Remembering...

ANZAC DAY

Here's a pic of my sister and I with our Grandpa in 1990 after marching on Anzac Day. He passed away in 1994.

May all the war veterans continue to RIP.

Quote...

"There is no success without hardship"

-Sophocles

I found that one at my chiro last week and found it quite appropriate. :)

I'm off to Brisbane tomorrow for an overnighter filled with lots of exciting appointments. I'll be back on the weekend!

Enjoy the rest of your weeks :)

Filex 2009

As usual, I had a great time :) I learnt lots and always come back SOOO motivated in all areas of life - it's what you do with it that counts though :)

I managed to go for a few runs - one including all the convention centre stairs then I came across Star City Casino - OMG, there's a LOT of steps to the top there!!

Anyway, met lots of cool people, did lots of fun stuff and got to hang with Kerryn, Liz, Jay and met Shannon, Casey, Fern (hey girls if you ever happen to read this!) and heaps more :) Met Michelle Bridges and bought her booked which she autographed - whoo hoo! I'm hooked on it. Love it!

Me, Kerryn & Liz

Michelle Bridges and Mwa!

Come back to full on busy-ness as usual - it seems I missed a few deadlines whilst away. Oops. So yesterday was chaos - topped off with my car dying. I drove to gym, trained hard, tried to drive back to work and my car didn't want a piece of it. GRRRR. So it stayed there till late last night when my dad had a look at it - it's broken. I was so stressed yesterday the night ended in tears. I was just too overwhelmed with everything :(

So today I have to borrow a car - I'm working in with mum which means I'm either stuck at work or at home and I miss RPM and it's a nightmare trying to work it all in.

I'm just so bloody busy - but right now I've got 10mins to blog as I'm waiting for a lift back to work - yes I've already been there but had to bring the car back to it's owner....

And did I mention I have to fly to Brisbane tomorrow morning for an overnighter? I haven't even unpacked from Sydney, forget re-packing!!!!!!!!!!!!

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I just want to scream - I think I'm seriously going insane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Up, Up and Away......

Again.

Trip number 5 for the year so far begins bright and early tomorrow morning to Sydney for FILEX. :)

I plan to get up and do some cardio before getting organised and to the airport by 6am. No matter how prepared I am, I always, always end up rushing at the last minute and panic that the check-in counter will be closed and I'll be left stranded here. Not this time, I don't need that stress at that time of the morning!

Hopefully I'll get a lil nana nap on the plane. My mum and sister are coming down too - it's our girls trip. They shop and and do girlie stuff, I go to 'school' and learn lots. We have a one-hour stop-over in Brisbane for the connecting flight to Sydney. We'll finally arrive there about lunch time. Then I plan on hitting the grocery store for supplies and having a little look around the city for the remaining time.

Then Friday to Sunday we learn, learn some more, play, go to the 'workshops' which conveniently have not-so-bad-looking presenters - You ARE booked in for the BOSU sessions again aren't u Kerryn ;) - mingle, get free stuff at the expo, and catch up with lots of people! Dinner is planned for Saturday night, and that will be nice to have a proper catch-up with everyone. YAY!

So, hope you all have a good weekend - I know I will! :) Be back next week!! :)

Shrinking...

I finally received a comment yesterday without me begging for it. HA!

I've been getting frustrated that nothing is changing, as does everyone at some point I'm sure.

I asked my sister last week if I looked any smaller.

"No, you had nothing to lose in the first place".

Errrr... WRONG ANSWER!!! Do you not understand just how lean I need to be?!?!?!!? Obviously not!

But,

Yesterday out of nowhere my nan accusingly said,

"Ohhh Selina, you've lost weight". I jumped up and down and did a happy dance. She didn't get it.

My brother-in-law said my face was drawn. Normally - not cool as it makes me look old and wrinkly, but in this case WAAAAHOOOOO!

He continued (gosh I love him) that my back also seems to be more defined. YES!!!!!!!

NOW, if only the same thing would happen as noticeably to the hips and ass... please say they're shrinking tooo!!!!!!!

That's What Little Brothers Are For! :)

Saturday night at the beach house for dad's birthday was nice. I got him to drop me off down the road so that I had to do my run to get there. It was a day where I could have easily talked myself out of it! 35mins later I arrived and they were eating prawns, pizza and there was mudcake for the birthday cake. After running I can't even think of food, so I was safe there! I had my chook and veges once I'd settled. Victory to me!!

