Craaaaazy

splish splash

I did it.. 

yes not a pretty picture I know

and realised the minute I got in the water - how much I had missed it - and how much I love to swim!!  

Started yesterday - have been every day since!

Saving my pennies

because the way Miss Rach is kicking my green kiwi ass - I will be biggest loser because I will not be the biggest loser.   Confused??   My dear friend Rachel has embarked on a journey - one she knows I have been on.. and off and on for a while.   She has inspired me to get back on the horse so to speak - and try harder.   

The loser (although we are both winners for the journey) has to fly to the winners city!     She is screaming ahead of me at the moment and I am so so proud of her - I just know she is already feeling amazing and looking amazing.

Here is my ticker which I will post off and on.    

While this looks great - most of this weight loss was achieved earlier in the year. I am proud of the fact I had kept most of it off - but that is only through sheer willpower and trying to eat sort of right. I had gained a little but since I restarted with Rach - I have lost 2.4 pounds.  My weigh in is Wednesdays - this week is not looking too good... hoping for a miracle by Wednesday morning!!

Maybe I should do another ticker- actually yes I will - and here it is... the backgroun is a swimming lane - to remind me to start swimming laps again which I love to do!!

In other news I may be a little underground the next couple of days dealing with the IRS *bleech*.   Mike and I spent ALLLL day - 12 plus hours - yesterday sorting through a years worth of receipts from 2007 to give them copies to PROVE I really did have certain expenses.   *sigh*    Today I will hopefully finish it off.

Jill Kills!!

  

    YES I am finally back to exercising

    BUT

  for my birthday LAST JUNE!!!... I asked for this DVD along with another Jillian Michaels DVD.  

  So finally - on Friday I put it in and I did the first workout - Level 1.

  I was PATHETIC.  

  Each routine is made up of 3 lots of 6 minute routines totalling a 20 minute workout.

3 minutes cardio

2 minutes strength

1 minute abs

Rinse and repeat

The first 6 minutes... not so great

The second 6 minutes ... well if I am honest... I probably reasonably did 4-ish

The third 6 minutes ... does lying on the floor whimpering count????

Oh yes... and over the weekend NADA - I could not MOOOOVE - well we did all work outside on Saturday tidying the yard and putting everything away for winter but no exercise routine to speak of.

So today... finally... my thighs are ALMOST mobile so I will be doing level 1, workout 1 again - and hopefully I can improve - if only slightly.

I think my 30 day shred might take a tad longer - but at least I have my exercise MOJO back on!

Catching up...

well trying to anyway!  Adding in here - the choices of fonts on Typepad are limited... I need to get on to jazzing up my blog... I pay for all the juiciness but I don't use it!

Anyway back to my post.

Since I got back from the retreat I have been counting, inventory-ing, Accounting, reordering, planning, and generally playing catchup.   The last 2 weeks have just gone by in a flash.  I also had to catch up on all the mail that had come in - deal with bills, and deal with the influx of email and retreat signups.

I still have a bit to do in terms of my online store.   So many new products that I still do not have in there - just big gaps!   Plus I have to get a newsletter out to everyone about that and the 2010 retreats!

My body has also been playing catchup - I think it decided to tell me that the last 6 months have been a little full on and it had had ENOUGH!   In the weeks leading up to the last 2 retreats I had been running on very little sleep, and to say I was a tad stressed - unusual for me - was an understatement.    However I now have a break until early November - and I think my body caught on, fast!    Twice last week - in the middle of the day I fell asleep. 

I    N E V E R    do that.   

It has honestly taken me the last two weeks to also get back to *my* normal sleeping habits.   I think today is maybe the first day I feel sort of okay.   Not 100% yet - but getting there.   Which is lucky - because I think Mike is about to hand me the keys to the spare bedroom!

Part of the bad sleeping has also been the heat.   It is officially autumn now - ha ha ha - because we have been getting what was missing most of summer HEAT.   Been 90 and over every day for over a week now, we have hit 100 more than once, and this weekend over 100 is forecast again.   Our backyard gets SOOO hot - thank god we have the pool.

Last week I also began to eat better again.   There had been too many days of skipping meals, or having a snack and mealtimes around here in general had gone to hell in a handbasket.  Not a great example to be setting!

