I've got "the bug" and other surprises

For 10+ years now I have been a Mum.  And in all those years, by the time I have got the child/children in bed I have felt I deserved to sit on the lounge and enter a vegetative state in front of the television till bed time. Tonight, in response to realising that I consumed too many carbs this morning, I got the kids in bed and headed out the door with my dog for a walk/run, arriving home 40mins later hot and sweaty and heading straight for the shower.  This is seriously the turning of a corner.  My kids are still exhausting, but they are more independent than ever before and it is time to accept that I can change these post kids habits.  Hence: "I've got the bug."

Another discovery today, was that my charming PT is 20 years younger than me. I had suspected as much, but I really didn't have any interest in having my suspicions confirmed. How did it come out you ask?  A music video came on at the gym while I was on the bike doing a Tabata, and it was Big Audio Dynamite (I saw them live in the late 80's), apparently a band that Paul, was unfamiliar with, but I was certain that he would have heard of The Clash - nope.  He was born after Mick Jones was kicked out of The Clash in 1983. Punk is dead :-(



And in other new discoveries, I heard in my Philosophy group today, about a Christian mystic woman who was writing in the 13 and 1400's.  Julian of Norwich was ahead of her time.  She was very positive by traditional Christian standards and in hindsight quite the feminist and Universalist.  I am looking forward to learning more about her as we continue to study Devotion.

Philosophy day

The highlight of today was the chance to meet with my fellow students of philosophy at the beautiful home of our tutor.  The discussion of devotion continued.  We discussed our own devoted behaviour, and the devotion that we see in others.  There are three ways of devotion the calm (satwa), the more active (Rajas) and the destructive type (tamas). Those unusual words are Sanskrit and are the 3 Guna.  It makes you think - which is the whole idea.  The devotion that I bring to the care of my children is sometimes that calm type and often the rajasic type - so work to be done. The takeaway is to watch out for devotion, your own and others and to take time for self - by meditating or finding stillness.

After a relaxing post philosophy lunch with my BFF I headed home for a run/walk with my dog.  My strategy was to run down hills and march energetically up hills.  I recorded my fastest km yet using my Nike Running App (example below) which maps your run in a colour coded way that shows when you were running and when you were walking - which is very satisfying.  I fit in a 3km trek in my local environs before my dog started to lose his enthusiasm - helped by the fact that I stepped on his gigantic paw when he ran in front of me in a curve.  But don't be too concerned - he seemed to make a rapid recovery the minute he got into the backyard and layer down in the cool of shade covered sandpit.

I have got over 10,000 steps today (7kms), but if my DH was home instead of being in NZ on business I would have been able to fit in more. My afternoon was hijacked by 3x swimming lesson for the kids.  With the Primary Swim Carnival next week the excitement/anxiety if high.

On the food front, I made a boo boo today.  I was running late and ran out of time to make myself breakfast, but didn't want to get caught out till 12 without having had breakfast ask did the other day. My 'healthy choice' bread had passed its used by date, so I found myself reaching for the kids 'Traditional Wholemeal', throwing a scrape of homous on it and a slice of super low fat cheese.  I only realised when I put it into my App later what a mistake that was.  Having blown the carbs early in the day it threw out my balanced food choices for the rest of the day.   Hear I am at the end of the day with 97% of my carbs but only 70% of my Protein and 60% of my fat.  I could have another hunk of meat, but I am not really hungry.

Tomorrow is another day.

My Thursday Running Sheet

6.30am Wake up, feeling tired and in denial about needing to get up, should meditate but ...
7.00am Finally get up and join the throng of children in my kitchen
8.00am Kids in the car and off to school and catch up with some mums at the gate
8.40am Pick up a coffee with my friend and fellow Philosophy student Alex
9.10am Arrive at my Philosophy class (my island).  We discussed 'Devotion' - nice, included a story from the Upanishads about a man with two wives - one who thinks that wealth is 'stuff' and one who know it is so much more. Obviously in more poetic and meaningful terms.
11.30am Head home to get changed for the gym and check on my tree lopper - yes the tree from post no. 1 nearly 2 weeks ago.  The tree-lopper managed to freak me out before I left by casually asking "How much is your dog worth? $900?"

12.30pm Arrive at the gym for my 30 min Weights and 30min Cardio session (wondering the whole time if my dog will still be there when I get home).  The weights are getting heavier and the Cardio is getting more agonising.
2.00pm Arrive home, tree lopper gone, but dog still there (phewww).  Collect all the swimming gear for lessons for all three children. Do a bit housework.
3.00pm Collect the kids from school and dash to the swimming centre (without my purse).
3.30pm Both boys in the pool and the other one off playing or nagging me for snacks.
4.00pm Daughter in the pool, boys dried dressed and sitting with me at a table to do their homework
4.45pm Daughter out of the pool dried and dressed, everything packed up and stowed in the car.
5.00pm Home and checking the mail and then assisting my elderly neighbour across the road with her pool maintenance.