I went with my bro when he left to meet up with his mates for a night out. I only went so I could drive his car home for him. OOOHhh YEA BABY!! A nice big flash boys car that makes loud noises, and takes off really really fast from the traffic lights ;) I hit the sack early and was in the depths of my sleep when at 3.45am my phone rang.

"OI, can you please pick me up". Ahhh crap.
"Only if I can use your car". HA!

So drive #2 for the night!! I got home at 4.15am, and my alarm was set for 5.45am...
Decisions, decisions. I knew that if I went back to sleep there was no way I'd respond to my alarm.

So at 4.30am off I went for my 10km/1 hour run. To stay in lit up areas, I took the main street towards town which has a good footpath. I felt like the freak as I ran past people walking home from their night out, with a chirpy "GOOD MORNING!". The majority of them certainly did not look like they were having a good one...

I was home just in time to hear my alarm go off. And the rain start. So glad I got it done or the rain would have been my excuse. I'm very good at excuses. Best way to start the day!

My bro is certainly making the most of me being in the same household as him again!! But if I can drive his car I don't mind :P. And I told him if it's any earlier than about 3.30am - forget it. I can't go running that early ;)

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Today I had a sleep-in till 8am. It's still raining here, hasn't stopped all weekend and it's so easy to oversleep when it's like that.

I went straight to the gym at 9am as it's only open for 2 hours on public holidays. Caned my legs then jumped on the tready, put it on the highest incline and walked for 5 mins, then did walking lunges for 2 mins all the way to 25mins-ish. That got the heart going and was enough for one of the buff (and may I mention kinda cute ;) ) boys to comment "geez you're hardcore" :) LoL.

The last 2 times I've been to the gym, I've had two different pieces of eye-candy that have always trained there, suddenly decide NOW was the time to strike up a conversation with me... Eye-candy that can talk, now that's more fun!!! hee hee

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THREE MORE SLEEPS TILL SYDNEY & FILEX!!! :)))

Easy Saturday :)

I was up early-ish today to have something light to eat before heading off to RPM Extreme. It was my favourite release - no idea of what number but track 3 was 2 Unlimited - Tribal Dance and the bestestest one is song 5 - Motley's Crue's Kickstart My Heart. Those tunes get me going!

I went to work after it for a quick recovery, a bite to eat, some work done, then off to gym #2 for upper body weight training. I was a bit tired today but gave it all I could.

From there to groceries, to eat (surprise surprise), food prep and now... this! Next on the agenda is practicing walking in my hooker heels and striking a few poses, then off the to beach house for dinner for dad's birthday, and depending on the weather - hopefully a steady jog on the beach. :)) I will sleep like a baby tonight!

Tomorrow poses the challenge - BBQ here at mum's, with all the goodies I would usually indulge in, including......................... chocolate. Of course! I have my plan of attack, not one piece of chocolate or hot cross bun (my ultimate favourite easter thing) will pass my lips.

*PROMISE!*

LUNCH

Pineapple and Tuna Lettuce Wraps...

A slice of pineapple on the lettuce leaf, topped with plain tuna mixed with diced cucumber and a small bit of authorized 'flavour', topped with tomato. YUM!

Original recipe is here. I re-jigged it to fit my 'diet'.

Note to self...

This is one of my Bali bargain tops - I love it :) It was time to pull it out this week!

Today is day 1 of what will be a challenging 4 days. I find if at home with no structure to my day, that's when I tend to want to stray with the food. However my head is back in a good place and I'm confident I won't have any hiccups this weekend! It's my challenge to myself that I won't :) Errr... plus that minor issue that I'll be 95% naked on stage in front of heaps of people in 5 weeks and 3 days time.

Today being Good Friday, it's all about fish and tuna. I don't eat meat on Good Friday, so I've come up with some ways to make my tuna exciting. I will be trying out Liz's Paleo Tuna Patties as well. It's my daddy's birthday, so tomorrow we're 'celebrating' at my grandparents beach house - mum is getting Thai and chocolate mud cake.... Great, rub it in! I will sit there and try to smile while enjoying my veges and whatever I have with it. This will be the first easter in my life that I won't be touching chocolate, not even a mini egg. If I have even just one, I don't trust myself to stop, so best to hide out in my room all day me thinks ;)

I had the bestest sleep-in, except for the phone ringing at 6am. Who the?! Still it was nice to not wake to an alarm. It's still pouring rain, so it was perfect sleep-in weather. I got out at 7.30am, enjoyed a nice slooow breakfast - as opposed to rushing like I do every other day - then got into work where I still am about 9am. I've trained legs, almost finished the BAS (yea right now I'm doing what I'm good at - procrastinating!). Bit more to do here, then I'll head home for meal 3 then I'm off to mass for Good Friday. After that is cardio then the day is almost done!