This week my plan is to try and get some sort of exercise regime back into play - although here we are, already at Thursday and so far a big fat nothing.  What I am going to start back doing, I don't know - I just know I have to start getting out and doing something!! What I do know is...

I

just

don't

feel

healthy

In fact, I feel anything BUT!  This year I seem to suddenly be getting all sorts of injuries in my joints - knees, ankles etc.    I wouldn't mind if I was actually doing some sort of high impact exercise and could say 'oh yes - it was when I was basejumping!'... - but just sitting, walking around etc should not be causing problems!!   My body is telling me something!!   

I have also been catching up on TV.   We had so many things taped on the DVR that we actually ran out of room!   No kidding!   In fact we had to delete some stuff without even watching it.    Of course all the new series have started up - so this week I have taken the luxury of watching a couple of things I had taped while I am eating my lunch - so that has made a bit of space.

One thing that has just started back up that I do enjoy is Biggest Loser.   It motivates me.   Earlier this year - I lost 20 pounds - between January and March - because I was motivated!!   In fact I only stopped exercising because I buggered up my knee.   It came right - however I did not restart exercising!!

I now have no excuses!   BL is back on - my motivation is there - so I can lose another 20 pounds by Christmas.   I just have to get back on the horse.   The hardest day is the first day!!

Lastly - my blog!   I have been lax-lax-lax and no not the airport!    I have made the odd post, but hope to be better.  Enough rambling from me... bloody hell...  not even any little pictures or blinkies in this post... just WORDS!

So I will leave you with this pic - taken a couple of weeks ago when Mike and Johnno were here from NZ - I love it!!.. although poor old Johnno got DROWNDED when they all hit the water!

Crops, Dresses and Crapped Out Knees!

not necessary in that order!!    But to catch everyone up.

The dress!!

I realise I never came back with the results of the dress for the wedding in Italy I am going to.     A quick reminder of the two (although I got the one on the left in a celery green)

They finally arrived - and both of them looked fantastic on. 

 I, of course was drawn to the green one *quelle surprise* ......NOT *lol*...  However - although it looks nice and light and floaty it is VERY heavy to wear.   The 'overtop' is not a light stretchy material as it appears in the photo but actually all beaded (glass beads at that!!) and is REALLY weighty.    If the part of Italy we are going to is anything like the rest of Italy that I have been to - and is hot and humid - I would absolutely in it.   

As I said they both looked lovely on.    I got my daughter Hannah to cast her eye over and give me an honest critical assessment of them both as well.     I said to her - ok I got off the plane and I am bloated and the bloat did not go down.. and now I have eaten a big wedding banquet and I am stuffed - then I stuck out my stomach as far as I could.

Hmm!!! 

In the green dress when I did that it looked like I had swallowed 2 turkeys!!
But in the blue dress - I could have been 200 months pregnant and you still could not tell!!

SO THE BLUE DRESS WON... although bugger it did not come in green!!      Oh and the shoes I picked out - fit beautifully and look lovely - however now will probably not be able to wear them because of my knee BAH!

My knee

It is getting better.. slowly.   However last Friday's ART session on my knee was so painful I actually wound up crying.   I don't think I have EVER cried when I have been there - even when my back was at its worst.   The bruise that came up almost immediately was rather large - and you should see it now - it is huge.   However I suffered through it all, iced it when I got home and put up with it.... well sort of put up with it - I will admit to having a bloody good bawl when I got home because it was so painful.   My knee was really really swollen, and part of my calf and shin on Friday and Saturday but that seems to have gone down now.    It is feeling today like I can walk normally - but I am not overstressing it - I don't want to go backwards!

I am meant to go 3 times this week for ART - however if the bruising is still this bad tomorrow - then I am cancelling that appointment.   Not even counting the diggy fingers into the area that needs working that is tender - I just could not bear anyone pushing on the bruise!!

Monthly Crop

Had our Meetup monthly crop on Friday night.   What a hoot!  We have a core group that comes now along with the odd one or two newbies and we have such a lot of laughs.      I am not sure we are getting that much scrapping done - but we certainly have a good time.

