Category Archives: Exercise

Go Mixed Nuts

Posted in Exercise, Friendship by

Last year I returned to my first sporting love… netball.  Since living in Castlemaine I had started to get the netball itch because it turns out the football netball club is at the social heart of most small country towns and the more time I spent in the country the more I wanted to play… anyway, when I moved back to the big smoke I was invited to joined a mixed netball team.  Now don’t get me wrong, my netball skills are… well… not great, but they are getting better and I do love playing.  Last year our team Mixed Nuts was in a grade that we could compete in, we won a few… lots a few, but mostly it was pretty even. But not this season… despite the fact that we didn’t even make the finals at the end of last season, the netball association in their white uniformed wisdom, moved us up a grade… Disaster!  This year we are 11-zip… I wish I could say that meant that we had won every game, but no… we haven’t won anything… no games… in fact we haven’t just lost all our games we have been smashed most of them… and while we are improving, it still sucks.

But guess what… we won tonight… yep that’s right… only by 3, but still a win… and it felt good… look at how happy we are…

All that’s left to say is Go Mixed Nuts.

What happened to March?

Posted in Exercise, Family, Food, Friendship, Life, The List by

So seeing as another month has flown by I thought I would give a little list update to tell you about the things that I have done from my 2012 list this month, and a few in Feb, which I haven’t had a chance to share yet… so here they are in list order…

31. Go to the museum – completed 11.2.12 with Davo… and education and enjoyable day!

42. Finish unpacking my stuff in the study – completed 3.3.12 also with Davo.  This ‘little’ task turned out to be a little more complicated then I had originally thought as while I tidied the study and unpacked boxes, Davo swapped our mattress over which took a lot of manuvering, but I was very appreciative. Now that I have crossed this off I can now say I have unpacked from Castlemaine… it’s only take 18months… but it is done.

72. Have a hot Jam Donut
73. Go to a football game both of these occurred together on 10.3.12, as they should, in the company of my brothers and Davo… it may have only been a nab cup game, but the hawks still dominated, buddy kicked some freak goals and the dees got done… it doesn’t get much better than that.

76. Go for a term without Maccas… completed term 1 2012… 1.2.12-30.3.12… the unexpected struggle is documented here and this is the satisfying burger once the term was done… Oh and with my return to Maccas I was pleasantly surprised by the return of the 30c cone… good job maccas!

And last but not least

84. Do 3 exercise classes… I have now down more than that, mostly in the form of Zumba, but I can safely cross it off the list – completed 6.3.12.

So there you go… those are the things that didn’t quite make a blog of their own… but you got to share them with me now…

Oh and its now 26 things down and 74 to go…

Um… I’m an Adult…

Posted in Exercise, Faith, Life, Top 10 by

I know I have mentioned this a few times now, but it turns out I am an adult, despite the fact that it’s been this way for longer than I would like I am still not sure when it happened, or what on earth I am supposed to be doing about it.  I have realised lately that I tend to have a ‘wait and then’ or an ‘after that’ idea about adult things, which probably isn’t helpful.  What I mean by that is I think I am in denial, so instead of just embracing life for what it is, I am waiting for things to happen or change until I start something or try something, you know, waiting for the perfect timing, perfect conditions or perfect situation.  I make plans like after I get married I will… or when I have a full time job I will, or once I am feeling a little more settled I will… and I am slowly learning that this perfect timing, is never going to be here.  Maybe I will never fully feel settled until I start doing some of this stuff, and the more I put things of the harder they seem to obtain.

I am beginning to think that maybe this is what being an adult is actually about… Learning to make do with some times less than perfect situations and embracing life whether it’s ready or not… taking the risk.  The thing is I have always been a procrastinator, especially in big decisions and I tend to panic about whether or not I am making the right choice, the perfect choice, the best choice… but so often I hear people say just take a risk, what’s the worst that could happen, well let me tell you I can come up with a lot of worst case scenarios, but perhaps there is room for both.  I don’t think I am supposed to be waiting my life away, only making decisions I am 100% sure about, but at the same time I don’t want to be making crazy irrational choices, I think there has to be a balance, but I also definitely think that I need to start just doing things, getting into it and turning my life into what I want it to be rather than just waiting till it all falls in place… which let’s face it is never going to happen.

I know in the future, perhaps not so distant any more, there will be lots of crazy situations and decisions to make… like where to buy a house, how we save to buy a house, when to start a family, what we teach our family, where I go with my career?  These are all questions that frighten the pants off me, but they are all things that eventually I will have to face.  But I think for now I will just start with a few things to make me and my marriage better… small, probably not that risky decisions that I just need to embrace and run with… just start doing, no questions and no excuses, before I miss my chance and regret it.