Being busy is a good thing, keep the mind occupied, keep it off things it shouldn't be thinking!

How did the week get to the end already?!?

I had a bad one. I had my cranky pants on all week till Wednesday lunch time. I've been struggling with everything. Work is driving me insane - not the workers, they're angels, but the workload! A lot of it is brought on by myself - I try to do too many things and make everything more exciting and appealing and therefore create more and more work. I had heaps of deadlines this week, and going away next week of course doesn't help. Then fit in eating, and training 2x day and sleeping and preparing... GAH! So I was wallowing in my own self-pity till I realised I just had to snap out of it. I was dragging my sorry ass to the gym, putting in the effort but not really wanting to be there... lucky I have someone there who keeps an eye on me, and he's always on my back. So yesterday while training, the mojo I'd been missing reappeared by the third exercise. From then on I went gungho! YEEEHA! I snapped out of the mood! Everything I've planned to do is no one's decision but my own, so no point being cranky at the world! Lack of sleep was a MAJOR issue - I had lights out by 8.30pm two nights in a row and woke up in a way better mood :)

I pulled a 12 hour shift today - only breaking to go to the gym for 35mins of cardio. I've been hanging out for the weekend to catch up on 'life' but it's going to be a hectic one! I stayed at work tonight so I wouldn't be there so much all weekend. I've gotta do all the accounts processing before I can do the BAS which is due when I'm away... it just never ends! As the gym is closed tomorrow (as is everywhere) I planned to go to work and throw some weights around - that is one big perk of having my own studio, nothing interferes with my training thank ya!! ;)

Hopefully I'll be able to pull my finger out and get the work done that needs to be done, and not dilly-dally on the internet...

It was my male trainer's last day today :( Sad to see him go, but he's going to be taking over his family's business so good on him I reckon :) It's four females now at work, and we all get along SO well, the place is full of happy, motivating vibes. Sounds corny, but just being around them puts everyone in a good mindframe :) I love my job, have I mentioned that lately?!

Busy or not, I'm looking forward to the four days full of training and relaxing. I hope to get through some more of my book, and maybe even fit in a DVD or two - it's perfect weather for it. It's been raining hard up here and is expected to all weekend. YAY, I love the rain :)

Bugger! Crap! Sh!t!!!!!!!!!!!

A client called me last night to shift his training session to an hour earlier this morning. Although I reeeeally didn't want to start at 5.30am, it's a short week so I'll suck it up and do it anyway.

As I was enjoying my sleep I had a one-eyed blurry look at the clock. 5.45am! CRAP, SH!T, F!CK!!! My clock is 20mins fast, which still made it 5.25am...

D!ckhead here set the 4.30am wake-up time, but didn't press the ON button. It was the worst way to start Monday morning. I was enjoying that sleep :P. I was lucky there were 2 trainers in at work and one was able to train him for me.

I showered, contacts in, dressed, and flew out the door in record time. Made it to work just before six. No time for breakfast though :( I'm grumpy with no food in the belly.

First time in five years I've missed my wake-up call. Not doing tooo bad.

The day can only get betterer - I've eaten my oats now so I'm back in a happy place ;)

Finally...

I updated my template to a more recent one. Kept it all the same, I have no idea how to make it all pretty and fancy with my own customized header, so pink it will stay! But I can now link back to previous posts and I now have the followers gadget, so if you're reading, go add yourself :)

This weekend has been a whirlwind and was supposed to continue today, until I decided to put my STOP sign up.

Friday nite I was smashed so I hit the sack 8.30am, up for the 8.00am RPM Saturday morning (I pretended I was in Brisbane with the other gals!! :P ). I went hard, BURN FAT BURN. Raced to work to shower and do staff training for hours. Boring for me, but has to be done! It will all be worth it once they're familiar with all the procedures and the business is running smooth again. Then grocery shopping and a lil bit of food prep. Went out for a bit with mum last night and nearly dropped off, I was so buggered.