Maybe its the wine that helps things along    We even have a bit culture... last Friday - we gathered around Mike's PC and all watched Susan Boyle off Britains Got Talent - SHE IS!!... plus we have good nibbles and converstion.    We were having a good laugh last Friday about Stickles.   We have decided that it really is CRACK for scrappers.

On today's menu - I am going to the mall!  BAH... it is a beautiful day here - meant to be 82... I should be outside... however our local BIG mall has cut their Sunday hours... sign of the times methinks!

I need to go and suffer through the salespeople at the cosmetics counters because I need some new makeup - mainly something foundation-ish.   Oh well... could be fun.. maybe I will get a makeover!

Oh yes... and did i mention earlier in the week I got my hair permed???

Not good for weight loss!!

last Friday my knee started playing up.   I had not done anything in the way of exercise over the previous week as I was busy doing all the things that need finishing up after a retreat is over.   I had fallen down, twisted it - nothing.    So I was not really sure what was going on.

Saturday it was a little worse, Sunday, more so - even though I was being very very careful with it.

Monday/Tuesday  - it was to the point I could hardly bear to put weight on it and going up a step was almost impossible - at times it would send such a shooting pain if I straightened my leg, or started to turn without turning my foot first  - that I would involuntarily yelp and swear.

So off to Dr Mike yesterday.   All I can say is

Evidently I more than likely have a torn meniscus.   It has probably been building up over time - and I did not really do anything to set it off - it just finally went.   Symptoms may include:

• pain, especially when holding the knee straight
• swelling
• knee may click or lock
• knee may feel weak

I had all of the above except swelling!!

I have to say over the last couple of years that knee has made a rather grinding sound when I bend it  - loud enough for others to hear - I just thought it was because I was getting old!!!   Evidently it was the sound of no more handy dandy tissue in there - and it was bone against bone.  

They did x-rays and although my knees show signs of arthritis and a lot of wear - they still show that they have a lot of wear left in them
.................which gives me renewed reason to get more weight off and give them a nicer life and more reason to be nice to me!!....................

 

So this has put a dampener on my fitness regime.   The only thing I am allowed to do over the next couple of weeks is free cycling  - no resistance and preferably on the stationery bike (which I hate).   I will have to be very careful about what I shove in my gob to make sure I do not gain weight!

I am going for lots of ART therapy (active release technique) and they are using the galvanic stimulator (which looks like the torture device out of Lethal Weapon!!) over the next week and a half before I leave for Italy so that hopefully I can least not be limping and hobbling and looking like a gerry while I am away!

I repeat

  

A human pretzel... I ain't!!

Holy crap!   Mike and I did a yoga class yesterday morning at our gym.    I have been doing some of the yoga poses on the Wiifit since January and although I was chronically bad at them at the beginning - I have definitely improved at the ones I had been doing over the last couple of months.

So I thought I was ready to go full on and try a whole class.   Over the years - and especially after 2 back operations - I have lost a lot of flexibility.   Mike came along with me - because he has definite lack of flex in the shoulder area and like most of us as we get older - we lose the whole bendy bendy thing we have going on as kids!

Well it was certainly harder than what I have been doing at home.   Part of that is - at home I do a pose, finish it, and then move on to the next one with a little gap in between.

This was full on - pose to pose to pose.    Some I knew - some I didn't.   I imagine - like on the Wiifit - I will get better as I learn the terms, the proper way of doing them, and as I get more flexibility.    We did a lot of the poses shown on this chart (although I did not look anything like the people on that chart!).

Mike commented at the end - well that wasn't pretty was it.

Some I was really good at.   It is funny - in some ways I have UBER flexibility still - but in other areas - I have about as much as a piece of steel rebar!!    I was however, very good at doing the -Corpse- ... *LOL*
I could not believe at the end of the class that it had only gone for the scheduled 1 hour - cos honestly it felt MUCH MUCH longer!

Our gym has 6 classes a week, so I am going to try to go to all of them.    Mike can make 4, so he is going to come along too - hopefully after a couple of weeks we will both see a big improvement both in our flexibility and our tone!

This is on top of what I am already doing.   I am over my bah humbug sad sack post of the other day.   I just know how my body works - I have to exercise to lose weight - diet alone has never worked for me - and never will.   