6.00pm Cook dinner for the kids, then for me - eat it, clean up the kitchen, put a load of washing on.  Good news - I have figured out how to meet my Macro Nutrient goals every day.
7.00pm Husband home with his new car.  Jump in and take it around the block. Talk about OTT.
7.30pm Kids in bed - courtesy of the husband, who will depart in the morning for a weekend with his friends (leaving me with the new car :-0)

8.00pm Plant my butt on the lounge to watch some mindless television in between bouts of laundry action.  Get a FitBit notification that I have reached my 10,000 step goal
9.00pm Pick up my iPad to write my Blog

There you have it - a semi typical day in my life.   I need to remember to wake Mstr 7 at 6.30am so he can go to his first Senior Chess Class (so proud) and then go over Mstr 10's spelling list with him.  Not looking forward to a weekend without my DH.  Still don't know how I am supposed to get all three kids to their Saturday morning activities, without him!

And I'm off and racing!

I had my PT session this morning with Paul (who has decided against an alias).  Despite my lamb dinner, my struggle to not exceed my daily fat goal (41 grams), a litre of water, some apple and a coffee, right before weigh-in, I lost nearly 2kgs. That is one third of my 9 week goal.  I am not expecting to lose that much every week, but I think I can do at least a kilogram a week. I hope I am not being over confident.  Besides being weighed I completed my weights and cardio session - woo hoo.  I go back again on Thursday. My husband says he thinks my bum looks smaller aleady - I think it is just the Lululemon working :-)

I am feeling better!  In discussion with my girl friends, we agreed that it was primarily because I was focusing on me! I certainly have not been focusing on the housework :-(

Today I have had no trouble meeting my macro nutrient goals (carbs, protein, fat) and tomorrow I am planning to swim. I am meeting my neighbours insurance assessor for them at 11.  Mine haven't even contacted me to make an appointment - referring to the large tree lying in my yard instead of standing in my neighbours, from post 1.

I think I need to focus on my sleep quality too.  I am definitely going to bed too late each night, and with 3 kids, 2 of whom still wake me up with nightmares sometimes and a dog who lets me know if he does not have a sufficiently cosy kennel, I often get woken at night.  See photo of dogs new bed bought today.  Add that to needing to get up to pee because I drink so much water all day long and I am wrecked.  I am waiting for my new FitBit One to arrive in the mail and when it does I will monitor sleep as well as steps (so far today over 13,000). They say that the hours slept before midnight are the ones that really count - and I don't get many of them ...

I wore a Nike T-Shirt today that read: 24/7 EVERY DAMN DAY!  My husband bought if for me on a trip to the States, and at bed-time my daughter was practicing her new found familiarity with letters and numbers by telling me what each character was, and then I had to explain how Damn is a bad word, but not a bad bad word, but not one that children should use.  Oooops (but I love that T-Shirt).

Sorry, totally rambling tonight - must be the lack of sleep ...

Goal Post

I guess I should include my fitness goals on this blog at last. I have set a 9 week goal with my Personal Trainer to lose 6 kgs. I want to specifically bring my waist measurement down to below 80 cms I actually think I can probably do more and really I would like to lose another couple of kgs - basically trying to get back to my pre baby no.1 position.

Having had 3 kids in my mid to late 30's, some things just never went back into shape. In fact for those who are familiar with pregnancy, I had 5.5 fingers of muscle separation after my 3rd baby and I have managed to bring that back to 2, but it is still enough to bother me and affect my core strength, and with poor core strength, my back has really suffered.

I am a naturally active person.  I love running about with my kids and I am not afraid of incidental exercise.  I like to walk instead of drive.  I like to play tennis with my boys and I like to garden and walk my dog. With my kids currently aged between 10 and 4 I can not afford to slow down, and of course I want to set a good example for them.  Oh, and my husband is on a health kick too - so it is good timing.  He has seen great results over the last few months on the same program, but not as fabulous as my Best Friend.

She is my real inspiration.  I joke with her, by saying that I can't be her friend anymore if I don't follow her lead.  She is my favourite buddy for shopping, and we take a trip each year to Melbourne in June, and I want to be reaching for the same size as her!  Is that wrong?  It can't be, because after 4 days on the program I am feeling fantastic (although a bit sore and hungry).

This program is teaching me about food, and I wouldn't have said that I was deficient in that area. I must remember to tell my PT that because I saw him smirk at our first meeting when I told him that I had a pretty good handle on nutrition.  Check out what I had for lunch today! Actually the Avocado was a bit much after a Bacon and Mushroom Omelette for breakfast, but you get the idea!

Today I went for a run with my dog OMG.  It has been years since I considered actually jogging as an activity I would engage in for fitness sake. I was a runner as a teenager and I used to be able to do 5kms in 18mins. Anyway,  I just hope my body (and my dog - action shot below) can keep up with my enthusiasm .