So in bed by 9.30pm last night, and up at 5.30am today for a run. The club did 17kms but I ain't going nowhere near that distance at the moment. I did a steady 10-11kms or so. It was really, really steady, my legs were so fatigued from the first step!

I was supposed to visit my friends and their kids today, go to work, go shopping with my bro-in-law for some work stuff I need, but you know what? I have the hugest case of the couldn't be's.

So I'm in my skins hoping for a miracle leg recovery, and I'm going to do the sloth thing today. I'm exhausted, and more so my brain is exhausted! I wouldn't be very much entertainment for the kids today, and I really want some time-out, and as bad as I feel, it's a load off the shoulders :)

Golly gosh, I'm so glad I'm single, I DO NOT have time for a boyfriend at the moment!!

So this is what it's all about!!

For years now I've followed blogs and learnt heaps and heaps about competing and the discipline of it. I have never ever had the 'want' to do it. I was happy running and running having Liz coach me and challenging myself each week with what she threw at me.

In November she planted the seed and asked if I wanted to compete in May. My response was, "HELL NO!! I'm a runner, and 2009 I'm training for my first (and most probably only! lol) marathon!"

Fast forward to how my year started - I thought my life was over with my well documented break-up ;), which in hindsight was the best way for the year to start! I'd lost my passion for running, and the thought of two - four hour marathon training runs every Saturday morning for months just didn't light my fire anymore. I pulled out of the marathon before I'd even started. I didn't want a big goal, I wanted to have fun with everything.

But then I felt lost. Because I had no goal. So I asked Liz if she thought I could still compete in May.

So guess what:

I'M COMPETING IN MAY!

I have been training for months now, I just haven't gotten around to mentioning it on here! I was also a bit scared to publicise it - if I did that, it became real. I told people I was 'hoping to get on stage in May'. I went to Brisvegas last week and saw Liz and right away she told me to change the head and say "I will be getting up on stage in May!" SO I AM!! :P

We went to Jo Rogers for posing - Oh My God, I am such a mong!!!!!!!!!! It's soooo bloody hard, and then you have to remember to smile on top of it all?!. She certainly has her work cut out with me! I've got my costume ordered, got the hooker heels, it's all happening so I'm not backing out now!

Every thought is about food, training, and everything related to making this event happen!

YAY!! So far I LOVE it!!!!!!! Pooping myself that I won't be ready in six (ARGH, already?) weeks, but I trust the boss :)

So when I've said this year is all about ME, that's been one of the things on the ME agenda. That's why I'm on an alcohol ban.

I 'get' it, I finally understand when all the competitors are so focused, and their lives are consumed with all things comp. I GET IT, coz I'm living it :)

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I've been so so sooooooooooooo freaking busy, I feel like I'm on a treadmill that keeps getting faster and faster. I don't know how to sit still, but I don't have the time for it anyway right now! ;)

So amongst all the comp related things, I've had the stress of replacing the staff member I lost, worked out perfect - the girl that the one I'm losing replaced, has come back to town and begged for her job back - PERFECT!! So I've trained up TWO new staff members, so it's all fun and games now.

Next stop is Filex in two weeks. I get home on the Monday then fly out on the Thursday for another overnighter in Brisbane. I have to see Jo again and she says my costume should be ready by then! YAY!

I've counted that by July I would have been on 11 separate trips away from home. I will never want to see a plane again!!!!!!!!!!

(and for some !@#$%^& reason, from half way thru this post. blogger will no longer let me put spaces between paragraphs...AAARGH)

Taste of my Own Medicine

I went to the gym this morning after my early morning group training session, to do my cardio and get it done first thing before getting bogged down in the studio.

Not one cardio machine was free... not one. I didn't have time to fluff around and wait so drove back to work.

Co-incidentally one of the trainers clients had cancelled... and there was I needing to do cardio! Cha-ching!

I made him put me through a session. Was a good idea until 5 minutes was up and my heart rate was through the roof!!!!!

Boxing, skipping, burpess, hill sprints on the bike... it was tough. Although I wanted to tell him where to go, I bit my tongue ;) I did 'demand' a stretch and massage at the end, and that erased all the hurt.

I can't believe people pay us for that pain!! LoL! :)