I just have to get back on that horse, smile - and carry on!  Thanks for all the good words of encouragement everyone.

OMG - It's a feel good kind of day today!!

so pleased with the way this is going.   For once I feel like not only am I making headway - but that I will actually make my goal!  

I started out on January 1 (well Dec 31 actually) using the WiiFit.    I cannot sing the praises of that thing enough!!     Started slow - with more of the fun stuff - slalom skiing, balance games etc along with some little of the yoga and strength stuff, none of the running - cos the running on the spot seemed daft but I did do the aerobics.

Over the course of January I put my big girl panties on and added more of the aerobics work - repeating the long step aerobics routine over and over, and then decided I would do the running - but while it was on - I actually walked on our treadmill.    Started to do less and less of the balance games and started to incorporate the yoga and strength.

Initially I was doing 15 minutes a day

then it was 30 minutes a day

and by mid January it was an hour a day

................. which I continued through into February.    Every single day - no matter how late in the day it got.   Sometimes Mick would come home from work - and I would have the dinner going, and just about ready to serve  - but would be in the lounge sweating away.

I now do an hour or more a day - and all I do is the free run - although I walk on the treadmill; and the free step.    My IPOD is getting a thrashing - and I have downloaded lots of new (and old) music to listen to.

I still also do the yoga and I can honestly say I have noticed  a huge difference in my flexibility and balance.   At the beginning I was like a steel rod, but now I cannot believe the improvement.

I am adding more and more stuff, bike rides - as I mentioned  a few weeks back; although the weather has stuffed that a bit lately - and I am about to start going back to the gym to work out with weights.  

However I will continue to WiiFit at home - for an hour every day AS WELL AS anything else I do.

I am on a roll!

...and for once... its not a fat roll!

Right now I am one happy MOFO!

ps... unlike Cathy Zielske I am not brave and will NOT as this stage be posting my actual weight.  She says it is just a number... and yes it is if you are under 200.   If you are over 200 - it's more like holy shit you fat cow!~

Fat bottomed girls you make the rockin world go round

well if only that were true!!   However in part of my ongoing effort to get rid of my fat bottom I have been biking again - which of course also takes away from blogging time.

I am also pretty sure I would look nowhere near as good as the fat (?? is she) bottomed girl above if I rode my bike in that outfit.    The first ride was a

K I L L E R

I discovered parts of my anatomy I did not even know I had.   It took me a whole week to get over it.   Even perching on the edge of an armchair hurt and I am not even going to go into the delicacies of visiting the loo.   I also had a sore neck, hands, back - all the bits from the sort of hunched biking position.   I was definitely out of practice.   However the second ride was - in comparison a breeze.    It also helped that our weather has (up until the last week) been absolutely delicious.    I have really enjoyed being back on the bike - now that I have *ahem* toughened up.

Mike and I have been discovering other bike trails and last weekend we were all teed up to go on yet another ride - on a new bike path.    We are trying to find a way for Mike to bike to work - using the bike paths around here - supposedly they all link up - with only a few short hops onto roads.    However with the rain finally coming, the weather put paid to that.   So I took the opportunity to take my bike down to the fix it shop - as the derailleurs (gears) on mine have been playing up.   They were not shifting smoothly - and I was down to using about 5 or 6 of my 21 gears.   

The worst was when I would go to change gear - usually when going uphill - and it would not change into anything - leaving me freecycling madly - and then getting falling off!

I am happy to report though - that my bike is now all tickety boo - so I will go down and pick it up.   Forecast for this weekend is pooky - so not sure there will be any biking happening - I have to say I am missing it already!

9.4 miles

was perhaps a bit ambitious for my first bike ride in over a year yesterday.

It was such a beautiful day that Mike and I dragged out the bikes, wiped them down, pumped up the tyres, greased up the gears and set off - for *just a short ride*.     Famous last words!!   I do know - I am not as good at this ride as I once was.   I used to do it in 56 minutes - took over an hour yesterday, much slower speeds and lots more stops!

Let's just say my fanny (and that would be the american and the new zealand version) is TRES SORE today!

On another note - pretty historical day here in the US today - I feel very hopeful