I could write my first book. I want to write a book; I have a feeling this is the year to do it. I've always wanted to write; but it's a childish dream that lay forgotten for so many years. Now, through blogging, that old dream has rekindled. But I find it hard to know where to start. I think I know what kind of book it should be; there's a few ideas that are calling to me strongly...

Self-doubt creeps in; fear and timidity... I could write something, but who would publish it? And who would read it?

I am trying to ignore those doubts. Trying to find that first step to take. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it all.

Pictures from Google Images

New Friends, Fun Times

Do you ever read people's blogs and wonder what they are like in real life? See pictures of their adorable kids, their home baking, their colourful lives and wonder if they are too good to be true?
(Ahhh now, I know you don't wonder that about me. I let things hang out way too much for any illusions).

Well... on Saturday we got the chance to meet the PaisleyJade Family in real life.

We had to go North for a family birthday, so we invited ourselves around to PaisleyJade's place for lunch and to test out their legendary backyard waterslide (it rocks BTW).

Of course I primed my kids with what to expect... "This is a really nice family we're going to meet! Their kids are very well-behaved! They have lovely manners! Please be nice... be friendly, not bossy! Use your manners! Try try try to be well behaved, OK???" You know the drill. Please please please don't show me up.

Well, just as I suspected, the PaisleyJade Family are truly fab! Totally great people. Wonderful new friends.

The hospitality was warm and genuine. The backyard was a kids' paradise that seemed to go on for miles. Mr PaisleyJade is taller than I imagined; the kidlets are as gorgeous as their photos and got on wonderfully with my lot. (Here's the daddies deep in conversation)

And PaisleyJade's homebaked quiche... I had two bits. Couldn't help myself. There is no photo because it was all gobbled up too quick. Yum yum yum.
"The recipe's on my blog..." she said.
"There you go pet," Mr G said. "No excuses now! You can make it when we get home!"

PaisleyJade's 8-yr-old hit it off immediately with 7-yr-old Dash. They disappeared within minutes and only emerged when someone shouted, "Waterslide!"

Conveniently there was also a matching 5-yr-old girl for Miss Fab (a.k.a. Princess) to play with, and they hit it off too.

(Sadly I did not start producing children early enough to provide a buddy for PaisleyJade's Mr 10). Scrag made Miss 3 cry, when they clashed heads on the waterslide (and Mr G growled at me for taking a photo. So I haven't posted it.)

As you can see we had F.U.N.

And only one "time-out" so I think my kids didn't show me up too bad? (Dash shoved his sister roughly on the waterslide).

But apart from that they all played nice.

In the car on the way to the family birthday, my kids said to me: "Mum can they come to our next birthday?"
"Oh, good, so you really liked them huh?"
"Oh yes, they're our new best friends!"

Love how kids make friends so easily.
Love how through blogging, you feel like you already know someone when in reality you've only just met face to face.
Love how we get to meet such wonderful people in Blogland.

So, The G-Family Tour of the World could be coming to a town near you sometime this century... Any takers?

And just so you can see what you'd be in for if you agreed to have us for lunch/dinner/sleepover, here are some other photos from our weekend. We're a pretty normal lot, really.

Honest. Just ask PaisleyJade.