De-Hived :)

I'm no longer a spotty, red, itchy, freak :) I'm all good again. The medication kicked in within a day, which was a great relief.

I went back to work on Wednesday to 'light duties'. LoL. I spent the day playing catch-up on all the admin that was neglected from having the 2 days prior off.

Having the allergic reaction (to what? I still don't know) was actually a blessing in disguise. I was not coping at work, and maybe that's one way my stress bubbled over... But being forced to have rest, gave me time to clear my head, watch a bit of TV, and do some catch-up around the house. I also brought paperwork home to do, wrote an article which was way overdue, and just got a whole lot of stuff done. And doing it in my home environment was heaps more relaxing - no phones ringing off the hook, not having to meet and greet multiple clients as they come through to train (not that that's a bad thing, but it's still an interruption of your concentration). I just felt relaaaaxed.

I went back to training clients on Thursday, heaps more happy, un-jumbled, motivated and felt like I delivered better sessions than possibly was before, due to simply having a load off my shoulders. So if I learnt anything, it's to take time out when I feel it needs to be done, not for my sake, but the sake of my clients.

Another step on the path to a less stressful existence starts today. I am buying a lap-top so I can actually leave the office and get things done outside of the studio environment. I do all the morning shifts so a typical day at work starts at 5.30am/6am and I train clients through till about 2pmish - depending on bookings, no day is ever the same. On Monday and Thursdays, I do a split so train people into the evening as well.

Being the big bad boss, I run everything so after my appointments have finished I then usually hang around till about 4-5pm doing everything else - returning emails, phone calls, doing admin, payroll, accounting stuff, cleaning, you know, everything! My days are long - usually in between I will fit in some training - but from start to finish it's easily 9-12 hours every day, Mondays are 14 hours :)

This week I made sure I left work by 3.00pm, if something didn't get done, it just didn't. I'm anal when I have my list, if it's on there, it HAS to be done, even if it's a minor, unimportant rask. Not anymore.

I'm still learning to not feel guilty if I'm not at work - I've always had that niggle, if the studio is open, I should be there. I have fully capable staff, the world isn't going to crash down if I'm not there to oversee everything! We had a big staff meeting yesterday in which all staff are to take on just a little more responsibility, things that I've been doing can easily be done by them, and it will make us more all more productive and efficient.

We have roughly 70-80 clients doing 130 sessions per week; as summer is here it's growing weekly... one person is never going to be able to do all that work! It's time for Miss Control Freak ME, to let gooooo....

Let's see how that one pans out :)

On another note - BEST wishes to TARA and any other competitors out there today!!! GO GIRLS!!!!!!!!

The Drugs are Good! :)

I'm no longer swollen, fiercly dotty or crazily itchy; I'm now a subtler shade of red and the itching is controllable, except for 3am-ish, of course. So smarty pants thought she should do some training. Err, not a good idea. I looked like a monkey with fleas. So that's what the doctor meant when she said "Don't get too hot or sweaty". Right, got it. Now.

My wonderful boy commented when I was at my worst; that as my face was so swollen, it looked like it did in the photo from when I came home from my round-the-world overseas trip in 2003. I had to think what photo he meant, as we weren't together back then...

Yaaha.. that's me. A very many few kgs heavier. The shirt says it all... "Party All Day" and that's why I came back looking like that!!

The pic's taken in Bali, in front of the rice patties. It's a great pic, except for the girl in the way ;)

But hey, look, I HAD BOOBIES!!!!!!!!

On the 'Roids Baby!!!

It's official, I've got hives. I look like a 12 year old with acne all over. Doc's given me a five day course of steroids, so that should knock it on the head. She's also given me time off work :) Not that I'd go anywhere looking like this!

So if I do weight training while on these steroids, does that mean I'll get super duper strong ;)

And why is it when your face and body is swollen, red and lumpy and you can't wear make up -you only need to go 20square metres, from surgery to chemist, you see not one, but three people you know?!?!

Pretty as a Picture

NOT!!!!!! I so wish I was kidding but I've had an allergic reaction to something and I've broken out in hive-like lumps all over my body. I will not go out in public without paper bagging my head!!