Luckily for me lots of people want to do this too… and recently with the help of wordpress’ ‘freshly pressed’ blogs I have come across a few handy hints to get me started in particular a blog by Tom Basson called “16 Tips to Simplify Your Life (and Increase Your Productivity)”and a blog by Palm Trees & Bare Feet called  “my listy list 5 ways to enhance night time and morning wake up” check them out… So below is a list of a few things that I am going to start with today to help me get organised, stop me wasting my time and helping me to a better version of me.  A better friend, a better wife, a better Christian and a better human.  I am listing them as statements, promises to myself and you I guess, that way they are no longer just suggestions… but hopefully reality…. Are you ready, I’m not but here it is anyway:

1.  I will turn off all technology 60minutes before I go to bed… this one is huge for me but I am addicted to my iphone, the television, my computer, music and all things technological, so I have to give myself some boundaries.  I am going back to the old school alarm clock because I actually don’t need my phone next to my bed all night…and just in case there is an emergency, please call our landline or Dave…  This leads me nicely to number 2…

2.  This one is straight from Palm Trees & Bare feet… I will get up in the morning like I’m ripping of a bandaid… I hate getting up in the morning, I love my bed and I love just lying there being cosy… but no longer… on Weekdays… when the alarm goes off I get up… no questions, no grumbling… just up.

3.  I will Plan my week top to toe so that I can be organised and get everything I need to done… including time to rest.  Over the years I have wasted a lot of money on tables and stationary designed to help me be organised so it’s time to dust it off and use it.

4.  I will exercise at least once a week, I know it doesn’t seem like a challenge, but I have 100 excuses as to why I can’t, I’m tired, the weathers bad, I’m busy… too bad so sad… I will do it anyway

5. I will eat one sit down meal with my husband each week… again it doesn’t seem like a challenge but it’s surprising how little we see of each other most weeks… so I am making it a priority.

6. I will do my devotions at least twice a week… seriously these last three seem like they should be easy, but they aren’t they are hard, because they are easy to push aside… so its time to make this a priority too… I would like to think that I would actually do this more often than twice, but I am constantly telling my clients to make SMART goals, specific, measurable, achievable,  realistic and timely, so its about time I started doing it myself, setting goals I can actually achieve, rather than pie in the sky dreams that I will just be disappointed I can’t reach.

So there you go, that’s my list for now…. I might even give them their own page so I can keep you updated about how I am going, but with or with out their extra page… I am doing adult things, making decisions and setting goals… look at me go… I am unstoppable.

It’s Time…

Posted in Exercise, Family, Life by

It’s time for me to get my butt back into gear, to get my exercise on… seriously, its time…

Now for those of you that know me, will know that I am not very co-ordinated and that I have a weakness for food, and these things have often gotten in the way of me keeping fit, but a little while ago, somehow I managed to break this cycle… granted I had the massive incentive of my wedding, but it worked and I lost a lot of weight and got a lot fitter and healthier, and I think, although it sounds corny… I was happier.  I was proud of my achievements, and while I still wasn’t supermodel material I had come a long way… but the wedding is over… and now the incentive is gone… well not all of it, but definitely most, and unfortunately over the last little while I have put on a few kilos… I think sometimes when it gets out of hand it is called the marital spread… So it’s time for me to go back to that exercise enjoying person that I somehow became before the wedding.

The thing is though, I don’t actually mind exercise… I am just not very good at being consistent with it.   Over the last year I have tried a whole heap of different things… Zumba, Tae Bo, Step, Aquarobics, Netball (#GoMixedNuts), Running, Walking, Walking really long distances, and all work for a little while.  In fact, I tried to find a blogs where I had spoken about me succeeding in exercise and while there are a few about me and exercise, I don’t think I would call any of them a success.  I am sad to say that most of them are about good intentions that I never followed through with…

There is one about me stacking it at basketball

There are a few about SYG (no.1, no.2)

There is one about me joining a gym… that I never really attended

There is even one about me starting to train for my 2nd half marathon with Jana… which in the end Jana finished… but I failed to even sign up for.

But it’s time to try again, because I need to do something… I don’t want to go back to where I was before, fat, unfit, miserable and super duper self conscious… I want to have energy and fit into clothes the first time I try them on… I want to be happy with my body again, and I want to prove to myself that it wasn’t just a phase… that I can sustain it, before it all becomes just a distant memory.

So I not really sure what I want to do, or where to even start… but I have a set of Zumba and Tae Bo DVDs and a half used prepaid Zumba class card… so I think I will start with that… I think the hardest this is actually just doing it… So here is my promise… tonight… after timbrels I am going to go back to Zumba… this is very frightening because I have heard from a reliable source (the guy that takes my money each week, who also happens to be a friend of my sister in law) that my old Tuesday night Zumba lady is gone and the new one is hardcore… but I think I just need to bite the bullet… so tonight, I will try to remember to take some photographic proof that I can post… accountability… the great motivator…

Ok… here we go… it’s time