I was cranky all week, my face broke out majorly, my eyes were swollen and weepy. (Probably just a coincidence though). Friday nite I started getting itchy. Saturday I woke up with flu-like symptoms and scratching the first layer of skin off my body, then my face and all my joints swelled up. Took an antihistamine and cold and flu tabs, slept the afternoon away. Didn't feel too bad last nite until the itching started again. Woke up and scared the bejeesus out of me - my face, neck and arms especially are red, fat, lumpy and burning, along with my back, stomache and legs. I look just gorgeous.

I visited the chemist, and was given stronger antihistamines. I'm told it's an allergic reaction to something, but I have no idea what. As far as I knew I was allergic to nothing?! To Spring maybe?! Took the powerful tablet and it knocked me out all morning - I hate sleeping weekends away. I'm irritable!!!!!!!! I need to cardio today, I WANT to cardio, but I think my face will burn off if I get sweaty!!

I've arranged for my double shift to be covered at work tomorrow. I did hope for a bit of a break, but this is just going a bit too far. ;)

As the PussyCat Dolls say "Be Careful what you Wish for coz You Just Might Get It"...

I'm still waiting for the boobies.

Why Hello There

I can't believe it's been so long. My longest break ever in my blogging career. I'm alive, I'm not in a sugar-induced coma, I'm all good!

I've been F-L-A-T out - but who isn't busy these days. At the end of the day after everything else, sitting at the computer for more waffling isn't very appealing! So I've been training, training, training and eating GOOD! I feel awesome :)

Training stuff
I'm in love with weight training again; the two of us have always had a love-hate relationship. My shoulder is improving I think - I'm not allowed to train without having it strapped, but this week my 2 strappers were out of town - how inconsiderate - and I wasn't skipping training for that minor problem, so I went naked. And it felt OK :) I'm getting and feeling strong!

I've been doing some awesome evil little cardio sessions too - I'm in love with my Spin Bike, and of course still loving my once-a-week hit of RPM. Nothing like "Psycho Bike", "Evil Knieval" and "Le Tour De Liz" named workouts to get me all excited about training.

Run stuff
Season is almost over, and all the Club Championship races are over now. Phew!

24th August - 3km Club Championship Run - 13.39. Bit disappointed as my last time trial was 13.20, and all by myself! I thought in a race I would have gone better, but it just didn't feel 'right' on the day. It was my second fastest time though so gotta be happy with that! Liz planted the seed of a 12.45 3km, so you can guess what my future goal is now! ;)

7th September - Magic Mile (1.6km) Club Championship race - 6.39. Stoked with that, as that got me third place in female division! Yeeha!! The place-getters photo was in 2 newspapers that week, so I had clients asking if I could sign their shirts ;) LoL

Other stuff
My best friend came up from the Gold Coast a few weeks ago and we had good time catching up. We made the newspaper in the Social (ie party!) Section, which was the week prior to the run picture, so I've been scattered all over the newspaper lately!

Another best friend had her third bubby - a little boy about 4 weeks ago. Our lives are worlds apart! :)

Like a few other blogger buddies, I've been having a bit of a rough time balancing everything lately... I know I'm not coping when my staff innoncently comment "Gee you've been cranky the last few weeks". I don't mean to be Miss Bitchy Pants! I only did a half day Monday by rescheduling all my evening appointments, I just needed a break. Half a day off was only a band-aid though. Got some thinking and re-structuring to do. :) I can't complain that I'm busy though - I stress when things are slow, I stress when things are crazy-busy!

I re-joined my old gym last week which was the best thing I could have done for my body and head! Between working and training, I was in the studio 9-13hours every day -although I worked as hard as I could, my head wasn't fully in it - the phone would be ringing, staff going in and out. I find at the gym I just zone out and all the time is mine. And I just tend to go harder. Little Miss Show-Off coming out to play maybe?

That's it in a nutshell! I've seen everyone's getting those fancy-schmancy blog applications... might have to have a looksy at that! :)